Mental Health in Cybersecurity: The Weight of Vigilance

It's 6:47 a.m. The incident was contained hours ago. The systems are fine. You're the one still running hot.This episode opens the Month of Mindfulness, a five-week Plaintext with Rich series on mental health, spiritual health, physical health, burnout, and work-life balance for people working in cybersecurity and tech. May 1 happens to fall during Mental Health Awareness Month, which makes it the right time to start. We're talking about the mental load that comes with vigilance work: on-call rotations, alert fatigue, incident response, and the cost of being the person who carries worst-case scenarios in your head all day. Plus a Plaintext Starter Kit with five practical moves, including how to actually use your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and where to find Mental Health Hackers at the next conference you attend. And three programs worth bookmarking: Pacific Mindful's CyberReset, The Zensory, and Shield Community, each built for the nervous system demands of technology and cybersecurity work.If you've ever come off an incident and wondered why your body is still running an alert two days later, this is for you. Whether you're an analyst, an engineer, a CISO, or the one person doing security at a 40-person company, the load is real and so is the recovery.Ten minutes or less. One topic. No panic. Pacific Mindful's CyberReset, a precision nervous system training tool built for high-exposure roles. https://www.pacificmndfl.com/resetThe Zensory, a science-backed wellbeing platform with a dedicated Cyber Mindfulness Campaign. https://thezensory.comShield Community, a wellness program built specifically for technology and cybersecurity professionals. https://www.shield.community/Is there a topic/term you want me to discuss next? Text me!!YouTube more your speed? → https://links.sith2.com/YouTube  Apple Podcasts your usual stop? → https://links.sith2.com/Apple  Neither of those? Spotify’s over here → https://links.sith2.com/Spotify  Prefer reading quietly at your own pace? → https://links.sith2.com/Blog  Join us in The Cyber Sanctuary (no robes required) → https://links.sith2.com/Discord  Follow the human behind the microphone → https://links.sith2.com/linkedin  Need another way to reach me? That’s here → https://linktr.ee/rich.greene