What should I do to get a good appraisal? How do I give this job my best shot? How do I deal with the pain and anger I feel when at work? Dr Ajay Phadke, Founder and CEO of Type a Thought, an online counselling service, is barraged with such questions and more every single day. And many of them come from young and not-so-young professionals.
"We have found that the bulk of the people reaching out are between 25 and 45 and 60 per cent are women," he says. Most queries tend to be work-related or concerns about kids' education or outcomes of strained relationships, which impact workplace performance. "Most of them work to a deadline and end up putting a lot of pressure on themselves, resulting in what we call generalised anxiety disorder," he observes. Such disorders can trigger anxiety and panic attacks (palpitations, fatigue and irrational fear are some of the symptoms) and a general inability to cope with work. The stressors could be many, from workplace politics to work pressure, and could eventually lead to depression.
What are the early warnings that one is going down the wrong road? A lack of motivation and a loss of interest in oneself are telltale signs. People become irritable, suffer from irregular sleep patterns, tend to skip meals, stop exercising, and take to smoking and drinking as the coping mechanism when their professional life suffers.
One needs to cope with this troubled state of mind and must tackle it in small steps. A good starting point is to be aware of your thoughts. As soon as you sense a feeling of anxiety, try and understand what is causing it. Could it be an upcoming workplace meeting that you intensely dislike? Take your mind off the stressor and try to give it a rational spin so that your stress level goes down. Incidentally, most people tend to feel this way now and then and need not worry too much. The key to an early solution, says Dr Phadke, is to be aware of what is causing this anxiety and keep a firm grip on it. However, people suffering from severe depression or bipolar disorder must seek professional help.
There are solutions available if one is seeking external help. According to Dr Phadke, there are several online counsellors who will help you out. About 80-100 such companies were set up over the past 18-24 months, but many of them were shuttered. Around 50-odd providers are operating today and usually charge upwards of Rs 1,000, depending on counselling plans.
How AI Helps
Currently, talk therapy for depression and other related issues is preferred by medical professionals before starting medication. The cognitive-behavioural therapy, a type of psychosocial intervention, and the rational emotive behaviour therapy, developed by American psychologist Albert Ellis, help build coping strategies so that one can make positive changes in thoughts and behaviour.
But given the dearth of mental health specialists in India, creating large and specialised teams could be a challenge here. Consequently, dependence on artificial intelligence is growing in this space and bots get to process initial queries before directing a patient to the right therapist.
But these initiatives are yet to scale and must cover all kinds of scenarios to ensure zero-error analysis. Until then, talking to a therapist is essential if you want to stay mentally fit.
