I am about to put in my two-week notice at work. My health (both mental & physical) has declined to the point that I can no longer work. I’ve been working part-time (4 hours/day, 5 days/week) for the last 2 years, following a 2-week psych hospitalization. I worked full-time before that and I’ve been at my current job for 5 years. I honestly love my job, I love my boss. But I am too disabled to continue in the workforce. What is sad for me, is that I’m not even 30 y/o yet - currently 28 y/o.
I will share my health diagnoses, all professionally diagnosed and I’m seeing several doctors for these conditions:
• Schizoaffective disorder bipolar type
• Type 1 diabetes
• Severe asthma
• Fibromyalgia
• Migraines
• Gastroparesis
I am going to file for SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) soon. I’m in the United States - for those of you not familiar with SSDI, it’s a disability benefit from the Social Security Administration. I plan to file right after my last day - I’m about to put in my two weeks notice right now… Just waiting for my boss to be available for a call, at this very moment. I hope I get approved for disability benefits.
I filed a disability claim in 2019, right after I was released from the psych hospital and I immediately reduced work from full-time (40 hrs/wk) to part-time (20 hrs/wk). But I got denied for disability benefits because I was still making too much money + they (SSA) didn’t like that I was still working at all even though working part-time isn’t technically against the rules. But I think my income from work was still too high to qualify.
Now that I feel unable to even work part-time… Well, maybe I will get approved this time around.
Best of luck. If you can get approved without a lawyer you get more money. I didn’t need one and got approved first time, but they lost my paperwork once and I had to fill it all out again
I assume you put a lot of thought into this. Have you considered an easier job with less hours? I had a job for a couple years that was only 7 hours a week. It was hard physically but I was happy to have it.
But I know where you’re coming from. The first job I had 9 months after getting out of the hospital was making me worse mentally. The boss knew I was mentally ill and the last year he was barely asking me to do anything. But I was in a rut and getting worse and then I got fired for being late. My family was disappointed in me but getting fired from that job was the best thing that could have happened to me. I eventually got other jobs and some jobs I did well and some I didn’t. You know yourself and your situation better than me but are you sure you have to close the door to ever being employed again? Maybe take a year or two off and get another, easier job?
I mean you proved you can work and you did your best and there’s no shame in quitting if this horrible disease is flaring up. It wouldn’t help anyone if working drove you into the hospital. So I you have to take care of yourself.
If you don’t mind my asking - Do you have additional health problems other than your MI (I think I remember you have SzA, right)? Also, have you been in the hospital, impatient, recently-ish, or recent to the time you applied for disability?
I only ask, cause if my situation is kinda similar to yours maybe I might be approved, too!
Don’t feel pressured to answer these questions if you don’t feel comfortable doing so.
Good luck getting it @Blossom . Keep in mind it might take you awhile to get approved. It took me several years. But because of this I got a big, fat backpay check back to my original filing. Make sure you document all of the times you had to go to the hospital. I think this helped with mine.
I’ve been thinking about quitting for a while now. Honestly, my employer and my immediate manager/boss have been so understanding, caring, and accommodating, for my entire employment here. I’ve worked here for 5 years, the last 2 years being 20 hrs/wk.
My current job is “adjusted” by my manager to accommodate my health issues. I only work mornings, I can make urgent last-minute doctor appointments, and I sometimes leave work early due to symptoms of any one of my conditions flaring up.
I have it good at my current job, but I just can’t handle it anymore, even with how much they are accommodating me. At least for the time being. I might be able to return to the workforce in the future. Only time will tell.
I am hoping that I don’t have to stay unemployed forever. I hope this is a temporary thing, whether it be a year, 5 years, or 10 years. I hope to be able to work again in the future.
Good luck! May I ask what state you live in? and do you have state, or temporary disability your docs can put you on while you are waiting for SSDI to kick in? I’m in California and that’s what I did and it really helped out financially.
I don’t have any issues other than my schizoaffective disorder. I’ve been in the hospital several times during the first two years. For the years after that, voluntary crisis care was my alternative to hospitalization. Then I stopped needing even that and it’s been over two years since I used either service.
But the disability is purely for the sza. I hear voices also, I know not everyone does.
