For those of you who have stopped working because of your illnesses...

[Brooke89]

How do you spend your days? Do you have a pattern of peaks/troughs each day? Do you struggle to leave the house? I have been off work close to a year now and am interested to from people in a similar situation. Thank you 🙂

[white knight]

Hi Brooke,  welcome

Yes, August 2013 I went to work in my own business and knew it would be my last day. An overwhelming feeling of knowing my career was at an end.

My wife and I both have depression and I have bipolar 2 and dysthymia and anxiety I conquered a while back.

I'm lucky, I have hobbies and am a bit of a handyman. I love my motorcycle and we go camping every few weeks, seek out the free camping spots etc.

Sleep is important so we decided I'd sleep and wake up naturally when I wake up. A CPAP machine ensure my sleep apnea doesnt effect me now. Sound sleep is good.

Early last year I found this forum and have been on it ever since. My life experiences is pretty vast so I spend time here where us birds of a feather flock together lol. We live in a rural area which I highly recommend for those city dwellers that need calm and cant tolerate stress. I've taken up gardening. Home grown vegies and planting flowers around our dam. Cooking, collected mulberries form the land next door and made jam. BBQ's, home made sausage rolls are my specialty. We walk our fox terrier daily but not far as I have DVT in both legs.

I stay clear of activities that have too many people around like golf clubs and the fire brigade...been there done that. Now I manage better emotionally when there are less people conversing with. So Facebook was tossed out of my life 6 months ago and it has proved a very good move.

Years ago I built and flew model aircraft. I could return to that but isnt a cheap hobby. My wife makes quilts and meets with a sewing group and attends a gym once a week.

Hope that helps.

Tony  WK

[gibby3794]

My days all pretty much consist of getting up having coffee and smoke etc, then cleaning the house, by that time its about 11 or 12, then i watch some tv (crims shows two broke girls dr phil etc) then at about 3 my friends sister gets home so i make her a hot chocolate and food if shes hungry, then watch a couple more shows and when my friend gets home from work we go down have a coffee then have dinner go to the gym for about an hour when we get home i either watch more tv then go to bed or just go straight to bed 

[Zoomah]

I get up and walk the dog. I take my camera and do some wildlife photography. I live on the outskirts of Perth so it's a nice bush walk. (Rural areas is actually where my depression become huge... no medical or family support 10 hours from Perth)

Afterwards, I play with my niece who my brother brings over... if I'm feeling all right. If not, I just chill as I don't want to get grumpy at her just because of my depression. 

I was starting my own business, which took up a lot of my time and energy, but I've reached the point where it's ready to go. I can't start until I'm at a point where I know I won't need inpatient care. So now I have a lot of emptiness in my day, which isn't a good thing. I'm trying to go out to places, do some writing and drawing and other things but the afternoon is very unproductive.

[pax_vobiscum]

I have overcome an anxiety disorder (agoraphobia) and manage long-term depression (mostly endogenous).

I spend my days catching up with study, housework and volunteering.
I find volunteering both very rewarding and challenging (e.g. helping out with early literacy at school and community visiting at the local nursing homes).

 Through experience and understanding my personality and my illness -  I make sure I give my body and mind rest so that I can function well. I have a mostly introverted personality so I gain energy form being alone. I do enjoy being around others but it takes more energy for me to function. So I make sure after doing community volunteering I give myself some time to rest and re-cooperate.

It has been a long and arduous road managing my illness - full of bumps, dips and seemingly bottomless hopeless pits. For me, the journey so far has been worthwhile. I've lost much, but gained more through learning and understanding my mental illness.

My goal is to join the paid workforce again. ATM I'm taking one step at a time to achieve this.  

[Sanitarium]

I wake up make a coffee and have a smoke,watch some news and have another smoke.Once ive smoked ten smokes and had about five coffee's I go to bed by now its 10.30 am I lay in bed wishing I had a life and try to sleep for a few hrs.I usually wake at 1pm maybe have lunch mostly not,drink more coffee and this continues until about 10pm when I go back to bed. 11pm is smoke time because I cant sleep,watch some news or what ever is on,2am ish I go back to bed and try sleep.come 6am Im back up and doing the same thing day in day out.

[Brooke89]

Thank you everyone for your replies 🙂 I feel like I can relate to you all in one way or another.

Since going on leave from work close to a year ago, I feel like my biggest struggle is managing my anxiety and depression. When I am feeling overwhelmed with my situation (which is 90% of the time) I sleep, A LOT. I don't know how to manage the stress and anxiety I feel. I have attended 10 psychologist sessions but can honestly say I don't think they helped one bit.

Also, the antidepressants I am taking are not working, but my GP says I need to give them a few months in order to give them a good shot. I've already been on them for 3+ months and don't think they are helping at all.

[Randy_J]

Hi Tony,

I had to sign up to reply to your post. 

As you have DVT and also anxiety etc it might be that you have a defective gene called MTHFR. I have just found out that I have MTHFR.

I too have sleep apnea, and I have had a few surgeries to help with that which have helped but have not been a cure.
So for me, it has been great to hopefully find an answer to why I am not feeling 100%.

With MTHFR you can not process synthetic folic acid which is put into all commercial breads, flours and a lot of breakfast cereals. (mandated by the Government since 2009)
The answer for MTHFR is to eat more leafy greens, and possible take an active for of methyl folate which your body can use. 
There is a heap of info online about this, and it might be worth getting a test. A GP can refer you and it will cost about $60 and 10 days or so to get the results.

Also, I am surprised that there is no mention of sleep apnea and/or MTHFR on this site as a cause of depression.

Cheers

Randy

[white knight]

Hi Randy

Very interesting and I'll chase that up. Thanks for going out of your way.

Tony WK

[pax_vobiscum]

How are you going now, Brooke?