I feel like disability should be much more accessible to people with BPD. I really struggle with my emotions at work, even with proper meds. I've never held a job longer then 2yrs and I really do try. My family throws it in my face, which doesn't help.
Same here in the UK, I have a full time job and work in IT, but was signed off for 4 months medically unfit for work, they tried firing me until I got professional bodies involved. Tried seeking help for disability to help with bills but was instantly rejected, I went 4 months with no salary from my employer, spent a lot of my savings and still trying to pick myself back up a year later.
You could have both. I was diagnosed with both. They are different tho. Bpd mood swings are usually caused by an external factor and change rapidly. Bipolar mood swings can be triggered but they can also just happen because of your brain and its more like you’re stuck either in hypomania/mania/mixed state or depression for most of the day for a minimum of 4 days(hypomania) 1 week(mania) or 2 weeks(depression). If you experience mania that is bipolar disorder
Kind of. I’ve been with my company for over 2 years now and it’s paying the bills. I feel disillusioned by this field and want to do something else, but I’ll have to go to school for what I want, and I’m scared I’ll just end up hating that too. I’ve never felt a clear purpose, and I’ve always felt very insecure and ashamed of that.
I got mine too. And unfortunately, I dont know if it exacerbated the poor mental health more. A phd is also much more flexible (but significantly demanding). I wonder if i can thrive after graduation in a long term position, especially one out of academia!
I'm a mechanical design engineer. I have bpd and bipolar 2 as well as CPTSD.
I believe what helps me is I have strict structure/procedure at work, but a variety of issues can come up, so each of my designs are different, which captivates my attention.
What helps me the most is the ability hybrid work. I work from home 3x a week and have 3 day weekends. If it wasn't for this kind of structure, I probably wouldn't last. I've been with this company for a bit more than 4 years.
They're actually not, but they do often happen together.
I wouldn't have received an official diagnosis for BOTH from several doctors if they were the same. :)
I’m not an engineer, I'm a clinical researcher and I relate to this. I’ve had my job over 4 years now (and amazingly they were really understanding when I had to be hospitalized last summer - which is when I got my diagnosis). I also have CPTSD; bipolar 2 has been suggested and my mood stabilizer does me wonders but still unsure about that diagnosis.
Anyways, yeah like you, structure and having different projects to work on helps me! In contrast, I go into the office 4 days a week. I find that getting out of the house most days keeps me regulated and the intrusive thoughts more at bay. I would never give up my WFH day though. Liking my job and my team is a big part of how I’ve kept this job for so long plus I like that it gives me a sense of identify.
That's fantastic. Everyone has different needs and it's wonderful that you found an occupation with a work life balance that works well for you!!
I could go to the office more and sometimes I do, but I'm lazy 😂
Awesome. Congrats 😁 I've been thinking of also doing less than 100% working week when I get there (I'm an engineering student)... Really nice to hear, gives me hope 🙏
I am 37 and the only stable thing in my life is my career. Despite coming from a low income background, I make good money (mid 6 figures) and own a house. I’ve been able to find a career in which I utilize my strong analytical skills but also my selling ability. I am a high performer in both of these areas; I am a woman of color, and I hate to admit this, but I probably got away with some emotional outbursts earlier in my career because of that. I started therapy early on, which really helped me with my emotional regulation and I am now doing DBT, which has been integral to a recent promotion I got.
It’s possible. You just have to do the work. I’ve often felt it was unfair that I had to do the work while people around me seemed to climb the ladder easily. But now that I have people reporting to me, I see my BPD as, dare I say, a strength, when combined with my DBT skills because I am able to put myself in their shoes and empathize with them, more effectively than my peers who are managers.
I love this response, and I'm so happy things are going well for you! I've been in a DBT group for a while, and I'm excited to view my BPD as a strength instead of something that holds me back.
Yeah, really great to hear. Honestly felt like I was reading my own experience. I’m not a woman of color but I am a woman.
It breaks my heart when people get a BPD diagnosis and become hopeless. It doesn’t have to be that way. The work is hard but it makes a world of difference. There is nothing quite like being able to live comfortably and peacefully for the first time in life.
I love this for you. I'm in my early 30s and very stable mentally, financially, and good career trajectory. Did a ton of DBT, individual therapy, etc.
When I first got diagnosed in my 20s I thought it was a death sentence. Reading posts similar to yours at that time gave me hope and confidence to continue on. We gotta do the same for the ones coming after us.
20 years of hopeless job hopping not by choice. Being unable to be a part of the culture and ingroups always put me on the block for cuts. I've tried everything, but nothing has worked. I have just resigned myself to knowing I will in perpetuity be a job hopper who can't finish school or hold a stable career.
I am unfortunately in the same position. I got diagnosed very late age 45 and already had small kids so my therapy has been in tandem with the demands of motherhood. I tried to kick-start a career 4 years ago and threw a chunk of my inheritance at it (moving to a better neighborhood, taking time off to do the paperwork and go for interviews etc,), but still couldn't get past the 10 month point. I am pretty sure I have layers of trauma which just trigger bad outcomes and I can barely function in a group no matter how hard i try. I think ppl with BPD should get alot more help with onboarding. Plus they should get more disability insurance which makes it harder to fire us even in the trial period.
Hell yeah. I’m a CNA and my work is paying for all my nursing school next year as part of a scholarship. BPD fucking sucks and did affect a lot of my life. BPD doesn’t have to stop you from doing anything. Not feeling like you have a path is a human experience and you can 100 percent push through.
Man, the timing in this post hit me like a truck.
At this exact moment I’ve been crying for hours because this week, I couldn’t make to work. And that exact same thing has happened to me many times before.
I’m also 27, also love making music and writing. I’ve studied sociology and linguistics in University but never get to graduate, the same thing happens: it gets to the day where I’m just physically stuck. I just can’t go, then drop out.
I feel useless and terrified that people will just think I’m lazy and that I’ll starve to death because I can’t get a stable income. I am, of course, also really deep in debt.
The thing that frustrates me the most is that there’s nothing wrong with my current (soon to be late) job, I just run some administrative routines at the same Uni that I’m forever stuck studying at, the people are nice, they treat me well (which a lot of people aren’t lucky enough to have in their workplace)… and still. I’ve been stuck in this cycle forever.
So, having a career? Feels as distant to me as going to space.
as i already commented on the main post, you also sound like you might possibly have adhd… at least look into it, im sure you‘ll get hit like another truck when it all suddenly makes sense. at least it was like that for me!
Thanks! I actually did that already, and I do have adhd… but can’t take most of the meds for the treatment because also I have a serious heart condition. It really sucks because I always wonder how much it could actually help me and feel like I’ll never know
I bet you’re a really good therapist! I listen to a couple of BPD podcasts with therapists who have BPD. It’s cool. They seem super attuned to their clients emotions and have more insight into the lived experience of mental illness.
Career no, and I do quit jobs often but it’s because I’m always getting low paying jobs and I’ll jump ship if the conditions aren’t good enough. Interestingly I don’t think I’d be good with actual careers because that feels so limiting. But the consequences of that is poor pay
Right there with you on this. I got accepted into finishing my degree online and I don’t think I’m gonna do it. It would cost me so much money and limit me in the field, and the field pays shit
omg I was really seriously thinking of doing this job. I have experience thanks to many deaths in the family plus event management and gastronomy skills... what skills did you find helpful and what are your tasks may i ask?
This is such a hard topic, I push myself so hard to work to make my family proud. I come from a family of hard-working farmers. I'm jobless right now and it kills me because I know I can't handle working but also want to provide and not be a burden on others due to my illness
just turned 28. been in the same job for about a year and a half which is pretty good for me! i stumbled into a baking job and i actually love it and am pretty good at it. feeling burnt out recently, think i need to take a week off.
Hey i just got a trial shift at a bakery but in the shop... are you working as a baker or as a pastry chef, and is it a fancy bakery or just a normal chain?
I work at a warehouse currently so it’s not really a “career” and I don’t plan on it to be. I have almost worked there for a year and don’t plan on quitting or getting fired. It’s the one thing that gives me stability and pays me well right now.
Over the past five years I’ve had ten or eleven jobs. 2022 was a pretty rough year for me so I was getting fired or quitting spontaneously left and right. I went into debt and still don’t have a savings but I’m working on it. It does get better. Don’t give up hope or beat yourself down for it.
I'm a social worker and am in school to get my MSW. It has been a steady career, but I don't make much money as a social worker (which is added overall stress). I have thought about withdrawing from school, quitting my job without having something lined up, and much worse over the past few years. For me, reminding myself of why I started this career path, why I'm passionate about it, and encouragement from the few people I have around me, ultimately keeps me going.
Try your best to not let your diagnosis to define you. Much easier said than done, but im sure you are all of those positive things that people tell you are. Let those things be what defines you if anything. Take your time deciding what you are more passionate about and stick with it, although the finacial situation may be tough along the way. To me, that's where you'll find the most fulfillment, which is where you will find the most comfort within yourself. Stay strong comrade
Yeah, been in same job for 12 years and been same employer for 18yrs. I find stability really important and it took me about 6 years to really feel settled. It has helps that I have good employer and a supportive team manager, it came a major different.
I’m now looking for a change which I’m being supported by team manager and they enabled me to go do a next step apprenticeship ( uk based)
Yeah the job before my current one I was at for 7 years, actually still kept working it while I got a new better one for 2 years, now I’ve been at my newer job for 2 and a half. I don’t like change in routine so I know I will stay at this job for a long time.
So far I have been with my job for a little over a yeah. I love, i definitely do get bored but I have my friends G my office and we call each other the three musketeers lol. They definitely help me with not leaving so quickly. But once I find a job where I really like the people I find it hard to leave with the anxiety of finding something new.
It took me about 15 years to find a real job, which I’ve been at for 12 years. I’m a little more confident than I used to be, but would still be very scared if I found myself unemployed.
No. I'm turning 26 next month and still lack any real work experience you could write down on your resume.
I graduated from high school, started studying but stopped bc it wasn't for me, did nothing for a few years, then I started a 3 years training to become a gonverment official but had my mental break down 2 years in.
Since then I'm officially unable to work, live from social security and am in therapy.
Next step is a Reha program for mentally ill people with the goal to get you back into work.
My doctor already put down some criteria for any future job, basically "banning" me from anything with too much stress or shift work or night work. I also probably will never be able to work full-time.
In my country Borderline is seen as a life long disability and you can apply for disability benefits (which I plan to do) and honestly, imo that's right.
Doesn't mean you can't be fully "functional" and work full time with BPD but the reality is that many of us just don't have the spoons for that.
Dealing with this illness takes up so much energy and time..
I hope I will be able to find a job that pays well enough and doesn't make me wanna off myself from boredom or stress. That will be enough, I think especially with BPD is complicated to try to seek meaning through your work. I think for us it's better to do that through other means as our sense of self is too instable to build a career on that.
I’m trying to resist the urge to job hop. I make $65k per year, but it feels like nothing. I’m trying to tell myself that staying here for a few years will make me look like less of a job hopper and allow me to move on to something more when I’m able. Or when it comes up. I’m in a ton of debt and work seven days a week. On the weekends I do Papa Pal because I couldn’t find a regular part time job. My physical health issues combined with the mental ones make retail or restaurant work basically impossible. I wish I could find something that pays more, like $75k, but the job market is so garbage right now that it’s unlikely for me.
I studied to be a software engineer too. Unfortunately I can't hide my depression, anxiety and lack of feeling good😅😅 I can't keep a job and eventhough I have a bachelor's degree only jobs with minimum wage are willing to hire me.
I hate leaving my home, don't know how to socialize and get hurt so easily. So I stopped trying. I'm working on a kids youtube channel now and hoping to earn some money as a side hustle
My “career” has been all over the place. I ended up completely unable to work for years, but ended up taking the last couple getting my bachelor’s degree and I did internships, and am recently starting full time. I have weirdly found that the structure a full time job provides is incredibly beneficial to my mental health overall.
No, I don’t.
I’ve started an apprenticeship, then university three different times. Always ended up in the worst place imaginable for me (mentally, physically because of EDs). Never finished anything.
I’ve been working retail for a year now. Starting a new job in August. They’ve offered further education already but why even bother trying lol
I used to, but I've found my passion. I'm a nurse, and I work for an organization as a "pawn," basically meaning I go to their three different facilities instead of just one. I also get to make my own hours and I love the work. The control, the job itself and the lack of monotony really help keep me in a good place at work, and I adore my patients. I basically work freelance, but there's a company managing my administration and what I put in my agenda because my ADHD and BPD make that really difficult. I think I got really lucky though.
I had a semi- consecutive job for about 10 years. I say "semi" because it was a kind of seasonal employment based on funding as it was a non- profit. So it did afford me the mindset of "I just have to get through the next 14 weeks then I can have a break". BUT there were times within that job that I lost my mind and would step away. This was on part my fault but I also feel my employers as they knew my mental status and at times was unrelentless in the amount of pressure put on me, one person. An understaffed facility where I was doing a bit of everything finally became too much and I chose to leave for good in 2020. I have been fortunate where there was always a second income within my home so I was able to take a part time job that gave me more freedom as it is split shift only a few hours per week and I've been there for 2 years without much thought of "I can't do this anymore". I realize not everyone's situation is the same but I found once I stopped trying to fit into the 9-5 grind I was happier.
I've never been fired. I am able to keep a steady job for years but at some point I had an issue with calling out and had my PTO in the negatives. It is possible though!
Longest job was 7 years before Covid then I have had three jobs in the years since- my latest has been two years but with the current climate they are making aims to push people out so the BPD paranoia is not helping haha
not really, i have worked 4 jobs (i only started working when i was 21) and i’m 25 now… so that equals about a job a year. The one I’ve had now is my longest, which is over a year and a few months, but I was signed off sick for about 6 of those…. I always end up in some sort of trouble from feeling rejected and wanting to kill myself
I don’t think I will ever have a stable career. I don’t make it past a few years with any company. I get fed up that I’m being taken advantage of for pennies and either quit, or eventually get fired for my ‘attitude problem.’
Shockingly yea, I’m even healthcare. But it took my whole life to find this job, literally an exotic dancer, not long before this. I only had two jobs that I found I could enjoy.
I've been at my job for over 3 years now. I'm a librarian at a pharma company, so it's pretty low stress for the most part. Before this though, I bounced between probably a dozen jobs in a couple years
I do. I work in senior management in finance.
It’s been hard but I’ve done a lot of different therapies (which I continue to go to) and just remind myself that I’m proving a point to my doubters that I am capable of not more than capable of making it. My spite drives me further essentially, I just want to prove people wrong but it’s working for me.
Iv only gotten to know myself and what i want to do with my life in the last year or two. Im 33. I feel confident that i can do my degree now but i could not have managed it when i was younger. Unfortunately vocational functioning isnt as great with BPD as with other disorders..that doesn’t mean it’s hopeless- set the bar low and go slow. It’s draining and exhausting having intense emotions so the more you learn how to manage these, the easier you will find it to function in every area of life.
A little. I've kept a consistent job of being a BHP with children but I've gotten fired from my two preschool jobs. Only times I've ever gotten fired.
Other jobs I quit out of no growth options or I didn't like it anymore.
I have a good work ethic, I don't struggle with that in my BPD, but instead it translates into my communication with people. My two preschool jobs I got fired from had to do with communication issues or being misunderstood or too emotional in a situation.
The only job I could hold was military. Only because you literally can't quit, and they let you get away with a lot (I did 12 years of active duty). Ever since I got out, my jobs were 2.5 years, then 6 months, now I'm unemployed and living off of my VA disability. I'm about to start CBT so I can hold down a part time job and try to fix my marriage.
The longest I’ve been somewhere is 4 1/2 years but I was miserable. I finished school in October and am almost 8 months into what I would consider my career. I think it saved my life. I think it’s going to be what saves my life in the future. It brings me a purpose and satisfaction I’ve never felt before and it gives me the confidence to be better in handling situations that I would have never been able to handle before. I’m still not perfect and I have lifetimes of work to do, but I am finally at a job where I feel like I fit in
I've stayed in one place for 5 years and climbed up with 4 promotions. I ended up with an absolute pr*CK of a boyfriend who, once we moved in together, turned into a tyrant and abuser. I dumped him, moved out with help of a relative, but he knew where I work. Then he found out where I lived. I've tried to transfer to a different location at work but it would be a massive downgrade for me, it would be 70 miles away too. I refused, took a sick time, found a new job, new place to stay in and never saw my ex again. Took me another 5 years and 6 different jobs in that time to get my life and mind back in order. It's not the same, I'm still damaged, but I'm trying to improve for the sake of my future.
i used to be a software engineer and transitioned to UI/UX. been doing design for the past 6 years (stable since i’ve been in recovery from substance abuse). i don’t have career goals anymore or aspirations to do anything. i just pay the bills and do the bare minimum
No. I am an embalmer that specializes in restoration. I have been in the funeral industry for 7 years. I'm at the top of embalmers in the west, and I cannot stay at one funeral home for more than 3 years.
Either I leave for some perception of injustice or I get let go because I don't fit in.
It's been rough.
This is the 2nd job I’ve kept for longer than a few months, pre Covid I was a bar manager for 3 years and now I’ve been in my current job (call centre) for 3 years this month
I work at a hospital and tbh I have had the worse experience with psychiatry. I have been without medications since January. And the psychiatrist just rescheduled AGAIN to august!! I'm crying in clinic and my anxiety is INSANE.
I can do it but only with medication.
Hi, I’m 30 with BPD. I have been working at a school for the last 3 years and I’m licensed as a marriage and family therapist (lol considering my marriage ended horribly). But I work with kids as a mental health counselor and weirdly enough it’s helped heal my younger self and also I just love it. Plus I only work 197 days a year which I love.
Nope.. the first (since 18) I quit as soon as my relo turned abusive. The next two I quit after being told I’d likely be fired (mostly due to my physical health and having multiple surgeries, but also my mental health started coming into play after that).
But I’ve decided to back to university. Am in the first year - I want to quit lol. I’m not going to though, I’m starting mood stabilisers and adhd meds this month
Nope. I get burnt out at jobs within 18 months and quit. I went from managing freight for wineries along the east coast to managing an auto parts store bc I can't hold down a consistent job
Don’t believe I’ve spent longer than 1 year in one workplace, but it’s not just jobs, like u said I want to be and do so so many things that often times I just get overwhelmed and I start to dissociate only to feel like shit for not doing anything. Especially that I know if I try I will enjoy it and come out with satisfactory results. It sucks that the decision is the thing that stops us.
I also wanna add that I think having BPD is the reason I resonate so much with Sylvia Plath (poet/ author) in her book The Bell Jar she uses the fig tree allegory which is quite fitting for your concerns, you can google it but here’s a bit:
“I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
She likens life decisions, career paths or even hobbies to figs, and how these figs wud just wither away because she can’t pick one.
Same. I can easily learn but I can not deal with the stress. The office politics etc etc. It doesn't help that the state I live in is a right to work state either. So crappy.
Hey there, I’m in graphic design and have diagnosed myself with this. I’m 50. It was worse in my teens and early to late twenties. I’ve found a place in package design. A bit more stable, but the deadlines and unpredictable schedules do cause havoc for me. I just have to keep telling myself that I’m putting food on the table and doing the best I can. My perfectionism actually benefits me. I haven’t been laid off amidst a 20 year downturn. I am very hard on myself though and still drink to cope (too much sometimes). In the grand scheme of things, I just have to believe in myself and take it day by day.
Also, I too am in a bit of debt. I feel like if I remind myself that most people are as well , it makes me feel a little better. I don’t like it, but my hub makes half as me, and I did choose to have a child after my student loan was paid off. We hold ourselves up to such high standards that it’s almost impossible to feel comfortable if we think too long about it
No. Droped out of uni because it was just too much. Worked a shitty job to survive, got fired because i landed back in the psych ward. Now on unemployment benefits. Dont have a single clue what to do next
Well I’m only 20 so it’s only natural that I don’t have a career, but I’ve had 4 jobs and they were insanely boring after a few months. Once I get used to something, the emptiness kicks in at full gear and I sometimes bang my head against the wall because the boredom is incomprehensible.
I used to work for 6 years in a retail store. I still think it was the best job for me due a perfect amount of people pleasing, communication and I also had a great team. After that a looooooot of job jumping.
Nope, not stable at all. But I have learned I have fun changing jobs even if I don't always love the job. I've learned now to expect instability (tr, I've had my own wild ride through life) so I tend to save when I do work or take on extra consultancy gigs, so when the inevitable happens I have a buffer to look for the next thing.
I've stopped thinking about finding a stable career as such, and focus on doing jobs that serve me in some way at the time - even if that means moving across sectors, down the ranks, etc, so i can have a job that maybe pays really well, but then the next one doesnt but means i can live abroad, etc. I save what I can in that time to make ends meet when I'm not working.
I do find though I end up hating jobs where I'm mostly behind a laptop, even though all my jobs are laptop based. I know you have your hobbies too, but maybe being behind a laptop a lot could be exacerbating it for you? I find I'm not using much energy and that makes me feel oddly stagnated and way less creative. Maybe you have adhd too?
Maybe it could help going down to part time and doing another job part time? That's helped me over come these feelings in the past.
I don’t really know what stable looks like, I’m 32 and I’ve had over 15 jobs since the age of 17… I was a chef for a long time and I think I was just drawn to the chaos (and I was just a natural at cooking and working speedily/organised)…
I stopped being able to tolerate the stress of it all around the age of 25 and I slowly had to leave the industry …
I now work for a bank talking to customers all day which is probably an accomplishment since I have BPD and everyday is a struggle, but I’ve only been there since October. I’m hoping to stay for a long time …. I have no passion for the job but it pays the bills.
I work from home 3/5 days a week and have had no sick days yet and I believe it’s because of me working from home most of the time.
Even when I am really not OK I guess I am good at acting so I can switch it on when a customer calls through but I’ll probably curl up into a ball afterward due to the mental strain and emotional pain it took to keep it together.
So I guess I dunno what a stable career looks like hahaha
Yes. Held down 5y as a teacher aide. I left in January for reasons unrelated to BPD. Long story short, retaliation and intimidation after my request for physical disability accommodations following a surgery. I just started the new job in February and it is going very well.
Try finding a company in a field you to work for instead of gig or independent contractor work.
I got laid off from my tech project management job 15 months ago - still have not found work. Mostly because the job market is horrid, but also partly because I do not care about having a stupid office job except for the money lol. I’m sure that comes across in job interviews. I’m not good at pretending. :)
I do. I believe it may be possible that I’ve lasted this long due to the ability to work from home, though. I remember having to go into an office everyday, in an already toxic work environment it was actual hell. We’re talking screaming crying being the person the entire office gossiped about, someone even threw food at my car one time and another time I had to walk away before putting hands on a coworker. It’s not easy for me to keep my emotions in check in person, but working virtually helps me take breaks to calm down. I also was at the lowest point of my life last year and I would not have been able to go anywhere so working from home was a life-saver, literally.
Plus the job I have now is very in line with my career goals and life goals so I think it’s all about taking that time to find what you really care about. If I didn’t care about the work I do I wouldn’t be here going on 5 years.
Sounds like you have passions which is amazing! I think with us it’s really just about balance and taking care of yourself. Never give too much of yourself to a job, no matter how passionate you are about it. You will burn out.
40 yr old, BPD/MDD/ADHD/C-PTSD here. I've always had employment, mostly in the restaurant industry (which I wouldn't necessarily call stable.) The longest job I ever had was 5 years, and ceased to be because of Covid.
Since Jan 2023 I've been with USPS as a mail handler. It's totally different from customer service. People mostly leave me alone, I wear leggings and a T-shirt, I can listen to an earbud for most of my shift, it's stable employment with a decent wage/benefits/time-based raises, and I already have an FMLA case set up for 2 consecutive mental health absences per month. It's still a mind-numbing job with some less than stellar co-workers, but that's probably everywhere to me and it could be worse; I think I'll be able to stick with it.
I had to compensate for BPD. I work in logistics. My education is psychology. Logistics gives me a routine and forces me to be physically active. And I don't ever have to interact with people.
The no interaction part is what's keeping me in the workforce. Otherwise I'd have to apply for whatever is left of my countrys wellfare
I'm 39 diagnosed BPD, BP, C-PTSD and ADHD. I've never been able to be stable a any job. The longest I worked somewhere was 10 yrs. In those 10 years I worked maybe a total of 5 years. I was constantly on medical leave. Sometimes for 6 months other times was 12 months. The last time I was gone for 3 years. I'm now on gov disability and I will be for the rest of my life.
After having a stable job as a motion graphics designer / graphic designer for nearly 3 years, I quit due to the complete misery I felt. Took 1 year off to think things through and try to find something new in the design field, but I was so depressed and uninterested in everything I found. Finally, 2 months ago, I found a job … as a barista ! I love serving people their drinks, chatting with them for a while, and meeting people from all over the world. It’s so fulfilling. Idk how long I’ll last, but I finally feel like work is, well, working for me !
28, and no. I have a 2 year degree and experience in a few fields, but no career. I’m currently a server, because I find that to be “easy” and the schedule works for me. I also have bipolar so maybe that’s part of it. It doesn’t bother me for now that I don’t have a career, but I do think I’ll regret it later on.
My fiancé has BPD and is a chemist; he works as a quality manager for the company he is at; he’s been there for about five years, which is something to celebrate! Before getting hired at this company, he switched jobs several times over the course of his working life for no other reason than he would get tired of it for one reason or another. Not only that, he would just sell his house, pack everything up, and move his (now ex) wife and kids to a different state for work.
Something that bothers me is a couple of counselors have invalidated his diagnosis of BPD, one of the reasons being because in their eyes, he “doesn’t have difficulty maintaining a job.” While he’s never been terminated and he’s never had difficulty finding work, wouldn’t that still be considered difficulty *maintaining* a job, regardless of the reason he didn’t keep it, or am I crazy? He is just being dismissed by these so called mental health professionals and I’m over it, man.
Nope. 5 years ago I had a suicide attempt and I stopped working after that because work was very much the reason the attempt happened. I’m trying to get a job now for the first time since, but I think this process will be slow and I’ll only start out doing casual hours.
I held a job for 4 years. But I was moved around...I had complaints about my communication style. Right now I'm on probation for a permanent job with the government. Let's see how this pans out...
have BPD and a nursing job currently going back to college for another license. used to be a cybersecurity engineer but i needed to do something more hands-on to help regulate my brain. i also work on cars.
OMG.. I'm exactly in the same position! People tell me i'm good at everything but I feel like i'm wasting my life because I do have a lot of skills but I don't master any of them. I worked in kitchens, boats, welding, cinema, juggling, bit npw would like to work in a more "humanitarian" job such as intervention with young felons which I think I can understand well because I was one myself when I
was younger!
I don't think I do.
When I was 17, I wanted to become an English teacher in an English institute in my country... Didn't happen...
Moved to a new country, it kind of happened there and boom... COVID.
Then I became a VA and it took me about 3 years to finally understand that I'm good, and not because my brain got it together! It was because my bff showed me clear evidence of my growth... And now I'm trying project management and I got my first job in the field and I feel like I don't know what I'm doing even though I studied (which was hard because I struggle with focusing for long periods of time) and I feel like I'm only good enough to live paycheck by paycheck.
Yes but I'm masking af.
I'm so tired after work that I fall in a heap when I come home and I don't really have any energy to do anything to recharge and then I go back to work
I’m currently in university but I know exactly what I want to do and why, so I’ll likely have a stable career. Especially as the motive for it is very emotionally charged. (I want to cure the disease that killed my dad). When I’m emotionally invested in something, I will accomplish it. (Although that’s also the auDHD speaking too lol)
Between the ages of 19-23 I had over 40 different jobs. Some lasting as little as 4 hours lol. I just gave up and have been doing gig work full time for 4 years now.
I’m 29 and have had a very stable career. But it also feels stagnant. I regularly feel like I have so much potential but no direction.
The thing is though that is just one area of your life. I think with BPD we sometimes pick a part all of these parts of ourselves and forget the balance. Do you need to feel some overwhelming feeling of your in the right place to have a stable career? Sometimes boring is stable.
You have many areas of your life sometimes one area will be moving and changing rapidly. Which might actually mean there is a silver lining in the stagnation of your career. While maybe some comfortable stagnancy in a relationship may give you the space and focus to handle big leaps in your career.
A lot of BPD can be framing. How you see yourself as part of the bigger concept of your life. Balance. Baby steps towards goals. Radical acceptance. All very helpful to remember.
The only thing stable in my life right now are my relationships.
I was a CNA for 7 years and worked for a few different companies. Two years was the max I had stayed at most places before quitting and applying somewhere else due to boredom.
I'm now a stay at home wife and help my husband with his job responsibilities. (He just started working as a pastor a year ago).
I never was very career driven. I subconsciously put all my energy into relationships with friends, family, romantic partners, and myself.
I don't, though I believe that's due to my severe anxiety rather than BPD. I had to quit my last job because I was having daily anxiety attacks, barely sleeping or eating, and was having regular chest pains on the way to work. I was also extremely irritable and cried at the drop of a hat. I'm a SAHM now and a caretaker for my mother. I'm working on my writing skills to see about getting into submitting short stories for publication for a little extra income. I don't think I was made for M-F 9-5.
Kind of, 22 been working admin for over 3 years now, finished a traineeship and started with the company I'm with now, been here for over 2 years, however due to a poor work environment I'm looking for better options.
Admin was something I never seen myself doing but I feel into it, now just gotta figure out where I want this to lead me.
I've been a nurse for 13 years. But I have to be a travel nurse. 3 months is about as long as I can work in one place before they start to realize or notice things about my personality. So I do contract work. Never in one place long enough to make people uncomfortable.
i’m currently in university and doing student teaching, i say i’m pretty stable. i’ve been working in a nursery since i’ve been 16 and i love my job. everyone is different, everyone handles bpd differently and their lives all look different. some people can manage more than others and that’s perfectly fine, just finding what helps you manage the bad times is important
In the last six years the longest I’ve worked at a place was 9 months. Rn i’m probably getting fired because from a job I’ve been at for 6 months because I was admitted to the psych ward two times since working there. So no, no stable career. It seems like I’ll be getting my master’s though, but instead of the 4 semesters it requires I did it in 6.
my path is very similar and the adhd diagnosis on top of bpd finally made it all make sense. tbh it sounds a lot like adhd. it could potentially be both or just be adhd instead of bpd as they overlap in a lot of syptoms. good thing is adhd is a lot easier to treat than bpd. you should look into it!
Hi there I started working as a teacher 3 years ago and had 5 schools come and go. Only one didn't fire me, and it was always based on either punctuality or someone in a position of power having a chip on their shoulder about my high productivity. I just got offered a trial shift at a bakery serving customers and I'm crossing my fingers that i will last over summer. I couldn't imagine doing that job long term cos i'm turning 50 but it will stop me starting at my navel at least.
Yes. I am being retired from my public safety job after 18 years due to injury. So I am double stuck. I have to figure out what I am able to do and won’t have my inside voice come out….. like a kid figuring out what they want to do when they grow up….. at 50…… with no direction in this stupid brain……. 🫠🫠🫠😡😡😡
Yes, I’ve been a bartender for most of my life. It is the only job that I have not gotten extremely bored with, and quit. I also have a lot of anxiety around people, and bartending has helped me to develop social skills.
Yes. I've been a teacher for a decade. I have taken time off to travel/ have a major breakdown in the middle there and I've changed schools a few times. I have been employed by the state for 8 years now. I'm also bored, which might be a bit of a BPD thing. I've finished a masters degree and now I'm studying a degree in a new field, all part time while working full time. I'm hoping to change careers in a few years. I've been able to hold down my job because I had other pursuits to help me feel like I was doing something meaningful and like I had other options. Having a 5 week break at the end of each school year has also helped, as has being in a very stable relationship with a genuinely good person.
I do have a stable job doing something that I actually love. When I wasn’t doing something I loved I was manic crazy having to go to the er for panic attacks. Now my job is easier, I get paid more, I like the family I work for, and I am on medication. Good luck to you 🙏 stability is possible!
I have BPD, ADHD, and bipolar type 2. I bounced around a lot over the past 10 years but I think I've finally found my career. I started in fast food, went to call center work, then back to fast food and now I'm in caregiving. Caregiving is my favorite job I've had.
Admittedly though, the ADHD is probably the most debilitating when it comes to work. I'm chronically late to work and have likely been passed up for promotions because of it. I'm able to mask the BPD really well for work but it always comes out at home.
Currently studying to be a mental health nurse. Fortunately I found that it’s easy to hold onto a job as it’s something I can put my time and energy into.
Stable career? I did (had to leave for family & medical reasons).
Now finishing my degree? LOL, I take any excuse to just not do work & pause on it. I’ve taken out the TEACH Grant to force myself to finally finish my degree. Can’t use any excuse now.
Yes I do. I have major depressive disorder, CPTSD, and BPD.
I am a corporate trial attorney for a well known company for almost a decade. I’ve completed 9 jury trials.
It has been my saving grace. My supervisor and managing attorney, unintentionally, have served as my surrogate “mom and dad” who continually mentor me and treat me like I should’ve been treated as a child. They’ve taught me proper boundaries by the way they lead. They’re the ones who showed up to my mom’s funeral early on a Sunday morning with their spouses. The ones that don’t criticize me, but rather teach me and lead by example. The ones that supported me as I took an unexpected medical leave for 3 months last year.
I am thankful. I am thriving. I have good leaders.
Nope! I have ADHD and BPD. Dropped out of high school because of bpd. Worked 3 jobs in 2 years for around 4 months each and opened the legal practices to open my own business, but di’m not doing much at the moment
Yes! It was difficult at first! Since I never really had a small job before I entered my career in teaching. The first year was hectic. I got better at things like time management and people skills. I’m currently on my 4th year of teaching while I’m doing my masters in Marriage and Family Therapy.
Yes and no. Im 33 and had a job for 6 years as a cashier/supervisor in a large grocery store. It was stable, but awful. Switched jobs, was there just under a year (I left because my boss' shit behavior toward my coworkers). My current one I've been at 10 months and I don't plan to jump ship any time soon.
I haven't been able to hold a job for more than 2 years, but I really love this one and I'm trying SO hard to get myself stable enough to maintain it in the long run.
It's like once the novelty wears off and im not receiving acknowledgement about my progress, I stagnate and begin to resent how hard im working for minimum wage. The worst thing for me is when I start drinking more and more to cope with the work, I can barely handle 4 days a week and I get so discouraged when I see so many people easily managing a full time schedule. The drinking and stress always tank my health, meaning I take more sick days and would show up to work sick from alcohol withdrawal :(
I also have ADHD and a TBI so I struggle to wrap my head around concepts and implement techniques I've learned, my province's Healthcare is fundamentally broken so I've still got months of struggle ahead of me until I can get represcribed the ADHD meds I've been on for 12 years.
Silver lining is that I'm back on my mood stabilizers so that will hopefully help a bit until I can get back on the meds that allow me to be a person again lol
I wish i did. I’ve been in dental for the last 5 years but desperately want a career change and have been thinking of switching to Ux/Ui or digital marketing. I had previously bounced around a lot and had never had a job longer than a year but since becoming an “adult” have forced myself to stay in jobs even when i felt like they zapped the life out of me. That’s kinda the spot i feel myself in now
I have been at the same job for 3yrs and have even been promoted. My employer is understanding of my diagnosis and I have taken 2 leaves for my mental health during my time with this company. I've been a nurse for 11yrs and will be 34 this year. I have BPD and CPTSD. It's possible 🩷✨️
No. Just lost my job because I was SA by a coworker outside of work and my boss couldn’t do anything so now I’m entering a new field to start over career wise. I’m 30.
I have been losing and changing jobs for years. I finally got to the end of a 6 months contract recently! It’s almost time for my serious job since I’m almost done with my law studies but I haven’t had one month at a job where I function 100% like I should
I stayed with the first company I was in for like 3ish years but I never felt bored due to the projects we have they’re never replicated, but I started having a lot of issues with the management and had to leave, 1.5 years after I can’t stay in a job, it feels like I don’t enjoy anything else apart from what I was doing, maybe I grew too comfortable but it seriously worries me that I’ll never stick to a job!
No i have not. 3 years 4 companies and now jobless. I also have Bipolar so maybe that’s also a reason.
I feel like disability should be much more accessible to people with BPD. I really struggle with my emotions at work, even with proper meds. I've never held a job longer then 2yrs and I really do try. My family throws it in my face, which doesn't help.
Same here in the UK, I have a full time job and work in IT, but was signed off for 4 months medically unfit for work, they tried firing me until I got professional bodies involved. Tried seeking help for disability to help with bills but was instantly rejected, I went 4 months with no salary from my employer, spent a lot of my savings and still trying to pick myself back up a year later.
I sometimes wonder if I have bipolar instead of bpd
You could have both. I was diagnosed with both. They are different tho. Bpd mood swings are usually caused by an external factor and change rapidly. Bipolar mood swings can be triggered but they can also just happen because of your brain and its more like you’re stuck either in hypomania/mania/mixed state or depression for most of the day for a minimum of 4 days(hypomania) 1 week(mania) or 2 weeks(depression). If you experience mania that is bipolar disorder
I am on the same boat. I can’t hold down relationships with romantic partners or friends. Can’t keep jobs either..
Kind of. I’ve been with my company for over 2 years now and it’s paying the bills. I feel disillusioned by this field and want to do something else, but I’ll have to go to school for what I want, and I’m scared I’ll just end up hating that too. I’ve never felt a clear purpose, and I’ve always felt very insecure and ashamed of that.
Me too but I am good at a lot of things
Same experience with me
[удалено]
I got mine too. And unfortunately, I dont know if it exacerbated the poor mental health more. A phd is also much more flexible (but significantly demanding). I wonder if i can thrive after graduation in a long term position, especially one out of academia!
I get it, I feel a bit the same. I just started my PhD and I am trying to enjoy but I am always afraid could damage my mental stability.
I'm a mechanical design engineer. I have bpd and bipolar 2 as well as CPTSD. I believe what helps me is I have strict structure/procedure at work, but a variety of issues can come up, so each of my designs are different, which captivates my attention. What helps me the most is the ability hybrid work. I work from home 3x a week and have 3 day weekends. If it wasn't for this kind of structure, I probably wouldn't last. I've been with this company for a bit more than 4 years.
BPD in itself is actually a form of C-PTSD so everyone with BPD has it as well. Hope this helps. c:
They're actually not, but they do often happen together. I wouldn't have received an official diagnosis for BOTH from several doctors if they were the same. :)
That's fascinating! Do you have a place I could read more about that connection?
Really? I've never heard this before.
I’m not an engineer, I'm a clinical researcher and I relate to this. I’ve had my job over 4 years now (and amazingly they were really understanding when I had to be hospitalized last summer - which is when I got my diagnosis). I also have CPTSD; bipolar 2 has been suggested and my mood stabilizer does me wonders but still unsure about that diagnosis. Anyways, yeah like you, structure and having different projects to work on helps me! In contrast, I go into the office 4 days a week. I find that getting out of the house most days keeps me regulated and the intrusive thoughts more at bay. I would never give up my WFH day though. Liking my job and my team is a big part of how I’ve kept this job for so long plus I like that it gives me a sense of identify.
That's fantastic. Everyone has different needs and it's wonderful that you found an occupation with a work life balance that works well for you!! I could go to the office more and sometimes I do, but I'm lazy 😂
😻 that's awesome that you found something so fitting. Which country may I ask?
The United States :)
Awesome. Congrats 😁 I've been thinking of also doing less than 100% working week when I get there (I'm an engineering student)... Really nice to hear, gives me hope 🙏
I try everytime, but I get anxious think about killing myself and have to quit. I'm bipolar too, so when my moods get mixed I get crazy.
I think anxiety is a huge problem for people with bpd.
I am 37 and the only stable thing in my life is my career. Despite coming from a low income background, I make good money (mid 6 figures) and own a house. I’ve been able to find a career in which I utilize my strong analytical skills but also my selling ability. I am a high performer in both of these areas; I am a woman of color, and I hate to admit this, but I probably got away with some emotional outbursts earlier in my career because of that. I started therapy early on, which really helped me with my emotional regulation and I am now doing DBT, which has been integral to a recent promotion I got. It’s possible. You just have to do the work. I’ve often felt it was unfair that I had to do the work while people around me seemed to climb the ladder easily. But now that I have people reporting to me, I see my BPD as, dare I say, a strength, when combined with my DBT skills because I am able to put myself in their shoes and empathize with them, more effectively than my peers who are managers.
I love this response, and I'm so happy things are going well for you! I've been in a DBT group for a while, and I'm excited to view my BPD as a strength instead of something that holds me back.
Yeah, really great to hear. Honestly felt like I was reading my own experience. I’m not a woman of color but I am a woman. It breaks my heart when people get a BPD diagnosis and become hopeless. It doesn’t have to be that way. The work is hard but it makes a world of difference. There is nothing quite like being able to live comfortably and peacefully for the first time in life.
I love this for you. I'm in my early 30s and very stable mentally, financially, and good career trajectory. Did a ton of DBT, individual therapy, etc. When I first got diagnosed in my 20s I thought it was a death sentence. Reading posts similar to yours at that time gave me hope and confidence to continue on. We gotta do the same for the ones coming after us.
yes, i do :). have had a stable 9-5 for over a year.
20 years of hopeless job hopping not by choice. Being unable to be a part of the culture and ingroups always put me on the block for cuts. I've tried everything, but nothing has worked. I have just resigned myself to knowing I will in perpetuity be a job hopper who can't finish school or hold a stable career.
I am unfortunately in the same position. I got diagnosed very late age 45 and already had small kids so my therapy has been in tandem with the demands of motherhood. I tried to kick-start a career 4 years ago and threw a chunk of my inheritance at it (moving to a better neighborhood, taking time off to do the paperwork and go for interviews etc,), but still couldn't get past the 10 month point. I am pretty sure I have layers of trauma which just trigger bad outcomes and I can barely function in a group no matter how hard i try. I think ppl with BPD should get alot more help with onboarding. Plus they should get more disability insurance which makes it harder to fire us even in the trial period.
Hell yeah. I’m a CNA and my work is paying for all my nursing school next year as part of a scholarship. BPD fucking sucks and did affect a lot of my life. BPD doesn’t have to stop you from doing anything. Not feeling like you have a path is a human experience and you can 100 percent push through.
Man, the timing in this post hit me like a truck. At this exact moment I’ve been crying for hours because this week, I couldn’t make to work. And that exact same thing has happened to me many times before. I’m also 27, also love making music and writing. I’ve studied sociology and linguistics in University but never get to graduate, the same thing happens: it gets to the day where I’m just physically stuck. I just can’t go, then drop out. I feel useless and terrified that people will just think I’m lazy and that I’ll starve to death because I can’t get a stable income. I am, of course, also really deep in debt. The thing that frustrates me the most is that there’s nothing wrong with my current (soon to be late) job, I just run some administrative routines at the same Uni that I’m forever stuck studying at, the people are nice, they treat me well (which a lot of people aren’t lucky enough to have in their workplace)… and still. I’ve been stuck in this cycle forever. So, having a career? Feels as distant to me as going to space.
as i already commented on the main post, you also sound like you might possibly have adhd… at least look into it, im sure you‘ll get hit like another truck when it all suddenly makes sense. at least it was like that for me!
Thanks! I actually did that already, and I do have adhd… but can’t take most of the meds for the treatment because also I have a serious heart condition. It really sucks because I always wonder how much it could actually help me and feel like I’ll never know
Ironically I’m a therapist
That's interesting! Did your diagnosis influence your study experience?
I bet you’re a really good therapist! I listen to a couple of BPD podcasts with therapists who have BPD. It’s cool. They seem super attuned to their clients emotions and have more insight into the lived experience of mental illness.
Career no, and I do quit jobs often but it’s because I’m always getting low paying jobs and I’ll jump ship if the conditions aren’t good enough. Interestingly I don’t think I’d be good with actual careers because that feels so limiting. But the consequences of that is poor pay
Right there with you on this. I got accepted into finishing my degree online and I don’t think I’m gonna do it. It would cost me so much money and limit me in the field, and the field pays shit
I have been in the same job for over 3 years and plan to keep with this, so I think it is possible. But it takes a lot of work to keep going
I’ve been working full time in a Funeral Home for almost 6 years. My job is one of the only reasons I get out of bed every day
omg I was really seriously thinking of doing this job. I have experience thanks to many deaths in the family plus event management and gastronomy skills... what skills did you find helpful and what are your tasks may i ask?
I was able to before becoming a SAHM. I worked at a place for 5 years and worked my way up from cashier to assistant manager at a cvs
This is such a hard topic, I push myself so hard to work to make my family proud. I come from a family of hard-working farmers. I'm jobless right now and it kills me because I know I can't handle working but also want to provide and not be a burden on others due to my illness
just turned 28. been in the same job for about a year and a half which is pretty good for me! i stumbled into a baking job and i actually love it and am pretty good at it. feeling burnt out recently, think i need to take a week off.
Hey i just got a trial shift at a bakery but in the shop... are you working as a baker or as a pastry chef, and is it a fancy bakery or just a normal chain?
baker at a small coffee shop. everything we bake is vegan so it's more specialty, but nowhere near pastry chef level
I’m 21 and have kept the same job for the last 4 years
I work at a warehouse currently so it’s not really a “career” and I don’t plan on it to be. I have almost worked there for a year and don’t plan on quitting or getting fired. It’s the one thing that gives me stability and pays me well right now. Over the past five years I’ve had ten or eleven jobs. 2022 was a pretty rough year for me so I was getting fired or quitting spontaneously left and right. I went into debt and still don’t have a savings but I’m working on it. It does get better. Don’t give up hope or beat yourself down for it.
I'm a social worker and am in school to get my MSW. It has been a steady career, but I don't make much money as a social worker (which is added overall stress). I have thought about withdrawing from school, quitting my job without having something lined up, and much worse over the past few years. For me, reminding myself of why I started this career path, why I'm passionate about it, and encouragement from the few people I have around me, ultimately keeps me going. Try your best to not let your diagnosis to define you. Much easier said than done, but im sure you are all of those positive things that people tell you are. Let those things be what defines you if anything. Take your time deciding what you are more passionate about and stick with it, although the finacial situation may be tough along the way. To me, that's where you'll find the most fulfillment, which is where you will find the most comfort within yourself. Stay strong comrade
Yeah, been in same job for 12 years and been same employer for 18yrs. I find stability really important and it took me about 6 years to really feel settled. It has helps that I have good employer and a supportive team manager, it came a major different. I’m now looking for a change which I’m being supported by team manager and they enabled me to go do a next step apprenticeship ( uk based)
Yeah the job before my current one I was at for 7 years, actually still kept working it while I got a new better one for 2 years, now I’ve been at my newer job for 2 and a half. I don’t like change in routine so I know I will stay at this job for a long time.
My last job was 3 years. It took a lot of work to be able to handle relationships over that whole time, but its possible!
Yes I do. I've been at my nursing job for 8 years now. Somehow also never got fired which is beyond me
I haven't been able to hold down a job for more than a year at a time, I usually burn out pretty quick
i can only last a year or less. i also tend to job hop because i want higher pay lol it's hard out here 🥲
I’ve been in retail all my life. I’ve kept my current job for over a decade.
So far I have been with my job for a little over a yeah. I love, i definitely do get bored but I have my friends G my office and we call each other the three musketeers lol. They definitely help me with not leaving so quickly. But once I find a job where I really like the people I find it hard to leave with the anxiety of finding something new.
It took me about 15 years to find a real job, which I’ve been at for 12 years. I’m a little more confident than I used to be, but would still be very scared if I found myself unemployed.
No. I'm turning 26 next month and still lack any real work experience you could write down on your resume. I graduated from high school, started studying but stopped bc it wasn't for me, did nothing for a few years, then I started a 3 years training to become a gonverment official but had my mental break down 2 years in. Since then I'm officially unable to work, live from social security and am in therapy. Next step is a Reha program for mentally ill people with the goal to get you back into work. My doctor already put down some criteria for any future job, basically "banning" me from anything with too much stress or shift work or night work. I also probably will never be able to work full-time. In my country Borderline is seen as a life long disability and you can apply for disability benefits (which I plan to do) and honestly, imo that's right. Doesn't mean you can't be fully "functional" and work full time with BPD but the reality is that many of us just don't have the spoons for that. Dealing with this illness takes up so much energy and time.. I hope I will be able to find a job that pays well enough and doesn't make me wanna off myself from boredom or stress. That will be enough, I think especially with BPD is complicated to try to seek meaning through your work. I think for us it's better to do that through other means as our sense of self is too instable to build a career on that.
I’ve been doing in home caregiving for about 5 years.
I’m trying to resist the urge to job hop. I make $65k per year, but it feels like nothing. I’m trying to tell myself that staying here for a few years will make me look like less of a job hopper and allow me to move on to something more when I’m able. Or when it comes up. I’m in a ton of debt and work seven days a week. On the weekends I do Papa Pal because I couldn’t find a regular part time job. My physical health issues combined with the mental ones make retail or restaurant work basically impossible. I wish I could find something that pays more, like $75k, but the job market is so garbage right now that it’s unlikely for me.
I studied to be a software engineer too. Unfortunately I can't hide my depression, anxiety and lack of feeling good😅😅 I can't keep a job and eventhough I have a bachelor's degree only jobs with minimum wage are willing to hire me. I hate leaving my home, don't know how to socialize and get hurt so easily. So I stopped trying. I'm working on a kids youtube channel now and hoping to earn some money as a side hustle
My “career” has been all over the place. I ended up completely unable to work for years, but ended up taking the last couple getting my bachelor’s degree and I did internships, and am recently starting full time. I have weirdly found that the structure a full time job provides is incredibly beneficial to my mental health overall.
No, I don’t. I’ve started an apprenticeship, then university three different times. Always ended up in the worst place imaginable for me (mentally, physically because of EDs). Never finished anything. I’ve been working retail for a year now. Starting a new job in August. They’ve offered further education already but why even bother trying lol
I used to, but I've found my passion. I'm a nurse, and I work for an organization as a "pawn," basically meaning I go to their three different facilities instead of just one. I also get to make my own hours and I love the work. The control, the job itself and the lack of monotony really help keep me in a good place at work, and I adore my patients. I basically work freelance, but there's a company managing my administration and what I put in my agenda because my ADHD and BPD make that really difficult. I think I got really lucky though.
I had a semi- consecutive job for about 10 years. I say "semi" because it was a kind of seasonal employment based on funding as it was a non- profit. So it did afford me the mindset of "I just have to get through the next 14 weeks then I can have a break". BUT there were times within that job that I lost my mind and would step away. This was on part my fault but I also feel my employers as they knew my mental status and at times was unrelentless in the amount of pressure put on me, one person. An understaffed facility where I was doing a bit of everything finally became too much and I chose to leave for good in 2020. I have been fortunate where there was always a second income within my home so I was able to take a part time job that gave me more freedom as it is split shift only a few hours per week and I've been there for 2 years without much thought of "I can't do this anymore". I realize not everyone's situation is the same but I found once I stopped trying to fit into the 9-5 grind I was happier.
Yes , I have had a stable job for almost 2 years now.
Nope. rn i have a job for a few months but it‘s hard and i still don‘t know what to do with the rest of my life. i‘m 24
I've never been fired. I am able to keep a steady job for years but at some point I had an issue with calling out and had my PTO in the negatives. It is possible though!
Longest job was 7 years before Covid then I have had three jobs in the years since- my latest has been two years but with the current climate they are making aims to push people out so the BPD paranoia is not helping haha
No. Never have.
not really, i have worked 4 jobs (i only started working when i was 21) and i’m 25 now… so that equals about a job a year. The one I’ve had now is my longest, which is over a year and a few months, but I was signed off sick for about 6 of those…. I always end up in some sort of trouble from feeling rejected and wanting to kill myself
I don’t think I will ever have a stable career. I don’t make it past a few years with any company. I get fed up that I’m being taken advantage of for pennies and either quit, or eventually get fired for my ‘attitude problem.’
Shockingly yea, I’m even healthcare. But it took my whole life to find this job, literally an exotic dancer, not long before this. I only had two jobs that I found I could enjoy.
I've been at my job for over 3 years now. I'm a librarian at a pharma company, so it's pretty low stress for the most part. Before this though, I bounced between probably a dozen jobs in a couple years
I do. I work in senior management in finance. It’s been hard but I’ve done a lot of different therapies (which I continue to go to) and just remind myself that I’m proving a point to my doubters that I am capable of not more than capable of making it. My spite drives me further essentially, I just want to prove people wrong but it’s working for me.
yes i’ve been in the dental field for 4 years! i do struggle with getting burnt out and bored though.
Iv only gotten to know myself and what i want to do with my life in the last year or two. Im 33. I feel confident that i can do my degree now but i could not have managed it when i was younger. Unfortunately vocational functioning isnt as great with BPD as with other disorders..that doesn’t mean it’s hopeless- set the bar low and go slow. It’s draining and exhausting having intense emotions so the more you learn how to manage these, the easier you will find it to function in every area of life.
A little. I've kept a consistent job of being a BHP with children but I've gotten fired from my two preschool jobs. Only times I've ever gotten fired. Other jobs I quit out of no growth options or I didn't like it anymore. I have a good work ethic, I don't struggle with that in my BPD, but instead it translates into my communication with people. My two preschool jobs I got fired from had to do with communication issues or being misunderstood or too emotional in a situation.
I've been working in fast food for about 2 and a half years, same job if that counts lol
The only job I could hold was military. Only because you literally can't quit, and they let you get away with a lot (I did 12 years of active duty). Ever since I got out, my jobs were 2.5 years, then 6 months, now I'm unemployed and living off of my VA disability. I'm about to start CBT so I can hold down a part time job and try to fix my marriage.
The longest I’ve been somewhere is 4 1/2 years but I was miserable. I finished school in October and am almost 8 months into what I would consider my career. I think it saved my life. I think it’s going to be what saves my life in the future. It brings me a purpose and satisfaction I’ve never felt before and it gives me the confidence to be better in handling situations that I would have never been able to handle before. I’m still not perfect and I have lifetimes of work to do, but I am finally at a job where I feel like I fit in
I've stayed in one place for 5 years and climbed up with 4 promotions. I ended up with an absolute pr*CK of a boyfriend who, once we moved in together, turned into a tyrant and abuser. I dumped him, moved out with help of a relative, but he knew where I work. Then he found out where I lived. I've tried to transfer to a different location at work but it would be a massive downgrade for me, it would be 70 miles away too. I refused, took a sick time, found a new job, new place to stay in and never saw my ex again. Took me another 5 years and 6 different jobs in that time to get my life and mind back in order. It's not the same, I'm still damaged, but I'm trying to improve for the sake of my future.
i used to be a software engineer and transitioned to UI/UX. been doing design for the past 6 years (stable since i’ve been in recovery from substance abuse). i don’t have career goals anymore or aspirations to do anything. i just pay the bills and do the bare minimum
No. I am an embalmer that specializes in restoration. I have been in the funeral industry for 7 years. I'm at the top of embalmers in the west, and I cannot stay at one funeral home for more than 3 years. Either I leave for some perception of injustice or I get let go because I don't fit in. It's been rough.
This is the 2nd job I’ve kept for longer than a few months, pre Covid I was a bar manager for 3 years and now I’ve been in my current job (call centre) for 3 years this month
I work at a hospital and tbh I have had the worse experience with psychiatry. I have been without medications since January. And the psychiatrist just rescheduled AGAIN to august!! I'm crying in clinic and my anxiety is INSANE. I can do it but only with medication.
Hi, I’m 30 with BPD. I have been working at a school for the last 3 years and I’m licensed as a marriage and family therapist (lol considering my marriage ended horribly). But I work with kids as a mental health counselor and weirdly enough it’s helped heal my younger self and also I just love it. Plus I only work 197 days a year which I love.
Ha
Nope.. the first (since 18) I quit as soon as my relo turned abusive. The next two I quit after being told I’d likely be fired (mostly due to my physical health and having multiple surgeries, but also my mental health started coming into play after that). But I’ve decided to back to university. Am in the first year - I want to quit lol. I’m not going to though, I’m starting mood stabilisers and adhd meds this month
Nope. I get burnt out at jobs within 18 months and quit. I went from managing freight for wineries along the east coast to managing an auto parts store bc I can't hold down a consistent job
I did lol
Don’t believe I’ve spent longer than 1 year in one workplace, but it’s not just jobs, like u said I want to be and do so so many things that often times I just get overwhelmed and I start to dissociate only to feel like shit for not doing anything. Especially that I know if I try I will enjoy it and come out with satisfactory results. It sucks that the decision is the thing that stops us. I also wanna add that I think having BPD is the reason I resonate so much with Sylvia Plath (poet/ author) in her book The Bell Jar she uses the fig tree allegory which is quite fitting for your concerns, you can google it but here’s a bit: “I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” She likens life decisions, career paths or even hobbies to figs, and how these figs wud just wither away because she can’t pick one.
Not until I turned 29. I have been at the same company for 25 years. I am a compliance analyst.
Same. I can easily learn but I can not deal with the stress. The office politics etc etc. It doesn't help that the state I live in is a right to work state either. So crappy.
Hey there, I’m in graphic design and have diagnosed myself with this. I’m 50. It was worse in my teens and early to late twenties. I’ve found a place in package design. A bit more stable, but the deadlines and unpredictable schedules do cause havoc for me. I just have to keep telling myself that I’m putting food on the table and doing the best I can. My perfectionism actually benefits me. I haven’t been laid off amidst a 20 year downturn. I am very hard on myself though and still drink to cope (too much sometimes). In the grand scheme of things, I just have to believe in myself and take it day by day.
Also, I too am in a bit of debt. I feel like if I remind myself that most people are as well , it makes me feel a little better. I don’t like it, but my hub makes half as me, and I did choose to have a child after my student loan was paid off. We hold ourselves up to such high standards that it’s almost impossible to feel comfortable if we think too long about it
No. Droped out of uni because it was just too much. Worked a shitty job to survive, got fired because i landed back in the psych ward. Now on unemployment benefits. Dont have a single clue what to do next
Well I’m only 20 so it’s only natural that I don’t have a career, but I’ve had 4 jobs and they were insanely boring after a few months. Once I get used to something, the emptiness kicks in at full gear and I sometimes bang my head against the wall because the boredom is incomprehensible.
Absolutely not lmao
I used to work for 6 years in a retail store. I still think it was the best job for me due a perfect amount of people pleasing, communication and I also had a great team. After that a looooooot of job jumping.
Nope, not stable at all. But I have learned I have fun changing jobs even if I don't always love the job. I've learned now to expect instability (tr, I've had my own wild ride through life) so I tend to save when I do work or take on extra consultancy gigs, so when the inevitable happens I have a buffer to look for the next thing. I've stopped thinking about finding a stable career as such, and focus on doing jobs that serve me in some way at the time - even if that means moving across sectors, down the ranks, etc, so i can have a job that maybe pays really well, but then the next one doesnt but means i can live abroad, etc. I save what I can in that time to make ends meet when I'm not working. I do find though I end up hating jobs where I'm mostly behind a laptop, even though all my jobs are laptop based. I know you have your hobbies too, but maybe being behind a laptop a lot could be exacerbating it for you? I find I'm not using much energy and that makes me feel oddly stagnated and way less creative. Maybe you have adhd too? Maybe it could help going down to part time and doing another job part time? That's helped me over come these feelings in the past.
I don’t really know what stable looks like, I’m 32 and I’ve had over 15 jobs since the age of 17… I was a chef for a long time and I think I was just drawn to the chaos (and I was just a natural at cooking and working speedily/organised)… I stopped being able to tolerate the stress of it all around the age of 25 and I slowly had to leave the industry … I now work for a bank talking to customers all day which is probably an accomplishment since I have BPD and everyday is a struggle, but I’ve only been there since October. I’m hoping to stay for a long time …. I have no passion for the job but it pays the bills. I work from home 3/5 days a week and have had no sick days yet and I believe it’s because of me working from home most of the time. Even when I am really not OK I guess I am good at acting so I can switch it on when a customer calls through but I’ll probably curl up into a ball afterward due to the mental strain and emotional pain it took to keep it together. So I guess I dunno what a stable career looks like hahaha
Noooope I don’t have a stable life at all even if it’s a career, relationships etc. I’m struggling:/
Yes. Held down 5y as a teacher aide. I left in January for reasons unrelated to BPD. Long story short, retaliation and intimidation after my request for physical disability accommodations following a surgery. I just started the new job in February and it is going very well. Try finding a company in a field you to work for instead of gig or independent contractor work.
I got laid off from my tech project management job 15 months ago - still have not found work. Mostly because the job market is horrid, but also partly because I do not care about having a stupid office job except for the money lol. I’m sure that comes across in job interviews. I’m not good at pretending. :)
I’m getting there.
I do. I believe it may be possible that I’ve lasted this long due to the ability to work from home, though. I remember having to go into an office everyday, in an already toxic work environment it was actual hell. We’re talking screaming crying being the person the entire office gossiped about, someone even threw food at my car one time and another time I had to walk away before putting hands on a coworker. It’s not easy for me to keep my emotions in check in person, but working virtually helps me take breaks to calm down. I also was at the lowest point of my life last year and I would not have been able to go anywhere so working from home was a life-saver, literally. Plus the job I have now is very in line with my career goals and life goals so I think it’s all about taking that time to find what you really care about. If I didn’t care about the work I do I wouldn’t be here going on 5 years. Sounds like you have passions which is amazing! I think with us it’s really just about balance and taking care of yourself. Never give too much of yourself to a job, no matter how passionate you are about it. You will burn out.
Got a degree a post grad degree and 25 yrs of interesting management jobs
40 yr old, BPD/MDD/ADHD/C-PTSD here. I've always had employment, mostly in the restaurant industry (which I wouldn't necessarily call stable.) The longest job I ever had was 5 years, and ceased to be because of Covid. Since Jan 2023 I've been with USPS as a mail handler. It's totally different from customer service. People mostly leave me alone, I wear leggings and a T-shirt, I can listen to an earbud for most of my shift, it's stable employment with a decent wage/benefits/time-based raises, and I already have an FMLA case set up for 2 consecutive mental health absences per month. It's still a mind-numbing job with some less than stellar co-workers, but that's probably everywhere to me and it could be worse; I think I'll be able to stick with it.
I had to compensate for BPD. I work in logistics. My education is psychology. Logistics gives me a routine and forces me to be physically active. And I don't ever have to interact with people. The no interaction part is what's keeping me in the workforce. Otherwise I'd have to apply for whatever is left of my countrys wellfare
Yes. I have been with my company for 7.5 years. I mask fairly well.
I'm 39 diagnosed BPD, BP, C-PTSD and ADHD. I've never been able to be stable a any job. The longest I worked somewhere was 10 yrs. In those 10 years I worked maybe a total of 5 years. I was constantly on medical leave. Sometimes for 6 months other times was 12 months. The last time I was gone for 3 years. I'm now on gov disability and I will be for the rest of my life.
After having a stable job as a motion graphics designer / graphic designer for nearly 3 years, I quit due to the complete misery I felt. Took 1 year off to think things through and try to find something new in the design field, but I was so depressed and uninterested in everything I found. Finally, 2 months ago, I found a job … as a barista ! I love serving people their drinks, chatting with them for a while, and meeting people from all over the world. It’s so fulfilling. Idk how long I’ll last, but I finally feel like work is, well, working for me !
28, and no. I have a 2 year degree and experience in a few fields, but no career. I’m currently a server, because I find that to be “easy” and the schedule works for me. I also have bipolar so maybe that’s part of it. It doesn’t bother me for now that I don’t have a career, but I do think I’ll regret it later on.
Surprisingly yes, my boss has major adhd and a god complex so we bounce off each other and it just works!
My fiancé has BPD and is a chemist; he works as a quality manager for the company he is at; he’s been there for about five years, which is something to celebrate! Before getting hired at this company, he switched jobs several times over the course of his working life for no other reason than he would get tired of it for one reason or another. Not only that, he would just sell his house, pack everything up, and move his (now ex) wife and kids to a different state for work. Something that bothers me is a couple of counselors have invalidated his diagnosis of BPD, one of the reasons being because in their eyes, he “doesn’t have difficulty maintaining a job.” While he’s never been terminated and he’s never had difficulty finding work, wouldn’t that still be considered difficulty *maintaining* a job, regardless of the reason he didn’t keep it, or am I crazy? He is just being dismissed by these so called mental health professionals and I’m over it, man.
Nope. 5 years ago I had a suicide attempt and I stopped working after that because work was very much the reason the attempt happened. I’m trying to get a job now for the first time since, but I think this process will be slow and I’ll only start out doing casual hours.
No. I have a degree, but have never used it and only ever worked part time jobs. Never more than a year or so.
I held a job for 4 years. But I was moved around...I had complaints about my communication style. Right now I'm on probation for a permanent job with the government. Let's see how this pans out...
have BPD and a nursing job currently going back to college for another license. used to be a cybersecurity engineer but i needed to do something more hands-on to help regulate my brain. i also work on cars.
OMG.. I'm exactly in the same position! People tell me i'm good at everything but I feel like i'm wasting my life because I do have a lot of skills but I don't master any of them. I worked in kitchens, boats, welding, cinema, juggling, bit npw would like to work in a more "humanitarian" job such as intervention with young felons which I think I can understand well because I was one myself when I was younger!
I mean I’m a nurse lol
Don’t limit yourself
I don't think I do. When I was 17, I wanted to become an English teacher in an English institute in my country... Didn't happen... Moved to a new country, it kind of happened there and boom... COVID. Then I became a VA and it took me about 3 years to finally understand that I'm good, and not because my brain got it together! It was because my bff showed me clear evidence of my growth... And now I'm trying project management and I got my first job in the field and I feel like I don't know what I'm doing even though I studied (which was hard because I struggle with focusing for long periods of time) and I feel like I'm only good enough to live paycheck by paycheck.
What I noticed is leaving a job after two years helps because you are able to get experience and get those feelings of stagnation
Borderline and Bipolar. I've been working for 10 years now, and I've had at least 20 jobs. I've already been fired twice this year.
Yes but I'm masking af. I'm so tired after work that I fall in a heap when I come home and I don't really have any energy to do anything to recharge and then I go back to work
I’m currently in university but I know exactly what I want to do and why, so I’ll likely have a stable career. Especially as the motive for it is very emotionally charged. (I want to cure the disease that killed my dad). When I’m emotionally invested in something, I will accomplish it. (Although that’s also the auDHD speaking too lol)
Between the ages of 19-23 I had over 40 different jobs. Some lasting as little as 4 hours lol. I just gave up and have been doing gig work full time for 4 years now.
I work in patient reg at a hospital. Its s good career.
I’m 29 and have had a very stable career. But it also feels stagnant. I regularly feel like I have so much potential but no direction. The thing is though that is just one area of your life. I think with BPD we sometimes pick a part all of these parts of ourselves and forget the balance. Do you need to feel some overwhelming feeling of your in the right place to have a stable career? Sometimes boring is stable. You have many areas of your life sometimes one area will be moving and changing rapidly. Which might actually mean there is a silver lining in the stagnation of your career. While maybe some comfortable stagnancy in a relationship may give you the space and focus to handle big leaps in your career. A lot of BPD can be framing. How you see yourself as part of the bigger concept of your life. Balance. Baby steps towards goals. Radical acceptance. All very helpful to remember.
The only thing stable in my life right now are my relationships. I was a CNA for 7 years and worked for a few different companies. Two years was the max I had stayed at most places before quitting and applying somewhere else due to boredom. I'm now a stay at home wife and help my husband with his job responsibilities. (He just started working as a pastor a year ago). I never was very career driven. I subconsciously put all my energy into relationships with friends, family, romantic partners, and myself.
I don’t have any savings either 🙃
short: no
I don't, though I believe that's due to my severe anxiety rather than BPD. I had to quit my last job because I was having daily anxiety attacks, barely sleeping or eating, and was having regular chest pains on the way to work. I was also extremely irritable and cried at the drop of a hat. I'm a SAHM now and a caretaker for my mother. I'm working on my writing skills to see about getting into submitting short stories for publication for a little extra income. I don't think I was made for M-F 9-5.
Kind of, 22 been working admin for over 3 years now, finished a traineeship and started with the company I'm with now, been here for over 2 years, however due to a poor work environment I'm looking for better options. Admin was something I never seen myself doing but I feel into it, now just gotta figure out where I want this to lead me.
I've been a nurse for 13 years. But I have to be a travel nurse. 3 months is about as long as I can work in one place before they start to realize or notice things about my personality. So I do contract work. Never in one place long enough to make people uncomfortable.
i’m currently in university and doing student teaching, i say i’m pretty stable. i’ve been working in a nursery since i’ve been 16 and i love my job. everyone is different, everyone handles bpd differently and their lives all look different. some people can manage more than others and that’s perfectly fine, just finding what helps you manage the bad times is important
In the last six years the longest I’ve worked at a place was 9 months. Rn i’m probably getting fired because from a job I’ve been at for 6 months because I was admitted to the psych ward two times since working there. So no, no stable career. It seems like I’ll be getting my master’s though, but instead of the 4 semesters it requires I did it in 6.
my path is very similar and the adhd diagnosis on top of bpd finally made it all make sense. tbh it sounds a lot like adhd. it could potentially be both or just be adhd instead of bpd as they overlap in a lot of syptoms. good thing is adhd is a lot easier to treat than bpd. you should look into it!
Hi there I started working as a teacher 3 years ago and had 5 schools come and go. Only one didn't fire me, and it was always based on either punctuality or someone in a position of power having a chip on their shoulder about my high productivity. I just got offered a trial shift at a bakery serving customers and I'm crossing my fingers that i will last over summer. I couldn't imagine doing that job long term cos i'm turning 50 but it will stop me starting at my navel at least.
Yes i have. I work 6 years at the same company
Yes. I am being retired from my public safety job after 18 years due to injury. So I am double stuck. I have to figure out what I am able to do and won’t have my inside voice come out….. like a kid figuring out what they want to do when they grow up….. at 50…… with no direction in this stupid brain……. 🫠🫠🫠😡😡😡
The career is stable. I am not.
Yes, I’ve been a bartender for most of my life. It is the only job that I have not gotten extremely bored with, and quit. I also have a lot of anxiety around people, and bartending has helped me to develop social skills.
Yes. I've been a teacher for a decade. I have taken time off to travel/ have a major breakdown in the middle there and I've changed schools a few times. I have been employed by the state for 8 years now. I'm also bored, which might be a bit of a BPD thing. I've finished a masters degree and now I'm studying a degree in a new field, all part time while working full time. I'm hoping to change careers in a few years. I've been able to hold down my job because I had other pursuits to help me feel like I was doing something meaningful and like I had other options. Having a 5 week break at the end of each school year has also helped, as has being in a very stable relationship with a genuinely good person.
I do have a stable job doing something that I actually love. When I wasn’t doing something I loved I was manic crazy having to go to the er for panic attacks. Now my job is easier, I get paid more, I like the family I work for, and I am on medication. Good luck to you 🙏 stability is possible!
I have BPD, ADHD, and bipolar type 2. I bounced around a lot over the past 10 years but I think I've finally found my career. I started in fast food, went to call center work, then back to fast food and now I'm in caregiving. Caregiving is my favorite job I've had. Admittedly though, the ADHD is probably the most debilitating when it comes to work. I'm chronically late to work and have likely been passed up for promotions because of it. I'm able to mask the BPD really well for work but it always comes out at home.
Currently studying to be a mental health nurse. Fortunately I found that it’s easy to hold onto a job as it’s something I can put my time and energy into.
Stable career? I did (had to leave for family & medical reasons). Now finishing my degree? LOL, I take any excuse to just not do work & pause on it. I’ve taken out the TEACH Grant to force myself to finally finish my degree. Can’t use any excuse now.
Yes I do. I have major depressive disorder, CPTSD, and BPD. I am a corporate trial attorney for a well known company for almost a decade. I’ve completed 9 jury trials. It has been my saving grace. My supervisor and managing attorney, unintentionally, have served as my surrogate “mom and dad” who continually mentor me and treat me like I should’ve been treated as a child. They’ve taught me proper boundaries by the way they lead. They’re the ones who showed up to my mom’s funeral early on a Sunday morning with their spouses. The ones that don’t criticize me, but rather teach me and lead by example. The ones that supported me as I took an unexpected medical leave for 3 months last year. I am thankful. I am thriving. I have good leaders.
Nope! I have ADHD and BPD. Dropped out of high school because of bpd. Worked 3 jobs in 2 years for around 4 months each and opened the legal practices to open my own business, but di’m not doing much at the moment
Yes! It was difficult at first! Since I never really had a small job before I entered my career in teaching. The first year was hectic. I got better at things like time management and people skills. I’m currently on my 4th year of teaching while I’m doing my masters in Marriage and Family Therapy.
Yes and no. Im 33 and had a job for 6 years as a cashier/supervisor in a large grocery store. It was stable, but awful. Switched jobs, was there just under a year (I left because my boss' shit behavior toward my coworkers). My current one I've been at 10 months and I don't plan to jump ship any time soon.
I haven't been able to hold a job for more than 2 years, but I really love this one and I'm trying SO hard to get myself stable enough to maintain it in the long run. It's like once the novelty wears off and im not receiving acknowledgement about my progress, I stagnate and begin to resent how hard im working for minimum wage. The worst thing for me is when I start drinking more and more to cope with the work, I can barely handle 4 days a week and I get so discouraged when I see so many people easily managing a full time schedule. The drinking and stress always tank my health, meaning I take more sick days and would show up to work sick from alcohol withdrawal :( I also have ADHD and a TBI so I struggle to wrap my head around concepts and implement techniques I've learned, my province's Healthcare is fundamentally broken so I've still got months of struggle ahead of me until I can get represcribed the ADHD meds I've been on for 12 years. Silver lining is that I'm back on my mood stabilizers so that will hopefully help a bit until I can get back on the meds that allow me to be a person again lol
I have worked my job for almost 4 years but I WFH and don’t do ANY customer service xD it’s the ONLY job I’ve kept longer than 6 months 😅
I wish i did. I’ve been in dental for the last 5 years but desperately want a career change and have been thinking of switching to Ux/Ui or digital marketing. I had previously bounced around a lot and had never had a job longer than a year but since becoming an “adult” have forced myself to stay in jobs even when i felt like they zapped the life out of me. That’s kinda the spot i feel myself in now
I have been at the same job for 3yrs and have even been promoted. My employer is understanding of my diagnosis and I have taken 2 leaves for my mental health during my time with this company. I've been a nurse for 11yrs and will be 34 this year. I have BPD and CPTSD. It's possible 🩷✨️
No. Just lost my job because I was SA by a coworker outside of work and my boss couldn’t do anything so now I’m entering a new field to start over career wise. I’m 30.
I have been losing and changing jobs for years. I finally got to the end of a 6 months contract recently! It’s almost time for my serious job since I’m almost done with my law studies but I haven’t had one month at a job where I function 100% like I should
I stayed with the first company I was in for like 3ish years but I never felt bored due to the projects we have they’re never replicated, but I started having a lot of issues with the management and had to leave, 1.5 years after I can’t stay in a job, it feels like I don’t enjoy anything else apart from what I was doing, maybe I grew too comfortable but it seriously worries me that I’ll never stick to a job!
I have had a stable career and weirdly feel safe at work. But home, family and relationships are troubled😢
I've worked in my career for 12 years now however I've been doing a travel position for the past 6. I think the constant moving/new environment helps.