Here’s What You Can Do About Being Depressed At Work

A lot of people think that different type of cancers or severe diseases are the leading causes of death in the United States, they are actually forgetting about another leading cause of death and it also does not have a cure. Some people think that depression is just being severely sad and it is easy for people to manipulate their feelings.

Unfortunately, this is what some people think since they haven’t encountered someone having it or never felt it themselves. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, one of the leading causes of deaths is suicide, and almost every single case got depression to blame.

One major thing that drives an adult to this mental state is because of their job. The Anxiety and Depression Association of American said that majority of individuals who are diagnosed with depression are in their prime working years. However, there are times that some people can’t even tell if they are already suffering from it or not, especially if their job is preventing them from realizing it since they’re too busy worrying about other things. Here are a couple of signs that you may need to look out for, and also how you can deal with it.

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300 million people all over the world are suffering from depression and almost a million die every single year due to suicide that is caused by this mental illness.

Major Signs To Look Out For

According to mental health experts, one of the major signs that you are getting depressed at work is that when you can no longer identify if you’re just stressed or already depressed. Being stressed only happens every few days especially if you have a big project due at work. However, being depressed means you are constantly stressing literally over everything almost every single day.

This would now then affect your performance at work, which can make things even worse. It could also affect your relationship with your coworkers, and worst of it all if your job performance started to interfere with your personal life that you are now starting to feel depressed about it overall.

There might be that certain feeling that you can no longer take control of your life, and that is when you must realize it’s time to seek for help. Some people feel trapped and unable to move, some people think they made a massive mistake in their career choice, and there may be some who are highly competitive that they want to beat themselves at work. Experts believe that taking a break once in a while is essential, not just physically but also mentally.

Dealing With Depression at Work

Depression is definitely a serious illness that no one must ignore, the Mental Health America even reported that clinical depression costs the country more than $51 million in workplace absenteeism alone, which means it could definitely harm anyone’s work performance.

If you have all the signs and you have been diagnosed or is seeking treatment, one of the very first things you must do is talk to your boss about it. Some employees feel as if they cannot talk about this to their superior since they might be seen as weak or vulnerable and it will affect badly with their jobs. Keep in mind that even Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk publicly admitted that he has been struggling with his mental health due to stress with work, so you have nothing to be afraid of.

Another thing that you must remember is that you must be aware of your duties at work and make sure you don’t overwhelm yourself about it. According to clinical psychologist Sanam Hafeez, one of the best things to do is to schedule your day by preparing yourself and managing what are the things you’ll do. If you feel overwhelmed always take deep breaths. If your anxiety kicks in, try to distract yourself with other things. There are so many apps nowadays that you may download and it will help you cool down and feel less anxious.

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There are more than 16 million working adults in the United States who are depressed at work

Keep in mind that these are only some key points on how you can manage your depression while you’re at work. This does not necessarily mean that you will no longer have episodes depending on how severe your case is.