Psychologist lists 10 threats to mental health to control

Negative thoughts, rumination, pessimism

It's essential to realize that a thought is not necessarily the truth; it's simply an idea generated by your mind. Be vigilant not to confuse your assumptions with verified facts. Train your critical thinking, avoid overthinking, and instead, verify them with reality.

Rituals and magical thinking At the core of this is anxiety; you worry about events, most of which will never happen, yet it seems that the chosen ritual helps ward off disaster.

The trap lies in giving special significance to thoughts; they feed a person's anxiety, leading to dependency on them.

Avoidance

This is a manifestation of defensive behavior. Such a strategy deprives a person of corrective experience. If a person doesn't attempt something, they won't know if they're capable of it. The more a person avoids something, the more confidence they lose, risking constant anxiety.

Mood

Mood often determines your reality. If your emotional state is apathy, despair, and irritability, how will your behavior be? Your task is not to rid yourself of emotions but not to succumb to them. As a result, you'll engage in effective behavior and achieve desired results.

Routine and schedule

Without discipline and organization, you risk falling into the trap of chaos, so plan at least for the near future.

Planning options:

• activities that bring joy and fulfillment;
• tasks that contribute to achieving your goals;
• what I need to do to start doing what I usually avoid;
• tasks that reflect my life values

Submissiveness

Submission to others' interests deprives you of the ability to feel what you truly need, so over time, you stop understanding your own desires.

Excessive demands

There's a constant feeling that you need to improve, meet someone's expectations. In the endless pursuit of perfection, a person risks losing themselves, their desires, and values.

Addictions

This includes difficulties with self-control, impulsivity, compensating for one's vulnerability. The problem is that this may provide temporary relief but ultimately leads to the atrophy of self-regulation skills, sidelining any other life interests, affecting all aspects of life.

Social circle and interaction

Your environment significantly influences you and determines your life guidelines. Therefore, filter the people you communicate with, occasionally take breaks, or even sever certain ties. Also, don't draw conclusions about yourself based on others' opinions.

Feelings of guilt

It can shake you to the core, turning your world upside down. This is also a significant risk to mental health. This feeling can internally devastate you. In your mind, there's a set of beliefs through which you evaluate the correctness of your actions and others' actions toward you and in general. Such beliefs often provoke and intensify guilt.

But your beliefs may be mistaken, imposed on you. We may feel imposed guilt under the pressure of others' expectations. We often take on guilt for something that has nothing to do with us, or others force us to believe in it.

Earlier, we wrote about the dangers of the constant pursuit of success.

This material is for informational purposes only and should not be used for medical diagnosis or self-treatment. Our goal is to provide readers with accurate information about symptoms, causes, and methods of detecting diseases. RBС-Ukraine is not responsible for any diagnoses that readers may make based on materials from the resource. We do not recommend self-treatment and advise consulting a doctor in case of any health concerns.