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Society at large is doing this to themselves. Let me explain: It’s currently popular to post about mental health issues on social media, like TikTok and Instag

Society at large is doing this to themselves. Let me explain: It’s currently popular to post about mental health issues on social media, like TikTok and Instagram. People dramatize their issues for views and likes and attention. So, you have a lot of people “self-diagnosing” mental health issues that aren’t actually clinical disorders. This leads to people not perceiving mental health as a serious issue. Instead, people are abusing the “mental health” status to get what they want: leniency, time off, an easier workload, what have you. This distracts from people who actually have clinically-diagnosed mental health issues. It weakens their arguments when an actually diagnosed person needs assistance, like a day off. So the immediate fix for this is to have a physicians note or similar for every mental health day that you need. The hope is that doctors (an impartial third party authority) would sufficiently diagnose someone’s mental health. They can separate between the actually afflicted and the “I just want an excuse / easy life” crowd. Although if you chat with MD’s about this topic, diagnosing mental health is hard so that isn’t a silver bullet either. The other thing that society can do: stop romanticizing mental health. Stop posting about it on social media for likes and attention. Get validation and attention from some other aspect of your life, like playing an instrument or doing something well.

2devnull 3y ago
I wonder if thinking more about this might make you not post that?
- ragingrobot 3y ago
  About using mental illness as a way of gaining sympathy/popularity? Unfortunately I have to agree with the parent, it does seem to be true. In my own experience: my niece never mentioned depression until she saw videos about it on TikTok. Then she was always moody, and constantly stating "I'm depressed, but therapy is expensive. Can you give me money? Don't you feel bad for me?" I see people walking around with T-shirts advertising they suffer from depression. I don't know if social media and exposure has brought the correct view of mental illness to light.
  - 2devnull 3y ago
    “Although if you chat with MD’s about this topic, diagnosing mental health is hard so that isn’t a silver bullet either.” What are they going to give people a quick blood test for depression? “This person has depression today, they can stay home.” Neither you nor the parent understand what the term “mental health” means. You don’t catch stress or anxiety or schizophrenia like you catch a cold. It can only ever be self-reported because that’s what it is, by definition. If there were an underlying physical condition it would be reclassified as “health” rather than “mental health” as we do for autism, stroke victims, those with brain injuries, basically any mental health problem that can be reliably diagnosed by an MD ceases to be “mental health”
  - kcplate 3y ago
    > About using mental illness as a way of gaining sympathy/popularity. Unfortunately I have to agree with the parent, it does seem to be true. I see this too. I know people with real mental health issues that cripple them and I know people who like to use “mental health day” as a fad excuse du jour to just take a day off because “they don’t feel like working today”. The people I know with the real, crippling mental health issues generally don’t get over it in an afternoon of watching movies and being lazy—it’s usually days and weeks of agony. So in my mind if people are using mental health just as an excuse to take a day off they are definitely doing damage to those folks who actually suffer from crippling mental illness by minimizing what it really is…because if Sally can sort out her mental issues by binge watching a show on Netflix in an afternoon, why can’t Frank get over his inability to get out of bed for three days by doing the same thing?
gregd 3y ago
No. What's currently popular is normalizing talking about mental health and wellbeing. Not everyone has the privilege to get a diagnosis, much less, get proper care or treatment. Talking about these issues on social media is an outlet for people to not feel so lonely or isolated. The article quotes a few people. One of the quotes is, "The accounting team is not happy with me providing this time off, because it’s a liability for the company". Another quote is equating not taking sick days to having a "work ethic". Read the article. Companies just want to company.
butlerm 3y ago
Somehow expecting someone to see a doctor and supply documentation of the result to be allowed to take off a day for a present illness seems somewhere between draconian and impractical. How about something simple, like providing a fixed number of personal days off or making them unpaid leave instead of trying to administer an insurance system susceptible to exploitation? As a contractor I find the idea that someone should pay for my days off - for whatever the reason - to be more than a little bizarre.
- ghaff 3y ago
  >As a contractor I find the idea that someone should pay for my days off - for whatever the reason - to be more than a little bizarre. I can guarantee you that, absent paid time off, a lot of people will come into the office every day even if it means foregoing vacation and even if they're coughing their lungs out. Obviously if you're in business for yourself, you make your own decisions about work hours and work days. But a system where there are vacation and/or sick days, especially for salaried employees, has been the norm in many places for a very long time and is hardly bizarre.

2devnull 3y ago

I wonder if thinking more about this might make you not post that?

ragingrobot 3y ago
About using mental illness as a way of gaining sympathy/popularity? Unfortunately I have to agree with the parent, it does seem to be true. In my own experience: my niece never mentioned depression until she saw videos about it on TikTok. Then she was always moody, and constantly stating "I'm depressed, but therapy is expensive. Can you give me money? Don't you feel bad for me?" I see people walking around with T-shirts advertising they suffer from depression. I don't know if social media and exposure has brought the correct view of mental illness to light.
- 2devnull 3y ago
  “Although if you chat with MD’s about this topic, diagnosing mental health is hard so that isn’t a silver bullet either.” What are they going to give people a quick blood test for depression? “This person has depression today, they can stay home.” Neither you nor the parent understand what the term “mental health” means. You don’t catch stress or anxiety or schizophrenia like you catch a cold. It can only ever be self-reported because that’s what it is, by definition. If there were an underlying physical condition it would be reclassified as “health” rather than “mental health” as we do for autism, stroke victims, those with brain injuries, basically any mental health problem that can be reliably diagnosed by an MD ceases to be “mental health”
- kcplate 3y ago
  > About using mental illness as a way of gaining sympathy/popularity. Unfortunately I have to agree with the parent, it does seem to be true. I see this too. I know people with real mental health issues that cripple them and I know people who like to use “mental health day” as a fad excuse du jour to just take a day off because “they don’t feel like working today”. The people I know with the real, crippling mental health issues generally don’t get over it in an afternoon of watching movies and being lazy—it’s usually days and weeks of agony. So in my mind if people are using mental health just as an excuse to take a day off they are definitely doing damage to those folks who actually suffer from crippling mental illness by minimizing what it really is…because if Sally can sort out her mental issues by binge watching a show on Netflix in an afternoon, why can’t Frank get over his inability to get out of bed for three days by doing the same thing?

gregd 3y ago

No. What's currently popular is normalizing talking about mental health and wellbeing. Not everyone has the privilege to get a diagnosis, much less, get proper care or treatment. Talking about these issues on social media is an outlet for people to not feel so lonely or isolated. The article quotes a few people. One of the quotes is, "The accounting team is not happy with me providing this time off, because it’s a liability for the company". Another quote is equating not taking sick days to having a "work ethic". Read the article. Companies just want to company.

butlerm 3y ago

Somehow expecting someone to see a doctor and supply documentation of the result to be allowed to take off a day for a present illness seems somewhere between draconian and impractical. How about something simple, like providing a fixed number of personal days off or making them unpaid leave instead of trying to administer an insurance system susceptible to exploitation? As a contractor I find the idea that someone should pay for my days off - for whatever the reason - to be more than a little bizarre.

ghaff 3y ago
>As a contractor I find the idea that someone should pay for my days off - for whatever the reason - to be more than a little bizarre. I can guarantee you that, absent paid time off, a lot of people will come into the office every day even if it means foregoing vacation and even if they're coughing their lungs out. Obviously if you're in business for yourself, you make your own decisions about work hours and work days. But a system where there are vacation and/or sick days, especially for salaried employees, has been the norm in many places for a very long time and is hardly bizarre.