fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2636 ]

[ SECRET POST #2636 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2636 ⌋

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[Pinocchio]

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Given the environment I work in, I do wish people would tell me if they have bad anxiety that could lead to a serious breakdown, even if it's not my business. Particularly now that I'm often in a supervisory capacity; it could be dangerous if I can't react properly due to lack of foreknowledge. This is probably part of why I find the ubiquity of serious anxiety disorder on the Internet so unsettling.

No.

No. No. No.

It is never your right to know and that kind of information could be used against them so badly. You are naive. If you were my supervisor I would fucking quit.

What do you think is going to happen with someone with an anxiety disorder? They're gonna knife someone? What could they possibly do that would make it any of your fucking business?

Well, I don't think it's my right to know, nor do I make it a requirement for those under me. Nevertheless, it is my private wish that they would share it with me. It is not about what a person having a breakdown would do, but what could happen to them amidst an attack if the people around don't react appropriately. We have strict protocols for accidents and illnesses, and they're there for a reason.

Then again, perhaps it's unlikely that someone with serious anxiety would choose to work in my field to begin with, but then I was also not aware that it was so prevalent.

From what you've been saying, it sounds like a customer service/retail job and yes, people with anxiety do work those jobs whether by "choice" or not. I once had an anxiety attack at work. They sent me home because I said I was unable to work. If I had said "I just need to sit in the breakroom until I calm down." they probably would have let me do that.

I think if I were a supervisor in that environment, I could probably handle an employee having an attack without foreknowledge. But... well, not to give away too much details, I'm an engineer. Our crew is often very large and some of them are fellow engineers and administrative staff, but many work in physical capacities involving heavy machinery. Our work sites are... remote, to say the least, so emergency response has to be handled in-house because we can't exactly call up an ambulance when we need one. And our hours are long. Yeah.

I don't know. Internet fandom is my hobby since my down times aren't exactly lively with possibilities, and this has really been bothering me of late. If I worked an office job I wouldn't care as long as my employees keep it together at work and do their jobs, but if something goes wrong out here we could be in it deep.

So what do you do?

I work for a petro company.

....I honestly wouldn't worry. There is zero overlap between the teenagers on Tumblr you have been reading the "tribulations" of, and a fully adult drill/deckhand on an FSPO/offshore rig. Plus 99% of them are good ol' boys on one hand, and fairly heavily psychologically screened for the ability to function in a high-stress, high-stakes, isolated environment, on the other hand.

Support staff, maaaaybe there might be issues, but the rate of pay is such that anyone unable/unwilling to take care of their issues themselves, will either wash out of their probation period and/or will voluntarily self-select out of the job in the first place.

Have you been at the job long?

I'm 18 months into my current position at this company, and from what my friends from uni (now also working petro) tell me, that's what it's like over there in the US. They have it very good on American rigs, including work rotations that let you go back to the mainland for weeks at a time after pulling a long duty.

Where I am, though... well, the money's still good -- if you're an engineer. Crew and support staff, not so much, and you'd be surprised how young they recruit them here. I can tell you right now that psychological screening below toolpusher level is pretty much perfunctory. It's a young industry in a country that doesn't have the best record for occupational safety to begin with.

Tumblr is what really alerted me to the prevalence of the condition, but I don't believe that the only people who have it are teenagers on Tumblr. And as people in this thread have repeatedly insist, it's often hard to tell at a glance.

Look, if you're in the police or army or something then they should have mental health requirements, do they not? So they would be weeded out if they were unfit. The people working under you are most likely not going to have a panic attack because if they can't deal with it they wouldn't have taken the job in the first place unless they're an idiot. (Mostly likely they would be declared unfit if they did.)

If someone had a panic attack, they knew this would be a problem beforehand, and they're doing shitfuckall when people are under attack then they are not reliable and should be taken out for a while to recover or whatever, if they'll even get reinstated. That would be up to mental health professionals. If, for some reason, this comes as a shock to even them because it develops while they're in the field then in the moment you should treat them like a man down, I suppose? They're dead weight at the moment but calming them down comes second to keeping everyone alive. Look into how other... armed forces(?) deal with it should it happen. I know in World War II a lot of soldiers developed an interesting form of PTSD where in the battlefield they lost control of a limb or two as if it had been injured.

Now, I also think you need to understand more about anxiety. It's not just panic attacks and not everyone who has anxiety suffers from panic attacks. Panic attacks are one symptom and have different severity levels for each individual. Incapacitating for some, not for others. Heck, as I said, a lot of people don't even get them. If you're actually worried about this being a safety matter then look up the common symptoms and if you even need to do anything about them.

Lastly, whatever your job is where you're under attack if there aren't mental health professionals to make sure who makes the cut then I would be more worried about that because then you could get someone with something far worse than anxiety on your team, like a sociopath.

I think I should read up more on anxiety disorder, if I can find the time and energy to do it between shifts. It is something of a concern for me, especially since I'm only 18 months into this job and already given supervisory responsibilities. The standards in my country are... not in any way on par with those you'd be used to in the US (I studied there for a very long time, so I'm very aware of the discrepancy). Mental illness is very poorly understood, and anxiety as a diagnosis is almost entirely unknown to the general populace. I don't even think I can find statistics for anxiety disorder in this country; I doubt the necessary studies exist.

I would very much like to have mental health professionals on site to help our workers, actually, given how stressful our job is, but that isn't something I can realistically hope for. Labor laws and safety standards in this country are pretty terrible -- we are, admittedly, a developing nation -- and the industry I work in is heavily government subsidized, which means it's plagued with bureaucracy. At least we have protocols in place for physical injuries and sickness. I've spoken to my colleagues and they don't seem to think this is an issue at all. I'm going to do my own research and prepare as best as I can, but I wouldn't be in any qualified to be the person to take over in the event of an incident.

Sounds to me less like you need to worry about people with mental disorders and more like you need to gain confidence in your new job position. But hey, I figure learning can never hurt. If I were you, since all mental health stuff seems to be kinda on shaky ground where you are, try learning about the more common ones, not just anxiety. I'd say if they're in your working environment they're most likely to be okay and this is a job they believe they can handle, not matter what their problems are. However, knowledge can only help you in this situation.

And here's the deal, if something does go down- say you have someone who is depressed and attempts suicide- it doesn't matter if there's no one technically qualified. It doesn't even matter who knows the most. The person who rises to the occasion and takes charge is the one who's in charge. I've seen it happen in first aid situations. Someone might be more knowledgeable about how to help someone hit by a car but if they don't step up and take charge it really doesn't matter. The only one who does is the person who actually becomes a leader of the situation and does something. If you wanna be that person, okay. Knowledge will help you but also just having the courage to step forward to offer aid is just as important.

And when you're learning about this stuff, stay away from Freud. Unless it's about dreams he's mostly bunk.

excellent answer is excellent

Thanks.

Sounds to me less like you need to worry about people with mental disorders and more like you need to gain confidence in your new job position.

But these aren't exactly mutually exclusive. If I'm leading people, I want to know how best to prepare in the even of shit hitting the fan, including anxiety attacks - same with just about any illness, physical or mental. I want to know if someone who I work with has asthma because not only does this mean I try to make sure they stay away from workplace allergens/airborn toxins, but also so that I know what to do if they do have an asthma attack. If someone has an anxiety disorder, then I would not only know when to proverbially have them on the floor and when to let them work the backshelves, but also know ahead of time how to help them if/when they do have anxiety attacks.

I'm not saying you don't have a point that people have good reasons for keeping these things private - absolutely they can be used to bully people. But it's not as if someone is just a dumbass or naive or a bully for wanting to know these things about the people around them - especially if it's their job to look out for the people around them.

But these aren't exactly mutually exclusive.

They're not but they're also not the same thing in any respect. That's why I said knowledge could only help the anon and why I said that if they choose to be that person that helps then they should learn as much as they can. However, they need that confidence, wherever they get it, or all their knowledge will be useless to them.

I didn't even mention bullying in this last response. However, I don't think someone needs to know about another's mental health unless it will become a problem in the workplace. If it's a problem like asthma is? Maybe if the person chooses to. (You know, as long as it won't cause severe problems for themselves or others. If it does, okay.) But if it won't cause problems and they don't want to tell anyone? It's absolutely none of your business. And really, it's less about bullying and more about getting fired.

"I'm only 18 months into this job and already given supervisory responsibilities"

Sounds like you're the one with anxiety issues, tbph.

I think you're kind of stretching the definition of "anxiety issues" with this comment which is part of the problem with this whole thing.

Being young and having new responsibilities naturally lends itself to being nervous and maybe over thinking things for a while. That =/= anxiety disorder.

It sounds like you have no idea what you're talking about, tbph.

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