Last time I was off on medical leave, for rehab, the insurance forms demanded to know what I was being treated for, so I don't think it's possible to hide the nature of the problem from the insurance companies and they had to go through work to be processed, so there was no way to keep my company from knowing what I was for. They were cool with it though and in Canada at least alcoholism is considered a disease and you can't be fired for a medical disability.

When I was in the psych hospital, I wasn't working so I didn't have to worry about anyone finding out. My only challenge was explaining what I'd done in the year I had off of work, when I was job hunting.

--splitimage