Comment by dmos62
2 days ago
I'd be surprised if the people I worked with would think twice before working with someone that's been in psychiatric care, though I can't be sure, because I don't know that any of them did. I know that I wouldn't care. I have friends that stayed in hospitals for psychiatric reasons: they'd be great to work with, I think.
It’s still definitely a big deal. Note that the CIA and the NSA routinely declare ex-employees that whistleblow or leak as “mentally ill.”
It depends on the company. I worked for fairly “stolid” companies, for most of my career, and I suspect that they would treat mentally-ill people badly.
Mental illness is something that, unfortunately, I have a lot of experience with. I have severe mental illness in my family (I deal with it every day), and I spend a significant part of my life, interacting with folks at various stages of recovery from it.
I have been seeing therapists for much of my life. When I was a kid, I was diagnosed with autism, but was never told, so I spent decades, trying to “fix” myself, before finding out. Once I found out that I was “on the spectrum,” I realized that it can’t be “fixed”; only mitigated, and things started improving quickly, at that point.
That said, I think “mentally-ill” means “diagnosed and professionally-treated,” to most folks. It’s my opinion, that there’s a lot of undiagnosed/untreated mental illness out there. Just looking at the threads of interaction, on any Internet community, makes that clear. One “tell,” that I have encountered, is when someone has extremely strong opinions on psychiatry. It’s not something most folks even think about, so it’s unusual, when it’s a big deal to someone.
Mental illness also tends to get worse, as we get older, if untreated. An “eccentric” young man, may become an old hermit, flying around, keeping his piss in canopic jars.
Much of what we call “mental illness,” is actually self-developed coping mechanisms, in response to trauma, or brain-chemistry imbalance. That’s why getting medication doesn’t just “fix” us. We need to seek help in defusing the habits and rituals that were developed to help deal with the problem.
Thanks for sharing. To be clear, I don't doubt that there are people that would make a problem out of a history of mental illness. But, it's definitely not everyone and someone with such a history shouldn't be discouraged to get out there and be open about it. Or, at least I'd like to see this stuff talked about without stigma.
I have a nephew with bipolar. He has chosen to “go public” about it, on LinkedIn. His reasoning, is that it helps remove the stigma. He seems to be doing fine, but he also has a very good background, and a lot of advantages, not available to others (I come from a fairly Ivy League family, and my sister has a lot of resources).
For myself, I have been in Recovery from drug addiction, for over 45 years. I was once a Very Bad Boi. I quit at 18, so never got a[n adult] record.
It’s not something that I have chosen to reveal, while I was working. I know, damn well, that it would not have worked in my favor (even though the Recovery process has conferred significant advantages). I never explicitly told my employees or my employers. My last employer was a Japanese company, and drug addiction suffers a great stigma, in most Asian nations. It would not have gone well. As it was, they kept me for decades, and I enjoyed an “inner circle” level of trust (a significant part of my path of Recovery is rigorous Honesty, Personal Integrity, and self-Discipline. I’m a very trustworthy and hard-working person). They never knew it, but they got a great deal of benefit from my addiction and subsequent Recovery.
In fact, I guarantee that some folks, after reading that, now suddenly hate me (in addition to the ones that already do, because they think I’m a stuck-up boomer). There’s a great deal of emotion, in mental illness and Recovery, and there’s a very good reason that folks don’t reveal it. I’ve watched it happen, for a long time. It’s a real thing.
As it is, I still don’t mention it often, though it’s a primary fact of life, for me. It’s not relevant to most of my interactions, and most people have no understanding of Recovery (and shouldn’t be required to, either). It’s very much a “If I have to explain, you wouldn’t understand” thing. It’s my problem, and my responsibility to manage. I have to understand others; they don’t need to understand me.
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I think the problem with "mental illness" is that I think in many cases it's the environment that is not suitable. In modern times we've created this environment that just doesn't fit all archetypes of people and those who it doesn't fit well with, we declare "mentally ill". There are obviously actual serious issues, but I believe a lot of it has to do with environment. It's not a clear illness like diabetes, etc. For instance I couldn't handle going to school, people can label it ADHD or Autism, but does it make sense in the first place to force me to study specific things that I don't care about as opposed to playing into my interests and strengths. I'm glad I'm grown up now, and can decide to learn what I'm actually interested in and do it 100x more effective per unit of time, as opposed to in school.
I agree with this.
One of the issues I face, with my family member, is that they can’t handle stress, well.
I have found that we only advance, when we are outside our “comfort zone.” As long as everything is copacetic, there’s no need to improve.
But a “comfort zone” is a “fuzzy” quality. Too far out, is “trauma.” Different folks handle discomfort and trauma, in a variety of ways. I do think our families and support systems, can make a huge difference.
For myself, being “on the spectrum” has really been an asset, in many ways. I have always learned technology quickly, but I’m a high school dropout with a GED, and almost all my education has been self-directed. Most of my life has been spent “outside my comfort zone.”
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Yeah, I have a number of coworkers that have shared with me that they are on psychiatric medications, and have discussed mental health with. It's becoming normalized, and that's a good thing.
I think in many places there's now enough of critical mass where people are understanding enough and call out anyone who uses that information negatively towards the person.
> because I don't know that any of them did
This is telling in itself.