This week marks Mental Health Awareness Week. We hear from the profession about what mental health means to them and their top tips for staying balanced.
Deepa Bharakhda, dental technician
In my opinion, mental health does not get discussed much. Especially in south asian communities where people generally try to keep it a secret and coup it all in. This can have serious effects on your mental health without you knowing.
I am guilty as I have been through this phase and it has done me no favours! I have recently started to make changes in my life and put my wellbeing as a priority to try to take care of my emotions.
The tips I would like to share are:
- Surround yourself with people that have a positive impact on you
- Make time for yourself and do something you want to do – it can be anything! Make it a habit to schedule in ‘me time’
- Get enough sleep, keep yourself hydrated, eat well and practice deep breathing exercises
- Engage in meditation, indulge in hobbies and make meaningful connections with loved ones
- Carve our space and time for a moment of stillness and embrace the journey of self discovery!
Priyanka Bhatwa, dental nurse
I believe that stress and anxiety are harmful for dental professionals and can lead to worse outcomes for patients. There should be some relaxing time for staff to cope with their stress. They can spend time with friends by going outside in their break time.
They should concentrate on eating as well and should have healthy food. Exercise could also help in stress calming as it helps to keep the body fit for work in a busy environment.
Beth Brown, dental technician
Mental health is unique to each person, so understanding your own coping methods is a complex journey.
For me, I keep my mind active by constantly learning new things. I make time for work breaks and ask for regular updates and schedules to keep my mind organised.
I also block out time to recharge each week, reconnect with loved ones and focus on myself.
Robert Chaffe, dentist
Mental health is a subject very close to my heart! I am incredibly lucky and proud after recovering from anorexia when I was a teenager. It was a very tough time for me, and now makes me want to try and help others going through hard times and avoid the mistakes I made. We all have them, professionally and personally. Life can be hard.
My way of getting around the rollercoaster of life is trying to surround myself with positive, like-minded people and stay active – both mentally and physically. I love to cycle to work every day. The fresh air on my face and the endorphin hit is better than any cup of coffee in the world!
I also love digital dentistry – it’s fun, progressive, and keeps me doing the type of work I love, rather than becoming bored with the mundane. It has put me in touch with like-minded and very creative people, which fills up my cup every single day I am around them.
I am also blessed to have two wonderful children and an incredible wife, and spending time with them, being out, active and in the fresh air exploring the world makes us happy and helps us all through the hard times.
I also love learning new skills, either academic or a new workout routine. Currently, I am studying an endodontic masters degree and learning to powerlift! This keeps my mind occupied and the dark thoughts at bay. Variety is the spice of life! While these are very basic, little things I do every day, it helps me stay positive when I feel the grey clouds overwhelm me overhead.
Cat Edney, dental therapist
Mental health, for me, is a combination of things. I feel that we often forget that to be mentally healthy we need a number of different needs to be met – instead believing that mental health is the absence of mental illness.
For me, it is all about balance. I have realised that there are so many things that make me happy: I need to ensure I create a balance between them all to really support my overall wellbeing.
I have three wonderful children who make me eternally happy. However, I know that being home with them all of the time would not support my mental health.
Instead, I seek out ways of finding a balance in all aspects of life, such as finding joy in my work, maintaining healthy relationships with friends and family, and making meaningful contributions to society. I decided long ago that working five days a week doing the same thing is really not for me.
By advocating for the dental therapist profession in my lecturing work, I feel like I am really contributing to a worthy and notable cause which also supports my clinical work.
I have managed to carve out a space for myself where I am doing the work I love, with people I consider friends, who all share the same values of excellence, compassion and growth. And at the end of the day, I can come home to a family that are also spending time doing what makes them happy.
My best advice to people is: choose to only do the things that make you happy.
Mahrukh Khwaja, dentist
As a positive psychologist and founder of a wellbeing start-up, Mind Ninja, Mental Health Awareness Week matters to me enormously because it gives an opportunity for organisations, teams, colleagues and the general public to engage, speak up about mental health, and really celebrate self care and proactive steps towards positive health.
The mission of campaigns like this one aligns with my vision to increase the mental wellbeing of all dental and healthcare professionals. I’m happy to see an increase in interest from dental organisations in promoting the ethos of MHAW and spotlighting the various themes.
This years theme is anxiety and here are my top tips explored in my book, Resilience and Wellbeing in Dental Professionals:
1. Being curious about your anxious thoughts
This tool comes from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). It involves opening up to your thoughts rather than resisting them. It encourages tolerance of anxious thoughts using mindfulness to take on an observer role. This skill is known as psychological flexibility.
You are then able to take value-based actions going forward. We can do this by catching and labelling the anxious thought. We may say to ourselves, ‘I notice I’m having a thought that I’m not good enough. I notice that I am feeling anxious.’
We can remind ourselves that thoughts come and go like the weather – and although they are uncomfortable, we don’t have to buy into their story.
2. Developing self-kindness
Treating yourself with kindness and compassion when feeling anxious is important. When you feel stressed, instead of being critical and saying things to yourself like, ‘I’m so stupid, what’s wrong with me? I should be able to cope’, you can say, ‘this is a moment of suffering; suffering is a part of life; may I be kind to myself’, or, ‘what I need at this moment is some self-kindness’.
You can also try a physical gesture of self-kindness. For example, give your arm a tender squeeze. We need to accept that failure is part of learning and that making mistakes is part of being human – you have to be bad at things before you can be good at them.
3. Expressing your emotions
Expressing your emotions means telling people how you genuinely feel; your hopes, fears and challenges. You can do this by:
- Noticing your feelings
- Talking to another person about your feelings or journaling about them.
4. Mindfulness meditation
Mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment without getting lost in the story of your thoughts. To do this you can:
- Get comfortable
- Set a time limit
- Close your eyes
- Notice your body
- Feel your breath
- Notice if your mind has wandered
- Gently nudge attention back to breath.
5. Problem solving
Problem-solving is the process of finding solutions to difficult or complex issues. You can use this when you are in a stressful situation that is within your control. Here’s how:
- Brainstorm all possible solutions and write them down. Be creative, and nothing is off the table
- Evaluate the pros and cons of each option. Give each option a score out of 10
- Choose an option, and do it
- See what happens – if your chosen option doesn’t work, go back to steps two and three and choose a different option.
Paul Gallop, principle dentist
I was brought up by my mother alone and we never had any money. And lately, since the inflation and cost of food rises, I’ve been cooking more at home. Instead of doing a shop every week, me and my wife started buying things every other day on our way home so we were eating fresh produce.
We looked on the internet and social media and found recipes you can cook very quickly. So then you get a cheaper meal, it’s healthier and you know what’s in it. So regarding financial hard times, my main tip is to start cooking more at home if you can.
Regarding mental health and dentistry, I think it’s important that we look after our staff properly and listen to any problems they have. If you think someone is a bit down, you should take them aside and chat to them to find out what’s going on – or ask someone else to take them aside if you don’t think they’ll chat to you.
When you have found out what’s going on, you should be really, really supportive. If someone needs time off or they need to change their working hours for whatever reason, you should do that. I think we all have to understand each other and communicate better.
Regarding patient anxiety, domestic abuse is a real problem in society these days. It comes in many forms – it can be financial, mental or physical abuse. I think it’s important that we learn, as professionals, how to spot these things and what we can do about it.
Onkar Mudhar, dentist
Mental health is hard to define. It’s truly subjective, an umbrella term which could be interpreted differently by each individual.
Theoretically, it encompasses the status of one’s emotional and psychological wellbeing. However for me, mental health is a sense of both clarity and happiness, alongside the willingness and determination to overcome obstacles you may face.
As someone who has struggled with anxiety in the past (and continues to), my top tips/tools that have helped me include:
- Exercise – a run or burst of cardio always seems to help me
- Getting lost in a book – reading books based on psychiatry and mental health have helped me understand my triggers and rejig my thought process
- Not thinking too far ahead – always retain the long term goal, but don’t put toxic pressure on yourself (we are awful for this in dentistry) take every small success as a win on your gradual journey to where you need to be
- Breathing exercises – this one sounds obvious, but breathing exercise are evidence based. They can work wonders and are a great tool to have
- Socialising – this one doesn’t work for everyone, but I find talking to friends/family who have been through similar experiences helps you realise you’re not alone!
Stevie Potter, dentist
We often talk about self-care and being kind to yourself. But mental health for me is the ability to withstand, endure, be resilient and cope with life, because we have to accept it isn’t always going to be sunshine and rainbows. I think mental health is not about ensuring you’re always jolly and in a good mood but rather that you have the capacity to cope with things when they’re not so great.
My tips would be making sure you prioritise yourself. I don’t mean that in a selfish way but making sure you’re making time and space for yourself, and that others aren’t crossing boundaries when it comes to time management. I think we always underestimate the value of good nutrition and fitness.
For me, this is what keeps me grounded and well – getting outdoors, exercising and eating the right stuff. You’ve got to have the right building blocks to create the machine that makes good mental health. You need a good physical machine ie your body so that the brain inside it is nurtured.
In terms of tips, it’s looking out for your boundaries and not feeling obliged to do things that don’t feed into your goals. You have to think about serving others but I think you can do that within the capacity of serving yourself first. You can’t be totally selfless or totally selfish, but if you meet somewhere in the middle, then you’ll probably get on okay.
Sarika Shah, dentist
We are all unique and will perceive and experience mental health issues differently. As this year’s mental health awareness week comes to a close, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on this vast topic.
As dental professionals across the industry, we work in a high-risk environment every day. If combined with a high achieving attitude, it’s no wonder that many of us will suffer with mental health problems at some point in our career.
By first taking a step towards awareness around the issue, we can then begin to control how we think, feel and act, as well as recognise signs of poor mental health and then begin to take action constructively.
Being a practice owner, leader and a mum means I have to keep my mental health in check every day. In the past, I have experienced prolonged levels of stress and anxiety which ultimately led to burnout. I have found ways to understand and tackle this and have found I can take make some simple choices to sustain a thriving and fulfilling life. Here is my five-step ritual:
- Daily five minute journalling (this will pick up and recognise signs as well as shine light on the positive aspects of your day) and creating rest time
- Movement – regular exercising or walking
- Prioritise sleep and healthy eating
- Say NO when I can’t or don’t have time to do something
- Work and love in an environment that aligns with me values.
You are in control of your life and how you live it so, don’t just survive, but thrive.
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