The maladaptive:
Smoking weed, drinking beer, scrolling on my phone
The neutral:
Videogames, playing music, self hosting tinkering
The adaptive:
EXERCISE, Videogames when not passive, playing music when not passive, educating myself about tech stuff that interests me.
When you focus on maladaptive coping mechanisms, you'll decrease your window of tolerance of discomfort and you'll find life generally more difficult. When you focus on adaptive coping mechanisms, you are actively widening your window of tolerance for discomfort.
It's ok to numb out and go maladaptive from time to time, but be weary that it can make things harder in the long run. Don't dwell too much on the maladaptive and make room for adaptive coping lest you nearly run out of room to cope at all.
Probably my most well established takeaway from over a decade of therapy. There can be a fine line between adaptive and maladaptive coping. Intention can make all the difference.