How to take care of your mental health if you are unemployed

Being unemployed is not an easy situation. For one thing, it undermines self-esteem. It is also exhausting, since constantly looking for a job is tiring. And if you can't get a job, it frustrates, despairs and, in the worst case, causes anguish, anxiety and depression. Hence, it is necessary to take care of mental health while unemployment lasts or, even, in a precarious, itinerant job or in an ERTE, iFeel psychologists recommend us.

Precisely, the ERTE have been one of the protagonists of the pandemic at the labor level. Although people in this situation have not lost their jobs, not working, an activity that not only maintains a certain economic level, but also helps the person feel useful and active, added to the uncertainty of what will happen to your company, does not prevent your psychological well-being from being harmed. Psychologists are clear: you should not take lightly the possible symptoms of sadness, apathy, nervousness and stress that appear and seek help if you do not feel capable of coping.

- Job interview: frequently asked questions

The signs that unemployment affects your mental health

When we find ourselves unemployed our emotions are greatly affected and we can go through multiple phases and nuances as the unemployment situation progresses.

- The most frequent types of tests in a job interview

How to avoid the psychological consequences of unemployment

While unemployed or in a situation of unintended work stoppage, the individual has a series of psychological needs that, if they are not adequately satisfied, can put their well-being at risk. These are the keys to taking care of yourself while you can't find a job:

  1. You are not 'unemployed' if you are embarrassed. Are you looking for a job. Using "I'm unemployed" as a business card is likely to make you uncomfortable. If this is the case, try formulas such as "I'm not working right now", "I'm looking for a job", "I was working until a few months ago but now I'm looking for something else". Do not focus only on the possible stigma that the “unemployed” label may have, redirect it towards your current role as an active job seeker, open to suggestions that may be made to you, valid and available for a new job that may arise.
  2. Try to look forward realistically but also optimistically. During the job search there are times when it is difficult to trust in a near and satisfactory end to the unemployment situation, but giving in to catastrophic thoughts does not contribute to the solution. Look for spaces for realistic hope and become aware of how thoughts such as “this situation will never end”, “I will never find a suitable job for me” or “I will never be able to re-engage in the corporate world and I will have to accept horrible jobs” are statements about a hypothetical future that has not happened and does not have to happen.
  3. Be honest about how you feel and seek support from those around you. You must be seen and recognized in the efforts you make to get out of it. Do not isolate yourself or limit yourself to carrying out your job search actions quietly and secretly. Communicate with your environment, explain what you do, what you try and what you have in mind. Especially if you live alone, it is important that you activate your social support network not only to inform them that you are unemployed but also to involve them as much as possible in your search. In addition, you will need them to support you, encourage you and be your accomplices in the search, keep contact with these people alive.
  4. Even if you are not working, you should reward yourself for your efforts, because you are trying. Unemployment can be very long and, of course, boring and unsettling. For this reason, more than ever you need compensations that serve you not only to distract you, but also to take care of your psychological well-being. It is obvious that you are not going to spend a lot of money if you do not have a job, but unless your financial situation is really precarious, you can have a coffee with someone some day, or go to the movies, or buy some clothes, or go to some show that you fancy. These are just a few examples, find a way to adapt them as best as possible to your economy. Even if you are unemployed you have to continue enjoying life.
  5. If you can afford it, do not accept offers that you do not consider appropriate. Unless your situation is already very desperate, you have the right to listen to your intuition and your needs and decide that you will not accept a particular job if you feel that it is not right for you or that working in it would give you a very hard time. Maybe some people won't understand it, but you know yourself and you know how you feel. If you still have an alternative, it is normal that you need to reject a job and continue looking, instead of feeling that you have an obligation to assume what someone from the outside wants to impose on you.
  6. Set social integration as a task: feel part of society, interact normally with other people. The worst thing that can happen to an unemployed person is to be isolated from their social support network now that the economy suffers from losing their job and that their integration into the social dynamic is no longer what it was because they are at home looking for work. and dosing your expenses. Liaise with your friends and family, lean on them, let them know how you are approaching your job search, remember that very often our work is obtained by someone who knows us and suggests an offer or talks about us to a third party, and not so much the offers published in the job portals.
  7. Get advice on how to carry out an efficient active job search. This will give you the feeling that, apart from the inevitable uncertainty, you follow a coherent strategy instead of improvising. Remember that actively looking for a job goes far beyond signing up for an offer.
  8. Distribute your forces well and don't burn out after a few weeks. During the active job search there are days or weeks of a lot of activity (offers abound, interviews, contacts with your network, etc.) and other periods are quieter and there is simply not much to do. Let there be this alternation and do not feel guilty if one day you do not find any concrete action to carry out during your active job search. Take advantage of those days for other things that allow you to clear your mind and focus on other facets. They are your free time.
  9. Select the information you access carefully so as not to “intoxicate” yourself with an excess of bad news. It is obvious that knowing how the current panorama is (support measures for the unemployed, evolution of unemployment figures, etc.) can be useful, but do not spend all day reading newspapers and watching television news that only talk about the negative side of what what happens to you, because it will unnecessarily distress you and it is not necessarily providing you with useful data.
  10. Take care of yourself, don't abandon yourself, structure your routines. Although without the demands of a working day in which you have to account for when you enter, when you leave and what you do in the meantime, try to have a more or less organized schedule. This will allow you to know how much time you dedicate each day to the strict job search and also fit the rest of your activities into your day (because, we insist, there must be more activities than just watching television). From the flexibility that not having to sign in gives, try to have adequate eating and sleeping habits. If the excess of free time is upon you, remember that unemployment is the time to have the house impeccable, walk, read and see what you have pending. If you receive an unemployment benefit, find out about discounts available both in training and in shows.

- Keys to pass a job interview by phone

HELLO! The total or partial reproduction of this report and its photographs is prohibited, even citing its origin.

Cómo cuidar la salud mental si estás en paro