I recently returned to work. Probably earlier than I should have but my supervisors all helped me out; positioning me in areas I can sit down; carrying out more admin duties than I usually would do and checking in with me often.

I was so excited to be going back. I would still consider myself as being new to the industry. Pushing myself to get as much varied experience as possible and soak up as much knowledge and advice as I can. I always had fun at work. I am close to the people I work with and I was looking forward to seeing them again rather than just speaking on the phone.

Getting back to work was a different experience than I expected. I was anxious, but I expected I would be after being off a while. I felt like I was bouncing off the walls on my way there, full of energy ready to get back to it. The moment I got to the venue, I crashed. Hard. I had no energy, didn’t want to talk to anyone, only wanting to go home. I didn’t, I signed in and started working.

I started working and felt very uncomfortable. I never managed to put my finger on why. But I got on with it, given my injury I was offered extra breaks but felt too guilty to take one. As though others would be unhappy that I was back at work but not doing as much work as everyone else. I was back again the next day, for a longer, busier shift. I did more work than the previous day, and I was in more pain by the end of the shift. Worse yet, I wasn’t enjoying myself. I realised that the job I had been enjoying so much felt inexplicably different. I was miserable, my usual cheery self was gone and replaced by a character to keep up appearances.

The job I love was suddenly uninteresting.

I haven’t worked since, but I am due back in soon. I am hoping that in time I will adjust and get back to enjoying my work. Hoping. It has got me thinking though. I am good at hiding how I feel, no one noticed I was off, so I wondered how many other people around me were feeling this way. There is no doubt in my mind that there are people that I work directly with suffer, so many people manage to hide their true selves. Or at least, their darker feelings and thoughts.

The nature of working in events can be quite stressful. No matter how well planned things are you always have to be alert, ready to react, thinking on your feet and committed to working unsociable hours. It’s a high pressure environment, no matter how rewarding it can be.

So I did a little research. I found the following facts:

• ‘Research has shown that the event professional is in the top 5 most stressful jobs. 1 in 3 event professionals will suffer a period of mental ill health, the national average is 1 in 4 and event professionals only rate their general wellbeing as 6 out of 10.’

• The study shows that despite huge publicity and efforts to make mental health issues less of a stigma, respondents are still attributing mental health sickness to some other reason, i.e. a heavy cold.

And specifically within security:

• 64.6 per cent of security guards suffered verbal abuse at least once a month. (50 per cent of these were as regular as once a week).

• 43 per cent of respondents reported threats of violence at least once a month (10 per cent were getting threatened on a daily basis)3

• More than 30 per cent of those surveyed reported some kind of physical assault in the workplace once a year. (Almost 10 per cent reported a minor physical assault at least once a month).