Recovery for some people is getting out of bed. Also, we all have different levels of support. Do you think you’d be where you are without any support? I don’t think so.
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if we were all getting and accepting support
we probably wouldn’t be on this website.
You’re completely missing the point. I’m not trying to tell people I’m better than them. I’m trying to help people see the things it took me way too long to understand. Yes, I had a a lot of support. But this is support. Support is not helping someone to disability and being happy with them getting out of bed at 8 am. It is continually believing that they have what it takes to live a full and beautiful life.
I was at that point where just getting out of bed early was recovery. And some of my supports never expected anything else from me. That mindset invariably fails to help anyone at all. In fact, that mindset is another one of the big reasons for why most of us never really try to improve our lives. And I didn’t either for a very long time. Because I believed that getting out of bed was enough effort on my part and that there wasn’t really much more I could do anyway.
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well, don’t let your support system forget
that you have major mental illness
but heck yeah, I want people believing in me
even if I don’t.
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I think I have a decent work ethic, though not great considering I sometimes call off because I sometimes just don’t have it in me that day. It’s hard to say if it’s depressive symptoms or negative symptoms, but in either case I just don’t have it in me some days. Most days I go to work and do fine, though. I have no other choice but to do so.
I’m a good worker except if I get pissed off and go get drunk… luckily I have a great boss who is understanding of my issues and doesnt completely fire me. She knows when I’m in work mode I’m great.
I’m actually one week sober and working on the “going and getting drunk” part.
That one is a disaster for me anyway 
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Sam, what are you doing now?
I think I recall you were at the convenient store.
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Great memory @Daze !
I deliver Chinese food. I love it. It’s quick and simple… the worse part is when I’m stuck waiting for deliveries and I have to answer phone and do register.
I recommend it, probably not too many Chinese delivery places there though.
Great! Wish they delivered in my town.
Usually I eat after being too drunk to drive.
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Sounds like having a job is good for you and your addictions. I’m the same…
There’s got to be something out there for you. I don’t do well with co-workers either, that’s why I like smaller restaurant type settings and not chain stuff.
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ohhh yeah, work changes me dramatically
I just don’t want to drive 25 miles into the city
for under 10 dollars an hour
I’m looking all the time though for something close by
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I used to have a pretty good work ethic before I got sz. I was working two jobs, roughly 50-55 hours a week. It was simple to me, though tiring at times. Nowadays, just getting out the house once a day is considered an achievement. My work ethic is ■■■■ now, and it makes me mad. I guess it’s up to me to change that…
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I wonder… what really IS a good work ethic?
Not sure if it’s true, but I just read that in ancient/natural societies they work for about 20 hours a week to fulfill their daily needs, and the rest is relaxing and resting and socializing and caring about each other. They seemed to feel more energetic and happy with such a work ethic than in our society where working efficiently in office jobs 40-50 hours a week is deemed normal.
I am not capable of working as much as I used to do anymore… from, say, 50 hours a week in a high level job, to now 24 hours in a parttime job. And for years and years I didn’t work, “only” did volunteering, if I was capable at all.
Still, I think my attitude towards work is much healthier now. I work in jobs (paid or volunteer) that fit my ideals and what I find pleasant to do. I only work or volunteer as much as I’m capable of without destroying myself. I have no trouble going home in time to do other important stuff… like playing with my kid, walking in the park, doing household chores or having dinner with a friend. This way my job helps instead of destroys my health. 
But yes, I do think I’ve got a good work ethic…even when I was just struggling to keep myself stable or volunteering for 3 hours a week - I did what I was capable of.
Ding ding ding ding.
Too late. I gave up sometime last year.
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I am bipolar with psychosis but I like to believe I have good work ethic. Most hours of the day I am ether at school, studying, practicing programming , working on music, or exercising. I do feel a little guilty not being employed right now though. I am considering trying to work for the union after this semester. I don’t know though. It might be worth it to try and graduate to get a better paying job in computers but 3 and a half years longer is a long time to wait for full time employment. Plus the coursework is difficult and I’m honestly not sure if I’m smart enough for computer science. I don’t think I can handle full time school and part time work together. Probably part time work and part time schooling but I don’t know. I was going to try this semester and make a decision afterwards.
My entire life right now was not supposed to be possible or have happened. The professional support I had early on told me so. The professonals stuck me in groups full of SZs who were the very definition of learned helplessness and who did everything they could to sabotage my recovery when I did start achieving small successes. When I achieved large successes it became, “you were misdiagnosed, SZs don’t recover.”
Most schizophrenia “support” is a joke, and a bad one at that.
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I have worked for myself for 23 years now, I went through many bad times and had I been working for someone, I’m sure I would have been fired many times. I had a online GF for years with sz and at time she applied for jobs, which I supported, but in my mind I knew she would not succeed and never did,
My point being is that not all things are equal, SZ is complicated and many have it worse than others, I was lucky and fell into work that I can get away with some bad times. Not everyone have the same motivation levels, or the desire to move on, and there is nothing wrong with that. Were all born with different personalities, different upbringings, different economic’s, as well some of us had poor support when growing up.
I don’t think there is any one person you can point to and say you should all be like this person, SZ is just to complicated for that.
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The thing is that we have a culture and a system that fosters defeatism and false hopelessness. I don’t have any illusions about full recovery for everyone with sz being possible. I know I got lucky in many ways. But I also know we’re shooting each other in the foot when we just go along with this mindless pessimism. We’re mistaking hope for victim blaming and think killing hope, and thus killing even the possibility of recovery, is a kindness. It’s not. It’s selfish and cruel. And it leaves people thinking they have no control over their life, so they end up just waiting for the cure, and most likely will die waiting for that cure, having never reached their potential at all in any of the ways they could have.
I work I do my best.
But I’m kind of forced to else I would die.
Not to be mean, but we all have different levels of success and schizophrenia, not everyone can be a shining star, I know when depression hits, there is little I can do to prevent the damage it does. It can take 5 years just to pay off the debt from it and when I get ill, it hits hard and sets my goals back by years
Yes I live a better life than on disability, was it worth what I put myself through? I often doubt it, but its the road I went down.