Mental Health Issues: An Inconvenient Truth
Anxiety and depression are the 2 most evident mental health problems, which in Portugal and in the world tend to be hidden. Detecting that a person is mentally ill can sometimes be a difficult mission. Many of these patients have tricks to hide their darker side and sell the image that everything is fine, to the outside… but when they get home, they have real sleep problems, tremors, irritability and, in an extreme case, decreased professional and personal relationships, besides potential thoughts of extreme incapacity and suicidal thoughts.
The reader thinks I am playing politics with the previous paragraph, but I am sorry to inform you: Portugal is the Lewis Hamilton (record holder for Formula 1 wins and pole positions) of the EU when it comes to antidepressant consumption. According to data from 2021, between 2000 and 2020, 131 out of every 1000 Portuguese are medicated against depression. We are in first place and leaving Sweden 26 points behind.
I don’t know when the Portuguese rulers will decide to claim the cup and put it on the walls of the Ministry of Health, but I, as a Portuguese, would be ashamed to be at the top of this ranking.
To emphasise the reality of the studies, the structural problem is all too evident, when there are only 250 psychologists for all the public health centres in the country. The use of antidepressants by doctors has become the most obvious solution, as a palliative for a structural problem.
For example, many people remember the actor Robin Williams. A great comic actor, responsible for great successes such as “Good Morning Vietnam”, “Mrs. Doubtfire” and even the excellent contribution in “A Night at the Museum”. He made millions laugh, but suffered from deep depression, which he hid from the spotlight with mastery and humour and led him to suicide in 2014.
My personal situation
In my personal example, I also had a mental health problem. Only after more than a year, I have been able to talk about it and after many consultations and guidance. It’s a whole process that included Risperidone and Paroxetine, prescribed by the doctor, as well as the need to seek psychotherapy. All in the private sector, because the SNS advised me a “sofa” to wait to sit down, due to the long waiting times…
I was diagnosed in February 2021 with burnout syndrome, while I was Lead Development Representative, working for Cisco as a vendor employee. If people think it’s easy to solve the problem and talk about it? No way… at the source of the problem, I had to follow the doctor’s suggestion and in the first team meeting, at my work, after the diagnosis, I had to “turn over the table”: “Either you hire someone else, or the next person to leave here is me and you’re left with all the unsolved work. I’m tired of being overburdened. It’s over.”.
Of course, my colleagues and my boss thought that the “super-worker” who earned consecutive monthly performance bonuses was never going to reach this threshold speech. They were in shock. Suffice to say, I accelerated the exit process and less than 2 months later, I became Asset Manager (and Blue Badge – Cisco employee), evolved in my career to a place where I am more recognised and the problem of the work overload of the old team continued.
In this whole process, I had two wise pieces of advice that I share with all Cisconians: from my doctor and from my psychotherapist. My doctor said, “Don’t forget this: work never ends. Family and friends are not eternal.”
My psychotherapist, among many teachings, always highlights this: “Do actions where you feel your dignity is not threatened. Establish a dignity threshold for yourself. When your dignity threshold is threatened and attacked, stop.”
Cisco is not a perfect company (perfect companies don’t exist!), but it is very attentive and in Top of Mind, regarding mental health issues. The Day for Me initiative, started in 2020, was one of the wisest decisions taken in the last years, making it fundamental to workers, like me, to stop for a day, breathe and relax of the high working loads, and reducing burnout risks.
Moreover, Cisco managers, from my personal view, feel the culture and have the right formations to take in attention the distribution of workload of their team members and, even if we are in Hybrid Work, they engage every team member to feel the Cisco culture with activities and volunteering and, simultaneously, have the best work-life balance.
And, also, do not forget the Pavelka Team of Cisco, a Network focused on helping people achieve a balanced lifestyle. It is a structure that should be an example to other companies in Portugal and in the world regarding the Mental Health Topic.
Cisco Portugal wins for consecutive years the Best Place to Work distinction, and that is only possible, because workers and Cisco identity is preserved, with the best of dignity, and, above all, with a good work-life balance.
It is very positive to see that there are more personalities sharing their testimonies in this mental health chapter, but there is still a long way to go in sharing these negative moments, as well as seeking real solutions, because the pacts of silence and the culture of appearances are still very much rooted in society.
If you have friends in this state, or if you are feeling down, mentally and physically, speak out… silence is not a solution for mental health!
All the best for you!
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