There's a huge prejudice against the unemployed. I lost my last job, due to a combination of extreme bullying from my previous employer, and how my illness caused me to respond to it. My family's attitude (well, particularly my father's) changed dramatically when I was unemployed.

I also noticed a tendency for everyone to ask "what do you do?" and if you said, "I've recently become redundant," they'd ask what were you looking for... as time went on the attitude of disapproval became stronger. I wasn't well enough to work, and I was too ashamed to tell them the truth, so I pulled myself in like a snail.

As I've been recovering I've started doing voluntary work in the community which is very fulfilling. My immediate family (not my brother though) told me that I should be working for pay. I know that I couldn't cope with that stress just yet. But they wouldn't hear it.

And now when people ask me what I'm doing, I tell them, and let them assume it's paid work, because I've seen the attitude of those in work to those who volunteer. It's painful, it's horrible, but the prejudice is real.