A couple of months ago, I battled with some mental health challenges. I regained my composure after I thrashed the bad habits that caused them. But before I reveal my healing formula, here’s a little back story about me…
I had low self-esteem, imposter syndrome, and anxiety, which hindered me from living my normal life. Negative thoughts flood my heart day and night—before and after I sleep, in a social setting, and even while observing my prayers.
After several efforts to control this mental health issue proved abortive, I decided to seek out a mental health therapist. With his help, I engaged in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a therapy technique used to challenge Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs).
How did I manage to overcome these unhealthy habits that once affected my mental health? Shut all distractions now as you are about to read the 8 bad habits to avoid for a good mental state. You can only avoid habits you are informed about.
Now, let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
8 Bad Habits Affecting Your Mental Health And How to Avoid Them
-
People-pleasing
If you find yourself always going out of your way to help people, so they can like you the most, don’t reject you, or see you as their enemy, then you are a people-pleaser. You are known as a gentle or nice person, you bottle up your emotions when they disrespect or take you for granted.
The root causes of this habit are low self-esteem and excessive worry about how others perceive you. You can stop this attitude by having a positive impression of yourself. When you have high self-esteem, you won’t become people’s slaves, saying “YES” to every request, even though you know some will stress you or take your time.
If people cannot respect your decision even after you have explained why you can’t help, then let them grapple with the opinions they form about you.
Don’t you think it’s prime time to connect with passionate readers and writers like you? If you agree with us, then our WhatsApp community is the right place for you to be. Join us today; you’ll be glad you did.
-
Guilt
Guilt or self-sabotage is one of the bad habits to avoid for sound mental health. It’s the realization that you have done something awful and as a result of that, you are meant to be punished or don’t deserve mercy. In Nigeria, just like in every other country, people will take advantage of you if you have a low self-esteem.
If you have done something wrong or remembered an embarrassing situation or past mistakes and the following thoughts fill your heart, “Oh I shouldn’t have done this! How could have I done that? That’s so stupid of me! I wish I had not done this at all! People will think of me as this and that!” then you are suffering from guilt or self-sabotage.
While feeling guilty about something bad that you have done is normal, don’t let the thoughts linger in your heart forever. Simply acknowledging your feelings and learning from your mistakes can be a great step to dealing with guilt. Once you have done this, you will be able to live your normal life that was once interrupted.
According to Verywell, forgiving yourself “improves cholesterol levels, reduces bodily pain, and blood pressure, and lowers your risk of a heart attack.”
Read also: Best Remedies to Managing Productivity Guilt
-
Perfectionism
Perfectionism is also one of the bad habits that affects one’s mental health. This is the state of wanting to be perfect at that very skill or activity at your first trial. As a result of this, you keep procrastinating while gathering several pieces of information that will make you perfect.
Additionally, you are worried that you haven’t started but your quest for more information or resources will hinder you from starting. “Instead of striving for perfectionism, strive for excellence.” This is a term coined by an Ottawa University professor of psychology.
It is the act of setting high standards for yourself but not beating yourself up when you don’t meet them. It means you are open to learning from your mistakes, and open to new problem-solving tactics, till you gradually get the results you desire or who you desire to become.
As you adopt this principle at every new task, the fear of failure vanishes because you know the benefits that lie at the end.
-
Excessive use of social media
Are you surprised this is one of the unhealthy habits affecting your mental health? Well, it does. As you scroll mindlessly on social media for hours on Snapchat or Instagram, seeing pictures of wealthy men in your age range, you are overwhelmed with feelings of low self-esteem, imposter syndrome, anxiety, and depression.
These feelings can worsen the state of your mental health but here is how to tackle it. First, know that people only share what they want people to see, and that is the good side of their lives. They hide their pains and struggles. So, comparing yourself and not focusing on your journey is only a waste of time.
Secondly, discipline yourself by taking breaks. You can start with 15 minutes, then once you’ve been able to do that, proceed to 30 minutes and 1 hour.
Read also: Habits to Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle in Nigeria
-
Comparison
Comparison, they say, is a thief of joy. I strongly believe that. For example, you are just learning a skill and you get discouraged, giving yourself unnecessary worry, because you discovered someone who is already skilled and making money with it.
Instead of comparing yourself with this successful person, be motivated by the results. The fact that they can do it is a motivation that you can get the same results if you can channel the same efforts they put in.
To conquer comparison, get a mentor or a coach to put you through. If he’s approachable, connect with him/her. You can also create or join an accountability group, where you and others with the same goals will be spurred to get to work every day. This is more effective than letting feelings of low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression creep into you.
-
Toxic relationships
If you are befriending a person who belittles, manipulates, and abuses you (physically, emotionally, or sexually), then you are in a toxic relationship. This toxicity can lead to low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression.
While many think toxic relationships only occur in romantic relationships, it also occurs in friendships. Either way, toxicity disturbs the peace of your mental health.
I once moved with a friend who ridiculed me in front of her friends and threw invectives at me. I thought I had offended her in some way, so I arranged a meeting and explained that I didn’t like her attitude. When she was not yielding, I confronted her and took a break from befriending her.
Do you know what she did? She came back apologizing and promised she would not repeat such. Even though I forgave her, I ensured I set my boundaries.
If you have such an individual around you, who makes you feel like a piece of shit, then I am blowing a trumpet into your ears right now to confront the person, report the person, or simply end the relationship! You are meant to be loved and respected.
-
Past failures
One of the most common bad habits affecting your mental health is past failures. This can be very hard to get by and trust me, I won’t cook up any motivational quote to make you feel good for some minutes.
Our past failures can hinder us from taking a step again. It causes anxiety and depression. When I started freelance writing, I did a job for a client and he wasn’t happy about it. I felt pained, thinking about the comments every time. But here is what I did.
I didn’t allow the failure to stop me from trying again. I decided to polish my writing. The next time I wrote SEO content for the same client, the content ranked on the first page of Google and the client was happy about it as well as me. That shows my writing skills have levelled up.
What did you learn from my story? It’s normal for us to make mistakes. As my mental health therapist used to say, “What happens does not matter, it’s how we react to it that does.” Instead of reclining in feelings of anxiety and depression, we should pick up the lessons from the failures and take a step to try again, using the lessons we have gained from previous experiences.
-
Lack of exercise
How do you manage to wake up in the morning and not do some exercise? You are supposed to be smacked. Shouldn’t you? Anyway, just kidding.
Lack of exercise has been linked to low self-esteem or lack of confidence. When an individual is physically fit and constantly exercises, it boosts self-confidence. That feeling of “If I can conquer the comfort of my bed this morning to exercise, even though I didn’t feel like it, then I can be more confident and disciplined to achieve anything.”
According to Real Simple, exercise is hugely beneficial for brain health and mood management. According to Celina M. Nadelman, M.D., a board-certified cytopathologist and fine needle specialist, “30 minutes of exercise a day improves thinking skills, information, processing, brain cell growth and resilience, stress management, memory, academic performance, and can help prevent or manage mental health disorders.”
If you would like to read more lifestyle insights like this, subscribe to our newsletter today and let’s keep you updated.
Conclusion
The eight bad habits to avoid for sound mental health have been discussed in this guide. If after you have put them into practice, you still find your unhealthy habits difficult to handle, don’t hesitate to seek help from a mental health professional.
If you have found this post insightful, kindly share it with a friend who is also battling with these bad habits and has been struggling with his/her mental health.
Edited by Priscilla Ajayi.
About Author
-
Olasubomi Samuel is an SEO content writer and a direct-response copywriter.
As the former, he has created several in-depth, engaging blog posts ranking on the first page of Google, in niches such as self-development, digital marketing, e-commerce, and freelancing.
As the latter, he helps online coaches, course creators, and self-development brands generate maximum ROI by using his proven A.O.C strategy.
When he is not writing, he is seen listening to Christian messages or cracking jokes to make his friends laugh.
Latest entries
LifestyleMay 8, 20245 Healthy Ways to Deal With Negative Thoughts [with Practical Examples]
EntrepreneurOctober 28, 2022How to Generate Email Marketing Campaign Ideas
FreelancingSeptember 21, 2022Importance of Pay Per Click in Content Marketing
