Mental health is a serious issue that is not given enough attention in the automotive industry. Community editor, Hannah Gordon gives her advice as a mechanic on how to protect your wellbeing, and look out for others.
Winter, its cold dark and not always a happy time of year. As a mechanic its often difficult physically and mentally with cold working conditions, cars covered in snow and rain and the dark mornings and evenings. A predominantly male dominated industry in car repair means mental health and wellbeing can often be swept under the carpet.
I don’t want this to be another general blog about looking after yourself, not many people know but I was a full time Firefighter for 9 years. I saw first-hand mental health issues and suicide, it’s a subject that isn’t talked about enough but one that is so frequent amongst men that I felt that need to write about it.
One of the most common statements I heard from family/friends is that they had no idea the person was suffering, sometimes the bubbliest and most outgoing people are struggling the most. There is no easy answer to this but the first thing to say is that mental health covers a huge range of issues, if we feel unhealthy, we go to the gym and eat better but we don’t seem to understand how to treat mental health. Mental health can be something as simple as someone being in a bad mood over something small, we let it manifest and ruin our day. The more serious end is that we feel our lives are in a downward spiral, you could be in debt or have family problems which lead to a feeling of helplessness.
Having worked with men all my working life I’ve seen first-hand the devastation of keeping feelings bottled up, it isn’t easy to talk but it is an important first step. One of my favourite quotes is “you’re the only one who has to live with yourself for the rest of your life” in essence you need to look after number 1, yourself.
Repairing cars is a stressful job, we have all been there where a car is being a pain to fix and you go home thinking about it, you can’t sleep, and you’re worried about speaking to the customer the next day. That’s why in this industry we need to look out for our co-workers, we spend 8 hours a day, 5/6 days a week together and that allows us to get to know each other and potentially notice an issue quickly.
It’s not big, tough, or macho to ignore degrading mental health, it’s dangerous and I don’t believe there is anything that can’t be sorted out, but it needs to be talked about and actioned. I attended too many incidents of suicide, please get help, my DMs are open on Instagram and Twitter for anyone who wants to talk. You’re not alone.
For more help, visit:
BEN – supporting the automotive industry: www.ben.org.uk
Samaritans: www.samaritans.org
