The Empathy Project is a non-profit community mental health service providing counselling and psychotherapy in Southampton. This is the first part of a new series of articles covering the relationship between money and our mental health.
It feels impossible to live in 2024 and not have worries or concerns about money. After a long, painful experience of austerity, made worse by Covid-19 and the rising cost of living, it feels like everyone is having a hard time financially.
Money worries have a major impact on our mental health, but our mental health can also have an impact on our finances. We can literally be kept awake at night, staring at the ceiling as we rack our brains thinking about how we're going to pay that bill, or how we're going to get through the next month. This can place a massive toll on us, but also our relationships, as we struggle to make ends meet and provide for our loved ones.
At the same time, when our mental health is rough, it can also affect us financially. We might make bad decisions when it comes to our spending habits - we've probably all splurged £30 on ordering two stuffed-crust pizzas when that could have been nearly a week's food shop. But one of the biggest problems is how it can impact our working life. Here's a few examples:
Having to take time off work
If you are brave enough to call your GP, and say you're struggling with anxiety, depression or stress, your doctor is most likely to suggest that you take time off work. And whilst in many cases that is very sensible advice, many of us struggle to actually do that in practice.
Even with a sick note from a GP, having conversations with our boss, manager or colleagues can be daunting. There is still today a great deal of stigma surrounding mental health, and often we feel like we need to ask permission to take time off instead of remembering that we all have a legal right to paid sickness absence when we aren't well.
The Mental Health Foundation estimates that 15% of working people in the UK currently have a mental health condition, and mental health was the 5th most common reason reported for sickness absence. In 2022/23, an estimated 875,000 people reported work-related stress, depression or anxiety, leading to 17.1 million working days being lost to the UK economy.
In reality, these numbers are likely far higher, because many of us are so worried about judgement or not being taken seriously that we might lie about why we can't come into work today. Worse are the number of people who - even with a doctor's orders - won't actually take time off when they're suffering mentally. By not then getting that rest and space we need to look after ourselves, we then force ourselves to pretend we're ok when we're not. That takes us to our next example:
Burnout
When we don't take time off to look after our mental health, we can put ourselves under massive pressure to keep hanging on. Imagine having a really bad cold; you feel awful, you can't concentrate or focus on anything, you're tired because your blocked nose means you haven't been sleeping. If you don't take the day off to rest, your body has no chance to recover or recharge. In fact, you will most likely feel worse. You need time for your antibodies to fight off the virus, process and heal. Only then will you feel better and be able to go back to work.
Our mental health works in exactly the same way as our physical health. We need time, space and rest to be able to process our feelings for them to return to normal. Stress and anxiety can feel like avalanches; they have a snowballing effect and the deeper we go into them, the harder it is to stop. We have to stop feeding the stress/anxiety cycle in the first place, and that often means taking a step back.
When we get to breaking point, is when we hit burnout. We become so over-stressed that we simply cannot carry on, and then we hit a mental brick wall. This is often where depression comes in, which shreds our self-esteem and kills our motivation. Key symptoms of burnout are a loss of enjoyment in our normal activities, apathy, low mood and fatigue.
The only cure to burnout is complete psychological rest, and then re-evaluating what caused the burnout in the first place. Going to therapy can be a key way of exploring that, which we will come to later.
Problems with our work relationships
Another way our mental health can impact our work life is in our relationships. These can be our managers, our colleagues, and our customers. Stress can make us make mistakes, which may be noticed by others and complained about. Anxiety can make us paranoid and second-guess ourselves. Anger can make us lash out, and adopt behaviours we aren't proud of. Depression can impact our self-confidence and motivation.
Whilst it is true that mental health awareness is increasing in workplaces, this is not true of everywhere. Mental health stigma very much still exists, especially if we work in competitive or target-driven work environments. It also creates a culture that mental health might be perceived as a weakness, or a liability.
But 1 in 4 adults will go through a mental health issue this year alone - the chances are we will all struggle with our mental health at somepoint in our lives. The culture of mental health stigma harms the same people who have created it. If you have a mean or intolerant boss, who is going to be there for them when they go through a hard time? Positive workplace mental health cultures can reverse this, and instead increase employee loyalty, productivity and job security.
Bullying & Discrimination
Just like above, mental health can massively impact our work relationships with our colleagues. The same thing is also true in reverse, and our colleagues' mental health can very much impact us. Toxic work environments and unacceptable behaviours often stem from mental health issues, and these can manifest as bullying as well as discrimination.
Workplace bullying can take many forms, but there is not necessarily a clear legal definition that covers everything. ACAS list some examples including excessive micromanaging and passive-aggressive behaviours, to sexual harassment and outright verbal or physical abuse.
Discrimination can be broadly categorised as either being direct or indirect. The mental health charity, Mind, provide some examples on their website and link these to when they become illegal under the Equality Act 2010.
Both bullying and discrimination may be inter-related, and these both have major impacts on our mental health should we fall victim to these unacceptable behaviours. We can feel victimised, targeted, singled-out and isolated. It can also destroy our confidence and leave us with severe stress and anxiety, as we constantly fear the next attack or problem.
Often, these cases are traumatic and can leave us with serious mental health problems, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A very basic definition of PTSD is when we experience "triggers" that make us feel upset or distressed on things that remind of us difficult events in our past. PTSD is a serious and complicated mental health condition that requires long-term counselling to work through and heal.
Being fired, made redundant or losing our job
In the very worst cases, our mental health might cause our employer to try and sack us. Being fired on the grounds of our mental health may constitute a breach of employment law, and ACAS provides free advice for people who may be experiencing this, as well as a code of conduct for employers and workplace disputes.
Sometimes though, we might agree that our mental health needs to come first, and we aren't able to continue in our current role right now. Employers can explore different options, including reducing hours or moving into a different position. Employers are legally required to make reasonable adjustments at work, if they can do.
The ultimate option however is to take medical redundancy, which normally means we have voluntarily been assessed by an Occupational Therapist as being medically unable to continue in our current job. Many employers offer redundancy packages as part of your employment contract, and it is always important to check this as well as any staff handbooks if this feels like a possibility.
Many workplaces also have a trade union, and you might be able to speak to your local union rep to receive impartial advice and support during any workplace disputes. Unions are self-funding voluntary organisations, and you can check the TUC website to see if you're eligible to join one.
If, for whatever reason, you leave work because of your mental health, this might feel extremely worrying, and like you have somehow failed. This sense of failure and shame is a key part of why it is so important for all of us to challenge and unravel mental health stigma. It is never a failure to need to take time out of work to look after yourself. In fact, it can offer you the freedom, space and time to de-stress, re-charge and decide what you want to do in the future.
Conclusion & Getting Help
Often when we're in the middle of a hard time, we become tunnel visioned, and it's hard to see what else is out there for us. Sometimes we have to take a step back to see the way forward. Counselling can be one of the ways that we can explore and process that; to evaluate what might have gone wrong, but also how we can prevent it happening again, and make new decisions that will help us have a happier, healthier working life.
If you are struggling with any of these issues, you may want to consider talking to a therapist. Our counsellors are based in Southampton, but we deliver sessions remotely anywhere in the world, as well as in-person at our therapy rooms.
We do not currently have a waiting list and we offer a flexible, open-ended service that is tailored to each person. We also offer low-cost counselling through our Community Fund, aimed at people in serious financial difficulty and can't afford counselling.
Would you like to speak to someone about counselling? Please complete our quick and easy referral form using the button below.
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