After thinking about it for years, I am sad to announce that I will give up my career in programming (probably permanently) due to sz. I cannot perform as I used to, and this has been the most difficult choice I had to make because I loved doing what I was doing… sometimes I don’t want to give it up because I will miss out of a good paycheck. However, my health comes first. I struggled with this choice so much… but now I had to make a decision, if it weren’t that the sz already made the choice for me.
Now I need to redesign my life and what to do next. That frightens me. But I am proud to be able to have made the decision, which has hurt me too much.
I don’t know how I can cope with this yet. because it was my everything!
I know how you feel @anon84628834. I recently gave up being an RN for exactly the same reason as you. I feel guilty, especially about going on to disability. I hope it all works out for you my friend.
I was always a low skilled worker because of the sz type stuff. Still. I worked hard and thrived on physical labor where you didn’t have to think much. Came unstuck when I went psychotic but one of my biggest mistakes was listening to everyone about getting back to work straight away…
Honestly. For me I should have just went off on sickness allowance. I should have investigated getting paid off my superannuation over here. Going back to physical work on antipsychotics was way too much and I’d just recovered from a psychotic break and was still symptomatic and still thought everyone was out to get me…I went crazy in a big workplace and did some weird behavior before I got help…
All’s I say is it’s not the end of the world and you may find another avenue in life that may suit you better…meantime it’s no big deal to get some disability to keep you going depending on your system. It’s so good to recharge and take stock and don’t get me wrong…I have oodles of respect for the people who work here even part time…Much respect.
When the day is young and I am yet to be burned out I think maybe one day I’ll do part-time work on the computer at my desk. It’s a big desk but there’s stuff all over it right now and I have no nice back support chair. It’s next to the door so I would hear people in the hallway sometimes but that’s gotten a lot better.
You can get over sensitivity to sounds. You just wait and it naturally fixes itself. They become rather unconscious perceptions again. And you can get your patience back even if you lost it.
It would be very part-time but would appease my overseers.
Just be prepared that it will be very different not working with its pros and cons.
I quit working in 2012 and have been on disability ever since. In the meantime I’ve gotten a second degree, volunteered, tried working and I’m going to try again in a couple of months. It’s a decent part-time job but pay is way lower than pre-sz. Luckily that isn’t that important to me anymore.
I feel for you. I gave up writing freelance, but still work occasionally on my second novel. It’s far from finished, though. Gone are the days of writing thousands of words a day.
I did recently get back to editing freelance, though.
don’t know your job setting,
or if anyone there knows about your disability,
but you should be able to get assistance
to complete what you need to do.
just a thought.
Probably not… lost my ability of concentration, focus and also memory issues where my memory is already showing issues when wanting to learn new things. .
Have to say that I find it frightening to give up a 25+ year career. It is not something I can readily deal with or accept. But I have to. Experienced stroke like symptoms when i was sitting behind my computer and loss of consciousness a few times, this made me realize that I need to reconsider my career. It was a sort of final drop in the bucket. What I am going to do next is still unclear, but it frightens me a bit. Hitting midlife right now, switching something up is getting more difficult.
Going on disability was a tough decision for me too. I never made good money so I get very little in SSDI. Good luck to you. I’m sure you’ll get more money to live on than I do
I lost a career in architecture so I feel what you are going through immensely empathetic to your situation…it almost killed me not working anymore…get ready for a big adjustment…I hope financially this doesn’t drop you down a lot…I am happy on disability and thankful because I know I can’t work…no concentration ability whatsoever.
I am in the same boat. I lost my ability to do my job as a programmer due to schizophrenia’s negative symptoms. Nevermind delusions and hallucinations.
Sadly I have no advice. I don’t know what to do or where to go just as you.
Yes, with programming we have to keep up with all technology and that can be challenging. Things change so much, what we do today can be obsolete a year later. The stress of keeping up to date with ever emerging technology can be overwhelming, as we constantly have to learn new techniques, software, platforms, agile, scrum, etc buzzwords, mobile, apps, web, security, hackers, and many other things in this fast pace evolving landscape.
I love RESTful principles, and was invented to keep things organized and stable for everyone.