8 Negative Behaviors Examples That Affect Your Mental Health 

Negative Behaviors or Bad habits can have an adverse effect on your mental health. You probably already know that bad habits are detrimental to your life but they can also be the cause of anxiety, depression, and anger. 

Here are a few common negative behaviors examples that can ruin your life experience and can make you unhappy:  

No sleep routine

Your body needs a healthy dose of regular sleep to function well. If you are not sleeping well, you will feel tired and exhausted. Your mind will not function well. You will be unable to concentrate on important situations, things, or problems. This inability will increase your mental strain and you will feel frustration and irritability. Your irritability and frustration can multiply over weeks and months if you are not sleeping well. 

Even if you are getting a good amount of sleep every day irregularity in your sleep routine decreases your overall happiness. Studies have shown that sleep disturbances can cause depression and other mental health issues.

Sleeping late at night and becoming a night owl gives you less time to socialize with people around you. Man is a social animal and less socializing can make you feel lonely and isolated. A healthy dose of social interaction is necessary for feeling normal and happy. Similarly going out in the sunlight, enjoying the scenery and nature improves your overall mood. This is not possible if you are sleeping in the daytime. 

No time for yourself  

If you spend too much time working and drowning yourself in entertainment and social media, you probably don't have much time for your own self. Spending some time with your thoughts may seem boring but it is necessary for our happiness. We spend each day experiencing different kinds of anxieties and tensions. A little time off with your thoughts can make your mind less cluttered and free for positive experiences.     

No exercise

We all know that exercise is good for our bodies. But some exercise is also good for reducing tension, anger, depression, and anxiety. Exercise makes you feel good and especially walking can help you in thinking things through. Walking helps you go into a rhythm and concentrate on a specific problem. It can also help you with the problem of overthinking. Exercise is a good thing but too much exercise can have adverse effects on your mind. So exercise well and exercise every day but in moderation.

Toxic People 

Negativity has a way of spreading like a disease in all directions. People who have negative views on life can bring you no good. They are detrimental to your mental stability and will contaminate your own views of life with negativity, helplessness, and anger. Similarly, people with completely opposing views on life than you and a short fuse are very suffocating to deal with. It is better to avoid such people. 

People who don't respect you, talk down to you, and destroy your mood when you feel happy can bring you nothing but anger, depression, and anxiety. It is better to have no company than to interact with such people.

Perfectionism

I am not perfect, you are not perfect, nobody is. It is a good thing to strive for perfection but when you become obsessed with perfectionism, it brings you no good. Setting goals and trying to reach them helps you improve yourself. But setting unrealistic goals and wallowing and obsessing over failure for a long time is a perfect recipe for disaster. Always remember that doing something perfectly or reaching some goal is not a measure of your worthiness. You are more than your success or failure. You are more than your perfectionism and goals.

Overuse of social media and the internet 

We all are obsessed with social media and even if some of us don't use social media, we spend much time on the internet. Digital technologies like smartphones and computers overstimulate our minds. They make it difficult to relax when we want to. In addition, our interaction with these devices is mostly one-sided. Most of us just passively consume the information we find on social media and the internet. This can have harmful effects on our minds and thought patterns. 

We can't avoid social media and the internet but we can moderate our use. We can limit the time we spend on our smartphones and computers and can use this time in some other positive and healthy activity. 

Excessive focus on the negative

Some pessimism is good in life as it keeps us grounded in reality but focus on the bad side of each and everything can only ruin your whole life experience. Life becomes a hell hole if everyone around you is a hypocrite attached to you for their own sake and the whole world is out to destroy your every life dream. This isn't the reality but this is exactly what negativity and pessimistic views can make your life look like. So look at the positive things around you even if you have to force yourself to do it. You will eventually find life more interesting, enjoyable, and fulfilling. 

Procrastination

You feel exhausted, anxious, or depressed and postpone your work for another day. But you have to remember that the work you have to do is not going anywhere. Postponing will only increase your workload and that will increase your anxiety and tension. It may seem like a good thing to just throw everything away and watch some movie or go out with friends but you can't really relax when you have work to do. That workload remains like a burden even when you are enjoying yourself. This is very detrimental to your mental health as it will increase your anxiety and tension. You need time to relax in order to enjoy life which is not possible when you are procrastinating. 

What has helped you in overcoming your mental health problems? let us know in the comments.