Mental Health in Engineering

"Mental health is the state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, recognize their abilities, learn and work healthily, and contribute to their community." - WHO, World Health Organization

What is it and what is it for?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health is the mental state of an individual that allows them to cope with the stresses of their life, recognize their abilities, learn, work and contribute to society. In this way, it is an essential component of health and well-being that supports our social and collective abilities to make decisions, build interpersonal relationships and shape the world in which we live. Thus, it is understood that mental health is one of the basic human rights because it is responsible for supporting the personal, community and socioeconomic development of all.

Mental Health is not just the opposite of mental disorders, it exists continuously, ALWAYS, and its experience varies from person to person due to the divergence of degrees of difficulties, suffering, social development and clinical conditions of each person.

How does this apply to Engineering?

This applies to the engineering field because EVERYONE has mental health, whether they like it or not. So, in order for you to achieve your goals as an engineer, you also need to understand about mental health because a leader works with people!

But what defines the state of our mental health?

For a person to be in good mental health, they must comply with these 4 topics:

1. Being well with yourself and with others

2. Accepting the demands of life

3. Knowing how to deal with good emotions, but also with unpleasant ones, which are part of life

4. Recognize your limits and seek help when needed

How can I know how my mental health is?

You can define the state of your mental health through self-knowledge. To do this, you must seek to know yourself in order to identify your strengths, weaknesses, desires, dreams, anxieties, emotions and impulses, and from there seek personal development and, if necessary, seek help from a psychology or psychiatry professional.

If you want to exercise a little self-knowledge, I ask that you stop for a few minutes from now on and try to answer the questions below:

1. What makes you relax?

2. What are the main talents you have?

3. What talents do you need to develop?

4. What is your definition of success?

5. What are your three favorite activities?

6. How often do you exercise them?

7. What activities would you like to do more often?

8. Who are the people you most enjoy spending time with?

9. What is your life goal?

10. Who are the most special people to you?

11. What are your life values?

12. Do you feel like you are living in accordance with your values?

13. What would you like to learn that you haven't learned yet?

14. What are 3 things you would like to learn this year?

15. What stresses you out?

16. What makes you happy?

17. What makes you sad?

18. What makes you angry?

19. What scares you?

20. What keeps you motivated?

21. How do you see yourself?

22. How would you like others to see you?

23. What are your five most precious qualities?

24. Are you putting them into practice?

I selected only 24 questions, but if you search the internet and in books you will find thousands of questions of this type to help you get to know yourself. One tip I give is: select the questions that bothered you the most and move you to answer them periodically throughout the year (whether daily, weekly, monthly or annually) because answering these questions will help you locate the points in your life that are receiving little attention and need focus so that you can define and achieve your goals.

Reading Tips for the topic!

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck

• Ikigai: The Japanese secrets for a long and happy life, Francesc Miralles i Contijoch

• The Porcupine's Dilemma: How to Face Loneliness, Leandro Karnal

Thank you for your attention and see you in the next post!