My Mental Health at Work

Most of us spend the majority of our lives at work, which can combine between, full time, part time, agency or shift work. Sometimes it can be easy to forget about your Mental Wellbeing at work when your so focused on your career and your goals for the future. In saying this it’s so important to take care of your Mental Wellbeing, because Mental Health problems can affect your daily functioning (social and occupational). If you feel that your Mental Wellbeing is deteriorating, hopefully this post will help you look into taking care of this situation.

Let’s use an example;

Your in an amazing Full time job, great pay (bills are covered), fun colleagues (good social life) but your responsibilities are very demanding and causing your stress, making you feel mentally drained, ill and your not feel like yourself lately. What do you do ?

Focusing on this example, the most concerning element is, your job making you feel ill, mentally drained and your not feeling your normal self. Sometimes you may get these signals and think nothing of this, but generally this is your trigger for yourself, telling you that maybe something needs to change. Something that you love doing, in which you are skilled in shouldn’t be making you feel ill or mentally drained because this then defeats the purpose of your hard work.

Below are some steps that may be able to help you think about the next steps you could take if your having trouble with the example above or something similar.

1. Reflect on how your job is making you feel (write down your thoughts).
2. Write down the pros and cons to how your feeling.
3. Is how your feeling impacting your work performance.
4. Have others started to notice and decline in your performance.
5. Think about how long you haven’t been feeling like yourself (feeling ill) and whether you are managing this appropriately.
6. Have you thought about communicating how your feel to your manager or occupational health.
7. Are you aware of your employments healthcare policy.
8. Have you tried speaking to your General Practitioner.

Going through there steps may help you to reflect and think about possible ways you maybe able to help yourself. It’s so important to not suffer in silence and to reflect every so often on how your feeling. Always remember to keep in touch with yourself and be kind to your mind. Pay attention to any change that may be detrimental to your health.

Thank you for reading, I hope that this post was able to help or inspire you if you maybe experiencing difficulties at work. Shar x

Advertisements

My Mental Health is destroying my relationship

Relationships are so important to us and we often place loved ones close to our hearts, but sometimes relationship can be difficulty to maintain, when you are suffering with a Mental Health Problem.

Mental health problems can be very distressing and may sometimes cause people to have a negative views about, themselves, others and the world around them. It’s so important that if you are struggling, that you have the right support around you and people who can help you in times of need, although understand this maybe difficult at times. Sometimes you may notice that your Mental Health difficultly is destroying your relationship with loved ones and you may notice, that you’ve been withdrawing or isolating yourself. Depending on what the situation is communication is always helpful, sometimes others may not know how your feeling and may not know the best way to support. However if you try to communicate this with them it opens opportunities for situations to be appropriately managed.

This doesn’t mean that you have to go around and explain to every person what’s going on with you, as this may seem very daunting. However if you try to communicate this with your close loved ones it maybe helpful for them to be aware of your situation. If you can’t find the words to speak or not sure what to say, speak form the heart and try not to worry too much how it comes out (read my post on, the art of therapy and everyone has a story).

If you have noticed that you Mental health is destroying your relationship try speaking to someone and seeing how this goes. Let me know how it went if this is you. Thanks for reading. Shar x

Love Yourself

We live in a world where we are constantly shown or told to love others or love can only be found in a relationship, we watch television programmes like love island or the bachelor, with people constantly seeking love and approval from others and glamorising love from others. Don’t get me wrong loving someone and feeling loved by another person feels great, but loving yourself feels 100000000 times better.

A Poem about Love ❤️

Love yourself when you’ve just be diagnosed with a Mental Health Problem.

Love yourself when you’ve been put on the waiting list for treatment for your wellbeing.

Love yourself when your feeling Depressed and Anxious.

Love yourself when times are hard and you don’t know where to turn.

Love yourself when all you see is darkness and can’t find the light.

Love yourself when you don’t have all the answers.

Love yourself even if others try to bring you down.

Love yourself when you have nobody to turn to in times of need.

Love yourself when your feel lonely

You only have yourself so practice self love and self care, no one can love you more than yourself. ❤️❤️

Just wanted to spread some love in your life today, if you need some support with self love let me know in the comments below or send me a message. Shar x

My Mental Wellbeing is deteriorating.. what now

Sometimes in life depending on your lifestyle your mental wellbeing can slowly deteriorate and this can be for many different reasons, stress, loss of a loved one, relationship breakdown, financial struggles to name a few. This may then cause you to feel not as strong as you normally would feel and may begin to trigger internal stress. If this is you, I would like to say that this is common and you are not alone in feeling this way. Many people have different stress tolerance levels that can trigger a Mental health problem, this doesn’t mean that you are weak, it may just mean that you may could do with some extra support and a helping hand during this period in your life.

We all have Mental health, but this may not necessarily mean you will develop a Mental health problem. An individuals Mental wellbeing can be measured on a continuum, which varies for each person, one side of the spectrum being Mentally healthy and the other side of the spectrum being ill (Mental health problem). If you feel that you are struggling with your Mental Wellbeing, it’s important to try and take some time to reflect on this and begin to understand how this is making you feel and how it’s affecting you and your daily functioning. Once you have identified how this maybe impacting on your lifestyle, try and seek some support. Sometimes in life we can get so distracted that we forget to think about ourselves and our wellbeing. The same way you can feel physically drained is the same way you can feel mentally drained.

There are many organisations, charities that can support your with your Mental Health, providing you with the tools and help you need to work towards making a change and getting better. For more information on this you can email me

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed. Shar x

Stop Judging others and be Kind to their Minds

The world would be a much better place if people learn to stop judging others for their individual differences. There are millions of people on this earth from different walks of life, been brought up differently, taught different things and exposed to different events and situations that make them the persons they at today and add to their story.

Within today’s society, it feel like it’s become the norm to criticise and stigmatised people when they are low and vulnerable, then wonder why suicide rates are high or why Mental Health problems are constantly on the rise. Sometimes it’s not about the problem but how we treat the individual with the problem. Learning from others is the best way to make progress and find solutions for ongoing situations. When you judge others you make the problem worse, for them instead and that’s telling them that you don’t care.

We need to learn to accept people for how they are and not judge them, based on the chapter of their life you walked in. The year 2015 was one of my worst years of my life and if you meet me then, I most definitely not have been the person I am today.

So this post is a gentle reminder for people to think before they judge others or have something to say about another persons life. Your judgement can be damaging for a person and could be the final straw for them, so be kind to other people’s mind and spread love and happiness.

Thanks for reading and if your one of those people who judge others think before you speak and ask yourself would you like to be judge in this way.

Spread love and Happiness. Shar x

Why does it take time to Heal

When you are going through a rough stage in life (e.g. Mental Health Problem) I can imagine you wanting to, wave a magic wand to feel like your old self again. This is a common feeling and I have treated patients with common mental health problems who have wanted, nothing more than to feel happier again (understandable).

If this is you, you can get to that place of happiness again, but this will take time and consistency. Working and developing yourself is a process that should not be rushed and should be taken seriously and with care. When you grow you heal and this is how the process of transitioning, from the place where you are now (depressed or anxious) to the place where you want to be (happy).

For example; If you’ve been depressed for over 2 years and all you want is to feel happy, this feeling of happiness is not a common feeling for you at the moment and you may not be aware of what this feels like. Such as how you need to think, feel and behave. This will take practice and learning how to change from the person you are, to the person you want to become. Being unwell for a while you need to be able to recover in a timely manner. Everyone is different when it comes recovery, some people may take months, weeks and for other this may take years and that’s ok because you are on your own journey, finding what happiness is for you and you are not the same as others

Always remember that everything will happen in the right time, if you are working on how to become happy and you want to develop in that area, don’t stop keep going your end goal is around the corner. Don’t give up on yourself.

Thanks for reading I hope this post has inspired you all, to take time in your healing process and to not give up of this maybe a long process. Shar x

I don’t want to tell my General Practitioner about my Mental Health

Mental health Problems can be very distressing and hard to manage for some people, particularly if it is affecting your daily functioning (occupation, social). Trying to understand your Mental Health problem can sometimes feel difficult. Not only that explaining this problem to another person like your GP may feel very overwhelming and for some this can trigger unwanted emotions.

The first point of contact it’s advisable to make if you are struggling with your Mental Health is your GP, in case of an emergency (dail – 999 UK). Some people may feel unsure, worried or scared about contacting their Gp which may trigger some anxiety about the unknown, unpredictable and uncontrollable. This post will explain how your GP can help you and what they may recommend. (Disclaimer, I am not a GP but I have worked within a multidisciplinary team and have experience with working with these professionals).

General Practitioners are everyone’s first point of contact, for any medical healthcare situations or events (Physically and Mentally) your GP has a duty of care to you at all times. General Practitioners can provide information, support, signpost you to other organisations, prescribe medication amounts many more.. Always remember that your Gp will always put your needs first and help support you throughout your healthcare process.

When discussing your Mental Health with your Gp they may signpost you, or provide information, about professionals who you can contact that May further be able to assist you within this area. Your GP is there to help keep you safe and ensure that you get the right treatment and care for your difficulty.

If you are feeling Anxious or worried about contacting your GP about your Mental Health Problem below are some tips on how you can mange this.

Step 1 – Write down how you feel about going to your GP

Step 2 – Think of alternative thoughts if your feeling worried or anxious.

Step 3 – Write down the type of help you would like to revive from your GP

Step 4 – Write down how you would feel if you received this help

Step 5 – Research how GP’s support people, maybe this information may make you feel less anxious.

Thank you for reading this post, if you are feeling anxious about contacting your Gp I hope the information I have provided has helped. Let me know how you get on if this is you. Shar x