Truck drivers often face the utmost trouble when it comes to mental health problems. Let’s find out the top 5 mental health tips for truck drivers to boost them up.
We know what you are thinking. When we encounter truck drivers while hitchhiking, we see how tough and sturdy they are, right? But, that doesn’t mean they are impervious to the stresses of life on the road.
In fact, there are almost 3 million are employed as truck drivers in the U.S. Among them, 27.9% were surveyed as suffering from loneliness, 20.6% suffered from sleep apnea, 26.9% suffered from depression, and 14.5% suffered from anxiety.
If you take a thorough look at these statistics, you’ll see how it is essential to maintain a stable mental health paradigm for truck drivers. So, without further ado, let’s get started on the mental health tips.
7 Crucial Mental Health Tips For Truck Drivers
Before we give you the mental health tips for truck drivers, we should inform you that these tips will range from medical to psychological from physiological to social levels.
Therefore, you should be mentally prepared to get your hands on diverse mental health tips in this article;
1. Consider a travel companion
Most truck drivers suffer from mental health issues because they spend ample time on the road alone. So, if possible, you should always consider a travel companion as it will reduce your stress levels.
Having a travel companion is an important mental health tip for truck drivers because it helps combat loneliness and isolation. Truck drivers spend long hours on the road away from family and friends, which can take a toll mentally.
Therefore, if you keep a travel companion with you, it will cheer up your spirit. You can even switch the driving seat with the person sometimes if he knows how to drive, which will save you joint ache probabilities.
2. Get enough quality sleep
Truck drivers may have the rush to deliver items from one site to another within a deadline.
It often compromises their quality of sleep, and irregular sleeping pattern is a significant cause of mental health issues. So, getting quality sleep is a valuable tip to keep your mental health in order.
You can even set a specific nightly routine for your sleep, avoid heavy meals and caffeine in the evening, and limit the use of your phone before going to bed.
Of course, if none of these sleeping tips work for you, you can always talk to a doctor to monitor your sleeping habits.
3. Maintain a healthy diet
Maintaining a healthy diet is equivalent to physical exercises to keep your body healthy and stable.
Some food items like caffeine, alcohol, sugar, and artificial sweetener cause stress in people. Since truck drivers spend so much time on the road, they are more inclined to consume these foods.
So, just take a look at the blood sugar levels chart of yours, and cut down those foods that are apparently taking a toll on your stress hormones.
If possible, carry homemade food before taking a long haul on the road because that will help your stress hormones stay in balance.
4. Keep your mind active
Do you know why truck drivers get so many mental health disorders?
That’s because they focus so much on driving; it loses their nerves, makes their brains dull, and disturbs their attention spans. So, one of the most helpful mental health tips here will be to keep your mind active even while driving.
You can listen to a podcast or favorite songs from your playlist. If it seems boring, you can learn a new language while driving or play some brain teasers online.
There are plenty of audiobooks, too, that can help you expand the horizon of your knowledge, so keep your mind active as you drive your truck.
5. Meditate
One of the most helpful mental health tips to improve truck drivers’ wellbeing is to relax as much as possible.
Now, what better way is there to relax than meditation, right? Meditation is scientifically proven to help one focus better, concentrate better, improve self-esteem, and develop self-awareness.
Meditation can also increase the threshold of your pain tolerance. So, when you drive your truck for a long time, it may cause you back pain and joint pain.
Meditation will lessen the impact of such pains. In addition, truck drivers often fall victim to substance abuse, so meditations will help you fight the urge of such drug abuse, keeping you both physically and mentally healthy.
6. Take time off to prevent burnout
Taking regular days off from driving is crucial to prevent mental and physical burnout from the demands of the job.
Without adequate rest, truck drivers are at higher risk for fatigue, impaired driving, and crashes.
Time off allows the body to recharge and gives the mind a break from constant focus on the road. This improves overall wellbeing and ability to drive safely.
7. Seek professional help for mental health concerns
If truck drivers experience persistent depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction issues, or other mental health problems, it is important to seek professional support.
Unaddressed mental health issues can worsen over time and lead to severe consequences like suicidal thoughts or self-medication with drugs/alcohol.
Counseling provides coping strategies to manage mental health symptoms. Support groups connect truckers dealing with similar problems.
Getting professional help prevents small issues from spiraling into crises and improves quality of life.
Putting It All Together
Always remember that there is more to life than spending all your time behind the steering wheel. We know that it’s your job, and jobs demand sacrifices and compromises. But, we don’t think sacrificing your mental health is the answer to any job offers.
Therefore, we suggest you follow these mental health tips if you want to keep your truck driving profession intact. Of course, these tips will be helpful to anyone who are not in the truck driving profession, so be mindful of that too.
