Chronic Illness Leading to Being Fired

I don’t work because I'm in constant pain, and suffer from terrible anxiety and recurrent, often suicidal, depression. I used to cope OK but things just piled up. In 2006 I had 8 weeks off with fibromyaligia. I got back, but after 6 months I was in poor shape again and at the same time feeling anxious and depressed. In May 2007 I just had to stop. The first six weeks were sick leave. After that I was on statutory sick pay for six months.

'Work' were anxious not to offend me but completely inept when it came to this sort of thing. They had swung from a laissez-faire approach which resulted in several successful (and expensive) claims for wrongful dismissal, over to an officious and doing it by the book approach. They were of course reading the book for the first time, but were doggedly determined to do the right thing – i.e. make sure that I could not sue them.

After a year it was apparent that I was not recovering. My doctors could offer nothing except pain killers at the time - I was offered opiates at one point but turned them down! Like I need to add addiction to my problems! Antidepressants can help with pain as well, but the side-effects generally make life unbearable - they all send me to sleep. 10 years of amitryptaline nearly ruined my life and certainly cost me my marriage.

So I was called into a meeting. In an hour-long meeting they patiently went through the options explaining the details and the consequences of each. Then they told me that they’d already decided to sack me. Actually it was completely fair as I could not work. But the pretence of having options was a bit surreal, and it was an hour of bullshit I could have done without.

There was still some fall out from this as I rent my room in a communal house from the same charity. But that's another story.

So now I survive on benefits and feel embarrassed about it. I've become quite isolated over the last two years - certainly having chronic illness sorts out who is a friend and who is merely being friendly. Lately I've been doing some volunteering which is good - it gets me out of the house and meeting people. It was almost panic-attack stressful to start with, but I'm learning the ropes now and getting the hang of it. Three hours a week so far. Ironically the guy who trained me on the money side of my job has just been arrested by the police for stealing money and tools from the place. Everyone is struggling with being very angry and remembering that they are supposed to be compassionate :-)