3 Dark Habits That Sabotaged Me Mentally

And destroyed my motivation.

I’ve dealt with my fair share of negative habits in my life.

But of course, those habits only messed me up physically. Not eating healthy? Psssh, all that does is give me a slightly bigger belly. Habits that mess you up physically and mentally are a different beast — and they’re quite hard to overcome.

So here are four habits that sabotaged me mentally and how I overcame them.

1. Staring at others while they’re in danger.

I’m already a narcissist, but sitting in a chair and watching someone else die is a little…bad.

I hated helping other people ever since I was a child. My mom would do her best to take me and my sister on as many volunteer opportunities as possible. While I understood the importance of giving, I just didn’t want to do it. If I saw a homeless man asking me for spare change chances are I’ll lie and tell him I’m broke.

This narcissism translated into how I viewed dangerous situations.

I’ll never forget seeing a little girl drowning at a community pool. She was right next to me, yet I couldn’t move. I stood there in awe like “Is she doing to die? Should I do something?” My sister ran over and saved her. I’ve never felt so useless.

If someone got in a car accident and crawled towards me for help, it’d take me at least a minute to get my composure together.

How I overcame this dark habit:

I just take deep breaths now and go.

Deep breaths can help you a lot more than you think. They can help calm down your body when you’re in a state of shock. It’s impossible for me to snap out of it right away, but if I just take a couple of seconds and then breathe, I’m back to normal.

Also, I’ve been working on my random acts of kindness. The less selfish I am, the less shocked I’ll be when I see others in danger.

2. Laying in bed all day.

I know this is easy to do during a pandemic, but even in times before Ms. Rona hit, I would sleep in my bed all day during the summer.

My joints ached like hell. Laying still and watching the ceiling turned me into a human sacrifice laying at the alter. A deep depression shrouded my mind. It may not seem like a big deal, but trust me, depression is no joke. It can cripple you to the point where you just don’t see the point of living anymore.

I was in a writing slump during that time.

My writing career went nowhere. I didn’t think I’d be successful at all. I wanted to throw everything away and be a bozo on the streets — there was no hope.

How I overcame this dark habit:

I consumed more content online.

This sounds counterintuitive, but lack of motivation really means lack of purpose. You’re a lost puppy flailing around for direction. People try to steer you the right way, but they’re not you. Only you can get yourself out of that hole and your mind is running in circles so much that you can’t do it.

I read more articles from my favorite writers. I read their success stories to remind myself that I am a writer. This is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.

So consume content of other successful people in your field to get that extra kick in the ass.

3. Watching sexually active gameplays.

I’m a game nerd, but my family never had the money to get us the latest Xbox One. So all of the games we played were outdated.

GTA, Sleeping Dogs, etc. all the violent rated R games that have strip clubs and sex with prostitutes were loads of fun to me. Since I didn’t have much access to those games, I’d watch a million gameplays on YouTube. You know how these games go. They either have a love interest or you can just pay one. I’d watch the gameplay videos of these scenes over and over again.

I don’t know if it made me horny or not, but it became an addiction really quick.

How I overcame this dark habit:

I don’t watch those types of gameplays anymore. I watch more Fortnite/Dragon ball Z gameplays anyway. You get all the violence, just without the sexually active stuff.

You know what they say…if you’re horny…just start imaging things.

It may not be a super amazing solution, but watching more family-friendly gameplays and just imaging other stuff when I get urges helps me more than ever. The addiction is nonexistent now.

Plus there’s no reason to feel weird about imaging you know what because people do it more than you think.

Final Thoughts

These habits seem so simple, but that’s what makes them all the more dangerous.

Staring at others while they’re in danger, laying in bed all day, and watching sexually active gameplays messed me up mentally more than I ever could’ve imagined. My self-esteem dropped and I started feeling, well…icky. These three habits together created a deeper hole that I almost died in.

Now I take deep breaths to calm myself down, I read motivational content by my favorite writers, and I watch family-friendly gameplays to calm my addiction.

These habits might be deadly, but they’re possible to overcome.

I know you can do it.

Get my free writing guide that can teach you how to build a writing habit in 90 days or less here.