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I've been having a great time in my professional association. There's nothing like spending time with people who love to help others blossom. And it gives me such a high to work with top notch people on great projects.
My husband and I have been involved for most of a decade in one of the major mental health organizations. Every year we train people to live more successfully with their mentally ill relatives (we have two relatives disabled by mental illness). Every couple of years, we get invited to a reception or lunch recognizing volunteers.
But as for help with our own lives -- the part where I try to handle bipolar and my job and the ordinary life of an ordinary family with aging parents and siblings too far away -- well, the support groups aren't designed for that. They're designed for the ones who are disabled by their mental illness and for their relatives. I suppose it might help during our rare times of crisis.
So I checked out the support group sponsored by another organization. There, I heard working people advised to "take all the time they needed" away from their job to deal with a mental health crisis. And I thought ... no wonder the few working people in this room are almost all self-employed. Because I lost a corporate job after only three business days (six days total) in a psych hospital, which is pretty much a record around here for getting out after an involuntary commitment. If you can't get through it quickly-even if you can get through it quickly-you've got a problem explaining yourself at work.
The other organization doesn't have a support group locally. But they do have lots of government-funded programs for people disabled by their illnesses ... and workshops on things like stress ... and at those workshops they say they won't be talking about things like bipolar disorder because that's a serious and persistent mental illness.
I'm really energized to see three responses in less than 12 hours to my first post. I know there are millions of Ladies and Gentlemen Behind Masks who don't find a home in the existing support groups and discussion threads. I hope this can prove a fruitful place for discussing how we live as stigmatized people with gifts, talents, skills, and value to the world-and how we hide our stigma well enough to continue being contributors.
Best to all,
The Lady Behind the Mask
I posted to your other post and felt the need to comment to this one as well.
There are many social service type programs for those who receive disability payment for Bipolar, a lot out there actually (at least in my area). What is lacking though, are programs for those who do not receive disability payments, who work even if they might ought not to and yet work all the same.
Those of us who do somehow manage to hold down a job, whether self-employed/part-time/ or full time are no less in need of support programs as those of us who are receiving disability payment. There just isn't a vast degree of programs out there created or originated for those few of us.
For example: I've been suggested to by several folks over the last 3 years that perhaps DBT would assist me with my Bipolar illness. DBT was originally created for those with Borderline Personality Disorder but over the last several years has begun to be more and more helpful to those with Bipolar and other Mood Disorders.
I want to attend a DBT group, I do if it would indeed assist me, I do. The glitch is that they are normally every week for 10-12 weeks for 1.5-2 hour long sessions. Most of the ones in my area also require weekly sessions with a therapist separate from the group. This results in yet another hour long session in addition to the 1.5-2 hour group session, each week for 10-12 weeks.
They are expensive, if you don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare, do not have private insurance or can't afford the "patient pocket" costs if you have it, or are strictly self-paying. There are also very very very very very very few that are held outside the 8-5pm hours. So, what's a working girl with at times disabling Bipolar supposed to do?
Explain to employer that I have to be out of work for approximately 3 hours each week plus the driving time to attend DBT group to help maintain my stability over a longer period of time? Every single week for 10-12 weeks, someone will need to fill in and cover me for that time lost or I shorten my hours thus receive an even lessor paycheck cause my measly sick time would be used up in 4 of those weeks (got to figure in the Flu, child sickness, etc.. as well). This then sends up a red flag to the employer that I'm not dependable and possibly unstable for why else would I have the need to attend and I won't be there to do the work they hired me for.
Now, if I could actually get disability checks, and not have to punch a clock to work to earn that below needed income - I'd be perfectly fine to attend the groups, I'd be eligible for Medicaid and/or Medicare to help offset the charges, and all might be well. Yet, I work.
You see folks with Bipolar aren't expected to be able to function in society and contribute to society for it is a severe and persistent mental illness. Even though you may find someone with the disorder, who albeit is dysfunctional to a great degree and yet still manages to punch a clock every day (though jobs change quite often), those of us who struggle with work, family, illness, and personal battles - just isn't much help out there.
If we disclose to the employers our need, the very real possibility of not being employed any longer comes to be extremely real and well... derailment is but a short span down the Bipolar track because of it. We then fulfill the sterotypical and stigmatized image of being unstable, unemployable, dysfunctional, and incapable.