Burnout, stress and depression have become worldwide epidemics costing us healthy employees, bottom lines and lives. So, why aren’t we talking more about our mental health and wellbeing?

In too many places both remain taboo. Too many people expect to over-work, to leave their lives behind while they’re at it; and postpone paying attention to their wellbeing until a time of health crisis.

We are all vulnerable to burnout. Arianna Huffington’s book Thrive provides a candid account of her own experience; as she puts it, she went face-to-face, or “floor-to-floor” with the problem when she collapsed from exhaustion and lack of sleep in 2007.

She had founded the Huffington Post two years earlier. She was on the cover of magazines and had been chosen by Time as one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People. Yet it was only after her fall that she began to ask what success really looked like.

A survey of 200,000… has found that good mental health and having a partner make people happier than doubling their income.

The western workplace culture, she writes, is practically fueled by stress, sleep deprivation, and burnout. Even as stress undermines our health, sleep deprivation is profoundly – and negatively – affecting our creativity, our productivity, and decision making.

Last week the BBC shared the article: Breaking the mental health taboo: Please talk about it. It cited how in the workplace many suffer mental health issues as a result of stress and exhaustion.

It is estimated that each year in UK an estimated one in four adults will experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem.

Sleep deprivation is profoundly – and negatively – affecting our creativity, our productivity, and decision making.

The World Health Organisation defines mental health as a state of wellbeing in which an individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community.

There is no single definition of wellbeing, but it is more about being healthy and happy. In 2012 The International Journal of Wellbeing described wellbeing as finding a balance between an individual’s resource pool and challenges faced.

Good mental health and wellbeing are important in everyday life and in the workplace. Perhaps too often society spends more time focusing upon short-term gain, financial profit or otherwise, instead of what really matters.

As reported in the media today, a survey of 200,000 by the London School of Economics has found that good mental health and having a partner make people happier than doubling their income.

Perhaps like Arianna Huffington we should take time to re-evaluate what really makes us happy, before it’s too late. Maybe we should focus less on financial capital and more on protecting and nurture our human capital.