Is your career hurting your mental health? You’re not alone
In advance of a virtual panel he’s moderating on Feb. 15, sponsored by the Association of Music Producers, shots asked Matt Nelson, Executive Producer at Yessian, to share his experience on how a highly competitive occupation can impact mental well-being.
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Like many who’ve embraced a mental wellness journey, I didn’t really know what that meant at the beginning; I just knew I wanted to find meaning and purpose in my life.
I was searching for answers to questions I didn’t even know why I was asking. I wanted to understand who I am, and get a better understanding of my own personal narrative. What does ‘it all’ mean, and is this all there is? How do some people seem to be perfectly content in the moment and able to go through a day experiencing happiness regularly? Can I too feel that way? These are thoughts I started having at a young age, when I experienced my first bout of depression.
Between that time and when I committed to treatment, about seven years ago, I talked to mental health professionals here and there. It would be momentarily helpful to get me through the immediate crisis at hand, but my overall baseline emotional state remained. I had yet to learn that mental wellness is not a switch that can be flipped or fixed at the snap of a finger – it’s a lifelong journey. I needed to come to that conclusion myself.
I felt like I was going through life with a parachute attached to my back.
I began to realise that I regularly felt ‘down,’ and was experiencing intense anxiety. It affected my sleep, I struggled socially, I had morning dread that made it feel nearly impossible to start my day, to name a few symptoms I was experiencing. The best way I can describe it is, I felt like I was going through life with a parachute attached to my back; it was a constant drag, and sometimes required an intense effort to do simple things.
I came to this recognition right around the time I was going through an emotional crisis that was caused by external work-related forces. This is when I fully committed to mental health treatment in the form of CBT Talk Therapy. Through talk I was able to determine my baseline emotional state (Dysthymic) and differentiate that from situationally caused depression and anxiety. Once I understood this, I quickly understood how my high-stress, time-consuming, ‘always urgent’ and highly competitive career impacts my mental wellness.
I set boundaries, made self-care a priority, improved my diet, spoke with my support system about what I was going through, and most importantly, I gained a sense of compassion.
Since then I have worked hard to reframe the way I think about my career and make changes that improved my mental wellness. I continued with therapy, which helped me develop coping mechanisms and tools to navigate my mental wellness challenges. I set boundaries, made self-care a priority, improved my diet, spoke with my support system about what I was going through, and most importantly, I gained a sense of compassion.
That compassion led me to open up about my journey. I wanted others to share the benefits I was experiencing. That’s how I came to want to do this AMP panel, and that’s how I found panellists who are also willing to share their experiences.
Are things perfect? No, they never will be, but I feel so much more in harmony with myself and better equipped with tools to navigate this crazy world we live in. I can proudly say that as a result of my focus on mental wellness, I am a better son, husband, father, friend, co-worker, manager, employee, etc. And that fact drives me to continue the work.
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Mental Health in the Creative Industry, a virtual panel discussion sponsored by the Association of Music Producers, will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 7pm ET, 4pm PT.
It’s free to attend but registration is required. To register, click here.
The panel, led by Nelson, will be a conversation among peers with the goal of sparking dialogue. The panellists will speak to their own personal experiences on how their careers have affected their mental wellness and how they have navigated through mental health challenges.
Taking part, in addition to Nelson, will be Brad Nayman, Sound Designer at Light Post Sound; Brandy Ricker, Independent Music Supervisor; and Liana Rosenberg, Senior Producer at Heard City.
Nelson will be following up after the panel to share a variety of resources, links and publications, all focused on helping people find sources of strength and composure during rocky times in their lives. He’ll also stress that the panellists are not trained professionals, and what they discuss is not meant to be a substitute for actual therapy.
Above (l-r): Matt Nelson, Brad Nayman, Liana Rosenberg, and Brandy Ricker.
“Brad, Liana, and Brandy are all people with whom I’ve had great relationships through collaborations,” Nelson says. “As I’ve started to open up about my mental wellness journey, they opened up to me. They expressed how my willingness to talk about my struggles and successes gave them the confidence to do the same.”
Commenting on the panel, Rosenberg says: “I'm excited to participate in this conversation and to advocate for setting boundaries that support a healthy work-life balance and the general well-being for all individuals. Our identities are so much more than just our careers, it's important to not only celebrate where we all are within our own processes of self-discovery, but to also increase awareness around resources and tools that can help us to do so with grace, kindness, and respect, in both our personal and professional lives.”
“When it comes to our mental wellness, it’s crucial that our peers feel empowered to set the boundaries they deserve in an industry that constantly demands so much from us,” adds Ricker. “By discussing and sharing my own experience, my goal is that others can relate and overcome the huge barrier of feeling stuck, alone and burnt out. Everyone has or will experience these challenges in their career, and absolutely no one should feel shame. I just don’t want anyone to feel alone in this anymore.”
Says Nayman, “I hope we push for and seek out leadership that is kind, offering safety to those who are courageously honest about their mental health. I’m an advocate for hopeful and judgment-free conversations about wellness in the creative sphere and beyond.”
