Anyone with bipolar making good money?

Yeah weird question I know. My husband and I make decent money, after a LONG time of strugglimg. His disability and slight bipolar kept him unemployed for a number of years. Now he has been working the last few years at a top company but the pay sucks. They hope to move him up at some point. As for me I am doing a dissertation that will prob take a couple more years. I have like three part time jobs that are kind of run by me...I'm in business for myself. Oh and I'm in the 6 figures of student loan debt.
I know that money issues are common among bipolars. Can anyone relate?

Nope. Working seasonal job at $9.15/hr, coming out to about 350USD/week. Can't even live on my own, and lucky enough to have family to help with finances.

I'm on the verge of not making good money soon. I have always had a full time job, working for state government agencies, but I never made a lot of money - it was just good, stable money. Since I started a job with a new agency a year ago, my bipolar started to go downhill. Ended up hospitalized in October, the applied for short term disability through my job that paid half my salary and allowed me to work part time, for the other half of my salary. Bipolar symptoms again went downhill, hospitalized at the end of April. I'm now experiencing a mixed episode and was told not to go back to work for another 1 - 3 months. Since I have drained all of my sick and vacation leave, I will only be getting my disability for the next few months, since I'm not currently working. My husband thinks we will be just fine, because he's been getting better hours at his job, but we can't survive off of just his income, unless they worked him full time hours consistently. I wanted to put my two kids in summer camp, but no money for that.

I've just about given up on being able to work full time with this job again, and working full time again at any job seems questionable. Want to go back for a masters degree in school psychology, because I know most school psychs make their own schedule and I need a job like that to have the flexibility. But I have no idea how I would handle the stress of school for two years and then spending a third year working a full time internship. I'm scared of going down the road to full time disability, and if that's the case, I'm not sure how we will support ourselves. Money is always on my mind.

Hate to admit it, but my pension is nearly $3,900 Canadian / month. (+ $3,000 US) When I was working, my salary was a little over $70,000 per year. I was a professional Forester. I've just ended a crazy spending spell, mainly because I have $3,500 in Taxes to pay on my condo and my schizophrenic son's condo in July. I spent it already. Only the second time in my life I have done this. So, belt tightening time until I'm back on level ground.

I learned in Economics at University that the more money people have, the more they spend and generally rich people have a higher debt ratio than poor people. Sad but true. I'm not typical though. I'm pretty cheap. A lot of my spending spree was stuff that had been delayed. New water heater, new bed (my son needed a bed so I gave him mine and I got a new one) new washer and dryer, new computer, new bathroom light. Part of the problem is that I didn't buy basic stuff. I bought "very good" quality stuff. But I'll have it for years. I keep everything until it is worn out or performing so poorly that I am angry with it.

I guess what I have learned is that I have to learn to live within my means, what ever that is. Making "good money" is not the answer if I am spending more than "good money". Finding ways to work it out is what is needed. Voracious_lemon living at home is part of her solution. Good for you! My parents bought me a clunker car when I was at university, but I couldn't afford to run it. When it died, it went to the wrecker and I didn't replace it. Never bought a new car until I was 58 years old. Until then, all my cars had been 5 or more years old when I got them and I drove them for at least another 5 years. The one exception was a car that was 1 year old when my wife bought it with an inheritance she received.

For years I rode a bike and I learned to fix it myself. I loved finding used bikes for under $100 that were over $1000 new and setting my friends up with them. Over the years, I've helped 12 people get into biking. I found joy in that.

So, making "big bucks" is only a benefit if you spend less than you earn. And money does not buy happiness (but it helps). Find joy in what you do and who you spend time with. That is what gives my life meaning. And I can say that as a person who has earned "big bucks" as well as having high expenses when I had to pay $1000 / month child support on top of everything else.

skilsaw wrote:Hate to admit it, but my pension is nearly $3,900 Canadian / month. (+ $3,000 US) When I was working, my salary was a little over $70,000 per year. I was a professional Forester. I've just ended a crazy spending spell, mainly because I have $3,500 in Taxes to pay on my condo and my schizophrenic son's condo in July. I spent it already. Only the second time in my life I have done this. So, belt tightening time until I'm back on level ground.

I learned in Economics at University that the more money people have, the more they spend and generally rich people have a higher debt ratio than poor people. Sad but true. I'm not typical though. I'm pretty cheap. A lot of my spending spree was stuff that had been delayed. New water heater, new bed (my son needed a bed so I gave him mine and I got a new one) new washer and dryer, new computer, new bathroom light. Part of the problem is that I didn't buy basic stuff. I bought "very good" quality stuff. But I'll have it for years. I keep everything until it is worn out or performing so poorly that I am angry with it.

I guess what I have learned is that I have to learn to live within my means, what ever that is. Making "good money" is not the answer if I am spending more than "good money". Finding ways to work it out is what is needed. Voracious_lemon living at home is part of her solution. Good for you! My parents bought me a clunker car when I was at university, but I couldn't afford to run it. When it died, it went to the wrecker and I didn't replace it. Never bought a new car until I was 58 years old. Until then, all my cars had been 5 or more years old when I got them and I drove them for at least another 5 years. The one exception was a car that was 1 year old when my wife bought it with an inheritance she received.

For years I rode a bike and I learned to fix it myself. I loved finding used bikes for under $100 that were over $1000 new and setting my friends up with them. Over the years, I've helped 12 people get into biking. I found joy in that.

So, making "big bucks" is only a benefit if you spend less than you earn. And money does not buy happiness (but it helps). Find joy in what you do and who you spend time with. That is what gives my life meaning. And I can say that as a person who has earned "big bucks" as well as having high expenses when I had to pay $1000 / month child support on top of everything else.

Skilsaw, can I ask you a question? Were you able to work full time while you had your bipolar diagnosis, or were you not diagnosed until you retired? I'm just curious to know how you handled full time work, were there some characteristics of the type of work you did that made it easier for you to work while having bipolar? I ask because at my last job, I had a ton of flexibility, I made my own schedule, and my supervisor was in another city. I had relapses then, but I was better able to manage it by rearranging my schedule so I could take time off of work (I did that A LOT) and my supervisor was never fully aware of the crap job I was doing while going through episodes. I knew my work ethics wouldn't work in a real job, so I got another job that is at the other end of the spectrum - every day my schedule is planned for me, my supervisor is down the hall, we are understaffed, overworked, and I have zero flexibility. I wasn't expecting it to be this bad. This job is no good either,and my bipolar has significantly worsened. So I'm always curious to find out HOW other people with bipolar are able to manage full time jobs.

Thanks so much for commenting guys.

I am constantly worried about money. We are doing okay right now. But since there is a HISTORY of struggles, I am afraid that eventually history will repeat itself. I am afraid we will run out of money and have to go to our parents and that will make me feel like a failure. Not to mention I am trying to keep boundaries from family.

So, we are trying to live within our means. Maybe I could do a teeny bit better with that. For the most part I'm not spending. Just scared that my jobs will not work out eventually...afraid of something falling through or some disaster happening.

I want to let go of the worries and just ENJOY life and enjoy what I have...I have a lot in a lot of ways. But I am constantly scared.

My father and mother were chronic worriers and catastrophizers...then they'd get out of those moods and be happy. Still, I'm afraid I learned from them. I want to just ENJOY LIFE and not WORRY so much about money but I did "learn from the best."

They were kind of irresponsible in that they had four kids (Catholic) and so money was always tight. Their own fault, they ought to have known better, in my book. Educated people (grad degrees in psych) but the baby-making was THEIR mania.

Minerva12 wrote:Skilsaw, can I ask you a question? Were you able to work full time while you had your bipolar diagnosis, or were you not diagnosed until you retired? I'm just curious to know how you handled full time work, were there some characteristics of the type of work you did that made it easier for you to work while having bipolar? I ask because at my last job, I had a ton of flexibility, I made my own schedule, and my supervisor was in another city. I had relapses then, but I was better able to manage it by rearranging my schedule so I could take time off of work (I did that A LOT) and my supervisor was never fully aware of the crap job I was doing while going through episodes. I knew my work ethics wouldn't work in a real job, so I got another job that is at the other end of the spectrum - every day my schedule is planned for me, my supervisor is down the hall, we are understaffed, overworked, and I have zero flexibility. I wasn't expecting it to be this bad. This job is no good either,and my bipolar has significantly worsened. So I'm always curious to find out HOW other people with bipolar are able to manage full time jobs.

I worked in a terrible situation where appearing to do work is more important than doing work. A person could do nothing and last forever but if they made a mistake, they could be fired. I went through periods of being all charged up and doing a good job because I was passionate about what I was doing. The satisfaction was in the job itself. Not because of recognition because there was no genuine recognition. When I was really depressed, I hid in my cubicle and plodded away on projects. Putting in face time - Being there for 8 hours a day - was more important than results. I had one 4 month absence from work following my only hospitalization. When things were good for me, I made up for non-performance at other times. I took sick days when I was too depressed to get out of bed and gladly, that didn't dominate my schedule.

Was I lucky? Lucky to have a job, but unlucky not to have a satisfying career. After 32 years, I'm glad to be out and am having the best years of my life. Enough said.

I make about $42K a year. I have been able to work consistently despite the BP thankfully.

This is my first post, so hello to all!

I find this a very interesting thread because I am always worrying about money and the future. I have been trying to make money working from home but it is a slow process. Four years ago I had my first Psychosis and I was hospitalized. I have been struggling a lot since. I had always had a lot of trouble with working even years before, because I would always be worried that people were thinking bad things of me. I was stressing and panicking a lot and not sleeping.

I stopped work and thought that I would write books. What I realize now was myself going through mania. I was writing about creation and how all was formed, all these things I was seeing in my mind. This of course felt pressure for me because I was then stressed that someone was reading my work and that there would be people after me. Eventually I stopped the writing when I went through Psychosis. The Psychosis lasted a long time and included talking to beings I saw in my head. This led me to not be very focused on anything for many years because I was constantly fighting the thoughts and beings in my head and the feelings I was getting. I found it even hard to get out of bed with the tablets, Olanzapine, for the first year or two. It was hard to even wash myself, to do simple things. It was lucky for me that during writing my book I also made a website for games to try and make money and it makes a small bit. I lost the website and had to rebuild it in the last couple of years. I felt I had to do something to try and make money and pushed myself to do this daily.

Eventually I pushed the doctors into taking me off the tablets. Long story. But I did go off the tablets on my own mostly because they made me have so many side effects, also I panicked a lot thinking they were damaging my brain (haha, bit of laugh, because my brain is probably already that way). I just felt depressed on them. During the Psychosis I had mania constantly, in which now I have again now I have gone off the tablets. I find it hard to go to sleep every night. I feel totally in bliss and happiness, but worried about not sleeping, and that maybe I will have psychosis again.

Talking with my husband we discussed me going to work again for the future. That I needed to do full time work because my husband is 10 years older than me and when he retires we will not be able to get by on the pension that he will be getting. He makes really good money, we can save some, however not enough for our future. I really need to find some way to make money without the stress of full time work and no sleep. To top all off I now live in another country where I had to learn a whole new language, the only jobs I can get if I am lucky are factory jobs.

From the stress of all this I am now not sleeping again, I have an appointment with the doctor Tuesday. I am taking Melatonin which helps a little, but not every night. Some nights I need sleeping pills.

Until I can get sleeping again I am keeping busy with a realistic painting course that I have always wanted to do. It takes another two years and then I will see how I feel then, and how the sleeping goes. Maybe I could do some teaching from home painting, which I have done since I was young.

I come up with new ideas for making money all the time. I full of inspiration, dreams, however I think I imagine things to be more grand than they actually turn out.

My husband and I have discussed getting out of this world before the time we might end up having to struggle. We shall have to see how it goes. It is just lucky we do not have children, or it would be worse.

Anyway, I enjoyed reading your comments. It makes me realize that for people with Bipolar life is a struggle however we fight to get there in the end.

well I just started getting a job after graduating. I work from home doing an educational videogame and It needs to be funded... i'm hoping to god it gets funded. I guess it's slow for my field in summer I couldn't find anything else. At least I get to sleep in.

As for other people there are a TON of people in hollywood and entertainment who have bipolar: Mel Gibson, Stephen Fry, Demi Lovato, Carrie Fisher, Britney Spears... the list goes on.

I guess me as someone in the performing arts/moving picture maybe I have more luck in the craziness of the entertainment industry who knows...