Quote Originally Posted by Young_Nudger View Post
I suppose I’m talking about physical work as a team - as they were at the pit.
I’m sure if local pits were open it would solve a lot of angst within young men.
Theres definitely been a shift in mental wellbeing since the mines shut.

I’m not saying this applies to everyone of course and it sounds like the work you did suited you.
The work I did was mentally demanding and stressful at times. As Animal has alluded to above, I'm certain that call centre work can also be very stressful. One academic one non-academic but both demanding in their own ways. Although I mainly worked alone and had a lot of responsibility, I still had other staff, from other disciplines, that were there as part of the team. They might not understand the work that I was doing but there was always someone there to speak to about any issues that I had. So I never really felt alone. Having said that, I would describe myself as mentally quite a strong person and I'm thankful for that. But I also recognise, and I saw this first hand a number of times, that other people aren't always mentally strong. That's just how life is. And I think it's always been the same, just as Animal says. So I don't think mental illness is a new thing, I just think that, thankfully, people can be more open and honest about it these days. The way that mental illness is viewed has changed dramatically over the last 15 or so years. That's a good thing. But I don't think the lack of or reduction in the physicality of work these days has had any influence on mental illness. Just my opinion based on my experience.