Wondering “What Is Wrong With Me?” 14 Ways to Get Your Life on Track

9 min readApr 18, 2022

Are you feeling bad? Just plain off? Or like something is wrong with you? You’re not alone.

Feeling like something is wrong with you can be a sign that a change needs to happen. This shift could be as simple as changing your mindset to focus on all of the positive things in your life. It could also look like making big changes to your relationships or career to live a life that brings you more fulfillment.

But how do you know what’s wrong? And how can you start to feel better? I’ll dive deep into both of these questions in this article, but here is a quick summary of what I’m going to cover:

You might feel like something is wrong with you because you are…

Burned out or overwhelmed.
Lacking control in your life.
Feeling like nothing is going your way.
Feeling Lonely.
Not living in alignment with your values.
Experiencing poor mental health.
Experiencing poor physical health.

A few ways to make yourself feel better are to…

Create a self-care menu of activities that lift your spirits (and do them!).
Make an action plan of small, achievable steps to change your life.
Take care of your body.
Prioritize rest.
Practice having fun.
Shift out of a negative mindset.
Find professional help.

Why You Might Be Feeling Like Something Is Wrong With You

The answer to “what is wrong with me?” probably has nothing to do with who you are as a person. This is good news!

Because of this, a better question to ask yourself is “what about my current life makes me feel bad?” Reframing the question in this way will help you more easily figure out what is making you feel like something is wrong. It also places the power to feel better back into your hands.

So let’s dig into a few reasons you may be feeling like something is wrong.

You Are Burned Out or Overwhelmed

If you feel generally bad, you may be experiencing burnout or overwhelm. This can look like:

A sense of failure or self-doubt.
Feeling helpless and defeated.
Feeling detached from your life.
Loss of motivation.
Having a negative outlook on life.
Decreased satisfaction with life.

Burnout comes from any area of your life where you feel overworked and undervalued. It can also be caused by filling your days with tasks that you don’t want — or need! — to be doing. (This is something I talk a lot about in my book if you’re interested in learning more.)

In recent years, burnout has become a key part of conversations around mental health. This means there are tons of resources out there on how to begin to recover from burnout, but this blog post from Better Up is a great place to start.

You Feel Like You Lack Control Over Your Life

Feeling like life is happening to you can easily lead to unhappiness. This feeling can be caused by many things, but a few of the most common reasons you may feel out of control are…

The pace of your life is faster than you can handle.
Your schedule is too full.
You feel stuck in a dead-end job or relationship.
You haven’t taken the time to get clear on what you want.

Studies show that feeling like you have control is one of the keys to feeling satisfied in life. Without it, you can become anxious. This anxiety can prevent you from taking control where you can, which will only cause you to move deeper into that negative spiral. (I’ll cover a few ways to regain feelings of control later in this article, but for now, you can check out this article to learn more.)

You Feel Like Nothing Goes Your Way

Experiencing a string of bad luck can make you ask “what is wrong with me?” When you feel like nothing in your life goes your way, you can easily start to feel down. (For many of the same reasons that I just discussed above.)

The problem with becoming attached to the idea of nothing going your way is that you can turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don’t expect things to go your way, you’ll focus on all of how they don’t. You may brush off things that do go well or stop paying attention to the good things in your life altogether. Both of which will make you feel worse and worse.

You Are Lonely

More and more research shows that loneliness can impact our health just as seriously as conditions like obesity and poor habits like smoking. If you feel like something is wrong with you, take time to think about your social life. Not getting enough social time, in general, can be the key to why you are feeling bad.

And remember, you can feel lonely in a room full of the wrong people. So if you are lonely even if you have a full social life, pay attention to how the people you spend your time with make you feel.

You Are Not Living in Alignment With Your Values

One of the reasons you might feel like something is wrong is that you may have built your life in a way that doesn’t include what is truly important to you. The society we live in makes this very easy to do. Many of us spend all of our time, money, and energy struggling to keep up with what the media tells us our life should look like.

If you have a life that looks like it should be happy, but you are asking yourself the question “what is wrong with me?” is a good sign you are not living according to your values.

You Are Experiencing Poor Mental Health

In addition to all of the factors I just went through, experiencing a mental illness may be one of the reasons you feel like something is wrong with you. A diagnosable mental illness like depression, anxiety disorder, PTSD, or personality disorder could be at the root of your struggles.

If you suspect you have a mental illness, reach out to a professional for diagnosis and treatment.

You’re Experiencing Poor Physical Health

Similarly, poor physical health may be causing you to feel like something is wrong with you. A diagnosable condition such as a chronic illness could be making you feel like your whole life is out of whack. If this is the case, consulting with a doctor is going to be the best way to find the answer to “what is wrong with me?”

Not getting enough sleep, too little exercise, and an unhealthy diet are often the root cause of why we feel bad.

How to Feel Better

So how can you cope when you feel like something is wrong with you? The tips for feeling better I’m about to share boil down to two things:

Finding ways to take care of yourself.
Making small, steady changes to your life.

Let’s get into it.

Make a Feel-Better Menu

When you’re feeling down, it can be easy to forget all of the things that make you feel good. So to make self-care as easy as possible, try making a feel-better menu. This “menu” can be set up in any way that you want. Just make sure it includes a list of things you know will make you feel just a little bit better. I’d suggest breaking it up by how long these activities take, that way you can easily pick one to fit into your day.

Here’s an example of what this could look like:

5 Minutes:

Dance to your favorite song
Take 10 deep breaths
Hug a loved one
Pet your dog or cat

30 Minutes:

Eat a healthy snack (dark chocolate is a proven mood-booster!)
Go for a walk around your neighborhood
Stretch your body
Take a reset shower

1 Hour:

Call a friend or loved one
Take a nap
Do a workout
Practice a hobby you love

Take the Next Best Step

If you’ve used the list at the beginning of this article to help you figure out what is wrong, it is time to create an action plan. But instead of trying to overhaul all areas of your life at once, try breaking things down into smaller stepping stones.

I call this taking the next best step, or finding the next best thing to do. For example, if you are feeling burned out, you can ask yourself “what is the next best thing I can do to feel better?” The answer could be to say no to a new project or get your resume ready to start searching for a new job.

Constantly asking yourself this question is a great way to keep putting one foot in front of the other and to find healthy daily goals to work towards.

Take Care of Your Body

Your physical health is key to feeling good in your life. One of the best ways to cope with feeling like something is wrong with you is to pay better attention to how you are taking care of yourself.

This includes…

Eating a balanced diet that is low in trans fat, sugar, and dairy (especially if you have a dairy sensitivity).
Getting at least 2 hours of physical activity a week. Remember that this can look like taking a long walk or stretching!
Getting 7 or more hours of quality sleep per night.

You can find more ways to start living a healthier life by checking out my article What does it Mean to Be Healthy? The Answer is Simpler Than you Think.

Prioritize Rest

One of the best ways to feel better is to make sure you have enough downtime in your schedule. (Remember that resting is more than just sleeping!) This can be very difficult to do, as our society puts so much pressure on us to do more and be more. But it is crucial to recover from things like burnout.

Here are a few tips and tricks for ensuring you get enough rest:

Schedule rest on your calendar like you would any other appointment or meeting.
Switch off your phone an hour before bedtime.
Give yourself a break from the 24-hour news cycle.
Get outside and spend time in nature by going on a walk, a hike, or to a local park.
Find ways to calm your thoughts like journaling or meditating.
Say no to people and things that drain your energy wherever possible.

Practice Fun

If you feel like something is wrong with you, you likely aren’t getting enough fun in your life. So similarly to scheduling in time for rest, I would highly encourage you to schedule time for fun and play.

Use this time to do things that bring you joy. Remember that they don’t need to be productive. They just need to make you feel good. And also know that your play muscles may be a bit rusty after months (or years!) of not enough use. So give yourself plenty of time and space to try things and welcome back positive energy.

If you need help finding some fun, here are a few things you can try:

Play a sport you loved as a child.
Play board games or video games.
Draw, paint, or sculpt.
Try something new like a dance or improv class.
Find and do things that make you laugh.

Shift Your Mindset

Constantly feeling like something is wrong with you can do a number on your self-confidence. As I mentioned earlier in this article, focusing too much on what you feel is wrong with you can create a downward spiral.

So it is important to shift into a more positive way of thinking. There are tons of ways to develop a more positive mindset. You can get started by thinking about some of the self-esteem-boosting questions like…

What are 5 things I am grateful for today?
What are 3 qualities I love about myself?
What do my friends or family love about me?
What are my unique talents?
What am I proud of?
Who am I inspired by? What qualities do I admire about them?

Find Professional Help

Finally, don’t hesitate to reach out to a mental health professional if you constantly feel like something is wrong with you. A professional will help you understand if you are suffering from a mental health condition like depression and can help you find more ways to cope.

If you want more tips on how to transform your life into the one you want to live, check out my book Life Hacks: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life. If you liked this article, please consider giving it a clap and following @wellnessmadeeasy on Medium for more simple ways to improve your life.