Opinion: Simple self-help tools can be useful to farmers
© kalafoto/AdobeStock An Irish podcaster known as “Blindboy”, famous for wearing a mask fashioned out of a shopping bag, may have one of the best tools for mental health.
He highlights the use of simple psychology, mainly cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and the actions, beliefs, consequences (ABC) model.
Such self-help has been proven to be more effective than medication in treating depression. It baffles me that basic ideas like this aren’t taught to us at an earlier age.
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About the author
While seeking help from others should be the first port of call, many don’t for a variety of reasons.
These range from a misplaced fear of the stigma to potentially losing work or gun licences if the doctor records a mental health issue.
There is a role for self-help in certain circumstances and, as we head into one of the busiest and most stressful periods of the year, I’d like to highlight CBT as one of the best and simplest therapy techniques. And it’s only a Google search away.
CBT targets anxiety, depression and relationship problems.
It encourages users to analyse their feelings, think rationally about their problems, and tackle negative thoughts about themselves, others, and the future. This develops more positive emotions and increases resilience.
Our internal monologue – the way we chatter to ourselves in our brain – can benefit.
If you’re always judgemental and harsh on yourself, it creates automatic negative thoughts and a false sense of yourself or situations.
CBT teaches us to identify these thoughts and challenge them, changing your perspective and hopefully avoiding negative outcomes.
In the past five years, farming has seen some of the best advances in any industry in terms of tackling metal health issues, and awareness campaigns have made life a lot easier for a huge amount of people.
However we are really only scratching the surface. The sad truth is that there are many who still don’t seek help, and this impacts friends, family and our industry.
While speaking recently at a Young Farmers Club event, I was shocked to hear how social media leads young people to low self-esteem and despair.
Living in the era of filters and photo editing, we should all be aware that many of the “perfect” images online are staged or manipulated – far from the mundane reality.
No one uploads their failures and disappointments, but these are more normal and frequent than the highs of life.
We are all part of one team in British agriculture, and we simply can’t afford to lose talent and skills to poor mental health, especially when the fixes could be relatively easy to achieve.
Your health is your wealth, and no operation can run to its full potential unless you’re firing on all cylinders.
One of the best resources for help is the FarmWell website (fcn.org.uk/farmwell), which has a wealth of advice on many topics.
It’s disappointing that despite a fanfare on its establishment, the Scottish equivalent Farmstrong has failed to build up many resources (www.farmstrongscotland.org.uk).
I hope that they can grow and mirror the depth of information on the FarmWell site.
Pain and disappointment are unavoidable parts of life, but having the correct techniques and mindset to remedy issues is critical.
Help is out there. If you need it, don’t be afraid to seek it out.