Lost job because of anxiety

Hello everyoneI have been struggling with anxiety for several months. My GP thought my symptoms were neurological, so he referred me for an MRI and to a neurologist. I was diagnosed only a few months later. I tried many medications before I found the right one, that's why it takes so long. Now, when I started feeling better and started therapy, my employer dismissed me due to long sick leave. I worked in a hospital and expected more understanding from them. They knew my situation - the GP gave an incorrect diagnosis, so I spent months without appropriate medications and treatment. Have any of you been in a similar situation? Can I appeal? What should an appeal contain?

[Uile]

I see you’re based in the UK… are you in Britain or the occupied six counties? In Britain, Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) and in the north of Ireland LRA (Labour Relations Agency) can help.

You can be dismissed from your job for being sick for a long time… but your employer should first see if they can accommodate you in another department or position. If they didn’t do this then you may have a case to appeal or to receive compensation.

My personal advice would be to seek alternative employment… you are entitled to fair treatment so do ask Acas or the LRA for guidance but you’re also entitled to seek a peaceful life… anxiety can be like a map, rather than insisting on remaining where you are and medicating the suffering away, now might be the best time to make changes, to move your situation around until you find a less anxiety-inducing situation… after all, it may well be the hospital work that triggered your anxiety disorder in the first place!

acas.org.uk

lra.org.uk

[Hidden in reply to Uile]

Thank you for writing back. To be honest, at the meeting they only asked how I was feeling at the moment. I was not offered any other solution, apparently they decided that I was not suitable for another position. The simplest solution was to fire me from my job. I didn't receive any support from them during my illness, I only felt pressure that I should go back to work, which deepened my stress and anxiety. They threw me in the trash.

[Uile in reply to Hidden]

Yeah that’s not at all how they should have behaved… if I were you, I wouldn’t want to work there any longer but I would also definitely ask for support from workplace relations organisations because there is a process that should have been followed by your employers and they didn’t follow it.

You live in the UK, not the USA, workers actually have rights in the UK… and there are attempts being made to whittle away at these rights. Makes me so angry! Like, how dare they? And as you say, especially as they’re a healthcare provider themselves?!

If/when you’re going through a grievance procedure against your former employer, please make sure you’re also getting support for your mental health… take time to go for massages, walks, cook good food, meet with friends etc. because the process can be very taxing.

I also experience anxiety that was initially thought of as something neurological… went for MRIs, months of physiotherapy… in the end, what really helped was somatic therapy. Somatic therapy is very like counselling or CBT but instead of working with thoughts, it works with the body and the ways in which anxiety is held in the body. This might be helpful for you if, like me, your symptoms of anxiety present as physical sensations rather than worrying thoughts.

You can find a counsellor or therapist who uses somatic methods and I also find this website really helpful: somaticmovementcenter.com

It has loads of exercises and movements, videos, articles etc… and there’s a “blog” section with loads of things that might help! All free, I don’t work for them or anything lol and I’m not in the industry, I’ve just recently discovered it and find it very helpful.

[Hidden in reply to Uile]

Honestly, all the hearing meetings with them were very stresful for me, because I didn't feel any support from them and I only felt that I would lose my job, which increased my anxiety... Now I don't know if I want to appeal, losing my job worsened my symptoms and I don't know if I have the strength to fight them...My anxiety is very symptomatic and I have a racing tgoughts as well. I have a therapy already. My biggest worry is that no one will employ me since I was fired due to illness

[Uile in reply to Hidden]

I think that perhaps you’re letting this experience predict the future for you…

Very few companies would do that, it would be different if you were fired for stealing money or bullying… but you’re the one who’s had their money taken, you’re the one who was bullied. In an interview, when they ask “why did you leave your last job?” the answer “I had to take a lot of time out due to illness so they let me go, but I’ve been working with doctors and therapists and I’m doing much better now”. They don’t need to know what kind of doctors and therapists you’re working with… I don’t think they’re legally allowed to ask anyway!

You definitely know now that you don’t, you can’t, work somewhere that would fire somebody due to illness. That’s a fact you know for sure, that working somewhere that toxic is bad for you… so if a company won’t hire you because you lost a previous job due to illness then that’s actually helpful to you! You know for sure that it would be a bad place for you to work.

In the meantime, you might have done this already, speak to your GP. Tell them that you’ve lost work due to anxiety and that you’re finding it difficult to find work because of that. This way, your GP can give you a letter to say you require illness benefit and employment support.

You can get other benefits with that too like assistance with rent, bills etc.

This will buy you time to find work that really suits your nature. You can even access training and courses through social welfare that will help you find better work.

I totally agree that you shouldn’t bother with appealing for your old job back or for compensation… you should be able to, definitely, you have a legal right to appeal or sue… but it’s probably better and healthier in for you in the long run to cut your losses there and start the process of moving on. It’s awful that the experience you had there has you feeling like this will be your experience in your next job too. But that’s their fault, not yours. They’re to blame for that, but you can take responsibility for moving on from it now.

So you could go down the appeals route, definitely, and by the end of it you would get something… but it would use up so much of your time and energy, when just a fraction of that time and energy could be spent to find a much much better situation for yourself.

Another thing to look into is a side hustle. Dog walking is a good one if you like animals, it pays quite well and it’s work you get to do out in nature, with exercise, on your own except for the few minutes you have to spend chatting with the owners, very little “office drama”, no hierarchical company structure. Or there are other things like that that can help. If you’re more indoorsy, think about doing ironing for people or visiting peoples’ houses to feed their cats when they’re on holidays… not saying these jobs have to be your entire future but they can be a great way to make some money that will bridge the gap between this awful chapter in your life and the next, much better, chapter.

[Hidden in reply to Uile]

Thank you for these words and support. He really appreciates it. I don't know who. you are a professional, but you should be a psychologist. I have not received so many words of support from my friends who claim that my situation is hopeless and that they depress me more than they help me.

[Uile in reply to Hidden]

Awh 🥲 thank you for saying so, I just wanted to help. I’m not a psychologist, I’ve just been where you are a few years ago… long enough that I’m over it but not long enough that I’ve forgotten it.

You’re on the way to better things! Anxiety will probably come for you again in different ways but this chapter will end and you’ll have better days.

[Hidden in reply to Uile]

How long did it take you to overcome anxiety?I was already feeling a little better, but losing my job worsened my symptoms, I feeling so useless now

[Uile in reply to Hidden]

Still very much in the anxiety… there was about a year where it was gone, when I’d left a bad job and a bad relationship.

Now I’ve started a new job, a self-employed artist, and feeling very anxious… but it’s a new anxiety if you get me? And I feel like I have better tools having gone through it before… so this time it’s really just physical sensations, my head feels good… so in a way, this episode is better, movement helps like yoga, hiking, dancing… things that I found impossible or unhelpful when my head was full of racing thoughts.

I’m working with a somatic therapist and I asked him the same question: how long will it take to overcome? He said will be something that’s always there but that in time I’ll learn how to read it differently… so that feeling weak at the knees will be a signal to slow down… at the moment, my mind interprets that as a signal to freak out.

Another thing that he said which I found useful was that the feelings of anxiety are very similar to the feelings of excitement! Like the rush of adrenaline and serotonin… these things happen when we’re afraid but they also happen when we’re delighted… so maybe that can help.

[Hidden in reply to Uile]

Yhank you for your support. I really appreciate that