Becoming comfortable communicating mental health needs in the workplace can be challenging. Communicating mental health needs, in general, can be uncomfortable for many people. However, being vocal about these needs is necessary to maintain wellness.
Unfortunately, reintegrating back into your life post-treatment can come with some hardships. Getting re-acquainted with your professional and personal life may be difficult, especially if you hope to prevent falling back into old habits.
What can you do about this difficult but necessary task? Take advantage of your time in treatment and ask your peers, therapists, case managers, and other professionals to teach you about communicating mental health needs in necessary areas of your life—especially at work.
You may not have the opportunity to practice your new and improved communication skills until post-treatment, but at least you can feel more prepared when you work to equip yourself beforehand.
Individuals in recovery must focus on improving their communication to repair relationships post-treatment. Addiction can cause a lot of damage to relationships—professional and otherwise. Improving your communication is crucial to creating and maintaining these relationships. What does healthy communication look like?
We once described healthy communication as communicating without using hateful or undesirable language. Healthy communication allows you to convey a message clearly and directly. Common barriers to healthy communication include:
These are influential factors that will affect how you communicate. Managing these can significantly improve how effective your communication is.
One of the first steps when effectively discussing mental health is remembering that experiencing mental illness or being diagnosed with a mental health disorder is no cause for shame. It requires you to acknowledge that you may encounter opportunities for improvement and occasionally causes for concern. How are you expected to discuss these concerns if you are uncomfortable talking about mental health? Before you can begin communicating mental health needs in the workplace, you must become comfortable discussing mental health in general.
Where do you begin when trying to put complex feelings into words? Many people struggle to connect these dots. Fortunately, there are ways you can become equipped to discuss mental health.
First, it may help you to preface discussions with the challenges you are experiencing in starting the discussion. It is okay to express discomfort or embarrassment. Honest communication is healthy communication.
Vocalizing your feeling is vital. Unfortunately, when we discuss our feelings with people, they often feel the need to try and fix the problem. That can be frustrating, but understand that it comes from a place of good intentions. If this happens, consider prefacing a conversation but saying you are not looking for them to fix your problem. You simply need them to listen.
Once you become comfortable discussing your mental health needs, you can bring them up in the workplace. Mental health is becoming a big topic of discussion in the workplace. Ideally, employers would be genuinely concerned for their employee's mental health because it's important. Additionally, from a business perspective, mental health affects productivity and work quality. For example, excessive stress leads to mental illness, which can affect job performance, engagement, communication with co-workers, productivity, and ability to function in a role.
Avoiding stress is crucial for individuals in recovery. Too much tension early in recovery can increase your risk of relapse. You must take action and advocate for your needs. To do so, decide who to approach. That person may be your manager, a supervisor, or human resources department. Be open and honest with them and express your concerns about maintaining your mental health and recovery in the workplace.
Your employer may be able to offer resources, employee assistance programs (EAP), or other benefits that may aid in your wellness journey. Hopefully, they can work with you to take the necessary steps to improve your mental health, especially since improved mental health means improved work performance.
You may also consider reaching out to a mental health professional if you struggle to communicate your mental health needs in the workplace. A professional can help you better explain what you are going through. Additionally, reach out to your sober community, therapist, or treatment facility if you fear work stress is putting your sobriety at risk.
Upon entering recovery, you may need to practice assertive communication in many areas of life. We discuss eight specific ways to do this, which are:
To learn more about these eight tips, we encourage you to read our article above and reach out to NorthStar Transitions today if you need additional help.
Life after treatment may take some transition time. As you reintegrate into your everyday life, you may face several challenges in your personal and professional life. Due to these challenges, you must be able to discuss your mental health needs with the individuals in your life. That may include being vocal about mental health needs in the workplace. Mental health is finally a topic of discussion among employers today. However, you must still advocate for yourself. That means learning to communicate assertively and honestly and being open when discussing your mental health needs. If you struggle to discuss your mental health needs at work, call NorthStar Transitions at (303) 558-6400.
