We speak to Culturise about our busy lives, how to identify their negative impacts on our minds and bodies followed by strategies to identify and treat these issues.
At Culturise we curate the best of tried and true and emerging evidence-based theories in wellbeing, leadership and culture to design programs that are practical and focussed on embedding lasting change. Our passion is creating great workplaces for all through a focus on the whole person by being practical and real in our delivery. We believe in taking learning in ‘small bites’ not only enabling people to digest easily, but these micro-learning bites are easier to embed and less cumbersome on operations than longer learning sessions.
We love to talk about all things people:
- Mental Health First Aid
- Adult & Youth Peer-led Wellbeing
- Healthy high performance
- Psychological Safety Inclusion and Equitable
How Do You Know If You Are Experiencing A Mental Health Issue? When To Seek Professional Help? (Emotional Deregulation & Window Of Tolerance).
There are a wide range of signs and symptoms of mental health problems, both physical and psychological. In its simplest form, a mental health problem is likely to manifest as changes to thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are having an impact on the way you typically function on a day to date basis. If those changes and impacts persist over time, they may develop into a mental illness. To really understand when to seek professional help, we encourage people to complete their Mental Health First Aid accreditation. It’s a great way of learning how to support people who might be experiencing problems or illness, or even be in crisis. If you or a person close to you identifies with having changes to thoughts feelings and behaviours, it is a good idea to have a chat with your GP or other practitioner about it, especially if it’s been going on for more than a few weeks. If a person is in crisis, you may need to contact a help line such as Life Line or even call ‘000’ if the risk to their life or others is immediate.
Another good frame to understand our own responses and those of others, is Dr Dan Siegel’s Window of Tolerance. Our window of tolerance becomes narrower when we’ve experienced or are experiencing trauma and stress. Personal wellbeing and stress management strategies, along with professional help can help us open our window of tolerance. Whether our window is wide open, or quite narrow, once we get pushed outside of our window, we risk losing at least some control of our reactions – our emotions can become ‘dysregulated’. People with a long history of trauma can live with a very narrow window which makes coping with every day life really difficult. So next time you are wondering why someone around you seems to ‘over-react’ – perhaps they have just been nudged out of their Window of Tolerance. Rather than judging a persons apparent mood or reactions, it might be a good time to check in and ask if they are ok!
Impact That Stress Has On Our Body?
Our stress reaction kicks off at the instinctive level when our bodies sense danger. A range of chemical reactions take place that exist to enable us to protect ourselves through a reaction we often refer to as ‘Fight or Flight’. Freeze and Fawn are also now recognized as part of this reaction. In simple terms the release of cortisol, adrenaline and other hormones slow down non-essential bodily systems such as the reproductive, immune and digestive systems in order to enable the various changes required to react. Our vision becomes narrow, we produce more sugar to fuel the response, our pain receptors are dulled. We might sweat, have a high heart rate and high blood pressure. All of these reactions are there to enable a temporary reaction and we are designed to return to a non-stress state soon after. When people have experienced trauma and chronic stress, these reactions go from being protective to rather unhelpful. With our digestive, immune and reproductive systems permanently on the ‘go slow’ other significant symptoms and impacts can develop.
How To Achieve Wellness? (5 Ways To Well-Being)
The 5 Ways to Wellbeing was originally developed in the United Kingdom by the New Economics Foundation. Through undertaking and reviewing hundreds of studies into human well-being, they found that the more that people Connect to others, are Active, Mindful, Learning and Giving, the higher rates of life satisfaction they experience. On the world happiness index, Finland scores the highest overall rate of happiness at 7.8 out of 10. Australia isn’t doing too badly just behind on 7.1 (Gallup, 2023 World Happiness Index).
Therapy vs Medication?
There are literally hundreds of mental illnesses in Australia three categories of Mental Illness – Anxiety Disorders, Depressive and Bi-Polar Disorders, and Substance Use disorders make up around 96% of all illnesses. Medically qualified practitioners are best positioned to advise on appropriate treatments and those with severe mental illness are likely to have a Psychiatrist as part of their support team. For mild to moderate depression and anxiety, studies have shown that talking therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy are successful in achieving positive outcomes at around the same rate as taking a pharmacological treatment. If your Doctor recommends that you take a medication for mental health problems and you are not comfortable, make sure that you ask for more information so that you can make an informed decision about the best way to treat your particular situation.
One in 5 Australians experience a mental illness each year and 48% of us will have a mental illness in our lifetime. By 2030 the World Health Organisation predicts that Mental Illness will be the worlds largest health issue – bigger than any physical illness.-
For our Bowlsome readers, Culturise have shared their 5 happiness habits to start today!
