6 'Soothing' Activities That Are Secretly Causing You More Anxiety

When you’re overwhelmed with stress, you may feel like curling up in a ball and not know how to pull yourself out of the funk. From watching hours and hours of TV to pretending the stress isn’t there, there are common “soothing” behaviors that we do to unwind that can cause more harm than good.

“I do things that exacerbate my stress,” Niro Feliciano, a psychotherapist and author, told HuffPost. “And I know that I’m doing them, but it’s natural as humans.”

Even therapists can fall into these stress traps, she said. But if we work on how we handle stress even just 50% of the time, it can drastically help.

We asked therapists about the one thing that they try to avoid for relieving stress because it can actually aggravate tension — and what they try to do instead.

1. ‘Binging’ On TV Or Shopping

“The one thing I try my hardest not to do when I’m stressed is get stuck in patterns of binging anything — Netflix, retail therapy, junk food, etc.,” Sadaf Siddiqi , a psychotherapist and content creator, told HuffPost. “As humans, we all need occasional moments of escape and indulgence, but this is not the same as creating coping mechanisms out of them.”

These types of behaviors are often a form of avoiding emotions, which can lead to even more stress.

“Research shows that suppressing … difficult thoughts for long periods of time can lead to poor mental health as well as physical health,” Siddiqi explained. “Strong emotions need to be felt, processed and managed.”

Instead of binging something, Siddiqi tries to focus on techniques that immediately relieve stress, such as going for a walk, dancing to a playlist or talking to a friend. Another option is to use breathing exercises, like breathing in through the nose, holding it,