Are you facing stress at your workplace? It is actually a fairly common problem. Here’s all you need to know about it:

What is mental health?
Mental health is often defined as your psychological well-being. This talks about how you feel, how emotionally stable you are and how your mind handles decision-making and social interactions. Much like your physical health, there are a lot of reasons your mental health may be imbalanced. Few early symptoms of understanding something is wrong are listed below.

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–Lack of appetite and lack of sleep
-Staying away from family and friends
-Random transitions in emotional state
-Anger, helplessness
-Fear and the feeling of hopelessness
-Inability to go through everyday schedules and more

Workplace stress
Depression in America is becoming a huge cause for concern. Research states that stress at workplace costs more than 51 billion dollars for companies in terms of lost productivity. When stress is left untreated, it can become fatal.

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Why stress?
There was a time when people worked for 7-8 hours a day and got back home early to spend time with family and friends. The terms ‘target’, ‘pressure’, ‘rating’ etc. were unheard of. Right now, the competition within and between organizations is intense. Employees give their 100% if they want to sustain their positions. This intense competition, long working hours, unhealthy lifestyle and extreme pressure from the management can disturb one’s Mental wellbeing at work.

How does this affect the individual and the company?
Most employees refuse to even accept there is a problem because of a few valid reasons.

-They are afraid of losing their jobs.
-They are not sure how the organization will treat them after a diagnosis.
-They are worried about treatment costs and if their insurance will cover it.
-They are worried about judgment and criticism.

Clinical depression and stress at workplace directly affect the employers too.
-The productivity of the resource decreases.
-Employee morale goes down and this can affect his/her peers and team too
-Increased chances of human error.
-Psychological stress can hinder right decision making.

What makes stress at workplace difficult to treat?
Unlike a physical injury or a disease, mental health is very difficult to diagnose. This is because the symptoms vary with every individual and unless you talk with the right expert, you will keep feeling worse without knowing why.

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Identifying Causes

-Relationship problems with the team or colleagues.
-The feeling of being left out by the management.
-The trouble with immediate manager/superior.
-Performance issues.
-The threat of losing the job.
-When the complexity of work does not match ability.
-The pressure of putting in long hours.
-When pay does not match performance.
-Poor job prospects.

Getting help
If you think things are difficult to handle and you are feeling low, then you must talk to an expert. Doctors might opt for a physical examination to rule out any illness causing depression first. Talking to people who are close to you will also help get some clarity. If you find any of your friends or peers stressed out due to work, do talk to them and find out what’s the problem. The earlier you recognize symptoms of stress and depression, the quicker can you treat them! There are a lot of coping mechanisms that can make you feel better and give you hope.

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