Redditors share 17 “harmless” habits that could quietly be ruining your life
Thousands answered after an Ask Reddit post called for examples of harmful habits people tend to dismiss as no big deal. No one is free of bad habits, but you make it so much worse when you convince yourself that there's no reason to change your ways.
Some of these "harmless" habits are even viewed by many as a positive, including getting only a couple of hours of sleep at night or saying "yes" to everyone when you really want to say "no." Others are known to be bad for you, like holding in your pee all day, but people don't understand just how much damage they can do.
We're all doing our best, but some of the items on this list might contain the push you need to take healthy steps in your life. Sometimes it's as easy as turning down the volume or getting off the toilet after you finally make it there. There's a balance to toilet time, folks.
Let's delve into 17 difficult subjects instead of avoiding them—another bad habit on the list.
1. Sleep deprivation.
"Lack of sleep." —u/colorOfsage
"Was chronically sleep deprived for a time and can confirm. There comes a point where you stop feeling it, but sleep deprivation is like living half-dead. Severely affects health, mood, and your brain." —u/YarrowDrifter
2. Trying to make everyone happy all the time.
"People pleasing. If you are more concerned with making sure everyone around you is happy than you are about your own well being, it will bite you in the ass. Eventually you will start to resent people because you will feel that they don't put in as much effort as you do, when in reality you are just doing too much!" —u/Odd_Frosting4670
3. Making minimum payments.
"Only doing minimum payments on debt. Allowing interest to work against you." —u/AustinO_0
4. Negative self-talk.
"I spent my twenties and most of my thirties being really down on myself for everything, particularly my weight and looks. Now I look back at pictures and see a perfectly average weight, perfectly averagely attractive guy and don’t know why I wasted so long caring that I wasn’t a 10." —u/ratprince85
5. Staying in an unhappy relationship.
"Situationships and contenting yourself, both. It’s one thing to understand that a partner will not always make you feel warm and fuzzy, it’s another thing entirely to stay with someone you know isn’t a right match." —u/YarrowDrifter
6. Holding it.
"Holding in your pee because you're busy at work." —u/Equal-Traffic3859
"Adding, 'being so busy you don’t poop,' can’t tell you the number of people I’ve treated for self-inflicted constipation, that leads to bigger issues.
ALSO, let your kids poop. I’ve also have had kid patients ages 9-15 who have fecal incontinence because they held it in for so long. It’s a terrible thing for a kid to go through." —u/SailorGeminiMoon
7. High volume in your headphones/earbuds all the time.
"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…..eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee." —u/Which_Initiative_882
8. Too much social media.
"All of these little tiny dopamine hits that take away the limited daily supply of dopamine from other things that are far more beneficial for you all the while lowering your attention span and probably making you think other people have it better based on social media/causing depression or mental anxiety because of less real life social interaction." —u/ADumbSmartPerson
9. Avoiding the tough talks.
"Thinking it's polite to avoid hard subjects.
Instead, we should learn how to appropriately address those subjects in a variety of settings. Avoiding them let's things that need to be addressed fester and grow." —u/FunRange3580
10. Not going to the doctor when symptoms begin.
"Only visiting a healthcare professional if the issue is extreme/long-term persistent. Reduces the likelihood of catching serious illnesses in the early stages dramatically if you resist speaking to a doctor until it's crippling." —u/Big-Incident-2435
11. Using the phone on the toilet for too long.
"I was doing 30 minutes on the toilet everyday, and one day I ended up with an anal fissure. It’s one of the most painful thing ever and it doesn’t go away, and I did a lot of things to alleviate the pain, but nothing helped.
So after being miserable for 1.5 years, I decided to do surgery, which way even more painful afterwards, and I ended up not even able to walk for few days, due to pain, and let’s not even talk about pooping." —u/PayaV87
12. Always cleaning your plate.
"Eating those last few bites when you're full. It's just a few bites of food, right? It can lead to overeating and teaching your body to expect more food over time. This can lead to an increase in weight and all of the other mental health effects that go with weight gain." —u/greeneyes826
13. Jorking it all day.
"Jerking off to relieve the tension is one thing. But gooning 4x a day and immediately picturing yourself banging every hot person in sight is NOT good for the psyche." —u/Prestigious-Part-697
14. Ignoring your finances.
"Financial illiteracy. Not having a budget. Living on credit.
Sure people 'know' it's bad. Those same people still get completely blindsided when they have to face it in adulthood." —u/Tsukasasoul
15. Hurrying your kids everywhere.
"Rushing children. This creates lifelong anxiety problems, and it's backed by research there's even a name for it, 'hurried child syndrome.' Parents don't understand how serious this is." —u/hangononesec
16. Failing to stretch.
"Every day. Not necessarily each muscle group in one go, but stretch each muscle group every day, at least 30 seconds, wherever, whenever you can—get it in where you fit it in. Waiting for toast? Stretch your chest/shoulders. Legs. Assume a horse stance. Something."
"Stretching is a little bit of a different kind of pain, that prevents a whole lot of pain." —u/The_Mr_Wilson
17. Overuse of generative AI.
"Asking ChatGPT a million questions per day and thinking it’s your new best friend." —u/YogurtclosetProud945
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