TheVorticonSenior Contributor
Avoiding a mental health presentation at work
As per the title, at my workplace there's going to be a speech from a mental health ambassador. That's great for awareness and all, but I'm well along my journey of awareness. Based on the written description of the event and the speaker I reckon I'll be triggered in a particular way by the presentation. I'm not really in a place to be hearing other people's stories without it making my own challenges harder to deal with.
I'm thinking it's best for me not to attend. It's not mandatory, however it's on the day that everyone around me will be in the office. It will likely be conspicuous if I don't go. They're also having a free lunch afterwards so I'll miss out on that... which is a bigger issue to me because I hate the lunches that I bring to work.
I'm not sure what excuse I can come up with for not attending. I can't really lie about having lots of work to do. I can hide out in the bathroom when it's time to go (or tell people that I'll head over in a moment), and do the same when it's time for it to finish, but I'm sure it'll still be evident to someone that I didn't go. If I only get asked once then I'd be willing to pull off a "I was looking after my own mental health by not going" as a throwaway joke line but I don't want anyone to take that seriously, which they would if I had to repeat it to another person.
So yeah, I dunno. Does anyone have any ideas?