Emotional Health or Mental Health?

Let’s talk about wellbeing, not mental health...

Many people find it difficult to talk about their true feelings. Although as a society we are getting better at talking about mental health, there is still some way to go. For lots of people the stigma is still real, and this prevents them from seeking help and being honest about their own struggles. Bottling things up and putting on a brave face can lead some to reach a crisis point, where suppressed emotions spill over and they feel unable to cope. In the worst cases, they may even feel suicidal.

Emotional Health or Mental Health? 

I’ve been trying to work out how we can overcome this, and get more people feeling comfortable talking about their thoughts and feelings. I wondered whether part of the issue is just semantics? If we offered to have a ‘wellbeing conversation’ would this sound less scary than having a ‘mental health conversation’? Perhaps the word ‘mental’ holds some negative connotations, and implies there is something wrong that needs to be fixed, whereas wellbeing is an ongoing effort to remain healthy and take care of ourselves, and therefore sounds far more positive and welcome.

Which question would you prefer:

·       “How is your mental health, at the moment?” OR

·       “How is your emotional health, at the moment?”

If wellbeing conversations became a normal part of life and work, issues could be identified and addressed before people reach crisis point. Many workplaces are now offering mental health first aid. Mental Health First Aid Training helps people feel more comfortable and confident to support those who are in a difficult place and I am completing my training today. It also helps them recognise who might need help, and engage with them. While I feel this is commendable, it is not a standalone solution. I can’t help wondering if many problems could be addressed before a person gets to this point if we just had regular, relaxed and informal wellbeing chats, where people could express themselves freely, without fear of judgement or stigma.

If you've been developing your emotional intelligence recently you're probably more used to noticing your thoughts and feelings and so can reduce the likelihood of tipping over into a difficult place. This is a form of presilience - where we look ahead at the pitfalls that might arise in future, and mitigate them by taking early preventative action, or at least anticipating how we would tackle the situation if it ever arose. Far from being pessimistic, this is a useful tool, and demonstrates the critical thinking required to perform at the highest level.

Having a growth mindset will also help with you to build an emotionally healthy attitude to life. This means being open to changing your values and opinions based on new information, letting go of prejudices, and also being open to learning new things. The word ‘yet’ can be very powerful in helping to develop a growth mindset, as in ‘I can’t do that - yet.’ It acknowledges that things can change and are not fixed.

Many schools educate around a Growth Mindset, do you encourage it at work? Photo Anit Ranjan Unsplash

A beneficial way to enable great wellbeing conversations at work is for leaders to create a psychologically safe space. Psychological safety is a term coined by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson. She describes it as; “A belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.”

Creating a psychologically safe space is an essential part of developing a healthy and open organisational culture. It means people feel free to speak up about anything that doesn’t feel right, as well as able to take reasonable risks, try new things. Sometimes they might fail, and this needs to be OK and accepted as a useful way to learn from the experience, move forward and do things differently next time.

We need to get better at allowing people to simply be open and honest. It should be OK to say “I’m having a bad day” or “this piece of work is not going to plan, I need some help” or even just admit “I’m knackered!” Having regular ‘wellbeing conversations’ would give people a psychologically safe space to enable them to address their feelings before they reach crisis point. Wouldn’t that be so much better for everyone?

Do you encourage your people to discuss their thoughts and feelings?