Let’s be clear. Plenty of people are willing to admit that their job causes them anxiety, stress or even depression. However, far fewer people are willing to admit to others (and maybe even to themselves) that it is the very social construct of work itself which is causing them this problem.
I won’t pretend as though work is the only thing which can cause these symptoms. However, speaking from my own experience, there has never been a greater detriment to my own mental health than the presence of work as it exists in our current system. The feeling like I should be doing it even though it causes me distress, the guilt and shame I feel after taking the time I feel I need to recover, the pressure to pretend like it’s okay with me to spend the majority of my day doing something I’d rather not be doing, the fear of being socially ostracized if I were ever to be honest with how I feel about work, feeling lazy, stupid, useless, crazy, gas-lit, doubtful of my own experiences. And yet…knowing that so many other people agree with me but are just as afraid as I am to say so.
Work, and the attendant anxieties, insecurities and self hatred that it has inflicted on me, is by far the greatest harm I’ve ever been forced to endure.