Posted by Depression is a mental disorder and there are more than 300 million people of all ages suffering from it. According to World Health Organization statistics, 800 thousand people committed suicide every year. With the recent news of the death of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain caused by depression. It goes to show that even great and talented people can succumb to mental disorder.
The workplace can influence your work pressure, lifestyles and social circles. If you are currently facing difficult time or feeling down, how do you know you are actually depressed or you are just merely facing stress or moody?
These are the questions that you should ask yourself and hopefully answered your plight.
Is it depression or are you just feeling stress from work?
Have you ever experienced dealing with loads of work, one that forces you to spend overtime working while trying to chase after the deadline? The sense of exhaustion and stress, which leads to frustration and having a breakdown. It is understandable to feel miserable and hopeless. If you are feeling depressed for a period of time, is it simply because of stress or could it be a mental disorder?
There is a difference between work stress and actual depression. Workplace stress can be triggered when there is a harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when there is a conflict between job demands on the employee and the amount of control that he or she has over these demands. Gradually when you are able to adjust and get over your challenges, your work stress goes away and you will start to feel motivated again.
On the other hand, depression is resolute and strives to break your mental state in every part of your life. That means you will feel sad or down with anything you are an involved in. There are those who are affected by depression may not feel sad but instead of feeling irritated and loss of interest with everything that they used to enjoy doing. That said depression can be caused by a life-changing event or it could also be caused by work stress.
Do you know what are the signs of depression?
Most people assume that depression isn’t a health-related issue. There are those who chalked it up to peer pressure or religion for the cause of mental disorder. The fact is depression is a mental illness. Just like a fever with clear signs of a headache, chills or loss of appetite. Depression comes with its own symptoms, to anyone that is diagnosed with depression will experience the following conditions especially at work:
- not trying to make an effort/giving up
- social isolation
- passivity
- reduce effectiveness at work
- poor problem-solving ability
- procrastination
- irritation/annoyance
- low levels of interpersonal confidence
Depression varies from person to person and the symptoms can be from mild to severe. It would be difficult to maintain a normal life when depression starts to get a hold of you, even as simple as finding something to eat can even be a struggle.
What are the leading causes of workplace depression?
Work-related depression can be composed of two different settings, internal causes, external causes or it could be a mix of both.
Internal causes:
- Hired for the wrong role, a person hired to be a copywriter but is working as an admin.
- Difference between the company and personal values. Maintaining a job where there is an ethical difference.
- Lack of quality time spent with my family.
- Having to work with people who are disagreeable or simply have different work styles or preferences.
- Workaholism and spending long hours at work and missing out on social life.
- Struggling with financial matters such as compensation and benefits do not meet the essential worker needs.
- Feeling caged in due to work commitments.
External causes:
- Management giving unfair demands to workers that affects their personal life.
- Poor guidance at work which lead to employees not able to perform well.
- Unclear project planning that leads to miscommunication, extended deadlines or over budget.
- Workplace abuse by bosses, co-workers or clients.
- Low morale at work due to lack of incentive or encouragement from superiors or team leaders.
- Bad working conditions such as not allowing employees to take sufficient break time or potentially risking the lives of workers by ignoring proper safety codes.
How to manage your depression?
There are many ways to treat depression by tending and stabilizing your mood. In a workplace, overcoming stress is important. The key factor here is to gradually build small goals to accomplish daily. It takes time but you can overcome it by making positive choices for yourself.
Link up on Befrienders or keep in touch with any counselling services near you. Be honest and open about your problems and seek a thorough evaluation. Treatment can be provided in the form of medication(antidepressants) and psychotherapy. That said there are other methods to combat your depression:
- Talk to someone that you truly trust among your colleagues or friends.
- Prioritise work that is most important to you and gradually work towards the rest of your task.
- Set limits to yourself when it comes to committing toward extra work hours and learn to take things easy.
- Try not to avoid socialising, motivate yourself by joining a club or a social group that you can relate to as well as spending time with your family and friends.
- Find time for activities or hobbies that you enjoy doing.
- Manage your finance to avoid over-spending which could potentially lead to unwanted stress.
- Eat well and have a well-balanced diet can help you reduce stress.
- Ensure you have sufficient sleep time to recuperate your energy.
- Learn to accept the fact that you have depression and set goals and expectations that you believe it is possible to achieve despite your limitations