[fullshark]

A lot of mental "illness" is just being sad, which is a natural and healthy thing for humans to experience from time to time, even for possibly an extended period of time. I'm disturbed by the effort to "destigmatize" it from employers who see this as a challenge to productivity and therefore the bottom line. Like the idea that burnout is some special mental health condition and not just realizing your job stinks.

[trgn]

By labeling it, the human condition is further being commoditized. With taking a therapeutic approach, part of our wellbeing is now yet a little more objectified, can be assigned a market place value, and becomes interchangeable (two months of therapy online vs one month of therapy in person vs a weekend in vegas vs a new jacket). As a commodity, it can now be captured by branding and marketing as well.

This sort of reification of, well, everything, is absolutely relentless and been ongoing for 150 years now. Even if we do recognize it, which people have for just as long, we keep getting warned about it, it seems we are also completely powerless to stop this process.

[fullshark]

I mean I'm not objecting to that necessarily, more the idea that you should share your mental state with your employer, or complete strangers on the internet and this is healthy and good (destigmatize mental illness). I don't particularly think it is, and perhaps it's healthier to have the employer/employee relationship or the internet creator/consumer remain at some distance. Your employer and audience are not your friends or family.

[trgn]

> I don't particularly think it is, and perhaps it's healthier to have the employer/employee relationship or the internet creator/consumer remain at some distance

I definitely agree with that. Sorry if I side-tracked your point, because you are 100% correct.

[fullshark]

Ehh I conflated two points really initially by bring up the objection to the burnout labeling, which is your side-track.

[germinalphrase]

"part of our wellbeing is now yet a little more objectified, can be assigned a market place value, and becomes interchangeable (two months of therapy online vs one month of therapy in person vs a weekend in vegas vs a new jacket). As a commodity, it can now be captured by branding and marketing as well."

Unless one separates themselves from modern society, couldn't this criticism be levied against everything human?

[trgn]

Yes, I'd agree, this is a problem of modern society in particular. I think the challenge is to keep what's valuable and discard what is not. We are terrible at the latter.