Before my more severe mental health problems hit, I had the intention of helping people. Not at a global scale, but on the individual and community level. I was in grad school to be a social worker, and it really gave me a sense of purpose. My cognitive and memory issues will make it difficult to pursue this path again. I want to believe I can do it, but training for work shows me that I retain very little of what I learn and that it will be extremely challenging for me to perform at an academic level. I am incredibly intelligent, intellectual, but my mind doesn't work like it did prior to my first episode at the end of 2010. After getting my masters, I intended to get a Ph. D to contribute to the knowledge base and perhaps teach at the college level. I really feel like I've lost so much, but hopefully it can be regained and my life plans can become a possibility.

Small victories. I guess getting a job. Though its well below my educational level. Its a job I enjoy though.

Where does memory issues and identity issues fall in the spectrum of mental health issues? There don't seem to be specific disorders for that, except for Dissociative Amnesia.