Anxiety, Depression, and Burnout Can Qualify for Amazon Leave
A state-licensed provider completes your DLS paperwork after a real evaluation — confidentially, so your manager sees dates and restrictions, not your diagnosis.
Start My IntakeDoes anxiety, depression, or burnout qualify for DLS leave?
Yes. Anxiety, depression, and burnout are common reasons workers request medical leave. FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) is the federal law behind most medical leave, and it already accounts for them.
A condition qualifies as a serious health condition if it required an overnight hospital stay. It can also qualify if you were unable to work for more than three consecutive days, saw a health care provider within the first week of that, and either kept getting treatment or had a follow-up visit within a month. A chronic condition like anxiety or depression also qualifies if it recurs over an extended period and you're treated for it at least twice a year. That treatment can come from a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a licensed clinical social worker, or your primary care provider.
"Burnout" is the word most people reach for when chronic work stress has caught up with them. A licensed provider still has to reach that conclusion through a real evaluation, not a checklist — connecting it to a specific, diagnosable condition: often anxiety, a depressive disorder, or an adjustment disorder. You don't need to arrive with the clinical term already picked out.
For the eligibility rules behind FMLA at Amazon, like the 12-month and 1,250-hour tests, see How FMLA Works at Amazon.
Will my manager see my diagnosis?
No. Your manager sees only that you have an approved leave case and any work restrictions tied to it — start and end dates, reduced hours, a schedule change. Not your diagnosis, not your clinician's notes.
DLS reviews the certification itself, since that's the paperwork your case runs on. But federal rules don't require that certification to name a diagnosis — only to support your need for leave. A licensed provider can document what DLS needs without writing your diagnosis on the form.
Can short-term disability pay me during mental health leave?
It can, alongside your leave rather than instead of it. FMLA protects your job. Amazon's DLS leave process runs alongside it, and on their own, neither one replaces your pay. Short-term disability is a separate benefit that can replace part of your wages for that same period, if you're enrolled and your claim is approved.
Amazon's short-term disability benefit generally pays 60% of your regular pay, at no cost to you, after a 7-day waiting period, for up to 26 weeks — if you're classified as working 30 or more hours a week. Check your Amazon benefits information, or ask HR, to confirm what applies to you and your location. Filing the DLS leave paperwork and a short-term disability claim, if you have that coverage, is what lets the two run together.
Secure online intake. Your information is reviewed by Certicare and is not sent to Amazon without your authorization.
$49 covers your full DLS case: clinical review, the supported forms it needs, and any DLS verification, clarification, or corrections — no additional charges. If your form hasn't been delivered yet, you can request a full refund.
Certicare is not affiliated with Amazon. Amazon makes the final decision on leave and accommodation requests. This page is general information about the leave process, not legal advice.
Is mental health leave a "work injury" on the DLS form?
It doesn't have to be, and there's nothing to prove either way. Whether a condition came from a work injury decides workers' comp, which Sedgwick handles separately from DLS medical leave. Qualifying for leave through DLS or FMLA comes down to one thing: do you have a serious health condition a licensed provider can document.
Anxiety, depression, and burnout don't have to trace back to one incident at work to qualify. A demanding schedule, chronic stress, or a condition unrelated to work can all lead to the same kind of leave request. Your certification documents what's true about your health now, not where it came from.
What does a mental health certification need to say?
A licensed provider's certification needs to describe your condition in functional terms: when it started, how it affects your ability to work, and the treatment plan. Federal rules don't require a diagnosis to be written on the form. What matters is whether the certification supports your need for leave.
In practice, that means dates of incapacity or appointments, any work restrictions, and how often treatment is expected to continue. A generic note or a plain visit summary often comes back marked insufficient — not because it's wrong, but because it's missing one of those specifics.
A state-licensed provider completes whichever form DLS sent you, the Health Care Provider Form or Leave as an Accommodation paperwork, directly and field by field. That's usually the clearest way to include everything DLS asked for.
What if I need help right now?
If this feels bigger than paperwork right now, that comes first. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential, and available 24 hours a day. Call or text 988 to talk with someone right away.
For Spanish: press 2 after calling 988, or text "Ayuda" to 988. For any other language, call 988 and ask for an interpreter; it typically connects in about 20 seconds. Certicare will still be here for the paperwork when you're ready.
Founded by someone who's been there
Rebecca Martel, APRN, FNP-BC, is a family nurse practitioner who has completed hundreds of these forms. As a neurodivergent person who lost jobs to cyclical burnout early in her career, she knows what's at stake when paperwork stalls.