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Employment for a mental health consumer, and for most people, usually brings self-esteem and self-appreciation. It brings meaning to life. It brings purpose. It gives a reason to get out of bed every morning. It brings hope for something better. 

Many psychiatric consumers mistakenly believe that they can't be employed. Most of us can, if we just give ourselves a chance, or maybe a hundred chances. Doing the proper self-assessment is one of many essentials. 

Conventional, full-time employment is achievable by some mentally ill people, but won't work for a large proportion of mental health consumers. (It doesn't work for me.) There are many reasons for this. Taking high levels of antipsychotics, having issues with sleep, and needing more down time compared to a non-impaired person, are some of the factors that, for many of us, could hinder full-time professional, conventional employment. It is not an indication of being less of a person, less intelligent, or less capable. Full time work is a higher hurdle for us than it is for non-afflicted people, because there are more obstacles. 

(If we decide that we can't handle full-time, conventional employment, it should not become a way to berate ourselves.) 

And there are so many other options! 

We should not rule out doing something that requires brains. Although counselors and vocational social workers may believe we are suited for no better than collecting garbage and pushing a broom, this is usually not so. 

Yet, there is nothing wrong with a cleanup job, (or another unskilled job, for that matter). I once did that kind of work. It is honest work and it provides money in one's wallet. However, many people might want to look for something more. 

We could have a job pushing a broom, and we could do this while we are in school studying to do something more lucrative and better. Most unskilled jobs can be performed on autopilot because of their simplicity. Because of this, they do not take up much space in the mind. This works in favor of being in school or starting up a business. 

On the other hand, if your job is in cutting edge electronics, you must probably live and breathe electronics, including in your off time. This is where the job dominates the main portion of cognitive capacity of the mind, making it difficult to do much else. 

We have only so much mental capacity in a day or in a week. If most of your brainpower is being used at your job, you may not have much mental space left for other things, such as school or a home-based business. 

A home-based business could be an option for a person with a disability. You could create a business plan that accommodates your strengths and your limitations. I've owned businesses. They were sole proprietorships with no employees. The simplicity of this meant that I wasn't making a massive commitment to something that was unproven. 

Self-employment may bring more respect than conventional employment. It also may mean that you could make more money in proportion to the amount of effort you're putting in. But this is so only if you are running your company properly, and if you are charging enough for your services. A mistake many people make who start a small business is to fail to charge enough. If people want your services, they should have to pay. 

Aside from starting a small business, another option, if money is not a concern, is "pro-bono" work, also known as volunteer work. This may bring more respect than a paid, entry-level job. The requirement to show up and to be reliable still exists in these jobs. There are a lot of advantages to doing this. You can't be pressured into working excessively fast. You can't be treated abusively. The type of work will probably be better. Instead of emptying trash, you could have a position as a newsletter editor, for example. Or, another example is what I do for the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

Volunteer work looks good on a resume if you are applying for a professional job. It is not lower in social status than paid work; sometimes it is higher. 

If you need money, then you should go for something lucrative. To do this, you need to find a skills match between what you have to offer and the requirements of the position that you seek. In some instances, the demands could be more than what you can do, even if you are otherwise qualified. This is one reason of many that I don't currently work in television repair. 

I once repaired analog televisions, and the basic skills could be transferred to the televisions that currently exist. I would need to lean the new technology, and this would not be intellectually hard for me. However, I can't handle the demands of such a position, because 99 percent of these jobs are very demanding. 

My self-assessment is that I can handle about 15 hours a week in a job. Experience, and learning what you can handle as well as what you can't, are key to creating a realistic self-assessment. 

This is important: if you are trying to work, you must not bring yourself into a relapse of symptoms, due to pushing yourself beyond what you can handle or because of some other work-related problem. Adjusting medication to facilitate a work attempt could bring risk. If medication is lowered because of its limiting effects on one's energy level, the reduction in medication brings the risk of symptoms re-emerging. 

If medication is raised to deal with symptoms triggered by a job situation, or if an additional medication is added, this can also bring more problems. You could be adding an unknown to a mix that already has a lot in it. 

If the job brings a lot of stress, it can worsen symptoms. If a job interferes with doing enough self-care, it can bring problems. 

Anything you do has risk, including but not limited to crossing the street to go get a quart of milk. Don't let my warnings completely discourage you. 

Before embarking on employment, you should probably be stabilized. Yet, a job can add to mental health. This is because it can bring contact with non-afflicted people, including coworkers, supervisors, or subordinates. Connecting with "mainstream" non-afflicted people can be very grounding, and maybe we can forget, while at work, that we have a mental illness. This can be a very good thing.