Does your job define you?

[2ApplesShortOfABasket]

I am currently in a position of being off work due to ill health.

With my current health concerns, I am facing a real prospect of needing to leave the profession. My doctor believes that workplace stress/habits have contributed significantly to where I am now.

I am stuck. I am very proud of my profession but accept that it is having a negative impact on my health. I just feel like I am losing my whole identity. The job is all consuming and I have had little time to pursue personal pleasures outside of work and looking after my children.

Has anyone else been through this and come out the other side?

I haven't mentioned my profession as it is subject to much debate and I don't want to get into that. I just want to know how to find my identity again.

Yes, unfortunately. My partner thinks I'm obsessed but I'm not, I just work in a very toxic environment, that now consumes my every thought, even asleep I have nightmares about the place.

I wish I could leave, but it's not as simple as handing my notice in, I'm a director with absolutely zero power, and I'm watching the place fall around me, with no way of stopping it, and I'm petrified they'll take me down with them. My mental health is awful.

I wish you all the very best OP, I hope you find a way through this.

I am sobsorry that you are going through this too @Itsvalentino

My family and friends keep telling me to walk away, but like you, it's not as easy as that.

No work does not define me. It is something I do to pay my mortgage and fund my lifestyle. Albeit I am a professional and fairly senior. I work in a place where I can see that’s it defines many people in my team. It’s been my personal choice not to let that happen.

Are you a teacher?

I'm a teacher and totally get it. It defines your life, you move in the cycles of the holidays, and for lots of us it was a vocation.