Feeling blue and it’s not new? Then pay attention to the following

Some time ago, helping my father to clean out a closet, I came across a rifle with a sad story attached to it. Back in 1934, at the heart of the deep world-wide depression, the wife of our next-door neighbor asked my father to take it away after her husband had used it to kill himself. The bank was about to take his farm as he could pay the debt and he could not stand to lose the farm his great grandfather had worked.

In 2001, I was in Northern England during the foot and mouth disease outbreak. They were killing and burning piles of livestock. In the months following, the suicides in farmers in that region had taken a dramatic jump. They could not stand to see the killing of their herds and the genetic line they had spent a lifetime building.

Suicide has long been known to be at increased risk among farmers. They peak at times during extreme stress. As a professor in public health, with other colleagues, we documented and published this increase. Suicide in farmers is more than six times as high compared to all other workers. This is a worldwide phenomenon. Why is this so?

Michael Rosman PhD is a clinical psychologist as well as a farmer. He has counselled many farmers on the brink and offers several theories, which are backed up by scientific evidence. These factors along with preventive methods have been reviewed (Donham, 2016). Here is what we know:

• Farmers around the world are quite similar culturally and sociologically. Farming for farmers is not just a job— it is a way of life. Tensions affecting that way of life create stress in farmers. Threats may be livestock disease, economic loss or fear of loss of the farm, public regulations that make farming more challenging, machinery break down, and severe weather conditions.
• Long term, unmanaged stress may lead to depression. Long term depression may lead to a feeling of hopelessness, which may in turn lead to suicide in the worst-case scenario.
• Farmers are generally independent, stoic, and choose not to seek health care unless they are really suffering. Farmers avoid seeking mental health care even more than physical health care because of the stigma associated with it.
• Even if a farmer does want to seek mental health care, it is difficult to find those resources, as health care generally in rural areas is sparse – especially mental health care.
• Recent conditions have bought even more stress among farmers, including the following:
  • Severe weather; examples include droughts and wildfires in Australia, hurricanes and flooding in the U.S., extreme heat in Scandinavia this past year.
  • The urban-farm divide sees town people criticizing farmers for polluting the environment and raising livestock in cruel and inhumane ways.
  • African Swine Fever in China and other Southeast Asian countries creates stress from the fear of its spread to the E.U. and North America.
  • And of course – there is COVID 19. In North America (and I assume other places) COVID 19 has resulted in closing several pork processing plants resulting in crowding in production units. There has been euthanizing of pigs and fear of killing more because there is no room to house excess pigs coming up the production chain. Additionally, the COVID 19 has infected some farm workers and this has resulted in reduced labor force to tend the livestock.

Stress is linked to the soul of independent farmers and farming. The sociopsychology in corporate farming and independent farmers may differ. There may be similarities. However, those comparisons have yet to be defined.

As stress has increased in recent years across agriculture, Agricultural Medicine and Safety experts have offered information on prevention. Stressful conditions do not have to end in suicide.

The key to prevention is stress management. One thing to understand and take to heart is that an individual farmer may feel they cannot control the factors contributing to their stress. The focus should be on what you can control. Here are some ways to gain control:

• Do not suffer in silence. Talk to your spouse, your partner, your banker, and your friends. One program is called “farmer to farmer”. We trained farmers and other people who have contact with farmers (veterinarians, livestock truck drivers, farm service and supply people) to recognize depression in their farmer neighbors/clients and to work with them to get professional help. Farmers are much more likely to listen to other farmers than anyone else.
• Locate the main problems of the stress that are controllable. If it is economic stress, for example, talk to your banker to make a plan to meet the challenge.
• Take care of your general health. Make sure to eat healthy, get exercise, get eight hours of quality sleep, and avoid drugs or alcohol to cover your stress. Maintain contact with your friends. Practice your faith/religion, whatever that is. Take care of your family. Yes, with COVID 19 and social distancing, direct-contact socializing is a challenge. However, you can use your phone or your computer to contact your friends. It is important. Do it.
• Here are some questions to ask yourself:
  • Do you feel sad, empty, and hopeless most of the day, or nearly every day? Have you lost interest or pleasure in your hobbies or being with friends and family? Are you having trouble sleeping, eating, and functioning? If you have felt this way for at least 2 weeks, you may have depression, a serious but treatable mood disorder. Details of this information can be seen on the National Institute for Mental Health website.
• Don’t be a denier. If you answer yes to these questions above, it’s best to seek out health care. It is often best to start with your primary care physician. There is less stigma approaching them, and they can refer you to a higher level of care if indicated.

If you are blue and it is not new – please take this information and do something about it. The world needs healthy farmers and healthy families now more than ever in the time of COVID 19.

The following are additional recommended resources for prevention.

North America

• National Farmers Union, National Suicide lifeline
• Farm Journal’s AGPRO Prevention Week: Managing Stress on Farms
• Washington State University Extension. Creating a suicide prevention program for farmers and farm workers. Available in Spanish language.
• Journal of Extension. December 2019 // Volume 57 // Number 6 // Research In Brief // v57-6rb1. Responding to crisis: farmer mental health program in the extension north central region

Australia

• University of South Australia. Suicide and its prevention for aging farmers
• National Center for Farmers Health

Europe

• Booth, Briscoe, Powell. 2000. Suicide in the farming community: Methods used and contact with health services. British Medical Journal.