Influence of Work in Boosting Mental Health

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 What is considered as Good Work in Mental Health?

        Technically defining, a good work culture balances the interests of the employees, the employers and the society as a whole in order to deliver optimum performance,  enjoyable and satisfying engagement as well as fairness in growth. In other words, in a good work, the individuals are productive in a sustainable manner and choose to remain in employment overtime in a healthy way. 

      To maintain a good mental health, quality of the job and positive environment of the work culture, plays key role. Job quality and job satisfaction has proportional relationship with mental health of an individual. If one has poor quality job, there are chances that the positive mental health of the person can get tampered.

Unemployment is one of the serious and major causes of deteriorating mental health among the youth of many countries. Unemployment to poor quality job will not contribute to improving one's mental heath, while from unemployment to good quality job has proven to nourish the job seeker's positive psychology.

         Doing things/tasks one enjoys and sense of contribution to society are essential in building positive mental health of any individual. These factors when accomplished in a work culture will result in boosting one's well-being.

Benefits of Work/Employment to Physical and Mental Health:-

    Work is generally good for people but its absence is not. Studies show that people with common mental health disorders like anxiety and depression are still employed worldwide, than those suffering from serious mental health illness like Schizophrenia. 

    According to Biopsychological model, 'Work' has the following benefits biologically and psychologically. 


a) Elimination of Physical and Mental Stagnation :-

  • Some physical activity is involved and the person is mentally occupied with work related critical thinking, decision making and concentration. 
  • These activities provide mental exercise and pathway to cognitive development.

b) A Feeling of making Contribution to the Society and Family: 

  • This feeling involves a sense of value for oneself as well as the favorable reason for looking forward in life and one's career.
  • More than economical aspect, this feeling gives one the reason to move on and plays the key role in resilience when having to deal with downs in life. 

c) Giving Structure to Days/Weeks :

  • People who enjoy work finds a systematic and disciplined way of getting things done in daily life even when they are off from work. 
  • Work provides a soothing structure to one's days/weeks and is very helpful for people who are not genuinely orderly and organized. 
  • For unsystematic people, days off from work can be uninteresting and without motive. 
  • Work adds motivation and enthusiasm to start as well as finish tasks in everyday life.

d) Financial Security :

  • It is undoubtedly the most significant contribution of work. The feeling of earnings ( however small it is) by one's own hard work and perseverance.
  • Work ensures fiscal security and financial reliability on oneself. A sense of standing at one's own feet.
  • Provides a feeling of financial independence and freedom of choice upon one's standard of living.

e) Sense of Inclusion :

  • Working people have a sense of social and community inclusion than those who are unemployed.
  • People with differences or disabilities feel valued for their contribution.
  • Opportunities for advancement and social growth in the midst of diversities.

f) Enjoying what you do has no age bar :

  • Irrespective of age limits, the mind has to be productively engaged in order to make no room for discouraging or depressive thoughts. ( Idle mind is devil's workshop !! ) 
  • As long as you are mentally fit, you must engage in some sort of interesting activities, may that be simple passion or serious work involving income.
  • Work keeps you younger at heart. Working people always inspires others.

Age is just a number for inspirational heroes


Ill Effects of Unemployment 


Research shows that unemployment can have the ill effects such as


-chances of cardio vascular diseases
-increased suicidal tendency and related mortality
-increased use of drugs
-poor general health 
-poor immunity power
-poor psychological well-being
-increased hospital admissions
-increased risky behavior like rash driving, over speeding etc.
-disturbed family life
-separations in family/marital issues
-degraded sexual satisfaction
-stigma of discrimination
-poor decision making capacity

-chances of mental health disorders like anxiety/depression


Mental Wealth of a Nation

        Mental Wealth of a nation is a relatively newer concept and includes the socio-economic participation of citizens of a nation in improving the mental capital of a nation. It is obvious that a mentally healthy person will be whole heartedly participating in the socio-economic development and well-being of a nation. A mentally unwell person cannot participate in nation building effectively.

There are countries that offer free education to pupils by government owned state schools such as the UK, Germany, etc. How an individual repays the investment on his education and other expenses offered by government (say about up to 20 years of age) back to the society by social and economic ways for the period of his term of productive working life is defined as the 'Mental Capital or Mental Wealth' of a nation.  For any country, the citizens are supposed to contribute at his or her best, in terms of positive behavior and cognitive functioning at work place in order to achieve progressive economic development.


Bottom Line :

        Hardships occur in everyone's life and one needs to develop individual coping mechanisms towards stress in order to overcome it. Coping with stress and managing emotions are part of resilience and are significant life skills. Financial independence and economic stability are closely related to employment. Job or work adds to structure in one's life as well as evidently contributes to confidence in oneself and one's abilities.

        Work has to be related to contributing one's skills towards the betterment of the society or a group of people. Doing what we love, is to be taken care of while choosing a profession or incorporating passion in work. Enjoyable work culture adds to boosting positive well-being. 

Man enjoying passion of photography 


        A satisfying family life and social life are greatly dependent on how satisfied you are mentally (psychologically and emotionally). Good and engaging work culture when combined with positive mental health of the person, paves way towards conceptualizing ups and downs in life as part of growing and progressing and not negatively as failures and interceptions. Work always need not be physical, but can be mental work also involving cognitive skills, mathematics and critical thinking like that in science, research and investigations. Creatively engaged minds are productive and tend to feel younger than their numerical age.  

Positive outlook and well being are key ingredients of enjoying life. The quality of job you are engaged in and sense of job satisfaction determines the quality of mental health. In today's scenario, people are more aware of their positive mental health and are seen to closely monitor their work culture and switch jobs when they feel excessive work pressure is negatively affecting their positive well being or work-life balance.



Happy Work Life 😃

Dr. Sheena Latif
   



Chief Trainer and Founder, ' Academy of Life Skills Training & Development' Educational Counsellor ; Life Skills Trainer ; Presentation Guide.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Good post.
January 30, 2023 at 11:55 AM
assim said…
just exactly revealed the importance of being engaged in life.. and to do something, any thing ..a human being can do in his life to himself..to his family ..to his society ...to keep moving even after retirement from a job..Good work..
January 30, 2023 at 10:35 PM
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