Do You Have These Bad Mental Health Habits? Here’s How To Fix Them

Let’s be honest: most of us struggle with mental health at some point in our lives. If you struggle with bad mental health habits, here are some easy, effective ways to break them!

Bad Mental Health? Check These Five Habits

If your mental health is struggling, know that you are not alone; most people struggle with some form of mental health issue at some point or another. That being said, here are some tools to help fight bad habits and improve your state of mind when you are feeling low.

Negative Self-Talk

The first bad mental health habit I want to discuss is negative self talk. Just to clarify, when I say ”negative self talk”, I mean internally saying things like “you’re so stupid” or “you’re not good enough” to yourself on a regular basis.

Negative self-talk is so detrimental to our happiness and even our health, yet it is something that most of us are guilty of from time to time. To get a feel for how you internally talk to yourself, answer these questions in your head or on a piece of paper:

How do I react when something goes wrong in my life? When I make a mistake?

Do I tend to blame myself when things go awry?

Do I often put myself down in front of others?

Is self-depreciating humor something I partake in?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’re not alone — but we want to stop the habit right where it is so that it doesn’t cost you more happiness than it already has. Here are some simple ways to reduce and eventually eliminate your negative self-talk.

Start by noticing when you talk negatively to yourself.

When you notice it, try consciously re-framing that thought in a loving light, even if it feels like you’re lying to yourself. I often find it helps to imagine you are talking to your best friend or a younger version of yourself.

Get to the root of your self-talk. Did something in the past happen that now causes you to think you are less worthy, or not good enough? Try doing a brain dump and see what comes up.

Practice! These are skills that take time to cultivate, but trust me, practice makes perfect. I am speaking from experience.

Comparing Yourself To Others

Now that we have a handle on negative self-talk, the next bad mental health habit we’re going to kick is comparison. It’s a cliché at this point, but comparison really is the thief of joy!

There is no way you are going to feel beautiful if you compare yourself to photoshopped models on Instagram, and you will never feel successful if you compare yourself to Bill Gates, Taylor Swift or J.K. Rowling. Stop it!

Easier said than done, I know — but the first and most important step is recognizing when you do it. From there, you can start taking baby steps to phase out the nasty habit of comparing yourself to others. Try unfollowing social media accounts that make you feel bad and staying away from people with toxic competitive energy.

It won’t come right away, but remember: practice makes perfect; don’t give up just because you feel like you will never be able to stop comparing yourself to others, or even worse, because you feel like you don’t even deserve to be recognized as enough just as you are. I have personally been in both scenarios, but have made it to a point where I very rarely get caught up in comparison — it is possible!

Think of yourself like a wildflower: each flower in the field is different, but they are beautiful in their own ways. You can’t compare a wild rose to a buttercup or forget-me-not because they are not the same. That is what makes them amazing.

Sticking Around In Toxic Relationships

Next up on the bad mental health habits list: sticking around in toxic relationships. This can be a complicated issue depending on your circumstances, but most of the time we have the power to make at least a little bit of change.

To start, let’s clearly define what a toxic relationship is — a relationship that makes you feel bad. End of story. Whether someone is mean, draining to be around or super negative you want to get away from them as fast as you can. Why waste your time and energy on someone who doesn’t respect yours?

Once you’ve figured out if there are any toxic relationships in your life, let’s look at some ways to eliminate them, or at least reduce your exposure to the person.

Helpful Techniques

- Phase them out. This tends to work best with acquaintances ad friends that you’re not super close to, but can also work with closer friends and sometimes family members. It involves not answering their texts or calls, not hanging out with them, and distancing yourself from them physically and emotionally until they get the idea or you drift apart.

- Break up. Whether a romantic relationship, a friendship or a family relationship, this approach involves having a conversation with the person in question telling them you can no longer be associated with each other because the relationship doesn’t feel good. This is a less popular option, but is often more effective than the “phase out” approach because it leaves no ambiguity. You are done, and that is that.

- Protect your energy. This comes into play when you can’t get rid of the toxic person — if they are a family member or roommate, for example. How do you do this? Well, there are a few ways. Try talking with them less, and distance yourself in any way you can. If you can, try telling them that certain things they do bother you. See if they are open to changing those habits. If not, you can try imagining yourself surrounded by a protective bubble whenever you are around them. Alternatively, you can try imagining them as a child who is lashing out because they are scared and confused to bring empathy to the situation.

Not Taking Care Of Your General Health

This one might seem simple, but so many people ignore it, so let’s break it down. Our minds and bodies are connected, therefore, when we don’t take care of our bodies our mental health tends to decline. The same is true when things are the other way around.

In order for our mental health to be top-notch, we also need to take care of our general health. Eat a variety of nutritious foods that make you feel good, get lots of sleep, drink water, move your body. The formula is simple.

Start today by picking one area to focus on, and build up from there. It’s amazing how much a good sleep schedule, good nutrition and movement impacts our mood and overall wellbeing.

“Bragging” About Your Bad Mental Health Habits

Did you just read that title and go “what”? Me too. Honestly, this is one of the bad mental health habits that baffles me, but at the same time I see so many people doing this on a daily basis — including myself, from time to time.

As a society that prioritizes “doing” and “hustle” above almost all else, we tend to use bad mental or general health habits to relate to — or “brag” to — others. Have you ever heard someone proudly proclaiming how few hours of sleep they got this week to finish a big project? Or someone using feeling burnt-out and unmotivated as a point of relatability?

I definitely have, and at times that person was me. We normalize, and even glorify, poor mental health habits. Let’s all agree right now to jump off that bandwagon. Instead of “bragging” about how bad our mental health is, let’s take control over the situation in whatever ways we can, and refuse to accept having bad mental health habits as a way of life.

If you found this post valuable or have anything you think I missed when it comes to breaking bad mental health habits, I’d love to hear from you! Be sure to find me on Pinterest and Instagram so that we can connect! In the meantime, have an incredible day.

Wishing you joy and light,

Emma