Considering the pay social workers make Id be gone!

I am right there with you as a speech pathologist. Wish I could do something else.

I was a radiation therapist so I treated cancer patients and my partner is a hospice nurse. The way I looked at it is you really do reach people if you can make your clients life a little better or maybe it's just they get a person they can talk too. You are doing so so so much more than you will ever know. I guess no one told people who are care givers that there will be stretches like this. Judy know you make a difference

Just know you make a difference

Just tell the truth and let them figure themselves out.

Keep answering the questions: they may have memory problems or mental difficulties. When I get very bad anxiety I can barely remember my own name.

maybe there's another way for you to earn your living? What night classes could you take? what other dreams have you had over the years?

I don't want to tell you what to do, but I will say that I worked in social work for two years when I first got out of college then I had to get out. The money is terrible, you're constantly being dumped on by people who can't or won't do what they need to change their lives. So....yeah maybe it is time to move on. Let us know how it goes.

My aunt was a social worker and had to get out eventually. Too draining. It would be good if you
could get training to go into another field.

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure what to do really. I hate feeling trapped, I mean no matter what you do for a living, you're still working for someone else and have no control over your time, you spend the majority of your time doing something to make a living, yet, you're really not living. Yes I prob should look at doing something else. Problem is when I get low, I have NO motivation to try to do anything but suffer, then when I start feeling better, I'm thinking, "this is not so bad" and don't do it. the stress from this job is why I can't stop smoking. And there are lots of good reasons to stay, but the stress is hell.

You sound like me whatswrong 19. I have had jobs where I have been made miserable - and just as you say, when it's too bad, I don't feel peppy and keen to look fantastic in job interviews. And when things are going well, I don't need to leave any more.

I think the thing is to take stock, look at your 'career plan' as a separate thing, and make the decision, and then run with that decision regardless. Which is to say, override your feelings. Lock in a decided upon choice and go with it.

to think that you have to work for someone is part of your trapped thinking. Working for a good bunch is vastly different from working for a bad bunch. Vastly. Working for decent pay is psychologically different from working for low pay. There's a lot of stuff acting on you right now that you are able to change in a different work environment, even though you're still working for someone and you're still drawing a paycheck.

So sit down this weekend and figure out 'what do I want out of life and how do I get it?' and then just chop it up into bite-sized chunks. Your plan might take a year or more but HAVING that plan changes how trapped you feel and working towards it increases your happiness. Getting there means you can actually escape.