Employment and Recovery
For people who live with mental illness, work can be an essential step on the path to wellbeing and recovery. Employment not only increases income, it also lends structure to daily life, provides a sense of purpose, opportunities to learn and a chance to interact with others.
I know this was a very strong motivator in my life. Even when I was at my worse, I still got out of bed for my part time job. I have NO idea how I did that, but I found myself there and it was OK.
There are times when my work life is more structured and less stressful then my home life and it makes it easy to look forward to. I’m not saying it’s like this for everyone, but my job really did help me keep from getting even worse, sliding deeper into myself and shutting down completely.
Again, I have no idea how I got there or how I managed to keep going. But I’m glad I did.
I need to find a job but feel discouraged by never working due to this illness being in the way for years until I recovered. I’m still not sure if I had an illness or if it was created by the system to keep me sick and financially dependent on psychiatry which is basically ruining my life.