The other day I wrote a post for Blisstree.com on how to stay productive when you are clinically depressed. I mentioned that, at my rock bottom, I had to take a break altogether from writing, as every time I sat down in front of my computer, all I could do was cry. Moreover, because my concentration was so totally shot, composing a sentence -- much less an article -- wasn't going to happen.
I took a year off. To heal.
Because my husband was gainfully employed at that time, I was able to swing it.
Eventually I tiptoed back to the working world. Very slowly. Very carefully. Very deliberately. Because a sudden plunge might have rendered me disabled for another year or so.
And I didn't start with writing, ironically.
My therapist advised me to do something in which I interacted with people, as the process of writing is not all that conducive to recovery from depression. The time alone and the cerebral exercise can often aggravate depression and anxiety, inviting more invitations to obsess and ruminate. When your job requires that you be among people, some of whom you have to listen to, you have a better shot of concentration.
So I became a tutor at a local college. For two hours a week. I read the words of my students since I couldn't compose my own.
One of the more complex quandaries of depression is knowing when your job is making you depressed, or if you are just clinically depressed and your job has nothing to do with it.
While most mental health professionals assert that gainful employment improves mood and promotes resiliency, a new study by the Australian National University (ANU) maintains that the wrong job can do more harm than good. Psych Central's Selena Chavis covered the study last October.
According to lead researcher Dr. Liana Leach, "The research showed that people who moved from being unemployed into poor-quality jobs were significantly more likely to be depressed at follow-up than those people who remained unemployed ... This research suggests getting people into any job may not necessarily lead to mental health improvements. Instead, people need good quality work to gain and maintain better well-being."
I can think of two jobs that definitely made me more depressed: My first year out of college, when my personality was a horrible match to my co-workers', and the six months of this past year, when I became a government contractor with a conservative consulting firm and was doing PowerPoint presentations on change management and other things that I knew absolutely nothing about.
Both times, the last day of these jobs felt like I had transcended into the air -- you know, like the transfiguration of Jesus. The lightness I experienced seemed metaphysical. In fact, this last time, I was so glad to be done with that job that I got manic. I couldn't contain my excitement that I would no longer have to type my employment ID number forty times a day into my computer and wear a dark gray, navy or black suit with my badge faced out.
Not to say that my days are perfect now. I do hit rough patches, and during those times, I put down the writing for awhile and focus on tasks that get me out of my head because, while writing is enormously rewarding, the isolation and cerebral exercise is hard, I think, for a person prone to depression and anxiety. The challenge is staying resilient enough that you can stay productive, which, in turn, promotes more resiliency.
Unless you're working a job that only fostering more insecurity.
For six tips on how to stay productive when you are depressed, click here.
Originally published on Psych Central.
Follow Therese Borchard on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thereseborchard
Mike Robbins: It's OK to Disappoint People
Art Markman, Ph.D.: Be Careful Taking Advice When You Are Anxious
Therese Borchard: 7 Office Depression Busters: Tips For Work Depression
Bruce E. Levine: Depressed Lawyers: A Little Help For My Friends
10 Careers With High Rates of Depression - depression - Health.com
10 Jobs With High Depression Rates - Halah Touryalai - Working ...
Is Your Job Causing Your Depression? - Coping at Work - Depression
It must be nice to be a lady such as yourself, when you can rely on a husband to support you. Be very grateful.
They know they don't like what they do for money. They have talked to friends and family about their discomfort. And for any number of reasons, they take no action to quit. Many times it is the money - or, more specifically, the fear of having no money if they quit this job.
The important realization is you can have what you want in this life IF AND WHEN you actually take different actions. You don't have to quit this ob cold turkey ...you can transition out. Here are the key questions.
What do you want to do for a living?
What skills and activities do you want to participate in?
What jobs might allow you to do that?
How can you get a taste of these jobs/professions (?Volunteer)?
What is one 'baby step" you can take today to investigate this alternative career?
When will you do that?
If it aint workin' get out and start your transition today,
My two cents in this early morning,
Dike
Dike Drummond MD
http://www.threehourmidlifecrisis.com
Take enormous quantities of vitamins.
Begin practicing meditation, hatha yoga or Tai Chi or walking meditation. Even if it's a few blocks or a few asanas at a time.
Volunteer helping those more misfortunes than you are.
Find one pleasurable thing each day. No matter how small..
Do not narrow your social circle.
Cognitive therapy-- most depressions start in your mind. this is the place to begin the healing while supporting it with above steps and limited medication (as a temporary remedy, not the measure of first resort).
Learn meditation. Transcendental meditation is an accessible option.
Good luck.
fortunately i left that place and found out that not all work institutions are like that. there are of course all forms of red tape and other upsetting systems anywhere. to some degree. i try not to go with that, i try to maintain my individual principles, but i don't rock the boat either.
i can understand why a person who wants things to conform to a higher standard would be depressed over the state of our work ethics.
Wow, that would be ascribing a motive to depression, as if it were a living entity, like a virus. I wonder what would happen if we treated it like that?
My humor blog: http://withbothhandsandaflashlight.blogspot.com/
Depression is a most terrible and insidious malady that can attack even when the external world is going one's way
Been there, enough times to depress the non depressed
As a former psychotherapist who is now coaching clients privately and for corporations, I see many employees who fail to recognize they are depressed or if they do, fail to get help. To make matter worse, supervisors and managers are not equipped to recognize depression and often deal with the situation ineffectively, escalating the problem.
Companies need to do more than they are doing because it's the right thing to do because the results will show up in their profit statements.