Rachel O'Neill is a licensed therapist and vice president, clinical & quality at Talkspace. She joins Cheddar News to discuss how the spring blues impact our mental health.

Between Bells

How Spring Impacts Our Mental Health

Welcome back to Between Bells everyone. As we begin to wrap up the colder months and spring forward. This upcoming sunday, it hopefully offers our mental health a sigh of relief, especially for those who may be suffering from seasonal depression with this change in weather comes an optimistic time for those looking for a change when it comes to physical health and mental health as well. And joining us now to discuss is Rachel O'neill, licensed therapist and Vice president clinical and quality at talks Face Rachel, thank you so much for joining us today to talk about this important subject. We are so close to warmer weather and springtime, but not out of the woods yet. So how does something like warmer weather actually impact our mental health? Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you so much for having me on, you know, the idea behind weather is that what is most important is how we make use of it. And we know from a research standpoint Spending about 30 minutes outside each day is really critical and warmer weather lets us do that. And so while having more access to sunlight is really helpful and being outside is really helpful. What's most critical is that we make use of that and we find the time to really take advantage of the longer days and to get outside and find ways to be with nature. Basically what are some of those specific ways that people can uh, you know, make it take advantage of this time, the transition to spring to positively impact their mental health maybe even as you know, we're still dealing with some cold weather. Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question going outside and finding ways to feel connected can be really helpful. One of the things that I always recommend that folks do is perhaps meditation or just being mindful of your surroundings. So if you can, especially in these early spring days, going outside and listening to what you hear or just taking in your surroundings a walk is a great example of a way to be mindful without having to be real intentional about mindfulness. But just finding ways to feel connected and be outside can be a great way to again take advantage of this time of the year we mentioned earlier, we're not out of the woods yet, especially here in new york, we get a 70 degree day followed by, you know, 30 40 degrees. Um, so what should we be looking out for in loved ones if they maybe, you know, signs and signals that they may be suffering from seasonal affective disorder? Yeah, seasonal affective disorder is actually incredibly common. About 10 million Americans experience symptoms of it every year. Some of the symptoms include feelings of sadness, feeling blue, feeling down in the dumps. Also things like weight gain or overeating, eating more than you might want to, especially some of those higher carbohydrate foods, Little energy or just a lack of interest in things that folks may have liked to do before and also sleepiness and what we see here is that sometimes folks may feel excessively sleepy throughout the day, but then may struggle to sleep throughout the night. So it can in many ways become a negative cycle. Those are some of the most common symptoms associated with seasonal effective disorder and with younger Children. Sometimes we also see is frustration or irritability. They may not necessarily demonstrates sadness or some of the traditional symptoms associated with depression. Certainly some signs to look out for. I do want to switch gears here because people are returning to the office after in some cases, years of being remote. So how can these employees manage the stress of returning to the office? Yeah, As we see individuals going back into the workplace, it's incredibly important that employers are aware of how to be helpful and really what to look out for. This is an unprecedented time. And even though some of the restrictions related to the pandemic are loosening, it doesn't mean that we're experiencing any less stress than we were a couple of months ago. Talk space for business. Recently commissioned a study with the Harris poll and this study was called the employee stress check 2021 report. What we found is that 50% of all employees have felt like work has become too stressful. So it really underscores the need for employers to have mental health care to have access to mental health services and really to bring the conversation of mental health care into the workplace. So, I think as from an employer standpoint, really being prepared to support employees is really critical, you touched on my next question, which was actually that some employees who have made this transition back to the office may actually be suffering worse mental health as a result. What if any light is there at the end of the tunnel for those employees? Yeah, I think the light at the end of the tunnel is that we're talking about this now and we're having conversations around what it means to have mental health accessibility for individuals, employers that have the opportunity to offer employees sponsored, employer sponsored healthcare, like things like talk space for business are really in a position to be able to help mental health um really be part of the narrative in the workplace and I think that's a silver lining. I think this opportunity to help individuals before they actually have to ask for help and to make conversations around mental health, something that's part of our narrative can be a really nice point as we all return to getting back to some form of normality and I do want to mention that people with Children were more likely to report that returning to on site work had negatively affected their mental health in terms of worrying about their kids at home. So what tips do you have for parents who might be distracted at work thinking about their kids? The great question, this is an area where we have seen significant impact for individuals that are balancing caregiver responsibilities and are concerned about their Children. We know in particular the parents are considered about the concerned about the long term impact of mental health effects on their Children. My biggest tip is just giving yourself some grace as a parent and finding ways to focus on what you can control and also letting go of things that are outside of your control. Of course, all of us who are parents are concerned about the long term impacts on our Children, but let's focus on what we can do right now and how we can help to take care of our Children in this moment while also taking care of ourselves as well. And so as you know, my advice for parents is as you're returning to the workplace and you're working on balancing work life integration maybe in a way that you haven't done for a couple of years, really giving yourself grace and giving yourself space to find out what this is going to look like for you after maybe a couple of years of not doing it, Rachel, thank you so much for joining us today. That's Rachel Neil licensed therapist and Vice President clinical and Quality at talk space