63 and been on SSDI since May, 2011. Glad I got it but I miss working. However, my illness and poor stress handling ability reached the point where I couldn't even hold onto a 5 to 10 hour a week part time job. On my good days(or maybe manic days)I tell myself that if I got divorced from my wife and relocated, I'd make myself survive...or...I'd end up totally out of my head and on a psych unit because stress plus poor sleep would push me over the edge, once again.

Working on resolving physical health issues and maybe, just maybe, my system will reboot and I'll regain some or all of the function I lost. Not counting on it but it's within the realm of possibility. My best advice is don't ruminate on what you've lost and spiral down into a depression. Take it slow, take it easy because when you become hypomanic or manic, you come to believe you're back to your old self and can conquer the world. That's when you need to watch out for the cosmic banana peel.