Mental Health + Substance Abuse in the Restaurant Industry

by Hōkū Young

The first time I had a panic attack at work was not my best day on the job. When I’m not in the right mental capacity, I shut down, and that particular day at work I didn’t feel like I could reach out to my supervisor and ask for help. I work at a gym, and not in an inherently high stress position either, but it just happened, as mental health sometimes does.

But what does mental health look like in a job that demands everything of you - In an industry where you have to be “on” the whole time, and the pay doesn’t reflect everything that you’re putting in?

The restaurant industry is unrelenting and unpredictable, and high stress is built in to the nature of the business. Mental health and substance abuse issues run rampant in the restaurant industry, yet few people in the industry are talking about these issues, especially those who struggle with them. Jessica Au, former server at Tony Roma’s and BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse told me, “It’s not in the human nature to admit that you’re not strong enough,” regarding the high rates of mental health issues rife in the industry. She went on, “What’s that quote: ‘Only the strong survive.’ I think its built in to our biology.”

"It's not in the human nature to admit that you're not strong enough. What's the quote: 'Only the strong survive.' I think its built in to our biology."

Paul Au, current Jr. Sous Chef at Fête in Honolulu, said, “Personally, mental health issues like anxiety stem from the pressure to perform, and the line of work - Rush periods, busy weekends, long hours, working nights, and getting out late.” The line of work is very much a grind, Paul expressed. “The culinary arts are a performing art. You have to show up to work and execute.” This begs the question, are mental health and substance abuse issues just collateral damage of the job?

“The culinary arts are a performing art. You have to show up to work and execute.”

Adding insult to injury, in addition to restaurant workers always needing to be "on," their wages don't reflect the intensity of the profession. In an interview with The Splendid Table, author of “Hi Anxiety,” and Senior Food and Drinks Editor at Time Inc.’s Extra Crispy Kat Kinsman reflected on what it is about this line of work that has created an industry that weighs heavily with mental health and substance abuse issues: “People ask me, ‘There's all these other really tough intense professions. Athletes, doctors, people in finance, they're all up against that much pressure as well. What makes being a cook any different?’” Kinsman explains that all of those jobs make significantly better wages than restaurant workers, and are afforded resources that many in the restaurant industry don’t have. “People who work in kitchens are working for minimum wage - or if you work for tips you don't work for a tipped minimum wage.”

When you’re working a high stress minimum wage job, and depending on tips for your wages, you are at the whim of your customer.“You approach a table expecting them to be rude, and you have to prove something to them in order for them to be nice, to tip you well…I thought it was even more stressful than nursing,” said Jessica, who worked as a medical technician after working in the restaurant industry for five years. “When you’re a nurse, that person is at your will. They need your help. In the restaurant, your customer is the one who has all the power.”

Steve Palmer did a TedTalk in Charleston titled, “Sober Reality for the Food and Beverage Industry,” and one of the topics that he explored was about how we as customer’s are all about sustainability nowadays. We shop organic when we can, we want to know where our food is from, we want to know that the animals we are consuming were ethically raised, that our seafood was sourced from the right waters, that they aren’t being overfished. We are attentive to the care that was put in to the food we are consuming, but rarely do we ask about human sustainability or stop to think about the wellbeing of the hands that prepare our food. The restaurant industry also is not an industry which asks about how its people are doing, and we as the consumers aren’t inquiring much either.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration with combined data from 2008-2012, restaurant and hotel work are ranked the #1 most addiction-prone career, with 19.1% of workers reporting illicit drug use or alcohol abuse. Mental health issues correlate directly with substance abuse - In many cases, perhaps not all, substance abuse happens because of mental health issues relating to work. “The restaurant industry is fueled by adrenaline, and the people who fall in love with it stick and tend to ride that adrenaline wherever it takes them" wrote Jonathan Kauffman in the SF Chronicle, writing about Chef Eric Ehler who went in to cardiac arrest while at work at his restaurant Mister Jiu’s in S.F. "Sometimes that means drug abuse and alcoholism.”

Kinsman received 1,600 responses on a survey she put out on “Chefs with Issues,” an online platform she launched to allocate a safe space for people in the food world to have honest dialogue about mental health and substance abuse in the restaurant industry, and to work towards finding solutions. In a pool of 1600 people who work in restaurants, mostly kitchen staff, Kinsman found that 84.2% suffer from depression, and 73.2% suffer from anxiety. 49.9% of people reported substance abuse issues, 75.5% used alcohol to cope, and only 3.9% said that their issues had nothing to do with the profession. In each category, depression, anxiety, alcohol use, and drug use, a majority of individuals who responded to Kinsman’s survey reported the presence of mental health issues and substance abuse issues in their lives in relationship to their work in the restaurant industry.

Of those who reported mental health issues and substance abuse relating to the industry, almost a third felt like they couldn’t say anything at all to the people that they work with about their mental health or substance abuse issues. More than a third reported it was because they didn’t want to be thought of as weak, and more than half reported it was because they didn’t want to be thought of as crazy. Even with people we spend day in and day out with at our places of work, it still feels as if you can’t disclose the parts of ourselves that just make you human.

I was not able to gain access to the “Chefs with Issues” Facebook page, which I feel great respect towards. It means that the space is carefully moderated, intimate, and in confidence, which is exactly what I would want if I was being open and honest and vulnerable on the page. Spaces like “Chefs With Issues” were created to respond to the mental health and substance abuse issues that affect workers in the restaurant industry.

But what else can be done to help to combat what we don’t want to just be collateral damage of the job?

“Pay better wages,” said Professor Thomas Maier quite simply. Maier has worked on many sides and levels of the industry, starting as a server/bartender, and working his way through the industry as a bar manager, food/beverage director, hotel manager, and corporate hotel vice president. “That will relieve economic pressure on restaurant workers, and put less pressure on the service point. From higher up, offer better work life balance and wellness benefits, and provide more supportive substance abuse benefits.” We need to make food workers feel like they aren’t disposable. That their work is valued, and their livelihoods are respected.

“In Japan, you don’t tip workers because its an insult - They shouldn’t be paid extra to give excellent service,” said Jessica. “I think that on both ends if we were to eliminate tips, even the customers would feel like they could just expect good service. And as a server, you wouldn’t have to kiss ass to your customer, and you wouldn’t have to feel so bad when you made a mistake.” Not being so completely at the will of your customers puts responsibility on both parts to bring respect, and humaneness to the experience of dining in.

Kinsman said to a community of chefs, cooks and farmers at the 2018 MAD Symposium, “We can do better by each other.” She explained that when people report to you, or idolize you in the restaurant industry specifically, you can drive the change. You can command support, check-in with the emotional welfare of the people who work for you, and let them know that there is nothing to be ashamed of. You can assure them that their job is not in jeopardy because they struggle with mental health and/or substance abuse issues. From all sides of the industry, consumer, worker on any level, it is in all of our best interests to put a little extra care in to our mental well-beings, and the mental well-beings of the people serving us, and to be a bit more mindful.