#help-seeking

#help-seeking

Almost two in three women over 50 in the UK struggle with their mental health as they deal with menopause, relationship breakdowns and changes to their appearance, a survey has found. Brain fog, parents dying, children leaving home and financial pressures can also trigger difficulties such as sleeping problems, feeling anxious or overwhelmed, and a loss of zest for life.

Walk through an airport bookstore, scroll the podcast charts, or listen to a leadership keynote, and you'll likely find lessons on boundaries and burnout. Celebrities talk about therapy with a casualness that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Coaches tell C-suite executives to " lead with vulnerability." And bestselling books like The Gifts of Imperfection, You Should Talk to Someone, and The Body Keeps the Score have given the world a common vocabulary for talking about anxiety, shame, and trauma.

High-achieving professionals are among the least likely groups to seek psychological or emotional support, despite facing elevated levels of stress, burnout, and health risk. Research consistently shows that individuals in high-responsibility roles delay help-seeking longer than the general population, often waiting until symptoms begin to affect health, relationships, or job performance. By the time support feels unavoidable, the personal and professional cost is often far greater than it needed to be.

I perched next to someone I knew. "You know, the only people who act like that are on drugs." I ignorantly spoke, parroting the messaging I'd been getting for a few years now. They stopped. "You know, I used to use drugs." Here was someone I respected sitting next to me, and what they said challenged everything I thought I understood.

There's a myth that to be a good leader, you need to be the smartest person in the room. This reluctance, often rooted in fear, prevents leaders from asking for help.