Psychologist and grain grower Steph Schmidt has practical strategies for dealing with stress and maintaining mental wellbeing, even when times are tough

As a South Australian grain grower with three young sons, Steph Schmidt is familiar with the stress that can come with farming, particularly in years impacted by low rainfall and frost, such as 2024. As a psychologist, she is also qualified to know how to deal with it.

Taking care of mental health on-farm is not about getting rid of the inevitable stressors, but rather cultivating skills to manage them effectively, she told the GRDC Grains Research Update – Adelaide.

Ms Schmidt is the founder of Farm Life Psych, a business that teaches mental health skills and runs awareness training. She drew a comparison between adequate farm stores and mental health, saying it was useful to think about wellbeing like a silo or grain bin.

Metaphorically, a silo represents mental, physical and emotional reserves, she said. “And you couldn’t sow if your silo was empty.

At each harvest, whether it’s good or bad, the priority before we sell as much grain as we can is to make sure we’ve got seed set aside for the next season, and taking care of ourselves is the same.

“We can’t keep giving to everyone else, giving to our work, giving to all the things we care about, if we haven’t put enough seed away for ourselves,” she said.

Checking in

Like a grain storage bin needs to be regularly checked and refilled each year, keeping the ‘mental wellbeing silo’ topped up required ongoing action, she said.

The common strategies to maintain a full ‘silo’ were:

• adequate hydration
• eating nutritious food
• connecting with someone
• doing something enjoyable
• moving the body
• getting adequate sleep
• being present.

Ms Schmidt said it might not be possible to take all these actions each day, especially in times of stress. This was when the ‘silo’ could begin to run low.

Checking in with ‘silo’ levels regularly would help identify when it may need to be topped up by consciously employing wellbeing strategies.

“Sometimes it could be really practical stuff like making sure you’re hydrating and having a nutritious meal. Or it could be connecting with people, having that coffee or phone call,” she said.

“And sometimes we need to do more to fill our bins, [and we can do this by] doing the things that we love and that are unique to each of us, such as Sunday afternoon bowls, or yoga, or just going around and appreciating the farm.”

Signs of stress

Ms Schmidt said our bodies provided signs that indicated a shift from an acute stress response to a specific problem, or to a chronic issue that may need addressing.

These included:

• physical responses such as headaches or stomach problems
• emotional responses such as angry blow-ups or depression
• behavioural signals such as overeating or drinking or a change in sleep patterns.

She said it was useful in times of calm to pinpoint stress responses and discuss with others. When they emerged, they could be identified and action taken to de-stress.

“In the heat of the moment, telling someone they are irritable or stressed out doesn’t tend to go down so well,” she said. “But if you have that conversation beforehand, you can use them as signposts to look out for.”

Help at hand

It was important to note that just like droughts, floods or frosts that could hit hard and impact seed reserves, there would be times that, despite their best efforts, people would not be able to look after their own reserves.

“This is the time to call on your friends, families and professionals and let them know you are not OK,” she said.

These things can happen for many reasons usually out of our control, and that first step of reaching out for more help is vital.

When it comes to helping others, Ms Schmidt advised to keep things simple. “Remember that supporting others doesn’t mean you’re solving all their problems – it’s about listening, validating and guiding them to the right resources.”

While there was no knowing what the 2025 season would bring, following practical steps would help to manage a range of stressors and pressures from farming and everyday life, she said.

More information: Farm Life Psych

Resources:
GRDC Update Paper: Looking after your mental health and supporting others: how full is your silo 

Burnout (2019) by Amelia and Emily Nagoski

Drawing from research by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, Steph Schmidt says that completing the ‘stress cycle’ is key to maintaining wellbeing.

“We can think of the experience of stress as like being in a tunnel,” she says.

“We experience a trigger, go into a tunnel of stress and, unless we do something to tell our body that we’re safe, we stay stuck. So, we need to find ways of moving through that tunnel and getting out the other side,” she says.

Strategies to ‘close the cycle’ and move out of the stress tunnel include: