employment and mental illness

ricicle

Hi folks,

I am returning to work on Monday after 9 months on Jobseekers after leaving my last job through illness. The problem is I have bipolar and I have been quite unwell recently, very depressed. I have professional help (psychiatrist, mental health nurse, counsellor). I can't let this job pass me so I am going to take it and hope I am able for it. I am hoping maybe the routine and purpose in life will be good for me and maybe help with the depression. I see a psychiatrist every 4 weeks at the moment so I will need to take a few hours off for these appointments. I don't really know how to get to them without having to tell my employer about my illness, but then I am afraid that it might affect my probation period if I tell them. Any ideas what I can do?

thanks in advance

Ricicle

Irish_Elect_Eng

Firstly, Congratulations on getting back to work.

Could your recent illness be directly related to concerns about returning to work?

Starting a new job is very stressful, but usually after a few weeks that settles down as you get to know the people and your role.

You do not have to tell your employer why you want time off. Request the time that you need off as soon as you start. You could need the time for any reason from caring for someone, to visiting friends to a regular game of golf with a friend. Don't lie about what it is, if asked keep it simple, "meeting someone" "going to town", it is none of your employers business where you are going on your personal time off. Just wrap up any tasks due on the time off the day before, then nobody will pass any remark on your absence.

On my team, one of the ladies has a hair appointment the same afternoon every month and the only reason I know that it is a hair appointment is that the result is quite visible the following day. Another guy plays a lot of golf with friends and again the only reason that I know is the war stories the next day. As a manager, some people that tell me where they are going in general conversation, other than that I really don't care, just far too busy myself to pay much more that "courtesy" attention to everyone else lives.

If you find that you are struggling with the work, then you will need to make an assessment of your boss, is he the sort of person to help you be successful or not. If he is sound then share your struggles and ask for the support that you need. Be careful to separate out the normal stresses of taking on a new role from your illness.

Work to the best of your abilities at work, work even harder at staying well and be kind to yourself, you are doing great to be getting back to work.

LegacyUser

I would advise you to be honest with your employer. If you need help, then they need to have all of the information to help you.

I have been working for years and three times I have seen serious mental illness affect people. The first was bipolar; the person hid it until they had a breakdown at work. If they had spoken up, our manager would have done things differently. He tried his best to help them but unfortunately they were out over two years and felt unable to return.

The second was bipolar and depression. She went to our manager (different company) who immediately shifted work around, created as stress free a workplace as possible and withtge blessing of the girl involved called our team into a meeting to explain what was happening and why. We rolled in behind her and I am happy to say that the girl who was unwell is back at work and doing very well.

The third is in my current place of employment. She never passed probation. She was taking time off with no valid excuses. She was calling in sick, the more she did it the more the stress mounted. We were not supportive to be honest. We thought that she was a lazy cow, constantly strolling in late and pulling sickies. We were all caught here late to cover her and we bitched among ourselves. After she was fired, she called in and explained what was happening. If she had been honest, it would have been completely different.

Be honest for your own sake. If they don't want someone with a mental illness (and it can happen to every single one of us) then it isn't the place for you.

Big Bag of Chips

You don't have to disclose the exact nature of your appointment yet if you're not comfortable with it. But you can ask for the time for a "medical appointment". Often if you've been to a counsellor, psychiatrist etc your GP will give you a sick cert with "medical illness/appointment" on it to cover you.

You don't HAVE to tell anyone, but maybe as you settle into the role more you might feel more comfortable telling your boss or HR then.

Parchment

As someone who suffered from mental illness during a job i did not tell work why i was out. My gp covered me with certs.

As much as its harped on about everyone becoming more aware of mental health issues - it doesnt bode well in the work place. I dont want my employer knowing my business.

...And Justice

Parchment wrote: »

As someone who suffered from mental illness during a job i did not tell work why i was out. My gp covered me with certs.

As much as its harped on about everyone becoming more aware of mental health issues - it doesnt bode well in the work place. I dont want my employer knowing my business.

True, I've observed people being managed out of a company after declaring they had depression. Some will help you and others consider you a liability and just don't want to deal with how unpredictable depression can be in some people.

Op- take the job, see how you get on but keep it to yourself for now, see how things work out and see what the culture of the company is like.

CorkFenian

Unless you're fully through the depression\mood disorder etc and its relevant for you to do so, tell them. Even then it depends on your aim, mine was to highlight mental illness issues and what I had done holistically to combat them. Without that I agree with above posters-Its your own business.

If you will feel low this evening or throughout week, next week\month or are generally still working on it etc

I wouldn't advise it they will use it against you-I never told anyone about mine till last year. Luckily I was able to hide it really well and performance was never an issue.

I have first hand experience of this with a few articles, I'm glad I did it, as someone who was lucky enough to come through it all unscathed and not feel that way its great.....I had to find out what it was like to get the story out there

I have always worked full time and being honest about it, if no one knows (not their fault) how to chat to me about it after knowing and seeing the below articles-someone who has come through it, successfully.

Then for someone still suffering, their story will be completely misinterpreted in my opinion. They will be facilitated at work and that is the start of things you don't want. Just my opinion.

(Just inserting them as a reference point. I'm not looking to publicise anything, myself etc, I work in IT so I can be objective about mental health in Ireland, I just feel its important that people are aware of whats out there)

I came out with my first below story in August 2015

http://www.independent.ie/life/health-wellbeing/health-features/battling-bipolar-disorder-i-would-go-to-bed-at-7pm-cry-and-dream-of-better-days-and-think-about-suicide-31443312.html

Then in May 2016 I was allowed to tell more

http://www.tipperarystar.ie/news/news/207291/The-boy-with-the-thorn-in.html

CorkFenian

Trust its ok to expand on this. From my own experience you can have all the airtime and coverage Ireland allows for when it comes to discussing and highlighting mental health. If you're not really giving out the relevant message, its never going to work fully in my opinion. A lot of worthy people mean very well with the talks and videos which they are making.We've never done it before. So anything and everything is good? Right? I don't believe this to be the case.

The message celebrities and other people are sending out in my opinion that with training MMA (granted its given coverage through association with SBG-I am a huge fan of MMA by the way just i don't see the relevance for mental health with it being viewed as a full solution) or through exercise alone or just talking about whats going on just doesn't work for me. There has to be a deviation here of cases which are tipping points to just taking medication on its own. These things are of course very important but they are still very basic things unfortunately, its really mental health 101. Do we really want to tackle mental health issues or do we just want to go through the motions and tick all the boxes which people think that they're supposed to tick. Just to emphasise my issue is with the media and how they present the understanding of stories-Not with those being asked. Everyone means well and are trying to help people.

Let me put it to you this way. I have been in the mental health system since 1997. Hospitalized twice. Since then I have worked full time and always considered myself to be bipolar into my late 30's. Only relationships made me explore anything and everything involved. I am by no means unique here I don't have a patent on mental health. This is purely my own opinion.

Only 2 years ago did I realise that this was not the case. With my history and acquired knowledge I understand very little of what a lot of the current mental health campaigns are actually talking about that relates to being beyond basic layer 1 surface knowledge of mental health. Its not nearly robust and investigative enough.Its as almost as if they feel Ireland can't handle it. A lot of well meaning people with well meaning ideas, nearly all of them stage 1 mental health illness related.

Now if I don't follow what they're saying (besides the basic points mentioned) you can be 100% sure families and people encountering it for the first time are seriously fcuked. Honestly if you have to enter this world tomorrow with a loved one, hope for the best.That is the bleak reality I'm afraid. I go to a psychiatrist every 3 months for medication reduction. I am in there for 10 mins-His brief is complete. I am fit and healthy. All this for €90. With zero awareness or any other interaction of any kind. I am at pains to stress that he is a leading psychiatrist in Ireland and a good guy. Just his hands are tied by the system just as much as mine.

In Ireland , if the mental health system is as broke as we all agree it is. Ask yourself.Who is winning with it kept this way? Who gains whether or not anything is changed and going by the mess of the HSE with regard to hospital beds and physical health these "changes" will take quite some time.Indeed this may not happen for a generation.

Do a forensic overview of it right now? See who is gaining and literally making a fortune at the nations expense. I don't believe this is about money per se, I believe its more to do with ideology. I lived with a housemate (by sheer fluke through DAFT-both working etc) who was also diagnosed bipolar. Despite all my attempts (which he was open to, the things I was doing myself) he wouldn't go against his own psychiatrist-That bond is as strong as a parent child relationship. I never had that. I was always looking. The trouble was there was nowhere to look until 2013.

In Ireland we are getting to be the same as the UK where every story about bipolar and mental health has to have a celebrity angle or someone famous associated with it. Its not the worst idea in the world.
Some good will no doubt come from it all. Its better than nothing.Its just a massive shame that with the platform some of these people receive that it can't be more balanced.I would refer to it as mental health light.

I am unmoved by the vast majority of viral videos and articles for mental health which I see in the mainstream media today.. This is hard for me to admit as they all mean so well. In Ireland there is a massive ideology issue with regards to mental health. Too many chiefs and not enough indians unfortunately. We need to educate the Irish media. How this is done? Well thats another story for another day?

CorkFenian

I'm sure that your health team have it well in hand Ricicle, but if you ever want to private message me for advice, or anything related to how you are etc , that option is always open

Best of luck with the new job.