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Are you able to work?

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Re: Are you able to work?

Postby Caribee4me » Wed Jun 18, 2014 8:16 pm

Nope. On disability since 2011. I ramp up quickly into a mixed mania in the workplace, over time. I may start out great, but slowly I deteriorate from stress and the pressure I put on myself to be perfect & the best at what I'm doing. I have a slew of embarrassing emails sent to a manager, filled with angst and emotional reasons why things weren't perfect and how come I'm being held back by lame systems, policies and procedures.

I do, however, handle volunteering in an office environment twice/week for 4hrs/day quite well...I think because there's no stress, it's easy work, and I have no pressure to keep the position, and my income doesn't depend on it. I'm not competing with anyone for a title or raise, either.

I have great fear of trying again and going back into that place of mixed mania, so I'm not ready yet. I do eventually hope to try some classes and see how I do in a performance-based environment. And eventually I hope to earn a good income again, but I can't see how I can do it yet. I miss shiny, new things ;)
Dx: BP1 mixed rapid-cycling, BPD, PTSD
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Re: Are you able to work?

Postby darkroses » Wed Jun 18, 2014 10:11 pm

I am relatively mentally stable at the moment and would love to be working, but sadly, the periods of depression / anxiety in my life have had a bad effect on my career and I'm currently trying to climb my way back up into employment. Being broke sucks - its part of the vicious cycle of depression. You lose your job because you're depressed, then you get depressed because you've no money to buy stuff. And so on...

If you're going to be unemployed, do it somewhere with good weather.
Male, Bipolar II

“Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.”
― Vladimir Nabokov
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Re: Are you able to work?

Postby oreberry » Thu Jun 19, 2014 12:19 am

So many jobs I have had ended badly...I cannot remember a job that didn't, I am talking about dozens of jobs over decades. I finally retired on social security for my age (62). Now I know for sure why I couldn't keep a job--my emotional difficulties.
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Post-traumatic stress from child sex abuse (biological father) depression, small-vessel cerebrovascular disease with history of 3 strokes
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Re: Are you able to work?

Postby Sung » Thu Jun 19, 2014 12:32 am

I'm able to work, but with massive caveats. I'm in a sort of ease-your-ass-into-working program, so my boss isn't the one paying me (though he's not being paid to put up with me either). More, he understands and respects that I'll call in sick at a moments notice, or walk out on him in the middle of a job.

If any of those things were different, I wouldn't be able to work. No legitimate employer in the world could afford to keep someone like me around, at least not in my present state(s).
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Re: Are you able to work?

Postby crackerjack » Sat Jun 21, 2014 12:05 am

In the past 25 years I have had sporadically 14 different jobs, most lasting only 2-5 months, one lasting 10 months, one lasting 18 months as a live-in nanny. I've also had 2 network marketing businesses (one was successful for 8 years, due to the flexibility) and 3 other small home-based businesses, but all failed in the end. I have tried, but I have never been able to hold down a job.
Does anyone remember the opening scene of Joe vs. the Volcano, where the awful boss was on the phone saying, "I know he can GET the job..... but can he DO the job????"
Lol, that's me ~ I can ace the interview, only to fail miserably at actually doing the job.
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