3 ms·

It's not a question of whether it's misused. It's whether it's misused so often that it's a bad idea. And while I hope most professionals can be trusted to use

by wisty 5y ago

It's not a question of whether it's misused. It's whether it's misused so often that it's a bad idea. And while I hope most professionals can be trusted to use it appropriately, I think the whole "awareness" thing makes a lot of laypeople (including self-diagnosed people and people connected to them or actual patients) misused it horribly. The latest I've seen is "mental health days". I'm sure some professionals would advocate taking some time off in specific circumstances, but is it wise to reward yourself for being stressed by having a holiday? That seems about as wise as telling an alcoholic to take sick leave as a reward for their big hangovers. I'm not a mental health professional, but the people who give advice on taking "mental health days" do not seem to be either. And that's just the latest one that bugged me. There's an endless list of advice (both for people with mental illness, and people around them) that seems to be vaguely related to mental health advice, but isn't, and it's accepted because it sounds "nice".

adamweld 5y ago
I'm not sure I get what you're trying to say, what's wrong with advocating for people to take personal time off when they are feeling burnt out or tired from repetitive stress? I'm struggling to understand why that's misuse or in anyway similar to an alcoholic.
- lazyasciiart 5y ago
  He thinks people cause their own stress at work.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- wisty 5y ago
  Note - if a medical professional is saying someone is unfit to go to work and needs some recovery time, that's different. I'm talking about self-proscribed mental health days. It's one of several things people are very confident are good for mental health, but I've not seen it actually pushed by any mental health professional (at least, not in the way that it's often used). I'm not totally against the idea of "chucking a sickie" (a time honored Australian tradition) to get some personal admin done, or just take a break. But I've seen no evidence that it's a good coping strategy if you're got actual problems. If there's a problem at work, you're better off actually dealing with it either fixing the problem (which might be you or it might be external, or a bit of both) or looking for a new job. Many mental health problems are cycles of short-term rewards for long-term pain, a lot like addictions. I think this is basically the "B" in CBT - maladaptive behavioural responses to stressors (which need to be replaced with more useful responses) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coping#Negative_techniques_(maladaptive_coping_or_non-coping) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coping#Negative_techniques_(ma... > Whereas adaptive coping strategies improve functioning, a maladaptive coping technique (also termed non-coping) will just reduce symptoms while maintaining or strengthening the stressor. Maladaptive techniques are only effective as a short-term rather than long-term coping process. > Examples of maladaptive behavior strategies include dissociation, sensitization, safety behaviors, anxious avoidance, rationalisation and escape (including self-medication). > These coping strategies interfere with the person's ability to unlearn, or break apart, the paired association between the situation and the associated anxiety symptoms. These are maladaptive strategies as they serve to maintain the disorder. Note, I'm not an expert on this. But I suspect neither are a lot of people disagreeing with me. More generally, a lot of what seems like "good advice" on mental health could be just reinforcing maladaptive coping techniques, because the seem like common sense (they are how many people cope with problems, even though they're not helpful in the long run). And I'm guessing that the people who would be most harmed by bad advice (or advice that might be good in some situations, but bad in others) will be the people probably should be taking very different advice (e.g. "deal with those underlying problems" instead of "take a day off if it's getting too much").
throwanem 5y ago
> is it wise to reward yourself for being stressed by having a holiday? Yes. No matter what the fashion of the moment moves anyone to call it, it absolutely is wise to take a break and recover when you can do that without letting anyone down. The stress will still be there tomorrow, and if you're on a good team, you don't have to carry it alone. As long as you don't shade out when it really needs to be all hands on deck, you're fine. It's not hard to spot the ones who abuse it, and at this point in my career I don't find it hard to avoid places where they're welcome. Better that than needlessly go one day closer to burnout, don't you think? Speaking of which - to conceive of it as a "reward", and an undue one at that, strikes me as sounding like nothing more strongly than burnout. There's a place you get to where it feels like you're thriving on the misery, but that's only because it's been so long since you had anything to compare it to. The next place down from there is worse. So yeah, I don't begrudge it of my colleagues when they take the time they need, nor do they of me. We've all seen what happens when you don't. None of us wants to see any more of it. You don't want to either, especially not from the inside. Not everyone makes it back.

by wisty 5y ago

adamweld 5y ago

I'm not sure I get what you're trying to say, what's wrong with advocating for people to take personal time off when they are feeling burnt out or tired from repetitive stress? I'm struggling to understand why that's misuse or in anyway similar to an alcoholic.

lazyasciiart 5y ago
He thinks people cause their own stress at work.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
wisty 5y ago
Note - if a medical professional is saying someone is unfit to go to work and needs some recovery time, that's different. I'm talking about self-proscribed mental health days. It's one of several things people are very confident are good for mental health, but I've not seen it actually pushed by any mental health professional (at least, not in the way that it's often used). I'm not totally against the idea of "chucking a sickie" (a time honored Australian tradition) to get some personal admin done, or just take a break. But I've seen no evidence that it's a good coping strategy if you're got actual problems. If there's a problem at work, you're better off actually dealing with it either fixing the problem (which might be you or it might be external, or a bit of both) or looking for a new job. Many mental health problems are cycles of short-term rewards for long-term pain, a lot like addictions. I think this is basically the "B" in CBT - maladaptive behavioural responses to stressors (which need to be replaced with more useful responses) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coping#Negative_techniques_(maladaptive_coping_or_non-coping) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coping#Negative_techniques_(ma... > Whereas adaptive coping strategies improve functioning, a maladaptive coping technique (also termed non-coping) will just reduce symptoms while maintaining or strengthening the stressor. Maladaptive techniques are only effective as a short-term rather than long-term coping process. > Examples of maladaptive behavior strategies include dissociation, sensitization, safety behaviors, anxious avoidance, rationalisation and escape (including self-medication). > These coping strategies interfere with the person's ability to unlearn, or break apart, the paired association between the situation and the associated anxiety symptoms. These are maladaptive strategies as they serve to maintain the disorder. Note, I'm not an expert on this. But I suspect neither are a lot of people disagreeing with me. More generally, a lot of what seems like "good advice" on mental health could be just reinforcing maladaptive coping techniques, because the seem like common sense (they are how many people cope with problems, even though they're not helpful in the long run). And I'm guessing that the people who would be most harmed by bad advice (or advice that might be good in some situations, but bad in others) will be the people probably should be taking very different advice (e.g. "deal with those underlying problems" instead of "take a day off if it's getting too much").

throwanem 5y ago

> is it wise to reward yourself for being stressed by having a holiday? Yes. No matter what the fashion of the moment moves anyone to call it, it absolutely is wise to take a break and recover when you can do that without letting anyone down. The stress will still be there tomorrow, and if you're on a good team, you don't have to carry it alone. As long as you don't shade out when it really needs to be all hands on deck, you're fine. It's not hard to spot the ones who abuse it, and at this point in my career I don't find it hard to avoid places where they're welcome. Better that than needlessly go one day closer to burnout, don't you think? Speaking of which - to conceive of it as a "reward", and an undue one at that, strikes me as sounding like nothing more strongly than burnout. There's a place you get to where it feels like you're thriving on the misery, but that's only because it's been so long since you had anything to compare it to. The next place down from there is worse. So yeah, I don't begrudge it of my colleagues when they take the time they need, nor do they of me. We've all seen what happens when you don't. None of us wants to see any more of it. You don't want to either, especially not from the inside. Not everyone makes it back.