Canada will be celebrating its 70th Mental Health Week on May 3rd to 9th this year. With the Canadian Mental Health Association using the slogan “Get Real” about how you really feel, the focus this year will be on how naming, expressing, and dealing with our emotions is important for mental health. Everyone is encouraged to “Name it, don’t numb it”.

As health and safety professionals, it is our job not only to look at the physical aspects of the workplace, but also to consider the mental impacts. Now, more than ever, the pandemic has created a universal stressor on our mental health. With the impacts to workplaces, recreational activities, and families, we need to be creative in ways to address and manage the mental health of ourselves, our families, and our colleagues.

Mental Illness Facts

- Indirectly affects all Canadians through family members, friends, or colleagues

- Every year, 1 in 5 people in Canada will personally experience a mental health problem or illness

- By age 40, about 50% of the population will have or have had a mental illness

- Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in adolescent to middle age men and women

- Mental illness is caused by a combination of genetic, biological, personality, and environmental factors

- Stigmas or discrimination against mental illnesses is a serious barrier to the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, as well as acceptance in the community

- At an estimated cost of over $10 billion (1998) each year, through disability, care, mental health services, and time off work, mental health plays an important factor in the socioeconomic and moral aspects of our workplace.

- An estimated 10-20% of Canadian youth (12 to 19) are affected by a mental illness or disorder

How to Develop and Nurture “Emotional Regulation”

Emotional regulation is a scientific way to describe “dealing with your feelings”. It is the process of influencing, experiencing, and expressing our emotions. By having a healthy emotional regulation, individuals are able to regain control of their emotions without being overwhelmed and can better respond and express them.

Emotional regulation does not mean suppressing or running from our feelings, but rather using them to figure out why you feel that way, taking a step back to acknowledge them, and reflect upon your emotions. This also does not mean that we have to be positive all the time as that can also become a toxic mental health behaviour.

James Gross, a psychologist and researcher from Stanford University, provides 5 strategies to develop our “Emotional Regulation”:

1. Situation Selection: choosing situations most likely to generate pleasant emotions. It means knowing what situations lead to undesirable emotions and choosing to avoid them.

a. This can include taking a longer route home to avoid traffic or avoid talking about polarizing topics with friends or colleagues

2. Situational Modification: Changing or improving the emotional impact of a situation you are in that is likely to cause undesirable emotions.

a. This can include stopping a conversation before it gets too heated and choosing to agree to disagree or changing our perspective on how we view a situation

3. Attentional deployment: diverting your attention or changing your mind so that you are focusing on different aspects of a situation or to something completely unrelated

a. Individuals afraid of needles will distract themselves by focusing on a happy memory

4. Cognitive reappraisal: changing your perception of a situation to think about things differently.

a. Focusing on the bright side of things such as how the loss of a job opens an opportunity to do something new or something you are passionate about

5. Response modulation: choosing how to react or express an emotion that you are feeling

a. Choosing not to express anger over another’s mistake or dramatizing an emotion

For more information, I strongly encourage you to reach out to your employers “Employee Assistance Program”, wellness program, or see the below resources.

Resources:

1. https://cmha.ca/fast-facts-about-mental-illness

2. Psychophysiology, 39 (2002), 281–291. Cambridge University Press

3. https://mentalhealthweek.ca/

4. https://cmha.ca/

5. https://www.mhanational.org/

6. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml