Today (October 10) is World Mental Health Day, and the theme this year is “Mental Health at Work”. World Mental Health Day aims “to raise awareness of mental health matters around the world, to mobilise efforts in support of mental health and to reduce stigma.”
For many people, work is a passion and commitment, but it quite often can lead to burnout or have other impacts due to stress leading to experiencing mental health issues. In Oman, marking the occasion, Al Masarra Hospital is conducting a mental wellness walkathon on October 11 at 5 pm in Al Qurum Nature Park to raise awareness on the importance of physical activity for overall well-being. Throughout the upcoming days, there are going to be talks and seminars on mental health at the workplace as various organisations are taking this initiative.
The World Health Organization says decent work is good for mental health. Poor working environments — including discrimination and inequality, excessive workloads, low job control and job insecurity — pose a risk to mental health. Globally, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety at a cost of $1 trillion per year in lost productivity. It is time to address mental well-being at work. How many times have you come across colleagues who lose control of their temper and situations where we ourselves feel unwanted or difficult to cope with others? Professionals can burn out and sometimes take up unhealthy habits, said Dr Hamed al Sinawi, senior psychiatrist consultant at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital.
“People are more prone if they are competitive and are perfectionists. They tend to go through stress because they put their heart and mind into what they are doing and end up overdoing things,” pointed out Dr Al Sinawi.
According to Dr Al Sinawi, studies from the west show that stress at the workplace and mental well-being contribute in a big way to the lost days of work. People end up being less productive despite being physically present at work and have a negative mental state, with achievements and work performance being hugely affected. “For some people, being at work could be a form of escape from handling a problem at a personal or domestic level. In some cases, burnout at work can cause some work-related accidents, which at times can be fatal in some jobs. This is why the World Health Organization is recommending workplaces adopt certain tools for the well-being of their staff members.”
That is why awareness sessions and campaigns are important so that people can recognise symptoms. Some of the common impacts of stress are hypertension, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, gastritis, and gut-related issues, and PCOD in women. “During stress, the body releases an extreme amount of cortisol, which causes insulin resistance, which results in hormonal imbalance in women, resulting in PCOD. Gut-related abnormalities are also induced by stress, such as irritable bowel syndrome. Even migraine headaches are also triggered by stress, as this is more of a tension headache, which feels like tightening of the head,” said Ayurveda practitioner Dr Ranjit Panicker, from Coimbatore Ayurveda, Ruwi.
The treatments are tailor made along with lifestyle modifications. The triggers of stress could be long hours of work, heavy workload, changes within the organisation, tight deadlines, changes in duties and roles, job insecurity, boredom, etc. Stress is defined by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them’. According to Acas, “the signs of stress can include poor concentration, finding it hard to make decisions, being irritable or short tempered, tearfulness, tiredness, low mood and avoiding social events.” According to Acas, ways to handle stress at work are to talk to the employer at work, mediation at the workplace, avoiding discrimination and bullying, handling dismissals, and grievance procedures. Support is what is required to ensure good mental health at the workplace.
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