FITTING THOUGHT 1
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October: Mental Health Awareness Month
October is Mental Health Awareness Month – and the industry is opening up to the conversation.
Through the Friends in Trades initiative, the conversation about mental health in the trades has begun. There is a shift happening – one that urges the industry to prioritise mental health as much as they look after their physical health.
The modern human being is functioning well beyond what our original biology and psychology were designed to do.
Think about it.
Not too long ago, our main concerns involved finding food, creating shelter, raising families and protecting the communities we had built.
Fast forward to today.
We have bills to pay, businesses to run, customers to keep happy, social commitments to maintain, families relying on us, cars that need servicing, and an endless list of responsibilities constantly running through our minds.
It ' s no wonder so many people live in a state of chronic stress, exhaustion and anxiety.
For plumbers, the pressure can be even greater – long hours, physically demanding work, managing staff, dealing with emergencies and running a business all require constant mental energy. By the end of the day, our brains have worked overtime. Perhaps this month it ' s worth asking whether we ' re giving ourselves the same attention we give everyone else.
Which brings me to my challenge for you this Mental Health Awareness Month. Go social-media-free for one week. Seems impossible, right?
For many of us, social media has become something we instinctively reach for whenever we have a spare moment – something we tell ourselves helps to destress after a day of mental overload.
But does it really?
Spend just five minutes scrolling Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok or X and you ' ll move from funny dog videos, to footage of a war, to an industry update, to a friend ' s engagement announcement, to the latest viral trend.
Now stop and think about what your brain has just experienced.
In the space of only a few minutes, your brain has just processed joy, sadness, concern, excitement and curiosity.
And none of those emotional shifts were your choice – the content was presented to you in a way that demanded almost no effort. But your brain still processed every single one of those experiences and emotions.
Now that was only a five-minute example – the average South African spends 3 hours and 41 minutes every day on social media platforms. 1
Why this matters My point isn ' t that social media is bad. It can be an incredible tool for learning, connecting with others and even growing a business. But when every spare moment is filled with another scroll, another notification or another piece of information demanding our attention, our minds never truly get a chance to rest.
So this month, try putting the phone down for a week and see what changes.
• Do you sleep better?
• Are you more present with your loved ones?
• Do you find yourself thinking more clearly?
• Does your mind feel just a little quieter?
And while you ' re at it, have a real conversation with someone.
The Friends in Trades initiative exists because our industry is recognising an important truth: even the toughest people doing the toughest jobs need support sometimes.
You don ' t need to have all the answers, and you don ' t need to solve someone else ' s problems. But sometimes simply asking, " How are you really doing?" is enough to remind someone that they don ' t have to carry everything on their own.
Mental health isn ' t only about getting through another workday. It ' s about building habits that help us stay healthy for the long term.
Sometimes improving our mental health doesn ' t begin with a major life change. Sometimes it starts with putting the phone down, looking up, reconnecting with the people around us and simply giving our minds permission to rest. PA
Megan
References: 1. DataReportal – Global Digital Insights
Let me know if you complete the challenge
Scan the QR Code with your WhatsApp Camera to join the Plumbing Africa group, and let me know if you complete the social media challenge this October:
October 2026 Volume 32 I Number 08 www. plumbingafrica. co. za