my psychiatrist the one time we talked about it, said that i’m totally and permanently disabled. my dad said the doctor also recommended that i get social security disability benefits (which i’m currently on), back when i was first dealing with all my illness.
my therapist said she isn’t shy about telling people who get benefits when it’s time for them to get a real job and off benefits. and she said i’m not one of those people. she said she dont think i can work full time, and it’s not recommended to even try.
but i feel like i’m the only one who really knows if i can work full time. most of the time it’s fifty fifty whether i think i can do it. but it’s not a zero percent chance, which is significant. i feel like i could probably do it most of the time, but i try to look at my symptoms objectively and say fifty fifty.
even if my odds of success is eighty percent, that’s still a big risk to take to lose my benefits and then be helpless.
i work two days a week, but sometimes wonder if i can do that, maybe i can do more.
it’s all about a guilty conscious that if i can, i should. i really dont want to, though.
should i stop being so scrupulous and stop worrying about the idea of working full time?
You wont know unless you try. Dont let others limit your life and tell you what to do. My psychiatrists all said that I should give up completing my university degree, 5 remaining semesters. Now I have my degree and I had very good grades in some courses. I tried working but it was too much stress and I quit work by myself after up to a month. But on Latuda I was able to work during the 9 months I was on it, it was a low stress accounting job at my mother’s accounting office. The boss is my mother’s friend.
Stress is the killer for me. I work three days a week (less than that at the moment).
Don’t be afraid to push yourself, but you need to know your limits and your warning signs. If things start to go pear shaped, back off. You MIGHT slip back into psychosis without any insight, which is not good, I don’t have any advice here, but others might.
I agree with @Pat6398. It’s about stress. If you can do it it’s all good but stress for me means paranoia and it becomes something too hard to deal with.
I Think it’s cool your therapist wants to push you to do better but sz is serious and it’s not something you want to gamble on.
I’m on SSDI. I tried working full time and couldn’t support myself. I had gotten off my benefits but when I couldn’t work full time I got back on them.
So maybe you could call and ask Social Security what would happen if you tried working full time but didn’t succeed.
Because I was told that Social Security will keep your case on their rolls for awhile so that if you need it again they will automatically reinstate you without having to go through the whole process of starting over from scratch and having to start the process of getting benefits from the very beginning. You could call whatever agency you’re going through and ask about this.
I could only work for 32 hours a week as the janitor/stock clerk in my aunt-in-law’s convenience store. I tried the cashier job but couldn’t handle dealing with the people. I did this for something like 15 years while I lived with my mom. After my aunt-in-law retired the new manager put me on the register, and I quit after a month or so.
I worked two part-time jobs for a long time, though at one time I was working full-time at one job and just two evenings per week at a second job. It’s very difficult for people like us. I’m currently working nowhere near enough hours at just one job, but I am looking to replace it with a full-time job. I’m supposed to be getting an interview for one, something I could possibly turn into a real career, fingers crossed that I get it and can handle it.
Like @77nick77 said, check with Social Security and see what your options are for attempting full-time work. I think you get a trial period, in which case I’d say try it, but if it’s too much for you do not be afraid to scale back to part-time. Make sure doing so would be an option with the employer.
You should do activities that brings you joy. Forget about the job! Lump a couple of things that you enjoy into a daily routine. If you still cant fill your day then look at volunteering for your community
You get a total of 9 months to try a full time job and keep your benefits. You could always try it and if it doesn’t work out, just report to social security that you are no longer working and need to keep your benefits.
I’ve only have about five years to go until I can draw retirement Social Security. I can draw a pension from my employer I had back when I was in my twenties in three years when I turn 65.