Poll Does Your PTSD Affect Your Employment Status?

[bornjoyful]

once again an interesting concept. i have found that full time work made PTSD less managable but if i am doing something i absolutely love then it is less of a problem. however i have never felt i thrived when i went over three days a week.
now i am a full time single parent and there is no way i can hold a job and parent without being too stressed and getting more symptomatic. I consider parenting to be a job . when my child was in school i was able to think about part time again but it was still stressful. i now home educate and it works for us seamlessly most of the time.

 

[rtrollins]

As many of you know from my recent posts, my wife suffers from PTSD. Until she went into therapy a few years ago, her anger made it very hard for her to hold a full time job in the long term, although we didn't know it was related to PTSD at that time. She would start a job by impressing the employer with her skills etc. but after a couple of years, her anger would escalate to the point where she'd lose her job.

However, since she found a good therapist, she has gotten a good job and is still doing very well after more than two years with them. We're both hoping that she'll stay in this job for several more years.

I'm sure that everyone is different, but for my wife the cognitive behavioral therapy made a huge difference for her on the job. She learned to analyze situations much less emotionally, instead of instantly snapping at anyone who said something she didn't care for.

I'm probably rambling here, but my point is that I think the right therapy can help some people to hold a full time job, if that's what they want to do.

 

[bennjamin]

+ 1 vote for self employmeny here.

There is currently no way i can reside in full time or even part time work with a company ~ tried and tested. I have 3 seperate "forms" of paid work , and each is my own creation and upkeep :)
(removalist , landlord and DIY mechanic) Keeps me busy for the time being.

 

[Marlene]

I work full time for an equipment company and I deal with 20 salesmen pretty much on a daily basis. That's enough to send anyone's stress level soaring some days. LOL We use nextels and I've thrown mine across my office a few times.

I do know that if I didn't have something to keep me busy I'd be in a whole lot worse shape than I am now.

 

[9Lives]

I choose full-time, because I look after my kids, and that is full-time.

I agree with you! I'm a stay at home mom now & it's much easier for me to deal with my 2 y/o than when I struggled to work for the government for 14 years. My life is stressful at times & there's temper tantrums but, nothing a quick little "the itsy bitsy spider" song or popsicle can't cure. You can't exactly do this with adults & expect it to work lol!

 

[ClancyBoy]

6 months to a year in any full time job before I have a knock down drag out fight with my boss.

So yeah, it's my biggest problem.

 

[kers]

I work full-time as a teacher. If I wasn't on medication I think this would be a good deal more challenging! It is much easier now that I can identify and name my feelings and reactions, so I feel less out of control and crazy. I still have plenty of difficult days at work, but it is manageable. For a while I worked two jobs and went to school (pre-diagnosis!) and that was a recipe for disaster. Now that I am taking better care of myself I find I work much better. Duh!

 

[Shinigami_Shimai]

I've been on disablity since I was 18 and can't seem to work because my PTSD affects me in severe ways around people that the one time I tried to help out a friend who owned a book store I curled up in a ball and started crying from just staring at the cash machine.

I consider myself self employed, but my wife says otherwise. I used to run my own publishing company for comics and art, which ran for 5 years before I had a major collapse and ended up in major debt, which has been finally cleared up, and have been told by my doctor that he wants me to stay away publishing anymore. So now I just run a couple of websites for writing and forums for gay youth and I review anime/manga online. I also write lengthy novels that I'm considering publishing, but everyone thinks that would be a bad idea and no one thinks that I could handle the presure of publishing... Even if it is another publishing company in charge of the hard parts*sighs* After a 3 year break from working on anything other then writing I finally want to get back to hosting lectures at conventions, which I also did for a number of years, but again am told I won't be able to handle it and it is driving me crazy and it is beginning to make me feel even more like a failure so I guess I'll forever be an insane disablied writer/artist holding on to dreams that would never happen. *sighs*

jaa ne

Kat

 

[Lisa]

I choose resting. I'm a student, and I do do a little typing for someone and get paid for it, but it's not really a job, more like pocket money for an errand. If I had a job where I had to go in at particular times, I would not last more than a week at the moment. I managed 2 shifts in a bar last year, so other than that I haven't worked in over 2 years. The longest job I have had was 5 months, but I left that to go to university so t hat was my biggest success. I had another job I didn't mind, but it was boring. Other than that, I've had 5 other jobs I lasted about 3 months at most in before I totally broke down.

I have found PTSD REALLY affects my jobs, the types of job I can have even on a 'good' spell, and on a bad spell, which is usually at the moment, I can't cope with any job. I hate it because I feel like a lazy person and maybe I just need to be stronger but I genuinely struggle in particular jobs, like authoritarian workplaces, I can't cope I'm terrified constantly and feel trapped.

It worries me, as next year is my last year at uni., and then I really will have to work and not have the convenience of my parents house because I'm 300 miles away. So I really will have to fend for myself. So I have a year to get better! I guess I'm lucky that I'm a student, as it's socially accepted not to work as a student though I do find I get a lot of grief for apparantly 'having it easy' by those housemates who do work part time. I really want to get better so that I can work. After my degree is going to be the telling point of how much my PTSD is going to stop me in life... if I can't cope with it, I won't be able to continue with my career into psychology. I'd have to move back to my parents house - it's trigger happy there, so I'm not keen on that.

Actually... thank you for this poll. Realising this has suddenly hit me how I don't have time to mess about any more. I've got to get better. I've got push myself over my limit if necessary, because it's okay while Im a student, I can resit a year if I have to... but I wont have the option after my degree.

 

[brainless_twit]

I am working full-time as a dialysis center social worker, but the PTSD definitely affects my work. Some days I just sit in my office and pray that no one comes in there because I'm so unable to focus. A few times I've had to shut my door so my coworkers won't see me crying. I would give anything not to have to work until I'm in a better place psychologically, but unfortunately, there is no option for me to cut back or quit right now. Luckily I haven't had to explain anything to my supervisor yet, but I get the feeling it's coming, especially now that I have a million therapy/doctor appointments coming up.

I mentioned this in my intro, but I actually went through all my years of college and grad school thinking I was going to be a therapist. I interned as a therapist during grad school and did well, but in the back of my mind I always thought, Who am I kidding? They're all going to realize that I'm more ****ed up than they are. Who would want me helping them? Someday I hope to be in a better place and pursue my dream, but it's just not possible right now. It's weird, because low self-esteem keeps me from doing it, but it also lowers my self-esteem that I'm not doing it - all my friends from school are working in mental health and it seems like I'm the only one who isn't. I went to a continuing education class yesterday and many of my former classmates were there. I ended up crying on the way home because I had to listen to their case examples and feel like a lesser social worker. I like my job, but it's just not what I want to do.

Anyway, I'll shut up now. I'm always too long-winded when I post here. :biggrin:

 

[2quilt]

employment

I have been on disability for 7 years for physical disability, but the list of problems was long enough to grant me disability before they got to PTSD so they went ahead and granted me disability. Physical pain goes hand in hand wwith depression and it can also go along with PTSD. I had a hard time dealing with the BS at work at my various jobs because I just don't put up with certain things going on, and that was a pattern I saw in my jobs. There's a certain type of environment I need to work in, just leave me alone and let me do my work and I will do the best production of all. Stand over me like a hawk and I will quit. If you are asking for advice and want to go back to work, I would suggest making a list of what you liked best and disliked most about your past jobs, and see if you can find patterns. Find an environment where your PTSD will not be triggered as much.

 

[rt1967]

I think i have kept going sometimes and have felt/feel i should because i didn't realise that i didn't have to be doing what i sometimes think i had to be doing.