Depression, anxiety - many people are probably familiar with this.
But their number is growing rapidly, which also affects the job.
In one industry in particular, there is a flurry of absenteeism due to mental illness.
Hanover - Anyone who has experienced mental illnesses such as depression knows how difficult it is to recover from them.
According to data from the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit, employees in Lower Saxony were absent from work significantly more often last year due to mental illnesses - more often than ever in the past decade.
Statistically speaking, there were 342 days of absence for every 100 insured people - in 2022 there were still 307 days of absence, the health insurance company said.
According to the study, in 2013 there were only 217 days of absence per 100 insured people.
That means an increase of 58 percent.
The new high is “worrying,” warned the Lower Saxony DAK state chief Dirk Vennekold.
“Employees must not run the risk of one day being burnt out prematurely and having to leave.” In addition, more and more younger adults from the so-called Generation Z are absent from work.
“We need to pay more attention to mental health issues in the workplace,” he said.
For the study, the Berlin IGES Institute evaluated the data of 225,000 working people who were insured by their own health insurance companies.
According to its own information, DAK-Gesundheit is the third largest statutory health insurance company in Germany; it insures around 530,000 people in Lower Saxony.
According to the study, in 2023 there was the largest increase in younger age groups nationwide compared to the previous year.
Accordingly, the number of psychologically-related absences among working young women between the ages of 15 and 19 rose by 46 percent compared to the previous year to 15.8 sick notes per 100 insured people.
Significantly more days of absence were also recorded among 20 to 24-year-old women than in the previous year: the increase was 38 percent, and the number of sick notes rose to 16.1 per 100 insured people.
Among male employees in the two age groups, absenteeism also increased the most - namely by 43 percent to 8.5 sick notes per 100 insured people - among 15 to 19 year olds.
There were 10.0 sick notes among 20 to 24 year olds.
Looking at women and men, the number of sick notes per 100 insured people rose by 22 percent to 10.4.
Overall, the number of days absent among women climbed to 423 last year after 382 a year earlier; for men this number grew from 243 to 273 per 100 insured people.
In 2023, mental illnesses were in third place among the causes of sick leave in Lower Saxony - behind illnesses of the musculoskeletal system (400 days of absence per 100 insured people) and the respiratory system (393).
When it comes to days missed due to mental illnesses, Lower Saxony is six percent above the national average: “Our employees in Lower Saxony are ill with mental illness a little more often and for longer than the national average,” said Vennekold.
However, the duration of sick leave among those affected in Lower Saxony fell: in 2022 the illness lasted an average of 36.2 days, last year it was 33.0 days.
Depression was responsible for most of the days missed - but the loss of work remained at the previous year's level of 123 days per 100 insured people (122).
This was followed by stress and adjustment disorders with an increase of 22 percent to 90 days of absence per 100 insured people.
Other studies had previously painted a similarly bleak picture: According to a representative survey presented at the end of February 2023 by the opinion research institute Ipsos on behalf of the insurance company Axa, almost a third of respondents nationwide described themselves as mentally ill.
Around 32 percent said that they suffered from depression, an anxiety or eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or other mental illnesses.
According to the DAK study, not all sectors were equally affected by downtime due to mental illnesses: public administration in particular stood out.
Accordingly, 448 days of absence per 100 insured people were registered there - at least 31 percent above the Lower Saxony average.
People who work in the healthcare sector had 444 days of absence.
The fewest days of absence per 100 insured people were in the food and beverage industry: there were 151. dpa