I have long term mental health issues (depression, anxiety and PTSD) for which receive medication and talking therapy. My mental health issues do impact on my day to day life, even with medication, but most of the time I can manage this with support from family and friends, my therapist, and self-care. However, in the last few months I have started to slip downhill quite rapidly.
I work for a large institution. My workload and responsibility has recently increased substantially (although my post/pay has not changed). A few months ago I experienced a traumatic close bereavement, which I witnessed, and there have been a number of family and legal issues stemming from this which have been very challenging and upsetting. Since this has happened I have been struggling badly with my mental health, which has now been exacerbated by this increase in workload and responsibility since this traumatic bereavement. Indeed, it has left me teetering on the edge of terrifying full-blown depression. I am struggling every day to cope, from getting to sleep, getting out of bed, to managing and organising my workload, to commuting to work, to getting through the day without crying. I have had thoughts of harming myself,., although I do not have a history of this, and have no intention of acting on them. They are just intrusive thoughts. I have been to see my GP, who advised me to discuss at work, although they did offer to sign me off. I am currently doing my job to a standard where no one is noticing I am finding things difficult, but I have no idea how much longer I can go on.
I approached my manger and asked for a referral to Occupational Health and explained the situation. I got my referral, OH at this point have advised reasonable adjustments to allow me to manage my workload and prevent me from being signed off.
My manager has dismissed the OH report out of hand. They think I need to take up yoga and improve my diet. They have said I am behaving unprofessionally as I got emotional during a meeting with (just) them to discuss my workload. They said that actually my workload should be more and will increase, and have suggested time management training. This manager is now 'micro-managing me' and scrutinising/criticising aspects of my work. I have been in post for 12 years and never experienced this before. If I have had problems with my mental health this has always been supported and accommodated at a department level. This person has been my manager for a year.
I don't want to create more issues, and I am exhausted and upset, but I am not sure what to do. To go above this manager will anger them. Does anyone have any advice?