Unf-#@$!# believable! So many of us in roughly the same boat. You CANNOT COUNT ON BIG BUSINESS TO WATCH OUT FOR YOU!

OpieYates has the right idea, work toward building yourself an independent lifestyle even if it hurts at first.

I saw elements of myself in each post:

I'll keep it short

30 years working hard up to the top of a field, computer programming/near guru. Middle aged depression about a bunch of things, 9/11 started my pain worse I swear. This entire hemisphere is a target just waiting to be blasted.

Doc says Lexapro is the answer. 2 months on that, HR calls me in and says "You are unproductive and walk too slow". I quit Lexapro on the spot, go half nutty. Docs want to put me in psych center. Bosses say days are numbered. No compassion. The whole place knows my entire saga. I mean, I was out 4 days sick from quitting Lexapro abruptly

Get stopped in the halls, "Are you still taking them?", "How many have you had today?, "Did you just take something?", "You don't need drugs, you've just got to change your thinking...." ad nauseum.

HR says to me "Everyone can tell there is something wrong with you just by looking at you". Especially cruel phrase, my mother used to say that and similar tauntingly to me all the time when I was a misfit child in a miserable upbrining. My sister says life was a cross between The days of Wine and Roses and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (those were the better days).

Hard enough to hold onto to the job when everyone looks to you to do something nutty. So what's the choice, go into the mental hospital? Doc says, "It's not like One flew over the cukoo's nest , it's all Nabisco executives there". Nabisco must be a hell of a place to work!

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Folks in despair about jobs, finances. You can try to improve the situation, it's your ONLY choice. New jobs, few as they are, won't help. You're just tossed on the bottom and will be victimized in another year or so, chances are.

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Where possible, radically change the environment. Like I said to the docs who told me since Lexapro didn't work, they now had two SSRI's in mind, one brand new! Discussion ended acrimoniously with no Rx's.

I just realized, I'm not crazy, the rest of the bored clowns in cubicle hell are. They just want to see some excitement. Seeing patient2all go off is far more exciting than an order shipped to the wrong plant.

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Like I told the docs, if I live in a town in Afghanistan and am getting shot at constantly, I'm going to quit buying more armor and fortification. I'm going to move from Afghanistan.

Jobless? I pulled this old gem from the VIP Board, may help some.
Thank Lady B:

It may help a lot of us, if the workplace drives you to drink, try working at home, naked for that matter! It's a real field. Forget the matchbook ads that said you could make $10,0000 a month stuffing envelopes. The 'net has made true telecommuting possible for a myriad of positions. Just leave one open for me and my wife!

Like OpieYates, I'm pushing my on-line businesses with unparelled zeal and have a time frame for parole from the National Prison Company. You can't even count on a pension from employers. Put your money in a 401k and see how the market goes. We might as well buy lottery tickets.

I asked the benefits co-ordinator what happened to pension plans, he said it's too expensive for companies. Haven't you noticed the shabby suits the CEO's have been wearing lately?

No one in corporate America or the government gives a Best if kept off the board about you. You need your own plan to create an environment where you won't be so depressed. Granted, we can't help grief over family death and illnesses, but some things we can control.