MENTAL HEALTH –YOU'RE NOT ALONE

Mental health is often an overlooked fight that millions of people, especially farmers, face nationwide. However, each year we strive to raise awareness and help in the fight against this challenge through shining a light on the many available resources.

Mental health and physical health go hand in hand. To ensure a healthy and happy lifestyle, both aspects need to function properly together. When someone catches a cold or comes down with a stomach bug, they tend to seek help from medical professionals right away. But when someone experiences frequent anxiety or depression, they rarely seek help. If you wouldn’t ignore an issue with your physical body, don’t ignore your mental health issues either. A body with an unhealthy mind will start to see physical issues as well, such as stomach pain, headaches, and fatigue. Mental health can be affected by factors including unemployment, family conflict, grief, and many more. For farmers, mental health can be affected by a number of specialized factors including farmland issues, rising inflation and production costs, weather disasters, or farm injuries. Due to many farmer’s rural location, mental health services can be hard to locate. In hopes of combatting this disparity, there are now multiple virtual avenues available to provide help for everyone no matter their location or circumstances. For example, you can connect virtually with a telehealth professional, explore farm financial resource options, or contact a specialist all online. To learn more about mental health resources available, visit Managing Farm Stress (msu.edu).

Many of the factors affecting mental health are beyond your control. Instead of focusing on the uncontrollable, turn your focus to what you can control- your healthcare.1 in 4 people experience mental health related illnesses, this is more than a million people worldwide. Out of the millions, less than half seek help leading to generation cycles of untreated illness and preventable tragedies. Break the stigma by knowing you are not alone! Along with seeking help, you can also work on stress management techniques. Farm Credit has developed a stress management course to help everyone, not just farmers, understand the sources of stress, manage their own stress, learn the warning signs of stress and suicide, and identify effective communication strategies. The course is free and available to everyone! Visit Farm Credit to take the course today. ■