Can a Gratitude Practice Negatively Impact Your Mental Health?

We’ve all heard variations of that refrain. It’s a common saying that’s meant to inspire gratitude for what we have. So I listened.

Whenever things got tough, I made it a habit to mentally list three things I was grateful for.

As I got older, it was no longer just well-meaning adults reminding me things could be worse. Altruistic Instagram gurus urged me to practice gratitude.

There’s also robust research supporting gratitude’s benefits.

It seemed like a no-brainer to develop a full-on gratitude practice. Before going to bed each evening, I wrote down three things I was grateful for.

Didn’t do well on an exam? Well, I had a home and was in school.

Went through a breakup? At least I had supportive friends.

And when I started developing chronic pain in my early 20s? I could still function most days.

I had a lot to be grateful for. So why did my gratitude practice make me feel so isolated?

I thought that being actively grateful helped put my worries in perspective. After all, these were small concerns compared to what other people were going through.

At the time, I didn’t realize how problematic this thought process was. My version of gratitude was just a way to invalidate my emotions.

Gratitude is a complicated thing. There’s a thin line between gratefulness and comparison, and it was only after I quit my gratitude practice that I realized how far I’d fallen on the wrong side of that line.