5 Toxic Habits That Can Harm Your Own Mental Health
When we think of toxic habits and traits, we tend to think of them in relation to other people, like friends who may mean more harm than good. However, there are traits that can do more harm to the person exhibiting them than to the people around them.
Many of these habits can be extremely detrimental to one’s mental health, and while some are obvious, others can surprise you. You could even be displaying them yourself. So, here are 5 toxic habits you might be doing that can harm you mentally.
Avoiding Conflict
At times, keeping the peace at the expense of unresolved conflict is a good thing, but it’s only viable in the short term.
If you keep avoiding conflict with other people, you’re only covering up a wound that is bound to fester if left untreated. It can cause ire between within relationships and will eventually become more and more of a struggle to keep the peace. You need to take the time to resolve these conflicts, because even if your relationship with this person doesn’t fall apart, your view of them may certainly sour over time.
Comparing Yourself to Others
Comparison is the thief and death of joy, as Mark Twain and Theadore Roosevelt have both said. To compare yourself to others is not only unreasonable to begin with, but it also harms your own feeling of self worth. Someone who has achieved more than you in a short amount of time may have done so on their own, but you’re not factoring in things such as luck, opportunity, privilege, and resources. By putting yourself down through comparison, you’re also going to have a difficult time improving yourself. The most you can do is turn this comparison into inspiration, but the baseline is that everyone goes at their own speeds, and that you should alway keep working on yourself regardless of other people’s progress.
Keeping Everything Bottled In
This is in line with the rule about avoiding conflict. You may think you’re doing everyone a favor by keeping your emotions bottled on, but you’re only doing more harm to yourself. Keeping all those thoughts and emotions locked deep inside is bound to stew into a toxic concoction that can poison your mind, how you act, and how you look at other people. This is why resolving conflict is so important; it means that you can lessen the weight that you put on your own shoulders. You don’t have to carry everything by yourself. If you have the feeling that your thoughts and emotions are too much to confide in with friends and family, you can always seek professional help.
Being a Perfectionist
Believe it or not, you learn a lot more through constant practice than you do through fidgeting with one project for hours on end. Not everything has to be perfect, and small minuscule problems that may seem huge to you can be imperceivable to others. Don’t let yourself stress out over one project, because I can assure you that you’ll improve in your next go around.
Believing Your Issues Aren’t as Important as Others
If you find yourself dismissing your own problems because “other people have it worse than I do”, then you need to stop yourself right there. Your problems are as valid as anyone else’s, and just because someone may be going through a more difficult situation than you are, it doesn’t mean your problems don’t matter. There’s enough room in this world for both you and the nameless other suffering person to get help, and if you’re not doing either of you either favors by not seeking the help that you need.
