Tips for Better Mental Health in Crazy Times

One month into the new year, I have to step up my game. I designated 2022 as the year I focus on prioritizing good mental health for myself, my family, and my colleagues. Much like that new gym membership, the luster starts to wear off as reality sinks in. Instead of being winded with sore muscles from a heavy physical lift, I’m feeling the mental pangs of yet another year of pandemic, the compounding effects of supply chain issues, and whatever random crisis of the day I have to contort myself to deal with.

To get that extra layer of support I need to set the example for friends, family, and coworkers, I turned to Dennis Murphy, LPC, of Break Thru Counseling in Colorado Springs. His practice focuses on healing mental health issues ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety to depression and suicidality. I asked him for tips to recognize and address potential mental health issues in the workplace as we continue to seek balance and stability in unstable times.

The pandemic is pushing our buttons in ways that affect not just the workplace, but how we interact in general, he said.

“It’s polarizing. Its either pushing you toward connection and affiliation, which is one thing we do during fear, or it’s pushing toward disconnection and isolation.”

In his practice, clients are shouldering the stress of our strange new world in different ways.

“I’m seeing people saying, ‘Life is too short, this is ridiculous, I’m gonna embrace it and go the route of adventure.’ Other folks are saying, ‘My priorities have shifted, I need to move out by where my kids live or we need to get remarried.’ It’s putting them under pressure,” he said. “The drinkers are gonna drink more, the smokers are gonna smoke more, the drug abusers are gonna abuse more drugs. I would say it hits us differently because it causes us to feel powerless and thereby pushes unique trauma triggers and accompanying compensatory behaviors.”

We’re also being triggered by a highly polarized social and political environment. Never before have I experienced a health crisis where you could predict how someone voted based on how they cope with the threat of this virus.

“With these political divisions, we’ve got fear that’s got one side saying, ‘We really need to trust the government, they’re gonna protect us,’ and the other half saying, ‘You can’t trust the government.’ There’s been a lot of burned bridges in a short period of time,” Murphy said.

That strain on social connections contributes to mental health challenges, particularly when we’re keeping our distance from each other.

“It’s compounded by the fact that we’re isolated,” Murphy said. “We’re now not only alone in areas outside of our homes, but are often divided in deeper isolation within the walls of the home.”

I’ve doubled down on connecting with my employees. I do some kind of personal check-in with everyone at least every one to two weeks for people I don’t work with on a daily basis. I speak frankly with them about my own struggles. I remind them about their wellness benefits and encourage them to ensure they have someone to talk to, even if it’s just to blow off some steam.

I’m teaching my team the breathing exercise Murphy recommends for combatting stress: deep breath in, hold as long as possible, then exhale as slow and long as possible. He also pointed out that cold hands and feet are a physical stress response. Sometimes something as simple as keeping the right body parts warm can help regulate our moods. A mind reading cold hands will activate stress hormones, but warm hands and feet calm the body, he said.

But I want to be more vigilant about signs someone is struggling, so I asked Murphy what to watch for.

“The ways you notice a person is off, often, it’s impulse control,” he said. “You’re listening for things like awkward jokes, impulsive statements, over-sexualized statements, weight gains, and weight losses that are significant.”

Mood swings, lashing out, and being hyper-critical are still more signals. He added that these are often signs of a person trying to see if anyone is listening to them. 

And it’s a sympathetic ear that’s often the first step in diffusing the tension.

“Sometimes you don’t need to fix [the situation],” he said. “Sometimes you just need to listen. When they’re under pressure to perform, a weakness comes out. Active, reflective listening identifies the real problem instead of the surface symptom.”

It’s an approach of intently listening to what the other person says in word, tone, and body language. The listener then repeats back to the person in their own words, tone, and body language the message they’re hearing. The goal is to show empathy to the person under stress. If you’ve just heard a long list of competing priorities from a struggling colleague, a response such as, “Wow, sounds like you’re exhausted,” shows you’re hearing and connecting with what that person is saying, Murphy said. It’s a matter of showing the struggling person that you’re focused and sincerely concerned about their well-being.

“With each person you start to listen for what are their themes. Is that person critical? Complaining about too much work?” Murphy said. “You reflect and validate the feelings—‘So sorry you’re going through that.’”

By doing that, you can uncover trauma triggers likely affecting work performance and how they interact with other team members, he said.

“Maybe they’re a slow reader, somewhere in there it will come out, ‘I’m a slow reader and I feel stupid.’ What somebody just told me is, we just found a trauma trigger—[reading may be a source of] humiliation, self-doubt,” he said.

If a manager knows and understands trauma triggers, they can make adjustments to support that employee’s specific activators. Often just being heard is an important step to better managing those triggers, Murphy said.

So I’m making more of an effort to look people in the eye when I ask how they’re doing so they can see I care. I’m mindful of my emotional reactions and trauma triggers. I’m encouraging my team to find ways to better listen and connect with each other as we all push our way through yet another year of COVID. It’s a team effort not only to get the work done in the lab to keep the lights on in the office, but also to keep each other going and focused on the light in dark times. 

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Dawn Lissy is a biomedical engineer, entrepreneur, and innovator. Since 1998, Empirical Technologies Corp. has operated under Lissy’s direction. Empirical offers the full range of regulatory and quality systems consulting, testing, small batch and prototype manufacturing, and validations services to bring a medical device to market. Empirical is very active within standards development organization ASTM International and has one of the widest scopes of test methods of any accredited independent lab in the United States. Because Lissy was a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, she has first-hand, in-depth knowledge of the regulatory landscape. Lissy holds an inventor patent for the Stackable Cage System for corpectomy and vertebrectomy. Her M.S. in biomedical engineering is from The University of Akron, Ohio.