You gotta love it... Forum

[anori]

...when you have to tell the harpies in charge of your secondary journal that you are clinically depressed, and therefore not living up to their worker bee expectations. I could have scripted the response myself: "Um. Well. It's law school, we're all stressed out." Of course, most people on this forum will probably bash me as a whiner too. Go ahead, you bright-eyed, bushy-tailed motherfuckers.

[First Offense]

I mean, it sucks that you're depressed and everything, but what do you expect them to do?

[Mount Elbrus]

At the end of the day, there is nothing they can do. I did the least amount of work possible on law review because I wanted the check in the box. Sure you get the passive aggreessive e-mails and threats from people who finally have the smallest sliver of authority over someone, but just ignore it. They will almost certainly not fail you or kick you off the journal. I really wish I had kept one e-mail I got from an articles editor who was blasting me for errors from my cite check. I think she spent more time writing it that I did on the assignment.

[yossarian]

I mean, it sucks that you're depressed and everything, but what do you expect them to do?

I think a more reasonable response to something like this is:

"I'm sorry, that has to be really hard to deal with as you're trying to navigate law school. What do you think a reasonable short-term accommodation might be to allow you to meet your professional responsibilities? If it is time off for a period of time, how long do you think you'd need?"

Then, the journal can realistically assess whether reasonable, short-term accommodations can be made--and if not, inform the OP.

While a reaction like this will probably not ultimately have a different practical outcome from the one the OP describes, it focuses on solutions without belittling the OP. So much of the culture change that needs to happen toward mental illness has nothing to do with changing treatment (ie, accommodations) but more to do with changing the language and assumptions made about someone currently suffering from a mental illness.