As part of a bigger post, I found a great list of negative behaviours and recognising them as such. Put together by Blake Flannery it is an excellent starting point. You can add your own unique negative behaviours to the list. The full article by Blake ‘List of Coping Skills for Anger, Anxiety and Depression’, also gives a lot of positive skills and how they actually help us by adopting them.
Being aware is the starting point for changing any behavior.
Negative Coping Skills
Here’s a list of things that will cost you in the long run as coping strategies. These do more harm than good in most cases and can make life more stressful.
Diversions
- Procrastination
- Abusing drugs or alcohol
- Wasting time on unimportant tasks
- Shopping (online or malls)
Interpersonal (With Others)
- Blaming
- Isolating/withdrawing
- Mean or hostile joking
- Gossiping
- Criticizing others
- Manipulating others
- Refusing help from others
- Lying to others
- Sabotaging plans
- Being late to appointments
- Provoking violence from others
- Enabling others to take advantage of you
Cognitive (of the Mind)
- Denying any problem
- Stubbornness/inflexibility
- All or nothing/black or white thinking
- Catastrophizing
- Overgeneralizing
Tension Releasers
- Tantrums
- Throwing things at people
- Hitting people
- Yelling at others
- Destroying property
- Speeding or driving recklessly
Physical
- Suicide
- Self harm
- Developing illnesses
Intrapersonal
- Making fun of yourself
- Self-sabotaging behaviors
- Blaming yourself
Indulging
- Spending too much
- Gambling
- Eating/drinking too much
- Setting dangerous fires
- Continually crying