7 Things That Are Bad For Your Mental Health
You might feel like spending extra hours at work is a good way to distract yourself from your problems and to make you feel like a productive member of society, but you don’t want to overwork yourself. You don’t want to burn yourself out.
1. Isolating yourself. Even if you’re scared to send the first text and invite your friends to come over to hang out, you still need to socialize. You need to have conversations with someone other than yourself. You need to get out there and meet people. You also need to get outside. You need to take a walk. Feel the sun on your skin. Feel the grass beneath your feet. You need to get yourself out of your bedroom because it’s not where you’re meant to be spending all of your time.
2. Skipping meals. If you want your mind to stay healthy, then you need to keep your body healthy. You need to eat healthy meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No skipping because you’re not that hungry or because you’re not in the mood to cook something or because you can’t figure out which thing you want to eat and therefore you’d rather starve. It doesn’t matter what your excuse is. You need to eat. You also need to hydrate!
3. Missing out on sleep. Staying up for a few extra hours might make you feel more productive, but it can backfire on you in the long run. In order to be at your best, you need to get as close to seven or eight hours of sleep each night as you possibly can. Don’t think of sleeping long as being lazy. Think of it as another way to be productive, because your mind needs sleep to operate.
4. Constantly checking social media. It’s not healthy to be staring at a screen all day long. Especially when you’re staring at posts and photos from other people, wishing you had their lives. Comparing yourself is dangerous. Assuming everyone else has it better than you is dangerous. When you feel yourself getting insecure while you’re scrolling through social media, remind yourself you can stop. You can turn off your electronics. You can even delete your socials.
5. Letting clutter build up around you. When you’re in a dark place, the last thing you want to do is clean, but it’s not good to let your messes build up. The more cluttered your surroundings are, the more cluttered your mind will become. No matter how bad you’re feeling about yourself right now, you don’t deserve to live in filth. You need to keep your bed, your desk, and your kitchen clean.
6. Overworking. You might feel like spending extra hours at work is a good way to distract yourself from your problems and to make you feel like a productive member of society, but you don’t want to overwork yourself. You don’t want to burn yourself out. Life is about more than work. You need time to relax, too.
7. Skipping workouts. Exercise can make you feel better. Stronger. Happier. Even though the idea of getting on the treadmill might make you ill, once you actually start your workout, your mood is going to change. You’re going to feel much better than you would lounging in bed all day. 