Since it is National Boss Day, I wanted to continue a conversation that was started on the combox of my post “Job Stress Triggers Depression” about the relationship between work and depression.
An anonymous Beyond Blue reader wrote this:
The connection between work stress and depression is undeniable, and it can start a cycle that feeds on itself. As job stress begins to overwhelm, job performance may suffer, which leads to guilt, which adds more stress, which may amplify depression, and on and on etc.?A man is what he does, “John, he’s a lawyer, Bill, yeah I know him, he sells insurance”. Other factors may initiate the depression, but once started, it WILL spread into a man’s work life, and the cycle begins.
From “lack of control” to “low wages,” those are EXACTLY the things you are forced to accept as your resume gets more and more checkered from interruptions due to depressive episodes — making it more likely your resume will become even more checkered and you will have further depressive episodes. What a freakin’ Catch-22 …
And on the September Newbie discussion thread at Group Beyond Blue, member Cornfoot wrote:
My depression pretty much destroyed my career path and now I’m struggling along lost and trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
Depression alone costs more than $44 billion in the United States economy each year. The impact on society includes decreased economic productivity because of days of work lost due to illness [estimated at 172 million days yearly] as well as increased health costs. And because few people with depression receive diagnosis and treatment, the costs for them, their families, and their employers is even greater. Of the 11 million who suffer from depression each year, about 7.8 million (72 percent) are in the workforce. Major depression carries the greatest risk of disability days and days lost from work. (A disability day is defined as a day during which a person spent all or part of the day in bed due to an illness or was kept from usual activities due to feeling ill.)
Despite the problems people with depression face on the job, they’re usually still better off going to work if they can. The ability to maintain some day-to-day functioning, especially outside of the home, is helpful. For one thing, it gives them a reason to get out of bed in the morning, one of the hardest things to do when depressed. Work also provides a good distraction from the illness for most patients. And completing even simple tasks means that the patient accomplished something that others value.
To read more Beyond Blue, go to www.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.
Read Previous Post
