Good to Talk · Life gets bloody hard · Free. Always.
When work follows you home
If you or someone else is in danger, call 999 or go to A&E. If you need urgent mental-health help but it is not an emergency, use NHS 111 online or call 111 and select the mental-health option.
Deadlines, responsibility, insecurity, difficult people, long hours and never properly switching off can turn a job into something that occupies your head even when you're nowhere near work.
Stress is not the same as being busy
A demanding week can be tiring without becoming a mental-health problem. Pay attention when work pressure is persistently affecting sleep, mood, concentration, relationships, drinking, eating or your ability to recover away from work.
Look at the job and the load
Ask what is actually driving the pressure: workload, hours, lack of control, conflict, unclear expectations, fear of redundancy, responsibility for others, or something outside work leaving you with less capacity. Different problems need different fixes.
Don't wait for a spectacular collapse
Speak to your manager where appropriate, use occupational health or an employee assistance programme if available, protect genuine time away from work and seek professional help if you're struggling to cope. If work is unsafe, discriminatory or abusive, that may also require specialist employment advice.
You're not the only one
Sources & further reading
- NHS Every Mind Matters — life's challenges
- NHS Every Mind Matters — mental wellbeing tips
- NHS — mental health
Educational information, not a diagnosis. Where a problem involves money, gambling, alcohol, abuse, bereavement or another specialist issue, use an appropriate specialist service as well as mental-health support where needed.