Newsletter: Preventing depression, let's make it work!
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On April 7th 2017, in exactly one week, it’s World Health Day again. This year the central theme is Depression.
We decided to anticipate and share our insights and our material now, in order to allow for sufficient time to help your colleagues focus, as this is a crucial theme in the workplace too. Depression is currently one of the most important risk factors for absenteeism. How to assist employees in arming themselves against mood swings and mild forms of depression, that’s what’s really at stake. |
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Captivating insights on e-health and workplace strategies in a world of change.
Loneliness can seriously damage your health
We are all social beings: contact with others caters for our much needed sense of connection. Moreover, social support tones down negative emotions and reduces the mental and physical impact of misfortune. A problem shared is a problem halved for sure.
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As always, there’s two sides to one coin. That a lack of social support has an unhealthy impact is the logical flipside to the positive story - and more and more scientific proof points in this direction. As it turns out, loneliness visibly hurts: scans show that the same brain areas are active as with physical pain. If we take into account the bodily impact of loneliness as well - focusing on blood pressure, immune system and inflammatory responses a.o. - it even proves comparable to physical pain’s impact.
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The negative impact of loneliness on health is actually in the same league as smoking and alcohol - and even stronger than that of obesity.
Loneliness raises the risk of an early death to the same extent as
15 cigarettes a day! How you perceive solitude, moreover enhances your chance of fear, depression and other mental afflictions, and perturbs your sleep.
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In the workplace, solitude and a feeling of isolation can also take their toll: they lead to concentration and reasoning problems. A much needed counterweight is offered by friendship and solidarity: these are in fact the mental equivalents of fruit and vegetables or physical exercise.
Even though in the past, friendships in the workplace were viewed with suspicion from a HR perspective - due to a possible negative spiral after the breakdown of a friendship - it has become obvious that the advantages largely eclipse the disadvantages. |
Friendly relations at work lead to better functioning, more job satisfaction and dedication, and reduced turnover intention.
Preventing depression-induced absenteeism? Focus on physical exercise!Absenteeism related to mental health issues is on the increase, and rather than in the case of physical complaints, it’s long-term and hence very expensive. Stress plays a part, but depression is on the rise too.
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Physical exercise is, as so often, part of the cure: it stimulates the production of and sensitivity to neurotransmitters (substances which facilitate the transfer of signals to the brain), more precisely those which play a part in depression. In cases of mild depression, physical activity is as effective as medication - and almost as good as cognitive behavioral therapy.
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You don’t actually have to suffer from depression to benefit from physical exercise: a fit body reacts less vehemently to stress, which keeps you more aloof and focused on the task at hand.
As physical exercise also reinforces your capacity to learn and your memory, it will help you to work more efficiently. Together, task orientation and efficiency will result in a further reduced risk of stress in the workplace. |
Moreover, sustained physical exercise enhances self-confidence
It does so thanks to feelings of control and also through ‘mastery’, the inherent ‘feeling that one can achieve something’. Both in turn help to combat depression.
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Is there a type of exercise which gets preference? In order to improve one’s self image, strength training ought to be just as effective as fitness or endurance training. Physically combating depression is best done through fitness training and stretching exercise. But because group strength training also enables social contact and allows for relatively fast results, this distinction is quite relative, and it’s more important to find a good match between an individual and a type of activity: someone who starts doing sport, but drops out, obviously won’t benefit at all.
So an elaborate health policy best aims at stimulating physical exercise to the max - this can definitely help to reduce absenteeism.
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