It landed at a timely moment in my inbox, Saalik, and was the ideal content. I was immediately drawn to the phrasings in your section "Finding Your Stillness" particularly "It feels mad to me that it’s so hard, particularly in highly developed nations, to find space and time for stillness." and "Accounting neglects a line item in the balance sheet of life: the cost of a mind dizzied by the modern world." You can see how our essays intersected! Thank you for articulating it so beautifully.
Wow. So so true and so spot on K. Yes it surely needs to be discussed, highlighted and people sensitised to it... I work with young adults. Pretty many at an IT Company... And trust me over the last three years I've found that more than solving tech problems and issues (that I always did) I'm slowly but surely having to solve more and more mental health issues. At times I wonder if I'm turning into a counsellor here. And not just at work... With younger friends and friends kids etc at home too. But yes it's true. We've always had an empanelled company counsellor yes, but even she's seeing almost 5 times the numbers from our teams, that she used to earlier. Is it the post pandemic fallout? Or just the times i don't know. But yes it's bad and needs discussion and a lotta sensitivity.
It was a great privilege for me to be moderating this panel, Ricky. Because it did highlight something I had suspected for a while. But the conversation was also empowering. There are things we can do ... if we know to do them.
Kudos to you for offering a company counsellor at your company.
We try Karena. Seen it happen to too many friends, folk our age etc in this line. Stress, burnouts, depression and worse... Over the years. Been at it since 1987. That's quite a while....
So we've always had a counsellor available that the younger kids starting in this crazy IT line could see, meet, talk to etc. We even have regular talks by her to all staff at the office once in a few months etc. So they get to know her and are comfortable with her etc... It's important. For years now.
What's frightening now though, is the current scenario.. too much, too many. Scary.
Maybe a sign of the times and maybe the new normal. Post.pandemoc.
When i told that to the counsellor the last time we spoke. even she laughed. At my funny reference to the new normal. But it kinda is. Isn't it?
Yes needs us to all be sensitised to it. That's very important. And implement stuff we can do. In whatever ways we can. Wherever we can.
I'm wondering if you could elaborate on whether mental health was always an issue (and we're only talking about it now) or whether it was never this prevalent.
Would you say that we didn't have the vocabulary and scientific reasoning back in the day to address mental health issues, or do you think we did, but it was heavily stigmatised?
Also, is there, any basal emotion that births this stigma in the first place?
Trust you to ask some searching questions, Ishan! Some of which are the domain of Dr. Lyssa. I'll try and unravel my interpretation in some upcoming editions. But thank you for adding questions for me to explore.
As a parent of 3 Gen Z kids these statistics are really alarming. I'm grateful to you for championing the mental health of all ages, but especially this at risk group. The best thing I can think to do right now is keep our family close, family rituals, loving contact, mutual support. Prayers to us all and especially this younger generation.
You and I both! I have a vested interest in this conversation. I'll explore the same/different components in subsequent editions. I'm sure that the Vietnam War, Cold War, etc. all had their impact on the mental health of the young generation of their day, but I think we had better OFF switches. News did not come at us 24/7. We could find time to reset. And maybe that is all we needed ... the space to breathe.
Thanks for sharing my article, Karena! Taking time off is vital to our health and well-being and being in nature makes that time all the more rejuvenating.
Well done on getting all of this on paper (in the text editor) in 7 hours, Karena! You make some fascinating points. Big light bulb moment with the WE problem. And the impact of the Future of Work on mental health - never thought of it that way, but it makes complete sense.
A very important topic that needs to be continuously addressed.
Thanks - and for raising the point about revisiting the idea regularly.
This was such an insightful read! Honored that you linked my piece 🙏🏽
It landed at a timely moment in my inbox, Saalik, and was the ideal content. I was immediately drawn to the phrasings in your section "Finding Your Stillness" particularly "It feels mad to me that it’s so hard, particularly in highly developed nations, to find space and time for stillness." and "Accounting neglects a line item in the balance sheet of life: the cost of a mind dizzied by the modern world." You can see how our essays intersected! Thank you for articulating it so beautifully.
Agreed, there's so much in common. I love this kind of synchronicity!
Wow. So so true and so spot on K. Yes it surely needs to be discussed, highlighted and people sensitised to it... I work with young adults. Pretty many at an IT Company... And trust me over the last three years I've found that more than solving tech problems and issues (that I always did) I'm slowly but surely having to solve more and more mental health issues. At times I wonder if I'm turning into a counsellor here. And not just at work... With younger friends and friends kids etc at home too. But yes it's true. We've always had an empanelled company counsellor yes, but even she's seeing almost 5 times the numbers from our teams, that she used to earlier. Is it the post pandemic fallout? Or just the times i don't know. But yes it's bad and needs discussion and a lotta sensitivity.
It was a great privilege for me to be moderating this panel, Ricky. Because it did highlight something I had suspected for a while. But the conversation was also empowering. There are things we can do ... if we know to do them.
Kudos to you for offering a company counsellor at your company.
We try Karena. Seen it happen to too many friends, folk our age etc in this line. Stress, burnouts, depression and worse... Over the years. Been at it since 1987. That's quite a while....
So we've always had a counsellor available that the younger kids starting in this crazy IT line could see, meet, talk to etc. We even have regular talks by her to all staff at the office once in a few months etc. So they get to know her and are comfortable with her etc... It's important. For years now.
What's frightening now though, is the current scenario.. too much, too many. Scary.
Maybe a sign of the times and maybe the new normal. Post.pandemoc.
When i told that to the counsellor the last time we spoke. even she laughed. At my funny reference to the new normal. But it kinda is. Isn't it?
Yes needs us to all be sensitised to it. That's very important. And implement stuff we can do. In whatever ways we can. Wherever we can.
I'm wondering if you could elaborate on whether mental health was always an issue (and we're only talking about it now) or whether it was never this prevalent.
Would you say that we didn't have the vocabulary and scientific reasoning back in the day to address mental health issues, or do you think we did, but it was heavily stigmatised?
Also, is there, any basal emotion that births this stigma in the first place?
Trust you to ask some searching questions, Ishan! Some of which are the domain of Dr. Lyssa. I'll try and unravel my interpretation in some upcoming editions. But thank you for adding questions for me to explore.
As a parent of 3 Gen Z kids these statistics are really alarming. I'm grateful to you for championing the mental health of all ages, but especially this at risk group. The best thing I can think to do right now is keep our family close, family rituals, loving contact, mutual support. Prayers to us all and especially this younger generation.
You and I both! I have a vested interest in this conversation. I'll explore the same/different components in subsequent editions. I'm sure that the Vietnam War, Cold War, etc. all had their impact on the mental health of the young generation of their day, but I think we had better OFF switches. News did not come at us 24/7. We could find time to reset. And maybe that is all we needed ... the space to breathe.
Thanks for sharing my article, Karena! Taking time off is vital to our health and well-being and being in nature makes that time all the more rejuvenating.
My pleasure! It seemed so appropriate for my essay.
Well done on getting all of this on paper (in the text editor) in 7 hours, Karena! You make some fascinating points. Big light bulb moment with the WE problem. And the impact of the Future of Work on mental health - never thought of it that way, but it makes complete sense.
It is interesting to see the possible connections, John. Thanks, too, for your support in editing this expansive topic.