Looking in the mirror: Mental health in the agriculture industry

Farmers like you wake up each day prepared to tackle the challenges of this lifestyle head-on. Nevertheless, you may find yourself worrying as you look around and see your crops struggling or neighbors you’ve known for years closing up shop and moving on. You may feel discouraged, even as you promise yourself your operation will survive these trying times, and you may feel stressed. After all, there is always something more to be done: the work of a farmer is never finished and the burden is yours to bear.

Perhaps these thoughts wrack your mind and push you to the brink. Perhaps, when you do not succeed in the ways you want, you feel worthless and undeserving. Perhaps the stress is taking its toll. Still, you refuse to seek out help or tell your loved ones how you feel because you do not want them to worry. Instead, you feel alone and trapped in your own mind, unable to find relief.

You are the face of everyone in agriculture battling stress and mental illnesses like anxiety and depression, and you are not alone in this battle. 

What is happening to producers?

Mental health is defined as the condition of a person’s psychological and emotional well-being. The overall emotional and psychological welfare of ag producers can affect how they think, feel and act. It also affects how agriculturists control stress and interact with others in their communities, making mental health an important topic of discussion. 

In the Agricultural Producer Mental Health Journal, Dr. Kathleen Roe stated that, ““Farmers and ranchers have higher psychological distress and suicide rates than the general population. Poorer mental health status and outcomes among producers are often attributed to the continuously challenging economic, social, and climate-related changes to agriculture as an occupation and industry.

“Among many variables, demographic data, history of suicidal thoughts and attempts of suicide there is a direct correlation to be having the stress of having financial and legal problems, poor physical health, interpersonal and job problems, alcohol and substance abuse to could be triggering the thoughts of self-harm.”

Depression and anxiety can be described as having strong feelings of being sad, lonely and scared on a normal day to day basis that affect the way of how a person lives their life. Some symptoms of depression include being less active, feeling irritable or restless, having trouble sleeping or staying awake, loss of appetite, and even having suicidal thoughts or hurting oneself. In the agriculture sector, the suicide rate is significantly higher than the national average of 14 deaths per 100,000 people, coming in at nearly 44 deaths per 100,000 people. Over 90% of producer suicides are men.

Most producers have been conditioned by the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality and believe they should be able to accomplish everything on their own and without asking for help. This mentality extends to their mental health as well: many producers think they should be able care for themselves independently. Moreover, many feel that asking for help or admitting to having a problem would be bothersome, or imply weakness or failure.

“To be good, productive workers and to raise healthy livestock and products as farmers, we have to also to be at our best physically and mentally,” Carrie Baker, a PhD student at the University of Florida, explains. Baker is researching agricultural producers’ mental health as part of her doctoral research. “This is our health and it shouldn’t be taboo to talk about our mental health.” 

How to Find a Balance 

Baker, in her article, Evaluating the Effects of Social Capital, Self-Stigma, and Social Identity in Predicting Behavioral Intentions of Agricultural Producers to Seek Mental Health Assistance, suggests rural health practitioners work alongside agricultural producers and local industry-based organizations or institutions (e.g. Farm Bureau federations, Extension agencies, colleges of agriculture and related disciplines at land-grant universities) to better understand their community’s unique challenges and needs. 

“These efforts could ultimately increase intention and instigate positive help-seeking behavior,” she writes. “If improved help-seeking is achieved, these efforts have [the] potential to help agricultural producers achieve improved mental health outcomes.”

Because the agricultural lifestyle is unique, many producers feel that only a select few can understand their experiences. Being able to seek out help is, in itself, a big step, but going to someone that does not understand the hardships in their life may lead to negative or unsuccessful treatment outcomes.

Producers suffering from mental health issues are therefore encouraged to try the peer-to-peer approach. Hearing from other people in the industry can create common ground for producers. Sharing stories and experiences, and openly discussing their struggles, may encourage producers  toward feeling like positive changes in their operation and mental health are possible.

Encouraging peer-to-peer conversations about mental health in the ag industry also works to break the stigma and bootstrap myth. By making it less taboo, producers suffering from a mental illness may be more inclined to seek out help when they most need it.

How to Get Help 

You are not alone. You are not the only member of the agriculture industry struggling with mental illness. A number of resources exist and are available to you, your loved ones and the wider ag community to help.

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a national network of crisis centers providing free and confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Simply dial 9-8-8 to be connected with a local crisis center. 

For those who are deaf or hard of hearing, visit 988lifeline.org

The AgriStress Helpline, staffed by trained professionals versed in the struggles facing farmers and farm workers, is available 24/7 to call or text at 833-897-2474.

The American Farm Bureau Federation has started an initiative called Farm State of Mind, which provides mental health resources to individuals working in agriculture. For more information, please visit fb.org/initiative/farm-state-of-mind.

(Morgan Haley is a Greybull High School graduate.)