Would mentioning my health be of benefit?

Hi Jenny,

I'm Bipolar, hear voices and a whole list of other things. I'm in a support group on Yahoo and we have a few people that are in the mental field or some kind of nursing, I also have a very good friend who is a trauma nurse at UC Davis. The ones that have never said anything have had no problems with there jobs or getting them, the ones that have told have either lost them or are being cut out of retiement money and so on.

I suggest you keep it to yourself and just know that with your dx you can be a better Mental Health worker. I always said that the people who have never walked in my shoes will never understand what it's like. I myself think many people will benefit from you.

I wish you all the best and wish there was more of you out there.

Take care and never give up!

Cella

Though you may logically feel that people at a psychiatric hospital would almost welcome your "experience" with mental disorder issues, I cannot be more emphatic when I say that you should NOT tell them. I have had a similar experience in the past and though my managers seemed to be open to it, and even said thanked me for telling them, over time I noticed that my manager was far more observant of my actions than those of my colleagues. Every skill set was put into question, how I handled every personal interaction, etc. Furthermore, going back to a previous job where my issues with addiction got out to my manager I received a similarly positive response because I had the isues under control for so long, yet I found out from other employees some years later (after I had left this company) that the manager and other employees talke behind my back, second guessed any personal absense and even kept me from going on certain customer calls for fear my addiction issues would somehow interfere with my professionalism.

Granted, my life is not yours, and I did not work at a location that dealt with mental health issues; nevertheless, I still do not recommend taking the risk even there. Most Physicians have and ego that it quite large, and even the nicest ones can have a superiority complex. They may expect that a therapist working with people that may have the same problems she has dealth with would be at a potential disadvantage rather than haveing the advantage you perceive that they would see.

Obviously you can take this with a grain of salt, but it's my 2 cents.