Even when you’re performing at your best, getting through the workday can be difficult. Having depression might make your job seem impossible. Most of us experience work stress at some point. There is a tendency for deadlines, workplace disputes, and corporate expectations to mount.
Negative thoughts and feelings can already make depression sufferers feel cut off from life in general. You may have considered getting out of bed to go to work a great victory, and now you’re working to maintain your motivation while working. Even when depressing ideas dominate your mind, there are strategies you may use to control your depression.
Although depression symptoms might vary, many of them have the potential to negatively affect how well you function at work. Making decisions and concentrating may be challenging for you. Most duties at work can become frustrating if you’re feeling drained of energy and irritable.
Additionally, sadness frequently makes you lose interest in activities you formerly enjoyed. Can you picture how sadness may make you feel toward something you already detest if you have a career that isn’t really fulfilling?
Having a depression diagnosis while working does not require you to put on a happy face and seem as though everything is all right. There are approaches to maintaining productivity while taking care of your emotional well-being.
- Focus on your environment
While you might not have complete control over your job, you frequently have some control over your environment. The assumption that the physical workplace directly affects well-being and job performance is supported by research. In addition to maintaining organization, take into account mood-enhancing elements like artwork, plants, or soft lighting.
- Make time for self-care
When you’re busy, your task itself may occasionally serve as a motivator. Even if depression could make you feel distant or depressed, you are too involved to stop. However, taking a moment for self-care could help you get through when you are having a difficult time at work and your mind is racing with ideas.
Self-care at work can take many different forms, such as going for a walk outside or using the restroom to spray some cool water on your face. You might use the occasion to brew a cup of tea. Self-care can provide you a respite and something enjoyable to do to get you through the upcoming period of busy work hours.
- Select some exercises to help with focus
Exercises that help you focus include breathing exercises, mantra repetition, and short walks around your workstation. A common focus method that may be used anywhere is the body scan. Starting with your toes, you move your awareness up to your ankles, knees, and stomach before ending at the top of your head. Grounding exercises can also make you feel more at ease and composed, which can help you control the symptoms of depression at work.
- Be mindful of what you eat at work
You might feel tired if your diet is strong in sugar and carbohydrates. These diets enhance the synthesis of the amino acid tryptophan, which aids with sleep. Sugar has also been shown to block brain chemicals related to awareness. Your depression-related lack of energy may be exacerbated if your noon meal is high in sugar and carbohydrates.
- Compartmentalize
Depression might give you the impression that everything is coming at you at once. Keeping work at work and family life at home helps prevent this sensation of being overburdened while at work. Try to avoid mixing personal and work-related matters together, she advises. It may have an impact on both matters’ intensity.
It can be distracting to worry about personal matters at work. It can be simple to carry your anxiety and despair to work if your living situation or your family members are a factor. Work initiatives and your drive may naturally suffer when you are focused on personal issues.
- Be proactive with the backlogs
Deadlines that are late or urgent might increase work-related stress. Stress can make you want to avoid work rather than face it head-on if you suffer from depression.
Preventing a work backlog and increasing your sense of accomplishment can both be achieved by responding to emails as soon as they arrive and working on tasks in manageable chunks.
- Evaluate your opportunities
When you have depression, even seemingly simple tasks can seem overwhelming. Changing careers should be the last thing on your mind. This can be the dialogue you need to have with yourself if you’re going through severe depressive symptoms, especially at work.
Anyone can become depressed by bullying, a lack of a supportive environment, and feeling unappreciated. It could be time for something new if the cons outweigh the benefits at work. Sometimes leaving a harmful environment is the only option.
- Seek professional treatment
Manage your depression when at home, at work, at school, and everywhere else. There are competent therapy alternatives accessible, whatever your situation. You may manage symptoms of depression in any situation with the assistance of traditional talk therapy, support groups, and medication.
By Catherine N. Ng’ang’a
In charge, psychology Department, Braeside
Chiromo Hospital Group
