I’m recently diagnosed with schizophernia, I’m now not working, I’m very sad and depressed. I would like to know if any body is working as a programmer, doing coding and have mental sickness ? can you able to work/code ?
I would like to hear from programmers that have mental sickness good news or bad news.
Hi, I was diagnosed almost 10 years ago with schizoaffective disorde, bipolar type, and am on a lot of meds, was in and out (mostly in) of hospitals for 6 years (age 17-23), then 5 years later once for 3 weeks (med tweak) and couldn’t function. I have a degree in computer engineering, which had more software than hardware.
I do a lot of c# and SQLite for Windows store apps, PHP and MySQL for online apps and HTML5 and CSS, as well as dabbling in graphics design. I do it freelance, as I’m going back to school in September, for a trade (welding) and there are no jobs in it in my region.
I can program most days, but if I’m symptomatic, I can’t, and get frustrated easily. I tend to be better at it after taking morning meds and going later into the day, and at night, I’m burned out.
It depends on the situation. I work best at programming from home with my own schedule, and do badly at companies with set hours and extra stress put on. Stress knocks me right down, and I unravel. It does improve, though.
Even sometimes when I have paranoid symptoms or delusions I’m still able to code, but its difficult. If I’m full out psychotic, I can’t do anything.
It is 100% possible to continue to code, I’ve actually learned most of the programming languages I use in the past 5-6 years. Taking a break from working can help with symptoms of sz, but it depends on how you handle working to go back to it. I find freelance is pretty stress-free.
Thanks so much you gave me a hope!
My experience has been that it’s nice to have a focus aside from coding. I dabble in front end/Wordpress development, but mostly web design. It can be hard to have to focus on just code for me. I do a lot of illustration and other design as well, so knowing I can be working but away from code really helps. I can have a focused break. Conversely, if I’m frustrated with a design I can go to code. They require a different way of thinking so it’s nice to switch frames of mind when I get frustrated. That’s sort of just how I am in general though. Coding can get tedious. When I became very symptomatic the first thing that went was focus. I wasn’t even able to read. I can see how coding can be very therapeutic if you’re having symptoms. If you know that there is a formula or syntax to follow to get your desired result, it could help ground you. You don’t have to stray from a language that’s already written. Then of course I know how delusions can take hold and negate all of that. I don’t know if this helps at all.
Here is an article I remember coming across last fall. There are many other articles and stories, some from this blog and many elsewhere. If you search “geek mental health” you can find a lot of personal accounts. Last fall there was a geek mental health week. I don’t know if it’s an annual thing. Much of what I read and found interesting was very relatable. I didn’t see anyone with schizophrenia sharing accounts, but a lot of depression and anxiety issues were common.
We have a fair number of software engineers / web development people here - I’ve seen the discussion come up in the past. You can probably find some of them by searching on “work” or “employment” using the search feature in the upper right corner.
My brother has schizophrenia too and has worked doing C# programming for the past 20 years. One of the things he does is keep a very routine time schedule. He works from 9-4pm everyday. He does a little bit of work at home but nothing crazy. Once or twice a year he might have to go on a business trip.
I tend to get a little manic when I program so I have to be careful and limit the time I spend doing it. Also now that I am married I have a lot of interruptions so I have to manage my frustration with that and not take it too seriously. Programming is fun as long as you don’t have someone screaming at you about deadlines. I used to really enjoy programming some pretty simple embedded systems but unfortunately my boss was a total jerk.
Although it’s not exactly hard-core programming, I have a wonderful time messing around with rfo-basic for Android… It’s a lot of fun to work with and you can even publish apps to the Google Play store with the PC suite.
I can program some pretty decent apps and code on my cellphone even while I am waiting at the doctor’s office. It helped me keep calm when my wife almost died last fall.
I took HTML classes back in 2000 but kept updating my skills as things advanced. After my nervous in 2004, I worked hard to go in this direction but the local problems are crap so are the instructors sometimes with the hostile stuff…I moved to go to another school to learn this only to get screwed there too; instructors there had been sued for mistreating disabled students in the past. (Was hating my hometown so okay with the move but got screwed from so many directions which is normal for moving to that city after any time pscyhotic, trying to function like a normal got me in trouble. But, at least I got to check out the place.)
I’m good enough to function as CMS manager especially with just Wordpress or already set-up Joomla. I’m approaching stuff as a marketing writer instead and just pick up some coding projects/html email work when it’s available. My first BA is in this area…Thought I would leave the disability check but looking at technical writing, did not want to deal with traveling around for a living alone without a breadwinner spouse and working temporary assignments only with SME who can be real pricks…Just gonna settle into a part-time marketing contractor job, do some projects here/there and live…Want to try to find rural spot that isn’t nutty hate monger cesspool & just run my own little marketing business, maybe taking more work and leave the check eventually.
Working on some graphic design this semester and clean up my messy english …
Remote work is booming in the design/development field.
I’ve kept up skills using teamtreehouse.com
It’s 25$/month for access to their library of courses. Best service IMO. The subscription fee is very worth it if you’re able to work in the field. Courses are constantly updated so it cuts out so much time just looking for the right info.