Melissa Bernstein, co-founder of popular toy company Melissa & Doug, says she "grew up feeling that showing anything negative, anything human, anything dark was bad. My way of behaving was never to show a crack in my armour. That was the path that I also led.
But in her late 40s, after more than two decades as CEO, she was overcome by her lifelong struggles with existential depression. "I broke down and had to give up and say, 'I can't do this on my own, I am who I am, I need help,'" she says. He recognized that as a leader I was "wrong and preventing others from really showing me who they were". So she decided to publish her illness in LifeLines, a book about her experiences that became the basis of a dedicated wellness website.
The sense of liberation didn't last long, however, as thousands of people turned to her, sharing their own experiences and seeking advice. I almost collapsed under the emotional burden of carrying the burden of others and wanting so desperately to help them, she says. I developed instant compassion fatigue Over time, he found a balance between selfcare and empathy,like reducing the number of people he would contact with mental health issues from twelve or fifteen to a maximum of four a day.