12 People Revealed Their Strangest Mental Health Tricks, and They Actually Work

Not every mental health trick comes from a self-help book. Some of the most unexpected habits have helped people feel calmer, lighter, and more in control. These 12 strange rituals might sound bizarre at first, but for the people who use them, they genuinely work.

CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED AS A SUBSTITUTE OF MEDICAL ADVICE. SEEK GUIDANCE OF YOUR DOCTOR REGARDING YOUR HEALTH AND MEDICAL CONDITIONS.

• My therapist and I were discussing how I felt about a pretty deep betrayal from my now ex-wife. I was beating myself up for not seeing how bad she really was when there was plenty of evidence.
  He wrote down something on his yellow notepad and then held it up right in my face, practically touching my nose. He said, “What’s that say?”
  I couldn’t read it; it was too close to my face. Stepping back from it a bit, I could read. It said, “You’re too close to see it.” He was right.
  I was too close to the problems and the situation to have been able to see it, where in retrospect it was so obvious. I stopped beating myself up over it and was able to let it go. © LovesMeSomeRedhead / Reddit
• “You’re not sleeping, you’re missing meals, and you barely see your friends. It’s no wonder you’re depressed. You are barely taking care of baseline needs, my dude!”.
  She was right. I needed to actually take care of basic human needs before I could move up any higher on Maslow’s hierarchy. © Accidental_Chemist / Reddit
• I went through 3 different therapists in high school, and the 3rd was the only one I found truly helpful. He was this old guy named Steve, and everything he said just sounded so wise.
  One thing he would do was whenever I would tell him how I was feeling, he would tell me the scientific, biological reason for why my body/brain felt that way, and it always made me feel better somehow.
  For example: I was facing an eating disorder at the time, and I told him that I hated how I felt like my stomach was bigger after eating. He said, “Eating food doesn’t make your stomach bigger, when you eat your stomach fills with gasses that make your stomach bloat a bit, but then those gasses are released soon after eating and your stomach returns to normal.”
  I don’t quite know how to explain it, maybe it’s because he took something I found scary/upsetting and made me look at it as a normal biological process instead, but it made me feel way better than any “you deserve to eat!” speech I ever heard. I still think about it sometimes. Thanks, Steve. © jakethedug / Reddit

• I got the strangest advice from my therapist during a session about my anxiety. I was explaining how I spiral over the tiniest decisions. I thought she’d recommend meditation.
  But instead, she said, “Tomorrow, I want you to pour a second cup of tea, and talk to the tea about all of your problems. After you’re done, pour it down the drain.”
  I did exactly that. I made my usual cup, then poured a second one I didn’t need. I sat across from it like it was a guest and, feeling a bit ridiculous, I started talking to the tea. I told it how I panic over picking dinner, how I obsess over texts I’ve already sent. I rambled for a while. Then I got up, walked to the sink, and poured it out.
  Strangely, it helped. Saying the thoughts out loud made them sound smaller. Pouring them away felt like I was letting them go. It wasn’t magic, but for the first time in a while, my brain felt just a little bit quieter.
• One great piece of advice I’ve found extremely helpful is to rephrase things like “I have to do this” into “It’s a good idea if I do this.” It’s a simple mental trick to take the pressure off yourself. Whatever it is you’re struggling to get done, it likely isn’t the end of the world if it doesn’t get done, but if you did, it would be a good idea. © livedeLIBERATEly1776 / Reddit
• You can have a severely abusive relationship with someone who’s not a romantic partner. That might sound super obvious, but I was in a really physically, emotionally, and mentally abusive relationship with a best friend for years and never really considered it as toxic as it was because she was my best friend since childhood and only came to realize how traumatic it really was once I went to therapy. © LessThan*** / Reddit

• “Unspoken expectations of others are just future resentments.” This quote is not suggesting that you stop expecting things from others. It just means that if you do have expectations of others, it’s your responsibility to make the other person aware of them.
  For example: If you expect your husband to clean the dishes after you’ve cooked dinner, but you never voice those expectations to him, then eventually you will resent him for not doing it. People need to be taught how we would like them to be our friends. Then it’s up to them if they want to do those things or not. © LethalMindNinja / Reddit
• “The urge to binge lasts 7 minutes.”
  I struggled with binge-eating disorder for 20 years and finally sought help. I would get the urge to binge around the same time every night, around 9:30. I bought a little sudoku book from the dollar store and played for 10 minutes every time I got the urge to binge.
  Obviously, it took a lot more than that statement for me to begin my recovery, and those 7 minutes were absolutely grueling for the first few months, but I can proudly say I’ve been binge-free since February 1st, 2023. © MCSweatpants / Reddit
• “You’re a people pleaser. And, aren’t you a people? So, when is it YOUR turn?” © Darkm0or / Reddit

• That child that was never loved or acknowledged is still waiting, not on your parents but on you. You are her parent now. Will you ignore her, not love her, not value her, and not find her worthy as well?
  You decide if she thrives or survives. Your parents let her down. Will you do the same? © Dry-Willingness948 / Reddit
• I was told to imagine my perfect girl. Not just what she looked like, but her sense of humor, her ambitions, her hobbies, her priorities and values...
  Then I was asked, “What kind of man is that girl looking for?”
  And it floored me. Realizing how short I fell of that mark. Before I can yearn for my dream girl, I have to put in the work to be the kind of guy she’d deserve. © toolatealready*** / Reddit
• You can’t control the actions of others, and you can’t presume to know their motivations either. A simple example would be, “Jack is always drumming his fingers on the desk to annoy me. He knows I hate that!”
  The fact is that, unless Jack tells you that, you cannot know if that’s his motivation. Most likely, he’s doing it absent-mindedly.
  I know it’s a silly example, but it applies to a lot of things. We tend to be very self-centered in our thinking. © Snugglor / Reddit

If you found these mental health tricks refreshingly honest, you’ll want to read this next story about someone who stood their ground and chose their own happiness over being taken advantage of: I Refused to Sacrifice My Happiness to Be a Free Babysitter.