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> Silence means constantly monitoring my behavior for signs that might reveal my condition, avoiding discussions of mental health that might trigger suspicion a

> Silence means constantly monitoring my behavior for signs that might reveal my condition, avoiding discussions of mental health that might trigger suspicion and living with the constant anxiety that discovery will lead to rejection. This framing is at the very least maladaptive and possibly indicative of the mental illness they are writing about. Mentally healthy humans regulate their behavior around other humans depending on the context. Sometimes this produces anxiety. And the fact that the author can pull that off at all (even with some difficulty) is a positive sign. There is no reason for an employer or professional colleagues to be aware of an employees medical issues. Maybe there are exceptions for in-office workers with conditions like epilepsy. There are plenty of companies with no questions asked PTO, and as long as they do good work (which the article indicates) no one will bother them for using it.

standardly 1y ago
> There is no reason for an employer or professional colleagues to be aware of an employees medical issues. Totally agree, but it can get a bit weird. I struggle with depression, and at times I have felt like I owed my co-workers/manager/boss an excuse as to why I "suck" sometimes. IE; I didn't show up late for the meeting because I am irresponsible, rather because I'm just in a bad spell this week and have brain fog. If I don't tell them, they may think the former. If I do tell them, who knows.
- alphazard 1y ago
  The rationalization matters far more to you than it does to your coworkers or boss. I have no opinion on how you should frame it to yourself. However, I think it's genuinely good advice to say that professionally, people are just trying to build a mental model of how reliable you are. The reasoning doesn't really matter to them, and a psychological diagnosis is a predictive theory about how you will behave. Unfortunately, people will assume close to worst case for any condition you tell them about. The mental model you put in someone's head with a psychological diagnosis is always worse than how they currently perceive you.
  - standardly 1y ago
    I believe you are spot on! Thanks for the insight. The rationalization helped alleviate my guilt, but it didn't realistically change anything at work. Might have made things worse, actually.

standardly 1y ago

> There is no reason for an employer or professional colleagues to be aware of an employees medical issues. Totally agree, but it can get a bit weird. I struggle with depression, and at times I have felt like I owed my co-workers/manager/boss an excuse as to why I "suck" sometimes. IE; I didn't show up late for the meeting because I am irresponsible, rather because I'm just in a bad spell this week and have brain fog. If I don't tell them, they may think the former. If I do tell them, who knows.

alphazard 1y ago
The rationalization matters far more to you than it does to your coworkers or boss. I have no opinion on how you should frame it to yourself. However, I think it's genuinely good advice to say that professionally, people are just trying to build a mental model of how reliable you are. The reasoning doesn't really matter to them, and a psychological diagnosis is a predictive theory about how you will behave. Unfortunately, people will assume close to worst case for any condition you tell them about. The mental model you put in someone's head with a psychological diagnosis is always worse than how they currently perceive you.
- standardly 1y ago
  I believe you are spot on! Thanks for the insight. The rationalization helped alleviate my guilt, but it didn't realistically change anything at work. Might have made things worse, actually.