As we reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic, there are some surprising silver linings. Employers are finding ways to be more flexible with where, when, and how work is performed. There are suddenly more obvious and easy ways to accommodate employees with disabilities. In many ways, we are finding it easier to empathize and give others space to be human. This is all great—drawing positives from this difficult chapter is important and meaningful.

One of the additional pandemic silver linings is that more and more people are talking about mental health—stress, anxiety, depression, grief. And this is great! The more open people are the less stigma attaches. However, mental health conditions, resources, and conversations can still feel, well, complicated.

It is important to recognize that there is often no one single cause for a mental health condition. Instead, there are many possible risk factors that can influence how likely a person is to experience a mental health condition or how serious the symptoms may be.

Some risk factors for mental health conditions include trauma, which can be a one-time event or ongoing; your environment and how it impacts your health and quality of life (also known as social determinants of health, like financial stability and access to health care); genetics; brain chemistry; and your personal habits and lifestyle, such as a lack of sleep.

Naturally, understanding the risk factors for a mental health condition can be more difficult when it’s your own mental health. Take time to ask yourself about your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to see if this is part of a pattern that may be caused by a mental health condition. Here are some questions to get you started:

• Have things that used to feel easy started feeling difficult?
• Does the idea of doing daily tasks like making your bed now feel really, really hard?
• Have you lost interest in activities and hobbies you used to enjoy?
• Do you feel irritated, possibly to the point of lashing out at people you care about?

Our society focuses much more on physical health than mental health, but both are equally important. If you are concerned about your mental health, there are several options available. We wrote about mental health care options through Broadlawns and our EAP on May 3. We offered some self-care tips on May 10.

Another free resource to check out is a page hosted by Mental Health America featuring a range of screening tools you can take (with two offered in Spanish). I completed one of the screening tools and it only took a quick minute. The results do not constitute a diagnosis but are helpful. They include some possible “next steps” and a variety of related “Info & Resources.”

Take time to assess your mental health and to take care of you!

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources