World Mental Health Day: Why asking for help is empowering

World mental health day

World Mental Health Day is the 10 October 2021, and this day reminded us here, at Elite Words, just how important and empowering asking for help can be. Sometimes, when life becomes overwhelming or too much to handle, asking for help can feel like the hardest task in the world. But it shouldn’t feel like that.

Asking for help, for whatever reason, is critical in protecting your wellbeing. Whether your mental health is struggling, you need to help ease the pressure at work, or life feels a little overwhelming, asking for help can ease your burdens.

World Mental Health Day is focused on raising awareness about mental health issues and encouraging greater support from governments, organisations, and individuals. It’s a day dedicated to giving individuals with mental health struggles a voice and empowers people to think about their own personal wellbeing. It’s an extremely important day globally, for those with mental health struggles and for those that don’t, as everybody can be affected by poor mental health at any point in their lives.

To add to the conversation, Elite Words wants to explore the importance of asking for help in both a business setting and a personal one. Seeking assurance, advice, or a shoulder to lean on is not weak – it’s empowering. Recognising that there are people around you that care for you and your wellbeing is important to understand. Even if you feel like you have no one, you do. Whether it’s a colleague, your boss, a family member, a friend, an acquaintance, a doctor, or a mental health service, there is always somebody out there ready and willing to listen.

That is our reminder to you – that you always have someone around you willing to listen.

Why you shouldn’t fear asking for help

In general, people underestimate the idea that others will help them and be happy to do so. In fact, evidence suggests that we underestimate people’s desire to help by as much as 50%. This shouldn’t feel like a negative statistic but instead an indicator that the people in our lives want to assist us more than we believe they might.

Despite us knowing that we’ll always want to help our own friends or loved ones in their time of need, for some reason it feels like when the situations are reversed the same courtesy won’t be extended to us. We recognise the hypocrisy but sometimes are unable to overcome our own fears of rejection and dismissal. This is your sign that it’s okay to ask for help.

Our brains do a great job of making us fear the worst and spiraling into moments where all we can think about is doom and gloom. It can be hard to get out of these moments, but you must always remind yourself that the best way of helping yourself is by talking to others. This doesn’t always have to be your friends and family. Especially if your mind is telling you that they won’t help even if they will. You can always turn to your doctor, a registered psychologist, therapist, or any mental health service, such as Beyond Blue, for support. In fact, you should!

While sometimes society can make us feel like turning to professional help is unnecessary or something to be ashamed of, it isn’t. It’s a smart, strong, and powerful move because it shows that you’re putting yourself and your wellbeing first. It’s a brave step to take in regaining a sense of peace and harmony within yourself.

When you feel like you need help but are too afraid to ask for it think about what you would do if you were your friend. If you saw your friend struggling, would you want them to ask for help? Yes, you would. So, while it is hard, treat yourself how you would a friend and reach out to somebody. It always feels better to talk about your feelings rather than have them overwhelm you each and every day.

How to ask for help

We understand that asking for help can feel like a daunting task. Even though we know it shouldn’t be. But there are practical ways to help make asking for help easier and improve your wellbeing. These include:

  • identify who you want to ask
  • understand what you need help with
  • let go of judgement and the fear of what others will think of you
  • be brave and simply say, ‘I need help, could you please help me?’.

The benefits of asking for help

Once you have overcome the fear of asking for help and actually do so, there can be many benefits for you. At the core of it, asking for help can help you both emotionally and physically. In a practical sense, it’s important to ask for help if you’re struggling to lift something or don’t have a map. But more importantly, asking for help when your mental health is taking a turn for the worse is critical for your ongoing wellbeing.

When you ask for help you begin sharing your worries. You’re no longer alone. It can help you sort through your emotions and feel supported in times that may be overwhelming. It also can help you create better connections with your friends and families strengthening bonds and creating better support networks. In fact, sharing your emotions can improve your relationships in turn improving your physical and mental health!

In a business sense, those who ask for help are much more likely to be happy in their career. It would make sense, usually when we’re in our jobs while it can often feel like we have nobody to turn to. That we were hired for a reason so, therefore, don’t have the right to ask for help. This is of course completely false. If you’re uncertain about how to do something, have too much work to do, or can’t quite manage to get everything done on time, you should ask for help. Not only will you be able to perform better but your emotional burdens can be lifted.

At the end of the day, people are willing to help you. In fact, they really want to help you! A study conducted by Gallup found that 2.2 billion people helped strangers in a single month. In addition, a study by some linguists and anthropologists found that 90% of requests for service, support, or resources were fulfilled. You should never feel afraid to ask for help, in your personal or work life.

World Mental Health Day is a great reminder to always put your wellbeing first. We, at Elite Words, believe World Mental Health Day should be part of everybody’s everyday conversation. So, ask for help, reach out to your friends and family, or even contact us. We’re here to help. 

Share Post:

Share on facebook
Share on linkedin
Share on twitter
Share on pinterest
Share on email