[HALLIEBETH87]

Because of my health I quit my
Job. I don’t regret it. It was too
Much even though I loved doing peer support.

I already got an easier grocery store gig. Less money but less responsibilities. I already worked last night.

[Victoria'smom]

I'm glad you were able to find something. Hopefully this works better for you.

[tecomsin]

Congratulations, I am really glad to hear that.

[HALLIEBETH87]

My sister *****ed at me
For not keeping my granny’s house clean before I was in hospital. She doesn’t understand me and I hate it. I hate having sza

[fern46]

Originally Posted by HALLIEBETH87

My sister *****ed at me
For not keeping my granny’s house clean before I was in hospital. She doesn’t understand me and I hate it. I hate having sza

I think it is truly very difficult to understand us unless you've experienced what we go through for yourself. My mother suffered 2 major psychotic episodes about 20 years ago. I really tried to understand her. I resesrched all that I could and I tried my best to put myself in her shoes. She pushed me away and did several things I just couldn't accept or understand. I later suffered my own psychotic break. I get it now. I had no idea what she was really going through until I lived it for myself.

[HALLIEBETH87]

That’s true. I think my family thinks I just get sad and check myself into the hospital.

[SorryShaped]

Originally Posted by HALLIEBETH87

That’s true. I think my family thinks I just get sad and check myself into the hospital.

Mine says that to me. They don't seem to be able to understand. My parents say it, anyway.
Kudos to you for taking care of you, and getting back out into the workforce so quickly. I'm envious of that ability. Yet, I'm resigned to accept that I'm useless as far as that goes.

[HALLIEBETH87]

I only work very part time tk afford extra bills and groceries. I’m not stable enough to work much more or a
Hard job

[tecomsin]

I think it is great you are able to stay employed, with everything you have been going through.

[HALLIEBETH87]

It’s because I had an amazing boss who worked with me. I worked for a community mental health agency as a peer support specialist for over a year.

[Travelinglady]

I'm glad you can work.

[BipolaRNurse]

I'm sure sorry about the peer specialist job. I know how proud you were of that and I'll bet you were great at it. But I'm glad you were wise enough to know it was too much and to take care of yourself by getting a job that's less intense. I certainly couldn't do it...I was in training to be a crisis counselor for the Crisis Text Line and got triggered by a role-play in which I had a suicidal texter, and I quit right there. I was stable, but it wasn't enough to override my basic instinct for self-preservation.

Anyway, it's good to see you hanging in there and keeping your head high. Be proud. Live well.

[sophiebunny]

I've been on both sides of the work fence. I was so ill I was committed to a psych hospital for an entire year. Obviously I was unable to work. Not long after I was discharged, I was referred to my current psychiatrist. He's predominantly an in-patient psychiatrist with a small private practice. It was a gift from G-d he had out patient room for me. Once I was discharged from long-term confinement, he let me know he believed in my ability to one day resume my career. It was a long road of many more long inpatient admissions, psychotic episodes, mania, depressions, and trauma reactions but we got there. I'm a cancer researcher by education and profession. I returned to research 10 years after my year-long admission. It was a victory of enormous proportions. All because one MD believed and expected that that day would come.

At first I was terrified, but I learned quickly that work was an amazing drug. It gave me intellectual stimulation, it provided me with purpose, it upped my social skills, it forced me into a normal routine, I spent time again on an equal footing with people who were not mentally ill, and it gave me the dignity to support myself. I obtained an FMLA because I went through a vicious manic-psychotic rapid cycling phase. I had hospital admissions that lasted as long as eight weeks followed by other less lengthy admissions. The FMLA saved me. I kept my job. I was good at it. Even through a brutal relapse I held firm to my employment. It was worth the struggle.

I'm retired now. I write and talk about all the complexities of navigating life with a severe mental illness. It was a good transition. I've learned a lot and been through a lot in 30 years of complex treatment.