I must agree. I took three months off my job in the fall and I inly survived it because I was going to a PHP during the day. Without that to do I feel I would have been worse.

This fall was the second time I've taken extended time off a job since I was 17 and got my first job. I've been steadily employed in various places for ten years. I think I took a year between jobs when I started college but I know I started working In the summer again after that. Having a job makes me feel better about myself.

I am also high functioning though. I am very good at pretending nothing is wrong. It was ingrained in me from a very young age. Even when I was a paranoid mess thinking something outside of me was trying to get me to kill myself I managed to go to work and keep a happy face on, at least while people were around (I took many "bathroom breaks" where I would go and sit in a stall for five or ten minutes to be alone).