Does anyone else besides me not work ?

I’m a lawyer but can’t work. Disabled since 2004. Flushed $100k in loans (I paid every cent and then became disabled.) and law school was brutal. Graduated top 10% and had a great job. I don’t.

I’m so whiny I’m disgusted with myself.

Anyone who is a SAHM...that IS work. I worked with this caseworker who used to work for the CIA...tough gal. We joked we came to work to “rest” from the kids.

I hope Barney the dinosaur is history...ugh lol

I stopped working in 2012, after 22 years military service and six years civil service. There's no way I can go back to my old job, and I don't really have any other specialized training or school to do anything else. I also have chronic low back pain so even if I was mentally stable I may not be physically stable anyway.

I have disability, which pays the bills and has kept a roof over our heads. Still, it's short sometimes.

I would like to work but now it's more important to stay sane than to be employed.

Don’t think of yourself as a failure. If you had cancer and couldn’t work nobody would call you a failure. This is no different. It’s an illness. Nobody would choose to feel the way that this illness can make you feel. I try to remind myself of that when I feel like a failure in some way because of my bipolar.

Reading this thread offers a lot of comfort. I had a successful career up until my first manic episode in my mid 40s and was able to support my son after his dad died when he was still a small child [from cancer]. After my mental breakdown I was on short term disability but was eventually forced out onto LTD after several years of trying to get back to work. It was a bad work situation. They treated me terribly so in many ways I'm glad I got out.

I'm grateful to have disability coverage. It was a huge blow at first to stop working but now I have accepted it and actually enjoy the freedom although I often feel and am isolated. Now I've also been had surgery and chemo for cancer and have got numerous other health problems (and now legal problems too...) but the negativity of my thoughts is the worst.

I don't think most people can appreciate how tough it is to have to cope with bipolar and the negative thoughts and anxiety.

Couldn't do the type of demanding work I had before. Don't even leave the house most days. But am l'm alive. Surviving is sometimes all that i can do.

I'm 32 years old and haven't worked in 6 years due to my bipolar. Every job I go for says I was great at interview and not really got an issue with the bipolar. But when challenged about working night shifts I couldn't do cause I took a sedative. It wouldn't be fair on the work to say I could manage if I couldn't.

I volunteer though and that's tough at times as I struggle to leave my bed or sleep or get motivated. Some days I can manage really well other days I just can't

I don’t work and haven’t for a long time. 8 years I think. I’ve always thought I would go back and things would smooth out but that’s not the case. I want to work but fear I’m not allowed. In group they said that if you ever went out on stress leave it was noted for all future employers to see and I fear that even should I get better, I won’t be allowed to work. I’m so afraid of this but seeing how sick I am working feels unrealistic. Working was killing me and being unemployed is just as bad. I don’t know if I will be allowed to work again and it feels very hopeless.

In high school I was in the top of my class but my bipolar always got in the way at some point or another. School was the only thing I was really good at and the only thing that I had to be proud of because in every other way the disorder wreaked havoc. In college I really struggled being so far from home. I did relatively well in school but I was absolutely miserable much of my time there. I moved home for a boy and I got my associates at a community college, I took off 3 years and got married. I am just now generally stable and going back to school once again. I am determined to get my bachelor and not let this disorder win. I was never good at any job I had and was very close to being fired multiple times but I usually quit before that, beating them to the punch and not getting a employment record of being fired. I have managed to stay at my current job for a year and 6 months which is really something I'm proud of. I still don't do as well as all of my peers but staying in the job this long has allowed me time to improve so when I have symptoms the effects aren't as bad on performance because I can go in "autopilot" and do well enough to pass as acceptable. I really am trying to get to a point where i'm seen as doing well and that is my aim now that I am more stable. My career has always suffered but I'm hoping that although I will be late to graduate and I have to see all my peers with successful degrees and professions before me, I can still make something of myself. I have a year and a half left of school. Wish me luck, and I wish you the best as well. Medication makes all of the difference for me, the right medication. Don't be afraid to at least try a drug if you have break through symptoms. I was totally against antipsychotics until I had an episode that had features of psychosis. It really has helped a great deal as a maintenance medication as well and I have been better off since. Don't lose hope, do be kind to yourself. Anything is possible, don't let the bipolar win. Just keep in mind the limitations are only obstacles not a prison sentence.