Four Tips For Depression In The Workplace
by Timmothy Miles
About 1 in 5 people suffer from a mental illness every year in the United States. This means it is not uncommon to work with someone who is dealing with a mental illness from time to time or encounter your own mental illness issues. While physical illnesses can easily be seen by employers and coworkers, depression is not as easily noticeable. Your focus should be on your job, but there may be times when your own symptoms can affect your job. To avoid having this interfere with you getting your job done, here are some tips for dealing with your own depression at the workplace.
Take Advantage of Your Resources
Many companies offer a number of different resources for those who are dealing with mental health issues. Whether it is depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder, there are mental health counselors that can help treat certain mental health issues. The best thing to do is ask your employer if they offer any employee assistance programs. The human resource director should be able to offer information on programs that may be of interest in dealing with your depression or other issues you may be dealing with.
Get Involved
To help combat your symptoms of depression, you want to make sure you do not isolate yourself from your coworkers. Participate in any activities at work that will help keep your mind off what you are feeling. Being around other people can help you forget about many of your depressing thoughts for a while. If you wake up feeling sad and unmotivated, resist the urge to call into work.
Understand Your Illness
If you really want to get past some of the feelings you are experiencing, you need to understand your mental illness. Depression can have many symptoms. By identifying which symptoms are part of your mental illness, you can actually be proactive about handling them. If you start to feel anxious about a big project, you can determine that anxiety is part of the depression. To help combat this, break your project into smaller tasks to help get through it easier.
Find Support
Dealing with depression by yourself can be very hard on anyone. Instead of trying to go at it alone, talk to your coworkers that you are close to for support. Having people there for you that you spend a considerable amount of time with can be extremely helpful. By communicating how you feel to your coworkers, they can help take responsibility for some of your jobs while you are struggling or offer encouragement when you feel down.
For more help, contact professionals such as Dr. Stephen Brown & Associates.
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About Me
Counseling can be a great help with many aspects of your life. Whether you are struggling with your work life, personal life or love life, talking with someone who can help you wrap your head around the way that you are feeling can help you find balance and create a better way of life for yourself. Our blog will show you several ways that a counselor can help you with the different areas of your life. You will also learn a few tips that can help you improve things on your own and information to help you know what to expect when you go to a counselor for the first time.