Mental Health and Wellbeing Conditions
Common mental health and wellbeing conditions in the workplace:
Low Mood, Sadness and Depression
Most people feel sad sometimes, however it is usually possible to improve low mood by making small changes to your life.
Symptoms of low mood can include:
- Feeling sad
- Feeling anxious or panicky
- Feeling more tired than usual or being unable to sleep
- Feeling angry or frustrated
- Feeling low on confidence or self-esteem
If the feelings of low mood last two weeks or more, this could be a sign of depression.
In addition to the above, symptoms of depression can include:
- Not getting any enjoyment out of life
- Feeling hopeless
- Not being able to concentrate on everyday things
- Having suicidal thoughts or thoughts about harming yourself
The NHS has a self-assessment tool that can help individuals identify how they feel and links to a range of self-help support and organisations that can help with low mood, sadness and depression.
NHS Low mood, sadness and depression
See also Managing mental health conditions in the workplace for a range of mental health support services across Wales
Stress and Anxiety
Stress and anxiety are closely related and share many of the same symptoms.
Stress is the body’s response to a threat or situation (stressor). People with stress are usually aware that if they could resolve their stressors their stress levels would drop. Usually this is true, however the cumulative effect of lots of small stressors can lead to chronic stress.
Anxiety is a set of feelings that occur even if there are no obvious stressors. Unlike stress, there are several types of diagnosable anxiety disorders.
Symptoms of both stress and anxiety can include:
|
Physical Symptoms |
Mental Symptoms |
Changes in Behaviour |
|
muscle tension or pain stomach problems chest pain or a faster heartbeat sexual problems |
difficulty concentrating struggling to make decisions feeling overwhelmed constantly worrying being forgetful |
being irritable and snappy sleeping too much or too little eating too much or too little avoiding certain places or people drinking or smoking more |
The most important reason for understanding whether an individual is either stressed or anxious is to be able to identify the best treatment options. Anxiety is very rarely managed with just lifestyle and or workplace changes and may require treatment options such as therapy and/or medication (See Managing mental health conditions in the workplace) Although the symptoms of stress are similar, employees may be able to identify their stressor and suggest making changes to the workplace that may help them.
For more information and support for mental health conditions see our trusted partners below:
Find out more about a range of mental health conditions:
The NHS has information on the causes, symptoms and treatments for a range of mental health conditions.
Mental health conditions - NHS (www.nhs.uk)