Mental Health While Working From Home

Have you noticed a change in your mental health while working from home?
The topic is the need of the hour during the pandemic scenario. Due to the work-from-home situation, mental health goes on a toll due to more work hours and difficulty maintaining the work-life balance.

Some of the severe challenges faced by remote workers are loneliness, anxiety, and depression, etc. The triggers affecting mental health could be stress, isolation which can change the optimistic individual to an irritable toad affecting the mental health. Stress can be due to a lack of time management, skill management, unavoidable technical issues that can hamper the work, etc.

Psychological Effects on Mental health while working from home

As an outset of the pandemic, work from home has caused depression and anxiety in many people. They have a fear of staying alone as they miss networking with their peers. Lack of support network can make a person anxious, and it isn’t easy to adapt to the remote work from home environment. Work from home also comes with the temptation to work for long hours. There is no differentiation between office and work when the person doesn’t have a dedicated home office setup. Virtual meetings can also trigger fatigue and make the person feel disconnected and remorseful.

Few people who work from home, especially women, are drained out as they need to balance the family demands and work pressure. This creates a feeling of “I am not good enough “and can harm mental health. The condition is referred to as imposter syndrome, and it is rampant due lack of communication and reassurance from managers and colleagues. The challenges in work from home can cause a severe emotional and psychological load to the person and affects the normal wellbeing.

Some of the psychological effects on mental health due to remote work are listed below

  • Frustration due to sedentary routine and angry outbursts
  • Sleep problems like insomnia or hypersomnia
  • Energy drains where it takes more time to do a simple task due to lack of interest
  • Challenges in thinking, decision making, and memory
  • Physical aches and unexplainable body pains
  • Increased appetite and gastric problems

It is crucial to maintain and improve your mental health; it is essential to relax and combat the psychological effects as stated above.

Tips for better mental health

  • Reduce the screen time and connect with people

  • Doing remote jobs involves a lot of screen time and can affect eyesight, sleep, and mental health. Long hours of working on the computer screen can affect your creativity and thought process.
  • Do a digital detox once a week and read a good book and spend more time with family.
  • Try to connect with nature by practising Ecotherapy to reduce stress and anxiety. Have a dedicated home garden that can relax you to a greater extent. Greenery will distract your mind from negative thoughts and eliminates all the worries.
  • Interact with people whom you like so that you can still feel happy despite adversity.
  • Shatter your guilt trips

During the pandemic, Some people are guilty as they are not good enough for their family, affecting their mental health. Feeling guilty can cause lead to stress, and it requires a change in the mind-set. Firstly, we need to stop comparing ourselves with our effectiveness during pre-pandemic levels. Some people get Imposter syndrome while working from home, leading to an unpleasant feeling. While working from, the imposter syndrome can get into rampant mode, and isolation also adds more fuel.

The following coping mechanisms can be helpful to overcome Imposter Syndrome.

  • Avoid comparing yourself with others.
  • Be aware of your strengths and weaknesses and seek out positive reinforcements on your success milestones.
  • It is not a healthy practice to correlate failure with mistakes. All responsibilities need to look upon as learning opportunities.

We need to be aware of causes chipping away our thoughts and fix the issues that perturb our mental health. It is better to focus on reduced travel time, spending more time with family, and be happy.

Tactics to combat Imposter syndrome

To prevent imposter syndrome, we need to stop comparing ourselves with others. A constant reassurance to self on the capabilities and expertise can help in handling the negative emotions. We need to ensure that we work hard and set the right expectations for the outcomes.

If you feel that you need more help to handle the whims of working from home, please connect with the mindfulTMS team. We will be happy to support and relieve you from all the challenges.