Once a source of comfort, self-care is increasingly becoming a source of pressure. From morning routines to journaling rituals and digital detoxes, the pursuit of wellness has begun to feel more like a test than a relief. As the $4.5 trillion wellness industry booms, mental health professionals are now observing a troubling trend: people developing anxiety around the very practices meant to help them heal.
Surveys show that younger generations, particularly Gen Z, face significantly poorer mental health compared to older age groups, with 63% reporting their mental health was ‘less than good’ in the past month, and 39% attributing mental health struggles to personal finance stress. This generation appears especially vulnerable to the pressures of wellness culture, which can intensify anxiety around self-care practices.
At the same time, recent research reveals that wellness monitoring can lead to perceived burden when routines become rigid or driven by anxiety rather than genuine self-compassion. Activities designed to reduce stress, like skincare routines, fitness tracking, journaling, and mindfulness apps, are increasingly becoming sources of guilt, shame, and overwhelm. For individuals already struggling with depression or chronic stress, self-care can feel like another overwhelming task rather than a restorative practice.
Digital wellness culture has blurred the line between self-care and self-surveillance. Social media amplifies this effect by turning personal wellness into public performance, fuelling comparison and the pressure to present self-care as visible, productive, and aesthetically pleasing. This shift intensifies internalized perfectionism, moving the focus from self-nourishment to metrics and external validation.
The pressure to “do self-care right” often turns simple activities, like cooking or resting, into overwhelming obligations. Instead of relieving stress, wellness routines can provoke guilt and anxiety, especially when tied to trends or perfectionist thinking.
The sheer volume of conflicting wellness advice today makes it harder to navigate what’s genuinely helpful. Many people, particularly those with anxiety, trauma histories, or perfectionist tendencies, feel caught between the desire to care for themselves and the weight of doing it perfectly. This creates a vicious cycle, where practices meant to alleviate distress instead contribute to it.
Raul Haro, LMFT and nursing supervisor at Pathways Recovery Center, explains that wellness anxiety can be especially destabilizing for individuals in early recovery or with unresolved trauma:
“When clients come in already struggling with anxiety or perfectionism, the added pressure to perform self-care perfectly can become another stressor. They often feel like they’re failing twice, once in their recovery, and again in how they’re ‘supposed’ to care for themselves. We help them shift from performance-based wellness to practices rooted in real self-connection and emotional safety.”
Licensed Clinical Psychologist Dr Konstantin Lukin, PhD, sees similar patterns:
“People often come to us feeling like failures because they can’t keep up with their wellness routines. The brain processes this as evidence of not being ‘good enough,’ which activates cycles of shame and self-criticism, common in anxiety and depression. The mind starts creating rigid rules about what ‘good’ self-care looks like, and punishes us emotionally when we fall short. This kind of black-and-white thinking is a hallmark of anxiety disorders, and we’re now seeing people develop clinical symptoms around practices that were meant to help them feel better.”
Kosta Condous, LMFT and co-founder of Higher Purpose Recovery, adds that even well-intentioned self-care can become counterproductive.
“We see clients who follow every wellness “rule” and still feel exhausted,” he says. “When self-care becomes a checklist instead of a support, it adds pressure instead of relief.”
He explains that obsessively trying to “get it right” can turn self-care into a form of self-monitoring, fuelling anxiety rather than easing it. “It stops being about what you need and becomes a test you’re always failing.”
Mental health professionals are seeing increasing numbers of clients seeking treatment for wellness-related anxiety, guilt, and shame. Common symptoms include anxiety when wellness routines are skipped, guilt over “not doing enough,” perfectionistic behaviours around health tracking, social media comparisons affecting self-worth, and worsening depression due to failed self-care expectations.
Fortunately, evidence-based therapies are proving effective. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps individuals identify and challenge distorted thoughts around self-care. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) offers tools for emotional regulation and mindfulness. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on connecting with personal values over external standards, helping individuals differentiate between supportive self-care and controlling self-surveillance.
Practical strategies include:
- Reframing self-care as essential, not indulgent
- Letting go of perfectionism around wellness
- Practicing self-compassion over self-criticism
- Setting boundaries around wellness obligations
- Seeking support when self-care becomes overwhelming
- Focusing on meaning, not metrics or trends
In a culture saturated with wellness ideals, the most radical form of care may be learning to do less, not more; trading pressure for presence, and perfection for authenticity.
This report was compiled using research from PubMed, wellness industry analysis, and clinical observations from mental health professionals specialising in anxiety and perfectionism-related disorders.
About experts
Raul Haro is the Nursing Supervisor at Pathways Recovery Center in Azusa, California. With expertise in drug and alcohol counselling and trauma-focused therapies like CBT and EMDR, he is dedicated to helping individuals overcome addiction. Currently pursuing his Nurse Practitioner credentials, Raul continues expanding his addiction recovery knowledge to provide more specialized care.
Bio: https://pathwaysrecovery.center/team/raul-haro/
Dr Konstantin Lukin is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and the Founder of the Lukin Center for Psychotherapy. With extensive experience in cognitive behavioural approaches and modern psychodynamic therapy, Dr Lukin specialises in treating anxiety, depression, relational issues, and emotional dysregulation. His work is grounded in evidence-based practices and a deep understanding of how early experiences, cognition, and environment shape mental health. As a clinician, speaker, and mental health advocate, he is known for helping clients break patterns of shame and self-criticism while building resilience, insight, and emotional agility.
Bio: https://www.lukincenter.com/people/konstantin-lukin-ph-d/
Kosta Condous is a licensed marriage, family therapist and co-founder of Higher Purpose Recovery who has worked with various populations in a range of inpatient and outpatient treatment environments in acute psychiatric care, substance abuse, primary mental health and co-occurring disorders. Kosta has extensive clinical leadership experience, managing multiple programs and clinical teams with up to 30 clinicians. Kosta is committed to providing clinicians with a work environment in which they can share their passion and express their creativity, as he believes this will lead to a standard of excellence in client care.
Bio: https://higherpurposerecovery.com/about-us/
Ellen Diamond, a psychology graduate from the University of Hertfordshire, has a keen interest in the fields of mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.
