Originally Posted by
ferry pilot
Not that long ago the career path to a front seat in an airliner was not for the faint of heart. You learned the hard way, through bitter and painful experience, that aviation is a tough and unforgiving business.
The widespread stigma of depression is frightingly demonstrated even in this thread.
In eyes of many, mental health problems are seen as signs of some sort of weakness, and regurlarly a more "tough" handling is suggested as an effective cure. This anachronistic and unscientific approach is a significant problem. It motivates affected pilots to hide their illness.
Additionally, most loss of license insurance contracts exclude mental health issues, so an outing would have catastrophic financial repercussions.