To get disability.
I was first diagnosed in 2007. After that I kept working for spells until the end of 2008. Then I dropped out of the work scene. The medication was taking its toll.
In 2010 it was suggested I should get into a work program. I agreed and applied. Heard nothing for a year, so investigated. Turns out the government had lost my application somehow, so that was over a year lost to nothing.
In the spring of 2011 I finally got into the program and worked for 2 years, most of it full time. I wanted to work like I did before so I pushed myself…but I shouldn’t have, because then it was concluded I was fit to hold a full job.
In 2014 I got hired at the same place I had been in a work program, which was a honor. But in the summer of 2014 I suddenly got a new problem. Massive insomnia from using zyprexa long term(which I didn’t understand before much later). I was really struggling from this point forward. My health was deteriorating from lack of sleep both physical and mental. I was trying to quit zyprexa because of the sleep problems it had caused, but this only made things worse.
My GP didn’t help me although I told him repeatedly I was struggling with sleep.
At the end of 2016 my health was so bad I resigned my job.
I kept struggling through 2017. Trying to quit zyprexa as I perceived it as the cause of the insomnia. What I didn’t understand was that I had to take a higher dose of it to be able to sleep. I was only taking 2.5mg on average while waiting for sleep to return to normal which it never did.
In 2018 I left my GP and got a new one. The first thing she told me was that I needed to up my dose of zyprexa to get sleep. She probably saved my life.
After a few months I was able to return to my old work place as a extra where I have been working since.
I’m still struggling with sleep, but it has improved noticeable. This year my work capacity was re-evaluated by a really great work agent, and I finally got granted partial disability this summer.
It feels so much better now that I know the expectations of me are realistic when it comes to how much I should work. And of course the financial security that goes with it.
Sorry for writing a book. Thanks for listening 