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We continue to hear more and more about mental health and stress in farm country. When it comes to stressors, there may not be a bigger one than Mother Nature herself. Drought conditions continue to hinder crop progress.
“It turned out that we did get some rain events here recently. But you know, we just needed the rain. We didn’t need everything else that came with it,” says Abby Heidenreich with the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team. “We saw a lot of wind coming across the state. We saw widespread storms, some hail. We’ve got a lot of down corn. It’s yet to be seen if that corn is going to stand back up, if we’re going to be able to recover from some of that damage.”
Heidenreich emphasizes that you are not alone. There are resources available to help you talk through your stress, weather related or not.
“In Indiana, you can call or you can text 988 for your mental health crises. If you just need somebody to talk things out with or you’re experiencing some severe stress if you’ve had a lot of damage or you’ve got some other things going on. It doesn’t have to be weather related. It can be family issues, anything that’s going on, you can definitely call or text 988 at any point in time for your mental health needs,” says Heidenreich.
You can find additional farm stress resources at extension.purdue.edu/farmstress.