MHM Magazine

Issue 5 | 2021 | MENTALHEALTHMATTERS | 21 MHM periodic bursts of “recovery” and ensuing activity. One way to think about languishing is that it’s a sort of middle child of mental health – the void between depression and flourishing, an absence of well- being. You don’t have symptoms of mental illness, but you’re not the picture of mental health either. You’re not functioning at full capacity. Languishing dulls your motivation, disrupts your ability to focus, and triples the odds that you’ll cut back on work. It appears to be more common than major depression — and in some ways it may be a bigger risk factor for mental illness. Part of the danger is that when you’re languishing, you might not notice the dulling of joy or the dwindling of drive. You don’t catch yourself slipping slowly into solitude; you’re indifferent to your indifference. When you can’t see your own suffering, you don’t seek help or even do much to help yourself. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Languishing was first documented in the early 2000’s, as a term for describing an absence of mental health more than a mental health condition as such. The term did not feature much in mental health circles, until part of the way through 2021 when it started making its way into the media as an attempt to describe the general phenomenon of listless- ness, restlessness and joylessness becoming more apparent globally. As in 2002, there is little known on exactly why languishing happens at all. Part of the reason for this phenomenon could be that we expected 2021 to be better, and different than 2020. After the shock and trauma of 2020, there was quite an expectation on the following year being a return to some sort of normality. However, there was an intense third wave with higher levels of loss – or certainly it felt that way, as we experienced deaths of people known to us, and younger people than before. And there’s still a pandemic, we still can’t mingle or travel freely, we’re still in masks, and despite vaccines being available there are delays (in many countries) in rollout. Even after wading through the overload of information on vaccine efficacy, and deciding whether to go ahead or not (all of which can be exhausting in itself), receiving a vaccine is still no guarantee against getting COVID or that life is totally normal again. So we’re in a holding pattern, a type of limbo, waiting for life to start feeling like we are living again. GAINING CONTROL OVER LAN- GUISHING Even if you’re not languishing, you probably know people who are. Understanding it better can help you help them. One of the best strategies for managing emotions is to name them. During 2020, the naming of the collective experience of loss and trauma the world was going through as “grief” was exceedingly helpful. The name gave us a familiar vocabulary to make sense of what had felt like an unfamiliar experience. Although we hadn’t faced a pandemic before, most of us had faced loss. It helped us use learnings from our own past losses and how we got through them, to manage the losses we were going through now. So while we still have a lot to learn about what causes languishing and how to manage it, naming it is a good first step. It can also remind us that we aren’t alone: languishing is common and shared. When you add languishing to your lexicon, you start to notice it all around you. It shows up when you feel let down by your short afternoon walk. It’s in your kids’ voices when you ask how online school went. It’s even demonstrated by the “meh” emoji in The Emoji Movie. HOW TO MANAGE LANGUISHING Nature: make time to get out when you can. Change of scenery is very useful in changing state of mind, and can include a physical activity like a walk –which also releases endor- phins and boosts your mood. Connection: make time to take breaks from screens and devices, and really connect in a conversation. This includes avoiding work on week-ends or some evenings. Disconnecting from screens will actually give you more energy when you get back to work. You might even start looking forward to it after a break! Let some joy in: allow yourself to actually “enjoy” things again. Instead of focusing on what “should” make you happy or not trying to find it at all, lean into anything that brings you enjoyment. As long as it’s not dangerous, it's worth exploring. Find interests beyond work and/or a screen. Separate spaces: when possible, create a designated space to work in that is separate from where you relax (a different area for being “on” and which you can step out of). Support: if it’s an option/available, therapy can be a helpful space and give you tools for navigating new and scary feelings, such as those associated with languishing. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) can help people reframe their negative thinking while exploring healthy coping behaviours. When necessary, this may also include taking medication. A therapist can also help you cope with some of the more acute things, like deaths in the family, and managing emotional and mental reactions to the more long- term things (career choices, and pivoting if you’ve been retrenched, for example). Coaching is also an option here, to upskill yourself for the new workplace and to assist with new issues faced by leaders, such as managing teams remotely and leading within the hybrid workplace. Gratitude: this one has been done to death, but even if you’re feeling cynical or apathetic, you are still here with opportunities available to humans – to learn, grow and evolve. Do a list of things you are thankful for physically, emotionally, and spiritually every morning and evening, especially when lonely or sad. A FINAL WORD Our mental health won't just go back to normal when the pandemic is over, or because we’re back in the office or lockdown restrictions are lifted. Recent statistics (SADAG 2021) cite that 1 in 3 South Africans have or will experience a mental health condition, yet there very few professional re- sources available (1 psychologist per 100 000, 1 psychiatrist per 300 000) and only 5% of the entire Health Budget has been allocated for mental health. This means we need to assume responsibility for our mental wellbeing as far as possible, and it begins with awareness – of our own state of body and mind, as well as of those around us. There is no need to diagnose or treat, merely to act as an early warning system. Prevention is always preferable to cure.