About 20 percent of American adults live with a diagnosable mental illness, which can make a stressful work environment even harder to cope with. The dividing line between psychological problems causing issues at work and the work environment itself leading to diminished mental health is a thin, sometimes non-existent, barrier.
Consider that Americans spend a quarter of their time every year at work and when things are bad at work, things can get bad in all areas of a person’s life. Our jobs have a huge impact on our psychological well-being and given that we’re engaged in work-related activities so much of the time, it’s not surprising that most of us have thought about quitting a high-stress job for mental health reasons.
Our psychological state can make work problems worse, but it’s also the case that hard times at our work can cause anxiety and aggravate depression. Because our mental health and happiness at the workplace are intertwined so deeply, it’s important to investigate whether our depression or anxiety is arising solely from the workplace, or if perhaps we’re experiencing mental health issues that are independent of our jobs.
For over 80 percent of employees, stress coming from the workplace is significant and leads to impairments in their quality of life, which ultimately impacts their quality of work. For many, a job is their most significant psychological stressor, which impacts other aspects of their lives leading to tension and unhappiness in all other areas. It’s no wonder that for many, quitting may become a reasonable way to improve their mental health.
Here’s a look at some good reasons to quit your job for mental health reasons.
How to Know When It’s Time to Leave
These are some of the more extreme and cut-and-dried situations in which quitting one’s job is an easier decision.
- Your mental health is suffering. If you’ve been diagnosed with a psychological disorder such as depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder and your symptoms are worsening, it’s crucial to get therapeutic help as soon as possible. Increased stress and impaired sleep are well-known to aggravate psychiatric disorders, and can prompt manic episodes in bipolar disorder.
- You’re ruminating daily. Rumination involves replaying negative events over and over, essentially dwelling on the worst parts of your day. Rumination might seem like a helpful practice, but it’s not real self-reflection. Rumination always begins to feed on the negativity of bad situations and feeds depression and anxiety.
- You despise the idea of going to work. If you loathe the very idea of your workplace, it might be time to make a change.
- Your work environment is toxic. Some workplaces have a few toxic employees who sour the whole work experience, but other times, work environments are abusive and exploitative. If you’re in one of those situations or suffering harassment of any sort, staying in your job may be neither desirable nor possible.
- You have no time for anything but work. Even at home, you’re thinking about work, even though you get no happiness or satisfaction from it.
- Work makes unreasonable or uncompensated demands on your time. Is it always your turn to be on call? Are you salaried and rarely, if ever, allowed to recoup your time? A work-home imbalance is one of the most typical reasons people leave a job for their mental health.
Dealing With Work Stress and Keeping Your Job
If you’ve already been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or any other mental health condition, before you give your two-weeks’ notice, check with your company’s HR department to see if an Employee Assistance Program is available to you. An EAP assists employees with getting the help they need by working with a therapist or other mental healthcare specialist.
Even if you don’t have a diagnosed mental health issue, you can still use your company’s EAP to get help from a professional. If you’re stressed, feeling depressed, or experiencing anxiety but want to stay at your job, psychotherapy can help. Talk therapy can help you learn new ways to cope with stressful situations and manage them more effectively while getting more satisfaction out of life.
How TMS Therapy Can Treat Your Mental Health Needs
Another effective, clinic-based treatment is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Since 2008, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been approved by the FDA as a non-invasive treatment for depression, certain anxiety disorders such as OCD, and other mental health conditions. It’s covered by most insurers and doesn’t require hospitalization or any kind of invasive procedure. If you receive employee insurance benefits from your employer, you may already qualify for TMS treatment.
TMS uses a powerful and precise magnetic field to gently stimulate areas of the brain that regulate mood. It’s a medication-free approach to treatment for depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other psychological disorders. There are no systemic side-effects to TMS.
For patients who are not covered by insurance, we offer cash pay protocols and have the ability to offer financing.
NeuroSpa TMS recently rolled out a personalized VIP program, providing full, comprehensive care for patients who are undergoing treatment. These patients have access to elements other TMS Therapy facilities may not provide. Our offerings include: traditional TMS Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Nutritional Counseling, Blood Work, Sleep Evaluation, Functional MRI Targeting and Ketamine Treatment.
This blog post is meant to be educational in nature and does not replace the advice of a medical professional. See full disclaimer.
Works Cited
Depression statistics. (2019, July 12). Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://www.dbsalliance.org/education/depression/statistics/
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2021, February 16). Bipolar disorder. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bipolar-disorder/symptoms-causes/
Mental health by the numbers. NAMI. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://www.nami.org/mhstats
Milenkovic, M. (2019, September 23). Journal of Workplace Stress. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.stress.org/42-worrying-workplace-stress-statistics.
Wang JL, Lesage A, Schmitz N, et al. The relationship between work stress and mental disorders in men and women: findings from a population-based study. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2008; 62:42-47
