Who is holding down a full time job?

I would like to know who is able to hold down a full time job? What are your coping strategies? How successful are you at holding down your job? Have you done this with or without meds?

I don't know. I have had a fulltime job for 17 years. I cant imagine not working. I have to get up and work to survive in this crazy world. Most of these years were even unmedicated.

I cope by exercising regularly, having a partner, sleeping normal patterns, living on a routine schedule. Working through depression, or moodiness.

I have never had really depilitating depression though, I tend towards the manic side of things.

I would love to hold down any kind of job. Because of my illness it's very difficult to work, especially in my field

I hope to get back to work at some point. Not working doesn't help my self-worth much.

My therapist asked me a couple of months ago could I go back to what I was doing, and I just froze solid it scared me so bad. Some of my mouth with verbal ranting about the economy and politics, I am grateful I never got arrested.

However, I was on a tight schedule as far as sleep patterns, eating patterns, and light exercise helped some.
I was having severe migraines and eating Goody powders like candy to try to prevent them.

I want to go back to work and will have to if I haven't wasted time trying to get placed on ssdi to hopefully get a handle on this. I know if I have go back to work, I will go back to the same person I don't won't to be again.

Get this. I got fairly depressed/mixed once at last job and my coworkers in my mind were out to get me, I took a sharpie and drew a hand shooting a bird and wrote fuc$ you backwards on my arm like a tatoo.

I work full time, and i feel more stable when i'm working because it gives me structure and forces me to keep my sleep patterns consistent.

I was off work and out of school due to severe illness for a year when i was around 20, and for 6 months at age 34. I'm 37 now. Other than those 2 periods i have always worked or been in school at least part time, and usually full time. It's good for my self esteem.

I have worked at times against medical advice, and i turned down disability assistance because i chose to work. Even when i am not well i can usually cover and do ok at work, but o would take time off again if things got bad enough.

Everyone is different, and i am lucky to be very high functioning, even when symptomatic. Sometimes i feel like giving up, but quitting doesn't seem like a realistic option.

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I just completed 6 mos of clinicals, which were more than a full time job (60 -70 hour weeks) and am about to start a full time job. I have had to do it with meds as I was not functioning before them but the dosages are constantly needing adjustment over time as I have mixed states. So keeping in constant contact with pdoc.

For coping mechanisms at work: meditation, DBT skills, using my breaks to get away and go outside for walks or to listen to music. Then for outside of work to relieve stress: regular sleep, regular meals, and exercise as mentioned above; support network of friends, T and pdoc; pets (dogs and fish); and other hobbies for distraction.

I am praying the habits that have developed will sustain me as I start this new position. The last 6 mos have gone well but I have not worked in 14 years, so we will see.

You're very strong and I have great respect for that. I wish I could be more like you but I'm just not feeling safe enough at this point. I wouldn't want to put my patients, licence or myself in jeopardy.

I work full-time, and don't have many difficulties whether I'm medicated or not. Like Curiosity, I'm very high functioning. It "helps" that I grew up in an emotionally void family where it was ran like a business - I wasn't really able/allowed to demonstrate my emotions, and I learned to hide them very well.

Most of my symptoms aren't visible - I'm more the racing-thoughts-babbling-alot-going out lots-over-achieving kind of hypomanic, and my depressions? Well, they're awful but I can drag my butt out of bed and do the minimum required. My productivity and quality of my teaching goes down, and I might end up with more sick days being taken, but overall I can get through it.

It's a high-stress job, but teaching at least gives me some control over what I do day to day... so if I just need to give them more silent reading for a bit to relax myself, I do. Or if I want to play same games instead of something else, then we will.

II am more lucky t/han strong, because most of the time I can hold it together. I have to be in really bad condition before it shows. When I went to hospital my GAF was 25 on admission, and I had been working up to 3 days prior to that. When I was a teenager I had an episode of psychosis that lasted over a month, and I kept going to school and getting decent grades. One teacher pulled me aside and asked if I was OK, but no one else, including my parents, noticed. In grad school I was in a severe mixed episode, but I kept going to class and clinicals, and getting good grades. My advisor was a psych NP, and he recommended that I take some time off, but I didn't listen. I made it to graduation, but then went right off the rails and ended up hospitalized for 3 weeks, then 5 weeks, and then had my license suspended 6 months.
So being high functioning isn't always good because I've had to get very unwell before getting psychiatric care in the past, and that has lead to prolonged and worsening episode. Maybe it would be better if I stopped working/school sooner, but I'm very stubborn.

I'm similar to curiosity. I've either been a full time student or held a full time job since I was twenty.

I started my first year of teaching in September of 2012 and I think the stress might have flipped my symptoms into high gear. Prior to that I had had symptoms but been able to manage without treatment. But I also work in a high stress environment - I have emotionally disturbed kids who are very aggressive and are constantly acting out by cursing, yelling, throwing chairs, fighting, threatening, etc.

But a lot like other posters, I was raised to always wear a mask. Pretend everything is ok even when you're about to lose your ****. So I'm an expert actress. Even at the rockiest bottom of depression, I drag my *** out of bed. I might spend a lot of ime in the bathroom trying not to cry, but I get there. If I'm manic and irritable I might have to walk away from a student before I punch them in the face but I usually manage.

In April I was depressed and also a raving paranoid mess but I still made it to work and no one saw any difference. I just...turn it on for the camera, so to speak.

I actually find I am much worse when I don't have the structure of a job to go to. I mean sometimes I have to take off, like when I'm hospitalized, or recently when my personal life completely crumbled around me. And I do have days when I wake up and say there's just no way I can handle being cursed out today. So I call out.

As for coping skills I just try to breathe in between classes and take frequent breaks if I need them. I also try to make lists if I'm manic so I can focus on doing all the teaching paperwork.

I also work because I have to financially, especially now. If there was ever a time I would have taken off work it would have been now, fresh off the heels of my first non med induced psychotic episode. But I can't, and my doctor likes to tell me I'm just refusing to help myself because I won't take time off.

I just completed my 29th year of teaching (28 in the same school district). My career has kept me as stable as I am. I would not be in as good shape if it wasn't for these kids and friends who keep me motivated. I do well on or off meds as far as teaching goes. Over the years I've missed a week maybe every other year-ish while I was in the hospital getting stabilized, but I have always been able to get right back to work upon return.

What do you tell your admin when you are hospitalized? I'm a little worse off as I've been in three times in the past two years so I'm running out of things to say...I've been saying I'm having bad medication reactions. I know they can't legally ask but still.

I tell them the truth. I've always been honest with my administrators and they have been entirely supportive of me. In fact, my principal has told me I don't need to give them notice. In her words, "We're all college educated teachers who can figure out how to keep your classroom running." They want their teachers to always take care of themselves and their families as the first priority. They don't just have this philosophy with me. I've seen that kind of support and help displayed repeatedly for many fellow teachers under a wide variety of circumstances.

Wild is right
Get up in the morning
Put on your game face
Put on your mask
Pretend

You're so lucky. I'm too afraid to be honest. I was honest with my summer job and got dumped. Not fired but I did not get asked back after six years of great work for them and the owner also telling me "we are family and I will get you back in as soon as you are able". Right.

Yes, I know I am fortunate. Having been with this district for so long and 14 years in my current school, I know the environment and people well enough that I feel safe about letting them know what is going on. I've seen them repeatedly work with teachers in situations that involved missing MUCH more than just a week of work, so I really never worried about it. It isn't something I advertise to the whole school, but my supervisors and teachers I work most closely with are completely aware of what is going on and everyone, completely without exception, has been hugely supportive and helpful along the way.

I am trying to be humorous, as I know whenever I feel like this I will crash soon and crash hard. Right now my full time job is surviving from myself and posting on this forum with my friends.

I'm doing it, but it can be difficult because when I'm manic I tend to miss work because I'm afraid I might hurt someone.

Fresia, those tend to work for me as well. The main thing was getting on a medication that actually worked. Last year I wasn't functioning at all. Not sleeping, eating, bathing, anything that would make you feel good. And then when I was manic I was all over the place! Now, I'm holding down a full time job. My dog helps a lot. Prayer, regular schedule (although with it being summer break I'm having a hard time with that), regular sleep patterns. Things like that. Exercise as you said helps too.

Everybody is different, but for me, I struggle to function without a full-time, & even challenging job. It keeps my mind in order, and most importantly, it gives me a routine. Getting out of bed, getting dressed, on the train, beginning work etc. I was without a job for 6 months last year, and that's when I was actually diagnosed with Bipolar2. Without the routine, I really fell to pieces and spent day after day lying on the carpet in tears or just feeling completely out of control in general. At work, I have numerous coping strategies, depending on my mood. I often go to a toilet cubicle for privacy, and just sit in the little room and do deep breathing for 5 minutes or so and try to get myself together. Or I go outside and walk around the building for 15 minutes and breathe and try to focus - even if it's freezing. If I feel manic, I will go and find a seat outside and breath and count numbers in my head, or something really banal like that, to calm myself. The thing is, when I'm at home, I don't bother with these coping mechanisms, I tend to jump into the mania or fall into the depression. But at work, I have to be accountable for my actions so I'm 'forced' to cope. Because it's a busy and stressful job, it makes me very tired, so it leaves me much less subseptible to mania. In fact, before I started in a busy job, 12 or so years ago, I was quite the mess. I know this won't work for everybody. I am probably fortunate in that I can 'force' myself to cope, albeit temporarily!