Just Pondering: Taking care of you

By Allyson McCaw on March 23, 2023.

If anything good came out of the COVID years it was the importance of self care. We are now being reminded that it is “OK to not be OK.”

Mental health is no longer a taboo subject that is whispered about at the water cooler. It is safe to say. “I need to talk to someone, I am not doing well.”

For way too long depression was something you just dealt with. It was a sign of weakness if you admitted you needed a prescription or went to talk with a counsellor. The fear of admitting any of that just lent to tampering down feelings of sadness and grief until, often, it manifested into a physical problem.

I really think health-care workers are the worst off. We generally take care of everyone else in our lives and “buck up and carry on” without stopping to realize the stresses we carry. We work shift work, we don’t sleep properly, we eat terribly because it is usually on the run and we take on EVERYTHING.

For a lot of us in the profession we are the “go-to person,” and the expectation is you will fix it. Really a tough gig and until recently we did not talk about it. Again, that sign of weakness and fear of being labelled. It’s really ridiculous but I am guilty as charged.

But I am learning. It’s never too late. I have reached out for help and now I sleep better. That is a gift.

So lets talk about it at the work place and with our loved ones. It is a major health crisis in our lives and we are losing people in a very tragic and unnecessary way just because we feel shamed. So, lets talk and talk some more.

Stay well inside and out!

Allyson McCaw is a Medicine Hatter

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