Sorry, I'm going to keep things vague and changed some details and outright left stuff out for my own sanity (also please keep in mind I'm not American so my healthcare and benefits are different). This happened at a non-profit organization. I was fairly newish to the organization, but I was well experienced in the field.
One summer I started a new medication, my doctor wanted to monitor me to see how I tolerated it. In the fall I was handed 3 big projects at work. I was assigned one subordinate to assist with one of the projects and I briefly had an intern for another.
Every doctors appointment he'd ask me how things were going. I'd tell him, then he'd ask me to follow-up in a month. This went on for about 6 months. Over time I started to struggle with my mental health from work-stress as I was handed more work and expectations.
At one doctors appointment I just vented about the shit I was going through. I was overworked, and we were understaffed, I asked my supervisor to reduce my workload but they were unfortunately unable to as we didn't have enough qualified people and no one was applying to the empty positions. I hit burnout. My doctor suggested I take time off, but I had a couple small things to do. He told me to follow-up in a week to discuss time-off, I was to only do the bare minimum. In that week there was a traumatic incident at work, I was not at fault but I was front and centre when it happened
The stress from the incident and investigation pushed me over the edge from my already burnt out mental state.
My doctor immediately wrote up the necessary paperwork to get me some time off, plus the necessary referrals to mental health. He wanted me to see him twice a week for a bit then reduced to once a week when psychology services got me in. At the six week mark we came up with a plan to ease me back to work, reduced hours expand as tolerated follow-up in two days, sent off to HR. I had about 3 appointments a week with different professionals I also had to deal with. My first day back was a disaster. My supervisor was uncharacteristicly rude to me, it took me completely by suprise. My second day back I had an email from HR stating how they interpreted my return to work program and I am to follow their interpretation (not one person pulled me aside to ask me). I got up and went to my doctors office and talked to the receptionist. Luckily the doctor was free, so he tweeked my return to work so it would be impossible to misinterpret. I went back to work and my supervisor pulled me into their supervisors office and was outright hostile towards me. Not once did they step in while my supervisor was going off on me. I was honestly crushed because before all this I had a great working relationship with my supervisor, they always had my back. They helped me after the incident. After they left, I stayed in the office and I was just “What the fuck?” They said “I'll talk to them.” I left work early because I developed a migraine. The next two days were uneventful, but after the fourth day I developed a migraine, I called my doctors office and he wrote me off for Friday and ordered some bloodwork and told to follow-up on Monday. Bloodwork came back normal, migraines were stress related. He gave me the week off. I had vacation time booked off the following two weeks and my doctor told me to just go enjoy myself. I tried to enjoy my time off and for a bit I did, but it soon became apparent just how mentally ill I had became. By the end of my vacation I ended up in the hospital related to suicide. I was transferred 3 hours away for assessment because our town didn't have the resources for me. I was not admitted to inpatient care, I feel as tho I should have been. I followed up with my doctor, I showed him my injuries. He gave me the week off, and asked that I follow-up in two days. I started new medication for work and I was consuming cannabis outside of work to treat my crippling social anxiety.
That week back went well, my supervisor was back to their old self. A new team lead was transferred in and wanted to meet me. They bring up some issues they noticed about the place, it felt affirming because I have brought those issues up as well. The following week I was pulled into HR, this was the first time HR has talked to me since the incident two months prior. My initial thought was that they were going to ask me how I could be accommodated. HR asked how I was, I informed them of my mental health issues and areas I'm working on. They then bring up a conduct issue on my part from four weeks prior that needed to be addressed (I took accountability for it, can't use mental illness as an excuse for being a dickhead). They proceeded to just berate me in the most inappropriate way any employer has ever talked to me about a deficiency. Then they berated me for my mental health issues and that I am expected to carry on and, I shit-you-not, act like I'm ok to accommodate other people's mental health issues.
I went back to my office and chatted with my supervisor for a bit. They revealed they were experiencing the exact same thing I was with the workplace, and they weren't doing OK. I realized he was a dick to me for the same reason I was a dick. I walked around and noticed everyone else was cold and and off-put by my presence.
Someone knew ahead of time what HR was going to talk to me about. They gossipped it to everyone, I don't know what they said or if they twisted it or not. All I know is everyone was friendly the week before and treated me like crap on that day. I sent my CEO a letter stating I couldn't be there. I thought I had lost my mind. I thought I was being oversensitive. I had no idea what was happening. I thought I must have either fucked up really bad or someone else was just psychotic enough to get pleasure out of kicking me at my lowest. But I just knew I wasn't well enough to be there.
I talked to my doctor, I asked him point blank what should I do. In not so many words, he conveyed that everything I had experienced was not new to him. That place is famously toxic and has been for a while, but the people there don't see it. The stress of that place can make good people toxic. In hindsight I was going down that path. There is absolutely nothing anyone can do to change it. He then filled out the necessary paperwork to break my contract with them.
I want to believe the monthly follow-ups weren't for my medication, he was trying to catch me before I spiraled.