Cloud Native Computing Foundation KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2021, 14 May 2021

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From YouTube: Mental Health In Unprecedented Times - Dr. Jennifer Akullian, Growth Coaching Institute

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Don’t miss out! Join us at our upcoming event: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2021 in Los Angeles, CA from October 12-15. Learn more at https://kubecon.io The conference features presentations from developers and end users of Kubernetes, Prometheus, Envoy, and all of the other CNCF-hosted projects.

Mental Health In Unprecedented Times - Dr. Jennifer Akullian, Growth Coaching Institute

We work in a demanding industry with unusually high expectations; one that has normalized long hours and burnout. Innovation has a high frequency of failure, that we have been conditioned to personalize. Add normal life stressors, add a global pandemic… How these challenges impact our mental, cognitive and physical functioning, our ability to perform at work and in life, our behavior and well-being, (*everything* that makes us human), needs to be discussed openly now more than ever. In a society where this topic has been neglected for ages, it's time to bring it to the forefront of discussion. Let's get it started.

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Hi everyone, my name is jen, I'm joining you from colorado. Today, I've been working in technology since 2015 and was practicing as a psychologist prior to that. So stress and mental health come up a lot in the work that I do, but this past year more than ever- and this is what I'm going to chat with you about today- working in technology is demanding, stress, is normalized, even applauded and burnout is real and so to understand burnout. We need to look at the stress that is causing it.

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What happens during stress.

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Stress hormones cause your blood vessels to constrict and divert more oxygen to your muscles. So you have the strength to fight or run from a bear simply put except you are not being chased by a bear and when oxygen is redirected to our muscles, less is going to our brain, specifically our prefrontal cortex, which is what we actually need to address modern day. Stressors.

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Why are we and technology so stress, stressors, unique to technology, include equivocal deadlines which are unique to innovation, long hours on call high expectations, frequent failure, imposter syndrome, and then there are everyday stressors.

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And unique unpredictable stressors like a global pandemic, but, generally speaking, uncertainty is a huge contributor to stress and the fear it results in is observable now during a global pandemic. More than ever so, let's talk about uncertainty. The pandemic is highlighting a human response to something that goes unrecognized and is rarely discussed. The world is uncertain.

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The state of the world right now makes this undeniably true and as humans, we struggle with uncertainty.

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Certainty gives us comfort, we like being comfortable, there's less fear and more comfort. When we have certainty, if we are certain a bear is not going to chase us, we can feel more at ease whether we realize it or not. We are constantly trying to create certainty and therefore comfort in our lives.

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We do things like stay in jobs that aren't healthy, don't ask for feedback, don't take risks even avoiding or denying reality all of this to maintain comfort by avoiding the inevitable uncertainty in our lives.

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We tend to gravitate towards certainty towards comfort, as humans and uncertainty goes hand in hand with anxiety, stress and fear which we don't love as humans and therefore try to avoid.

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So, let's talk about fear, perhaps the greatest emotional discomfort we experience as humans is fear.

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Right now across the world, fear is dominating how we think what we feel, how we act and the decisions we make fear can be healthy, but can also be debilitating, and when it is people go to great lengths to stop the fear, but remember we are not being chased by a bear where, once we needed fear to flee the bear or fight it, our legs are not going to help us escape today's modern day, scary stuff, definitely not a pandemic.

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When we are disconnected from fear and our feelings, those emotions control us, they dictate not only our emotional state but also our behaviors. So let's talk about how we can be more aware and not let the emotional experience totally hijack us. How do we master our emotions simply put what you think is what you feel.

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If you want to stop feeling stressed and anxious, for example, you need to stop attending to those thoughts that are resulting in those emotions. If your thoughts are, I don't know how I'm going to meet this deadline. You might feel anxious if you're thinking I have so much on my plate, it isn't manageable.

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You might feel overwhelmed if you're thinking. I can't meet these expectations, I'm not skilled enough, I'm not good enough. You might feel your insecurity or what we often refer to as an imposter syndrome. Keep up. If you are thinking things are so hard and I can't do anything to make them better. You'll probably feel hopelessness.

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If you think the world is ending, you might feel panic. It's important to note that breaks are not avoidance. The goal is to take not to take a break from heart emotions indefinitely. All the emotions mentioned so far, including fear and insecurity, serve a healthy purpose. If approached with your noggin, which is hard to do when your body is preparing or existing in a state to run from the bear, you must take breaks from attending to the thoughts that are leading to the emotions that require a great amount of energy.

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You cannot live in a constant state of anxiety and fear, for example, without eventually burning out, so we must take breaks and we'll talk more about that in a minute and in general it just sucks to feel like this all the time.

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Let's talk about the toilet paper situation, hoarding tp is not irrational, behavior, even if the world ran out of toilet paper during a pandemic, it is not a life-threatening concern.

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We have a lot of soft material, clothing partners, t-shirts and our homes to wipe our butts with, but the pandemic makes uncertainty very real and hard to ignore, and for most of us no one taught us how to deal with uncertainty and fear growing up. You are afraid you don't know what to do. You see other people stocking up on a year's supply of toilet paper, so you do the same, and here we have a collective social panic.

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I haven't seen anyone hoarding toilet paper in a while now, but there are plenty other things regarding the pandemic or life in general. That is causing a lot of fear and you can still see a collective fear across our society.

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Rumination requires a lot of cognitive, mental and sometimes emotional, energy, even physical energy, and if you exist in a constant state of rumination, around thoughts that are distressing, it impacts all of these areas and you live in what I call the rabbit hole living in the rabbit hole leads to catastrophizing, where, instead of there being one thing to ruminate on everything else, piles on and your amygdala, the emotional center of your brain, just freaks out your oxygen heads to your muscles and it's hard to think rationally to address the emotions and what's causing them and the purpose they are serving when they need your attention.

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This can lead to all sorts of health conditions, burnout, anxiety, attacks, panic attacks, so real quick. Let's talk uh about mental health in uh the tech industry and I want to dive into this data specifically in technology, um but first well, I'm going to wait a second and talk about the word mental illness. So let's talk through the data first.

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So uh when we look at prevalent prevalence statistics, we know that approximately twenty percent of the population has a diagnosed mental health condition and five percent have what is referred to as a serious mental health condition like schizophrenia or bipolar.

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There hasn't been a lot of research done on mental health in the tech community, but open sourcing. Mental illness, which is a non-profit organization focused on this area, has been collecting data since 2016 and it's published on their website, as well as an ongoing survey that you can opt into and what it has shown over the years is that the prevalence of diagnosed mental health conditions in our industry is higher than the general population.

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Consistently tech professionals reported diagnosed conditions of mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety disorders, more than the general.

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So, let's take a second to address the word mental illness. I want to address this. I think it's really important, and essentially what I want to say is that mental illness is not real. This is what I tell people I try to plug, because it's a very large misconception in our society, and by that I mean it is made up term by society and adopted by even reputable organizations which really catches me by surprise, sometimes and now, and without go with completely good intention to bring more awareness to mental health generally speaking.

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But the reality is that mental health challenges are not an illness and to some this word can contribute to the very real stigma that already exists and when stigma is real and people feel it they struggle and tend to not reach out for help, because of the shame that they feel something is wrong with them or they aren't trying hard enough.

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So when you read about mental illnesses and the statistics, what is being referred to is a diagnosed mental health condition or what we call medically mental health disorders as defined by the dsm or the icd.

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No quote disorders is not much less stigmatizing than illness, but let's be on the same page about what is being referred to.

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When you hear or read about quote mental illness diagnosed, mental health conditions require one to meet a set of criteria and symptoms outlined by medical professionals in research over the years, but also that these symptoms negatively and significantly impact one or more areas of life. That's why you can have symptoms of anxiety, depression, autism, ocd, adhd, but not necessarily meat, diagnostic criteria.

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So pretty consistently over the years from the osmi data is that mood disorders and anxiety disorders are the highest reported, sometimes in a comorbidity way, whereas they have dual diagnosis.

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But what I find even more notable is that professionals who report having an undiagnosed mental health condition report consistently mood, anxiety and stress response.

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Conditions, so why are so many tech professionals diagnosed with a mental health condition? We don't really know because again, the research is pretty limited, we're not getting a lot of funding towards.

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You know: research around the brain and mental health in general. So there's a lot of limitations.

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We can't one of those limitations is we can't ask individuals to disclose their medical information around mental health, so um the statistics that I just shared with you may be inflated, but it's also likely higher than the general population. I believe- and I do have a theory as to why- and I will own that this is just my thoughts based on the information that I have been considering over the years.

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So I believe that there is not a higher prevalence of diagnosed mental health conditions in technology, but rather there is an over diagnosis of anxiety and depression due to stress and burnout.

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So let's talk about burnout.

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Burnout is not a medical term, but it is understood as prolonged exposure to stress it is energy loss without recovery. Other terms used to describe burnout are adrenal failure and acute stress disorder, and it happens when your brain and body exist in the state of fight or flight. For a long time, adaptively, this heightened state of stress was necessary to keep us safe right. Our brains were preparing us to run from a predator.

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It used the energy to run rather than to think, but the problem is we're not equipped as humans to exist in a constant state of fight or flight, and when we are exposed to stress for a long period of time, and particularly if we do not balance it with the restoration, it manifests as symptoms of depression and anxiety. This is something researched and understood in the medical field. Prolonged stress leads to symptoms of anxiety and depression.

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So my theory is that in technology we tend to burn out.

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We tend to not address it because it's been very normalized and, as a result, we experience higher degree of symptoms around depression and anxiety than the general population and in our desperation, to help we seek medical attention, which then tends to lead to a diagnosis of depression and anxiety.

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Burnout or not, feeling stressed or not living with a mental health condition or not living in a relatively comfortable life or not. We as humans have a lot of feelings and feelings are resulting in stress, that's hard and it can last for a long time.

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So let's not feel and exist in this constant state uh indefinitely, and the first thing that I want to point out uh that needs dressing is that we need to stop judging our feelings. Feelings are not good or bad, or right or wrong. When we judge uh saying things like I shouldn't be dot dot so uh so upset, so anxious so stressed so overwhelmed so insecure.

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The judgment is what's getting in the way of observing um our feelings with rational thinking and deciding what to do problem solving using that prefrontal cortex, rather than living in our amazing amygdala, the emotional center of our brain and which, which the amygdala hijacks the prefrontal cortex, which is more for problem solving and rational thinking and processing and being able to think just rationally in general.

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So let's stop judging our feelings, just observe them. I feel overwhelmed. This is where I'm at right. Now. It is okay that right now I feel this way. I will just pay attention and maybe take a brain break from 3 to 3 15, which I'll talk more about um shortly, and then your brain will be more equipped to address. What's on your plate, stop judging your feelings. This keeps you stuck just observe.

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So what if I told you that there was a more effective way in relieving stress than hoarding toilet paper, something that that's research based that also other than helping aid and stress management, helps your memory, improves, processing, speed, creativity, problem solving, helps, you think, rationally helps you perform at your potential makes dealing with conflict easier, dealing with uncertainty, less scary gives you more energy keeps you slim lowers food, cravings protects you from cancer and dementia wards off colds, and the flu lowers your risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes.

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Helps you feel happier less depressed, less anxious helps avoid burnout helps you live longer.

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If you are not sleeping your top priority should be figuring out how to make sure you are or why you aren't, if you don't know, sleeping significantly impacts every area of your life. Your mood, your ability to be productive and execute how you show up during conflict and challenges, problem solving everything find out why you are not sleeping address this before anything else. It can alleviate a lot of problems.

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A lot of stress a lot of symptoms do not be that professional who believes their lack of sleep shows how committed they are to working hard sleep helps you recover from being chased by the bear. If you don't sleep, you keep running from the bear and you eventually burn out there isn't enough time to dive into you know all the further the research out there and the further benefits around sleep, but there is a ton of information out there available to you. My recommendation to people is the book. Why we sleep.

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Stretch yoga is popular, probably because people see the benefits, you don't need to be a yogi to benefit from stretching just stretch stretch when you remember bend over and hang pull uh back from the sink stretching distributes oxygen where it's needed. That is your brain because remember, you are not being chased by a bear.

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Breaks, I call them brain breaks. You must take breaks from thinking about what is causing the stress put your attention somewhere else. Some people think this is just distraction which has been stigmatized as something we should not do.

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I can start refocusing your attention on something else, to restore your brain and so remember that your emotions are linked to what you're paying attention to.

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If you want to feel less anxiety, take a break from the news from social media from what you are working on, if that's possible, from ruminating about a difficult situation or conversation or feedback or something upcoming whatever it is, that's causing the anxiety, whatever the thought patterns are that you are focused on that is leading to the feeling that it's difficult for you, your brain, will recover and will allow you to approach the anxiety or the state that you're in in a more healthy way, taking a 15 or 30 minute break will not lead to a total disaster which your brain sometimes convinces you of, because it's functioning from that state of fight or flight, not your proof onto cortex, but that emotional center, the amygdala.

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That's firing and firing and firing so schedule your your brain breaks. Put it on your calendar. Stick to it the way you would a critical meeting. This event is a critical meeting and when you are taking a brain break at 2 15, because that's when your calendar shows you it's scheduled for and those difficult anxiety provoking thoughts pop up, which they will they will pop up just notice them and put them aside, go back to attending to what you chose as your brain break.

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You can go back to worrying about the hard thoughts at 2 30 when your scheduled break is over. The intention is not to take an indefinite break from important thoughts that need your attention.

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You are going to come back to them and part of what makes being able to take a break easier is knowing that you're coming back to them, because when people try to avoid and distract themselves with no intention of coming back, then it builds on the anxiety of something's, not right something's going to go wrong and I need to address it right now or everything's going to fall apart.

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Brain breaks are your friend the bathroom mirror is your friend I realize not. Everyone likes having their personal mental health reminders on display for everyone else who uses the bathroom, but I believe that any effort to bring more awareness to yourself will also benefit your roommate partner, kid grandma. How do you feel stress one to five break sketch? These are stretched. These are things that I use on.

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My bathroom mirror check in how you're feeling rating your stress don't forget, to take a break, don't forget to stretch bathroom mirror, isn't uh you know the only option there are sticky notes, phone reminders, etc, but I, like the bathroom, mirror because most most of us use the bathroom a few times a day. So a few times a day, you can be reminded to check in with yourself to check or to ask if you need a break because, like most skills, brain breaks require awareness and you need to remember to take the break.

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This might sound silly, but my experience has been that the awareness and remembering to take the break is the hardest part so make the bathroom mirror your friend.

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Breathe if you're going to take a break, might as well use it to stretch, refocus your attention on something other than what is causing the stress, something that's healing or just breathe. I include this one because it's pretty easy to breathe, but, let's just add a little more intentional breathing.

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The most recognized method of meditation is to pay attention to your breath. If you're paying attention to your breath or something else, then you are not attending to the growing list of tasks not being completed or that the world is ending, et cetera. Whatever is causing the hard feelings that are exhausting you so take a couple of deep breaths and observe the inhale and the out exhale, and let's get the oxygen redirected from your muscles back to the brain because remember, you are not being chased by a bear.

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How many of you receive notifications on your computer on your phone on your smartwatch?

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Many of us right? Maybe most of us make these notifications work for you when you receive a notification, close your eyes, take a deep, inhale and exhale and then approach the notification.

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It's very unlikely that the five-second delay to do this will have a damaging impact. It is very likely that it will prepare your brain to tackle the notification better notifications are your friend.

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So to review sleep stretch, break breathe, there are endless ways to address stress help reduce it. Do any google search. There are billions of books out there. In my experience and opinion and expertise. These are the three most critical ones, particularly the top three. um You will be breathing uh ongoingly, whether you choose to or not, but giving it your attention can add a lot of value as well. Definitely start with sleep. It is the single most critical aspect of addressing burnout, stress and general generally just functioning professionally and as a human.

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And lastly, you must take breaks, you must take breaks, you must take breaks, you must take time off and also you are not alone. A lot of people are struggling right now in tech, in our society around the globe and it's okay. If it's hard right now, it will not be hard forever. Things will get better and then they'll get harder and then they'll get better again. You are human and as isolated as you might feel right now, especially if you're struggling, you are not alone.

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Thanks so much kubecon cncf on each of you for joining this today, I look forward to hearing your questions. Please also feel free to email me. If I don't get to your questions and the time we have left and or if you don't feel comfortable asking them in this forum or if you think of anything moving forward thanks again.