Please help, need to go back to work now! Have missed 1.5 months +

Are you a nurse?

Are you a travel nurse?

I'm sorry that you're going through this. Based on your post, it sounds like you need professional help from someone who can do a full evaluation and work with you 1:1 to help you. I also believe that you should see someone before May. What's the barrier to seeing someone sooner? Does your agency offer an Employee Assistance Program? There are also hotlines and emergency resources available to you. Please take care of yourself.

Sometimes you need to call the doctor's office, preferably the one who prescribed you the meds you take now, and tell them you need to be seen urgently. Tell them you are missing work and cannot wait until May.

Best of luck.

The only advice I can give is to actually go to work. I've never heard of a place that lets you call in for a month and a half.

I wonder if you can get a reorientation shift with a partner, or if Employee Assistance can hook you up with a counselor quickly. In the end, you are going to have to hold your nose and jump in.

1. call your prescriber and make an appointment

2. you might want to consider seeing a MH specialist out of pocket if you can afford it - some have low cost/ sliding scale

3. You need to go to work.

If number 3 is not happening because of a "habit" or "anxiety" the only thing that will actually help is to go. Once you have gone for a couple of days, you will most likely feel better about it and just do it.

I am not sure why your employer puts up with you calling out for that long but you need to make it a habit to just show up every day - and not look for a reason to stay home. That sends your brain the wrong message that gets reinforced by your behavior, which in turn reinforces your thoughts of "not going is the right thing to do: , which reinforces the behavior -- a cycle that is hard to break.

If you can, *go to work* -- that's half the battle right there is walking through the door in the first place.

I don't say this lightly; as someone who has a mental illness, I can relate. In the past the anxiety and depression can be so overwhelming that I felt so despondent and actually walking through those doors felt like the biggest challenge. Any doors.

So once you do pass through those doors, some of that anxiety lifts ... making the next task easier and so on.

Please see your psychiatrist sooner than May.(((Hugs)))

Agree with the others. I get a weird sort of anxiety when I am out of work for more than a week, making it hard to go back. But i do it and it gets better when I do.

Please get professional help, too. I wish you the best.

Are you depressed?

Is it just work you cant go out to, or is it other things too, like shopping, going to other places, etc. That insight might clue you in to the urgency of needing to see MH specialist.

If it's just nursing, then you may need to consider another vocation. Not easy to start that process, but we all have to work if we want somewhere to live and groceries.

Best wishes.