READ ABOUT DWAYNE’S STORY
Albertan farmers are used to juggling multiple tasks at once: from managing crops and livestock to running their businesses to serving as active community volunteers.
For years, Dwayne managed to keep all the balls in the air. He cropped 2,000 acres, ran 150 cows and, on top of that, was a busy and successful local hockey coach. In 2019, cracks appeared in his marriage, and he began to find farming a burden rather than a pleasure it had been.
“In a lot of ways, farmers are gamblers because so much of farming is out of our hands,” Dwayne says. “Looking back, I spread myself a little too thin. You start to feel overwhelmed, but at that time, I felt I had nowhere to turn.”
Dwayne Kelndorfer standing on the right.
As the feelings deepened, family and friends knew that something was definitely wrong. Dwayne took the step of reaching out to his doctor. He eventually entered treatment at Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury in Ponoka and calls the three-week experience life-changing.
“Now I know how lucky I was to get a room there,” Dwayne says. “I met some incredible people, and it really opened my eyes. I learned that all kinds of people have trouble with mental health. I can’t say enough.”
When you’re suddenly removed from your farm for a three-week period, the farm itself is at risk. Cattle need care, and other jobs on the farm just keep piling up.
Fortunately for Dwayne, friends and neighbours rallied around him to keep the farm work under control. “If I hadn’t had these people in my life,” he says, “I don’t know if I’d be here right now.”
He thinks attitudes about mental health are gradually changing in rural and farming communities. The stigma associated with seeking treatment is slowly lifting. Even if comments or jokes can be heard around town, Dwayne believes that coming forward and sharing his experience is helpful for him and important for others. He learned this first-hand on one particular visit to town last year when a fellow producer revealed that he’d had mental challenges of his own.
“He comes up to me, this big burly rancher, and he says, ‘Because of what you did, I went to the doctor and got some help.”
Dwayne praises the professionals who helped him so compassionately in his time of need. Beyond clinical resources, he’d like attention paid to the potential of farmer-to-farmer peer groups.
“Talking about it is half the battle,” he says, “and it’s easier to talk to someone who knows what you’re going through.”
The stress Dwayne described and his feelings about his work probably resonate with a lot of other farmers. It definitely hit home for me. I swear I could swap out his name for a few people I know, with the only difference being that he sought help, whereas the farmers I knew didn’t and found themselves in some pretty bad situations.
The first time I read through Dwayne’s experiences, there were a few things that immediately jumped out at me:
he described feeling like he was spreading himself too thin
he felt that farming had become a burden rather than the pleasure it had been
he felt overwhelmed
he felt like he had nowhere to turn
THESE ARE WARNING SIGNS OF BURNOUT.
Dwayne describes the three components of burnout so clearly in his story: feeling emotionally drained, being cynical or detached from work, and feeling a lack of accomplishment. He also shows us how burnout can creep up on you -- it’s the result of stress that builds up slowly in your personal and work life.
A lot of people who experience burnout often say that they feel like they have no power or control over what happens in life. They use words like “feeling stuck” or “being trapped” in a situation. It’s one of the tell-tale signs of burnout that happens to so many farmers.
If ignored, these symptoms don’t go away on their own. Lack of energy, poor sleep, and decreased motivation can make it difficult to overcome burnout. Over time, this chronic, stressed-out state can cause some serious damage to your health.
So when you’re in the thick of it, you can’t fully grasp the gravity of your situation. Just like Dwayne, it wasn’t until he got help and reflected back on his situation that he really understood just how bad it had gotten.
Getting professional help when you feel you’ve exhausted your own resources is one of the best ways to bring you out of the fog and give you the tools you need to see clearly and get back to doing the things you love doing.
Burnout isn’t a medical condition that can be diagnosed, it’s important that you understand what burnout is and how it can creep up on you -- especially during those busy times of the year like harvest.
HERE ARE A FEW THINGS YOU CAN DO:
1. Reach out to someone you trust instead of withdrawing. It’s important that we call on people to talk to when we are going through difficult times. Remember that burnout and stress are common among farmers – reaching out to another farmer will benefit you and them!
2. Find something in your work that you find really interesting and that helps you renew your sense of purpose and value.
3. Finish something that you’ve been meaning to get to - nothing too big, just a task that lets you check off something from today’s to-do list and gives you a sense of accomplishment.
Article by Dr Rebecca Purc-Stephenson
Applied Social Psychologist and Professor in the Department of Social Sciences
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