For anyone who has experienced a traumatic event, it is normal to have a psychological reaction.
But how do you cope if traumatic events are the nature of your day-to-day job? What if the psychological reaction you have doesn’t go away? And, what if you work in a corporate environment where daily working life creates continuous stress and anxiety?
Solstice clinicians, Kelly Madeiros, Dr Shawnee Basden and Dr Laura Robinson explained how the understanding and definition of trauma has evolved and how mental health issues such as chronic stress exposure and burnout present themselves.
They also shared how important it is to treat and prevent workplace trauma to stop it spreading within the community.
“We often see individuals presenting with persistent exhaustion, disrupted sleep, irritability, emotional numbing, difficulty concentrating or a sense of being constantly ‘on edge’,” Ms Madeiros explained.
“These aren’t random symptoms. They are the nervous system responding to perceived threat.”
Traditionally, the term ‘trauma’ meant your life was threatened in some way, but nowadays, it isn’t classified so strictly.
“Trauma is no longer limited to direct, personal experiences. There is now strong evidence that indirect exposure through constant engagement with global stressors like war, pandemics, political instability and climate concerns can activate the same physiological stress responses,” she said.
Professions that have long been associated with trauma and increased risk of burnout include those in healthcare, education and emergency services.
But Dr Robinson explained this is becoming broader.
“More recently, increased burnout rates have been found in business and corporate sectors,” she said. “Unrelenting pressures to achieve, innovate and outperform, coupled with market competitiveness and pressures towards profitability are factors specific to the business setting that have all been found to be significantly associated with burnout within the business population.”
In Dr Basden’s experience, this type of workplace stress has been on the rise since Covid, caused by “the explosion of online activity” which means employers can access employees around the clock.
“If your company wants to make a meeting at 7pm nowadays, it’s easy,” she said.
“Everybody can log onto an online meeting, so the pressure is on trying to maintain separation between home and work.”
Family impact
The cost of bringing workplace stress and trauma home can also take a toll on family life.
“You see increases in irritability, fighting in marriages. We see kids coming in in distress and they say my parents have been arguing more or home isn’t the same,” she continued.
People are often not given time to recover from a traumatic event or intense stress, which further drives the increase in work-related trauma.
Ms Madeiros said: “Professions such as healthcare, mental health, emergency services, education and leadership roles all carry increased risk not just because of what people experience, but because of how long they are expected to function under pressure without the opportunity to fully process or switch off.”
In Bermuda, this can be exacerbated because the emotional impact of these roles can be more personal.
“Police, ambulance and fire services are often not attending anonymous scenes,” she said. “They may be responding to incidents involving people they know, or people connected to their wider networks.
“That blurring of professional and personal boundaries makes it much harder to mentally step away from what they’ve experienced.”
How to cope
A similar dynamic exists within the justice system, where court staff and jurors could be exposed to traumatic details, and police and witnesses may have to revisit traumatic events.
When Ms Madeiros asks firsts responders how they deal with traumatic events, the answer is frequently: “It’s part of the job.”
First responders usually have access to a critical response team who will speak to them after an incident, but, she warned: “Having someone initially talk to you about it doesn’t really help with the prolonged trauma of being exposed to a road fatality, stabbing or shooting.”
Latest research actually shows that talking about a traumatic event immediately afterwards can be detrimental.
“It moves the emotional memories from short-term into long-term memory, which increases the risk of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder),” Dr Basden said.
On the back of this research, the US military has disbanded their trauma processing immediately after an incident. Instead, they play a computer game like Tetris, which, she explained, “is disrupting that sort of progression from short-term into long-term memory.”
Flexibility is crucial in helping people process and recover from traumatic experiences.
“Some people need distraction,” she continued. “Other people, distraction is unhelpful and so they want to talk through it, so having things like the Employee Assistance Programme readily available.”
Often, however, employees aren’t aware of resources such as EAP.
There is also still a stigma associated with asking for help. To combat this, organisations should create an environment where mental health support is proactive, not reactive.
“Create a space so that the person doesn’t have to ask for help,” Dr Basden said.
An example could be a mental health hour once a month in which an expert presents on different coping mechanisms.
“That way, it’s automatic. I have to attend and I don’t have to feel like I’m having to ask for help,” she said.
“Positive management support and mentorship” within the workplace have also proved to be a “significant protective factor in combating burnout in corporate workers,” added Dr Robinson.
Therapists can guide patients through appropriate treatment, but there are also habits people can adopt to help them switch off between work and home.
“I walk in my door, I change my clothes, I centre myself,” Dr Basden said.
“I turn off my work phone, or I check my emails one last time and I’m done for the night.”
Writing down things you need to remember for the next day can also help.
“Being outside, being near water increases better mental health and we have it all around us,” Ms Madeiros added.
“Just 30 minutes of walking on one of our paths or beaches can really help distract and increase better mental health.”
