Going off work with anxiety?

[Carrotcakeforbreakfast]

Just wanted your take on this as I believe I'm not getting a true representation at work

We have a colleague go off for a large amount of time with stress and anxiety.
We are frontline ahps.
She looked terrible when I worked with her Saturday and kept crying.
I too have had to go onto anti anxiety meds and am just waiting for them to kick in.
Luckily I seem okay at work but I'm having a lot of panic attacks at home about what I've seen at work. Driving home seems to be my biggest trigger actually, worrying that I am taking it home.

I'm absolutely appalled with the venom my other colleagues are talking about her.
I get that we are busy and all stressed. But this person was visibly struggling.

Does mental health in time of a pandemic suddenly not count?
Or is everyone right to be hating her right now?

We are going to have a wave of PTSD after this - a mental health pandemic to follow the physical one.

Your colleagues are probably scared themselves and lashing out at an ‘easy’ target. An understandable reaction to an unseen enemy.

YANBU though

The thing is though everyone is anxious right now, I am a hcp and am terrified to the point where I wake up several times at night in a panic. We can’t all go off work, there will be no one left so I can see where your colleagues were coming from. No one wants to put their health at risk and no one is fine about it. I am not saying it’s right but it will be frustrating when staffing is already in crisis due to physical illness and increased demand. Everyone is stressed right now and we all need to try and understand each other a bit better.

We all need to support one another. Everyone's mental health is affected but some will cope with it better than others. It's no one's fault if someone isn't coping - we need to do what we can to help them.

We have to separate the natural anxiety to a scary pandemic vs clinical anxiety but they’re going to overlap. I have clinical anxiety and I am trying to push through as much as possible in the same way that some colleagues aren’t feeling very well (not CV symptoms) but are pushing through because of the current situation and under staffing.

I worry about the frontline medics who will be at a much higher than usual risk of PTSD. I hope there is support out there for them.

How much use would she have been in a work setting anyway? Your colleagues are nasty. For all they know, she lives with somebody vulnerable or us vulnerable herself.

Yeah I should clarify that we are all totally shitting ourselves

Cry daily, not sleeping.
I just cannot tolerate the nastiness. If we make a mistake under the pressure we are under we will likely to be disciplined. She was in no fit state to work and I sent her a couple of times to clear her head.
We are ridiculously short staffed and I can understand the frustrations of others but it is the language they're using etc. " selfish bitch jumping ship" " she better not talk to me when she comes back because I'll tell her to fuck off"
The arguing and crying I have seen at work is heartbreaking.

It is so hard isn't it.
I will never be the same again after this and don't think I want to work frontline after this is all done and dusted. In fact I don't think i want to work in healthcare after.

I made a post about this yesterday but unfortunately didn't get any responses (maybe corona topic just moves too quickly).

Like pps, I fear we will be in for a massive mental health crisis after this and it will primarily affect our healthcare staff.

I've watched the banned footage of Italian hospitals. It's like a war zone. How can anybody witness that much death? How can anyone cope with that?

And then you still have people posting on here and moaning in real life that they can't possibly stay home - even for a couple of days! - because it will affect their mental health. Really??

People need to wake up.

”I've watched the banned footage of Italian hospitals. It's like a war zone. How can anybody witness that much death? How can anyone cope with that? And then you still have people posting on here and moaning in real life that they can't possibly stay home - even for a couple of days! - because it will affect their mental health. Really??”

I think that’s a tad unfair, it’s all relative and I say this as someone who has been stuck in hospital for a few weeks and now in 12 week isolation.

Think one has to know their audience. I wouldn’t complain to intensive care staff that I’m anxious about being house bound for weeks on end but equally, I’d be lying if I didn’t voice my fears.