WE ALL HAVE MENTAL HEALTH
LET’S TALK ABOUT IT
HOW DO WE TAKE BETTER CARE OF OUR MENTAL HEALTH?
If you asked me when I was a little girl what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer varied a lot. First, I wanted to be a librarian because I loved books, and I figured making sure people had access to them would make them happy. Then I wanted to be a clown because I liked to make people laugh; then a fighter pilot because I believed they saved people, but when I was told that might not be possible, I decided on being a stewardess because I loved traveling, and I thought everyone who was flying was happy and excited for the adventure. The red thread through all of this was joy, especially if it involved other people’s joy. At some point my answer was: “I just want to make people happy.”
My mom struggled with her mental health for most of my childhood, and I just wanted to take her pain away. I didn’t know that she was battling depression at first because her life story made her feel unwanted and unimportant. Belonging is one of our core human needs and to feel that we matter, that we contribute and that we are cared about. This is an essential part of the mental health conversation at work, it's not just about the overwhelm from having too much on our to do list.
At some point when I was a teenager I realized my mom wasn’t just having mood-swings. She was feeling anxious about anything outside of her control, and her need to feel safe by being “perfect” was a driving force in her daily life. She insisted she was fine and kept struggling in silence. When she got breast-cancer the first time, she was courageous and resilient, and she took it in stride, while hiding how scared she was to protect my dad and me from worry. My mom never asked for emotional support but eventually it was beyond being strong and “going it alone." It became obvious that it was a struggle with undiagnosed mental illness. The episodes of depression became deeper and longer, but it took years before she was properly diagnosed with bipolar disorder, because she thought that meant she was crazy.
WE MUST STOP THE STIGMA
Too many people struggle in silence because there is still far too much stigma around mental health and mental illness. It’s important that we recognize that we all have mental health, all day long, 24/7, 365 days a year. The point is how we take care of it.
Burnout is a major aspect of our daily mental health and it's reaching towards 78% of the population. It's become rare that someone is feeling healthy and happy about their life. Just think about that for a moment.
In terms of diagnosed mental illness, such as clinical depression and anxiety, 21% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2020. That's 52.9 million people which represents 1 in 5 adults. 5.6% of U.S. adults experienced serious mental illness in 2020 (14.2 million people). This represents 1 in 20 adults.
And of course we need to also recognize that children and teenagers are affected too. 16.5% of U.S. youth aged 6-17 experienced a mental health disorder in 2016 (7.7 million people).
According to Forbes, “Over four million American workers quit their jobs each month in 2022. And poor mental health is skyrocketing as 70% of the C-suite with the weight of the world–or at least the company–on their shoulders considered quitting to search for a job that responded to their mental health and well-being.” Burnout is occurring top-to-bottom in organizations as everyone’s mental health spirals trying to balance stress at work and the pressures of daily life.
“Work stress and job burnout are different animals,” Forbes also points out, referring to the WHO’s newest addition to the International Classification of Diseases. Burnout, as a medical diagnosis is, “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” It includes the following symptoms:
“Feelings of energy depletion, exhaustion and fatigue
Increase mental distance from your job
Feelings of negativism or cynicism related to your job
Reduce professional efficacy”
If you struggle with stress, overwhelm, anxiety, depression, and feelings of being on the edge of burnout, it’s important to learn some of the tools that are available for you, as well as pursue therapy and other means of support. I wrote The Self-Care Mindset to share tools that I know help on days when things are just getting too much, but if it’s a continued challenge, please ask for help.
Mental illness is not just about tools; it’s about getting the care you need.
WE MUST LEARN TO PROTECT OUR MENTAL HEALTH EVERY DAY
Thankfully the conversation about burnout has surfaced since COVID, and even though burnout is nothing new, it’s new that we are talking about it. And that’s a good thing because we can only solve problems that we acknowledge we have, starting with the awareness of why it matters, what kind of change we want and need, and the impact that can have on ourselves, the people we care about, and our peers and teams at work.
May is mental health awareness month, and even though my book and the newsletters are essentially all about protecting and harnessing our mental health, this month, I will focus more on what we can do about it in the workplace.
HARNESSING OUR MENTAL HEALTH
We need to change the conversation from what mental health is and why it matters to what we do about it, so that we can harness our mental health. The conversation should center on the tools that we can use every single day for ourselves and the importance of changing the stigma so we don’t hide when we need support and feel safe and even empowered to speak up when things are too much. Especially at work, where we tend to think we need to just get through and we can wait. But you and your mental health can’t wait. It’s too important because it’s our mental health that makes us able to navigate the realities of daily work and life.
Let’s spend this month changing the stigma and learning the tools to harness our mental health so that we can navigate uncertainty and grow through adversity, without burning out.
