15 Habits That Destroy Your Mental Health

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Habits that destroy your mental health are easy to pick up and hard to lose. Hey, life happens, we find shortcuts to help us deal with certain situations, and unfortunately, those shortcuts become addictive. But to maintain or reclaim your mental health, it’s important to recognize what’s keeping you from enjoying life occasionally.

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Allowing stress and anxiety to overwhelm you

Out of all the habits that destroy your mental health, this one is hard to get rid of entirely. Truthfully, a little stress isn’t harmful, but lots of people deal with daily stress levels that keep them from thinking straight, let alone staying healthy.

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Avoiding new challenges/activities

Trying new things is tough at times since we don’t know what to expect. Fear of the unknown is very common, but it also holds a person back and stunts their emotional and intellectual growth. Sometimes it’s necessary to take that step, no matter how afraid you are.

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Avoiding the gym

Going to the gym isn’t for everyone, but staying in shape is important for your mental health as well as your physical health. How you feel about yourself matters. Not only that, but the endorphins released when you start to feel better about yourself can improve your mental health immensely.

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Allowing yourself to binge eat

Eating a lot now and then isn’t a big deal, but if one does it continually and without reserve, well, it has long-reaching effects. The damage to your physical body is obvious, but the insidious way that binge eating can affect your mental health is tough to see sometimes, at least until it’s too late to easily turn back from this path of self-destruction.

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Becoming dependent on sugary foods

Sugary foods are great because they give that initial ‘bang’ of energy that a lot of people enjoy. Plus, the taste is just so good that it’s tough to stop once you start eating. Unfortunately, dependence on a substance is hard to break, especially when your body and your brain are crying out for more.

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Not getting enough sleep

Have you ever tried to think straight after losing a night of sleep, or after tossing and turning all night? Lack of sleep can cause a serious problem after a single night, but losing more than a night eventually proves catastrophic. Just like any muscle, the brain needs rest to function properly.

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Trying to manage too many tasks

Imagine if you will that your brain is like a giant, wrinkled wad of taffy. Pulling that wad in too many directions at once will have negative effects on the main mass. True, it’s not an entirely accurate representation, but the fact is, that too many tasks will force unnecessary stress to accumulate.

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Information overload

The fact is that your mind can only take so many things at once. Some people can absorb and file away more information than others at a given time. But trying to push too much too quickly and too often is a sure way to cause a massive breakdown at some point.

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Maintaining a sedentary lifestyle

The less you move around, the less likely it is that you’ll be ready for various stimuli that you’re bound to run into at one point or another. Not only that, but the constant stimulation that is needed for a sedentary lifestyle to work is nearly impossible. After that, depression can set in quickly, and many people know where that leads, unfortunately.

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Not socializing

Human beings are social creatures, even though some of us prefer our alone time to being around large groups of people. Socializing with others allows us to learn various social cues, mores, and skills that are part of our survival. Without this, one’s mental health becomes stunted as we grow.

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Listening to loud music frequently

Elevated stress levels and a serious increase in anxiety can result from listening to loud music too often. For music lovers, this doesn’t mean that they need to turn the volume down permanently, but it does mean that they need to protect their hearing more often since it could lead to results that aren’t conducive to their mental and physical health.

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Heavy smoking

Depression is the apparent result of heavy smoking, but this is also based on the predisposition of this disorder. Unfortunately, heavy smoking does involve taking chemicals into the body, which can alter one’s brain chemistry and therefore damage their mental health gradually over time.

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Obsession with the dark

This might not stand out as one of the causes of a decline in mental health, but the likelihood of experiencing depression and anxiety is documented. An obsession with the dark or dark subjects can lead to a serious decline in mental health simply due to the content and the overall feel of the subject matter.

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An addiction to Smart devices

This goes without saying since the dependency on our phones can create a few issues. This is one of the worst habits that destroy your mental health bit by bit. Lack of sleep is one major side effect, social anxiety is another, and one of the worst, the need to have one’s phone at hand at all times, is something that too many people have exhibited.

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Caffeine addiction 

People often joke about chemical addictions to substances such as caffeine. After all, a cup of coffee in the morning gives many people that jolt that they need to get going. However, forming a dependence on caffeine can lead to anxiety, drowsiness, and even depression if one tries to break the hold once it’s established.

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