What do you think this means?

[Ilsa]

My friend's daughter is in her mid-twenties, works the same retail job as for the last five years, probably making about $12/hour. She lives alone and my friend helps her financially with her medical expenses.

She takes Wellbutrin, some anti-anxiety medicine, and has an Rx to help with sleep if she needs if. She sees a psychiatrist or psychologist.

Recently, her psychiatrist advised her to take a month off of work due to "stress at work." My friend is very worried about her daughter for two reasons:
1. Taking off work means she will be financially stressed, and she worries that she could be fired after returning to work.
2. The excuse about it being about stress at work doesn't seem to fit. I told her I was concerned that her daughter has some big issue that she needs to deal with and is coping poorly. I recommended she find out as much as possible, such as whether she might be suicidal, just to protect her. I was victimized by a rape years ago, had no spouse or person to fall back on, and my psychiatrist didn't tell me to take off a month.

My question is this: what do you think it could mean that the dr advised her to leave work for a month? What are some scenarios you've seen?

[JoeyT]

1. If she hasn't suggested that work problems are what are stressing her,

the psychiatrist may just have no clue what the problem is and be grasping at straws.

[EFerrari]

2. It could be anything.

Maybe an audit at work before tax time that IS very stressful. Maybe someone at work that doesn't get along with her. Maybe some crisis is bubbling up and her doctor just wants her to have some space to get through it.

Mom might want to look out for changes in number of contacts with her.