Mental Health and Work

I am very honest and open when it comes to my medications and my therapist. I do not share anything with anyone that I do not trust, but I do not shy away from saying that I have therapy Thursday nights. At work, I generally do not talk about myself but to a select few. My dad always taught me to keep work and home separate and not to assume a coworker is a friend. I have been lenient on this, I think, by making some real friends at work. Where else am I going to meet people?

Anyways, sometimes my dad is more right than I like to admit. Sometimes I should just keep my mouth shut more often.

My coworker and I have been very open with each other and she knows that I take medications and go to therapy. This is all fine. She made an off-handed comment, though, that I should try to come up with better ways to cope with stress. Now, I suppose that any friend or acquaintance could have said this and the fact that it was at work is, perhaps, inconsequential, but it did happen at work and that cannot be ignored. There is something about it. I think it is because you cannot just leave the situation like you could if you were at a party or something. When she made the comment, I just became kind of silent and she asked something about what my therapist thought of it and when I was silent again, I think she recognized her mistake. I quietly said everything was fine and the subject was dropped.

I know she is only trying to help, but it was not helpful. It was uncomfortable at best. I can't help but feel like this all happened because of my openness. If, perhaps, I was less open I would not have had this conversation where I now know I am being somewhat judged. I will certainly be more cautious next time.