Embrace your Wellness: Mental Health Issues Need to Be Addressed in the Workplace

There is no way to deny that most of us spend more time in our workplaces than at home. And, at the same time that it can be good for your professional career and success, it can also increase your chances to be affected by the stressful atmosphere you are working in. But how can we deal with that, besides the fact we are women fighting, day after day, to occupy spaces we deserve in our fields?

Just to contextualize before we go deeper in our topic, take a look at some numbers about women in the American workforce, important data to understand where part of the stress comes from. There are 75.9 million women in the civilian labor force (U.S. Department of Labor), and even with more than half of management occupations held by women (51.5%), we are less represented the higher up we go inside the companies: female workers make only 5% of CEO positions, and 11% of the top earners in the country (Catalyst Women in S&P 500 Companies). 

Now, speaking about mental health, the numbers are also worrisome: 58% of people are unmotivated at work, 50% engage in unhealthy behaviors to cope with workplace stress (Mental Health America); and 37% said their work environment contributed to their symptoms (Mind Share Partners Mental Health at Work). For us, it’s even worse: around 5 million employed American women deal with depression each year, and 54% say they couldn’t discuss mental issues at work without fear of discrimination (Good Housekeeping Institute). All the statistics have shown us that, even though mental health is still a stigma, we really need to talk about it since who’s struggling needs to be seen. It means we need to urge for companies to create safe spaces for disclosure because we all need an open way to communicate about our problems.

Mental health has everything to do with wellbeing, not the opposite as some people may think. When you work for a company that fosters motivation and engagement, you’ll be more likely to be in a healthy workplace. Also, it will strongly encourage us to not remain silent anymore. Talking about behavioral health is challenging but necessary, and it can save lives. Women are dealing with equality issues in their jobs all the time, and sometimes it is impossible to avoid that it will have a negative impact on their mood, productivity, relationships inside and outside the workplace and, of course, their health.

Stress from work can increase the risk of chronic diseases and heart attack, so we need to accept the idea that stress is a big part of the job. Besides stress and anxiety, it’s important to pay attention to symptoms such as deep sensation of sadness, loss of interest in activities, difficulty to concentrate, trouble remembering and making decisions, feeling of worthlessness and guilt, energy loss, irritability, and procrastination. Simple daily events can pull triggers, the main point is when or if you or your colleagues are ready to identify them.

In a recent Time magazine’s article, specialists said that the Millennial employees (24-39 years old) are getting companies to rethink workers’ mental health in a radical way: depression and anxiety are changing the business scenario with different needs from the young workers, especially female ones. Burnout is the new emotional-physical-mental state of people who work under excessive and prolonged stress, which makes them feel totally overwhelmed, drained and unable to be productive, motivated, and satisfied as they could be. Depression is now the fastest-growing health condition between them, but fortunately young people are more likely to share their struggles with their bosses compared to people ages 54 to 72 (American Psychiatric Association). It’s a fact companies have a lot of requirements to hire people, but as professionals and human beings, we need to require environmental wellness from them too. 

We deserve to be in a work environment that inspires us. We need to feel safe, seen and valued in the place we are spending most of the time in our daily lives. Nowadays, more and more companies see mental health as crucial for everybody’s success. They are already aware about the challenge to address mental health correctly, and we believe hard times like the pandemic can help the market to see that they need to work closer to their employees, even more when they cannot be close physically. 

When you share, you feel empowered. If your company doesn’t have a mental health support group/counselor, you can suggest them to create one. You may not be the only one dealing with issues, but can be the first one to change your workplace for the better!

If you or someone you know needs help:
https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline

Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255