Getting signed off with stress? (another one!)

[Toostressedout]

I’ve been under a lot of stress at work, not helped by a lot of things going on in my personal life.

The stress is starting to manifest physically - my heart is going really fast, being sick, shivering, not able to sleep, not hungry, bad dreams - so I think it’s best I get signed off. It’s the busiest month of the year for us so I feel bad about it, but also I don’t. I’ll be the 6th person to be signed off with stress this year in a dept of 45, so obviously something is going wrong somewhere!

Is it literally a case of going to to the Dr and saying “I’m stressed about work and need to be signed off”? Or is there a better way to go about it!

TIA ☺️

I'm a GP. When someone asks to be signed off with stress I would first tell them to self-certify for a week (we can't issue a fit note for the first week of leave) then I'd get them in for a chat to see if there is anything medical going on eg depression. Generally don't put stress on a fit note as in theory the DWP can reject it, so it would be something like acute crisis reaction. Would try to do for the shortest possible period as there's lots of good evidence for harm caused by long times signed off work.

Also in your case I'd want to delve into any physical cause for your symptoms (thyroid?) and if they are clearly panic attacks then a beta blocker might help.

NB this isn't individual medical advice!

Thanks! That’s helpful. I’ll make an appt and see what they say.

My B12 was v low about 3 years ago and I take tablets but I do think it needs checked again.