Hello. Was just wondering qhat your work situation is. Do you work or do you collect disability? Im currently working at tbe postal office making 23 an hour. Its known for being an easy job but i dread going to work. Its hard with the negative symptoms. How do you all manage while suffering from negative symptoms?
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I am on disability. I used to do work in addition to this, mostly buying furniture cheap at auction, hauling it with my truck, fixing it up, and selling it on craigslist for 10-20 times what I paid for it.
I totaled my truck while psychotic one night and haven’t been able to do this since. Also the GSA place where they held the auctions stopped doing fixed price auctions so even if I had the truck I wouldn’t be able to do this anymore.
I haven’t found another gig that I can work for under the table income, and working a 9 to 5 would usually pay just enough to endanger my benefits.
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I am a senior insurance broker working on small to mid-sized commercial accounts. Been doing this for five years now.
One day at a time. It’s a matter of building up momentum. The longer you work at it, the more you’re able to do. Problem is that you can’t stop or getting going again is a real b4st4rd. I’m mostly able to keep rolling now even when I don’t feel like it because the habit is so deeply ingrained.
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Don’t you ever have bad days where the voices are unrelenting? I mean I don’t know if you even have voices but that would be my number one worry about trying to work full time again. 95% of the time I am good to go but that other 5%, I feel like I would be calling in sick too much for them to keep me on.
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I dont hear voices when im on medication so that wouldnt be a problem. Ive worked at places before while hearing voices and i was doing fine lol. Im able to work while hearing voices i just try to ignore them. This was when i was unmedicated though.
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I haven’t worked since August. I do freelance and self employment, and have since 2006. When I have a job, I can get it done, but the last one kind of wrecked my mental health. I’m looking to change directions going forward, once I start feeling better.
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Oh you are so fortunate in that sense. If I could just erase the voices I wouldn’t have much to complain about. So distracting to have them buzzing in your ear!
That’s not a bad job you have, I hope you can keep it without too much trouble. Disability is good but it doesn’t pay everything you need. The big upside of disability in the USA is you get access to Medicare, which is something I think we should all get access to.
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@agent101g are you on medications? Whatnare you on? Its strange to hear things while being medicated. Maybe switch to a different med.
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I’ve tried 5 different antipsychotics and none of them get rid of voices. I was told I was treatment resistant. Zyprexa changes them from mean to nice but they are still there, and they’ve tried higher doses but most APs at medium to high doses cause me to experience an awful side effect called akathisia where I can’t sit down and have to pace back and forth constantly. It’s really horrible and disruptive and makes sleep almost impossible. After four years of trying different stuff I finally settled on what I feel is my best-case-scenario.
I also take a mood stabilizer, a medicine for akathisia, and a blood pressure med.
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Not really. I cruise along on a low dose of Geodon. I’ve learned to mostly ignore my voices as background noise at this point. I prefer a lower dose of APs so they don’t strip away my mental function. My day job has a higher cognitive load. I’m okay with having some voices and background delusional thinking so long as my insight is in good shape letting me tell what’s real and what isn’t.
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I quit my last job in Feb 2020. Since sz the longest job I was able to do was almost a year and that was while having positive symptoms, akathisia, insomnia and nausea from the pill. I was on 80mg Latuda.
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Now I don’t have any of these on risperidone but can’t work. I prefer that to working with all those priblems. It was hell. Its a good deal.
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I want to work on getting to this point. My voices are so dark, and I believe them.
I think it’s possible for me to do.
(First, I need to make my way out of the crippling depression. That will help.)
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I just quit my job due to some severely shady happenings. I loved my job, but lines were crossed and the job no longer aligned with my values.
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The closest to actual work I’m about to attempt is getting some cryptocurrency minting bots running. There’s a hell of a lot of concepts swirling around to get this going though.
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Been broken a long time but still manage to be employed.
I’m a janitor and I work alone so I don’t need to deal with people a lot. I just say “hi” a lot to passing office workers or make small talk with them and co workers. I work part time and collect disability.
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I worked for 6 months fulltime hearing voices pretty much 24/7 it was stressful as heck. I had some anxiety attacks cuz I thought they were never going to stop. They kept telling me they were going to torment me forever and never leave.
Thank goodness they let up
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Exactly same situation for me.
I’m on disability, can’t stand rudeness and ■■■■talkers ---- I’m a janitor, love it so much, I work independently and do my work, have it checked and go home…
It sounds like dirty work but I make a nice income, rent is paid, I have a car and enough for everything and some extra cash to treat myself 
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I work in an office setting now in sales. It’s low stress for the most part and fairly low demanding. So I can get by when I’m doing bad and do really well when I’m doing better.
Hardest part is socializing for me.
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Quite a lot of you here work even though you have schizophrenia. Thats pretty good to hear.
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