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.

Exactly

I've been an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital for nearly six months and signed off work coming up a year.
My husband has taken on everything at home including caring for our adult child with additional needs.
I hope I'm not broken, although recovery is tough. It's not a race to the bottom and I have sympathy for anyone struggling with mental ill health. But I've been so unwell, that I just couldn't have pushed through and continued to work.

What a load of shit. For a start who the fuck do you think would give them a job?

Once more, people are not signed off, quit work because they 'have anxiety and depression.' They are not working because the anxiety and depression they have has left them without the capacity to work.

Some people with MS can work. Some people with MS can't. Nobody is claiming that because some people with MS can work then all should?

Can you give an example of those countries?

OP's very quiet?

Anyway I'm leaving this thread now as they never do any good.

I have a mental illness and have to work full time. It's shite!!

We are meant to be living in large groups, growing food, raising families and listening to our bodies. Not stuck in traffic, paying extortionate amounts for food literally grown in the earth, to make some rich cunt even richer!!

I'm not a hippy, I promise.

Yep I am with you. I regularly cry in the car on the way to work.

I hope you do get there though I know recovery is really hard. I was off work for 15 months.

Just waiting for the usual 'My cousins next door neighbours 3rd cousin removed dog walkers sisters hairdresser claims benefits and she has a Porsche on mobility and they get £847448485992992 a week and has a fLaT sCrEeN tV and sMaRtPhOnE and they live in a cOuNciL hOuSe and there's nothing wrong with her, she says she has anxiety yet she hosts parties on her yacht in the Caribbean and goes running 45383 miles every morning'

I have been diagnosed with cptsd, with linked anxiety and depression. I have no other way to pay for my bills unless I work. I have been signed off multiple times, am on meds and have a therapist weekly.

I feel like shit some days on my way to work, crying, anxiety attacks, having a bit of a meltdown.

It really makes me feel proud of myself that I go in, regardless of how I'm feeling. I know I would be feeling a million times worse if I was just sat in at home, day in and day out. I wouldn't be helping myself though if I did this. I've done it and it made me feel so much worse.

Yes it's hard to do, and yes it takes all my strength and willpower to park my car up and walk through the door to work. But afterwards, when my day is done, I'm really proud of myself for doing it. And that little win means the world to me. I've provided for my family. I've forced myself out of my comfort zone. And no matter what people have done in the past, they can do nothing to stop me winning my little wins.

That is a huge thing for me.

I agree with this

I hear you OP. And it's shit like rishi is touting that makes people with anxiety and other MH issues ridiculed and not taken seriously because they are so demonised.

Honestly I'm just about hanging on... adhd and asd that I'm left hanging on endless waitlists for help with. Crippling anxiety and panic attacks. Fighting for an ASD assessment got for dd while she spends most days screaming at me.
Working full time, on a income my parents could only dream of (although still woefully low by NM six figure standards!) but everything has gone up so much we have a lower standard of living than my parents did. The roof needs to be fixed and I just can't afford to do it.

DH (30s) is newly chronically ill with a heart condition that could well seriously disable or kill him. Currently in hospital again now so I'm holding everything else together for me, 2 dc, the cat, the house and still be reasonably professionally capable. Trying to help my mum out because despite being genuinely unwell with spinal issues she doesn't qualify for PIP because she can make toast so she's having to struggle on working more than she can really manage.

My sister in her twenties has cancer.

But if I mention anxiety, depression, adhd, ASD you can almost guarantee someone will say 'oh every one has that!' or 'well you must be fine because you've got a job'.

Anxiety and daily panic attacks. I also work full time with 2 kids and a crippling London mortgage.
I would love not to have to work and think my mental health would be much better for it.

Are those that currently receiving PIP not worried though that the increasing predicted levels of claimants may mean that everyone receiving PIP has to share the same overall budget, so you will end up with a lot less? If not how would it be funded if you expect to have inflationary increases and support more people claiming if more people are out of work than in work? I'm not saying people are claiming that are not entitled to claim, but it doesn't come across as sustainable that money into the system is decreasing whilst money out increases? So what would be cut back instead? Schools are on their knees, NHS is apparently on its knees, infrastructure is appalling.

I think you’re being unreasonable. Also, if you do actually end up having a proper breakdown, I guarantee you will not be able to continue to work.
There are people on psychiatric wards who have children and responsibilities and who used to work full-time. But the truth is, you’re not as ill as they are. There are people who snap and who can genuinely no longer work. But you’re not as ill as they are.
If you have a proper breakdown then you will end up not being well enough to work. You will Have. No. Choice.
You’re fortunate to not be that unwell, and if you think you’re verging on it then you must seek help.

I completely agree. I feel sick with anxiety driving to work and my job as a secondary school teacher is incredibly stressful. I’ve also lost my partner through cancer 7 years ago and have two teenagers. There’s no way I can give up work. How would I pay for things? My cousin, the same age as me has never worked and gets PIP due to mental health-bipolar which she declines treatment for. She admits herself she’s far more contented than me.

Absolutely agree and from his recent comments so does the prime minister, lots of people with really bad anxiety and other mental health problems work, for many it helps keep some degree of normality and control

I think like most things it’s more complicated than that.

I have a friend who suffered from severe anxiety for years, he had to drop out of medical school, his life was a disaster for years. 10 years on he’s done a huge amount of work, off all the many medications he was on. He also has a great employer who helps him keep on top of it.

What I’m saying is for the majority of people it’s not a final diagnosis and I think some people act like it is. I have anxiety and that’s it forever. Obviously some people won’t get over it but lots will with the correct support (which obviously is hard to get) and putting in the work themselves.

I do know someone who treats it like a final diagnosis, hasn’t worked for 20 years, sits up watching tv all night, sleeps all day. Eats crap. Basically she won’t do anything to help turn things around. The worst of it she tries to push the behaviours onto her children, luckily her eldest pushed back and has done well for herself.

In todays episode of ‘Race to the Bottom’……

YANBU, I am sending you a hug and

When you don’t work, or you’re used to everything in your life being topped up or subsidised, it’s easy to lose sight of what working full time, paying market rates for everything & claiming nothing looks like.

And the fact is if we all give in to depression and anxiety then who the fuck will pay the benefits then? People on here seem to think money doesn’t exist, or that it’s infinite. They’re mad

I think we've got the problem on it's head here. We need to stop looking at individuals as broken, we need to look at society, modern life, that is whats broken and it's making far to many of us sick.

I hope you are not broken too, best wishes 💐

And to add to that, tbh I think a lot of mental health is a very first world condition these days and if everyone threw their smartphones in the bin they’d be surprised how much their MH improved