{"id":330754,"date":"2026-03-10T00:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/330754\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T00:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:45:08","slug":"5-bad-habits-that-are-making-your-anxiety-worse-according-to-psychologists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/330754\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Bad Habits That Are Making Your Anxiety Worse, According to Psychologists"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are plenty of expert-approved tools for managing anxiety<\/a>\u2014deep breathing, mindless distractions, fact-checking your more catastrophic thoughts. And many of them do genuinely help.<\/p>\n

Still, \u201cthere\u2019s no one-size-fits-all approach,\u201d Lauren Cook, PhD<\/a>, clinical psychologist and author of Generation Anxiety: A Millennial and Gen Z Guide to Staying Afloat in an Uncertain World<\/a>, tells SELF. \u201cMeaning we [as providers] have to look at what works well for the individual and get creative in trying different options.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means finding coping mechanisms that work not just in moments of crises, but that reduce overall anxiety in the long run too. In fact, certain habits that might seem helpful only reinforce anxious thought loops over time.<\/p>\n

Below, psychologists who specialize in anxiety break down the most common \u201cfixes\u201d that tend to backfire\u2014and more effective ways to calm yourself instead.<\/p>\n

1. You cancel plans.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tempting to stay home when anxiety kicks in\u2014and sometimes, that is the right move. You shouldn\u2019t force yourself into situations that feel truly overwhelming, whether it\u2019s a first date you\u2019re dreading or an overstimulating concert with loud music and sweaty bodies.<\/p>\n

That said, making it a habit to skip plans<\/a> can actually worsen your symptoms. \u201cIt often gets framed as self-care, but this is a classic form of avoidance,\u201d Dr. Cook says. By repeatedly dodging events that are only mildly uncomfortable\u2014like calling in \u201csick\u201d before every big meeting or rescheduling a dentist appointment over and over\u2014your brain learns that running away is the solution.<\/p>\n

What to do instead: Before automatically saying no (or ghosting the group chat), Dr. Cook encourages you to pause and ask: \u201cIf I went to this, would I feel proud of myself?\u201d Maybe giving that bridesmaid speech in front of hundreds of people sounds terrifying right now\u2014but once you\u2019re up there, seeing your friend\u2019s happy face will make it worthwhile.<\/p>\n

Another useful gut check that Dr. Cook recommends? Rate your anxiety on a scale of 1 to 10. A 4, 5, or 6 is stressful but often manageable, she says, whereas a 7, 8, or 9 may be stronger indicators to take a step back. The goal isn\u2019t to push through everything, but to learn the difference between discomfort you can grow from and distress you shouldn\u2019t ignore.<\/p>\n

2. You resort to the internet (or ChatGPT) for answers.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re overthinking, it\u2019s tempting to \u201csolve\u201d things instantly by Googling suspicious symptoms or asking ChatGPT to decode a vague text from your situationship. As instinctive as this coping mechanism is, though, \u201cthis is a classic reinforcer of anxiety that makes people even more hypervigilant,\u201d Dr. Cook says. What you\u2019re really doing is giving yourself a false sense of control<\/a> and feeding into worst-case scenarios<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are plenty of expert-approved tools for managing anxiety\u2014deep breathing, mindless distractions, fact-checking your more catastrophic thoughts. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[530,163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-330754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-anxiety","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}