If you suffer from mental health issues, how much does your employer know?

[Caramac44]

I've been suffering from insomnia for nearly two years now. It comes and goes, but during bad patches it's awful and I struggle to function.

I've seen the GP lots of times, but they were not very helpful - gave me sleeping pills which ultimately made things worse. I've had CBT which was pretty useless.

During good spells I am fine, but I have been having bad spells every couple of months. The bad spells are not always related to when I am stressed out, the pattern of insomnia appears to be completely random, although I think it is anxiety related.

I mentioned to my old line manager who was a nice person and I felt comfortable talking to about my problems but she has left now. However I haven't said anything 'formal' to HR and I'm wondering if I should?

My job is one where I tend to manage my own time (about 80% of the time) so when I have 'off' days and don't get much work done no one tends to notice, as I make up for it on days when I am feeling fit and well. However I am worried that now people might be starting to notice my performance is below what it should be.

The problem is on my medical records and I've had numerous GP appointments over the last 2 years so if anyone ever needed evidence I could provide it.

If you have MH issues, how much have you told your employer? Should I tell mine, or just struggle on and hope no one notices when I'm performing badly?

Also I should add that a major problem when I'm exhausted is the commute, as I commute into London - almost 2 hours each way.

So one thing that can make a massive difference to me when I am going through a bad period is working from home and not having to do the commute.

At the moment I just work from home occasionally and I can do this without any special permission, I just email that morning saying I'm working from home. However I'm thinking of making a formal request to officially work say half the week from home and I'm wondering how that will go down?

My job can be largely done from home and I'm happy to travel into London when I'm needed there for meetings, events etc.

Hi I empathise about the commute. I do an hour a day each way driving into z city and it's utterly exhausting as I'm suffering from insomnia at the moment. In fact I've just got a new job which is a rural 15 min drive which I hope is going to help with how I feel. If you put together a proposal im sure they would consider it? In terms of telling your employer I guess I would only tell mine if I felt it absolutely necessary. I did earlier this year because I had an accident which caused stress symptoms. They have persisted though and I haven't elaborated but if I was staying I probably would. That way they can support. Hope this helps

My line manager and senior collegues are fully aware of my situation as carer for DH and the resulting impact on my MH and are all very supportive. I've never had a formal conversation about it with Occupational health, but have accessed councelling via self referal and psychology through referal from my councellor and line manager.

I think the fact you are being proactive about managing things should be seen as a positive. I know my management see it as such if I drop an email saying "I'm struggling today I'm going to do paperwork in a quiet area, is that ok" (I'm normally in a public facing role)