Anxiety and mental health - help me understand

[Deleted member 18121]

Two subjects that are plastered everywhere at the moment and something that I've been thinking about, but I'll be honest I find myself struggling to have sympathy for/understand if the issues are real.

Don't get me wrong, I fully comprehend those with "real" mental issues that affect learning, movement, brain function etc....but when did "I'm a bit stressed at work at the moment" turn into "I suffer from anxiety about work" ?

We seem to have a generation of people that now have mental health issues, which I believe are strongly linked to our way of "always being plugged in" and have changed our perception of our own happiness. Or is it that we're now more aware of these kind of issues and they have in fact always been there?

Please note that I am asking these questions because I am questioning my own views on the subject.

 

[williamalex1]

Two subjects that are plastered everywhere at the moment and something that I've been thinking about, but I'll be honest I find myself struggling to have sympathy for/understand if the issues are real.

Don't get me wrong, I fully comprehend those with "real" mental issues that affect learning, movement, brain function etc....but when did "I'm a bit stressed at work at the moment" turn into "I suffer from anxiety about work" ?

We seem to have a generation of people that now have mental health issues, which I believe are strongly linked to our way of "always being plugged in" and have changed our perception of our own happiness. Or is it that we're now more aware of these kind of issues and they have in fact always been there?

Please note that I am asking these questions because I am questioning my own views on the subject.

Retirement is the answer , or just don't give a toss, it's only a job.

 

[MegaSteve]

I've been advised its about coping mechanisms... Different levels of stress/anxiety can bring about differing responses... Stress/anxiety may create a 'chemical reaction' within your brain... Been advised about 90% of the population will experience a level of depression at some time in their life...

 

[Hobbit]

I don't think your questions are unreasonable. The simple answer, albeit a clumsy one, is when someone is asked to operate outside of their comfort zone they will experience a level of anxiety. It might be that a boss asks an employee to perform a task that although they are more than competent in accomplishing there is the added pressure of a time deadline. The employees can control how the task is completed but not the clock running down. Once the task is completed the anxiety abates.

However, what happens if its a daily occurrence? The employee experiences lengthy periods of anxiety. Periods of anxiety that might extend beyond the working day can impact on their home life. And if the impact causes issues at home, more anxiety. Potentially, you're now into the area of impacting sleep, which leads to the individual going into work the following day not at their best. Bearing in mind they're already carrying a heightened level of anxiety from a target that has extended beyond day one, they'll be anxious about their performance levels due to tiredness.

Extended periods of anxiety lead to irrational decisions, which leads to more anxiety which leads to more irrational decisions which leads to anxiety...

There's a process wired into the brain about frontal lobe and the lobe at the back, i.e. the filing cabinet. If issues/tasks stay too long in the frontal lobe area it can lead to anxiety and a form of PTSD. Some people can compartmentalise very well, others can't. Some people can be taught to compartmentalise, in some cases all it is is being trained the complete the task more competently.


And a little humour too which exaggerates stress??

 

[Mudball]

IMO, there are multiple facetes to this, but the most important bit of it is that we are now talking about it. This is a massive step forward. My Dads generation (and to a large mine too), we dont talk about it - esp the men folks.. we are told to man up. I see a lot of stress around me.. people burning up at a ridiculous rate. I make a half-decent pay, but money is my number one worry which means i cant do certain things that help me 'let-go'...
I would encourage professional help as well as talking to friends and loved ones. It will be surprising how many more people open up when you reach out.

 

[robinthehood]

Anxiety , panic are things that have a place in our lives, its when they start to happen when they shouldn't , it becomes a real and sometimes terrifying issue for who is suffering.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

This simple little task may help you.

Write down a list of the 5 things that are most important to you.

Who does your job when you are not there.

Which of these three jobs do you think would be the most stressful.
Brain surgeon
Ambulance driver.
Hospital cleaner.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I don't think your questions are unreasonable. The simple answer, albeit a clumsy one, is when someone is asked to operate outside of their comfort zone they will experience a level of anxiety. It might be that a boss asks an employee to perform a task that although they are more than competent in accomplishing there is the added pressure of a time deadline. The employees can control how the task is completed but not the clock running down. Once the task is completed the anxiety abates.

However, what happens if its a daily occurrence? The employee experiences lengthy periods of anxiety. Periods of anxiety that might extend beyond the working day can impact on their home life. And if the impact causes issues at home, more anxiety. Potentially, you're now into the area of impacting sleep, which leads to the individual going into work the following day not at their best. Bearing in mind they're already carrying a heightened level of anxiety from a target that has extended beyond day one, they'll be anxious about their performance levels due to tiredness.

Extended periods of anxiety lead to irrational decisions, which leads to more anxiety which leads to more irrational decisions which leads to anxiety...

There's a process wired into the brain about frontal lobe and the lobe at the back, i.e. the filing cabinet. If issues/tasks stay too long in the frontal lobe area it can lead to anxiety and a form of PTSD. Some people can compartmentalise very well, others can't. Some people can be taught to compartmentalise, in some cases all it is is being trained the complete the task more competently.


And a little humour too which exaggerates stress??

Absolutely - then add into the mix where individuals under such work stress may actually have low self-esteem and a fear, almost an expectation, of failure. This mindset might not show by their presenting, as best they can, a positive demeanor, and indeed being at least pretty good at their job, but when things get difficult as @Hobbit describes then fear leading to utter panic can result. And we just cannot live or function when we are consumed by fear and such panic.

 

[TheDiablo]

My wife suffers from very bad anxiety at times, and it is completely debilitating for her. She's someone more than capable of rational thought and holds a first class degree in psychology, so it's not as if she is unaware what's going on, she just struggles to stop it!

Her trigger is significant change, even good change and in fact her worse episodes have been at times that should have been great - eg going to uni, when we first moved in, when she got pregnant and right now as she is starting her dream job.

She's had CBT and that really helped, and also uses light medication daily, but still at times gets into cycles of irrational and negative thought spirals. She's someone without any other mental illness, and in normal times you'd never have a clue.

I'm someone fortunate to never having suffered from anything like it, pride myself on being very rational and act with thought and positive intent whatever I do. So much so that if I hadn't lived with it I would definitely have the same questions as the OP.

However, it really is a world away from a 'but of stress at work'.

My opinion is that it has always been there - we now have better awareness but also lives are busier and therefore triggers are more common.

 

[Orikoru]

Unfortunately it is nigh-on impossible to tell the difference between someone who suffers genuinely from anxiety, and those who are chancers trying it on. The positive is that more gets done to help those who are genuine these days, the sad side effect is that more chancers will jump on that to get free days off and whatever else.

 

[MegaSteve]

When I used to get super stressed I'd come out in rashes/hives... If people asked I'd tell them it was dermatitis... Which was wholly believable as my work involved using chemical processes...

 

[Italian outcast]

My life changed completely when I realised it was ok for me to be anxious (even if the anxieties were mad - and some were)

 

[TheDiablo]

Unfortunately it is nigh-on impossible to tell the difference between someone who suffers genuinely from anxiety, and those who are chancers trying it on. The positive is that more gets done to help those who are genuine these days, the sad side effect is that more chancers will jump on that to get free days off and whatever else.

No difference to a headache then? Or tonsillitis? Or numerous other illnesses

 

[Orikoru]

No difference to a headache then? Or tonsillitis? Or numerous other illnesses

Huh?

 

[TheDiablo]

Huh?

Mainstream awareness of anxiety hasn't led to the creation of people trying it on for a day off work. You can't see if someone has a headache, or many other illnesses. Not sure what you meant by 'whatever else' either.

 

[Orikoru]

Mainstream awareness of anxiety hasn't led to the creation of people trying it on for a day off work. You can't see if someone has a headache, or many other illnesses. Not sure what you meant by 'whatever else' either.

Headache gets you out of an afternoon, whereas claiming you have anxiety or stress could get you out for longer. Physical illnesses can be proven quite simply, mental health problems, not so easy. I was just saying it's a shame that there will always be people looking to abuse the great strides that are made in helping people with genuine issues.

 

[Hobbituk]

My wife suffers from very bad anxiety at times, and it is completely debilitating for her. She's someone more than capable of rational thought and holds a first class degree in psychology, so it's not as if she is unaware what's going on, she just struggles to stop it!

Same. I would hazard a guess at saying that the phrase, "ignorance is bliss" stems from this kind of thing. Meditation is also quite good at being able to train the conscious mind to accept the fact that the unconscious mind will constantly throw out 'thoughts', and they just need to be seen for what they are - unconscious 'noise'. Often, focusing on tasks helps them subside... then they'll creep back in to our consciousness.

My opinion is that it has always been there - we now have better awareness but also lives are busier and therefore triggers are more common.

I think it's also to do with something close to Maslow's model. We have fewer "obvious" stresses in modern life.

If you're faced with life or death scenarios - battling malaria, hunting for food, living in war-torn areas, then you don't really say, "i'm stressed". Obviously you're stressed. If you weren't stressed, you'd die.

Survival of the fittest - by very definition.

When you're working down a mine or out fishing in order to feed the family, who depend upon your income, and most others are in the same situation, you don't really say, "i'm stressed". Obviously you're stressed - what's the alternative? Not go to work and let everyone starve?

Again - survival of the fittest. Weak immune systems soon get culled in a world of manual labour

It's now changed considerably. You could be super intelligent and need to live in a bacteria-free cell, but do work that progresses science beyond all imagination, but at the same time have sleepless nights over climate change, and then decide it's all too much and commit suicide at the age of 30. You'd have died at birth a hundred years ago, but maybe made the biggest contribution to society in modern times.


Anyway, back to the OP...

Should you have sympathy for others? Yes absolutely - 100%, no question. Life is luck, all the way down. You didn't choose your parents, your genes, the continent you were born into, the fact you're wealthy (by global standards) etc. Every day we should try and celebrate / be thankful that we won the lottery of life. We aren't in Africa, Syria, Iraq etc. You weren't born disabled. You weren't born with a mental illness, and perhaps have a higher threshold for becoming distressed at a situation, as opposed to dealing with stress as a positive stress and being motivated to deal with the situation.

That's all luck. People don't "choose" to be stressed, and if someone was trying it on in order to avoid work, again that's just the nature of who they are. They didn't "choose" to be a chancer - they're going to be like that whether it's "anxiety", or "bad stomach" being cited as a reason.

The question is...

Should we provide the same help for those that are mentally or physically weaker? I guess we will be judged in the process of time, and it's a much wider question about what life is all about.

If the future success of our civilisation depends upon the minds with the greatest empathy, but are equally the most stressed and concerned about things, then we need more of those people...

If it actually turns out that in helping the sick, we reverse thousands of years of natural selection and end up re-introducing diseases and exhaust our available resources on caring for others and become extinct... well, that's not the worst way to die out as a civilisation. Certainly an easier choice than culling the 'weak', however that is measured.

 

[Hacker Khan]

Isn't suicide the biggest killer of males under 45? So the more we as a society make it OK and normal to talk about these issues the better. I know my daughters school does a lot of work around mental health and the pressures on kids nowadays and indeed more schools are covering this (instagram is by far the worst culprit for this). But there are also many other causes and reasons why it is being more recognized and it is not just social media.

 

[jim8flog]

The company I used to work for issued a 'declaration'
it went something like

Stress is considered to be a very normal part of the job you do and the company will not have any sympathy for any body taking time of work due to work stress related issues.

I was glad that I was already on long term sick leave due to mental issues before the declaration was made.

 

[TheDiablo]

Headache gets you out of an afternoon, whereas claiming you have anxiety or stress could get you out for longer. Physical illnesses can be proven quite simply, mental health problems, not so easy. I was just saying it's a shame that there will always be people looking to abuse the great strides that are made in helping people with genuine issues.

And I think it's a shame that your first thought goes to those you feel take advantage, rather then focus on the positive aspect of the strides being made or the effect such issues can have on people's lives. It really doesn't effect you too much if you think a colleague is taking the odd sickie.

It's like the benefit system. Yes, there's plenty of people abusing it. But the good it does to society far outweighs this.