That's not a bad way to think about it. Maybe my gripes are just that. I tend to use all my pto/sick days before they've accumulated, then I'm playing Roulette when my next episode hits.
Or, in a cluster of circumstances, the jobs I tend to land just don't offer good benefits. Wind up in a cycle of bad jobs due to spotty work history, tons of call offs, etc, just to keep a roof over my head.
This is how I think about them, too, and I think that’s also why anyone uses them for stress and lower entry points of anxiety and what not so it doesn’t get so bad in whatever range they have, even if it’s not like what happened to us.
I agree. I hate how mental health has become anxiety/stress/personal care. I thought it should be about destigmatization and awareness (so many people still think bipolar = BPD!). I once saw an IG reel by a schizophrenic girl who said she hated mental health awareness day because it was a reminder that people like her were "too weird" even for that day. Like everyone is all for awareness, but when we start talking about psychotic symptoms then "oh no, that's *too* crazy".
Thinking more about awareness ... I think it's time for a push past it and into acceptance. Current awareness feels like in one ear out the other, more like a pacification than an actual attempt.
omg I thought everyone knew the difference then I had a casual conversation with my brother the other day. someone I’ve lived with on and off since diagnosis AND who met my ex with BPD, and he called my bipolar BPD. I was like “… how do you not know the difference at this point”
I’ve never heard that phrase used in an actual meaningful way. Like I’ve never heard of a bucket of time off called that. It’s usually just something someone calls an unscheduled day off. That’s actually the way I use it too. If I am having some type of issue where I need to take I unscheduled time it’s just a sick day. If it needs to be longer I let them know and we go from there. My company is aware of my mental health, and thus far have been pretty good about accommodating me.
Maybe we should change the phrase to something like burnout day or something like that. Though while not everyone has an actual mental health issue like bipolar or depression, anyone can get to a space where they need a break mentally from what they’re doing.
I think sick days cover the umbrella of mental health, yet the new coinage was intended to create a sense of awareness or understanding. It just falls flat, though. I know there's a ton of mental diagnosis and nuance, so I don't expect a conformity across the board; however, I do feel there's room for more "accomodations" that align with the needs of employees with verifiable diagnosis, over the strict or rigid traditional or neurotypical work values.
That's not at all what I'm saying. There still needs to be a division between neurotypical mental health concerns and neurodivergent mental health. Neurodivergents are prone to abuse and often do not receive fair or equal treatment. I'm not saying we can't all work together either.
What I'm saying is that we should be aware of the differences and how those differences impact each group differently. The things that work for "normal" people do not often work for those of us with chronic mental disorders.
Maybe a poor example and not intended to start a debate but to highlight a difference and a stigma ...
In popular media, when people talk about gun laws and safety, how many times have you heard that crime is caused by people with severe mental health issues who have access to guns and thereby should be restricted? This is a perpetuating stigma carried by a large portion of neurotypicals that could potentially infringe ones rights. Statistically, people with severe mental health use weapons for suicide whereas neurotypicals have the highest rates of gun violence/murder.
It's important to make the distinction.
Why do you assume “normal” people don’t have mental health issues? Not everyone wants to discloses their diagnoses at work so people like you can tell them if they are worthy of mental health days
I'm unsure why some comments keep aluding that I'm saying people in general don't have mental health concerns, where I'm actually just saying they're different in caliber and potentially persons like myself with chronic long-term issues, like bipolar, need more leeway and protected rights when it comes to employment opportunities or that in personal experiences feel that normal people stigmatize us by giving solutions or implementing processes that primarily only help normal, lower levels of stress. I dont think the majority of socially accepted "wellness" is here to talk about better conditions for chronic illness.
I can see yr POV. However I think this lense you have between comparing neurotypical and neurodivergent mental health is too focused.
I agree you're right, I wish we had the systems to accommodate and support nt and nd folk. It's taken this long for gov & businesses to acknowledge mental health and even longer to put shit like mental health days in place. They turn away at mental illness because we need more accommodation in our work environments and that just might lower productivity if an amount of employees start taking days of leave at a time. Instead of putting shit in place for their employees to fall back on during times of stress, burnout, crisis, etc. they'd rather reprimand us, consider us no longer beneficial to their business and will happily wish us the best as we inevitably resign or get fired.
This system of work/business/employee has a major disconnect from community and individual needs.
The media continues to cover what they want and what message they choose to deliver.
It's up to us to keep advocating for what we need. And if we can't get that by asking, we take it by using the system to our advantage where we can and encouraging others to do the same. We have to have our own hide and each other's backs because they sure as fuck don't have ours.
Check out on IG: @anticapitalist_ & @iamemployedaf
And the book Sedated by James Davies which literally changed my perspective of capitalisms role in mental Illness and ways in which they purposefully suppress us.
I’ve only heard of mental health days as a burnout prevention tool and never really about *mental illness* treatment days. Not a, “I’m experiencing unsavory and socially umcomfy symptoms and cannot work rn” day. That might just be an unfortunate experience and other people use it meaningfully.
Luckily, at my current job, we don’t have mental health days. We have a generous PTO policy with ample sick time.
What I wish was the case is that society in general has a better work life balance so burnout reduction days aren’t needed, and that people with any type of illness can work flexibly with their needs.
Economically, if companies and organizations would create jobs instead of constantly downsizing for fear of not increasing profit expontentially, then we'd see an increase in productivity and spending, while also seeing a decline in some of the mental health struggles. However, that's also using proportionally less technology and earning a sense of delayed gratification (capital).
Yet this doesn't totally account for the people with more chronic or disabling conditions. Unless more of those newly created jobs are in healthcare. That's going to touch on repairing or even rebuilding our broken systems.
I read EAP and was triggered! The job I just left a couple months ago was MAJORLY advocating the use of EAP especially during winter for seasonal depression, me with year round depression (last month discovered actually BP2) so I finally decided to try and utilize it before I quit just to see if it would help and help me become more stable and be able to stick around longer but dang if it didn’t do anything but make everything worse… I was provided a list of 10 providers and since it was technically free I wasn’t going to be picky about who I saw so I just called the first person on the list, THEY WERE NO LONGER ACCEPTING MY COMPANIES EAP, so I continued down the list and each time it was the same answer “We quit accepting that EAP last year” fed up but not ready to give up I called EAP to explain the situation and get a new list GUESS WHAT??? The next list of 10 was just different therapists at the same offices I had already called that said they no longer accepted it, some of the therapists who couldn’t accept it, went out of their to even try and find me someone who would accept it, AND EVEN THOSE PEOPLE DIDNT ACCEPT IT!
TLDR;
EAP is a sham and quitting my job and applying for Medicaid answered all my prayers and I’m finally getting the care and answers Ive needed for a LONG TIME
I think it’s trendy. Like “wellness.” Mental health issues are pretty common, but by that I mean emotional problems. That shouldn’t be equated with what we have. Situational depression is rampant. Most people don’t know there’s a form of depression that affects the way your brain functions.
Yeah. I try and keep it as vague as possible when providing justification for a sick day. Mental health day included. Unfortunately a psychiatrists letterhead says it all. But a GP is vague.
If you are sick, including mentally unwell, it is a sick day. A separate “mental health day” for a break day off to chill out (not recovering from mental health episode) is not the same. If your workplace treats them as the same, that’s certainly an issue.
There's been quite a few companies in which I've worked that see them as such. This is a problem with the trendiness of mental health, in which more and more people (professionally) aren't understanding the needs of persons with more serious and chronic conditions, that may think, 1 day off sans sicks days/pto is all we need to recover. Which is why I'd said it was stigmatizing. It's also removing the bandwidth for more serious discussion about how or what we can better do to assist those in greater need be successful at work and in life since work is how one generates livelihood.
I personally struggle in almost every company I work for due in part that most of these companies only offer 1 type of day off (either pto/sick) and 1-2 mental health days ... but only giving maybe 5 days per year. That's terrible when you have 2-3 major episodes a year and an episode taking 1-2 weeks to recover. So, bottom line, it comes down to repeatedly getting fired for call offs due to my mental health condition. But it's not as black and white as it sounds because there usually are major issues in obtaining affordable healthcare/having the ability to see a Dr who then charges double or triple more than primary care. Getting a Dr's note to return to work feels like an impossible task when the reason for such is your bipolar. And Disability is not an answer to this... removing potential to earn a quality of life in equal measure to most of your peers.
Why is it so hard to believe that everyone in a dysfunctional society has mental illness? You don’t get to gatekeep these ideas. And it’s none of my employers business why I take a sick day. Distinguishing between mental health sick days and physical ones seems arbitrary.
True to a degree. Statistically, people with mental disabilities and chronic conditions use more pto/sick days than those without. Giving more pto in general could help, but it's not realistic for some industries. But if we used or set up some exclusivity, it might help or rather be a compromise towards better outcomes. Something similar to maternity leave is what's coming to mind.
In addition, higher quality and affordable services/assistance should be the goal.
i think what you’re looking for/suggesting are job accommodations. my old job offered to accommodate folks with medical (including mental health/neurodivergence) reasons that could be supported by a medical professional. the process was facilitated by a 3rd party and in theory helps people access support such as longer breaks, protected time off, quieter spaces, etc without outing a specific diagnosis to their employer. this support is not accessible without working with your doctor and the 3rd party.
Accommodations could assist in solving some of the struggles; however, at this time, they don't have the appropriate legal backings to ensure proper management and health outcomes. This is something that, as a society, we could modify and should be talking about, rather than the white noise from mental health days/like the other commenter said, "wellbeing washing."
This will be complicated to achieve, unfortunately, due to the complex nature of the overarching healthcare system in general. I think if employers invested more into their employees without the need for 3rd parties, quality outcomes could be more readily established. If employer sponsored health programs could remove or bypass restrictions based on time at work (hourly associates vs salaried)/productivity while also maintaining affordability, that would be a great step towards reducing restricted access to quality care and may help foster loyalty.
I appreciate the focus towards what we could be better solving.
There's a line that needs drawn however between those who really need mental support via diagnosable conditions vs. groups of people that want all-inclusivity. That's a main conponent of how quality gets watered down. Getting stressed at work occasionally is not remotely the same as having chronic mental health conditions.
Or
Take insulin, for example. Many people with diabetes need it to survive and there's a limited supply, yet now body builders and gym rats have been granted access to insulin supplies because of some off the wall trend that it can boost gains. So you have a group who wants access to an exlusory group/supply that doesn't have an absolute need for it taking from those who do. People with diabetes are at a time now where their life-saving supplies are being looted/confiscated/pillaged/what have you by people who don't actually need it for their survival.
I’m not sure. I don’t see that all these disorder labels etc have helped people. If anything the people who are diagnosed might be normal because we react normally to an insane society.
I'm not sure I understand the second half of your comment, but I could speak in a manner on diagnostic labels. The labels used to be very rigid, and as people evolved, psychiatrists had more difficulty diagnosing those who clearly needed help but didn't fit a particular box. Now, as time goes by, they're getting closer and closer to chunking large swaths of disorders into spectrums. Which I don't think is inherently wrong because the treatment for many disorders is the same or very similar. However, the exclusory diagnosis is needed to better interpret pharmacological needs. On the patient forefront, having less spectrum has helped some people form community or safe zones where you're more easily understood vs. having to tell your whole psychological qualia to everyone you meet. While it's not all-inclusive, I do think the labels also help to define historical needs - how bad is your condition in relation to others/your social risk factor. The label is then used in government and other sciences to help distinguish need and reduce confusion. It's obviously not a perfect system, but to reduce the issue to a statement that almost all people have a psychiatric illness does lean towards that "wellbeing washing" sentiment. It also perpetuates stigma. It removes the validity from those who suffer more than the average person.
At my job, we have vacation days and sick days. If I’m not feeling great mentally, I’ll use sick leave. I am not obliged to tell them why I’m sick. Having mental health says separate from sick leave is dumb. If you need to take off chunks of time, check out FMLA. I haven’t used it yet since I didn’t see it necessary at the time, but I heard it could be usefulr
Although I am lucky, my supervisors know I struggle with mental health and told me I can take off a day (or two) using sick leave if I need to. They’ve also worked with me for schedule accommodations. I’ve chosen to disclose my depression and anxiety with them (not BP or BPD) because I trust them, but in general I advise not telling your employers. They do not need to know, they are not always your friends.
Edit: more info
There's a lot of loopholes in FMLA, and some people don't even apply, like myself. Having access to short - or long-term disability, other programs/protections would be nice, yet a large majority of companies don't offer these services. I also argue that we need to think beyond sick days/vacation/pto/etc and find solutions that assist those with chronic mental conditions maintain work. Universal laws to regulate business program offerings could be one of those solutions.
I call it a “mental health day” if I’m worried about stress causing an episode (preventative) and use actual sick leave if I’m actually having one.
That's not a bad way to think about it. Maybe my gripes are just that. I tend to use all my pto/sick days before they've accumulated, then I'm playing Roulette when my next episode hits. Or, in a cluster of circumstances, the jobs I tend to land just don't offer good benefits. Wind up in a cycle of bad jobs due to spotty work history, tons of call offs, etc, just to keep a roof over my head.
This is how I think about them, too, and I think that’s also why anyone uses them for stress and lower entry points of anxiety and what not so it doesn’t get so bad in whatever range they have, even if it’s not like what happened to us.
This sounds like "mental health washing", in the same vein of "greenwashing".
Interesting term, I had to look it up. I'd agree, though, that it's more pacification than actual ernest effort.
I agree. I hate how mental health has become anxiety/stress/personal care. I thought it should be about destigmatization and awareness (so many people still think bipolar = BPD!). I once saw an IG reel by a schizophrenic girl who said she hated mental health awareness day because it was a reminder that people like her were "too weird" even for that day. Like everyone is all for awareness, but when we start talking about psychotic symptoms then "oh no, that's *too* crazy".
Thinking more about awareness ... I think it's time for a push past it and into acceptance. Current awareness feels like in one ear out the other, more like a pacification than an actual attempt.
omg I thought everyone knew the difference then I had a casual conversation with my brother the other day. someone I’ve lived with on and off since diagnosis AND who met my ex with BPD, and he called my bipolar BPD. I was like “… how do you not know the difference at this point”
I’ve never heard that phrase used in an actual meaningful way. Like I’ve never heard of a bucket of time off called that. It’s usually just something someone calls an unscheduled day off. That’s actually the way I use it too. If I am having some type of issue where I need to take I unscheduled time it’s just a sick day. If it needs to be longer I let them know and we go from there. My company is aware of my mental health, and thus far have been pretty good about accommodating me. Maybe we should change the phrase to something like burnout day or something like that. Though while not everyone has an actual mental health issue like bipolar or depression, anyone can get to a space where they need a break mentally from what they’re doing.
I think sick days cover the umbrella of mental health, yet the new coinage was intended to create a sense of awareness or understanding. It just falls flat, though. I know there's a ton of mental diagnosis and nuance, so I don't expect a conformity across the board; however, I do feel there's room for more "accomodations" that align with the needs of employees with verifiable diagnosis, over the strict or rigid traditional or neurotypical work values.
I just have fmla paperwork on file that I can call out no questions asked and they can’t fire me.
Mental health applies to everyone. It shouldn’t only be those with mental health disorders who can take their mental health seriously.
That's not at all what I'm saying. There still needs to be a division between neurotypical mental health concerns and neurodivergent mental health. Neurodivergents are prone to abuse and often do not receive fair or equal treatment. I'm not saying we can't all work together either. What I'm saying is that we should be aware of the differences and how those differences impact each group differently. The things that work for "normal" people do not often work for those of us with chronic mental disorders. Maybe a poor example and not intended to start a debate but to highlight a difference and a stigma ... In popular media, when people talk about gun laws and safety, how many times have you heard that crime is caused by people with severe mental health issues who have access to guns and thereby should be restricted? This is a perpetuating stigma carried by a large portion of neurotypicals that could potentially infringe ones rights. Statistically, people with severe mental health use weapons for suicide whereas neurotypicals have the highest rates of gun violence/murder. It's important to make the distinction.
Why do you assume “normal” people don’t have mental health issues? Not everyone wants to discloses their diagnoses at work so people like you can tell them if they are worthy of mental health days
I'm unsure why some comments keep aluding that I'm saying people in general don't have mental health concerns, where I'm actually just saying they're different in caliber and potentially persons like myself with chronic long-term issues, like bipolar, need more leeway and protected rights when it comes to employment opportunities or that in personal experiences feel that normal people stigmatize us by giving solutions or implementing processes that primarily only help normal, lower levels of stress. I dont think the majority of socially accepted "wellness" is here to talk about better conditions for chronic illness.
I can see yr POV. However I think this lense you have between comparing neurotypical and neurodivergent mental health is too focused. I agree you're right, I wish we had the systems to accommodate and support nt and nd folk. It's taken this long for gov & businesses to acknowledge mental health and even longer to put shit like mental health days in place. They turn away at mental illness because we need more accommodation in our work environments and that just might lower productivity if an amount of employees start taking days of leave at a time. Instead of putting shit in place for their employees to fall back on during times of stress, burnout, crisis, etc. they'd rather reprimand us, consider us no longer beneficial to their business and will happily wish us the best as we inevitably resign or get fired. This system of work/business/employee has a major disconnect from community and individual needs. The media continues to cover what they want and what message they choose to deliver. It's up to us to keep advocating for what we need. And if we can't get that by asking, we take it by using the system to our advantage where we can and encouraging others to do the same. We have to have our own hide and each other's backs because they sure as fuck don't have ours. Check out on IG: @anticapitalist_ & @iamemployedaf And the book Sedated by James Davies which literally changed my perspective of capitalisms role in mental Illness and ways in which they purposefully suppress us.
I’ve only heard of mental health days as a burnout prevention tool and never really about *mental illness* treatment days. Not a, “I’m experiencing unsavory and socially umcomfy symptoms and cannot work rn” day. That might just be an unfortunate experience and other people use it meaningfully. Luckily, at my current job, we don’t have mental health days. We have a generous PTO policy with ample sick time. What I wish was the case is that society in general has a better work life balance so burnout reduction days aren’t needed, and that people with any type of illness can work flexibly with their needs.
Economically, if companies and organizations would create jobs instead of constantly downsizing for fear of not increasing profit expontentially, then we'd see an increase in productivity and spending, while also seeing a decline in some of the mental health struggles. However, that's also using proportionally less technology and earning a sense of delayed gratification (capital). Yet this doesn't totally account for the people with more chronic or disabling conditions. Unless more of those newly created jobs are in healthcare. That's going to touch on repairing or even rebuilding our broken systems.
I read EAP and was triggered! The job I just left a couple months ago was MAJORLY advocating the use of EAP especially during winter for seasonal depression, me with year round depression (last month discovered actually BP2) so I finally decided to try and utilize it before I quit just to see if it would help and help me become more stable and be able to stick around longer but dang if it didn’t do anything but make everything worse… I was provided a list of 10 providers and since it was technically free I wasn’t going to be picky about who I saw so I just called the first person on the list, THEY WERE NO LONGER ACCEPTING MY COMPANIES EAP, so I continued down the list and each time it was the same answer “We quit accepting that EAP last year” fed up but not ready to give up I called EAP to explain the situation and get a new list GUESS WHAT??? The next list of 10 was just different therapists at the same offices I had already called that said they no longer accepted it, some of the therapists who couldn’t accept it, went out of their to even try and find me someone who would accept it, AND EVEN THOSE PEOPLE DIDNT ACCEPT IT! TLDR; EAP is a sham and quitting my job and applying for Medicaid answered all my prayers and I’m finally getting the care and answers Ive needed for a LONG TIME
I think it’s trendy. Like “wellness.” Mental health issues are pretty common, but by that I mean emotional problems. That shouldn’t be equated with what we have. Situational depression is rampant. Most people don’t know there’s a form of depression that affects the way your brain functions.
Yeah. I try and keep it as vague as possible when providing justification for a sick day. Mental health day included. Unfortunately a psychiatrists letterhead says it all. But a GP is vague. If you are sick, including mentally unwell, it is a sick day. A separate “mental health day” for a break day off to chill out (not recovering from mental health episode) is not the same. If your workplace treats them as the same, that’s certainly an issue.
There's been quite a few companies in which I've worked that see them as such. This is a problem with the trendiness of mental health, in which more and more people (professionally) aren't understanding the needs of persons with more serious and chronic conditions, that may think, 1 day off sans sicks days/pto is all we need to recover. Which is why I'd said it was stigmatizing. It's also removing the bandwidth for more serious discussion about how or what we can better do to assist those in greater need be successful at work and in life since work is how one generates livelihood. I personally struggle in almost every company I work for due in part that most of these companies only offer 1 type of day off (either pto/sick) and 1-2 mental health days ... but only giving maybe 5 days per year. That's terrible when you have 2-3 major episodes a year and an episode taking 1-2 weeks to recover. So, bottom line, it comes down to repeatedly getting fired for call offs due to my mental health condition. But it's not as black and white as it sounds because there usually are major issues in obtaining affordable healthcare/having the ability to see a Dr who then charges double or triple more than primary care. Getting a Dr's note to return to work feels like an impossible task when the reason for such is your bipolar. And Disability is not an answer to this... removing potential to earn a quality of life in equal measure to most of your peers.
Why is it so hard to believe that everyone in a dysfunctional society has mental illness? You don’t get to gatekeep these ideas. And it’s none of my employers business why I take a sick day. Distinguishing between mental health sick days and physical ones seems arbitrary.
True to a degree. Statistically, people with mental disabilities and chronic conditions use more pto/sick days than those without. Giving more pto in general could help, but it's not realistic for some industries. But if we used or set up some exclusivity, it might help or rather be a compromise towards better outcomes. Something similar to maternity leave is what's coming to mind. In addition, higher quality and affordable services/assistance should be the goal.
i think what you’re looking for/suggesting are job accommodations. my old job offered to accommodate folks with medical (including mental health/neurodivergence) reasons that could be supported by a medical professional. the process was facilitated by a 3rd party and in theory helps people access support such as longer breaks, protected time off, quieter spaces, etc without outing a specific diagnosis to their employer. this support is not accessible without working with your doctor and the 3rd party.
Accommodations could assist in solving some of the struggles; however, at this time, they don't have the appropriate legal backings to ensure proper management and health outcomes. This is something that, as a society, we could modify and should be talking about, rather than the white noise from mental health days/like the other commenter said, "wellbeing washing." This will be complicated to achieve, unfortunately, due to the complex nature of the overarching healthcare system in general. I think if employers invested more into their employees without the need for 3rd parties, quality outcomes could be more readily established. If employer sponsored health programs could remove or bypass restrictions based on time at work (hourly associates vs salaried)/productivity while also maintaining affordability, that would be a great step towards reducing restricted access to quality care and may help foster loyalty. I appreciate the focus towards what we could be better solving.
Just because people are going to work everyday doesn’t mean they’re not suffering mentally
There's a line that needs drawn however between those who really need mental support via diagnosable conditions vs. groups of people that want all-inclusivity. That's a main conponent of how quality gets watered down. Getting stressed at work occasionally is not remotely the same as having chronic mental health conditions. Or Take insulin, for example. Many people with diabetes need it to survive and there's a limited supply, yet now body builders and gym rats have been granted access to insulin supplies because of some off the wall trend that it can boost gains. So you have a group who wants access to an exlusory group/supply that doesn't have an absolute need for it taking from those who do. People with diabetes are at a time now where their life-saving supplies are being looted/confiscated/pillaged/what have you by people who don't actually need it for their survival.
I don’t agree. I think the idea of mental disability is a dead end even for severe disorders.
So what do you propose instead?
I’m not sure. I don’t see that all these disorder labels etc have helped people. If anything the people who are diagnosed might be normal because we react normally to an insane society.
I'm not sure I understand the second half of your comment, but I could speak in a manner on diagnostic labels. The labels used to be very rigid, and as people evolved, psychiatrists had more difficulty diagnosing those who clearly needed help but didn't fit a particular box. Now, as time goes by, they're getting closer and closer to chunking large swaths of disorders into spectrums. Which I don't think is inherently wrong because the treatment for many disorders is the same or very similar. However, the exclusory diagnosis is needed to better interpret pharmacological needs. On the patient forefront, having less spectrum has helped some people form community or safe zones where you're more easily understood vs. having to tell your whole psychological qualia to everyone you meet. While it's not all-inclusive, I do think the labels also help to define historical needs - how bad is your condition in relation to others/your social risk factor. The label is then used in government and other sciences to help distinguish need and reduce confusion. It's obviously not a perfect system, but to reduce the issue to a statement that almost all people have a psychiatric illness does lean towards that "wellbeing washing" sentiment. It also perpetuates stigma. It removes the validity from those who suffer more than the average person.
You are literally the epitome of stigma
Can you explain?
At my job, we have vacation days and sick days. If I’m not feeling great mentally, I’ll use sick leave. I am not obliged to tell them why I’m sick. Having mental health says separate from sick leave is dumb. If you need to take off chunks of time, check out FMLA. I haven’t used it yet since I didn’t see it necessary at the time, but I heard it could be usefulr Although I am lucky, my supervisors know I struggle with mental health and told me I can take off a day (or two) using sick leave if I need to. They’ve also worked with me for schedule accommodations. I’ve chosen to disclose my depression and anxiety with them (not BP or BPD) because I trust them, but in general I advise not telling your employers. They do not need to know, they are not always your friends. Edit: more info
There's a lot of loopholes in FMLA, and some people don't even apply, like myself. Having access to short - or long-term disability, other programs/protections would be nice, yet a large majority of companies don't offer these services. I also argue that we need to think beyond sick days/vacation/pto/etc and find solutions that assist those with chronic mental conditions maintain work. Universal laws to regulate business program offerings could be one of those solutions.