Risks and protective factors for mental health

Ways to protect your mental health every day

Like any other health condition, there are factors that increase your likelihood of experiencing a mental illness or mental ill-health. These include:

• biological factors – e.g. genetic family history, chronic medical conditions, alcohol or drug use
• psychological – e.g. a traumatic experience, stressful life situations, unhelpful thinking patterns
• social – e.g. having few friends or few healthy relationships, experiences of discrimination, being in an abusive relationship.

There are also protective factors that reduce your risk of mental ill-health. These include:

• Maintain a healthy lifestyle – Keep active, eat well and go out into nature. It can also be useful to cut back on alcohol and drugs. 
• Stay connected – Visit friends and family, or chat on the phone or online. Connect with people who are experiencing similar situations via support groups or online peer forums.
• Try a relaxation technique when you get stressed or anxious – Approaches include slow breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. 
• Stay in the present moment – Anxiety can make your thoughts focus on events that may not occur. Similarly, thinking about things that have gone wrong in the past can make you feel sad, angry or down. Finding ways to focus on the present moment can help reduce unhelpful thinking.
• Small acts of bravery – Avoiding what makes you anxious can make you feel calmer in the moment, however it can make anxiety worse in the longer term. Finding small ways to challenge yourself can help build your confidence and challenge beliefs about how bad something might be.
• Challenge your self-talk – Try to find different ways to think about situations that are troubling you. Think about how you would advise a friend to tackle a situation, or look at the facts for and against your thought being true.
• Understand what makes you anxious or stressed – Keep a record of what makes you anxious, upset or stressed. Find the patterns and proactively manage them. 

There are some simple things you can do to protect your mental health—stay healthy, stay connected and stay in the moment.

Ways to protect  mental health at work

Work can help promote good mental health. It can make us feel good about ourselves and give us a sense of purpose. Work gives us a chance to interact with others, and access supports that we might not get outside of work. However, work can also be a source of stress. 

These tips may help manage the impact of work on your mental health:  

• Limit working extra hours – Sometimes you cannot stick to standard work hours. However, working extended hours for long periods can impact your mental health. If working extra hours is becoming your normal, discuss your duties with your manager.
• Schedule meetings during core work hours – This approach makes it easier to keep to standard work hours. 
• Take regular breaks – For example, take a break once an hour to increase productivity. Leave your work area during lunch (e.g. go for a walk). 
• Try to create a boundary between ‘work' and 'home' – Even if you are working from home, it is important to have a clear boundary between work and home so you have time to disconnect.
• Take your holiday leave – Having a complete break from work has mental and physical health benefits. It does not have to be an expensive holiday, the key is just taking some time for a period of non-work time.
• Set realistic deadlines, expectations and deliver on time – Managing your schedule helps you complete your tasks to a high standard and without pressure. Sometimes you will have to revise your schedule. Setting expectations for yourself, as well as your supervisor, can be important.
• It is okay to say ‘no’ – Do not be afraid to say no if work demands exceed your capacity. There are many ways to say no respectfully or postpone commitments until you have capacity again.
• Turn off notifications – Being able to switch off from emails, online chats and other notifications can be part of maintaining healthy boundaries between work and life. Many work platforms allow you to disable notifications between certain times. If you cannot turn off outside hours, this may be a signal your workload is too high, or you may need to discuss how work is managed to allow you to have a break to recharge.  
• Make use of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – If your workplace offers an EAP service, you might find it helpful to talk to someone about any challenges you are facing. Talking about concerns early may help them become more manageable.
• Flexible ways of working – Having a degree of autonomy of when, where and how you do your work can be protective.

Increasing the amount of control you have over your work helps protect your mental health. One tip is to break your day into blocks—times when you do deep concentration work, times when you respond to emails and phone calls, times when you meet with colleagues, times when you switch off.