Know Thy Limits – Stress in the Workplace

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By Wendy K Williamson

When I graduated college, instead of embarking on a career and climbing the proverbial ladder, my psychiatrist recommended I take a low stress job. ‘Fantastic,’ I thought. ‘I went through four (and a half) years of school for this?’ You could hear my balloon popping across town. Instead of jumping into the business world as I’d always imagined, I had to work as a clerk. This wouldn’t have been a problem – I have done it since – but the timing was horrible. Damn illness!

Accepting reality

I hated the thought of a doctor – whom I barely knew – telling me I couldn’t do something. It was a crushing blow. To accept this new reality made me despise my illness even more as I photocopied my months away.

The idea we can be limited in any way is a scary concept to accept.

Pressure and stress are extremely detrimental to our well-being and nothing can bring them on faster than our jobs. Sure, we’re free to pursue and climb any ladder – or have any job we want, like anyone else. However it can come with potential consequences, as it did for me. Stress is the number one trigger for me, for many of us, next to losing sleep.

A decade after school, when I had a mixed episode, I fell off the grid. The writing was on the wall and hard not to read. My job had gotten too stressful; it was like a dam broke. It was an easy decision not to go back. No job that jeopardizes my mental health is worth it. My mind must come first, always.

We can’t evade stress in our careers or our lives. Life is stressful. We have our health and costs to manage, bills to pay, people we love to care for. We can, though, minimize it through making good choices while keeping our mental health foremost in our mind.

Catch Wendy’s latest book: Two Bipolar Chicks Guide to Survival: Tips for Living with Bipolar Disorder