Being in a responsible post, if you unable to discharge your duties due to personal problems, it's better to take leave than to commit a mistake.
All the office can do is cut your salary or extend your probation.
There is nothing to fear on that front.
Why call this a "front"? Is the situation or it's consequences an affront to you? Pardon the word play here, but this perception of a conflict, of an everyday battle to live through the day is an emotional drain. Remember that we are talking of perception here. The actual situation may be different. Our memories and current experiences are a combination of our mental recording of what transpired and the feelings experienced during that time. Both are not experienced in isolation. These feelings are an integral part of memory.
Unfortunately, in depression, this internal running dialogue of memory and self focuses on and reinforces the negative feelings that were felt at that time and this circle continues with the subject's negativity growing without his realising it.
Little can be done about the past as the event already occurred and passed. Be it a perceived slight or outrage, the Past cannot be changed. Yet, when suffering from depression in the Present we focus on the static Past and cede control, the control needed to bring focus to the Present to effect the changes to improve the victim's quality of life.
The physical body is always part of the Present. Hence it is an effective anchor to the Present. If the mind could attempt to objectively view what passed and process why something failed, assess it's impact and process this to effect a positive change in the individual.
The will to change and leave the Past behind is left to the subject. What happens for those who can't muster the strength to collect and confront their problems? By problems we mean actual problems and their magnitude. The subject will need to differentiate between the actual and the perceived. Then, the problems need to be ranked. This is not easy as the subject personal harmony is already disturbed and he has an overwhelming sense of his own mortality. This disturbance makes it difficult for him to dismiss false or minor threats to the subject's well being and interests.
This is a strange case of an individual who emotionally strained is conflict prone yet conflict averse. This may lead to feelings of :
- anger at perceived injustice
- frustration at the perceived inability to surmount the situation
- hopelessness when the perceived conflict is prolonged
- despair when these negative feelings degenerate
Note:
Anger is not necessarily bad when such anger has a moral backing due to a desire to improve oneself, others, or the environment.
Sometimes this swirl of feelings culminate with thoughts of suicide to escape the life the person feels condemned to live. This individual loses interest in the things and people he cherishes or treasures. This further strengthens his isolation from his world like loneliness in the sea of millions.
It is ironic that human beings to cope with their lack of quality of life will further degenerate and purposely fade into obscurity through receding from all social life and inflicting further on oneself mentally and physically. Suicide is the most drastic step one can take to give up.
It is absurd that the recourse that these subjects who were initially harmed externally will continue the harm albeit by their own hand. Ultimately to go somewhere where nothing is proven to exist or improve for that matter.
Perhaps the subjects may be encouraged to give thought to what their centre is, i.e., what makes them who they are. They should be enrolled into programmes to strengthen their core. A holistic system of repairing the individual by encouraging him to draw strength from himself - his happy memories, his values, his qualities, his interests. These individuals by the completion of such training should be reintroduced into society where they will not only endure but thrive.
