HAPS - Health and Productivity Sciences Inc.

Where It Began

I got depressed about two years ago. I had just turned 45,  had become the Director of Marketing for a medium-sized  company after working really hard for most of my career,  and I think the stress just overwhelmed me.

I Had To Do Something

I’d find myself at my desk, with a To Do List a million items long, and I just couldn’t make myself start even the most straightforward thing. One day I totally spaced on a meeting with our CEO and I knew I had to do something. I have a good relationship with my primary care doctor, so I went to see her and she diagnosed me with depression and started me on an antidepressant medication.
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She said the medications wouldn’t work right away but, not to worry, they could be increased, which they were at my follow-up meeting a few weeks later.

Taking Time Off

Meanwhile, it was still awful at work. I really did believe in the company I was working for, but I just could not concentrate; everything took longer than usual. My mind kept wandering when I was talking to people on the phone, my inbox felt like a mountain to climb every day, and really, I was unable to do my job.  

I started taking days off from work and sometimes coming in late, which is so not me. For a while, it felt like I was just waiting for the meds to kick in, but during that time I was really disengaged at work, which just made me feel worse.

The medication did eventually help with most of my symptoms and I’m going to keep taking them. But, when I finally really got back to work, it took months before the daily dread that I would not be able to do my best work ultimately passed and I got back  to my usual efficient, productive self.

Still Felt Disconnected

There was a lot going on at work. We were in the middle  of a management reorganization and of course that was the moment when my teenager started having problems with friends, and I started to get depressed again.

I’m actually really good at helping my kid, but I just couldn’t keep up with the changes at work and rather than responding the way I usually would, by trying to help support the new systems, I felt so disconnected. It was bad.

The Breakthrough

My company offered me the HAPS Be Well@Work care program, so I enrolled in that and began working with my telehealth counselor. It worked with my schedule and I knew my company must think highly of it, since they offered it.

At each Be Well@Work session, we focused on a specific problem I was having at work. We worked through a manual  I was given, that gave me tips and assignments in between sessions, which were so helpful. It didn’t feel like therapy I’ve had in the past; it was so clearly designed to help me get back on track.

Working with my Be Well at Work counselor gave me practical ways of managing the various aspects of my job.  Like, I figured out that while I was feeling depleted, I should attend to my most important work tasks before my energy and concentration gave out. We worked on how I could manage the incessant email pings I get. And I figured out effective ways of taking breaks to re-energize myself, and how to ask my colleagues to help me out more than I usually do, without burdening them.

Employee Story

First-hand evidence of the positive impact of the BW@W Program

Where It Began

I Had To Do Something

Taking Time Off

Still Felt Disconnected

The Breakthrough

The Be Well@Work Suite Implementation Tools and Resources