How to deal with bipolar disorder and getting a job?

Question

I apologize for the length of this. There are about three different problems tangled up in here. Read the first and last paragraph for a summary.

I've recently been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. I've always had trouble perceiving "reality", so to speak, and gauging my reactions to things. I tend to either blow events out of proportion, or not respond to situations that really require responding to.

Right now, I'm 27 and have just gone back to college after a long furlough. I have two years left until I finish my undergraduate degree, and am in a school where I can use some of my higher credits towards both my undergraduate and my graduate degree, so I should have a graduate degree- if all goes well- by the time I'm 30.

The problem is, I need a job to support myself. My Mom has been very generous with supporting me in school for the past year (I've been taking 18 credits every semester, and she sends me $800 for every month that I am in school), but she is also bipolar, and much more severely so than me. I am always afraid of losing her financial support, as she threatens to cut off support whenever we have a disagreement about anything. She was supporting my 19-year-old brother through school, but cut off his support in November, because he voted for a different candidate than her (so did I, but I haven't told her that). (Just to give perspective, she recently married a very well-off man, and it is my stepfather who is essentially supporting my education, but she writes the checks.)

Okay- So, bottom line. I really, really want to support myself and stop getting support from my Mom. My personality kills me everytime I go in for a job interview, though. I try to be "natural" and "myself", but i'm starting to think that that may be just about the worst thing for a "functional" bipolar person to do. I'm willing to do any kind of work (except the world's oldest profession). I am very responsible and hardworking when I get into a work environment, but I've also been called "The Absent Minded Professor" by coworkers more times than I can count. I speak four languages (English, French, Spanish, and Mandarin) fluently, but on a bad day my mind confuses them, and I start speaking (essentially) in Ezra Pound cantos. I am also, most of the time, a very good writer (this question is not an example:), but when I get depressed I can barely put two words together. It's almost like a gap opens between the synapses of my brain. When I apply for jobs, about fifty percent of the time, I actually get called in for an interview on the basis of my resume. In the actual interview, though, I come off as either "unbalanced" or "unstable" (actual terms used). The weird thing is, I feel normal when I'm giving the interview, and most of the time think they went well. Is there any way to correct my perception or my reactions to these situations? I am really, really, really past an acceptable stage of relying on my parents, and I will take any advice.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

I don't understand what you're going through myself, but my sister, she's twenty-nine now, she's bipolar and she's struggled with this. Is still struggling, every day.
Annie, that's her name, started having problems in her early twenties. She was studying journalism and loved it. She loved her life and was very excited about everything. She would talk and talk and tell everything about internships, classes, essays.
Then, one day, absolutely out of nowhere, Annie tried to kill herself. One night she just swallowed one too many pills. Thank God, she was supposed to meet a friend that night, and when she didn't show up, her friend got concerned and called us. We found her in time.
Everyone was astonished: Annie? The happy 'I-love-my-life' Annie? Trying to kill herself? Turns out, that Annie felt depressed a lot. Some days, she wouldn't ever get out of bed. And she didn't know why.
My oldest brother's a psychiatrist and soon hooked her up to see someone. A while later, came the diagnosis: Manic-Depression.
Annie's highs were really high. She was extremely productive, she wrote, the researched, she couldn't stop. She shopped, she exercised. And her lows, were really low. She wouldn't get out of bed, she felt sick and distraught, she felt useless and that no one cared about her. She was scared, too. She didn't know what was going on with her.
She started some meds and they worked very well. She got a job at a magazine, doing what she loved. She was happy, engaged, everything was great. She felt normal again.
Then, her body got too used to the medicine. It didn't work anymore. Her fiancée went away and she got back to that dark, dark place. Luckily, she then understood her disease and wasn't alone. She moved back to my parents' house. She had to quit her job, though. She couldn't go to work, was completely irritable to deal with anyone. Even her mania spikes were full of pain and rage.
She went back to the psychiatrist and he gave her the best advice he could ever have give:? to focus her mania on something profitable. Not necessarily financial, but something for herself.
She started freelancing. And it's amazing. She would have mania crisis and write for says, non stop. She sold 35 pieces in A WEEK.
She had all this free time and show would research and research and with the internet, she sold her pieces to all over the world. She was writing about *everything* she could get her hands on.
She started some new meds and she's doing much better now. She hasn't come back to work -- she decided to get her masters, in psychology. She still freelances, even though she isn't dependent on the money (we have good trust funds). She found something she can do for herself. Even her former fiancée came back (but that's another story).
Why am I telling you all this? (And sorry for the length). Because I've seen it, I've seen with my own eyes what bipolarity does to people. I've seen them down and I've seen them up. I've seen them struggling and getting frustrated because nothing worked. And I've seen them getting better. And it's possible, I promise.
Listen, if you're interested, email me personally here and I'm sure she would agree that I put you in touch with her.
I wish you the best of luck. Be strong. Hang in there.

Answer 2

It sounds to me like you could use the help of a therapist to work on your perceptions and how to better present yourself. You seem like an articulate, intelligent person, but sometimes people don't see that if you are having an "off" day with bipolar disorder, and nobody can control when their "on" and "off" days are going to come and go. I know you said you're strapped for cash, relying on your parents, but does your school offer mental health services? Some universities offer them for free as a student service for anyone enrolled full-time, and sometimes part-time. Also, you can visit the crisis center in your area, and they will give you free mental health counseling.

Best of luck in finding a counselor and a job!

Answer 3

First things first. You can be yourself without the troubling symptoms but it will take some work and sacrifice. Medication is so useful. Bi-polar, like depressive disorders results from an imbalance in the brains neurotransmitters. So, of course you feel normal- but if the rest of the world is giving you different feedback then things are not as normal as it feels.
If you think about it this way, medication allows you to functions without some of the most difficult symptoms, like anxiety, racing thoughts or confusion. In that medicated state you can learn the skills you need to create boundaries for yourself, a reasonable schedule. You can create healthy living trough proper nutrition, exercise and rest. As you pull your life skills together with medication you get a sense of what normal thinking really is.

Bipolar is treatable and you can function in everyday life with everyday stress. You can be independent and invested in your self care. Bottom line is you have to take the steps to do it.

Source(s):

http://www.health.com/health/library/top…

Answer 4

You're obviously very bright, so I wonder if you're shooting too low. It sounds like your self-esteem is sound, and you have really good insight into yourself. Generally, the business world is quite conservative in who it hires, while public service careers and help giver careers are less judgmental. That would include jobs like teacher, social worker, therapist, and other state, city, and nonprofit jobs. In the private sector, you might have skills to be an editor, a proofreader, a translator, as someone who typed and made presentations for a white collar firm, all jobs that require relatively little interaction with others.

As far as your personality goes, you should see a therapist and a psychiatrist. The mood swings can be managed with drugs, though you should patient until you find a regimen that really works for you, perhaps one without side effects. The problem aspects of your personality, a therapist could help you with. If there are character traits that might be off-putting, they should be easy enough to identify and manage. But, my guess is you're pretty cool person who simply needs to find the right work environment. Good luck.

Answer 5

Find an easy job that doesn't require a lot of concentration or thought OR go get SSDI.

Answer 6

I too have Bipolar Disorder and 3 years ago in the middle of a mania I walked out on my job. The following months were filled with interviews...... I was myself at each and every one and I swear in 4 months I must have gone to over 100....... It got really depressing..... I felt like I was defective and no one would want to hire me..... I had been working with a temp agency and they called me one day and said they had a job they had been trying to fill for months but could not find anyone that the employer liked. They said I wasn't quite qualified for the job but they were running out of candidates and would I like to interview..... "Sure" I said... thinking here comes another rejection....... I finished the interview at 2:15 and they called me at 2:30 and hired me. It is the best job I have ever had and I have never been happier. Moral of this long story (lol).... be yourself. You will face the same issues after you complete your degree too....... keep trying. perseverance pays off.

Source(s):

Life