Matters of the mind

Brenda fell into the deep, dark rabbit hole of depression at age 32, shortly after a stressed-out co-worker committed suicide. Like everyone in the headquarters of their Vancouver-based resource company, Brenda had been racking up extensive unpaid overtime for months to keep pace with a growing workload. Management’s unrealistic expectations had created a working environment where everyone was struggling just to stay afloat.

She recalls how her former co-worker seemed unusually intense the day he stopped at her desk to say goodbye. “I asked if he had found another job. He said, ‘No, I just have to get out of here.’ I was concerned enough to tell someone in HR about what I thought was a very strange conversation. Two days later, they sat us down as a group and told us he had killed himself. They even brought in a counsellor to help us ‘cope,’ which seemed really bizarre, given that before then no one in management had cared what the added stress was doing to us.”

The suicide was a tipping point for Brenda. Already struggling with a special project on top of her regular job, Brenda – a self-described detail-oriented perfectionist – began withdrawing from friends and family, sleeping less and crying constantly, unable to make even the smallest decision. When the very thought of getting up for work made her physically ill, she saw her GP, who diagnosed her depression, cleared her to take disability leave and made sure she got treatment. But her employer was far from supportive. Returning to work after her first depressive episode, she found herself at odds with a female supervisor, someone she describes as a judgmental “eye-roller” with little compassion. This relationship triggered a serious relapse, leading to thoughts of suicide, a short hospitalization and another stint on disability leave.

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Info: Workplace depression in Canada

Today – thanks to a doctor-supervised regimen, including counselling, a healthy lifestyle emphasizing exercise and nutrition, and a stabilizing cocktail of four antidepressant medications – Brenda is once again, at age 50, a fully functioning member of the workforce. Her new employer, Coast Capital Savings Credit Union, is fully committed to reducing the stigma around mental illness, treating it as any other serious disease and

Take a good look around your place of work; depression is almost certainly affecting someone on your team. According to B.C.’s Ministry of Health, one in five British Columbians, or approximately 882,000 people, will experience some form of mental health disorder this year, most likely depression or anxiety. Besides the tragedy of shattered lives and wasted human potential, depression takes an enormous toll on Canada’s economy: $51 billion a year, states the Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, with 40 per cent of disability claims and sick days in Canada the result of mental illness. Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that by 2020, depression will be the leading cause of disability.

In May a study by the Alberta-based Institute of Health Economics published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry found Canada lags behind most developed countries in the amount of money it spends treating mental illness. (On a positive note, B.C. topped the list for provincial spending.) Our federal and provincial governments are starting to get the message – most notably in 2007 with the creation of the Canadian Mental Health Commission, chaired by former senator Michael Kirby. For the first time, Canada has a high-level national body supported by government (but arm’s length from it) charged with improving and standardizing care for Canadians dealing with mental illness, with a special emphasis on how depression affects aboriginal people, children and the workplace.

Dramatic statistics and government initiatives aside, most Canadian workers know more about cancer, heart disease and HIV-AIDS – even global warming – than they do about mental illness. Not too long ago, we thought depression was synonymous with desperate housewives and sensitive poets; only now are we connecting the dots between depression and that hushed-up family suicide, alcoholic neighbour or withdrawn co-worker, quietly fired after his performance slipped. Indeed, scientists themselves don’t know much more about what causes depression; it’s a complex disorder with many causes, some physical and some psychological, and affects both sexes equally.

But we do know that the workplace can play a role in contributing to the development of depression. A report recently commissioned by Desjardins Financial Security shows the extent to which workplaces serve as incubators for mental health problems: 83 per cent of surveyed Canadians admitted showing up for work while sick or exhausted an average of six times in the past year; 89 per cent said they believe stress-related problems are on the rise within their organization. Canadians work some of the longest hours in the industrialized world, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – almost seven weeks more per year than do French and German workers. Because we spend so much time at work, and its stressors often push susceptible people and those with existing depression symptoms into crisis, it’s the perfect place to spot emerging mental health problems – and to encourage sufferers to seek professional help.

Margaret Tebbutt’s depression surfaced with a vengeance at age 50, at the peak of a 25-year career working for the Vancouver office of a federal government agency. She found herself struggling to concentrate and relate to her colleagues. At her lowest point, she recalls spending 15 minutes crying in her car each morning before she could don her “professional mask” and walk into the office building.

Tebbutt is typical of people suffering from depression: her condition was simmering below the surface for years before it was correctly diagnosed. “In my case, it was the culmination of a lot of things over a long period of time: work, personal and family. I was very good at covering it up, but when I hit my low point people began to notice my increasing isolation and the fact that I wasn’t talking.” Convinced to seek help by friends and family, Tebbutt briefly returned to work for a year in another role before experiencing a serious relapse.

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