Maladaptive Behavior

Maladaptive behaviour is any pattern of acting that may have started as a way to cope with stress or pain but now gets in the way of health, relationships or daily life. “Maladaptive” means poorly adapted: the behaviour doesn’t fit the situation, or it solves one problem by creating a bigger one.

Also called: unhealthy coping; maladaptive coping; maladaptive thoughts (the thinking behind it). Its opposite is adaptive behaviour.

Examples

Avoidance: skipping the exam, the clinic or the conversation because of anxiety.
Withdrawal: cutting off people when low, which deepens it.
Substance use: drinking or taking drugs to sleep or to stop feeling.
Aggression: shouting, hitting or breaking things.
Self-harm: deliberately hurting your body to manage unbearable feelings.
Rumination and suppression: going over the problem endlessly, or pushing the feeling down. In a review of 114 studies, these had the strongest links with anxiety, depression, eating and substance problems.

Causes

Most maladaptive behaviour was adaptive once. Trauma, growing up around violence or drinking, harsh or inconsistent discipline, and long stress with no support all teach quick fixes. The fix works in the moment, so it’s learned, and the cost arrives later.

Treatment

The aim isn’t to shame the behaviour away but to replace it. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) helps you spot the trigger and the thought, and test a different response. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) teaches skills for riding out intense feelings without acting on them, and was built for self-harm.

In Nigeria

Some of our commonest quick fixes are socially approved: overworking, “I’m fine”, a drink after a hard day. That makes them hard to see as coping. The question that helps: what does this cost me, and what was I trying not to feel?

Maladaptive vs adaptive coping

Adaptive coping reduces the problem or your distress without a bigger cost later: asking for help, planning, exercise, talking it through. Maladaptive coping buys relief now and charges interest.

When to get help

If you’re hurting yourself, or thinking about it, call 112 (or 767 in Lagos), or Safe Place Nigeria on 0800 800 2000. The full list is on our helplines page. For a pattern you can see but can’t stop, you can book a licensed therapist on Mytherapist.ng for CBT and skills therapy or substance use.