According to International Maritime Organization, the pandemic has put seafarers around the world in precarious situations. Travel restrictions mean some cannot leave their ships, be repatriated home, or even get urgent medical assistance.
In fact, this whole situation leaves seafarers feeling stressed and worried about their health, families and work environment.
Among others, the key areas that can be causes of work-related stress onboard are:
- the demands of the job
- the level of control a seafarer has over their work
- the support received from management and colleagues
- relationships at work
- the seafarer’s role in the organization
- changes and how they are managed
Different things can trigger a sense of stress: worries about home, relationship problems, tension between colleagues, isolation, bullying & harassment, feeling like you don’t have the right skills for the job, having
too much work to do, long hours, not enough rest.
…ISWAN noted.
However, stress is a normal and natural part of what it means to be human, while it can be beneficial to all of us. In other words, stress is actually our body’s automatic reaction to threat and is essential for survival.
According to AMSA, an important aspect to combat the effects of stress and fatigue is to ensure we look after our health and nutrition to the best of our abilities.
The only way to prevent fatigue is to get enough sleep. When we are not fatigued, our concentration is better, it’s easier to avoid distractions and we can better handle stress.
…AMSA explained.
In an effort to tackle anxiety and better-manage the stressors in daily life, ISWAN’s series of Good Mental Health Guides for Seafarers recommends to:
- Identify main causes of stress
Start managing your stressors by identifying the things that cause you stress under “real time”. Become aware of how you feel throughout the day by paying attention to your body as well as your mind.
Making a list of the things that are worrying you or talking it over with someone you trust will also help you find the main causes of stress.
- Use your rest breaks well
Take time for yourself to exercise, relax or connect with others on board. Many people stop taking their work breaks when they are stressed but this only adds to the sense of pressure and fatigue.
- Develop a support network
Spending time with others can give you a sense of time out from your problems. In fact, it offers you some pleasure and can work as a good distraction from your concerns.
- Share your problems
Sharing problems may not come easily, but it does help relieve stress and may help you feel less isolated and alone. It’s important that the person you talk to is someone that you trust and who you feel can understand.
- Practice breathing techniques
Always keep in mind that all the physical effects of stress begin with the breath. As explained, controlled breathing can help you just take a moment out before reacting and is excellent to use quickly just before you enter into a difficult situation.
- Get active
It is known that exercise can help your body release tension, it can take away some of the emotional intensity that you’re feeling and help clear your thoughts to help you to get into a better frame of mind to deal with your problems.
- Muscle tension exercise
By learning and practicing muscle relaxation, an individual can pick up the early signs of stress and successfully ease them. This exercise may be difficult to perform while working, so may best be used on a break or at night prior to bed.
- Write your worries down
This can help you to stop the worry going round and round in your head. Writing helps to get some perspective on the worry and work out what it is that is bothering you. Giving yourself this time also helps to simply clear your mind and put your worries to one side.
- Acceptance
Whilst it can be difficult, accepting the reality of the situation that you are in is an important step to coping with it. Accepting the situation does not mean agreeing with it, just acknowledging the reality of it.
Usually, calm acceptance leads to a sense of relief, and freedom to find ways to cope with a difficult situation.
- Time management
Manage your time as well as possible. List the things that you need to do, prioritize the important and urgent things and the things that can make a real difference and do these things first.
Don’t skip your breaks; taking your work breaks will help you to be more focused and productive in your work time. Try not to agree to take on more than you can manage, share your workload where possible or ask for help if you need it.
- Distraction
Do something physical like some sport or exercise, listen to music, tidy or clean your cabin, find someone to do something with, play a computer game, go for a walk around the ship, help someone with something, read or watch a movie. Do whatever works better for you.
- Avoid alcohol, drugs and cigarettes
It is observed that many people find that when they feel stressed, they rely on cigarettes, alcohol, drugs or caffeine to get them through.
Although they may feel like they help in the short term, they won’t take away the causes of stress; some will actually increase the physical effects of stress and they can create their own problems.
