Mental Health Is As Important As Farm Health – Successful Farming
By Heather Lifsey Barnes
Is it any wonder there is a mental health crisis in rural America? Hurricanes, floods, regulations, lawsuits, high input prices, low commodity prices — and those are just a few of the challenges farmers face. Add to that the pressure to maintain the family farm, one that gets harder with each generation. Finally, factor in that farmers, and as an extension farm families, are tough and often reluctant to talk about their feelings. We aren’t good at asking for help.
I’ve been there. In the column below, I talked about how I finally went to therapy and it saved me. It wasn’t easy to admit I needed therapy and was even harder to press “post” on that article to make it known publicly. But that’s the first step in addressing mental health issues — to talk about them. To normalize them.