And I don't know about you, but I often can't see it either. It's not always completely disabling, but there's no doubt that DID affects you in ways others can't see, let alone understand. If you have dissociative identity disorder, you can probably name a hundred other ways DID impacts your ability to work. When Severe Mental Illness Keeps You from Working, It Hurts #OFFICE 2011 IDENTITIES OKL MSGATTACH HOW TO#When the veneer cracks, as it always eventually does, you wake up one morning crippled with anxiety about going to work and facing all those people you don't know how to talk to. The pressure to maintain continuity - not to mention the appearance of normalcy - is enormous. The personality state that's best at interacting with people spends 40 hours a week out, engaging with external people.You're surprised when you realize you missed the meeting. Did you attend that meeting? No, you were busy color coding your calendar so nothing slips through the cracks. But those two pieces of information exist on different frequencies. You know you have an important meeting at 3pm on Thursday.And while that solves some problems, it causes others: Dissociative identity disorder allows for extreme compartmentalization. No arena - work, family, physical health, etc. Mental illness permeates every aspect of life. It took me a long time to learn that navigating life with a severe mental illness is not just about symptom management, therapy, and medication. Managing Mental Illness Is a Job in Itself I felt humiliated and like an utter failure. I took his advice, but the blow to my pride and self-esteem was humbling. A psychiatrist advised me to apply for social security disability. I couldn't work and, to most outside observers, there was no discernible reason why - DID is an invisible disability. I was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, which explained things, but further diminished my capacity to function by exacerbating my dissociative symptoms. But when I was 29, the opaque dissociative walls that had allowed me to function relatively successfully lost some of their density and the consequences were staggering. Later, I got a job in print advertising and thought I'd found my niche. I continued working here and there throughout high school and college. I worked at a fast food restaurant and was proud to earn my own money. Mental Illness Can Incapacitate You, Making Working Impossible And I came face-to-face with the realities of severe mental illness and invisible disability. I learned valuable lessons about poverty that I won't soon forget. It was the year I discovered what it's like to live on welfare ( How to Get Disability Benefits for Mental Illness). I didn't know how I was going to do it either. Don't know how you're going to do it." I stared at a rip in an orange, Naugahyde chair. The man typed some figures and stared at the computer screen, eventually muttering, "You qualify for $440 a month in assistance.
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