we really need to convene more and better conversations on mental health in our industry, with an eye towards organizing around actionable changes https://studyhall.xyz/the-reporters-are-not-okay-extremely-not-okay/

I keep meaning to write something longer on this somewhere, but one of the many issues acting against mental health in journalism is the extent to which a lot of us over-identify with our work. It can keep us trapped in really bad cycles.

I have this line I sometimes say to journalism students: “if you can imagine yourself doing anything else, do that instead. If you can’t, join us.” It’s kind of tongue in cheek but there’s truth in it, and not a healthy one. A lot of us can’t imagine doing anything else.

That’s the group that tends to become “lifers.” Rightly or wrongly, a lot of us fundamentally don’t think we have other skills. We typically have some really pure, even naive core motivation: we want to do meaningful work, or just want to write, or whatever it is.

But it all adds up to this situation where many journalists (not all, but... many) have their whole identity tied up in the job. We don’t really know who we are without it. And if you’re “only as good as your last story,” as the saying goes, well, where does that leave you?

That tendency can make us very vulnerable to staying in situations or patterns that are totally unsustainable and unhealthy. And maybe you know you’re burning out or struggling to cope with the inherent stresses of the job, including how public it is...

...but it’s so hard to step away, even temporarily, because doing so requires losing such a massive part of your identity that it’s really hard to even contemplate. That’s not a safe place to be, in terms of being able to set boundaries and make choices for your own well-being.

We need to make the industry healthier for the people in it. And I think as part of that we also need to talk about how not to lose our own self-identity to the job so that we aren’t clinging to it even when it’s hurting us, personally.