NEW POLL - WORK

[withavengeance]

How many of us are unable to work due to bp II? If so, how many are underemployed and therefore underpaid? Right now, I am unable to work, but I do volunteer a few hours a week at a free medical clinic.

[kim]

OOHH If I have had 25 jobs in my life and I am 36 and started working when I was 15 I have probably been fired from 17 of them. Or I just ubruptly lose control and have absolutely no impulse control and quit!!! I am such a pattern.

[Martha]

Right now I am unemployed doe to my Bipolar and also due to severe back problems. I am considering disability but have not decided yet. I did start going back back to school so I can find a "real" job that can support me in the future. Also. with my training I may be able to work from home. I can't live off my family forever! Volunteering is great if you can do it -I have just never found the right place.

[Another Manic Monday]

I was offered a Ticket to Work 1 1/2 yrs ago and accepted it because I thought I was stable. Then a couple of months into it I realize that I was actually really hypo-manic. so I put it on hold. While you are on it you spend the fiirst year working on a resume, etc. but the second year you have to actually make some money. At least I think that's how the timing works out. The whole thing last about 5 years. You get to keep your medicare the whole time. While you are on it they won't do a medical review. I just went in to see my pdoc because he had to fill out paperwork for my companies disability which he approved and it turned it was because the insurance company paperwork said I was disabled from doing my old job (not any job). Then he said that I wasn't disabled from doing any job which is the SSDI definition. I think that I have to agree with him right at the moment. The problem is, will that be true in a couple of months? But I'm thinking about reactivating the Ticket to Work and I'm not sure if that is a good idea or a bad idea. I can put it on hold again if I have to and I am taking classes and working on getting ready to go back to work. But I have to get my life more organized if I'm going to achieve anything. I think that I'm really reacting to what he said but I do think that I have to reactivate it and get moving ahead soon.

[kat]

Had to 'quit before I got fired' due to poor judgment and poor interpersonal relationships. Not to mention the unproductivity when adjusting meds. This has caused me a major self-esteem issue: I'm afraid to try another one, and know I'll have to settle for something less.