People Are Sharing The Things They Quit Doing That Immediately Improved Their Mental Health

I think everyone can agree that 2025 hasn’t been *amazing* for anyone’s mental health.

Person with short blond hair, leaning against a wall, appears distressed or emotional, mouth open as if crying or speaking

In these massively troubling times, we need to do anything we can to improve our mental states. Luckily, Reddit user u/wthe-ckler recently asked the Ask Reddit community, “What’s one thing you’ve stopped doing that immediately improved your mental health?” These people are literal angels on earth, shelling out solid advice you can literally implement TODAY.

1.”I stopped thinking work problems were actual problems.”

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Xavier Lorenzo / Getty Images

—u/prout78h

“Before I walk through the door, I pretend that I’m putting on a VR headset and playing ‘Shitty Manager Gauntlet,’ wherein every day a new and annoying thing is cooked up by management. At the end of the day, I ‘log out’ and re-enter the real world. It is silly and changes almost nothing about the day, but by god, if it doesn’t help.”

—u/Longjump_Ear6240

2.”I quit following the news so closely. It made me so anxious to know all the terrible things going on every single day.”

—u/antiitie

“During the first reign, my coworker limited his news consumption to Tuesdays and Saturdays. I thought that was an excellent way to stay aware of what’s going on, but without spiraling.”

—u/Charleston2Seattle

3.”The ‘two cakes’ philosophy is a lifesaver for artists. To those unfamiliar, it’s based on a comic in which one character brings in a cake, looks at a cake someone else made, and says, ‘Aw, their cake is so much better than mine!’ But then a second person comes over and excitedly says, ‘Holy shit! Two cakes!'”

—u/Amazing_Excuse_3860

4.”I stopped staying up late, and I stopped sleeping in on the weekends. Regulating my sleep schedule and sleep hygiene has been really helpful for me. I try to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day — weekdays, weekends, holidays, etc.”

Person in a white t-shirt sitting on a bed, looking out a window, appearing relaxed and content. Room has a minimalist style

Freshsplash / Getty Images

“I also give myself a solid hour between waking up and leaving for work. I am not tired, stressed, or rushed in the mornings, so I arrive at work prepared and in a good mood. I have time in the mornings to do things that make the rest of my day easier, like make lunch, do the dishes, exercise, or pay bills. I’m better rested, life feels less chaotic, and huge stressors have been removed from my life. It’s shocking how quickly a lot of little stressors can pile up and suddenly feel impossible to ever defeat. Fixing my sleep literally removed all of them in one fell swoop.”

—u/baby_armadillo

5.”Things out of my control should be out of my mind, too.”

—u/Ok-Philosophy-7095

6.”I haven’t been isolating as much. I live alone, so it still happens, but I’m no longer emerging from my apartment after three days sounding like Tom Waits because I hadn’t spoken out loud for the entire time. I’m a work in progress, but I’m feeling much better.”

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Djiledesign / Getty Images

—u/Commercial_Falcon_51

7.”I stopped counting calories. It makes me so obsessed with food. I genuinely feel so unwell when I do this, so I vowed to never do it again!”

—u/Bopobabe

8.”Every single night, I would smoke weed, have a snack (usually turned into a binge), and watch something mindless. I genuinely thought this was self-care as it made me feel better in the moment. It’s been a year since I stopped, and I genuinely can’t imagine going back to that. I have so much more energy, mental clarity, and my overall happiness has increased drastically.”

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Cyano66 / Getty Images

—u/Big_Blueberry_2032

9.”I stopped watching porn.”

—u/Mean-Relation-9907

10.”I forced myself to stop my mind when I start thinking of anything negative. Negative thinking creates neural pathways, which makes it easier for your mind to continue doing it. So breaking that negative cycle is so critical.”

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Draganab / Getty Images

—u/AdditionalBoss9226

“As someone with past trauma, sometimes thoughts about awful things come up and try to derail my day. I used to drink, smoke, fuck, anything to try and distract myself. Now I am practicing giving the thoughts space to just be. They are here, I don’t need to dwell on them, I don’t need to relive the experience, I can just breathe, curiously look at my thought pattern, and see what may have brought on these thoughts. I can scan my body and see if those feelings make my body feel negatively in any place, maybe move my body, or sing to move the energy. I don’t need to run anymore; running never worked. I just give myself love and reassurance that I am safe.”

—u/BeeKynder01970

11.”I stopped tolerating emotional and verbal abuse from my spouse. The weight lifted off my chest has been tremendous.”

—u/jhft_comments

12.”Quitting Instagram helped me so much. Doom scrolling is really mentally taxing.”

—u/daynetrain12

“I deleted my Facebook and Instagram seven years ago, and I was shocked at how hard it was at first, but after about a month, I was sooooo much happier. I had no clue how much it was draining my happiness. It was one of the best decisions of my life. Living in the real world is so much cooler than 90% of the bullshit social media pretends the real world is.”

—u/dunkan799

13.”I stopped trying to solve everyone else’s problems for them.”

—u/Dense-Reveal-3647

14.”I’ve tried my best to stop being toxic on the internet. For a while, I got caught up in a lot of political message boards, idiotically thinking I could change someone’s mind. Once I realized that wasn’t going to happen and that I was just contributing to the drama online, I did my best to become more of a contributor and less of a divisive poster. I still catch myself backsliding once in a while, but I try to recognize it and minimize it.”

Person sitting cross-legged on a bed, eyes closed, practicing meditation, with a laptop open in front of them. Modern, calm bedroom setting

Pixelvista / Getty Images

—u/ITestInProd1212

15.”No more checking what my ex is up to on socials.”

-u/Batbrigade

16.”Quitting gaming helped me. I love gaming and have so many amazing friends I’ve made over the years, but it was a life suck that I excused as my ‘escape’ from my depression. Now, I have long, busy, fulfilling days. I am tired at the end of the day and go to bed. I used to toss and turn until the sun came up every night. This wasn’t some overnight process, but it all started there.”

Box of tangled retro gaming joysticks on a wooden floor

Vladimir Sukhachev / Getty Images

“I’m not vilifying gaming, I love it and miss it dearly. For me, it was an addiction and would take my entire focus away from what I needed to do on a day-to-day basis. And I still keep in touch with the friends I made in gaming over the years. It’s nice to know they weren’t just internet friendships.”

—u/benjammin515

17.”I stopped picking up my phone first thing in the morning.”

—u/reldana210

18.”Going no-contact with certain family members turned my Hell into my Heaven. I can’t control them, or the stress they create, but no-contact ended their drama in my life.”

A woman sitting on a woven chair indoors, looking at her smartphone intently

Iryna Melnyk / Getty Images

—u/anon-eye

19.”Deleting dating apps and decentering men has been the best thing ever. Life is better when you dress for you and not for how a man might perceive you.”

—u/abrey30

20.”Responding to people who exhaust me, specifically, a close friend of mine. I forgot to message her back for like three weeks and realized that I felt less stressed and exhausted, which probably seems wild since it’s just texts. I now respond to messages when I actually want to and not immediately. It’s opened my eyes to the status of my relationships with others and has given me the opportunity to step away from some of them.”

—u/True_Panic_3369

21.And lastly, “I quit spending too much time worrying about what other people will think about my decisions.”

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