Every morning when his alarm went off, Doug hit his snooze button several times before rolling out of bed feeling irritated and rushed. Rummaging through the perennial pile of clothes on the floor in his room, he would find something “clean-ish” to wear and hurry toward the kitchen. Three cups of coffee later, he would spend 10 minutes hunting for his keys, then rush out the door. 

Often, the fuel needle in Doug’s car hovered near E, and he would sweat over whether or not to stop for gas on the way to work. If he didn’t run out of gas, he would hit the vending machine in the lobby, grab a pre-packaged sticky bun before landing at his desk, and feel anxious and dread starting the workday. Whatever deeper issues were at work in Doug’s life, there is no doubt that his daily habits created copious amounts of anxiety. Until he addressed his chaotic patterns, identifying the root causes of any anxiety disorder would prove hard to do. 

Like Doug, many people create or contribute to their anxiety without realizing it. Lifestyle choices and daily habits amp up feelings of tension, stress, and worry. Anxiety may indeed be linked to genetics, trauma, or brain chemistry, but people usually make daily choices that intensify anxious feelings. 

As the saying goes, “When you want to get out of a hole, stop digging.” As a first step toward anxiety relief, I urge people to put down the shovel by recognizing unhealthy habits and begin working toward change.

Helpful vs. Unhelpful Habits

Habits are a useful function that the brain provides. Our brains put repeated actions on autopilot so they can focus on new situations that require decisions, creativity, and solutions. And this is extremely helpful for tasks such as brushing your teeth, driving to work, and getting your computer booted up. 

The problem is that once patterns form, we rarely give them another thought. We continue doing the same thing over and over without stopping to conduct a mental audit or evaluating whether or not a particular habit is still serving us well. As long we continue on autopilot or remain in denial, we will go on experiencing anxiety-producing patterns without ever analyzing the source.

Let’s look at five common life patterns that contribute to anxiety. 

  1. Procrastination or Avoidance. Procrastination is both a result and a driver of anxiety. In a study of 2,527 men and women, procrastination was consistently linked with higher stress; more anxiety, depression, and fatigue; and reduced satisfaction with life. In addition, there are numerous studies focused on students that establish the connection between procrastination, anxiety, depression, and reduced social integration. 

Procrastination means putting off tasks because of anxiety… which will only increase future anxiety. Because anxiety and procrastination are circular, disrupting behavior anywhere in the circle can be helpful. Reducing anxiety can help a person procrastinate less—or reducing procrastination can lead to a decrease in anxiety. 

  1. Clutter and Disorder. Studies show that the more household clutter we live with, the greater our stress, anxiety, and depression. In a study of 32 families, researchers at UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families (CELF) discovered that clutter adversely impacted people’s moods and self-esteem.2 

Numerous other studies confirm what common sense would suggest. Clutter creates unnecessary stimuli for our brains, keeps us frustrated looking for lost items, and adds to feelings of guilt, irritation, or shame. 

A series of studies conducted by researchers, James Cutting and Kacie Armstrong, determined that cluttered backgrounds in movie scenes make it harder for viewers to interpret the emotions expressed on the faces of the actors and actresses. Dr. Cutting explained, “Clutter distracted the viewers and made the task of recognizing the emotion more difficult.”3 The intriguing findings prompt us to believe that living in a cluttered home could impact our perception of, and relationship with, those around us.

  1. Eating Patterns. The link between mental health and eating habits can be summed up in a simple phrase: Good Food = Good Mood. According to Harvard Medical School’s Monique Tello, M.D., “Diet is such an important component of mental health that it has inspired an entire field of medicine called nutritional psychiatry…. What it boils down to is that what we eat matters for every aspect of our health, but especially our mental health.”4 

Our bodies are created to require proper fuel. However, in the name of “convenience,” our culture pushes thousands of processed, pre-packaged foods bearing lengthy lists of ingredients that necessitate a doctorate in chemistry to pronounce, let alone comprehend. Then there are the ubiquitous fast-food places on every other corner where you don’t even have to leave your vehicle to purchase bags full of saturated fat, natural and artificial sugar, caffeine and double caffeine, and empty calories. 

It has become far too easy—and too delicious—to imbibe bad fuel and deprive our bodies of the good fuel we need to be at our best. So, in order to conquer anxiety and be stronger than the stresses of life, we must start with a strategic improvement of the fuel we feed our bodies. 

  1. Negative Thought Patterns. A common phrase in the sciences says, “Neurons that fire together wire together.” The more we repeat neural patterns associated with any given behavior or thinking, those neural patterns become more ingrained—even hardwired—in our brains. That means the more we complain, worry, or rehearse anxiety-producing thoughts, the easier our brains default to those same negative thoughts in the future. 

We all have an inner voice that serves as a constant commentary or “news feed” about our moment-by-moment experiences. When those messages are negative or pessimistic, they contribute to anxiety. However, we control the on-off switch for that voice. It has had its way for so long that it may take some work to get back the controls, but it is possible. We begin by identifying the thoughts streaming into our brains. Are they negative or positive, helpful or harmful? Then, we intentionally replace negative abstractions with positive affirmations. 

  1. Misuse or Abuse of Technology. Technology has completely changed our society over the past few decades, from how we work to how we socialize and everything in-between. Our digital devices bring significant advantages to our lives—and some serious disadvantages. Because technology is a “neutral resource,” neither inherently evil nor inherently beneficial, how we use it matters significantly. 

Unfortunately, the majority of people today misuse or abuse technology, contributing to substantial mental health problems. According to the Pew Research Center:

  • The average person spends more time in front of electronic devices than sleeping each day, at eight hours and 41 minutes.
  • The overall time Americans spend on various media grew to nearly 11 hours per day last year.
  • Nearly a third of Americans say they are online “almost constantly.”5

What’s more, research has demonstrated a clear connection between anxiety and dependence on digital devices:

  • Forty-five percent of people feel “worried or uncomfortable” without access to e-mail or Facebook.
  • Fifty percent of mobile phone users feel anxious when their phones are not with them.
  • Seventy-three percent of people would “panic” if they lost their smartphones.6

In recent years, we have heard a great deal about digital addiction, sometimes called Internet addiction or Problematic Internet Use (PIU). While technology addiction is not yet recognized as a mental disorder in the DSM, research continues to demonstrate that excessive use of electronic devices can lead to negative mental health consequences similar to other forms of addiction.

Digital addiction can involve any number of devices and associated activities, including television, video games, cell phones, and social media. What’s more, numerous studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals have demonstrated the link between digital addiction and many other mental health issues, including depression and anxiety.

Unhealthy habits and patterns creep into our lives so gradually and subtly that their insidious effects often go unnoticed. That is why addressing familiar behaviors can be a big step toward relieving anxiety. 

Gregory Jantz, Ph.D., is the founder and director of the mental-health clinic, The Center • A Place of Hope in Edmonds, Washington. He is the author of The Anxiety Reset, Healing Depression for Life, and many other books.

Endnotes

1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4752450/.

2 https://magazine.ucla.edu/features/the-clutter-culture/.

3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26728045.

4 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/diet-and-depression-2018022213309.

5 https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile.

6 https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/nomophobia.