The Retirement Newsletter: Mental Health and Retirement

Issue Number: 10 — Can retirement be a trigger?

Photo by Author — a walk along a canal on an early summer morning — great for your mental health

Welcome

Welcome to issue 10. This week, I look at mental health in retirement — a tricky subject.

Mental Health

As a Boomer, mental health didn’t figure much in my childhood. I can’t remember any discussions at school. The closest I came to discussing mental health was when family members and friends were a bit “nervous” and the occasional discussion of “nervous breakdowns”. That was it.

Even at university, there was no discussion of mental health.

My first encounter with mental health issues was during my PhD. A friend developed severe depression and was hospitalised.

Now that I look back, it is quite shocking. Mental health wasn’t discussed.

However, when I took up my first position as a lecturer — some 12 years after being an undergraduate — the number of students with mental health issues shocked me. And in the 25 years I worked as a lecturer, the number of students with mental health issues has increased every year.

I am unsure if the incidence of mental health is increasing or if people are now more willing to report mental health issues. I suspect…