[smallbluefish]

content notes: mentions (but *no* descriptions or detailed analysis) of workplace and talking to supervisor, chronic pain, and emotional trauma from a past abusive workplace

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lately I've been thinking about disclosing my depression, anxiety, and trauma from past experiences in an abusive workplace to my current supervisor. they already know that I'm working through mental health and chronic pain and have been very understanding, but don't know details beyond that.

I'm wondering if anyone has had experiences with disclosing their mental illness and/or trauma to their work supervisors, and if so, how you decided to do so? this feels like such a small question and yet I'm struggling with it...

reasons I'm considering telling them:
- I feel like my mental health + past experiences affect how I work and my capacity to work (e.g. mood, communication style)
- I'll be working with them closely for a long time

reasons I'm hesitant:
- regardless of my capacity to work, the workload and work environment will not really change anyway
- I worry that I'll be "too much" for them (maybe this is internalized ableism speaking though?)
- I worry that they'll feel like I'm pressuring them to be my counsellor or parental figure
- it's hard to explain how exactly my mental illness + past experiences affect my work life... I just feel like they affect my life in general

[Yzen]

For me, the decision would come down to my trust of the supervisor. When I struggled at my previous job with depression, I wanted to tell them the reasons I acted the way I did with the hope they would pressure me less on the job. But, I chose to keep it to myself because I didn't believe my manager would understand... I am not sure if that was the correct decision. It seemed that way at the time.