Working and Bipolar

Hi everyone!

I have Bipolar II and for a few years I have been really struggling with keeping jobs. The longest job I have ever held down was for 4 months. Pretty much each and every time I get a job I feel like "yes! I can do this!" and then a month or so later I will quit or get fired because my attendance sucks. After that I usually fall into a depression for a few months. I will take a couple months to pull myself together and then get another job. And repeat. A lot.

I have looked on the internet and found that a lot of other people with Bipolar have this problem too. I have now started mood stabilizers and am questioning if I can have successful jobs or if it will still be a struggle?

Have any of you experienced this? Have you gotten through it and have a good job/career? Any advice or tips?

Thanks!

Hey sweety, I'm self employed for the simple fact that I can't hold a regular job, and this isn't going to well, but that's because my meds weren't right. When I got medicated again, I was able to go do life, do a job and like it! Good luck sweety!

I have struggled with work all my life, long before anyone knew what was wrong with me. I'm no longer working g and have filed for disability. I'm 56 and nobody wants older workers any more, especially ones with spotty job histories. It sucks, but it's the way the world works.

I work full time. It is POSSIBLE. I am on a good med cocktail that seems to be working for me.

I was like that for a long time and then once I got stable i was able to hold down jobs. It wasn't easy and there were times I had to miss work or I wanted to quit but I made it through.

I couldn't finish college, but I've managed a different jobs over the years, mostly office ones. However, I moved several years ago and where I live now the admin jobs are expected to do payroll or budgeting stuff and I can't. It's a huge stresser for me (or they want degrees, even bachelors for receptionists). After the stress of it led me to quit working (Again) I went back to retail. It's full time work, relatively low stress and I was able to request the day of my weekly therapy sessions off so I don't have to worry about that.

That worked for me, it won't work for everyone. A lot of it is just figuring out what works for you and sometimes that means trial and error.

Hi! Thanks for the replies I wish I could be self-employed, but that doesn't appear to be an option for me. I really want to find a job that is low(ish) stress and something I enjoy or can at least tolerate. I hope to go back to college in the near future so I can get a degree and start on a path towards a career.

I too gave bipolar II. I am able to hold down jobs on a long term basis. Not necessarily my dream job but it pays some of the bills. I currently hate my job but I try to stay focused on the fact that I need it yo support myself. Usually when I am depressed I still make myself get up and go because I know on most days this will help. I understand where you are coming from though. I want to change jobs but don't currently feel well enough to make the transition.

That's ok kay sweety. Only reason I'm self employed is because no one else can afford me other than the clients. - NO, it's not what you think!!! Lol

Depends on the person and the severity of episodes. When I was younger I was exactly like you. But as I got older I developed my own coping skills. In addition with my meds it helps me a lot. But it also depends on the job too!!! Thankfully I do not have to work with too many people at a time. That helps me a lot. I have trouble keeping friends too. I was self employed for 7 years until my business tanked. I loved it then, It's a struggle for sure.

Worked for myself for 10 years before couldn't handle the stress and had to close the doors after ending up in hospital. Now do part time work where I have no interaction with other people and little supervision. Money is less, but quality of life is definitely better for it

I've definitely handled self-employment much better. The only problem was, my business didn't pay enough of the bills to be a single mom. :-( So I dragged myself back to the monotony of accounting. Very stressful career which I ultimately couldn't cope with. I was just diagnosed BP2 at 40, though, so it will probably be a while before I find my way back to employment.

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My work history is all over the place. I started work at 13 and worked fine (despite mood disorder) until age 22 (1998) when I had my first major breakdown. I went back to work in 2003(apart from a few brief jobs in between) and lasted until December 2008 when my second major breakdown began. I finally was able to try some casual work Dec 2013 and have been working since. It helps that it is not full time but when I have a major episode, like right now! , I cannot work so have to call in sick and risk losing my job as I either lie about some horrible flu or tell them I have bipolar.Tough stuff. I am hoping to get through the next week of work but I sense this episode (mixed) is heading south fast. Working with Bipolar is extremely tough, at least for me.

I have held lots of full-time jobs since my diagnosis of BP but up until a year ago was very, very stable. I am just winding up my most severe, long-lasting depressive episode and am looking for a job but am really apprehensive about it. What makes me apprehensive is the thought of having another severe depressive episode. It would be very tough to work with severe depression.

Sorry in advance for this being such a long post. Hopefully it's not too annoying.

This is a topic that I have really have only had insight about since I started meds.

Work and school was something that I had always had some degree of difficulty with. Looking back I did seem to find a way to deal with it, though I didn't 100% understand it at the time. I would get to school everyday (my attendence was always near perfect) and do somewhat well, but when I got home...that was it. I couldn't do much else. No studying, no homework, no sports, etc. I just stayed in my room..either listening to music, watching TV or just falling apart mentally/emotionally.

This continued into my work life to some degree, though without the rigid structure of school I didn't fair as well.

My downward mood swings became such an issue. When they happened it became almost impossible for me to interact with people. Sometimes I would find places to hide. I had one job where I just got in my car and drove home and never returned. Usually I would just muddle along. I would do OK for awhile, but having to hide or not interact well would lead to issues obviously. These were all fairly basic low paying jobs.

Eventually, I woke up one day with the thought in my head "What the hell are you doing? You are much smarter than this". This lead to a period of time where I lost a lot of weight, about 90 lbs (I had been 305 and got to 215). I went back to school (there was other happenings at this time, but that's a longer story. I so often wonder if this was a period of hypo mania. It pains me to think that it was.

It took awhile, but I did graduate with a bachelors in Accounting. I did well in school, which lead to a job with the top public accounting firm in northern New England. I also passed the CPA exam within 4 months. With such an accomplishment, I felt pretty optomistic. Reality hit pretty hard once I was actually working and going to clients. The same issues I had always had were just as presesent. I needed to hide. I couldn't interact with people. This was a really tough time because I had accomplished so much.

I was let go in less than a year.

I went to another smaller firm, and did OK for awhile. After about 2 years they also let me go.

Right now, I am working at a hospital as an accountant, and I've been here a bit over 2 years.

Luckily, I finally was diagnosed and have been on meds for about the last 1.5 years. My work performance was helped a lot, though I still have periods of problem times. I still need to hide, and have difficulty interacting, but it is less severe and less frequent. Honestly, I have a lot of anxiety that I will be let go at any moment, even though I am told I am doing well here.

I am really lucky to be somewhat bright, which compenates for a lot of my issues. It's a good and a bad thing, because I know I could have accomplished much more if I hadn't been bipolar. It takes a lot of your time when you have to run and hide, and spend way too much time thinking about killing yourself.

These were all things I never realized until I successfully found help.

There is hope.

All we can do is keep marching forward. It is in the cards of a bipolar's life to have working issues amongst other things. There's no two ways about it. It's a given that that's going to happen. We take our meds and talk therapy to adjust to the ways of the normal people in our attempt to singularily struggle to survive mentally, physically, socially, financially, spiritually.... We must keep fighting regardless of what our brains tell us, we must overcome to see another day.

I've managed to keep good paying career type jobs for 20 years... but it has not been easy that's for sure!!! I've made it through by getting mad at inanimate objects at work ie computers/software, they don't talk back or tell the truth why you are mad. I bottled all this **** up inside and swallowed it for years and years... and then the SHTF and I had a full blown meltdown. My mood stabilizer seems to have been the remedy though... haven't tried to toss a computer out the window for a couple years now

I managed to keep the same job for years until i made an attempt on my life, then of course, working in the hospital they took me to, everyone knew what I had done. I left that job and took another, but since the attempt, medical issues have presented issues when it comes to medicating my illness. I've been struggling quite a bit at my current job, and its looking like I will be moving to a less stressful position as my illness is not allowing me to succeed at what I am currently doing.

I did well with retail jobs, and even with my job as a one to one aide for a girl with special needs in school. When I started full time teaching, though, my symptoms came back with a vengeance and much worse than before. I think it's the environment I work in. I work with emotionally disturbed kids, the really aggressive ones. They curse at me and refuse to follow instructions all day long. I think if I worked in a regular school I might do better. Which is a shame because I really like working with ED kids. I understand them. But I just don't think I can take it. I wish I could. I just came back from a three month medical leave and I'm already getting stressed out again.

I just found out I am and the mood stabilizers are making my brain such a scatterbrain I am afraid losing the job.

I work full time and have also struggled but luckily I am on intermittent FMLA and have had to use Medical Leave often. If I didn't have this I would have lost my job a long time ago but that is what these programs were designed for, and luckily our day in age mental illness is recognized as just that, an illness.

I work full time, and have for years. I've had to take periods of time off when i've been unwell, but mostly just working. It is actually stabilizing for me, because it gives me structure and makes me be around people. But it is a high stress job, and sometimes i wish i was doing something easier. When i was hospitalized the doctors tried to convince me to go on disability, or work part time, but i didn't listen to them. A lot of my self esteem is tied to working. And for the most part i'm fine. I've told a couple friends at work that i can talk to if i'm feeling bad, and i told my supervisor so he knows in case i need to take time off. But it's working for me. This won't work for everyone, so i'm lucky i can do it. I think i am just really stubborn, and don't like having people tell me what i can and can't do.

I'm bipolar 1 and nope, I cannot hold a job down. I've had a couple of jobs that I've loved, but I've had to quit for medical reasons. I've only been fired once though, which was sorta due to my communication issues.

It's definitely possible though. You just need the right treatment. I'll get there. You'll get there. Hopefully we all will, one day.

I totally get the apprehensiveness. I am the same. I have had so many failed jobs with severe depressive episodes after most of them, that its hard to get to a "Can do" mind set.

I wish the best of luck! I hope you are able to do it

I really admire you! I definitely feel semi-worthless because I can't support myself. I want to hold down a job and eventually have a great career that I enjoy. It's just a difficult road to go down at the moment. Thumbs up for stubbornness

Thanks so much for the reply! It makes me feel a little better that other people have problems with careers and jobs as well, and its not just me being a bum or something! I hope you have a long stay at your current position. You deserve it!