That's my takeaway.
But what does matter is the fact that our health care system chews people up and spits them out.
As someone who has sought help for issues that were overwhelming to me, I first used my employer's EAP. I got three visits free to a counselor. She was a clinical social worker, I believe. After my insurance kicked in, I paid a $30 co-pay each time and was limited to a certain number of visits (6 I believe, but I don't think I used them all).
Now this was adequate because I did not have any serious issues, just some difficulty coping with changes at work (changes I was, I think, justifiably upset about). I can only guess (and I have heard stories) that for more serious issues, even if you have good insurance (which not everybody does), it's almost impossible to get adequate care. It's expensive and there's a whole lot of stigma still attached to seeking help. I never told my employer about my issues. And I never will, unless it interferes with my job.
I don't know how to address the stigma issue. We are a culture that's all about "sucking it up" and "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" so it's difficult for anyone to admit they have a problem. We live in a country where simply taking a few days off from work is frowned upon by most employers. You may well lose your job if you don't answer emails while on vacation.
So taking time to deal with anything else is usually a non-starter.
And we have no social safety net to speak of, so we have to hold on to our jobs, even if it costs us mentally to so. We keep jobs that are so stressful we can't sleep at night or we drink to excess just to forget the assholes we work with, only to have to go back and deal with them the next day. We can't quit until we find something else and we can't find something else because we are too old, or don't have up to date skills or whatever.
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