Being a CPA can turn you psycho. Health.com lists accounting as one of 10 careers with high rates of depression. I can vouch for the mental health risks of our profession. I went crazy during my first busy season; doctor said I had anxiety. I'd never been diagnosed with anxiety before, so that totally stressed me out. He gave me a prescription for Klonopin. Don't know if it made me any less anxious, but it did make me really sleepy. In case you're curious, being both overworked and chemically drowsy during busy season is a very effective way to manifest any remaining dormant anxiety in a rookie accountant. Way to go, Dr. Feelgood.
John Binns, a partner in the consulting practice at U.K.-based Deloitte LLP, assumed his career "would be finished" after he took a two-month leave in 2007 to treat a severe bout of depression.
More than one in four American adults has a diagnosable mental-health disorder, and one in 17 has a serious disorder such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
[The] director of media relations for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, recommends against disclosing a mental-health issue to a manager, if possible, and certainly not in a job interview.
Details about a serious mental illness are fair game when researching a job candidate, says Dr. Patricia Cook, chairman and CEO of Cook & Co., a Bronxville, N.Y., executive search firm. […] Dr. Cook once considered a candidate for an executive-level position whose prior supervisor alerted her to a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The candidate was eliminated from the shortlist; she says she provided an "ego-acceptable excuse" without disclosing specifically that it was because of his mental illness.
Symptoms of some disorders may be helpful in the office. A person with obsessive-compulsive disorder, for example, could be seen as a perfectionist with a few quirks.