If you’re a farmer, you certainly understand how stressful it is with lower commodity prices, high input costs, and making sure everything is set for harvest! But, no matter how suffocating your stress may make you feel, you’re not alone.
“There’s no shame in reaching out for help and even just to talk to a trusted family member or someone around you,” says Abby Heidenreich, a Purdue Extension educator based out of Gibson County. She’s also a member of the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team.
They’re working to “break the stigma” when it comes to keeping your stress bottled up within yourself and not managing it properly—because it could negatively impact your family, your friends, and your health!
“When everything starts to hit all at once, it’s important just to remember to slow down, take a breath, and remember that it’s going to be okay and know that you’re not alone,” she says. “We have resources to help. Remember that you can always call or text 988 if you’re experiencing a mental health crisis or if things are just feeling a little bit overwhelming.”
Not only is the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team working to help farmers manage their stress—they’re also working to help ag students and kids in rural communities.
“We see a lot of mental health focused curriculums coming to the schools, but not all of them are as relevant to kids and youth who are living and working on farms or in an agricultural community,” according to Heidenreich. “That’s why we’re working on a curriculum that’s going to address some of the specifics of how youth on the farm or in agricultural rural communities can deal with their stress in healthy ways and how they can cope with generational stress and different things that they experience that not everybody in their school may experience in the same way.”
For more information about the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team, visit Extension.Purdue.edu/FarmStress.
