Re: Re: Disability Blues

[Guest guest]

, The last day that I worked at a "real world" job was a decade ago at the end of this February. It was a difficult transition as I had told myself it would be possible to return to work after 90 days trying to recover from full blown AIDS. That's another story that isn't really relevant here. Watching television quickly became boring, and I started therapy with a wonderful woman whom I credit with saving my life by teaching me how to cope. Our sessions were rarely about HIV/AIDS, and most often about underlying personal matters. I began to draw and make art again, learned some HTML, and am trying my hand at writing. Like Ed mentioned in his reply to you, I think if I tried to work 40 hours again that my health would start to fail again, and that would mean dire straits considering I'm "treatment challenged." If I may, I'd like to suggest the idea to you of exploring any talents or interests

you may have or finding inexpensive sources for trying something new and different. I live in a city of about 110,000 and the local Park District often has short classes and workshops for very little money. The local community college offers a wider variety of classes which cost more. You might want to check if a local theater needs volunteers such as ushers which would allow you to see a play or some other kind of production for free. I understand there are people who have a strong need to work, and you may be one of them. My concern is that you not inadvertently do something to jeopardize your disability. A speaker at my support group once talked about the "Back to work" program and these rules seemed incredibly complicated. Joeedlortz@... wrote: If i went back to work, the gov't would never let me go out on disability again, that's the scary part. You can do part time, but don't hurt your further disability chances. I'm convinced that if i tried to work 40 hrs, i'd be dead in 6 months. I don't feel guilty being retired, i contributed to the system for 35 years. Just remember, : Too much stress can kill you, and not enough challenge can kill you just as fast. The secret of life is creating a balance between the two. (i made that up years ago). In a message dated 3/20/2006 10:09:18 PM Pacific Standard Time, PozHealth writes: Message: 3

Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 14:41:52 -0800 (PST) Subject: Disability BluesI've been on LTD from Disney for sometime now, and am becoming really bored... (remainder of digest deleted as it is NOT important to my comment)