Common Mental Health Challenges in Professionals
It's easy to cross into blurred boundaries and allow your professional role to be all encompassing and start looking like any of the below (or combination of).
When You're at Work or On-the-Clock
- You have loads of sick time in the books because you're a hard worker and refuse to call in sick, unless you're in the ER
- You feel like you have great, innovative, cost-effective ideas for your leadership team, but feel surrounded by red tape and feel defeated
- You're not good at taking time off unless your partner or family reminds you it's time for a vacation
- You feel trapped and fearful or hesitant of exploring other options, because if you leave your job your team will have to work harder
- You're the only one who can do your job and do it well, and if you don't everything will fall apart or people will be in danger
- You're tired and groggy, because even though you got 8 hours of sleep, you couldn't sleep for more than a couples hours at a time
- You live off coffee and energy drinks
- You work late hours, well beyond the typical 40 hours per week
- You feel like the work you do is valuable and important, but it's hard to keep up and you always feel behind, maybe even like you're failing sometimes.
When You're At Home
- Your kids are excited to see you, but you find yourself responding, "Later," "Not now," "Maybe tomorrow," far more often than you'd like.
- You're answering emails at all hours of the day and night
- Your partner constantly has to bring you back to the conversation because you're stuck in your head about the day's events, dilemmas, crisis, and tomorrow's To-Do List.
- You fixate on the moment something did or could have gone wrong and replay it over and over in your head.
- When it's time for bed you either pass out within seconds from exhaustion or toss and turn because you can't turn your brain off
- When you do sleep, you're dreaming about work or worse, missing work because you slept through your alarm.
- In the morning, you hit snooze 3 too many times before getting in the zone to get ready for and drive to work.
- Maybe, you even sit in your car and contemplate quitting, but in the end, you always get out and give it 100%
These roles can take a lot out of any person and may begin to look like any of the following:
- Emotional exhaustion
- Difficulty “leaving work at work” – Workaholism
- “Burnout” at work and home
- Anxiety and worry about the past and future
- Perfectionist behaviors, fear of failing
- Difficulty sleeping, concentrating, or being present
- Irritability, fatigue
- Anger outbursts
- Poor work/life boundaries
- Feelings of dissatisfaction or uncertainty
- Increased use of alcohol or other substances
- Increased conflict in relationships or an altogether avoidance
- Feeling of disconnectedness or loneliness, like others, including your partner, don’t understand
- Minimal energy to give to your family, feelings of guilt
How We Can Help
We work together to evaluate your current circumstances, develop healthy coping skills, identify and process unresolved issues, and problem solve how to reach your individual goals. Through use of various treatment modalities including EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), we help individuals work through issues including, but not limited to the following:
Increased Stress and Anxiety
Work-Related Stress and Poor Boundaries
Childhood Trauma
Exposure to Life Threatening Situations
Family Issues
Exposure to Distressing Images/Situations
Secondary Trauma
Grief and Loss
“Healing Trauma” EMDRIA International Association, 2016 – YouTube
Improve
- Self-care habits
- Stress response
- Communication and relationships
- Attention, focus, and present awareness
- Self-awareness and reflection
- And build resilience
Identify
- Triggers, better understand your body’s response to stress
- Work-life boundaries that works for you
- How to make time for what’s important
- Healthy coping skills
- How to recognize, prevent, and/or recover from burnout
