Erin O'Hara: naturopath and wellness expert on how men can avoid stress and burnout

Men's health week is coming up - and it sparks discussion every year about how men can avoid stress and burnout.

Research indicates long-term stress can impact men's mental health and these issues are often compounded by our nation's infamous 'She'll Be Right' attitude.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks. A'd be.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Eron O'Hara joins us now to talk wellness. Good morning,
good morning, it's Men's Health week ninth to twelfth of June.
Let's have a talk about men and something that often
they don't like to talk about, and that is stress
and burnout.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah. I think men sometimes think that they're invincible and
they don't always look at their health until maybe it
gets to that crisis point sometimes. But stress is actually
huge and women and men's experienced stress. But sometimes men
will think that they're not stress when they really are
stress sometimes and that can then have that flow on
effect of ending up as burnout and sort of hitting

(00:52):
that rock bottom and then being like, actually I need
help now. But I think if we can really pick
it up earlier of knowing the signs of when we
are stress before it becomes chronic stress and then leads
into burnout as well. Which things have signs that you
are in a stress state is maybe being more irritable,
are being withdrawn from doing activities you usually would do,

(01:14):
Maybe a change in sleep pattern, maybe feeling a little
bit more on edge at work and not coping as
well with the workload, and af she's feeling a lot
more anxious. These are signs that we might be getting
more stress and too much stress that could possibly end
up as the burnout. Now, burnout is more when we're
getting to that point where we're absolutely exhausted, so fatigue

(01:37):
and headaches and maybe the digestive problems starts creeping in,
difficulty concentrating. Even though you've got work to do, you
can't get it done because you've got no motivation and
you can't concentrate, can't focus, And that's when we've really
sort of gone from just normal stress to then ending
up in that burnout state, which is actually quite common
for men. And then that burnout state can also affect

(02:01):
our mental health as well, and that might be getting
more anxious, more depressed, be more reactive or having anger
towards you know, different situations that usually you'd be able
to regulate your emotions. And it's about you know, learning
when you're at that point where you're actually in your
high stress state and you're actually kind of becoming more reactive.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
If you're listening to this and you go, do you
know what I haven't quite been feeling myself recently. I
am just a little I'm just gonna hang it in there.
I'm kind of surviving, not thriving. What can you actually
do today or tomorrow? Where do you start? Do you
go to your GP and say, look, I'm not coping
so well? Where do I go from here? Do you
take control of things yourself? Do you look for help elsewhere?

Speaker 3 (02:44):
What do you do? I think the time when you
know that you're at your limit and you're actually not coping,
instead of being like the New Zealand way of it,
like she'll be right, I'll get through this, it'll come
right eventually, I think, instead of being like acknowledging is
probably the first step I've been like, actually, I need
to do some things for myself and for my health.

(03:04):
And it doesn't necessarily mean reaching out to accouncil. You
might not be at that point. It might be just
going okay, I need to get back to basics. There's
always a good place to start, and looking at looking
after your health. You might have got so stressed that
you've actually stopped doing all the foundation things, so things
like keeping up with some regular exercise, keeping a good balance, diet,

(03:26):
it might be just living on takeaways and whatever you
can get on the go. So actually going okay, I
need to actually eat good food to feel good, and
that might be bringing more fruits and vegetables, maybe ordering
some healthier meal options if you are not able to
make your own food, and that will actually help you
to start feeling better. Prioritizing sleep because the number one

(03:48):
thing that always drops off as soon as we are
really stressed is usually can't get to sleep or can't
stay asleep, waking up in the night and thinking I'm
so stressed, I'll do some work that is not going
to help you feel good if you're getting up in
the middle of the night and trying to do computer
work in the middle of the night at three o'clock
in the morning. So really prioritizing getting at least seven,

(04:11):
if not eight hours of sleep a night, and if
you need sleep support, getting some sleep support, maybe start
with some simple magnesium powder that you can actually all
tablets that you can get from a heart food shop.
And then getting that social connection and if you know
you're doing all those things already and still not coping,
getting seeking out, whether it's going to your local GP,

(04:32):
talking to a friend, maybe checking out, going to see or.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Maybe workers, you know, at a level where it's unsustainable.
So having a discussion about how to do things differently
outmaking changes.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
You know, you can change the word.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, Aaron, love it. Thank you so much for your
time this morning.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Talk soon.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to use Talks. It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.