Why “Toxic Wellness” Is Hurting Your Mental Health

Photo by alan KO

woman stretching sitting on bed inside bedroom

Commercialized self-care has become a performance, not a healing process. A genuine promotion of wellness, which has begun to devolve into perfectionist rituals under the guise of empowerment. Social media culture is full of “morning routines” as 2-hour rituals, patriarchal dieting regimes, pseudo “clean eating,” and shaming messages that guilt ordinary people.

Such a poison of wellness culture leaves room for overspending, wild consumption, and worrying for the sake of appearing to be the opposite. Actual wellness has nothing to do with perfectionism, expensive supplements, or strict regimens, but with humble and human practices.

How Wellness Culture Became a Source of Shame and Perfectionism

Wellness culture used to be moderation and self-nurture, but social media turned it into competitive perfectionism. Registered dietitian and author of “Anti-Diet,” Dr. Christy Harrison explains how wellness messages often disguise diet culture in health-positive language.

Toxic wellness trends:

All-or-nothing cognition about “clean” and “dirty” food
Moralistic moralism regarding how one lives
Glamorized excesses masquerading as a need for optimal health

The “morning routine industrial complex” is a source of maximum stress. The over-routines are being peddled to us by representatives like meditation, journaling, cold showers, green juice, and yoga, for 2-3 hours. They are unachievable, and working professionals and parents are falling short on them.

Money is loose in the wellness industry, which generates more than $4.4 trillion globally. No scientific evidence exists for the products, but it’s an assuredly effective marketing tactic and sales pitch to those seeking quick fixes.

Your average “wellness guru” morning routine will set you back approximately $200 a day if you add organic supplements, designer food, and equipment—essentially a substitute too expensive for the masses.

The Unobtrusive Psychological Burden of Healthy Obsession with Self-Care

Healthy self-care can become unhealthy when it evolves into compulsive behavior. Clinical psychologist Dr. Joshua Klapow explains how wellness perfectionism engages the same fear circuitry as traditional perfectionism but for a noble cause.

Orthorexia nervosa, or orthorexic preoccupation with consuming only “clean” food, prevailed along with clean eating madness. Anorexia is obsessed with the quantity of food, whereas orthorexia is obsessed with healthy food quality, but with similar alienation and misery when one breaks the rules of diet.

Psychological effect is:

Increasing concern with what to eat and how to eat
Alienation from others due to strict demands for living
Money loss due to expensive wellness products
Self-esteem via impeccable regimens

The use of health-focused social media messages was associated with higher body dissatisfaction and eating disorders in Dr. Renee Engeln’s research at Northwestern University, particularly for young women.

Case study: Former wellness blogger Jorden Younger, “The Blonde Vegan,” sold starvation dieting, full-blown orthorexia. Her recovery shows the ways in which wellness promotion obscures extreme psychological illness beneath the surface.

Building True Wellness Without the Toxic Ingredients

Healthy, authentic self-care is more concerned with progress than perfection and niceness rather than meanness. Dr. Kristin Neff’s research shows that being kind to oneself when making mistakes is more beneficial in the long term than being harsh to oneself through self-judgment.

Healthful bases of sustainability:

Progress rather than perfection for all health choices
Flexible enough for real limitations
Affordable enough so as not to perpetuate economic disadvantage

Start with “minimum effective dose” fixes. Take a 10-minute walk and do your brain a world of good, rather than spending hours in the gym. DIY basic food blasts super-pricier superfood powders. Five slow breaths make diddly meditation gizmos you’ll never get the hang of obsolete.

Social media lines are against mental illness damage. Unfollow anyone who makes you feel unsatisfactory. Subscribe to healthcare professionals who advocate evidence-based practice instead of magic bullets.

The fittest people have the most mundane, least glamorous routines, consisting of plain, unglamorous things like normal sleep, regular exercise, and good food.

Toxic wellness is a master class at shaming you for completely normal human action. Health isn’t a game of morning routines that are gram-perfect to share, expensive supplements, or tracking your diet. It’s about taking care of yourself as tenderly as you would treat a friend.

Select wellness culture rituals that untie knots instead of knotting them. Your head is wiser than anything an influencer can think of in their best living moments. Do something small, do it often, and anticipate that your best self-care will be boring to others.

You are worthy of wellness rituals that enrich your life, rather than draining it. Start there and pay no mind to the rest.