career change

kodaline78

Hi Everyone, I have set up a new boards account for the purposes of this thread. I am a male in my late thirties who has suffered from Depression/ Anxiety for as long as I can remember. As you can imagine this had a huge impact on both my personal and work life. My life is one of extremes, either i'm very happy and positive or else feeling very low, negative about everything and no energy or enthusiasm for anything.I believe my depression is mostly genetic as there has been no major trauma or serious incident in my life that triggered it.

By the time I was in third level it was beginning to have a hugely debilitating impact on my life. I wasn't able to function at all and would wake up in the morning feeling low, anxious and extremely lethargic. By the time I was in my final year I was regularly missing classes due to the fear and anxiety and was unable to concentrate or focus on my studies. By some miracle I passed my final exams and even on my graduation day i was sad and didnt really see the point of it all, basically i could take it or leave it. Fast forward a few years and i qualified as a teacher even though I had no particular interest in becoming one, its just with an arts degree it seemed one of the few options open to me. I managed to get a permanent post in another part of the country but after a few months I was totally overwhelmed, anxious, very low and unable to perform the duties of the job.

In truth I had a meltdown.

I resigned my position after one year and moved home where I managed to get teaching a job for one year and get probated. While I stuck it out for a year and could have stayed in the post for another year I declined the offer and went travelling to Australia. When i came home I was on the subbing merry go round again. Anyway I moved to to a different part of the country mainly due to a relationship.

About two years ago I was offered a temporary post but only lasted two months as the same thing happened again. I was extremely anxious, severly depressed and not in a fit state to teach. I made up an excuse about receiving a job elsewhere but in reality there was no job.

Apologies if this long winded. I forgot to mention that i have been on medication for over ten years regularly visit my pyschiatrist, psychologist and done CBT all of which helps but I regularly suffered bouts of Depression. Anyway I am 99% sure that teaching is not for me but can't figure where to go next. I have been to a career clinic in the last year but made no progress. Being honest I wonder if I will be ever able to hold down a full time steady job as I quit numerous other jobs apart from teaching due to stress. Any advice/appreciated

Reactor

Im in the exact same boat, cant think of a single thing that interests me, Id love to just have a job that was interesting or satisfying even if it was minimum wage but there just seems to be nothing.

gercoral

firstly, it's good to talk so well done on your post

as i have mentioned on one or two other posts on boards, i have found volunteering to be quite a fulfilling thing to do. i haven't exactly done it extensively, but i've done little bits here and there; both in ireland and internationally, and i can honestly say, it's my favourite thing to do. there's a sense of escapism, a feeling of starting afresh, meeting new people, cultures etc.

soemtimes the 9-5 thing can be overbearing and monotonous. with volunteering, you get to travel and see different things, with little to no effort.

Jimmy Bottlehead

The key is to find things in your life that engage your passion, that interest you and then figure out the closest way you can make money from that. It's hard to find a job that sounds interesting. It's easier to find an interest that is related to a job.

eviltwin

Nothing wrong with changing career. I changed career in my mid 30's and it was the best thing I ever did. I don't think I would have been able to do my current job straight out of school, sometimes we need to grow as people before we are ready to follow our passion.

I found myself at a bit of a loose end following a redundancy. The industry I had been working in was pretty much gone and I had no clue of where I wanted to go. What I did was a bit of volunteering in an area that I thought looked interesting and that was the starting point for me. I was then able to look into further training and the experience from volunteering was a huge asset. It might be something to consider. Teaching qualifications are very transferable so there is a lot you can do. Don't write yourself off, you've loads of potential.

stickybookmark

From what I've heard from other people that struggled with it, I don't think teaching is a suitable job for someone that suffers from anxiety. People have often left that job because of stress. I'd suggest something low key in an office like maybe computer work, computer programming something like that? Plenty jobs in the tech sector as well at the moment.