Question: Have you considered trying something different? Information Technology paid really well, but I wound up working at a level where the stress and therefore my negative symptoms became unmanageable. Gotta say that being a professional bus and truck driver was never on my radar, but now that I’m doing it I enjoy it and am apparently good at it.
Maybe you’ve been offered an opportunity to try something new?
Pixel.
aw Pixel, I appreciate your question but I really would like to just stay in my comfort zone and draw my disability check. I have no skills and I don’t want to volunteer (why work for free?) You are outstanding and I applaud your life. You ARE amazing. I just don’t have the drive. I look forward to just painting and playing my instruments. Now that I’m almost done smoking on Chantix I look forward to buying some high quality instruments. thanks man, I love you.
I’ve have paranoid schizophrenia and have worked a good part of my life. My tablets have kept me well a good 9 years now. I have worked in many different jobs until a cancer diagnosis 2 years ago which threw me. Within a year of the final chemo treatment I started yet another new job. Couldn’t live without working…
I am diagnosed with SZ and I work full time.I try to work a relatively low stress job which of course the pay isn’t very good but it gives me something to do and let my mind have less negative thoughts.
I think you can start with volunteer work or part-time then slowly advance as you get more comfortable and used to working.Its step by step and no one can rush it through to be comfortable working
Hello!! My partner had schizophrenia and been working since he was 18 didn’t diagnosed until he was 26. He talk to himself a lot, he hear voices , and always angry.bin the last 5 years he have had a stable job. He refuse to take pills. The last two job he got fired because had threaten a coworker and beat up his coworker. He’s in denial at what’s happening yo him. Yesterday he just got hired at a warehouse job, I’m so worried. Would anyone know if this is just a cycle? Will he continue to mistreat other coworkers? At the moment he’s not living with me and the kids. He said we put him through hell. He treat us like ■■■■, very abusive with the family. Will had ever going to change? Someone pls help me how I’m suppose to deal with this
Pretty sure that guitar and banjo playing are skills! And I’m not working for free, I’m just not getting paid in cash. There are other kinds of compensation. I get to be the person I needed in my own youth for kids today. Not only helps me feel good about things now, but also helps heal my own childhood. Win-win.
Pixel.
i have skills, i just wish i knew what they were 
haha
I work when I have to. I’m self employed. If I worked for someone I’d probably be fired.
Boom. Yup we can’t be afraid to fail. Just gotta go for it again and again.
Thanks for sharing that 
This is what I’m doing.
After depressing and not leaving home for a year, I decided to go back to school and study. It might be different than it was prior to psychosis but I still manage to learn fast, and to understand everything, have good reactions and be sociable. I’m very proud of myself for this. Let’s see how it plays out, the meds are working and I’m psychosis free for the moment, my biggest fear is that it returns. But if it does, I’ll deal with it.
Eventually I will work on the area that I’m studying, or keep studying at the same time. I know I can do this, being on disability in my country is not really an option and it seems like a very grimm future for me if I’m not able to do something out of my days.
I’m not having hallucinations or delusions, if I was probably would be different.
i am working each day on the roulette table, sometimes it pays me the jackpot… 
are people working for money
There’s something you need to know; the right life for someone with schizophrenia is unique to each person who has schizophrenia. Elyn Saks said this in the conclusion of her memoir.
What is right for me may be horribly wrong for you, and vice versa.
Don’t compare yourself to others, compare yourself to your personal best. Only compete with yourself whenever that is the option.
Schizophrenia is not one size fits all. I have noticed that as well as been told by books and professors. My psychological profile is mine, and yours is yours. They are both equally weighted. You may find that coping with the illness is your number one challenge and process in life, this is the case for many people with our illness. Others may have better luck with medications and therapy as well as have a different handful of symptoms.
For example, I have strong positive symptoms, which are the things that shouldn’t be there, like hallucinations and delusions. It sounds like you have strong negative symptoms, which are absences of things which should be there such as emotions, thinking clearly, feeling an interest in activities (whatever you find interesting- could be anything!), feeling alive and having energy and speaking.
I have little trouble with negative symptoms, in fact mine are practically gone from years of therapy, medication, and studying psychology.
I have lots of trouble with positive symptoms. For example, I hallucinate and begin having intrusive paranoid thoughts every night and I cope with it by talking to myself, which is actually not uncommon–Fred Frese talks to himself a lot, and he’s a professor of psychiatry and he has paranoid schizophrenia. Elyn Saks preaches the benefits of psychoanalysis, where you lay down and just say whatever is on your mind, under professional supervision and direction.
They call saying whatever you are thinking “free association” and I do it by myself every night and I reach catharsis, which is basically a conclusion to what is going on in your head, then I fall asleep.
You may want to ask your doc about latuda and abilify, which are both known to be more helpful with negative symptoms. I take Geodon and it actually is more of a downer, and without meds I am 90mph on the wrong track.
Some people can’t work because of the illness. That’s something you should be aware of. Again, don’t compete with anyone but yourself. That means don’t look at how others work and then think you should do it too. You may just not be able to, and that is okay, that is the case for many people with schizophrenia. You should know that you aren’t alone.
Yup. I’m not driving vehicles filled with either flammable/explosive liquids (fuel truck) or flatulent teens (school bus) for the fun of it. Show me the money, honey.*
you gotta get lucky somehow and get yourself working, even on a volunteer job is a start. as a fellow person with sz I recommend it very highly. it’ll give you a sense of purpose and a schedule to follow and a framework for your life that is very valuable.
that’s not to say that it is easy. there are issues – our own functioning on the job issues and then the reaction of others to what they perceive as odd, etc.
but… it is all worth it. try it – you’ll see.
luv ya, judy
I am always exhausted but thats cause my beautiful energy is not in my body but its better now than when i was a child and it was so horrid.
Other people work in my energy.
and I have worked in other peoples bodies but cant seem to get my energy back to my own body most of the time cause everyone wants it and they all want to steal from me.
Ive been a workaholic with my energy particles of who i am.
I have even done comedy and loads of professions and care work but not in/with my own body.
I have others in my body and im in their body and its not very nice but they feel good in it.and look good too.
Lots of people who work may be in someone elses energy.Perhaps someone who doesnt work in person.
I have been a workaholic making more than multi billions but do not have the money in person and had everyone attacking me spiritually.
Others have been married in my aura and eons as well but i am single.
Its very violating.
I have found most people to be liers about me anyway.Also they cheat.
They lie and cheat.They even lie in their churches and in name of their gods.
I know that i do beautiful work with my energy and spirit.
I am proud of who and all i am.
Yeah. I get exhausted.Of course i do… lol
My Lord would understand and know this. If I have one.
My body and person deserves better than this but also understanding regarding exhaustion and how hard i work.
I look like a sloth and lazy being in apaprtment all day but i am beyond a workaholic and my Lord would know all this also.
The one or ones who work the most can look the laziest and not feel good but they do feel good but others feel bad in their bodies.
I think i could be a empath also. amoung other things.
I can /have currently held down a job where i clean 2 hours a week in clients homes.
I am looking for more work but am set up mostly because im not in my body etc mostly.
I want to get on the pension but work very part time with something i CAN do with my body and hours etc.
I have been bullied spiritually as well.
Community, programming, liers, thiefs but its who n all they are and as said they could not take me on “one on One” unless they cheated…
So Im beyond a out cast of society and beyond a missfit who doesnt even fit with missfits…
A lone,r but i beleive i have beings i can and want to be with.
When one gets set up, lied abut, spiritually attacked n bullied and stolen from etc one may not want to go out where one is treated i such way o lied about etc.
That may make one isolate more on top of the exhaustion…
I do not think anyone else has right to say such about activity specially when they may be doing pshychology in malice because they attack and steal etc.in reality.
Sometimes I wonder if there are different degrees of schizophrenia. Or maybe some people respond well to medication. I can tell you that if I was how I was when I was psychotic I wouldn’t ever be able to work. Lucky for me the medication seems to work for now so I am looking for a job. Technically had 3 since my psychotic break. Maybe you need to get on a better med for you. Or maybe get some therapy if it is the negative symptoms getting you down.
I always find a project when I get out of the hospital anything to keep my mind and hands busy. Woodworking for me. Was lucky enough to stumble into an old position I had prior to sz. I remember struggling pushing myself to take the next step, literally. Meds changed and my negative symptoms slowly went away. Found ways to overcome the paranoia that the meds didn’t take away.b Always felt fortunate to have a job and think I worked harder than the normals because of it. Found that I became a valued employee an it really helped my confidence. I feel I am a better employee because of my sz. Guess it pushed me harder to prove myself of value. My job helped me to overcome my illness. I know the meds don’t equally help us all. If you have any opportunities to do anything that resembles work. I would urge you to take it ,start small , anything will help you. Even if it’s just helping someone or working around the house it’s a start.
I’ve worked part time as a teaching aide and tutor in college, supermarkets, and a few other gigs
Alarm goes off, I take a shower, put my shoes on, I drive to work telling myself, “You just have to make it through today”.
I’ve been doing it for 33 years.