Mental Health Awareness Week — Pilots, Reality, and Looking After Ourselves
As we approach Mental Health Awareness Week (11–17 May), I wanted to add to my last blog, where I talked about International Day of Happiness and Stress Awareness Month.
In that piece, I talked about “silver linings.” Not as something we should force, but as something that’s sometimes there — and sometimes isn’t. It can be helpful if you can find one. But the pressure to do so can actually make things harder rather than easier.
Working in aviation, we operate in an environment that can both directly challenge our mental health and, at times, support it. The same job that disrupts sleep, routine, and nutrition can also provide structure, purpose, movement, and connection. But even that connection isn’t straightforward — strong, supportive relationships at work are common, while maintaining friendships, family time, and staying connected outside of work can be much harder around the reality of rosters and fatigue.
So this isn’t about forced positivity, or pretending that mindset alone fixes everything.
It’s about something more grounded: what we actually do to look after our wellbeing in a job that can, at times, work against it — and at other times, support it.
This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme is action — and that’s a useful place to start. Because a lot of mental health advice focuses on how we think and feel, but in practice, what we do matters just as much.
And that matters — both when things are going well, and when they’re not.
The bit we can influence
A lot of mental health messaging still leans towards the idea that if you think differently, you’ll feel better.
We see it everywhere. “Don’t be scared of flying, you did the dangerous bit driving to the airport.” “Don’t be sad, the sun’s out.” It’s well meant, and said kindly. Therapy sometimes offers more structured versions of the same idea around managing thoughts.
But in real life, it doesn’t always land like that.
What I see, both day to day and in clinical practice, is that trying to challenge thoughts directly isn’t always helpful. Sometimes it just feels like you’re being told your reaction is wrong — and if you can’t shift it, you end up feeling worse about something you were already struggling with.
Thoughts and feelings do have an impact on our mental state — especially when we’re tired, under pressure, or dealing with disrupted sleep. What we can control, with practice, is how much attention we give them and what we do in response.
In this job, that’s usually quite practical – and fits well with this year’s theme of action.
Eating something properly instead of skipping meals. Getting some movement in, even if it’s just a short walk. Going to bed when you can, rather than pushing through. Sending a message to someone instead of going quiet. Keeping small routines going when everything else shifts.
None of that is particularly glamorous, and it doesn’t fix how you feel straight away.
But it does give you something to work with on the harder days.
That’s usually more useful than trying to win an argument with yourself.
The job, and each other
I often say – and work on the basis that - connection is a fundamental part of our wellbeing. This job can be very good for connection, and quite bad for it at the same time.
You can have a really good day with a crew — easy conversation, shared humour, everything just works. And then you don’t fly with them again. That’s a genuine loss.
Equally, if you end up with a more challenging dynamic, that’s not permanent either. Next trip, it’s different people. That can be a “plus”!
Outside of work, it’s less contained. Shift patterns, fatigue, and what sometimes gets called “intermittent spouse syndrome” can make relationships and staying connected harder.
But it cuts both ways.
A weekday off means things most people miss — a coffee when it’s quiet, an after-school barbecue, time that other people don’t usually have. And those moments are often really valued.
At the same time, you might miss the Saturday football match, or the standing social plans that happen without you.
So this side of the job isn’t fixed. It shifts.
In practice, it comes down to not leaving it entirely to chance – to taking action.
Checking in with people when you can. Making the effort outside of work as well as in it. Taking the opportunities the job gives you, not just noticing what it takes away.
None of that is complicated, but it does make a difference.
And it’s a more realistic version of what Mental Health Awareness Week is getting at when it talks about action this year