Leaving work early/calling in sick due to mental health issues

When you leave work early or call out sick, people think you actually are sick or you're a slacker. What do you tell people when you need time off for mental health? I feel like I have to pretend to be physically sick because that's what people expect. But it just seems weird and wrong. Often times I don't take time off I need (and would usually be ok to take) because I feel like I am not physically sick so I shouldn't say I am.

Well, even if you aren't sick, you still don't fell well mentally/emotionally, so I don't think there's a problem if you leave earlier or something similar..

I usually just say I am not well and need to leave. I don't say if it is physical or mental. I use personal time to do so and leave. No one has to cover my responsibilities so it is not a big deal if I leave unless we are working on a big case.

I agree. You aren't well and that's the best way to put it if you can.

Ideally I'd like to live in a world where the most important thing would be a person's health and well being. Hope that this will come in the future, it used to be something I wanted to strive/ fight for, but now I have no energy to fight anymore.

Still, somewhere deep inside I believe this should be right, to be able to get up and respect your needs and get away from work when you don't feel well.

But I'd be a hypocrite if I said I'd done that. What I did was to wait until I couldn't do almost anything for a few weeks, and then at the end I went to the doctor and told her, so now I'm on sick leave. Not something I recommend though, to wait that much.

Probably it depends on many factors, but ideally we should be able to leave when we feel sick.