Schizophrenia takes a lot of sacrifice, compromises, and means striking a balance.
You may have to give up on a high power or lucrative job.
Personally, I’ve been working almost 40 years but I will take any job I can get. I was raised with a good work ethnic which means I respect any labor job and any honest job.
I really didn’t have any big dreams when I became schizophrenic at age 19. I couldn’t function for about the first two years and really didn’t have any goals. I just went along with the program and my parents were helping me so when they got me in a group home when I was 19 I was depending on them to make decisions for me in regards to my recovery.
So after a year at the group home I was psychotic as ever and my parents did the things that they thought were best for me and so I they got me into a long term hospital and I ended up spending 8 months in there at ages 20-21. I got out and 9 months later after a series of small steps I got a job in the community cleaning hot tubs and doing maintenance at a popular hot tub facility when those were big in the eighties and early nineties.
Stayed there four years while still being pretty mentally ill and addicted to crack and moving around pretty often. Now I’m 59 and looking back on working 40 years at any job I could get. So I’ve washed dishes, been a park ranger, unloaded trucks, stocked shelves, cooked, been a caregiver for my 11 year old nephew( might have been my most difficult job), I’ve recycled and moved furniture and a few others. I’ve been at my current janitor job 7 years.
I didn’t need any experience to get those jobs and they didn’t pay much but it was honest work that bought me new CD’s, nice clothes, gas for the car and I’ve usually eaten pretty well.
You may have bigger dreams than me and I wouldn’t tell anyone to give up on their dreams but it helps to be realistic. Some people on here have really cool jobs so it’s good to persevere. But like I said, schizophrenia is all about compromise, sacrifice and striking a balance between how your illness affects you and your career choice.
You might just have to swallow your pride and get a job that is not prestigious. Just something that brings in money but is not too complicated. I mean nobody told me I couldn’t work so that’s just what I do.
Those first two years I didn’t function but I got government benefits because I had worked enough to qualify for disability. So I collected benefits for a while without working. When an opportunity came up to work I took it and now I work part time and collect SSDI.
IDK, you just got to really weigh your options carefully and maybe not aim too high. Anyways, I wish you good luck and just keep persevering. I’ll leave you with this, having schizophrenia ain’t the end of the world, we still have choices. Just avoid drinking and drugs and take your medication as prescribed and those things will be a huge advantage in your recovery. Take care.