Getting Comfortable with Mental Health - DaMENSCH approved stories

Is this new, the normal? Will we ever go back to normal? Do we even want to? So many questions trouble employees these days. It’s important for the business world, more than ever, to reveal its empathetic side. A side that supports, understands and listens to employees. As offices switch back to pre-pandemic working styles, 36% of the employees in a study by McKinsey reported negative mental health effects of on-site work.?

That’s why for this World Mental Health Day, People at DaMENSCH chose to bare their minds by sharing stories and tips for weathering personal and professional storms.?

Some stories may trigger or even bring a tear. But they will all inspire you to talk about your mental health. Because nothing can be more liberating than sharing.?

Deepti Karthik (SVP - Marketing)

“Don't be brave, don't assume others won't understand, you are only gonna make it worse”

It was 2016. I was in the middle of a big launch and under a lot of pressure to deliver. Not the best time to realise I was pregnant. The launch was scheduled a week before Halloween and while I tried my best to deliver all assets on time and in full force, my medical condition got worse and I lost my baby. I had a miscarriage. I informed my manager but didn't know what to do after. I continued working from home with my colleagues unaware of my loss.?After days of immense pressure, I broke down and told them. The first thing they asked - “Why didn't you tell us?”. I didn’t have an answer.?

The biggest lesson to learn about mental health is to talk about the problems you are going through.

The biggest regret I have in my life is not handling my loss. I used work to escape which made it worse.?

When going through a tough time or mental distress the first thing to do is to take a pause. Address it and find closure or else it will continue to resurge.

1) Don't shove mental distress under the carpet. Address it and find closure.

2) Don't feel the need to be brave and hide from everyone while continuing to work. Talking helps, get a help group at work as you do in life.

3) Most importantly, having a mental health issue is not a sign of weakness. It's just human. Acknowledge and share, it might help someone else.

Shivakant Menon (Senior Manager - Content Strategy)

Last October, I realised something. That mental stress can manifest itself physically too.?For a decade I’ve worked never being too bothered by anything that happens. I don’t ponder. I don’t brood. I don’t like to leave a room feeling negative. But. If ‘swept under the rug’ were literal, my rug would now touch the ceiling.?So as the workload started piling, there came a point when I started to think - ‘what if I can’t deliver?” It becomes all the more difficult to motivate the team when you’re starting to doubt your own capabilities to meet the deadlines. In my mind however - I was able to sweep the thought aside and continue to work. Unfortunately, what this translates to is ‘overworking’ so as to not deal with self-doubts and confusing thoughts. Right then is when I got diagnosed with Neuralgia - something that the nervous system goes through only due to extreme bodily stress. This was the body’s way of saying - slow down and take care of your immunity and health.?

It took a month to recover and forced me to take more than a week strictly off from work. Imagine. Bang in the middle of everything. It felt stupid to tell my manager that I needed to cut off. Even more stupid realising that I should have spoken to her maybe a few weeks earlier. Rather than thinking I’m mentally and physically strong enough to handle anything.?

Ignoring and not dealing with what’s troubling, is where it all started. Open that rug. What’s under doesn’t look as bad as you think.?

Bageshree Suryawanshi (Senior Performance Marketing Manager)

One of the best suggestions I got from my therapist was to carry a childhood picture of myself. So, whenever I have negative thoughts - I take out that picture & think of all the awesome things I have done. 2020, one of the most challenging years for most of us, was no different for me. Like many recent grads, my job offer was on hold. I felt heartbroken, faced an extreme lack of confidence and stopped interacting with anyone.

Despite being surrounded by family and friends, I couldn’t bring this up with them. But one thing was for sure; I needed help. I started my virtual therapy, and many underlying issues emerged. One of them was my relationship with myself.

Often we conveniently forget to put ourselves first and expect others to offer the love & affection we shower on them. Why is it so difficult to love ourselves? Why is it so uncomfortable to think about self-love?

In one of my therapy sessions, my therapist asked me to think of the five most valuable people in my life.The very next question was - Now think about how long did it take to say your name? It stuck with me, and I started consciously noticing my relationship with myself - all the self-talk or, rather, self-trash-talk.

This Mental Health Day - choose to be more empathetic to others and, most importantly, yourself!