Diana is a young farmer from Tuscany who has been running her family's winery since 2008. Since she took over the farm, she began to experience anxiety due to the high levels of responsibility she was under, and a loneliness generated by leaving her friendships to move to the countryside. After several years of experiencing these feelings, in 2018 it all spiraled into depression as her children (twins) joined her life and, with them, more pressure and anxiety. It was at this point that she decided to seek professional help and, today, she is able to manage these problems more rationally.

Sirkku ja Mika operate two robot milking barns in Finland. When they started on the farm in 1997, they had 20 cows, currently there are 150 cows on the farm. They have made continuous investments. The latest expansion was started in 2020 and the barn with two robots is now operational. We often hear about the end result. Sirkku ja Mika talked about their journey. Everyday was filled with work, construction, and childcare and home care. Along the way, the workload started to become too much and Sirkku became depressed. Sirkku and Mika want to remind us that there is more to life than just construction and work, also during the investment periods.

This case narrates the experience of a farmer who manages a large family farm, including leasing land from third parties and providing services to other farmers. His separation from his wife, having to manage their family environment with two children in custody and suffering from a degenerative illness,  all these situations have contributed to him feeling overwhelmed.

George  experienced a  number of life issues  that accumulated and built up to a high level of stress  anxiety and  depression culminating in mental  and physical strain. The biggest factor impacting on his situation as expressed by George  situation was  not having the ability to say ‘no’  to anything to be done and asked of him as he felt uncomfortable about saying no in case he would let someone down.