Gill Hasson - Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace

Inability to rest or relax

Impulsive behaviour

Panic attacks.

Our mental health and wellbeing can change not just from day to day, month to month, and year to year, but at key stages and changes in our lives. Childhood, adolescence, going into further or higher education, starting work, being in a relationship, becoming a parent, midlife, retirement etc. all have particular relevance and can impact on our wellbeing and mental health. Here we describe how some key life stages can adversely impact on mental health and we list common emotional and behavioural responses.

With menstruation comes hormonal changes that can cause emotional and physical symptoms each month. For some women these symptoms are mild and for others, distressing and difficult to manage.

Emotional responses:

Mood swings, irritability, anxiety, frustration, anger

Depression, sadness, crying

Low confidence and self-esteem.

How you might behave:

Inability to focus and concentrate or achieve as much as usual

Withdrawing from groups and social activities

Being irrational and impulsive

Abandoning normal physical activity

Greater inclination to conflict with others; easily offended.

‘Periods can be a problem for female tennis players. I often lose if I'm on my period. I suffer when I have it. I always have one bad day when I'm tired, I have no energy and all I want is sugar. Playing at Wimbledon, with its all-white dress code, makes things even more difficult. You're in short skirts and tiny shorts. It's the worst thing – and so distracting.’

Heather Watson. Tennis player

When a woman experiences menopause, her ovaries stop producing the hormones – oestrogen and progesterone – that contribute to the reproductive system's normal cycle. This can result in distressing and uncomfortable physical, psychological, and emotional symptoms. (Some individuals who have transitioned from female to male may still have their ovaries, and so may also experience menopausal symptoms.)

Some women see menopause as a positive experience, no longer having to be concerned about periods or pregnancy, and see middle age as a time to think of themselves rather than dependents. But for others, menopause can be felt as a loss; a woman may feel that a part of their life is over; that she doesn't compare so well with younger family members and colleagues.

Emotional responses:

Mood swings – anger, sadness, irritability

Anxiety, depression

Low self-esteem/confidence

Feelings of hopelessness

Nervousness

Panic/feeling trapped

Loss of identity – ‘I don't know who I am any more’

Suicidal thoughts/feelings

How you might behave:

Inability to concentrate at work

Feeling confused and unable to prioritize

Lack of interest in usual social activities

Being argumentative and irritable, less patient with self and others

Memory lapses in conversation with others

Eating more – comfort eating

People joke about the male ‘mid-life crisis’ and of men they know who have left their partners for someone much younger than themselves, or bought themselves a motorbike or a sports car. For some men, middle age makes them acutely aware that part of their life is over; they may feel they don't compare so well with younger family members and colleagues. They may either attempt to regain their youth or sink into a depression.

Although, as with any life stage, there are positive aspects to middle age, men too struggle, just as women do, with changes and challenges in life; mental health statistics and suicide rates for men certainly reflect this. (And some individuals who have transitioned from male to female may still experience difficulties specific to their gender identity, or original birth identity.)

You spend the first 20 years of your life running, running, running. You reach a point where you question if you can keep running like this for another 20 years.

Paolo Gallo

Emotional responses:

Depression and anxiety

Negativity, pessimism, and hopelessness

Irritability

Sadness for life that has passed

A sense of needing to cram more into life – time is running out

Suicidal thoughts/feelings.

How you might behave:

Becoming withdrawn from friends and family

May want to leave everything – partner, job, family, country, without thinking through the consequences

Disengagement from work

Spending more time at work as a displaced behaviour/anxiously avoiding relationships

Becoming more selfish and self-centred

Becoming more erratic and unable to think clearly

Increased alcohol or recreational drug intake

Eating more/less.

Grief is normal human response to loss. As well as being a response to the death or loss of loved ones – people or pets – grief can be a response to the loss of anyone or anything that we have had an emotional attachment to. Grief – profound feelings of loss – can be a response to a range of life changes – to divorce, family moving away, the loss of a job, or loss of a social group. It can also be a response to the diagnosis of a health problem, which results in a change in autonomy, identity, and/or physical appearance.

How we each manage and cope with grief is influenced by gender, cultural, philosophical, and spiritual beliefs. As well as being a cognitive and emotional response, grief is also experienced physically. Physical aches and pains such as chest pain or aching are common, as are feelings of being unable to breathe. Feelings can vary in intensity over time.

Emotional responses:

Deep despair that is triggered easily by reminders

Fearing harm to oneself and others, fearing a repeat of a similar loss

Fear of being left alone

Fear of breaking down, or losing control

Anxiety

Intense sadness, crying and sobbing

Anger

Mood swings

Helplessness/powerlessness

Shock, numbness, a sense of things being ‘unreal’ or ‘surreal’

Sense of longing

Feeling let down and abandoned

Guilt or shame

Spiritual beliefs may be challenged

Sense of ‘what's the point’, meaninglessness of life

Feeling suicidal, sometimes wanting to join the person who has died

Loss of perspective on other life issues.

How you might behave:

Withdrawing from close family and friends

Being aggressive to others/argumentative

Impulsiveness

Inability to talk about other subjects, constantly returning to issues of loss

Inability to concentrate on daily tasks

‘Ignoring grief' and ‘pushing through it’

Refusal to get up from bed

Impatience with self and others

Using or increase in use of alcohol, recreational drugs, cigarettes.

In terms of that horrific pain and inability to see that life will ever be the same again – yes grief does end. Do you get over grief? Absolutely you do – with love. Is there joy? Absolutely. But in those early days I never thought grief would end. In my case, it took quite a period of time. Those first 5 years. . .grief is very shocking. I miss her every single day.

Joely Richardson. Actor

Although Joely says, that for her, ‘grief does end’, many people experience the death of a loved one and subsequent feelings of grief differently. Their description is that they learn to live without their loved one and find a ‘new kind of normal’ in their lives. It has been described by some as a ‘slow healing quarry of grief’.