Situation with work

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Hi

I'm new here, looking for some help and advice and seems like this forum is a good place to start .

I've always found working very stressful and I'm starting to think I'm in the wrong line of work. Recently things have got too much and I've had to get signed off sick from work with depression and stress. The doctors have been treating me for depression for the past 3 years on various SSRIs, but they've not really helped with my mood, so I've been referred for Aspergers/ADHD assessments. I have had problems with persistant low mood/ interacting with others/ suicidal ideation for as long as I can remember.

I work in telesales and have always done call centre work since I graduated (6 years ago now). I've never known what type of work I would be suited to, so have just taken whatever job I can to pay the bills. My sanity is really starting to go, I feel like I've been putting everything into dragging myself to work and there's no energy or motivation left for me to try to have hobbies or a social life, it all feels too much and like it's a hole I'm not going to escape from because I don't know how . It reached the point where I was ready to kill myself rather than go back to my job.

I feel extremely uncomfortable talking to people, especially over the phone. I find the constant noise, bright lights, monotony of the job really hardgoing, and part of me does feel I'm too smart to be wasting my life doing these types of jobs. I'm due to have an occupational health interview over the phone on Wednesday. I understand that's basically to see if there's anything they can do to support me in going back to work. I will tell them I feel too stressed to be on the phone all day everyday and see if they can move me into an admin role, but I'm not sure that will be possible. I'm scared of the practicalities of not having a job, but feel like I need to be concentrating on dealing with my problems if I'm to ever feel even slightly ok with myself.

Has anyone faced anything similar with work? Any advice or opinions are very much appreciated.

Thanks
Fiona

i would have a hard time working in sales. how does bookkeeping sound? perhaps one if the evaluations you could ask for is a preference (what you'd like to do) test and also an aptitude (what you're good at) test.

Your job sounds tough. I don't like talking on the phone at all so imagine if that was my job! I'm between jobs myself and I would like to get something that doesn't challenge me socially, something like a quiet library job or something where I have little interaction with the public. In any case, I have to be realistic. I'm not in a position to go back to school to learn a new trade as I have rent to pay ($850/month) and I live by myself. Given the choice, however, I'd opt for something less stressful than what you're got. Good luck.

What did you graduate from?

Thanks for the replies

I don't think book keeping would be for me as I have difficulties with maths and I would be too slow/make mistakes. I do like the idea that I could work alone or freelance one day if I did something like that though. I did work in a library for a couple of years whilst at uni and that was an alright job. A bit repetitive and simple, but pretty much stress free. I've tried applying for library jobs since and for reshelving jobs I've been told I'm overqualified and for standard desk work they ideally want an MA (or similar in librarianship ).

I graduated in music (MA composition) I certainly enjoyed it, but was really bad at the networking/making contacts side of things, so that ambition has died out unfortunately. I would retrain and I guess if I'm going to, then now's the time as I don't have a mortgage/kids/debt to worry about. It's just deciding what to study and what will help with employment prospects.