Hi,
Not been on here for a while so thought I'd give you an update
I joined this site when I was homeless last year and living in a bed and breakfast, I'd previously been in 2 shared houses, my anxiety was so bad in the first shared house that I once sat in my room for 9 hours needing the toilet because one of my housemates was downstairs and I physically couldn't walk out of the door.
Things were very bad in the bed and breakfast, I became very reclusive and was having very frequent meetings with my mental health worker.
In January this year the council gave me a flat after I won a housing appeal thanks to the amazing support of my g.p and mental health worker.
I had an atos medical for e.s.a in February and I decided to start claiming j.s.a and not appeal my medical which I knew I was going to fail even with my mental health worker there with me. I felt I needed to try and get myself back out there, I was sleeping a lot and spent nearly everyday in front of the television, my anxiety was better than it had been but my depression was so much worse.
I was lucky enough to get a part time cleaning job at the local hospital in April, unfortunately due to a knee injury I only worked there for about 4 weeks but having to spend time around people and to have to make conversation was great for me, I have suffered very badly from social phobia but I found that once I was in that environment I could be someone else if that makes sense, I was someone doing a job not just a person, it gave me more self confidence.
At the beginning of July I was offered a full time administrator position typing reports for an asbestos company, within a month I had been promoted to run a department dealing with annual asbestos re-inspections. The girl who ran it was leaving to go to university and she recommended me to replace her. I started training in August with a 3 week handover and am know running the department. I have to deal with all the jobs for the surveyors, deal with all our clients which are mainly pubs and shops and delegate typing jobs to the admin staff.
I have an appointment for a prescription review with my g.p a week on Monday and I feel it's time for me to reduced my medication slowly, been on 45mg of mirtazipine for a couple of years now.
I hope my story has given a little hope to some people, I never thought I would be able to go back to work again, I originally left a full time job after 7 years due to anxiety and it got so much worse when I wasn't working. I know it's not the same for everyone but for me forcing myself to go outside and doing something did help me, it was hard and scary but for me, necessary.
Take care
Cheryl
x
Reply With Quote
