Read the story of our colleague, who has just come back to our team!
***
I am a 37-year-old woman from Budapest, Hungary who had been diagnosed with a serious psychical disease since the age of 26.
But why from just the age of 26? As the official view shows, some types of psychical diseases turn out in the age of a young adult. Most of them are unperceivable before, and their origin is more-or-less genetical, so you simply inherit them. If you are lucky enough to grow up in a balanced, peaceful environment and you don’t have to deal with negative stress, the disease might avoid you.
Alas I wasn’t so lucky. It turned out quite suddenly in my life after a seriously stressful period and I had to be cured in the hospital for a long time in order to find the needed type and dose of medicines which will help me in the future. The most well-known fact about these medicines is that they make a huge appetite and take an impact on your hormonal system as well, so that they are soo fattening. Additionally they make you very sleepy, which kills concentration, too. But if you decide not to take them anymore, you might become dangerous for your environment, and even for yourself, and, which is more serious, you can easily fall into the condition when you are not able to take care of yourself in any fields of life.
Well, there is one working solution, which is psychotherapy besides the medicines. This means a group therapy, when, while talking, the original reasons and the symptoms are also cured. Luckyly lots of medical institutes offer it in the frame of social insurance.
But how can a patient diagnosed with a psychical disease be integrated into the world of labour?
There are 2 methods. The patient can either hide his / her illness from the employer (I wouldn’t recommend it) or let the employer know about it. I will be honest, I used to try out both of them, so I would recommend being honest anyway. We can of course hide it even from the doctor who examines whether you are appropriate for the job, but what if a serious episode comes which requires a longer stay in the hospital? Sure, you can lie but it is not good for anyone. The danger of being dismissed is on even if it turns out suddenly. So don’t play with the fire.
It is better if you let the employer know about this disease, so they can count on is. If we have a certificate from the social and medical authorities about this, even the job seeking might be easier before having a proper job, and if you attach it to your CV, the employer won’t have additional questions on it. We cannot be forced to tell the exact diagnose to the HR agent or our supervisor, but we have to tell it anyway to our doctor. Which is crucially important, is to tell the type of the illness and tell which kind of tasks we aren’t able to do to the supervisor or the HR agent. We also need to tell them whether they should count on sudden illnesses or longer periods of sick leave. It can be easier for you also if you don’t have to been stressed on keeping it in secret. If the employer knows about it and you are accepted with your sickness, you won’t be dismissed with the reason of being psychically ill and they didn’t know about it.
In my case, I had to change my workplaces quite often, since I couldn’t always manage to go to my workplace and give tht same capacity in any time. Now I am aimed to change it and I am currently looking for the optimal workplace.
I advice to everyone having such a disease not to give up. Working out the diagnose iwll take time, of course, but you will work it out and you will also find the way how to live a full life with your disease.
