Today is October 10, 2023 and it’s World Mental Health Day, sponsored by the World Health Organization. It’s time to talk about the fact that many of us are not okay. We need to do better, and I think we can. 

As of the last CDC.gov and its Household Pulse Survey, 28.8% of the US population is experiencing either anxiety or depression. That’s almost 1 in 3 of us. 

According to the 7th Edition of the Startup Snapshot released this year, “The startup grind takes a major toll on founder mental health – 44% high stress, 36% burnout, 37% anxiety, 13% depression, 10% panic attacks.”

According to Gallup’s State of the Workplace 2023 report, “Worldwide, 44% of employees said they experienced a lot of stress the previous day. This is the second year in a row worker stress reached record levels. Employee stress rose in 2020, likely due to the pandemic. But employee stress has been rising for over a decade. Many factors influence stress, but Gallup finds that managers play an outsized role in the stress workers feel on the job, which influences their daily stress overall.”

We need to do better and I think we can. In fact, I wrote a book about how we can create sustainable working and living for ourselves and others, This Isn’t Working! Evolving the Way We Work to Decrease Stress, Anxiety, and Depression. Available wherever you buy books.