Employment with schizophrenia
- Thread starter 118118
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weltweit
Well-Known Member
I remember back when I was studying it was very important to me to try to get a 2.1 also, partly no mainly because all the very party hard crew on my degree looked like they would get 2.2s and I did not want to get lumped in with them after spending my 2 & 3 years working quite hard. In the end I did get a 2.1 and proudly printed it onto my CV but no one was interested, really no one, they employed me because I had a relevant degree and did OK during the interview.
ps: I don't know much at all about schizophrenia, can you take medication that keeps you stable or is that not possible?
ps: I don't know much at all about schizophrenia, can you take medication that keeps you stable or is that not possible?
118118 said:
I hear you. The trouble is you always get some tosser that will judge you no matter how ill you are, It's good you don't give a shit. I understand what you mean about the money side of it though. You do really have to get Disability living allowance to get a decent standard of living With high rate mobility, and high rate care, it's about £415.00 a month now, and thats on top of your income support, and other supplements.
It's only about £85 a month less for high care, and low mobility.(which insedently you don't necessarily have to be leg less or anything to get low rate mobility, just prove to them you have to have someone with you while your outside)
Again to be honest you have to know your way around filling the DLA forms out, and obviously have a doctor, or some sort of medical person back you up
with what you say.
They are making it harder to get now, so you always have to be a step ahead of them. Even with 'schizo affective disorder', I still don't get it for life, as they assume you will be fully controlled on the meds at some stage, therefore be able to lead a normal life. trouble is it doesn't work like that. So I always have to lay it on thick when filling out the forms.
With depression you especially need a doctor to back you up when applying for DLA, as it's one area where they are trying to clamp down on now the bastards! They don't realize how serious it can be for people, and how it can fuck your life up. Well, I suspect they do, but they don't give a toss because the government will always put money before people.
If you do decide to go down that route, then PM me if you need help with filling out a DLA form, and I will help. As I said though, make sure you get a Doc who will back you first though, as no matter what you put, it wont make any difference.
yeah i'm stable... ish, i am not at all violent. it tends not to go away comletely tho.
i'm not sure i understand tbh, i mean, you have to have got the interview in the first place. yeah, i think it will depend on if i want to mh, whether my degree is useful. not sure if that will be the case at the mo.
i'm not sure i understand tbh, i mean, you have to have got the interview in the first place. yeah, i think it will depend on if i want to mh, whether my degree is useful. not sure if that will be the case at the mo.
weltweit said:
It depends on the individual. Most do get quite well stabilized on meds, but with some it can take years, even then you can still have relapses. also, if you don't have someone to keep an eye on you, you can stop taking your meds, thinking you don't need them anymore, then you don't realize when you get ill again.
Others are lucky, they can lead perfectly normal lives once controlled with the meds. Me? Well I'm ok most of the time, Lets just say I'm now downgraded to eccentric. lol. That's providing I don't get too stressed, Then I can apparently get quite weird.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Re getting the interview ..
If the type of work you are going for does not require a formal application form then just do not mention your grade at all, mention the degree of course and if you won any special awards or anything but just leave the grade out all together.
Remember that the purpose of a CV is to win an invitation to interview, nothing more, it is not a detailed life story.
CVs are just like a positive advert, there is only positive spin on them, not one negative word or anything that could be construed as negative.
Of course if we are honest we all know that we could easily write a negative spin CV because there would always be just as much material but the purpose of a CV is just to get them to agree to meet you and in CVs you have much more room to be creative than on standard type application forms.
If the type of work you are going for does not require a formal application form then just do not mention your grade at all, mention the degree of course and if you won any special awards or anything but just leave the grade out all together.
Remember that the purpose of a CV is to win an invitation to interview, nothing more, it is not a detailed life story.
CVs are just like a positive advert, there is only positive spin on them, not one negative word or anything that could be construed as negative.
Of course if we are honest we all know that we could easily write a negative spin CV because there would always be just as much material but the purpose of a CV is just to get them to agree to meet you and in CVs you have much more room to be creative than on standard type application forms.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
kampaman said:Insanity is just a natural adaption to an insane world.
Aint that the truth
We are living in a country where the prime minister lives in a house behind bullet proof glass, multiple barricades, armed police guards and almost razor wire, when he moves he does so in an armour plated limousine with security cars and what or whom is his greatest fear? it is a bearded man with just a single AK47 who lives in a cave at the other end of the world.
How much more bizzare could the world be?
the wierdest thing i experience, which is pretty much all the time, is feeling as if my thoughts and feelings originate outside oif me. they kinda, come at me. when i was worse, i expained that as a magical power of mine, that i was reading minds etc. luckily that explanation has gone away, and i would guess that you wouldn't be able to guess irl, unless you were quite sensitive.
hope that helps.
hope that helps.
weltweit said:
Can't answer for others, but voices yes, you think someone, or something is controlling you. To be honest my bad times are rather hazy. But when you have full blown schizophrenia, you completely lose touch with reality, and withdraw into a shell. I couldn't relate to anyone. I spent 6 months in the psych unit before they got me sorted.
If you have someone who's with you, and supporting you. you stand a much better chance of recovery than going it alone. Most people around you can't cope, and to be honest I don't blame them.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
118118 said:
Oh that is interesting.
I have had an experience I call 'dislocation' which is not too disimilar. I occasionally used to find myself looking at myself from the outside and I would ask myself "why are you doing or going to do that?" it would stop me in my tracks because I suddenly forgot why I was doing or was about to do whatever it was and I had to go back to basic reasons and argue with myself about why I was about to do something and was this really reality or not.
Quite a disconcerting feeling really, I am glad that for the time being it seems to have gone away.
weltweit said:
If you have worries, then get yourself checked by a shrink. They will have a good idea what's going on. Most of all if you have someone living with you that says your acting weird, but you don't believe them, then trust their judgment! I doubt you have any problems, but as I said, for the sake of a trip to the docs, it will give you peace of mind.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
kampaman said:
Aha, I have visited a psych ward myself with people who hear voices and I felt very sorry for them, seems a really nasty thing, I thought at first that they were just getting that voice in their heads that we all get, the voice of your conscience or your brain telling you little things as the day goes by but I know that in their case it was more serious than that. One woman called her voices the aliens, she used to say that she had an alien in her head, used to get very distressed.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
kampaman said:
Been there done that, I am a diagnosed manic depressive, I have been sectioned twice and spent a total of 4.5 months in mental hospitals, now free again and on medication which seems at the moment to be just right.
You are right about other peoples judgement, I cannot myself tell when I am getting manic. Well I am learning to actually, it may come that I can control it myself but mania is very seductive.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
kampaman said:It's a real bitch ain't it! Glad your sorted now. Thank god for modern drugs eh.
Thanks yes I seem to be sorted at the moment, the first time i argued with the psychiatrists to say this only happenned once so there is no evidence it will happen again, they were stumped and let me reduce my meds, and then it happenned again .. going into hospital is so destructive for my life .. I lost most of my customers the first time .. that now I figure i am on drugs for the duration / at least till I retire and thank goodness that these ones do not seem to have nasty side effects.
I knew nothing about mental health till 2004, now I know loads of people who have been affected, it has been an eye openner.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Back onto "employment with schizophrenia".
My feeling is that you should avoid at all costs any potential employer learning that you have schizophrenia. Once you have got the job or years later when they have realised what an asset you are to the company the situation may change.
When I was a lot younger I was sometimes responsible for recruiting people and often the people we invited for interview were all quite good so there seemed little to choose between them. I made an effort to try to be as fair as possible, and not to discriminate in any of the ways that we are not supposed to discriminate but in the end it was usually only small things that decided who got the job and who did not.
Back then if I had known that one candidate had any kind of mental health issues I simply would not have considered them seriously. That may be the wrong thing to do but honestly that is what I would have done.
Now I am job hunting again myself and I will be doing my utmost to keep any negative things about me secret from potential employers because I expect that they will in fact act the same ways as I used to.
My feeling is that you should avoid at all costs any potential employer learning that you have schizophrenia. Once you have got the job or years later when they have realised what an asset you are to the company the situation may change.
When I was a lot younger I was sometimes responsible for recruiting people and often the people we invited for interview were all quite good so there seemed little to choose between them. I made an effort to try to be as fair as possible, and not to discriminate in any of the ways that we are not supposed to discriminate but in the end it was usually only small things that decided who got the job and who did not.
Back then if I had known that one candidate had any kind of mental health issues I simply would not have considered them seriously. That may be the wrong thing to do but honestly that is what I would have done.
Now I am job hunting again myself and I will be doing my utmost to keep any negative things about me secret from potential employers because I expect that they will in fact act the same ways as I used to.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Life itself is stressful or rather it certainly can be.
I do think there may be less stress in a job that is enjoyable than in one that is not but I am an unashamed optimist, I tend to enjoy myself most of the time anyhow.
Perhaps avoiding jobs with high pressure would be how I would put it.
I do think there may be less stress in a job that is enjoyable than in one that is not but I am an unashamed optimist, I tend to enjoy myself most of the time anyhow.
Perhaps avoiding jobs with high pressure would be how I would put it.
