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Tiger!!

Tiger!!

Richard Jackson
Mental Health, Return to work

Much of this is taken directly from a piece written by a therapist that I read a while back although I have tweaked it slightly. I don’t have their details so can’t credit them appropriately, but thank you whoever you are.

The Employee Mental Health Handbook, published by Champion Health earlier this month found that 80% of employees are currently experiencing moderate to high stress. 64% are showing symptoms of anxiety and only 9% are seeking support. And by the far the biggest cause of that stress for employees is workload – at 70%, twice that of any thing else.

When I am stressed, I struggle to sleep, get a bit teary, struggle to make decisions and feel overwhelmed. If you have been feeling any of these things, or other weird stuff or emotions then good news! You are not going mad. And you are not alone. You are a normal fully emotionally functional human being. But its not necessarily conducive to enjoying work, or performing at our best.

There is a whole other article about what organisations can do to help if they are serious about supporting employees’ wellbeing – keep an eye out here for that. But on a personal level, what is going on? And what can we do about it?

When we are exposed to stress or threats and need to deal with them, our brain springs into action. Specifically a part of your brain called the amygdala. It’s the bit in charge when we are threatened and it gets into in full Dads’ Army mode – running around shouting a mix of ‘Don’t Panic’ and ‘We’re all doomed’. It is a very ancient bit of our brain that existed to deal with threats when we were worried about being eaten by sabre toothed tigers. To the amygdala, everything looks like a tiger. It’s also pretty basic, so it really only has two settings.

‘No Tiger’ and TIGER!!!!

So when there is uncertainty and fear about, your brain is screaming ‘beware of the tiger’. And it responds in one of three ways – run away, fight it or freeze. The first two are the ‘Fight or Flight’ response you may have heard of. There is also ‘Freeze’ – which basically just shuts everything down. In response the amygdala causes the release of stimulant chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol which raise your heart rate, makes your breathing shallow and fast, raises your alertness, and shuts down non-essential functions, like digestion and your immune system and any sort of strategic thinking that may distract from the immediate threat.

This isn’t a conscious decision – it kicks in without any thought. It’s a perfect response to survive a tiger attack.

But when we are trying to function and think straight, deal with loads of information and uncertainty and stay calm, all while a bit of your brain is running around yelling TIGER!!! TIGER!!! TIGER!!!, it’s not easy. The result is an awful lot of stress and anxiety. And if you’re anything like me, you end up feeling really overwhelmed and having all sorts of reactions.

Anxiety isn’t just mental – it’s physical and behavioural. You will notice all kinds of things: stomach upsets, more regular illnesses, headaches, insomnia, changes to eating, changes to sleep patterns, to the way you talk.

It’s also cognitive: it’s very difficult to think straight when you’ve got the TIGER!!! TIGER!!! TIGER!!! thing going on – so we also become very bad at making decisions, absorbing information and generally thinking rationally.

So what can we do?

Well, the good news is it is possible to calm down. We can turn the amygdala from TIGER!!! to No Tiger, and not just by distracting it with cake and coffee. Here are some solid, scientifically proven things you can do.

Breathe. It’s so basic, but breathing exercises are basically magic. They work in minutes and you can do them anywhere. They work because of all the reactions the amygdala triggers, rapid breathing is the only one over which we have conscious control. Your breathing goes shallow and rapid in fight or flight mode to increase the supply of oxygen to your blood ready for an explosive response.

So control your breathing and you are basically telling your body: it’s OK. There is no tiger. Your body will then start to dial down the adrenaline and cortisol and all the other reactions will slow to a halt.

How to control your breathing?

The golden rules are these:

  • In through the nose, out through the mouth. SLOWLY

  • Make the outbreath longer than the inbreath. I was told this was the 7-11 exercise, breath in for a count of seven and out for a count of eleven.

  • Breathe from the stomach not chest – really feel your stomach go out when breathing in.

  • Do it for two minutes - time yourself - and see how you feel.

Try out mindfulness or meditation – practices which help focus the mind on the here and now and filter out distracting memories from the past or fears and uncertainty about the future.

Call a friend. Don’t suffer alone. Call a mate - someone who’ll listen while you have a bit of a rant, or a cry, or a general wobble. Someone you can trust not to judge you and who’ll just sympathise. And if you get one of those calls, just be nice to them. You only need to be kind. You can’t fix what’s going on so just give them a bit of space to rant and tell them they're normal and doing great. And if you’re OK, call your friends and check in on them. Especially if they’ve gone silent.

Sunshine. It’s SUMMERTIME (apologies for you Southern hemisphere types) – enjoy it. Go for a walk. Being outdoors, connecting to nature, is hugely calming. If you can’t go outside, open the windows and feel it on your face and breath it in.

Step away from terrible coping mechanisms. They will all translate as TIGER!! to your poor brain. Don’t get drunk, especially if you’re alone (TIGER!!!), take drugs (TIGER!!!), stay up all night scrolling on your phone or reading (TIGER!!!), get sucked into conspiracy theories (TIGER!!!).

See? Stress levels going up already. Breathe…

So, there we go. Hopefully a bit less TIGER!!

Much of this is taken directly from a piece written by a therapist that I read a while back although I have tweaked it slightly. I don’t have their details so can’t credit them appropriately, but thank you whoever you are.

The Employee Mental Health Handbook can be downloaded from this link: https://hello.championhealth.co.uk/mental-health-handbook?utm_campaign=Employee%20Mental%20Health%20Handbook&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_content=ryan-hopkins

Or check out Champion Health here: https://championhealth.co.uk/

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