I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder when I was 19. Since then I have worked in at several jobs...

I worked in a factory and they wanted to hire me on as an actual factory employee instead of the temporary agency, and did a background check, and I lost the promotion and my job. I had worked there around 6 months.

I had a record for 2 years while I was on probation for charges I recieved in an episode.

After that I worked in a restaurant as a waiter, and I got fired again... I actually had an episode while at work, wow that was scary.

I ended up working there 6 months as well.

Now im a waiter again in a very good restaurant chain, I like this job alot and it makes me feel less schizophrenic. I just need to stay on my meds, which make my job alot worse.. dealing with the side effects.

Alot of people diagnosed with schizphrenia are still functional under medication, I dont think its wrong at all to ask a schizophrenic to work unless the conditions are just too bad.

I had been working on and off while in my prodromal phase of schizophrenia. I was planting trees in the North of Canada in the summer, and living off unemployment insurance (which turned out to be quite high because I was earning a lot) the rest of the year. So during the rest of the year I was developing my artistic and scholarly projects. Then I had a major episode which pretty much destroyed me for a number of years. During the episode I had the distinct feeling that all this was happening because I wasn't working. I then got disability welfare and spent a couple of years at a friend's house being catatonic on a couch just watching TV. Then I got a little better - I was able to do some stuff - but I still had a lot of bad moments. One day I went to a church (even though I wasn't very religious anymore) to pray to Holy Mary to heal me. The same day I started feeling the devil in me (though I did have some devil stuff happening before that) and started descending into a deplorable condition. The devil was supposedly there because I wasn't working and I heard all sorts of voices imploring me to work. There were also voices saying that I will be healed if I worked. I started to look for a job, but it was coming slow. All I could see was crappy jobs that were too tough for me or too depressing, or requiring skills that I didn't have. Meanwhile I was feeling worse and worse, devillish pinpricks all over the body, my facial muscles moving around, had trouble sleeping and started seeing truly scary visions of devil children wanting to get me. I cannot describe how hellish this was. Finally I got a part-time job and it got a little better, and then I got another one that was more regular, though just 3 hrs a day and slowly the devil stuff disappeared. After a while I quit the job because it was pretty tough and I wasn't feeling in shape. I don't think I ever worked enough to test out the claim that I will be healed if I work. The ironic thing is, that to be healed I was supposed to work, but to work in the first place I would have to be healed.

i hold a job, don't take meds, i think everyone can see how delusional i can be just from some of the things i've posted, and thats the tip of the iceberg. i spend hours a day in the demon world, what do you expect for a mindset in me?

but i have a job, of sorts, i am a computer instructor, just a contractor, most companies in the US won't deal with me because of the sz and the crazy acting out i have done in the past.

so i work for this one firm in california, they put up with the crazy kids and try to make something out of them. and here's the thing: the sz helps. i am the top rated instructor in the country. all my evals say 'best instructor i have ever seen" and things like that. i generate it naturally. totally manic, entertainment presentation. everybody loves me, (at first).

unitek.com. citrix training. i'm "c.m." (for charlie messemer) - check out the evals, the quotes are real, i have a ton more. they say he's energetic, entertaining, full of real world knowledge,

and when i took seroquel, the rave reviews went away. that tells me they are responding to the sz!

the sales guys sell my class by actually advertising my madness! they say "this guy is eccentric, he's totally crazy, but he kows Citrix!" so the students come in staring at me like i'm a circus act. and i give them their money's worth.

i only work one to three weeks a month. can't handle the stress of full time. i have to decomp[ress, with several days off, i go hiking in the mountains, i go to the zoo and talk to the tapir.

-onderdonk