What jobs are NOT options when you have a BP Dx?

I have heard that bp shows up on a background check, but i don't know how that can be the case. is this true? I thought it was private, with the exception of insurance companies (life insurance policy, etc.) or security clearance for government. Please fill me in if you know. Also, what jobs does BP prevent us from getting?

I am a former teacher, looking to begin teaching again now that i have recovered, and I don't want any surprises.

You have to sign a release for anyone to see it. You can lie and say you have nothing to disclose, depending on the job, that may not be the best option. Furthermore, just because you do disclose you are bipolar does not necessarily mean anything. The work I do, I was nervous when my investigation was being conducted because of that. I could have not disclosed it, but then what would I say about my drug test?!! Using my best judgement, if I can be cleared to work where I do, I could not imagine that it would be a reason you cannot be a teacher. Did you google it?

Here are quite a few teachers on this very forum.

I'm a teacher! They can't check in to your mental health unless they need to know for security purposes. As far as I know. Teaching doesn't need top level security clearance.

ok, thanks. i want to go back to grad school to move into special ed, and then i started to worry if i pay all that money, do all that work, and get to the end of the road just to be told..."sorry...you cant teach, your BP"...that would just be awful.

Maybe I will even ask my T when I see her in a few weeks. If there is any additional information that she can share. I will post if she says anything that could be helpful to others, too.

thanks all.

It doesn't show up on a background check, unless for some reason you sign a medical release allowing them to access your medical records. Medical records are protected under three, principal, Federal statutes:

• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
• Americans with Disabilities Act

Through these acts, and state statutes, parties that disclose privileged medical information without a written release by you can face serious liability. Standard Form 86 - Questionnaire for National Security Positions, is the form you fill out for Federal government security clearance. The question asked in this form is as follows:

"In the last seven (7) years, have you consulted with a health care professional regarding an emotional or mental health condition or were you hospitalized for such a condition? Answer 'No' if the counseling was for any of the following reasons and was not court-ordered:
- strictly marital, family, grief not related to violence by you; or
- strictly related to adjustments from service in a military combat environment
Please respond to this question with the following additional instruction: Victims of sexual assault who have consulted with the health care professional regarding an emotional or mental health condition during this period strictly in relation to the sexual assault are instructed to answer No."

If you answer yes, you must provide your relevant medical information. Having a mental health disorder does not in and of itself bar someone from holding a security clearance. I had clearance at my last job.

Additionally, in many states, background checks for firearms require you to disclose if you've received recent psychiatric treatment at an in-patient facility, and will check the databases for State run institutions. Hospitalizations at private facilities I don't believe are reported.

One job I know of where you can't be on mind altering medications is an air traffic controller. While you can have a diagnosed disorder and choose to not be medicated, the flight surgeon will sideline you the second they find out you're on any type of mind altering compounds.

Another job you don't want is maintenance driven IT work, as this is typically required to be performed after normal business hours. For many, emotional dysregulation is a result of disruption to circadian rhythm, and so work should be limited to fall within daylight hours.

Companies generally go out of there way to avoid knowing your medical status, as once they know you have a disability they're required to comply with a very complex set of laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. They don't have to follow these laws if they don't know you have a disability. Human resources instructs managers to not ask about this stuff because it opens them up to additional liability.

You could sue them under the Americans with Disabilities Act if they did something like that. You can't be barred from anything solely because you have a medical illness. Also you're not bipolar; you have a medical condition called bipolar disorder. Never let yourself or others use your medical diagnosis as a way to describe you. It's pejorative.

nbritton...the information you listed is EXACTLY what i needed. thanks a million. I really needed to know those details and i so appreciate you taking the time to be thorough. Many thanks.

I don't think BPers are allowed to be police officers or enlist in the military. Also, they probably don't let us become FBI or CIA agents---anything that requires security clearance.

I do know that being a licensed professional with BP can be dicey. Some states ask you if you have any physical or mental disorder that may impact your practice, while others want to know if you've been treated for any such disorder within the past 5 years.

Unfortunately, they use this information against you and often push you into monitoring programs that are designed for alcohol/drug addicts! These include observed urine drug screens at random intervals, mandatory daily call-ins (even on Sundays and holidays), and "help" that costs thousands of dollars and is not covered by insurance. IOW, it's punishment for having a mental health diagnosis.

I have not self-reported my bipolar to my state licensing board for that very reason. I will give up my license before submitting to that program. I didn't ask for this, I take my meds like I'm supposed to, and I call in sick whenever I'm too ill to practice safely. YMMV.

I knew a bipolar prison guard and a cop, so I don't think it matters as long as you're properly medicated.

Truck Driver. Airline Pilot. Practically every commercial transportation job. (I lost my trucking career to mental illness)

I do know for a fact. the FMCSA & DOT do drug tests for psych drugs, not just benzos. I got nailed because I was taking seroquel.

Middle path
I would say healthcare is a bad one. There is a great deal of stigma in the medical community. I used to work in healthcare and I was investigated by my liscence board after my supervisor found out I was bipolar. I tried to hide it. I got an atorney and prevailed. Later I was off over a year and was terminated due the length of time I was gone. I cannot find another job due to my reputation of being late and taking a lot of sick leave. In healthcare they can discriminate against us because of a mental diagnosis if they feel we can are going to make a mistake and harm the public. I would highly discourage anyone considering nursing or pharmacy who has a diagnosis. I would never have gone into it had I known. I also met someone who was a PA that had some problems because of discrimination of being bipolar.

thanks to all who responded. it is such a bummer to be limited, but I would rather know ahead of time if I will run into trouble. I am medicated, I am compliant, I am self aware. I really just want to teach again and didn't want to get a door slammed in my face after paying for grad school. Thanks to the responses in this thread, I feel i have my answer and am moving forward with grad school.

I agree with you whole-heartedly. I'd never have gone into nursing had I known I was bipolar at the time I was in school. I've spent sixteen years fighting to hang onto jobs AND my sanity, and done a piss-poor job of both.....although I actually am a good nurse, I'm not a good employee. I lost my executive level nursing director position earlier this year after a major meltdown---I had to take almost a month's medical leave of absence during a particularly critical time, and promptly lost it again within a few hours of stepping back through the door.

So I'm doing a LOT of education on mental illness at Allnurses.com, where I am a site guide and which is the world's largest online nursing community. It's made a difference, because I'm not seeing the amount of discrimination and prejudice there that I used to see even a couple of years ago. There are several of us now who are very vocal about raising awareness of mental health issues among healthcare professionals. it didn't save my job, but nothing could have rescued that.

"Mental illness" shows up on a background check only if you have been involuntarily committed.

Small companies are not held to ADA, I can't remember the number of employees required to be accountable to ADA but it is on their website.

Isn't it? That was the only thing I could think about when the word was brought up in therapy. I felt bad for having thought it later. I still don't even know what I want to do with my life. I might switch majors. Who knows. I fear one of my options may not be a possibility now, but reading through this thread does help.

Pretty much one of the things I was considering. The former, not the latter. Seeing that someone with bp was a cop is somewhat relieving, though. Although, I'm not sure I'd want to go for that one. I would, also, think that location plays a part. I knew someone whose brother was a cop and that's pretty much what she told me. That they're stricter in some areas than others about who they accept.

BP nurse I thank you for posting. The things that you say really resonate with me. I have gone through all this school and working as a professional. Now I am doing nothing because I am not trained for anything else. I need to find my way. I would like to go back to school and get in a field where "public safety" is not a legal way to discriminate against medicated people with a diagnosis of some kind.

I am actually looking to leave nursing. Something broke inside of me when I lost that job six months ago, and I don't think it's fixable. I get anxious even thinking about having that kind of responsibility again, and a few months ago I took myself off the floor because I can't handle the overstimulation of call lights, ringing phones, families asking questions, getting pulled in different directions etc. Not to mention being unable to focus and getting scared to death of harming someone because I've forgotten something or I miss a critical assessment.

I will be 55 in less than two months so I'll be eligible for a special program through Vocational Rehab that retrains older workers. For what, I don't really know, because nursing and writing are all I know how to do and I'll never make the kind of money I do in this field.

But there's so little in nursing that I can do anymore; recently I interviewed for a state inspector type position, and almost got it. Trouble is, I can't work long, irregular hours and travel all over the state on a moment's notice......I was hypomanic when I interviewed, and for the space of a few days I thought I could make it work. But my mania writes checks my body can't cash, and then the truth comes out during the inevitable crash that follows.

I am in law enforcement. Never came up. Told them the drugs I was on and passed the drug test. A lot of people in law enforcement have PTSD and they are open about it. They keep there jobs. It's good to only tell them what they ask for is what I think.

Good to know. Thank you.

This worries me quite a bit because I'm currently working towards my bachelors in nursing. I am finishing my bachelors in biology first, and it's been a slow and painful process.

I was diagnosed 3 years ago and spent two years in and out of the hospital. I've been pretty good recently but only JUST got back into school. I am having lots of issues, and I am scared that I am fooling myself by choosing to go into nursing. I could do other things with a biology degree, but my dream has been nursing. (I have 3 semesters left)

I do have a 'record' since i was 'involuntarily' admitted on two occasions... and when I applied to be a medical aid in the military, I was denied. I was reading through these posts and suddenly I feel very scared. Am I fooling myself? Can I actually be a good nurse?

This really resonated with me. I understand it, because I do work and I am good at my job, but I do have handicaps that prevent me from succeeding like I want. "being a good employee."

Once I finish my bio degree, should I change course from nursing to something else? or try it? or?

I wonder if I am being impractical by choosing nursing... if I am just causing myself more heartache for the future....

I'll give you some straight talk.

Nursing is horrendously stressful. We have enormous responsibility and very little authority. We are subjected to all manner of stressors, from violent patients to families that think they're entitled to monopolize our time to nasty doctors to petty dictator-administrators to other nurses who "eat their young". In fact, had I known the stress was as bad as it is---and that I was bipolar---at the time I probably wouldn't have become a nurse, even as badly as I wanted it.

That said......many nurses have had satisfying careers despite/because of having a mental illness. Mine was quite successful, in fact, and I moved upward in the world pretty fast. I can't do it anymore because the stress overwhelms me and I don't have the focus or the ability to handle multiple demands at one time. But nurses with "issues" can be very good at our jobs because we tend to be more empathetic and less judgmental of patients, and since we have to work harder to accomplish the same things as non-mentally ill nurses, we are often more persistent in our patient advocacy.

Bottom line: If you are stable, you can be a nurse. I just want you to go into it with your eyes open and having an idea of how tough it can be.

I have to disagree with a few posts. I have had many jobs in my life while being treated for BiPolar.

I held and drove professionally with a CDL, including school buses and limos.

I held high security clearance in a Nuclear plant on a temp job. Yes the hospitalizations came up and I was psych tested. I even had to do a web can interview with their psychiatrist. I passed.

I've worked for the USPS.

I've worked in customer service on many levels.

I now work in health care. Yes, very stress full. I adjust meds as needed with my psychiatrist. I can see more symptoms, but manage well.

Many professionals live with BP and other mental illness diagnosis quit well.

I was fired for testing positive to a DOT required drug test because of a fender bender. Also taking most psych drugs are grounds for a failed medical. There is a ton of new regulation in the trucking industry. I have never driven a bus so not sure.

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