“My Job Is Wearing Me Down!” | Can You Claim WSIB for Work Stress? What Counts and What Does Not

A man in a work jacket rests his head back in the driver's seat of his parked car outside an industrial building, eyes closed, with rain on the window.

A mental injury from work is a real injury. Ontario's workplace insurance system recognizes that, within specific rules. Knowing them helps you decide what to do next.

Does the WSIB cover mental stress?

Yes, under two policies: traumatic mental stress and chronic mental stress. Both apply to decisions made on or after March 1, 2024, for injuries on or after January 1, 2018.

What is traumatic mental stress?

A reaction to a traumatic event at work. The WSIB's traumatic mental stress policy says the event must be clearly identifiable and objectively traumatic, such as witnessing a death, an armed robbery, or being the target of violence or death threats. You must have experienced or witnessed it first hand. A reaction to a series of traumatic events over time can also qualify.

What is chronic mental stress?

A reaction to a substantial work-related stressor over time. Under the chronic mental stress policy, a stressor is generally substantial when it is excessive in intensity or duration compared with the normal pressures on similar workers. Workplace harassment is generally considered a substantial stressor. The stressor must be the predominant cause of the diagnosed condition.

What is not covered?

Stress caused by your employer's ordinary decisions about your employment. The policies list terminations, demotions, transfers, discipline, changes in working hours and changes in productivity expectations. Harassment, and conduct a reasonable person would see as egregious or abusive, are treated differently.

Do I need a diagnosis?

Yes. The WSIB requires a diagnosis under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM, before it decides. Examples include acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, adjustment disorder, and anxiety or depressive disorders. A physician, nurse practitioner, psychologist or psychiatrist can make the diagnosis.

Separate rules apply to first responders and some other designated workers claiming post-traumatic stress disorder.

What should I record?

  • Each incident. Date, time, place, who was involved and what was said or done.
  • Witnesses. Who saw or heard it.
  • Reports you made. Complaints to a supervisor or human resources, and the replies.
  • How it affects you. Sleep, appetite, concentration, time off and daily life, with dates.
  • Every appointment. Who you saw and what they recommended.

Writing things down when they happen is hard on difficult days. Short notes still count.

Why use Hurt Square?

Because a mental stress claim is shown in the record, the dates, the incidents and who you told, more than in any scan. Hurt Square guides give you one place to keep it all.

  • The incidents and the dates, written down. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide has structured space for what happened, who you told, every appointment, your symptoms and every conversation with your employer and the WSIB.
  • The Ontario rules, in plain words. The Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide explains Forms 6, 7 and 8 and how to object, step by step through to the Appeals Tribunal.
  • Made for hard days. 123 pages and more than 1,200 fillable fields that work on your phone, tablet or computer, in plain language. When your union representative, worker adviser or lawyer asks for something, it is already there.

Both guides, $39 until 22 November. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide and the Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide, with the discount applied at checkout. Bought separately: $63.99.

Get both guides

Who can help?

The Office of the Worker Adviser, if you are not in a union. It is an independent agency of the Ontario government, and its service to non-unionized injured workers is free. Its number for English service is 1-800-435-8980. If you are in a union, start with your union representative. A community legal clinic is another free route.

If you are struggling right now, talk to your doctor, or call or text 9-8-8, Canada's suicide crisis helpline, at any time.

Read next

National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide

If your recovery were reviewed tomorrow, what would your record say?

The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide is where your recovery gets documented, day by day. Symptoms, appointments, calls and costs, written while they are fresh. It works in every province and it stands on its own.

Both guides, $39 until 22 November. Add the Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide for the dates and rules that shape your recovery in Ontario, and the discount applies at checkout. Bought separately: $63.99.

Every figure in this article comes from a named source. How we check
Last verified: October 2026.
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Everything above is free.

If you want the whole system, it comes in two parts.

Two things decide how an injury claim goes.

What you wrote down. The National Recovery Guide is the daily record: symptoms, appointments, calls, costs, and what you can no longer do. It is the part a claim is eventually judged on.
Whether you did the right thing at the right time for where you live. Your Provincial Companion Guide carries your deadlines, your forms, your boards and your appeal routes. Ontario is not British Columbia. Generic advice sends people to the wrong form, and then to the wrong date.

Buy only the National Guide and you keep a perfect record, then miss a deadline nobody told you about.

Buy only your Provincial Guide and you know every date, with nothing written down to send.

You need both. That is why they are priced as a pair.

Bought separately: $63.99. Together: $39 until 22 November.

The discount applies automatically at checkout.

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You are not the only one

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We closed comments on our articles, on purpose. A public comment box under a page about claims is a place where people give away details that can be used against them later, and we would rather not build that.

The Square is where that conversation belongs instead. Canadians hurt in an accident or on the job say what happened, read what happened to everyone else, and find out they were never the only one. Post under your name or not at all.

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