People who work have anxiety too

[Fedupandgrump]

Anyone else on the verge of a breakdown with work, kids, mortgage and cost of living?

I’ve read a lot of threads recently about people with mental health conditions worried about being forced into employment when they feel as though they would not be able to cope. Whilst I sympathise, it’s come at a time where I am completely overwhelmed, burnt out and wonder how the fuck I’m going to get through the week. I treat myself to a half hour sob in Sainsburys car park every couple of days and I wake up every morning with dread, fear and anxiety about what the day will hold. However, I go and work because I. Have. No. Choice. I have two kids and a mad dog that relies on me and my husband to keep our shit together and a roof over our heads. Every day I can feel my heart racing and I feel permanently like I’m in fight or flight mode and I wonder if this is going to lead to a premature heart attack in my 30’s.

I sometimes feel like people who don’t work due to poor mental health thinks those of us who do work, are suffering less than them. I know IAMBU but I can’t help the way I feel at the minute.

As a data person, I love you

I'd also like to make the point that a lot of older people out of work, have worked most of their lives, and paid their taxes.

The fact they're now ill and needing help from that system is how it is meant to work, they paid in, now they benefit.

Excellent post @Octavia64. Very informative and interesting. Thank you.

The people who were able to carry on because they, "Had no choice", have clearly never suffered severe mental illness.

I've had a diagnosed anxiety disorder for decades and although it was horrific to manage, I was able to go to work and function. Then I had a breakdown, which was completely random and not triggered by anything in particular.

There is no WAY I could have gone to work. I didn't care if I lived or died. I didn't care if my children lived or died. I was completely unaware of anything around me. I couldn't move, walk, sleep, eat. I wasn't able to function on a very basic level, never mind get ready, go to work and carry out a job. It's laughable to suggest that I had a choice.

Thankfully, with lots of help, I'm OK enough now to work again.

I do think that people's ideas of what real mental illness is have been influenced by social media. Too many people claim to have an anxiety disorder when they are feeling normal feelings of anxiousness. It's completely different. And it's making it harder for those who are really suffering and who absolutely could not work.

The government messaging on this is very misleading, most people signed off with anxiety and depression have these as a secondary condition - over a million out of the 1.3 million they talked about.

Another thing.

(Am pretty much at the end of my own particular rope so my filters are wearing thin).

What ARE the root causes of declining mental health?

After years of research, we have:

Faulty brain wiring.
Faulty brain chemistry.
Trauma.
Organic brain disease.
Environmental factors.
Lack of resilience 🙄
Brain injury.
Additives?
UPFs?

There are no magic bullets or pills. If you can access support it's a case of keeping throwing stuff like medication and "therapy" until hopefully something sticks. It's a long slow slog, and is demoralising and often counter intuitive for people who just want to feel "normal" or function "normally" and who don't have a concept of what this fabled "normal" is because they've never experienced it.

Normal in our times is constant striving, constant aspiration, constant money making. Family connections, community, fun and hope? All sacrificed to the Gods of capitalism and profit. Human value is measured solely in monetary terms. When people crack mentally do we ask why, really? No, we turn it back on them and frame it as lack of personal responsibility, our duty is to get on with it and not be a burden.

Human suffering is turned into political point scoring in an already atomised and fractured society. People lose hope.

Costs are artificially manipulated by the markets, which are not magical organic entities - humans control them for their own ends, and those without a direct stake are at the mercy of them.

And what do we do? We turn on each other, griping about unfairness because we can't believe don't want to believe, are told we shouldn't believe that those in power could possibly be doing anything to retain it and increase it. Which takes money.

Capitalism is a carefully crafted pyramid scheme.

All of these things are factors in the rise of poor mental health. Will there be jam tomorrow? I think not.

This has to be the worst Tory campaign I’ve ever known. You’re taking the piss. Why cry on Sainsbury car park, get your shop delivered then you can cry in the comfort of your own home. Now fuck off Sunak, you pint sized looser.

What ARE the root causes of declining mental health?

Risk factors for poor mental health (especially in women) also include various kinds of abuse, being a care leaver, and the menopause.
If you feel your job and home are at risk, if thats the background to your life day after day then you don't need mindfulness or CBT. You need a feeling of security.

If anyone actually wants to do something about the mental health crisis, then we need to tackle abuse, male violence, and reduce the amount of completely unnecessary stress people are placed under.

🙄

But they’ve always been around, actually we have far more awareness and support than any time in history.

This reflects the fact that it's hard to get benefits for anxiety and depression, the GP might sign someone off but the DWP will do their own medical assessments and they're notoriously tough.

Yes.
There is the socially acceptable diseases, which are milder. We would be OK with having a close friend with OCD or even PTSD. They might deserve help with their family.
Generally, people are fine with depression in theory of not reality.
People will avoid anyone with paranoid schizophrenia and consider them undeserving and that stigma can be worse than the disease.

It makes sense that depression and anxiety is often secondary to another condition. Friend is going blind. It makes her depressed and anxious and she is not working at the moment. Many physical illnesses and disabled cause depression and anxiety as people adjust to their new situation.

Ok, I've come back to apologise (haven't fully caught up though as I haven't got time) to anyone I've upset with my don't worry about cleaning comments. Of course I realise that if lack of cleaning is becoming a health hazard something needs to be done. Or even if you just want a cleaner. I have never once said people shouldn't get money though, so I hope posters will withdraw that accusation.

I still feel my wider point was missed or ignored though. I do think as a society we should lower the bar. We put so much pressure on ourselves and society puts so much pressure on us. We live in a society were we 'must have' and we 'must do'. We, and worse, our kids, are constantly bombarded with images of 'perfect'. It serves us no good, or at least, that's what I think.

Apologies again to those I've offended. I never once said you shouldn't get money, aren't sick, should work, or anything else like that people want to throw at me. All I said, or certainly was my intention, was people should worry less about cleaning/gardening. Perhaps I could have put it better though.

@Sweden99 Yes, since my dh has been diagnosed with Psychosis amongst other things, I've realised some people have no sympathy for certain mental illnesses. I've actually been told by a close family member that's "it's just because he doesn't want to go to work". Others have actually confused it with being psychopathic, which is an entirely different issue. My best friend keeps asking what "is up" with him as he looks "strange" and I now haven't seen any of my family, who all live a 10 minute drive away for over 6 months. No one ever visits us. We no longer get invited to family occasions as he is classed as an embarrassment. Before his illness, we were part of a big, sociable family, we've just been dumped by everyone. It's certainly true that when you go through rough times, you soon find out who your friends are. Although, when he had cancer a few years ago, they were all over us, couldn't do enough to help etc I think the word "psychosis" must be what frightens people away.

years ago most people would say they were a bit down, depressed, fed up. Now it’s I suffer from anxiety. Yes, many people have bad mental health, but the jump from being fed up to a diagnosis of ‘anxiety’ is very often made these days. I’m not sure it’s helpful.

I was a Magistrate for 10 years and the vast (over 95%) of low level anti social offences such as public disorders, common assaults, domestic violence, shoplifting etc were committed by people without jobs, many of whom were mid twenties plus and had never worked. And I only remember one in all those years who didn’t claim anxiety/depression as a mitigating factor. Punishments were tricky because fines could only be taken at £5 per week from benefits and you couldn’t fine above what couldn’t be repaid within a year. Probation were helpless to organise courses or unpaid work because they couldn’t push someone who claimed a MH disorder unless they were willing.

You may think I’m being really discriminatory or unfair by saying this but I’m not, they are the facts. I used to volunteer at a church where a payback team worked (those who did unpaid work as part of their sentence) and there were so many who enjoyed it, looked like they had a purpose, whether it was gardening, decorating or just helping. They would leave with a spring in their step.

My point is, perhaps low level anxiety and depression can be alleviated by doing a degree of work. Maybe part time and supplemented accordingly to get them back on track? It’s got to be better than the status quo?

Absolutely people with low level anxiety and depression should be encouraged to work but their not the ones the government are talking about their coming at people on pip. Nobody is awarded pip for low level anxiety and depression alone

i had seven months off work after being diagnosed with PTSD following a serious sexual assault, my symptoms included panic attacks, visual and tactile hallucinations, and crippling fear of the dark. I was not "playing the mental health card" and the only money I got was sick pay. I was lucky to have a very understanding employer who was able to find me a new role, I could not have resumed my old job as it involved being out and about which was something I simply could no longer cope with. I was lucky to get a new role, my support worker told me that a lot of people who had been through similar stuff to me never went back to work, they were too traumatised. I hope my story illustrates how varied and complex the causes and consequences of mental ill health are. Please please don't generalise, and please don't buy into the poplulist narrative that we are all skivers living the high life at the tax payers expense.

Thank you, very good point!

So go off sick then and apply for UC? FFS.

And you think people on benefits don’t?

Can't bring myself to read the thread as I know it will wind me up. Someone very close to me is on certain disability benefits due to severe mental health illness that has required hospitalisation from a teenager. Very much needed benefits. The mark of a civilised society is looking after our vulnerable.
Op if you are feeling that bad do you need to seek help? I don't think not having a job and being unable to work is something you should be feeling jealous of ?

Yes, it can. Certain mild or temporary anxieties, stress and depression can be worked through. I was widowed last year, and I had all three conditions.

But, I knew it was a natural reaction to losing my DH, that grief was a natural process, and it would ease. Which it has.

If I had still been working (retired), I possibly could have been signed off of work for a few weeks.

But, I would not have been able to claim PIP - the criteria’s are totally different.

Many people work with PIP, but it’s for the extra costs of a long term disability.

ESA criteria and that of PIP are different.🙂

One more time for the terminally hard of thinking: PIP is not an out of work benefit.

People are not "getting signed off and going on PIP." That's not what it is. You think people are quitting their jobs to exist on 428 quid a month (enhanced daily living component)?

I'm so bloody sick of hearing this.