I have put my Linkedin Status as Ā« looking for new opportunities Ā» mainly to see if I could be able to re start a Job.
Was contacted and offered job interviews for positions 100% remote (ie, working from home)
The interviews flared me up badly. Having to be 100% focused, and then selling myself was just so intense.
And here I am thinking : if the interviews flare me up that bad, is it wise from me to start a job ?
For example, one of the interviews was for a Technical Support role but it comes with responsibilities as Iād be the only technical support for the french market that they are opening.
I was feeling kind of good the last few days but this just gave me an adrenaline shot and I guess is sparkling some fears.
Any new opportunity like this would cause anxietyā¦ and anxiety as we know can make our bodies on edge. I wonder if when you start the job and things settle down, you could get into your groove. So good 100% remote. You could possibly manage even on a bad day.
See how you go I think
All the very best Maina - look how far you have come
Thank you Belindy ! It means a lot to read your message. You are right, remote means more freedomā¦ I do feel bad for hiding my condition, and I also wonder if the stress from starting a new job settles on the long run once you find the Ā« groove Ā» as you said.
How was it for you, going back to school ? Did you find the anxiety flared up the symptoms ?
Thank you for raising this important topic, @Maina
Itās really important to find meaning in life and feel like you are making a contribution, so having work is so so important as thatās so central to oneās feeling of place in this world.
There is a lot of pleasure to be gained from work too, which really helps keep any depression in check.
However this is, of course, not straightforward.
Coming from an IT background, I can only say that supporting Production is one of the most stressful roles you can have in IT. When things go wrong and you are on the hook for fixing them ā¦
Itās really tough though because there is stress in any job where there are tight deadlines.
I do think itās really good to get a job and have a distraction from symptoms, but be careful what kind of role you sign up for.
The only other way to deal with it is work out some kind of way of disconnecting your emotions entirely from your role. Thatās very hard and Iāve not managed it.
Itās entirely possible that work stress was one of the causes of my MAV in the first place. There is no easy answer here, but you would definitely benefit from having a job you enjoy. Be very picky!
Perhaps you can put that down to Habituation, one of the cornerstones of compensation therapy theory. Would seem rather a stressful way to go about it though but each to their own!
@Onandon03 Iām lucky in the sense that with COVID everything is remote and the interviews are not on site. I would never have done on site interviews especially with my current health status.
@Belindy sometimes physiotherapists are like personal trainers although less intense
@MNEK18 Yes I can imagine !! The movement and also the customer care aspect of it ?
I can imagine the PT job to be very engaging mentally cause you have to be all the time focused on the client? And also putting on a brave face must be tiring As well!!
You could do Personal training for dizzy and chronically sick people that could turn out to be less exhausting for you. I would sign up for PT sessions designed for my feeble and dizzy nature
Ah of course. And there was me imagining you sitting in an office somewhere unfamiliar. Whatever was I think of. I completely forgot Covid for a moment there. Ah well, my little joke falls rather flat there. It couldnāt be chalked up to Habituation after all. You canāt win them allāŗļø
Thank you for bringing up this topic. I donāt have anything to add because Iām in the same boat. MAV killed my business and Iām at a loss as to where to go from here.
In speaking with my therapist about it, she suggested I both try for disability (and get denied the requisite couple of times) and also, as importantly, let myself off the hook from guilt and seek joy. Not sure how that pays the bills, but I bet the advice is solid from a physical, emotional and spiritual perspective.
Still, I agree with James (@turnitaround), some type of vocation or avocation is necessary to stay out of deep depression, to find purpose and to distract from MAV. The trick is finding that balanced job or activity that can work around the other issues. I donāt know how to pull off that trick, but Iām going to do it anyway.
It actually depends on you, but consider your stress tolerance. Is the compensation worth it of your effort? However, it would be nice to do do something to distract yourself and also, would be nice to feel that you are contributing in the success of others.
The answer just screams out to me. Just turn the situation around and look at it a minute. All that effort and involvement in trying to sort your own condition combined with all the suffering and resultant increase in empathy etc all points to the one thing. Some on-line, Zoom/Skype counselling service for people suffering chronic long term illness? Or at very least some sort of paid āResponsible Adultā to help such people negotiate the relevant bureaucracy to obtain all necessary assistance, financial and otherwise. Here in U.K. we have the Citizens Advice charity, volunteers but, maybe and hopefully, there might be paid employment opportunities in similar vein. All those Long Covid sufferers? You have all the transferable skills just need the retraining to qualify as psychological counsellor.
although less intense 
