When you suffer from mental illness, how do you know when it is time to give up working and try to get on disability?

When you can't get a job or hold down a job....AND if your psychiatrist recommends it.

If you can work, the structure, positivity, self worth, and income are well worth it. Working MI folks are stable longer, sometimes YEARS, without being symptomatic.

If you go on disability, still get a part time job. You can earn up to your gross SSDI amount and still get a check and Medicare.

Seems like each job I get, I am able to work for a shorter period of time. First job was 7 years, then 5, then 1 1/2, then 2 months. I just got offered another job, but I think I am going to ask if I can only work part time. Thanks for your input.

Really, it depends on the type of illness and how much you have put in to living without disability...
There are some illnesses that are manageable, some that are treatable, and some that will probably never get better.
For most, aside from severe schizophrenia, working (even in a part time easy job) is beneficial to treatment...

I know a forum is a hard place to talk about this stuff but if you would like, message me and I'd be happy to bounce ideas/thoughts with you in better detail =)

Of course.... if you have your 40 quarters in (ten years)... then you will get SSDI. It sounds like you do.

Before you decide, talk withyour psychiatrist. They will need to fill out paperwork and it will go smoother if they supoprt your decision.

Good luck in your decision.

going thru job's might not be due to depression or mental illnes.it might be your just not happy with your job. find a job you ENJOY going to each day,for me it was truck driveing.nuthin like the open road! no boss,brown nosers or petty tyrants(assholes).except maybe on the CB radio.lol.and that turns off.lol.im dissabled now(lower back and high blood pressure) and would give anything to go back driveing.any job that makes you feel like youve aclomplished somthing.one that gives you a sense of self worth and pride.good luck.laterzzzz.

That's a really hard question. I am going through the process of trying to get on disability now. I have not worked since July 2005 and I just now have a hearing date. I was denied twice and at the end of this week have a hearing to get a judge to make the decision. Mental illness is probably the hardest disability to prove. You can't show x-rays or blood tests. I am bi-polar. I worked for the same company for 16 years. For the last eleven of those, I was checked into a mental hospital almost once a year. My first hospitalization was in 1994 and I was able to work almost a year a half after that until I was hospitalized again. The time period I was able to work before crashing again got smaller and smaller until finally, in 2005, I ended up going on a manic spree again after only 3 months at work and finally got fired.

Unfortunately, while you are applying for disability, you can't work at all (at least not when I applied 3 years ago). Once you get on it, you can work part time. I think I am strong and stable enough to maybe work a few hours a week, but I don't think I will ever be able to work full time again. Since I was a pretty successful computer software analyst, that is a hard pill to swallow, but I have come to know my limitations. In the 3.5 years I haven't worked, I have only had to be hospitalized once. Pretty amazing.

Noone can tell you what's right for you. You have to be in touch enough with yourself and your illness to know what you are capable of. For years I told myself I could handle it, but it became increasingly obvious that I couldn't. I volunteer some time at my friend's cafe, but that's about all I can handle at the time.

Good luck to you!

User deactivated. That was fast. I guess someone should have said there's alot of us here, and welcome. Oh well.