You’re In A Safe Space
A student in Singapore will sit through four streaming examinations by the time they’re 16, and then forced to pick between a Junior College, a Polytechnic, or ITE. All whilst still requesting for permission to use the loo, they’ll then be graded on the curve; they won’t be judged based on their knowledge on a subject, but based on their knowledge on a subject in comparison to their respective cohorts, and of the Singaporean students who enter primary school at the nimble age of seven, only 23 percent of them complete a degree at a local four-year university.
Then come their careers, and a new world of stress, one that compounds, one that never forgives. It’ll be no wonder you hear the term “burnout” being tossed around so much that it builds a stigma of its own. It took the World Health Organization (WHO) the World Health Assembly in Geneva earlier in May to recognise “burnout” in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is a widely used benchmark for diagnosis and health insurers.
Finally, finally, we were going to talk about it out in the open. No more fear of the mention of “burnout”, no more fear of being replaced, no more paranoia that we were losing our heads.
And to talk about it, we got our friends at Safe Space to take the stage at The Working Capitol’s Commons as part of their #NoFilter workshop series.
It’s in the name; Safe Space offer individuals an avenue to share their thoughts, worries, and fears to professional counsellors without the perils of invasive questioning, long wait times for appointments, or the fear of being seen in a psychiatric clinic. Safe Space provides the traditional experience of counselling with the benefit of convenience. You’ll have all the confidentiality and help that you require, no matter where or when. All you need is your mobile device and the Safe Space app, and you’re all set.
First things first, what really is burning out? And how does it differ from stress? Antoinette, CEO of Safe Space, explained it to us impeccable, and we must say, necessarily. Stress happens to be the uncomfortable cognitive state resulting from exposure to a stressor, and burn out occurs when the individual feels there’s no meaning and stress continually outweighs the support and rewards received in return.
Now, they’re not definitions written in stone – stress and burn out quite obviously involve the intricacies of the respective cases and situations they were born out of. So to help the intimate crowd of about the 30 of us in the discussion understand them better, Antoinette called on two panels – one of mixed industry professionals, and the other of mental health therapists – and Slido where we got to ask all our questions, unfiltered and anonymously, to be addressed professionally.
We found the discussions, and Safe Space’s set up, to be so conducive, so informative, and so enriching, that we had to have them on board for more discussions around more topics that would have us all looking for a Safe Space.
The next one in their #NoFilter series, after their brilliant one on Burn Out? Post-Partum Depression & Mum Guilt, on the 2nd of September, at The Working Capitol. All the details you’ll need and more from Safe Space and guest speakers will be found on the event page here.
Come one, come all, and with #NoFilter.
