The truth is all mental illnesses are real, we are finding more and more underlying evidence of the neurological underpinnings of mental disorders (including with FND) using functional neuro-imaging techniques.
And yet these debilitating illnesses are too often stigmatized because their effects are often invisible to the outside observer. This person was let go because they talked about their mental illness with their employers, which is, I believe, not even legal.
People should treat those with mental illness with compassion and consideration, just like how they'd want to be treated if something like this happened to them. And if you think it couldn't, remember you might crack your head on the pavement tomorrow when someone knocks you down and get brain damage.
The truth is that just as we wouldn't want people to work in ways likely to injure their bodies or damage their health, and expect good employers to consider worker's physical well being, we must also have workplaces in which people's mental being is considered.
I consider how this person's employers behaved to be problematic to say the least.
One unfortunate problem is how easy it is for employees and employers alike to contrive a situation, with respect to mental illness, to force a desired outcome.
For the employee, good luck proving that management was complicit or negligent in the formation and continuation of a hostile working environment. At-will employment means it's your word against theirs in a wrongful termination suit, assuming someone mentally ill even has the resources and conviction to pursue a legal remedy. And ADA-related laws and protections, even if they can apply to someone with an "invisible disability", are difficult to invoke without social fallout. It's a catch-22.
For employers, how can you discern and remove a truly disgruntled, incompetent, malingering or indolent employee (from management's perspective) in an efficient manner, when perhaps the first-principle reason for those employee's shortcomings are related to mental illness?
ADA ought not to be intertwined with employment, rather there needs to be a more sophisticated social safety net and support programs for people with mental illness, instead of burdening employers with some of the responsibility which they have no business-rational reason to respectfully abide by.
And yet these debilitating illnesses are too often stigmatized because their effects are often invisible to the outside observer. This person was let go because they talked about their mental illness with their employers, which is, I believe, not even legal.
People should treat those with mental illness with compassion and consideration, just like how they'd want to be treated if something like this happened to them. And if you think it couldn't, remember you might crack your head on the pavement tomorrow when someone knocks you down and get brain damage.
The truth is that just as we wouldn't want people to work in ways likely to injure their bodies or damage their health, and expect good employers to consider worker's physical well being, we must also have workplaces in which people's mental being is considered.
I consider how this person's employers behaved to be problematic to say the least.