Work is one of the things that can pull a couple apart faster than sex. It’s one of the things that defines us in America. I remember a previous relationship in which the woman I was dating was a co-worker and also living on Social security disability benefits. She was caught in a bind because she worried about losing the social safety net provided by those monthly checks. There have been studies showing that the number of people collecting those benefits has increased. And i spend a lot of my time assisting people who would to return to some form of gainful employment.
People like the woman I was dating, what had begun her career helping people. She already had a college degree, a wonderful smile and a history of overcoming challenges. And yet we were completely incompatible. There were underlying personality traits that should have told us to cease and desist, but in reality I think we were just too horny to recognize them.
As people with a lived experience of mental illness, we want to find people who can understand us and it makes perfectly good sense to find another consumer who has experienced some of the same extreme states we have visited. States of the union, states of consciousness and even Mississippi. Let’s visit them. but in regard to mental health you have to decide what impact if any your mental history plays in your life. In this case, my former girl friend found that she was unable to work as she continued to spiral downward. I now work more than 40 hours per week and may be on that other extreme of being far away.
I hear Jackie Wilson singing that your love has lifted me higher and higher. He was one of the singers being remembered in the tribute song Nightshift by the Commodores. But the other type of nightshift is the one that takes place at home when you are discussing your views of life. Are you still talking about your work lives or something deeper and more meaningful?
When I'm 64 