Everyone wants resilient crops and livestock. But no matter how good the operation or equipment, if the guy or gal running the farm cracks up under the cumulative stress of day-to-day events – or the odd once-in-a- million-years catastrophe – everything goes to pieces.
That’s why it’s important for farmers to learn about stress management, said Gerry Friesen, a “recovering farmer” who now runs Signature Mediation, a consultancy service.
“My point in some of the presentations I’ve done is that stress management tools are one of the most important tools that farmers should have on their farm,” said Friesen.
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“Farming has become way more complicated than it used to be. We’re dealing with so much more out there, and huge money, so it’s becoming more and more important to recognize mental health stuff.”
SERIES OF WORKSHOPS
In conjunction with Manitoba Farm and Rural Support Services, Friesen and clinical psychologist Greg Gibson will be hosting a series of workshops on farm stress management to be held every Wednesday afternoon from 2 to 4 p.m. starting March 16 at the Brandon GO Office on 1129 Queens Ave.
The free Farmer-to-Farmer workshops sponsored by the United Way will discuss a range of issues encountered by farmers in a relaxed, friendly setting: the comfortable, high-backed chairs of the GO Office’s boardroom.
There will be plenty of jokes, and coffee and cookies, which project co-ordinator Friesen swears aren’t left over from January’s Ag Days.
Friesen, a former pig farmer who knows what it’s like to have nothing but five-sixteenth- inch wrenches in the tool box when you need a half-inch or three-quarter-inch, will address the practical side of mental health, while Gibson, who has a PhD in Clinical Psychology, will look at the technical side.
THE THREE RS OF STRESS
The first session held last week looked at the three Rs of Stress Management: Recognition, Resilience, and Resources.
Friesen described the first session as an introduction that offered a more general overview of farm stress and coping techniques.
The next session, to be held March 16, will discuss the topic of “Anger Mountain: Managing your Anger under Stress.”
In Friesen’s own days as a farmer, he climbed that mountain so many times that he started to dread the walk down even before he reached the summit.
“Anger is one of the things that catch up to me real quick if I am overworked or starting to get burned out, or asked to do something that I don’t have the ability to say no to,” he said.
“We start at an equilibrium, then start taking steps, climbing the mountain. This little thing pisses me off, but I’m OK, and then the next thing, and then boom, you’re at the top and you just explode.”
EMOTIONAL SLOPE
After that, Friesen discovered that he would go down the emotional slope and find himself at a lower level than he started. That’s called depression, the silent killer.
“Sometimes I would get so bloody mad at people that I would explode. Then I was exhausted, depressed, until I got my emotions back in line.”
The discussions will centre around ways to keep off the mountain, from learning how to recognize the stuff that makes you angry, how to build resistance to anger, and resources farmers can use to avoid taking the climb in the first place.
“My wife thinks that I probably have a base camp about halfway up the mountain,” he joked.
Anger Mountain, and the other workshops to follow, will be aimed at addressing more specific issues such as Handling Farm Financial Stress (March 30), Around the Kitchen Table: Building Better Communication on the Farm (April 13), and Work Life Balance on the Farm: Healthy Farmers=Healthy Farms (April 27). daniel. [email protected]
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“Farminghasbecomewaymorecomplicatedthanitusedtobe.We’redealingwithsomuchmoreoutthere,andhugemoney,soit’sbecomingmoreandmoreimportanttorecognizementalhealthstuff.”
– GERRY FRIESEN
