Mental Health and Sick Days
A web developer named Madalyn Parker, who has written that she suffers from anxiety and depression, wrote an email to her colleagues saying she'd be out for a couple of days to focus on my mental health. Her story has since went viral.
Surveys by the American Psychological Association's Center for Organizational Excellence show that less than half of Americans (44 percent) say they believe the climate in their organization supports well-being, and that nearly 20 percent of employees say the challenges of their jobs were harder to handle in the past month due to mental health issues such as depression or anxiety.
Studies have shown that mental health issues such as depression and mental illnesses had the third-highest annual per-employee costs from lost productivity while at work, up there with arthritis, hypertension, allergy, headaches and diabetes. The estimated productivity cost to working while sick is far more than the costs businesses endure when people are out of work.
How do you feel about mental health? Do you suffer from it and how do you deal with it?
Ive personally had problem with mental illness too. But due to a perceived stigma from friends and co workers I would just call in sick and use sick days. There needs to be more of an awareness to mental health. Dealing with mental illness is tough as it is, it should be much easier to come forward to seek help or just ask for some time to yourself to regroup with out the stigma. Some people just need a day or two with their thoughts.
Madalyn Parker's story~
https://twitter.com/madalynrose
https://medium.com/@madalynrose/overcoming-mental-health-hurdles-at-work-ed0b135e21c8
I'm glad it went viral, I have taken mental health days in the past and I was lucky enough to have understanding bosses. I suffered a nervous breakdown and they were more worried about my well being than my hours
I totally agree that you should be able to use sick days for mental health , without the stigma especially from employers ! I think the more people talk about this , and the more people learn about it this stigma will slowly but surely diminish , people just need to more well informed . If you have an understanding boss , you are very lucky , I am also glad this went viral so more people can learn about it and how widespread it really is ! Steem on my friend , and best of luck to you !! Upped and RESTEEMED !!! 👍👍👍
Thanks for this @gavinthegreat! As a sufferer of anxiety myself, this topic and your post resonate with me deeply. You asked how I deal with it, so i'll paste a link to a post I wrote recently dealing with this exact topic: https://steemit.com/life/@hattorihanzo/living-with-anxiety-what-i-ve-learnt
Following + upvoted + resteem.
Thank you very much for the link, great post. Greatly appreciate the support and I am following you now too.