What does it take for a person with chronic illness to continue working ? And, if possible, to do so in a rewarding way? I’ve wrestled with this personally for over 30 years, and more recently in my professional life as a coach/writer/activist of sorts in the past 10 years.
A recent New York Times article profiled a self-described “high powered executive” with schizo affective disorder . Against all odds, she discovered for herself that the best medicine for her is an intense work environment. The very idea defied what everyone around her believed.
The article cites recent research on a small group of high achievers living with this diagnosis. ‘“It’s just embarrassing,” said Dr. Stephen R. Marder, director of the psychosis section at U.C.L.A.’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. “For years, we as psychiatrists have been telling people with a diagnosis what to expect; we’ve been telling them who they are, how to change their lives — and it was bad information” for many people.
Sound familiar? So what can the rest of us learn from this?
1. There’s much to learn from others living with a chronic health condition. Don’t be fooled by a diagnosis. In my coaching practice, working with more than 300 people living with all forms of chronic illness, I’ve found that most disease symptoms bring on some debilitating level of fatigue or pain. And it’s these defining experiences that hurt performance. Isn’t that what matters?
(If only researchers shared more of their findings among different disease and branches of medicine, science would move much more quickly to finding sources and cures of disease. )
3. You are responsible for figuring out what you can and cannot do, what is ‘good for you’ to do and what harms you. Yes, that’s hard. When your healthcare practitioner (your psychiatrist, surgeon or acupuncturist, you name it) tells you what you ‘need’ to do to ‘take care of yourself’, you should listen and try it. But as you test this out keep an open mind to question if this is right for you.
3. Stress comes in many forms and each of us has to figure out what it means . We all have different tolerance levels for stress. It affects people differently and it can affect each of us differently at different times. Let’s say you believe that your job makes your health worse because it’s ‘stressful’. Ask yourself:
- Does this mean that all work is “stressful” for you?
- Are you working in a high stress environment (everyone finds it to be so) or is this your unique response to the stress that exists there?
- Is there another way to look at the ‘stress’ so it doesn’t feel harmful?
Bottom line? Life is a teaching opportunity. What are you learning from it?
Jason Reid says
Thanks Rosalind. More of us need to write articles such as this one. So often we neglect to think of ourselves and others as individuals.
I have spent much of my life trying to avoid being categorized and told what I can do and can’t do by others. Doctors, bosses and other authority figures cannot get inside us to feel what we feel or understand the force of our unique passions and drives.
I remember doing a talk with a group of university students a couple of years ago. They were smart, dynamic, ambitious and all of them had a chronic illness. I was appalled when I found out that many of their doctors tried to tone down their ambition and suggested they would be better off in an “easy and secure” job. I could tell that their personalities just weren’t suited for that type of career.
I have always done work I have had a passion for. It’s been difficult at times financially, but it has also given me the energy to keep going. Without purpose, I would probably be a mental and physical wreck.
Ms. Rants says
Rosalind, you make good points. I would also say that people should not assume that what works for them once will always work for them. Maybe someone couldn’t work full time at a job, and now they can. Or maybe they worked for years and now they can’t. We change, and it’s ok to accept that. We just need to listen to what our bodies are telling us.
Rosalind says
Great point Ms.Rants about change. We need to be able to stay light on our toes and that’s not easy, is it?
Rosalind says
Passion isn’t easy to find and when you’ve got it, you’re lucky. Purpose can be developed though. You’re fortunate to have both, Jason.
Mary McKennell says
I think the work atmosphere is a major piece to whether you can continue working with a chronic illness. I have just been ousted fm a workplace where I have been for 25 years. It had become a very toxic environment. When they would not move me to an office that had a vent in it, I overheated severely one day which led to my first major MS exacerbation. I have not been the same since. I could have done my work fine but since I had someone with a personal vendetta against me it just was not working well. So when I was offered medcal retirement I took it. I can earn up to 80% of my current salary-or what was my current salary on top of the retirement annuity. But I no longer know what I am capable of in a work setting. I am floundering right now amisdt a sea of disability paperwork. Feeling very down right now and without health insurance coverage.
Rosalind says
I’m sorry to hear this, Mary. From what you say, it sounds like it was the bad relationship rather than your inability to work that really caused you to leave. This is often the case and that’s something we can learn from. It’s always possible that difficult relationships will emerge but is it possible to separate that from what you are still capable of doing? I wish you well and hope you find a way to live and thrive again.