Work stress is not “just normal” — left unmanaged, it can do a lot of harm to your mental health and wellbeing. In this episode I’m breaking down what really drives workplace stress and I show you practical ways of handling work stress so you can avoid work burnout, reduce stress at work, and actually switch off from work. So, Let’s Talk About Mental Health!

---

Jump into the episode
(or scroll down for overview and transcript):

Or find it on Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Other platforms

---

Episode Overview:

Is work stress following you home, even when you’re trying to switch off?

This week in the Let’s Talk About Mental Health podcast, I’m talking about handling work stress in a way that actually helps your mental health… especially when work is stressful and you feel stuck in your own head.

I’ll break down what’s really driving workplace stress and stress in the workplace, how to spot common work stress symptoms, and why stressful work can quietly push you towards work burnout. Most importantly, I’ll give you practical mental health tips for handling work stress without drama: simple stress management you can use immediately, realistic work stress relief, and stress relief tips to reduce stress at work and handle work stress even if you can’t change your job overnight.

If you’re dealing with work related stress and you’re wondering how to handle stress at work without burning out, this episode will help you feel calmer, clearer, and more in control — because handling work stress is a skill you can build. 

👉 Ready to reduce stress at work and protect your peace? Then let’s talk!

💡 TL;DR: This episode breaks down what’s really driving workplace stress and shows you practical ways of handling work stress so you can avoid work burnout, reduce stress at work, and actually switch off from work. 🙂

New here? Hi! The Let’s Talk About Mental Health podcast is your weekly dose of practical mental health advice for real life. I’m Jeremy Godwin (hi! 👋) and I keep things simple, honest, and doable so you can feel more in control of your life and your mental wellbeing. If you’re not already a free subscriber, sign up below to have episodes and transcripts land in your inbox every Sunday:

---

Episode Transcript:

Is handling work stress destroying your mental health?

Is your work draining you? Then you need to hear this:

work is not meant to break you.

If your job leaves you feeling exhausted, or so on-edge that you want to snap at people just for breathing funny, then your work could be doing a lot of harm to your mental health and your general wellbeing.

So today I’m talking about how to handle stress from work. We’ll discuss what work stress is really doing to your mind, and how to take your peace back instead of feeling drained by your work… even if you can’t magically fix your job overnight.

We have a lot to discuss, so let’s talk about… how to manage stress.

Hello and welcome back to Let’s Talk About Mental Health! I’m Jeremy Godwin, and this show is all about practical mental health advice for real life.

Our work is such a huge part of our life that it’s easy to just accept feeling constantly stressed and drained as being normal; you know… you drag yourself through the week and then you crash out at the weekend, and somewhere in amongst it all you might start to wonder, is this just what being an adult really is now?

But… that’s not just having a busy job. That’s your mental health paying the price. And if your work is draining you, it’s not just a mental health problem; it’s also a life problem, because it will affect all areas of your life.

And so it means that you need to make changes so that you can find more balance. Why? Because none of us are meant to be permanently on edge just to keep a roof over our heads.

Look, I know that the reality of life is tough right now. Brutal, even. Cost of living pressures are intense. Workloads have increased for a lot of us. And the emotional demands of our work just keep on growing.

But we’re not going to pretend that you can just say “Later!” and waltz out of your job, never to return.

It’s about honestly discussing what the impact is that work is having on your nervous system, as well as your peace of mind. And then we’re going to talk about what you can change from the inside out.

But the truth is, and I have to say this loud and clear up front: no job will ever be worth your health or your life… and yet so many of us live like it is, so something needs to change.

So let’s talk about…

What is ‘work stress management’?

What I’m talking about here is two things. First, it’s how you find stress relief when you’re drained or under pressure, or both. And second, it’s also about how you proactively work on reducing stress in your life so that you can feel more balanced, more often.

Now, nobody can do any of this stuff for you. If you want things to change, then you need to change things… and I’m going to share how to do that. But it is up to you to put it into practice consistently.

Now throughout today’s episode, when I say things like “work stress is destroying your mental health,” I’m not just being melodramatic or feeling a little bit flat on a Monday morning. What I’m talking about really is the kind of ongoing pressure that seeps into every corner of your life. It’s when you wake up already feeling tense because your brain has been running through your to-do list all night long. It’s that constant sense that you’re behind, or you’re failing, or you’re just one mistake away from everything collapsing. It’s draining: physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Now this kind of work stress isn’t just about long hours, although that can be part of it. Really what it’s about is emotional demand. It’s the expectation that you’ll always be ‘on’, always available, always pleasant, always resilient, no matter what’s going on inside of you.

And none of that is realistic or fair. We’re human beings. We have good days, bad days, terrible days. But we’re expected to plaster on a professional face when sometimes we actually feel like shouting or crying, or we have to swallow our frustration because work is so toxic… “but that’s just the way it is here.” Over time, that sort of stuff doesn’t just drain you. It eats away at who you are, and it chips away at how safe you feel in your own life.

Now… for a lot of people it shows up in small ways that gradually become your new normal; you know, you finish work and then you’re too exhausted to do anything other than scroll or binge TV… and so you do it, but then you tell yourself that you’re just being lazy.

You snap at people that you care about over tiny little things, and then feel so guilty that you beat yourself up for it later. You might notice that you’re more irritable, or numb, or tearful, but you don’t connect it to work because technically you’re coping and you know, things are fine, the bills are being paid. But meanwhile your body is sending up distress signals: headaches, tight shoulders, nausea, trouble sleeping, that quiet sense of dread that you can’t quite shake.

Work stress also blurs the line between your work and your actual life. You know, your evenings become recovery time from work instead of being your time to have your life. You might be physically away from your workplace, but mentally you’re still there: replaying conversations, worrying about tomorrow, or mentally drafting emails.

You can be sitting with someone you care about and not even really be present with them because part of your head-space is still in the office, or on the shop floor, or in that last meeting, whatever your situation is. That distance leaves you feeling disconnected from your own life and the people in it… the people who matter to you.

Now for some of us, our work also often becomes tangled up with our sense of identity. So if your worth is tied to your performance or your role, then every criticism, every mistake, every missed target will feel like an attack on who you are. That’s when work stops being something you do and becomes who you are… and if who you are is always ‘not good enough’, of course your mental health is going to take a hit; of course you’re going to feel terrible.

So when I talk about stress destroying your mental health, I mean the point where work is no longer just ‘a little bit demanding’. It’s where your nervous system is constantly on alert, your peace of mind has been replaced by background dread, and your life outside of work has shrunk to the bare minimum. Technically, you’re functioning… but it feels like you’re doing it on a very thin, very low battery.

Now, this is not about blaming you for being in that situation. It’s about honestly naming what’s really going on. Because once you call it what it is, chronic draining stress that’s eroding your peace and your sense of self, that’s when you can start to make some really different choices; you know, you can look at how you’re working, how you’re being worked, and how you might gently start to reclaim some breathing room.

We’re going to explore how to do that shortly, but first we need to talk about…

Why you need to manage stress

So… prolonged stress means your nervous system is being asked to live in survival mode over and over again. And the longer that goes on, the more drained you’ll feel. It takes a lot of energy.

Your body is built to handle short bursts of stress: a deadline, a tricky conversation, a busy week… but when the pressure never really lets up, your brain doesn’t get the signal that you’re safe so it keeps on pumping out stress responses as if the threat is constant.

That’s why you feel wired but exhausted. It’s why your sleep is terrible, why you can’t switch off even when you’re technically off the clock. Your system has learned that work equals Danger, Will Robinson! So it doesn’t know when and how to stand down.

And on top of that, there’s the emotional load. Work is rarely ever just a set of tasks. You know, we don’t… it’s so rare these days that you go to work and you just do A, B, and C, tick those boxes, and away you go. It’s expectations, personalities you have to deal with, unspoken rules, and sometimes outright dysfunction.

If you’re constantly trying to keep other people happy, or avoid conflict, or make yourself useful so you don’t get singled out as being the problem, you’re using an enormous amount of emotional energy just to get through the day. That’s energy that you then don’t have for your own life and your own needs, or even for basic rest. Over time, that can lead to a horrible mix of resentment, numbness, and self blame.

Many of us also grew up with the message that our worth is somehow tied to how hard we work and what we do, or how successful we look on paper. So when work is draining you, it doesn’t just feel like ‘a bad job’. It feels like you’re failing as a person, because of all of those things.

You know, if you believe your value comes from being productive then you will keep sacrificing your peace in order to prove that you’re good enough… and the more you sacrifice, the less you feel like yourself.

Most workplaces are just not designed for your mental health. Let’s be honest here: they are designed for output. For results. Many industries normalise long hours, unpaid overtime, and going above and beyond like it’s a personality trait! Plus with remote work and constant connection via our phones, the line between work and home is so blurred for many of us.

If you’re also… if you’re in a caring role, or a customer facing role, or if you’re dealing with people’s emotions all day long, you’re probably also absorbing a lot more than you realise.

So the focus here is on finding more balance. Now, ‘balance’ does not mean perfection. It’s about having a life that isn’t overly dominated by one thing or another, especially not by something that consistently drains you.

If work is taking most of your time, most of your energy, and most of your head space, there’s not much left to balance with. You’ll end up living in reaction mode. You’ll react to emails, and messages, and every crisis, instead of consciously choosing how to spend your time and energy, and how to consciously respond in a thoughtful way to those things.

Your life ends up shrinking down to work and recovery from work… and I’m sorry to break it to you, but that is not balance.

Then here’s another layer: fear. It’s about fear of losing income, fear of being seen as weak or difficult, fear of letting people down, fear of losing security. And that fear keeps you stuck in patterns that hurt you because they feel a lot safer than rocking the boat, even if you know that it’s wrong for you.

I’ve personally done the whole, “Look, I’ll just push through things until everything calms down” kind of routine more than enough times in my old corporate career to know that ‘when things calm down’ usually never arrives.

There’s a quote from the author Gary Keller in his book, The One Thing, that really nails it for me:

Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls, family, health, friends, integrity, are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.

So there are two things I really want you to remember here.

Your job is something you do. It’s not who you are.

And:

If your work is taking more than it gives, something needs to change… even if that change starts small.

And we’re going to talk about how to do that right after this quick break.

[AD BREAK]

And welcome back! Now let’s talk about…

How to reduce work stress

So let’s talk about how you go from feeling like work is destroying your mental health, to starting to feel a bit more in control again. Not ‘fixed’ or ‘perfect’ but better, and more balanced.

And as always, this is a menu of tips not an entire to-do list you have to follow… so don’t try to do everything all at once if you feel overwhelmed. At the very least just pick one or two things that feel most doable, do them for a bit, and then build from there bit by bit.

Alright, so let’s start with some things to do immediately, like today or tomorrow. And the first one is…

Name the cost on paper

Alright… grab a piece of paper, or open your notes app, and write down one honest sentence about how your work is affecting each of these areas: your mood, your sleep, your body, and your relationships. Don’t sugarcoat it. Be blunt. This is about showing your brain that you’re not just being dramatic about feeling off; there is a real cost here, and it deserves to be taken seriously. Next…

Create a 10 minute ‘after work decompression ritual’

When work ends today, don’t just go home and fall straight on the couch and start scrolling. Take 10 minutes for a simple decompression ritual: take a walk, have a shower, do some stretching, or just sit quietly with a cup of something. Keep it small and repeatable so that you’re training your nervous system to recognise, “Oh, work is finished, this is the sign that I’m safe now.” That tiny reset helps you to carry less work stress into your evening, and it gives you a little more emotional room to exist as a person… not just an employee.

Alright, so now let’s talk about quick things to work on over the next few weeks, starting with…

Create a ‘Bare Minimum Week’ template

Over the next week or so, sketch out what a ‘survival mode’ week would look and feel like for you. So this is the version of life that you default to when your tank is empty energy-wise. So… what are the absolute minimum basics for your work, home, and life that will keep things running without you collapsing?

So we’re talking about things like simple meals, fewer non-essential errands, less socialising, giving yourself permission to let some things slide… whatever. And when you’re already running on fumes, your brain will try to pretend that everything is fine until you hit a wall; having a pre-decided ‘bare minimum plan’ means that you can then just deliberately switch into low power mode before you break, and you don’t have to think about it because you have the plan to follow.

It’s a really practical way of saying to yourself, “I am not a machine and I need to protect my peace first and foremost,” and it stops every area of life from demanding a hundred percent from you when you’re only at 20% capacity. Next…

Introduce one clear boundary in how you respond to requests

Alright… for the next couple of weeks, your experiment is this: you don’t say yes to extra requests at work immediately. When someone asks you to take something on, your default reply becomes: “Let me check what I’ve already got on, and I’ll come back to you.” It’s a simple sentence with a huge impact. Just make sure you do go back to them!

It… this little tiny pause gives you some space to just consider your capacity first, instead of automatically sacrificing yourself to look helpful. Now, if you decide that you genuinely can’t take it on you can go back to the person and say, “Right now my plate is full with X and Y. If this is a priority, what can we drop or move?” Now, you’re not being difficult by doing this… you’re being realistic. You cannot do more than you physically have capacity for. And yes it’s going to feel uncomfortable at first, but that discomfort is you learning that your time and energy are allowed to matter… which is at the heart of finding more balance. You can always add things like ‘no emails after 7:00 PM’ later, if that works for you, but just start with the pause. It’s really simple, and it’s a real boundary.

Now I want to give you some longer term things to work on over the next few months. These are much more strategic changes and big picture things that’s going to help all of this stuff to stick a lot more. First…

Redefine your worth beyond productivity

This one takes time, and it’s uncomfortable, but it’s incredibly powerful. So… start by asking yourself, “Where did I learn that my value comes from how hard I work, or how useful I am?” So, maybe it was family messages about having to pull your weight. Maybe it was school. Maybe it was your first boss who praised you for staying back late. Whatever comes up, just notice it; maybe write some notes for yourself.

And then, over the coming months, I want you to deliberately build a different story. Once or twice a week, list qualities that you value in yourself that have nothing to do with your work: your humour, your kindness, the way you show up for people, your creativity, your honesty, your resilience. When your brain starts spiralling about not doing enough, gently remind yourself: “My worth is not measured in emails sent or hours logged.”

Now… if you don’t do this type of work, you’re going to keep on trading your peace of mind for gold stars that will never actually make you feel good enough. Redefining your worth is really important. It is slow and it’s repetitive, but it’s a core part of making sure that work becomes something you do, not who you are. Next…

Build your life around what matters

Over the course of a few months, start to gently flip how you design your time. So instead of building your week around work and then squeezing life into the leftovers, ask yourself: “If I treated my health, rest, and relationships as glass balls, what would I protect first?” Think about your sleep, movement, downtime, connection with people who matter, and time alone to recharge. Sketch out what a week would look like if those things had some space, even if it’s just small.

You might not have total control over your work hours or demands, and I’m not pretending that you do, but even small shifts can make a real difference to your nervous system, things like protecting one evening as non-negotiable rest or blocking off a lunch break three days a week where you actually step away from your work. This is the sort of stuff that helps you to make consistent choices that say, “My life matters just as much as my job… if not more.” Over time, those choices really do add up.

So, those are the tips. Again, don’t try to tackle all of them. Just pick one or two to test and remember that the goal here is about making progress… not being perfect.

Let me know in the comments which one or two you’re going to focus on first, and let’s talk about it!

Conclusion

So here’s what I want you to take away from this episode. Work is allowed to be important, but it is not meant to cost you your mind, your health, or your sense of self. If your job is draining you to the point where you’re barely holding it together, something needs to change in how you’re working, how you’re being worked, or how much power you let your work have in your life.

So… what’s one simple change you can make this week that will put your life at the top of your priority list where it belongs?

Because when you boil it all down, your job is replaceable… but you, and your peace of mind, are not.

Each week I like to finish up by sharing a quote about the topic, and I encourage you to take a few moments to really reflect on it and consider what it means to you. This week’s quote is from the one and only Dolly Parton, and it is…

Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

Dolly Parton

Let me repeat that.

Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

Alright… that’s it for this week! If you’d like to support the show, my Patreon gets you early ad-free episodes and extras; it’s linked below.

Thank you very much for joining me today. Look after yourself and make a conscious effort to share positivity and kindness out into the world… because you get back what you put out. Take care and talk to you next time!

Join me next week to talk about dealing with morning dread and anxiety. Plus, check out my episode on focusing on what matters next. It’s linked in the description. And make sure you follow or subscribe to never miss an episode!

Let’s Talk About Mental Health is an independent program. Discover more at ltamh.com.

---

SUPPORT MY SHOW!

Let’s Talk About Mental Health is an independent program written and created by me (Jeremy Godwin… hi! 👋), and I rely on people like you to help with the costs of producing my show each week. If you’d like to show your support for what I do (which I’d really appreciate), you can become a paid subscriber on Patreon for early access to ad-free episodes. Thank you!

Huge thanks to my wonderful Patreon supporters (in alphabetical order): Amanda D., Amanda K., Belinda, Brittnee, Carol B, Charlie, Isabel, Janis & Steve, Jo, Kaiulani, Keith, Lenka, Maya, Michael, Monte, Nikki, Patricia, Paula, Rachel, Roxanne, Sonia, Susan, Tatiana, Taylor.

Click here to become a Patreon supporter:

---

TOOLS & RESOURCES FOR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH

I offer simple digital products that will help you improve and look after your mental health.

• Start your day with focus and intention with my Daily Affirmations
• Transform your mental health in less than 15 minutes a day using my Daily Reflection Tool
• Get the most out of the Daily Reflection Tool with my Reflection Masterclass video (also available as a bundle with the tool itself, saving you 20%)

Click the links below for your chosen product(s):

---

Donate

Feeling generous? Make a secure one-off or recurring donation below (payments processed by Stripe).

---

Click here for details of mental health resources in most countries.

---

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up here to have episode transcripts and video/audio land in your inbox each week:

(I hate spam, so your information stays private. I may send you the odd email to update you about something new I’m working on, but other than that you’ll be receiving episode transcripts with embedded video/audio).

---

---

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Find more content at www.ltamh.com

Let’s Talk About Mental Health.
Making Mental Health Simple.

Let’s Talk About Mental Health. © 2025 Jeremy Godwin.

The information provided in this episode is for general awareness on the topic and does not constitute advice. You should consult a doctor and/or mental health professional if you’re struggling with your mental health and wellbeing. You’ll find additional information on the Resources page of this website.