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Are employers okay with depression?


Guest SomethingOrOther

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S: Personally, I wouldn't mention it. In this country it wouldn't be classed as a 'disability' but would just raise a red flag for an employer. I think to qualify for it to be disabled, you would have to be so depressed that you couldn't work, which would defeat the object. When I'm in the job, along the way and after a while I might casually drop it into conversation that I "get depressed sometimes" (and make it sound like "don't we all") but that is as close as it gets to my actual bipolar. (Exception in my last job, but I had already been there a couple of years, when it happened.)

I wouldn't imagine employers are falling over their feet to employ someone who right upfront says they are/get depressed.

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I am wondering... why are you so desperate to be favoured (as a woman or disabled)? Do you think you haven't got enough qualifications and experience?

In my country disability is not the same as mental health problems. And i don't think that employers look only at productivity only but also at reliability. I think employers expect a worker to be reliable and consistent in the performance of his/her functions. Unless they can afford being charitable and give disadvantaged people some support. Which in the current economic climate seems very implausible.

I omitted my mental health difficulties when i applied for my job, but i went trough hell fearing that they might find out. They haven't, i am doing well and that makes me proud of myself. My job actually helps me control the intensity of my depression, etc.

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I don't know what country or state you are from. In Canada depression is a disability under human rights legislation. that being said, you never know the reason they don't hire you and if you don't are you going to start a legal action without even knowing let alone being able to demonstrate it?

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Interesting discussion. My employer used to do drug testing as a last step prior to hiring new employees. About a week before I got hired, Canada passed a law making it illegal for employers to do drug testing, so they never did get my blood. I keep thinking though, that they wanted people in tip top mental shape, and I also thought it would be a little too convenient to discriminate against anybody who had anything they didn't like in their blood. So, if you don't have to disclose the depression, then perhaps a disability helps your chances, otherwise I think it hurts.

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If the depression is kept under control , then I would beleive it is ok. OK not to disclose this information to your boss. However if depression slows you down at your job, or you have to take many breaks to calm down, then this could get in the way of any job.

IN the U.S.A depression is listed under Social Security , as a disability. Depression is one of those mental disoders that can be mild to extreme, as was mine, then the psychosis came after that. No employer is going to want someone with severe depression with psychotic eposoides working for them.

It just depends on the severity of the depression and if medication is able to control it. If the disabling condition presists and has lasted for a certain amount of time despite taking medications and therapy, and seeing a psychatrist, then applying for Social Security would be the next best option.

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