[sugahorse1]

I’m sure some of you will have been in this position:

March 2009 I admitted to hospital for a Major Depressive Episode; the first time I had ever seen a psychiatrist or really tried to tackle what I considered to be depression and been living with for 7 years prior.

In July 2009 I decided I wanted a new job (Personal issues at my old job) and duly started.

I recently (End March 2010) decided to go see a new psychiatrist after being prompted by a number of friends were Bipolar and recognized their own symptoms in me. I also was just not happy with myself and my moods and felt I needed new meds.
Well, this psychiatrist believes I may well be Bipolar and has therefore put me on mood stabilizers, anti depressants and anti-anxiety meds.
I do often battle at work – I tend to get bored easily and start lots of small projects, which I rarely tend to finish. (Not good in my job) I am glad to take on new projects as I know they will capture my concentration for a few minutes, but quickly land up bogged under way toooooooooooo much work.

I recently went through a really depressive episode, where I COULD NOT work and sat behind my desk in tears. I just could not control myself anymore. Now I sit at my desk; luckily in a corner of the office with minimal people snooping around, with my iPod in my ears and go into my own world to while away the hours I’m at workd.

Anyway – the crux of my question – should I have mentioned my depression in my interview? (At the time it wasn’t a big issue in my life and I was coping). Now that I have been here 9 months, and possibly as I’ve just been diagnosed with Bipolar, should I let someone in management know? A few of my colleagues do know.
I unfortunately do not have a line manager, as ours was moved, and report to quite a senior manager. Or do I go to the HR manager? (I work for a big company with thousands of employees around the country – the equivalent of Walmart)
Will it jeopardize my job? Will I be given a bit more space? What else can I expect?

I know in an ideal world psychiatric illness is accepted; but what have your experiences been? Should I rather cope through, get my meds altered until I find one that is 100% and be lucky to have a job?

[Amazonmom]

I have chosen not to disclose my bipolar to my employer. I would get almost no benefit and the risk to my professional status is too great. I do have friends at work that know but that's because they are good friends.

You never HAVE to disclose. If you choose to disclose so you can get a leave of absence to pursue treatment, that would be a benefit to you.

If it was me and I decided to pursue changes at my job to help me with bipolar I would first discuss this with a therapist or pdoc. Come up with potential accommodations then approach the employer.

I slowly chose to disclose, but I was careful who I disclosed to. My co-workers (people in my department) we the first to know because they missed me the most. They were fine with it. I chose to go to the assistant principal in charge of my department when I knew I would be having to leave early on a fairly regular basis to attend therapy appointments (during my conference, but early nonetheless). He was also fine with it. I didn't disclose to the district as a whole because it really isn't of their concern. The only time I disclosed to the district was to get sick leave days from the the sick leave bank after a hospitalization. That was just a form with a diagnosis on it. I didn't have to talk to anyone. When I have been in the hospital, a letter saying I was receiving medical care at such and such hospital from this date to that date was all that was needed. HIPAA is there to keep our medical records private.

[gravyyy]

I have let all of my employers know in the past but only when I felt like it was affecting my performance. I was hospitalized 2 years ago and so I obviously had to disclose since I was going to miss an extensive amount of time. This new job I just got I never said anything until last week. My symptoms were out of control last week and I was frustrated with my paper work and so I told my supervisor about the diagnosis and the fact that I was struggling but that I wasn't jeopardizing my patients and I just wanted her to know in case things got worse. It's not something you're obligated to talk about in your interview. You should bring it up if and when you feel like your job performance is being affected. For me I was able to see patients but focusing long enough to complete the paperwork was difficult. She was very willing to work with me and all that so it worked out for me. I figure if an employer can't be supportive when I'm not even asking for time off and I do my job well every day then it's probably not someone I want to work for anyway. Just my thoughts on this!!

[Moreta]

IMO, you don't need to tell them at the interview unless you know that the BP will directly effect your ability to perform your job and that you will need special considerations as outlined in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Back in Aug, I forgot how to cope with life and ended up in the hospital for a week. Since I had no time off I had to file for FMLA. Before that I had told some of the people I work with including my boss and H R, but not really the extent to how much it affected my life. After the week in the hospital I went back to work for a week and then freaked out again, and then went out on disability for 7 weeks while I attended an out-patient program. When I went back to work after that I told my boss what had exactly happened, what I needed to change and how I could more effectively do my job.

Since I've been back things have gotten better, even though it took people like 3 months to start talking to me again. -_- now I probably tell my boss too much, like yesterday when I told my boss "the dr changed my meds so if I start acting weird that's why and if I start to have a seizure shove the benedryl I have on my desk down my throat". (Changed anti-psychotics, and one time had a seizure)

[Yoda]

Personally I would not disclose my mental illness to an employer or potential employer but I am not certain how to explain the ten year gap when I did not work. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

[WendyAussie]

My experience was that once I had advised my employer that I had mental illness I was targetted, abused and their treatment of me escalted my illness. I did have perfromace issue in the end though, and they were stark as compared to the ultra high functioning person I had been (thus I set the standard for their expectations of me high, and it was obvious something was wrong as my performance slipped and I was emotionally very edgy).

Some employers, I am sure, are more considerate of people in this situation than others. But the sad thing was that this discimmination came from an employer that was the Department of Justice, from which all of Victoria, Australia's Anti-discrimmination laws emanate. So thus, I would be very careful about disclosing, as if they can discrimminate, anybody can. Very sad. They sacked me in the end with a euphemism called a "Targetted Separation Package, ie The Sack.

[sugahorse1]

I am worried I would be discriminated against. And i can see how it is affecting my performance. As I get bored I easily I quite eagerly take on new projects, but they are now piling up on my desk and I know I cannot realistically get through it all. And some days I arrive at work having hit such a downer i actually don't even feel like doing work.
But right now I have not been called in and am managing to sneek by :-)

[WendyAussie]

Can I make a suggestion about your work management. I'm a great believer that setting aside time for organisaing and planning work is time well spent - it will make you more productive and less stressed over time. It will get the basics done and then allow your Bipoar creativeness to be used in the best way. Unless you have something urgent that must be done, make the very next thing you do at work to go through your folders, in tray, work in progress tray (Or just the whole pile of paperwork on your desk if that's how it is right now. LOL).

Sort through from the highets priority stuff that MUST get done by a certain date, then cull, cull cull as you go through. Maybe use a three tiered system. Must get done by X date being the top tier, must get done by a farther back date the next tier and thirdly, not a key project, good to get done if you can, but not essesntial and can be turfed if necssary. And then turf everything else.

I was (until I lost my career) good at keeping a Work in Progress (WIP) File on my PC and when something new came in, put it into the table or spreadsheet, when you have done progress on something, update the WIP, and when you have completed something, update the WIP then. This helps you, but is also a good tool to show your manager if necessary.

Most people benefit from a process like this, but Beepers even more so, as our functionality ebbs and flows so much. Just a thought.

[sugahorse1]

Thanks for that Wendy - I will give it a try. I try and keep my inbox as my WIP file, moving them into the archives or even deleting once I'm done (I love the feeling of hitting the DELETE button). But I do a lot of analysing of reports and therefore work a lot in Excel, so I can definitely see the benefit of a whole WIP folder.

Thanks :-)

[Anneinside]

I suffered through without telling my employer anything unless I told a coworker how I was feeling. She went to my Dean, he went to HR and they wrote a letter to my psychiatrist. Although they couldn't access my medical records, they had information from health insurance of who I was seeing. I immediately when on a leave of absence and when I returned we set up an accommodations list (which was good) and I was required to sign a statement that I would not disclose my disability or symptoms to any faculty, staff, or students in order to return to work (bad). Requiring me to sign that statement was unacceptable and stigmatizing but I did it because I wanted to return to work. I worked half-time for one semester and then returned to full time and they broke EVERY accommodations they agreed to. I lasted about 3 weeks.

Disclosing to my bosses was not my choice but happened anyway. If you think it can help you, then disclose. Be careful who you disclose to, even friends, if you are not willing to have your employer know.