Not HR, but employee who had similar issue as “Pat.” I had a medical problem (PTSD from sexual assault) for several months and it was causing me to be pretty emotionally unstable at a previous place I worked. I had been talked to about it, but I wasn’t grasping how bad I actually was doing- and how it was affecting my coworkers/the business. My manager, supervisor, and woman from HR called me to the office at the start of a shift and basically said: “We care about you and you just haven’t been right the last few months. It is affecting your coworkers and customers and this can’t go on any longer. Since you have been here for several years and we know this behavior is abnormal and seems to me medically related we want to give you some options, that is why HR is here-to do the paperwork to make this easier on you. This is still a place of business so we still need to make sure our employees are fit to be working.” They gave me numerous examples of the issues I was causing. They gave me three options: 1. Go on medical leave, then apply for FMLA if I ran out of PTO so I could get treatment. 2. Go on personal leave for three days to “figure things out” and get a letter for medical clearance from a primary care doctor and talk to our Employee Health Department. 3. Quit.

I was extremely appreciative of how this was handled and took a medical leave, then ended up quitting the job to get treatment. Hopefully after talking to a legal person, it can give you some relief that this might not go too terribly.