It never rains but it pours. Now I’ve been invited to an interview for a countryside ranger position which is much more local, full time permanent, and would therefore pay more per year (though not per hour) than the other job. Problem is (well, one problem), they need me to have my most recent/relevant referee fill out a form that I’d have to bring in to the interview, which would be next Thursday. Since all my former employers are in Canada, I don’t see how they could provide the “company stamp” that’s required on the form within that kind of time frame. The most recent one wouldn’t be willing to fill out such a form anyway, and the most relevant one was ten years ago and is no longer with the organization. I could ask the property manager at the place I’ve been volunteering, but she wouldn’t really be able to speak to my suitability for this particular position.
I don’t know what to do.
Probably I should just decline the interview saying I already have a job. I don’t feel capable of working full time hours just now, and would likely muck it up horribly. But then, am I passing up a really great opportunity for a permanent position that’s just one stop away on the train, and won’t require me to own a vehicle?
Dunkelheit, the property manager could speak to your qualities as an employee - reliability, punctuality, ability to deal with other human beings, organization, and so on. You might see if your Canadian reference can fill the form in by fax, or scan it in, have her print, fill in, and scan it back in for you. If you don’t have access to a scanner, try a local library or Kinko’s, or heck, see if there’s a Doper near you who can do it.
Contact the organization and explain to them the circumstances to them with the most neutral interpretation possible - due to transient health issues, your references are not as recent as you would prefer, and they are geographically distant. Don’t ask their permission, just give them a heads up.
Whatever you do, DO NOT DECLINE THE INTERVIEW. Remember, you miss every shot you don’t take. The voice telling you not even to try, that’s your depression.
I’m a little worried on my side. I’ve been coming out of my depression for the last couple of months and so very, very relieved, but lately I’ve noticed that not all my symptoms are gone. My mood is certainly improved. I’m sleeping better. I’m not achy all the time.
But my physical energy is still very low, and I’m just . . . inert. I’ve got the “I don’t wannas” on everything short of absolute necessities. Nothing sounds good. I am comfortable, but not willing to get up and do stuff, and that’s not like me. I’m not initiating anything, which is also not like me. This is anhedonia, isn’t it? I guess I figured I never had it, because when I do stuff, I enjoy it as much as ever. It’s just that I’m not doing stuff. There has to be an external motivator.
phouka, are you currently taking anything for your depression? My experience with Effexor was similar to your description of your current feelings. It made me feel less mad with the depression, but it seemed to suppress EVERYTHING.
The more I think about it, the more I feel I would not be capable of an intensive full-time job right now. I’m in so much pain these days that one advantage of the part-time job is that I’ll be able to take a day off to recover in between each working day. That is a huge attractant right now. I do like the idea of working fewer hours for more money per, even though it means the yearly salary isn’t as much as it would have been for the lower-paid full time position. And it will give me time to work in a casual community garden project position that I’m likely to be accepted for, which would bring in a decent hourly wage’s worth of extra money from time to time.
I don’t see how my having a scanner would help my referee in Canada scan the form. Unless you meant perhaps there was a Kinko’s/Library/Doper near him, heh. It is in electronic form to begin with, I guess I neglected to mention that. So sending it along to them wouldn’t be the issue so much as getting it back in time. But in any case, it feels like so much effort to go through their laundry list of pre-interview requirements when I’ve already got a job I know I can do. It exhausts me even to think of jumping through a bunch of hoops for a job I’m not sure I’ll be offered even if I go through the interview process. It’s with one of those organizations that promises an interview if you self-declare as disabled, and I have yet to actually get a job from one of those interviews, because there’s always someone “more qualified”.
Great news on the job front! I can understand needing to rest inbetween work days. My own health problems limit what I can do each day and I try to space it out so I don’t wind up in bed.
I’m trying to stay on an even keel because this week has brought us some options about keeping the house. I don’t want to get my hopes up too much but it does seem like things might get resolved in a way we can handle. fingers crossed
I’m not taking any medication and I need to, but more than that I miss the therapy sessions. I need to explore (again) things available without having insurance. There’s no place really close but if the money situation gets better we could afford the gas to get somewhere.
Having things to see to is a good instigater, if it doesn’t get overwhelming.
Right now I’m on Welbutrin and trazadone. I can’t take SSRIs anymore, because I grind my teeth so hard, they are actually repositioned in my upper jaw overnight.
My recovery starting in January was partly because of the addition of trazadone, and partly because I completely gave up sodas (I know, it sounds woo, and I could totally be guilty of confusing causation with correlation, but I don’t think so). But since I haven’t been out of depression while on either of these medications before, I don’t know if this is a side effect of the medication or a new aspect of my depression. I do know I don’t like it. Even my ADD medication, which usually kicks me in the butt enough to get going, isn’t helping.
Right now I’m on clonazepam, 1/2 a 1mg tablet a day, which I pretty much ran through in a month (it was a 90 day supply), and prozac, which I have to start with 1/2 a pill per day for a week and then go on it full time. What can I expect from this mix? The doctor thinks it’s fine to take both.
Right now I’m miserable. I don’t want to get out of bed, my work habits are poor, I just want to sleep when I get home but have to force myself to eat something and then work from home a little, and finally spend time with my husband from 9-11. He’s getting annoyed at my sleeping all the time and lack of interest in doing anything at all (although I do things with him). He doesn’t understand how someone can be depressed for “no reason”.
Trazadone seems to work for a lot of people, but it gave me audio and visual hallucinations and insomnia. If anything, I was more anxious.
phouka, I don’t recall that happening on Wellbutrin; it’s about the only antidepressant I can take that doesn’t have horrible side effects. What I mostly noticed about it was taking the edge off my constant anxiety and I don’t remember what Trazadone did to me, but I wasn’t able to keep taking it. SSRIs are completely out of the question; they make everything worse.
Well, my doctor prescribed me Trazadone because I was having difficulty falling asleep. Apparently, one of the major side effects is sleepiness. I went from needing an hour to fall asleep, with multiple bouts of restless legs, to usually falling asleep within 10 minutes. I did have to cut the dose in half, because I could not wake up in the morning.
A question for you guys, who probably know more than me:
My new psychiatrist put me back on Wellbutrin XL. I had concerns about the medication since I’m trying to get pregnant, but she showed me a little book with all the drug classifications in it, and Wellbutrin was listed as Class B for pregnant women, which means it’s safe.
I called my OB/GYN office to let them know I was starting a new medication, and to confirm that it was safe. Well, the nurse said they recommend that their pregnant patients use Prozac or Zoloft, and recommend against Wellbutrin because it’s class C (some possible risk). She warned me that Wellbutrin may increase the risk of miscarriage. Great.
I spent a long time researching all three meds online, and I learned that Wellbutrin was downgraded to Class C a few years ago. But the other two are ALSO class C drugs. So why is the nurse telling me they recommend against Wellbutrin? From what I can see, the risks seem to be equivalent for all of them. What gives? Why the push for Prozac and Zoloft? I don’t feel like it’s a great time to be experimenting with new drugs, but if there’s a big difference in risk, I guess I could consider it. I’m getting conflicting information and I’m so confused.
I don’t really have any information for you, other than to say, when my best friend was pregnant, she said her doctor would only prescribe fluoxetine(Prozac) for her depression, as well. Possibly it has to do with Prozac being older than Wellbutrin, so more clinical studies have been done regarding its effects on pregnancy and fetal development, so they’re sticking with what they know?
This is my first time stopping by this thread because I was too busy when it first started and I didn’t have time to read it and keep up.
I was originally diagnosed with clinical depression in something like 2004. Several years of treatment later we found out that depression was only one piece of the puzzle as I am, in fact, bipolar 2.
I can’t particularly say that I’ve been having depression issues lately, but it’s problems with all of the other ‘stuff’ that can go along with it. Like today, for instance, it’s sitting on the couch crying because I’m overwhelmed with anxiety because of all of the things that I need to do in the next week and a half. Meanwhile I could have made a decent dent in those things if I’d just gotten off my rear and stopped feeling sorry for myself and started working. :smack:
I gave myself three simple things to do, today. Take a shower, pick up my prescription and a few groceries, and call for heating oil delivery. I mean, how friggin’ hard is any of that, and I haven’t done them, yet. Now, in addition to being lazy and lethargic, I’m angry at myself for being useless and irresponsible, AND anxious about the consequences of what might happen if the oil company’s already closed and I can’t get a delivery tomorrow, or I don’t make it to the pharmacy, and run out of meds. You’d THINK that would be enough to get me moving, but some giant part of my brain is saying, “Meh- whatever. Let’s sit some more, or- hey, how 'bout a nice nap?”
When I was in my old apartment, I managed to have the electricity turned off a few times because I couldn’t manage to write a check and mail it. I had the money, but writing the check, putting a stamp on the envelope, walking out to the mail box, it all seem like too much to deal with.
I’m still not sure how exactly, but things eventually got better.
Oh, I hate that. Brain fog has been a real problem lately, and I’m hoping getting meds will help and having a job to focus on will help (and not be too difficult).
Antigen, in my case the main concern for the pshrync who didn’t want me to get Wellbutrin off-license is the potential for liver damage. So before she’d even consider asking the powers that be for permission, I had to get my doctor to promise to keep an eye on things and give me regular liver screenings and such.
It usually means prescribing a medication for something the FDA has not approved it for. I usually hear it as “off label” use. For instance, almost no one prescribes the old tri-cyclic antidepressants for depression anymore, but they are getting prescribed for nerve pain caused by diabetes, other diseases, and injury. Buproprion (Wellbutrin) was originally a smoking cessation drug, but many of the users reported a decrease in depression. For years, prescribing it for depression was an off-label use, and then the makers did enough studies to get FDA approval. The FDA approval is necessary to advertise the drug for a specific condition.
Thank you! I don’t know why I couldn’t make that connection on my own, especially since some of my own meds are prescribed off-label, and I know that term. Duh, me.
Unless you meant perhaps there was a Kinko’s/Library/Doper near him, heh. It is in electronic form to begin with, I guess I neglected to mention that. So sending it along to them wouldn’t be the issue so much as getting it back in time. But in any case, it feels like so much effort to go through their laundry list of pre-interview requirements when I’ve already got a job I know I can do. It exhausts me even to think of jumping through a bunch of hoops for a job I’m not sure I’ll be offered even if I go through the interview process. It’s with one of those organizations that promises an interview if you self-declare as disabled, and I have yet to actually get a job from one of those interviews, because there’s always someone “more qualified”.