When searching for information on mental wellbeing, mental health or mental illness, you will frequently find the terms are used interchangeably but you should be aware that they represent different concepts that may or may not overlap.

Mental health and mental illness are not mutually exclusive concepts. The Mental Health/Illness Continuum demonstrates this (Figure 1), suggesting that they are fluid with a person being able to move from one quadrant to another next depending on how life is treating them and how they are reacting to it at that moment.

Let’s start to think about our own mental health and define it. What quadrant do you feel best represents your current state of mental health and mental illness?

Are you still not sure what your mental health status is? The Canadian Mental Health Association believes that there are some characteristics we can identify in ourselves and determine if they need improvement to build our mental health buffer, including: ability to enjoy life, resilience, your ability to balance, self-actualization, and flexibility. Take the Mental Health Meter to gauge your level of mental health and determine areas you may be able to target for improvement!

To find out more information about mental illness, go to ‘Check Up From the Neck Up’ by the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario

Stress is the response of your body and mind to demands being placed on you. Stress is not an illness! It is a state of being at a particular point in time. Each of us will respond to stress in different ways. Two people in the same situation may not react in the same way. For one person, the perceived pressure may feel normal, keep them alert, motivated, able to work and learn. However, another person with limited resources and different personal characteristics may become unproductive, burnt out, and moody.

• Where does the term ‘stress’ come from?
• What are the differences between acute and chronic stress?
• What are the effects of stress on my body?

There are many different stressors in each of our lives. Did you know that a stressor can be something like intense light or extreme temperature? Stressors can also be more complex concepts such as divorce or the birth of a new child. It is possible to categorize these things to help you define the current origins of your major or minor stressors. What is providing you with the most stress? Would you consider it an acute or chronic stressor?

• Physical environments around you – The world you live in impacts your sensory system. Think about your five senses – are your clothes uncomfortable? Is the music in the lab too loud? Was your milk at lunch sour? These uncomfortable (and sometimes unsafe) living or working conditions can cause stress.
  • Temperatures
  • Prolonged Standing
  • Noise Exposure
• Family and relationships – These are common daily stressors for many of us. It is difficult not to bring our issues from home into the workplace. Marital disagreements, unhealthy relationships, rebellious teens, or caring for an ill family member can all send stress levels to heights that we never imagined before.
  • Family stress
  • Children and parenting
• Work –The Mental Health Toolkit was created because we understand that work may be causing you stress. However, each of you may have a different stressor – general job dissatisfaction, an exhausting workload, insufficient pay for the work you do, rampant office politics, or workplace conflicts.
  • Taking Steps to Manage Stress
• Life situations – There are general stressors that can have considerable impacts on our lives and may include poverty, financial pressures, discrimination or harassment, unemployment, isolation, and/or a lack of social support.
  • Financial stress stats
• Major life changes – These include having a baby, a divorce, a career change, or move. However, there are other factors as well. The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale provides a look at how your major life changes (stressors) can affect your health
  • The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale

The World Health Organization defines work-related stress as “the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope.” As described, pressure in the workplace is unavoidable due to the demands of the contemporary work environment. When the pressure becomes excessive or otherwise unmanageable, it leads to stress. Stress can damage an employee’s health and his/her workplace performance. Excessive stress can lead to mental health issues and is a risk factor for someone who is already vulnerable to developing a mental illness. Targeting our stress and combating it before it leads to mental health issues and mental illness where possible, is the goal.

Take the Stress Knowledge Quiz to see how much you really know!

As illustrated in Figure 2, there is a certain amount of stress (arousal) that when increased, makes us more productive. We experience a level of tension that supports us completing work under deadlines and respond to patients and physicians needing to know information quickly. There is a point, though, where we hit the ‘Hump’. This is the peak of our stress meter where productivity becomes less rewarding and we start to feel more uncomfortable. We need to make sure that we are looking for early warning symptoms and signs that suggest we are becoming overloaded, burnt out, or experiencing mental health issues.

The Mayo Clinic defines burnout in the workplace as a “state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long-term exposure to demanding work situations. Burnout is the cumulative result of stress.” According to the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, there is a lack of agreement in the definition of burnout as well as the symptoms associated with it. However, they suggest that there are three main symptom domains that are considered to be signs of burnout syndrome:

• Emotional exhaustion: People feel drained and exhausted, overloaded, tired and low, and do not have enough energy. Physical problems include stomach pains and digestion problems.
• Alienation from (job-related) activities: People find their jobs increasingly negative and frustrating. They may develop a cynical attitude towards their work environment and their colleagues. They may, at the same time, increasingly distance themselves emotionally and disengage themselves from their work.
• Reduced performance: Burnout mainly affects everyday tasks at work, at home, or when caring for family members. People with burnout are very negative about their activities, find it hard to concentrate, are listless and lack creativity.

For more information about burnout and its relation to depression, see the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care.

If you or your organization has access to journal articles, see the following systemic literature reviews on Burnout:

• Preventing burnout? A systematic review of effectiveness of individual and combined approaches
• Biomarkers in burnout

More recently, there has been greater focus placed on stress and mental health, mainly how work is organized and types of workplace social relationships. Overwork, lack of recognition, poor or tense workplace relationships (including psychological harassment), lack of input into decisions, and inadequate circulation of information can all threaten the mental health of employees.

Health Canada states that are some identifiable stress triggers we can recognize in our bodies. Our bodies undergo, specifically, three stages in response to a stressful event:

1. Mobilizing Energy – Your body will release adrenaline. You should listen to your heartbeat as it will become faster as well as your breathing. However, this happens during both good and bad stress so you should look out for the second stage to determine if you are going into the ‘distress’ phase of the Human Function Curve.
2. Consuming Energy Stores – After a while in the mobilizing energy stage, your body will react to this prolonged heightened state. It will begin to release stored sugars and fats, making you feel driven but also pressured and tired. It is in this state that you may also experience anxiety, negative thinking, memory loss, and experience a lower immune system (increased chances of cold or flu).
3. Draining Energy Stores – Prolonged exposure in a negative stressful state results in a supply and demand imbalance in your body. Your physical and mental requirements to maintain your mental health buffer start to break down. You may experience insomnia, errors in judgment, and personality changes. The effects of the stress and mental health issues may result in you developing a serious illness such as heart disease or be at risk of mental illness.

Take a moment to think about these signs in relation to your mind and body. Are you experiencing any of the signs of being over-stressed?

The Canadian Mental Health Association British Columbia Division presents a different way to look for signs of stress. Click here to check it out!

For an overview on stress, see the Mental Health at Work: From defining to Solving the Problem booklets

According to the American Institute of Stress, our personality types in relation to stress fall into one of the following categories. Let’s examine the list and see what we can learn about ourselves in the context of stress reactions in the workplace.

1. The Overworked Underling – This person experiences high demand and low control of their time.
2. The Frustrated Go-Getter – This person is not receiving enough credit or compensation for the work they do.
3. The Castaway – This person is largely ignored. They feel they have no input or contribution to plans.
4. The Doormat – This person takes repeated abuse from management, customers, or both.  These people tend to say “yes” too often as a way to get people to like them.
5. The Tech Prisoner – This person is too accessible. No one needs to be accessible 24/7, 365 days a year.  Find the off button on your gadgets.
6. The Burnout – This person is exhausted all the time.  It sounds simple, but many people don’t – TAKE TIME OFF.
7. The Bully Target – Bullies are not limited to the playground.  Bullies can be bosses, co-workers, or even employees.  No one should suffer from workplace bullies and there are ways to stop the bullying and take back your control.  Your Human Resources Department is a good place to start.
8. The Wronged Victim – This person feels that the boss plays favorites and that they are not the favorite.  The workplace lacks organizational justice.

As every situation is different, it can be hard to determine if our reaction to stressful situations is appropriate or not. It is always helpful to have something we can gauge our responses against to help us make a more informed decision about what to do. The Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace has provided a useful table to help understand our common reactions to various workplace situations.

If you find that many of your reactions are out of balance to the situation, you can search the Mental Health Toolkit for more tools for support or obtain outside guidance.

Here are some of the most common questions people are seeking that ‘Working Through It’ has answered

• What is happening? Why is it such a struggle?
• What can I do to feel better?
• If I continue to struggle, what should I do?
• Who can help me at work?
• What should I say?
• If I continue to struggle, should I stay at work?
• How can I manage financially?
• How can I begin to feel better?
• What happens when I go back to work?
• What if things go really wrong?

There are many websites out there that outline ways to manage your stress. What they don’t provide on a regular basis are the tools and techniques required to Enact Change. To save you time in searching for resources, this Toolkit provides you with the American Psychological Association’s ‘Taking Steps to Manage Stress’ and with relevant links added for you to Take Charge of your mental health today.

Here are some steps you can take to manage your stress and improve your mental health:

Track your stressors. Keep a journal for a week or two to identify which situations create the most stress and how you respond to them. Record your thoughts, feelings, and information about the environment, including the people and circumstances involved, the physical setting, and how you reacted. Did you raise your voice? Get a snack from the vending machine? Go for a walk? Taking notes can help you find patterns among your stressors and your reactions to them. Here are different tracking mechanisms. Pick which one is best for you!

• Manage Stress Workbook
• Stress and Anxiety Tracking Journal
• Mood Tracking (paper and electronic versions)

Develop healthy responses. Instead of attempting to fight stress with fast food or alcohol, do your best to make healthy choices when you feel the tension rise. Exercise is a great stress-buster. Yoga can be an excellent choice, but any form of physical activity is beneficial. Also make time for hobbies and favorite activities. Whether it’s reading a novel, going to concerts or playing games with your family, make sure to set aside time for the things that bring you pleasure. Getting enough good-quality sleep is also important for effective stress management. Build healthy sleep habits by limiting your caffeine intake late in the day and minimizing stimulating activities, such as computer and television use, at night.

• Public Health Agency of Canada’s Physical Activity Guide
• Canada’s Food Guide
• My Meal Planner (with food planner with substitution options, grocery list and recipes for your chosen meal plan type)
• Mental Health Canada’s “Understanding Sleep” article
• Better Sleep Council Canada’s Guide and Sleep Quiz

Establish boundaries. In today’s digital world, it’s easy to feel pressure to be available 24 hours a day. Establish some work-life boundaries for yourself. That might mean making a rule not to check email from home in the evening, or not answering the phone during dinner. Although people have different preferences when it comes to how much they blend their work and home life, creating some clear boundaries between these realms can reduce the potential for work-life conflict and the stress that goes with it.

• University of California, Berkley’s Balancing Life Roles Worksheet
• The Chronicle of Higher Learning’s article ‘Establishing Your Absence’
• Inspiring Excellence’s Work- Life Balance Workbook
• The Wheel of Life® Finding Balance in Your Life article and Worksheet

Take time to recharge. To avoid the negative effects of chronic stress and burnout, we need time to replenish and return to our pre-stress level of functioning. This recovery process requires “switching off” from work by having periods of time when you are neither engaging in work-related activities nor thinking about work. That’s why it’s critical that you disconnect from time to time, in a way that fits your needs and preferences. Don’t let your vacation days go to waste. When possible, take time off to relax and unwind, so you come back to work feeling reinvigorated and ready to perform at your best. When you’re not able to take time off, get a quick boost by turning off your smartphone and focusing your attention on non-work activities for a while.

• Healthy Break Activities
• Go to your calendar and pick your next vacation day(s) now!
• Vacation Travel Budget Worksheet 
• 10 ideas for an amazing Canadian Staycation
• 30 Ideas for Summer Fun, Staycation Style

Learn how to relax. Techniques such as meditation, deep breathing exercises and mindfulness (a state in which you actively observe present experiences and thoughts without judging them) can help melt away stress. Start by taking a few minutes each day to focus on simple activities like breathing, walking or enjoying a meal. The skill of being able to focus purposefully on a single activity without distraction will get stronger with practice and you’ll find that you can apply it to many different aspects of your life.

• HealthLinkBC’s Stress Management Techniques:
  • Breathing Exercises for Relaxation
  • Guided Imagery to Relax
  • Progressive Muscle Relaxation
• Check out relaxation and meditation apps for your phone

Talk to your supervisor. Healthy employees are typically more productive, so your boss has an incentive to create a work environment that promotes employee well-being. Start by having an open conversation with your supervisor. The purpose of this isn’t to lay out a list of complaints, but rather to come up with an effective plan for managing the stressors you’ve identified, so you can perform at your best on the job. While some parts of the plan may be designed to help you improve your skills in areas such as time management, other elements might include identifying employer-sponsored wellness resources you can tap into, clarifying what’s expected of you, getting necessary resources or support from colleagues, enriching your job to include more challenging or meaningful tasks, or making changes to your physical workspace to make it more comfortable and reduce strain.

• Do I have to tell my employer that I’m ill?
• How can I explain my mental health problem to co-workers?

Get some support. Accepting help from trusted friends and family members can improve your ability to manage stress. Your employer may also have stress management resources available through an employee assistance program (EAP), including online information, available counselling, and referral to mental health professionals, if needed. If you continue to feel overwhelmed by work stress, you may want to talk to a psychologist or social worker, who can help you better manage stress and change unhealthy behavior.

• Bell’s Let’s Talk Conversation Guide
• Starting Your Conversation – tips, personal stories and video
• Employee Assistant Services
  • Employment Assistant Program Agencies across Canada
    • Contact your Human Resource department to determine if your workplace as an Employee Assistance Program. Make a note to remind yourself right now and put it somewhere so you will remember to act upon it when the moment is right!