The stigma around mental health is finally starting to dissolve, and as a result, workplaces are taking the initiative to make their environment more supportive. They are adapting their values and corporate culture in a way that they can offer a mentally healthy working environment to their employee. This initiative stems from the realization that people spend most of their waking hours at the office. Therefore, the workplace environment has a major impact on their mental health.
Just like a supportive work environment has a positive impact, the negative mental state of employees or managers can harm the environment. In case the mental health problem of workers is not addressed, it can lead to low productivity, mistakes, absenteeism, etc. For these reasons, it has become important that the employees and the organisation take initiatives to identify, understand, treat, and prevent prevailing mental health issues.
How to understand mental health?
Mental health generally refers to our emotional, social, and psychological well-being. A healthy mental state is able to perceive everything around them normally without facing excessive distress or issues. However, people often overlook them when mental issues arise. The main issue is that people cannot identify mental health problems because there are no visible symptoms in the early stages. Instead, people overlook the symptoms as bad habits or consider them attitude issues.
While having a natural flow of emotion is normal, it becomes a serious problem when the distress exceeds the average amount and starts affecting our performance. When that happens, a person must undergo clinical mental health counseling to identify the roots of their problems and resolve them in a supportive and understanding environment.
How to identify mental health problems?
Typically, identifying mental health issues that you experience can be difficult. You may not fully grasp the gravity of your condition because your mind is already experiencing distress. Unless someone else points out the behavioural issues, you may not recognize the issues. Often, people opt to blame themselves and lament their incompetence when they are facing mental health issues. To help you identify some signs, we have made a list of ways mental health issues can affect your performance.
How mental health affects your everyday performance?
If you are mentally stable, then you will be able to process problems healthily. You will not resort to obsessiveness, overthinking, or experience excessive stress and anxiety, which leads to the downfall of your day-to-day performance. However, if a person is facing mental health issues, some of the symptoms you can notice in yourself and others are:
Health issues
If anyone says that mental issues are imaginary or make-belief, then they are wrong. Mental health can have physical symptoms as well, which can hinder your everyday activities. For example, high-stress levels often lead to aches and pain in the head, back of the neck, shoulders, and back. It also causes high blood pressure and chest pain. Similarly, anxiety can cause nausea, digestive issues, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, etc.
All of these physical symptoms suggest that your mental health may be facing trouble. They can cause health issues and behavioural issues, which makes addressing mental health problems in time more important.
Burnout
Being exhausted from a big project or from the stress of managing your work and personal life can cause burnout. Everyone has a limit to the amount of work they can do every day. If you push the limits too much, you can get emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted, which is known as burnout. A burnout can hinder a person’s activity as they may lose focus, make mistakes, or experience a lack of interest. In addition, it can cause low productivity in their everyday performance, which makes burnout one of the most challenging mental health issues.
Social avoidance
A person who is dedicating all of their energy at work and home may have little energy left for other people at the end of the day. As a result, they will avoid people and choose to seclude themselves. In a social setting, you can tell such people apart from how they avoid other people. If you notice such symptoms in yourself or others, it is a telltale sign of depression and emotional burnout.
What actions can you take?
Addressing the taboo around mental health issues is helping organizations become more inclusive and supportive of their employees. But you will have to make some personal efforts to improve your everyday performance apart from getting professional help.
Some lifestyle changes such as exercising, eating healthy, and sleeping on time can help you deal with burnout. Apart from that, time management can help you deal with anxiety and stress. But most of all, you must learn to value yourself and avoid blaming yourself for your shortcomings at the hand of mental health issues.
Organisations are taking the initiative to create a healthier workplace environment for their employees. Some companies even offer counselling services to their workers to help them deal with their mental health issues. In the end, it the most crucial that you take a step to seek professional help from a qualified counsellor or therapist.
Dennis Relojo-Howell is the managing director of Psychreg.
