My Story of suffering at work with stress that led to Depression, Anxiety which led to a Brief Psychotic episode. Part 1.

[HighAchiever]

Hi everybody

I feel as though I need to tell my story of stress, leading to depression and anxiety in the workplace and the dangers of what it can lead too, as from the title. It will be along story but I feel as though it will help me in my recovery with my team of medical professionals to get better and stay better. The main reasons that I want to tell my story is that in the work place, peoples mental health needs to be taken seriously and preventative measures are a must. After reading through Beyond Blue website, I believe that this type of story is at the heart and essence that peoples mental health must be treated as a national priority. To remove the Stigma, to promote that depression and anxiety are real, it affects people in different ways, and if not treated early and identifying that you need help early, it can lead to much more debilitating problems. I believe that it needs to be promoted at the highest of levels in corporations, to make a commitment to educate and take mental health seriously. After all, business only become successful from leadership. Businesses often forget their number one assets. PEOPLE.................And people who suffer from Depression and/or Anxiety can still work.

I feel as though large corporations need to be a lot more proactive to look after their number one assets, by intervening earlier when people are suffering in the work place.

I hope that others can relate to my story, as it is the truth, go out and seek help, do not be afraid or scared to talk to someone. I have a long way to go to beat what I am currently feeling, but I have a team around me who want me to get better, especially my wife who wants me back to the way I was.

[HighAchiever]

Now let me tell you a bit about myself;

I am 42 years old, have a beautiful and supportive wife and 2 beautiful daughters. We live a very modest life. I had a good up bringing as a child in on a farm. Played sport, had lots of friends and enjoyed life. I then got a trade as a boilermaker, got welding certificates and enjoyed it as I loved building things. I then moved into the construction industry. Not everyday construction but large scale construction. Over my career, I have been part of teams that have built copper refineries, magnetite processing plants, flour mills, coal fired boilers to produce electricity, aluminium refineries, coal mine infrastructure, LNG refineries from coal seam gas and offshore gas. I have been in the construction industry for 25 years, 12 of those years with one employer which I still respect, delivering projects for large worldwide corporations, delivering products to the world to make everyone lives better. I have worked as part of the leadership teams as the time went on in the roles of supervision and field engineering. All which I loved as I was building something special and on a large scale, delivering outcomes for everyone's benefit.  I have always had a high work ethic that my father had taught me and always give my best to my ability. 

Then on one project it all went wrong..................It was not my fault.

[Lunar]

Hello there @HighAchiever

A very big warm welcome to the forums from myself, thank you for sharing your story 🙂

It sounds like you are a very hard worker and really value the job that you do and being involved in that hard working and successful industry, although something has happened which has affected your mental health which you are still working on now, that sounds really tough.

It's great that you have a partner who is supportive and a team who wants you to get better, that is really helpful and positive. I completely agree with work places needing to be more educated and supportive of mental health, as at the end of the day it would not just greatly benefit the people but also the business. 

Are there ways your workplace was and was not helpful in supporting you?

Looking forward to getting to know you better and hearing others experiences in the workplace. There are some other threads which have also discussed similar work place issues such as;

Workplace Stigma and Career Chat , and this thread by @Former-Member Discrimination in the workplace - When to complain or not 

Take care,

Lunar

[HighAchiever]

Thanks for the reply, it gets a whole lot worse the way my employer treated me. But I feel my story needs to be told. There is a reason why CEO and leadership needs to make a commitment to providing a mentaly safe workplace.

[utopia]

@HighAchiever. I look forward to hearing more of your story and how your workplace didn't protect you.
I too went throygh a tough 18 month period of excessive stress at work. The employer - a Health Network - in the Mental Health field - knew about the stress. All staff were 'complaining'. We had meeting after meeting. Nothing was done. Just words from management and senior management.
After being put in a dangerous position with a very unwell client - where I asked for help but didn't get any - I went on workcover. It's been 2& 1/2 years now. 10 more days and they cut off my workcover pay. I can't sue my employer - because I'm getting better - so myppercentage of incapacity has gone down. I ended up with PTSD from the incident - now treated & ongoing depression and anxiety.
My workplace did all they could do to discredit me. I'm one of three from that place - who has gone on Workcover. Guess what? Still no feedback all these years later from Worksafe. No appology from my managers.
But I am getting better. I hope you are too.