Sick leave

You may find it extremely difficult to protect yourself when you are depressed. Self-protection means behaving like a good parent protecting a child, i.e. giving yourself advice and instructions that protect you. You cannot protect yourself if you force yourself into situations that you are unable to cope with. Nor can you protect yourself if you are unable to see what is good or bad for you.

Conflicts

Depression can result in conflicts with the people you live and work with. These conflicts wouldn't arise if you were well. When suffering from depression you may express strong feelings such as irritation, anger and anxiety and may frequently find yourself in tears. Often this will happen in situations where you would normally have kept a tight rein on your feelings. There's nothing wrong with feelings per se, but they should be appropriate to a situation.

You may feel tired and have slowed down so much that this affects the quality of your work. It is therefore important that you protect yourself and consider taking sick leave.

There are several factors that may prompt you to consider sick leave:

• If your relationship with other people is dominated by feelings such as anger and irritation
• If you have slowed down substantially
• If you cannot concentrate and your memory is failing you
• If you are easily overwhelmed by feelings at work and are easily reduced to tears
• If you can work only when under the influence of alcohol

Discuss this situation with a family member, a friend or your GP first, then tell the appropriate people if you need to.