"Every person you meet is fighting a personal battle you know nothing about" - Unknown, 2019
Mental health and mental wellbeing are very important and are often overlooked in my country. It is not an issue that affects us as a society exclusively however I'll give it a go and say we can be in very tense and high-stress environments which wouldn't seem like it from the outside because people think complaining about your mental health means you're soft.
However, it is very important to take a step back now and again and re-evaluate what I'm doing, if am healthy from a physical and mental standpoint. It can be very easy to just stick the head down and think everything is fine till it is not later down the line. It is an area where I struggle a lot and can't talk to people about my feelings and what's going on. I struggled with it last year but I was able to re-find my feet and try to find where I could lessen some of my stresses in life.
There are lots of issues surrounding mental health and I'm not going to even attempt to cover them all because I don't know about them all, and I'm not an expert. The most common that I've experienced and seen fall loosely into these:
Imposter Syndrome
Burnout
Depression
Anxiety
IMPOSTER SYNDROME
Have you ever felt like you’re not good enough to do the job you’ve been hired to do — and that the person might figure it out at any moment? Or maybe you’ve felt like you’re only pretending to be an adult, even though everyone else you know has it totally figured out.
The feeling of not belonging and not knowing what I'm doing is one that affects me in this industry of information security. It happens throughout my studies, be it the first job I was on or the first challenge I encountered.
BURNOUT
Stress is the faceless demon which eats at all of us
The burnout I'm discussing here is the feeling of being overworked and overstressed. Being burnout in a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when I feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands.
You may have experienced that feeling before of not seeing a way out and being on projects back to back, maybe you're a student taking on many topics one after the other, or a job seeker who's talking with HR people all the time one after the other week on week or maybe you're just stressed from long days of learning and expanding your knowledge. Nine times out of ten it is fine but sometimes it can build up to a point where it is too much and I cannot cope. Taking some time out or making space is the correct action to alleviate my stresses and make space to get my head straight.
DEPRESSION
That feeling that my mind is on fire and nobody else can see it or the days where I wake up and feel empty inside or the other days where I cannot bring myself to get out of bed, not because am lazy but because I feel I physically cannot. Sound familiar? Yeah some of us have been there, some of us are there right now, depression is a horrible feeling and it happens to the best of us.
I've seen many people on top of their game have dark days, I've seen others burn out overnight and remain in a negative state, from personal experience that is not a fun place to be but as a community, we need to look out for each other.
Depression is a serious condition. Don’t underestimate the seriousness of depression. It can drain a person of all of their energy, optimism, and motivation. People suffering from it cannot just “snap out of it” by sheer force of will.
The symptoms aren't personal, depression makes it difficult for a person to connect on a deep emotional level with anyone, even the people he or she loves most. In addition, depressed people often say hurtful things and lash out in anger.
Hiding the problem won’t make it go away. Don’t be an enabler. You can’t “fix” someone else’s depression. Mental health is different from something like a cold or a broken leg, you cannot just tough it out or attempt to fix it. Ultimately, recovery is in the hands of the depressed person.
ANXIETY
Self-doubt, fear, worry, imposter syndrome, are all symptoms of anxiety, and much like the other topics above they all fall together. If you suffer from one you have probably experienced one of the others too.
Anxiety makes me question myself both from a matter of being but also from the question of 'do I belong here, 'am I good enough at this really?!'. Once self-doubt beds itself within my thoughts anxiety makes it grow and it takes control of how I view myself, I fear what I enjoy will be taken from me when anxiety sets in. Ever been told something and felt fearful of a meeting, an encounter, or something else, losing sleep over something? Yeah, I've been there, others have too, it is an awful feeling and it can turn into a vicious circle of worry and fear.
Fear not though there is light at the end of that tunnel, there are solutions, even when each day might feel like a vertical struggle I have got this.
One thing I would say that can help prevent anxiety and burnout is learning when to manage other people’s expectations, and learning when to say no. Especially in a work setting, telling someone a piece of work can’t be started for a couple of weeks is both good for them, and stops pressure building on me before it’s even started.
Feeling like I have to take on every bit of work, or commit to every project is storing up anxiety, and potentially creating problems for me down the line. It takes confidence to say no, but it’s better than working more and more hours trying to keep on top.
My Escape
The biggest escape I find works a lot is music, I always find something that calms my mind, puts on some headphones, and forgets about the world. I always look after myself, I'm the most important thing, put myself first and take my time.
Sometimes it can be difficult to know what to do for someone who is struggling, I know what it is like watching someone suffer in silence and feel useless or helpless. We all have good days and bad days, I know that it is okay to not feel okay and there are options out there for me.
A study was conducted by Spacelift on "Stress in the IT sector"
Thanks for reading, Be safe