5 Self-Care Trends That Are Actually Ruining Your Mental Health

Ok, some of these are trends; some are more perennial to human nature. For example, while asceticism is not a new idea, the “dopamine detox” is, and “bed rotting” is not a trend that this writer has seen recommended anywhere, but on the other hand, there are medieval illustrations of it—there was no Netflix in sight in the medieval illustrations, but perhaps a label diagnosing it as “melancholy”, for example.

So without further ado, here are five things to not do…

Don’t fall into these traps

The 5 things to watch out for are:

1. Toxic positivity: constantly promoting positivity regardless of the reality of a situation can shame or invalidate genuine emotions, preventing people from processing their real feelings and leading to negative mental health outcomes—especially if it involves a “head in sand” approach to external problems as well as internal ones (because then those problems will never actually get dealt with).
2. Self-indulgence: excessive focus on personal desires can make you more self-centered, less disciplined, and ultimately dissatisfied, which hinders personal growth and mental wellness.
3. Bed rotting: spending prolonged time in bed for relaxation or entertainment can decrease motivation, productivity, and lead to (or worsen) depression rather than promoting genuine rest and rejuvenation.
4. Dopamine detox: abstaining from pleasurable activities to “reset” the brain simply does not work and can lead to loneliness, boredom, and worsen mental health, especially when done excessively.
5. Over-reliance on self-help: consuming too much self-help content or relying on material possessions for well-being can lead to information overload, unrealistic expectations, and the constant need for self-fixing, rather than fostering self-acceptance and authentic growth. Useful self-help can be like taking your car in for maintenance—counterproductive self-help is more like having your car always in for maintenance and never actually on the road.

For more on all of these, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like to read, and yes these are pretty much one-for-one with the 5 items above, doing a deeper dive into each in turn,

1. How To Get Your Brain On A More Positive Track (Without Toxic Positivity)
2. Self-Care That’s Not Just Self-Indulgence
3. The Mental Health First-Aid That You’ll Hopefully Never Need
4. The Dopamine Myth
5. Behavioral Activation Against Depression & Anxiety

Take care!