Amid all the disruption and trauma over the last two years, employers have begun to understand the prevalence of mental health challenges in the work place. Recently, I shared my own mental health journey with my friend and founder of Selah Counseling Center, Jasmine Vasquez, LCSW. I struggled to make the make the initial step of seeking professional help because I was too afraid to talk about my mental health. This fear caused me to feel as though I was broken and led me isolate myself from friends, family and colleagues. It took me over a year of having depressive episodes to reach out to a therapist. Since starting therapy, I have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression. In addition to creating a treatment plan with my therapist, being vocal about mental health and encouraging others to seek help has aided me to continue working on myself.
As an HR professional, I have found that having open discussions about my own journey has allowed me to foster deeper connections with my team. Sharing my own thoughts, feelings and fears has continually opened the door to having difficult discussions and ultimately providing helpful information to those who need it.
The goal of this post is to inform you that no matter what you’re going through, support for mental health is available. If you don’t know where to begin, I encourage you to request information on Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) from your employer/ HR department. EAPs generally offer free confidential assistance to employees with personal and/or work-related problems impacting their performance or mental health.
Attached to this post, I have also included the contact information of Selah Counseling Center should you need more information on where to begin.
Motivate yourself to take action.
