"I was in the depths of ADHD burnout before I left my last job."
Following up with Helen from July 2022.
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I really love these catch-ups with previous interviewees, although I can never believe it’s been two years since the original, which you can read here first:
Usually this post would be for paid subscribers, but I think the Access to Work information is so useful that I’ve decided to leave it open to everyone.
What’s changed?
In many ways loads has changed in two years, in many ways I still don’t know what I’m doing next! After I resigned, I basically just parented and thought about what I might do for 6 months.
I earn a tiny proportion of my old salary. My husband transfers me money every month and I don’t contribute regularly to the household finances. Initially I found this hideous (being financially dependent to this extent feels is at odds with the brand of admittedly middle class feminism I have clearly held as a value), but I’ve come round to it now as I LOVE the work I do, being my own boss and my mental health is so wildly improved. And we can afford to do this right now.
In hindsight, and with the help of an exceptionally good ADHD coach, I realised I was in the depths of ADHD burnout before I left my last job and needed to “rest” before deciding what was next. With her help, I applied for an Access to Work1 grant to set up as self-employed. The grant helped enormously and funded some office furniture, some software that I would never have known existed but that has been hugely helpful2, more sessions with my coach and a ReMarkable3 subscription
I have accidentally fallen into almost exclusively writing work and thoroughly enjoyed it. I do technical tax writing for two of my clients and politics writing for the third. I’m currently procrastinating over dipping my toe back into tax advisory work too, as I do miss it. I only realised this when as ex-client got in touch to discuss a role he had taken on that he needed to discuss with someone of my tax specialism. It reminded me how much I love learning about people, businesses, what makes them tick and then problem solving and finding solutions.
If careers and work were all about finances, then resigning from my job and going self-employed would be as big mistake, as I earn very little now. But so far so good and I do have the opportunity to earn more in future if I decide to concentrate more on tax advisory work and less on writing.
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Government financed scheme which makes grants to help disabled people get into or stay in work, by funding adjustments and adaptations to help mitigate the symptoms/traits of their illness/condition/disability
Remarkable https://remarkable.com/
I would never have thought a grant like that could be used for coaching support too - really interesting!
This is such helpful info - I have passed it on to a couple of people who would really benefit from that kind of support.