Letting everyone down

[Weepingskies]

I’ve been off work for the better part of a year with depression and I’m so ashamed. There’s no way I could have worked for most of it (had a six month admission under the mental health act for one thing!) but I feel so guilty. I also haven’t been right at home and feel so bad for my sons and husband that they’re having to deal with this. I’ve got a superb mental health team who’ve given me so much support and still having ECT as an outpatient which is helping… but I just can’t see a way forward and a way to get back to work and stop being so useless. Has anyone got any encouraging stories of how they’ve found a way back? I know the solution lies with me and I just need to pull myself together but it’s so so hard.

What about volunteering as a stepping stone? Perhaps a charity shop, or even a reader in a local school. It’s a good way to get ‘out there’ without the pressure of an actual job.

I'm 7 weeks from my worst ever crisis and slowly building up trust in myself, I've tried to rest for the last few weeks but like you I now need to move on with life, the world didn't stop and I have now come out of this period with a big to do list and the idea of that seems unsupmountable.

Wishing you well.