I would like to interject some positiveity in this thread. I work for the US Postal Service as a (walking not driving) Letter Carrier, which is a notoriously high stress work environment. I find though that once im out of the office, away from all my other coworkers and the eyes of management, and out on my route by myself it can be very therapeutic to me. No one breathing down my neck, its just me my big ass van, and a whole lot of packages/bills/junk mail. Everyday I get to walk the same houses, see the same people. Know their names and even their dogs names. Im a part of the neighborhood, a majority of my residents know me on a first name basis, and the area im in is this nice pocket in the bad part of the city so doesn't get too much mail or post but im not walking over used needles and shell casings like other routes in my station

My station manager and her supervisors are aware of my condition, turns out one of the supervisor's son has schizophrenia as well so thankfully they have all been really understanding and more importantly I don't constantly have the delusion that no one believes me and think that im making everything up. Which at my last station I was at tormented me constantly.

I have FMLA status and an agreement that if my symptoms are ever too bad I can just inform my manager and can go home or "give away" part of my route to an assistant carrier to lighten the load on me. I do feel as if they're just tolerating me sometimes (thats delusional thinking for ya), but I bust my ass everyday and when im not sick Im one of the fastest carriers in the station despite having one of the longest routes (350 some houses, 200 some apartment units, and a few business)

Ive been hospitalized 3 times while working for the service, the last time I was in the hospital for 2 months and ended up being placed on a court order to take medication by injection. Every time I was out I never had to worry about my job, it would be there for me when I was back and healthy again. Im totally aware of how lucky I am to have a strong union and a company that doesnt want to get rid of me and just wants me healthy.

Anyway sorry for the rant, this thread was just so depressing I wanted to share that even with this illness long term, full time, enjoyable (besides christmas time no postal worker likes christmas time) employment is possible. The hard thing is finding a position that works for you and a company that understands that this is a serious illness but it doesnt mean that you can't be as good of a worker as a normie.

tl;dr Fulltime Longterm Employment is possible: Just need to find a job that works for you and understands your situation.