If you call off sick, you are not leaving your coworkers short staffed. Your boss did that. They refused to hire enough employees, refused to plan for sick days, and refused to account for basic human needs in their calculations. That is not your fault. You deserve sick days.
Functional depression is real. You work, joke, take care of your family, and make other people happy every day, yet mentally you’re drowning in your own thoughts and no one knows.
nothing will ruin a friendship for me faster than watching someone show up for their other friends in a way they don’t show up for me. you have the capacity, just not for our friendship? no thanks.