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A new story told by a tech worker shows how the Apple Watch can shed light on chronic stress in the workplace and the importance of accepting your mental health health is serious.
When Sharath Seeram, a 25-year-old developer from Bangalore, started receiving heart rate alerts on his Apple Watch, he did what any reasonable person would do and went to the doctor.
“The doctor initially asked me to do some tests to find out if there were any other physical problems – I was asked to do a clinical ECG and some blood tests,” Sharath told Times Now. “After evaluating all the reports, she concluded that I had no other problems and that the heart rate problems were a direct result of stress.”
Sharath had a particularly stressful job that required him to work long hours with little support from management. As other workers left the company due to the stressful environment, more work fell on the remaining workers.
As it turns out, the increased workload and hostile environment had a direct impact not only on Sharath's mental health but also on his physical health. Every evening he returned home exhausted, often with a fever.
His doctor recommended that he find a way to reduce stress at work or quit immediately. She believed that working for months at the same level of stress could have long-term effects on his heart.
After a career change, Sharath's heart rate dropped dramatically, without any other lifestyle changes. In gratitude, he wrote a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, praising the Apple Watch for helping him take his mental health seriously.
Apple Watch is often praised for saving lives. Recently, an 82-year-old man who received an Apple Watch for Christmas says it may have saved his life after he was hit by a car.
In January, the Apple Watch admitted that it helped save the life of an airplane passenger by using a legally prohibited blood oxygen function.
That same month, a Delaware student was saved from carbon monoxide poisoning by using a last-minute emergency SOS call on her Apple Watch.
