How are you feeling?

To say the last year has been tough on many is an understatement. We talk to psychiatrist Dr Ruth Vine, Australia’s first Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Mental Health, about the importance of checking in with our mental health.

- BROOKELE POER TRENCH

The tricky thing about staying on top of your mental health in a pandemic, and the aftershocks of one, is that it’s perfectly normal to find yourself in emotional states you’ve never been in before. “COVID and the lockdowns that come with that have taken away a lot of the usual ways we deal with stress,” says Dr Vine. “And it’s tough when you can’t have those normal life rituals.” She says that one of the most important things we can do right now for ourselves is to remember that many of us are having normal reactions to abnormal times.

“We are putting pressures on our families and ourselves, so when negative emotions come up, that does not mean you are losing the plot,” says Dr Vine.

Of course, the truth is that sometimes we do stop coping. A recent Australian Red Cross survey nationwide found that two in five Australians say their mental health has been negatively impacted, with a similar number feeling less hopeful about the future. This is perhaps just one of the reasons the federal government’s budget commitment to mental health came in at $2.3 billion. This may sound like a lot, until you hear that the Productivity Commission estimated that mental illness costs the broader Australian economy at least $200 billion each year in healthcare costs, lost productivity, economic participation, career costs, disability and premature death. It pays to keep well.

Here, Dr Vine walks us through how we can better understand our mental health needs, and not miss the signs that we – or those close to us – might need more support.

1. Take the pressure down