I used to work for Aviva as a claims manager until I got redundancy in 2004 which I wanted, with the payment and cashing in savings etc I paid the mortgage off and took a year out.
ive been playing drums though for 30 odd years on a semi pro basis so after redundancy I eventually went self employed and became a professional musician.
6 years ago I started working for Lancashire Music Service teaching rock school and work around 20 hours a week for them so I tought myself how to play guitar, bass and keyboard over that time and that provides my main income as I'm contracted by them including sick pay, teachers pension etc.
Im a drummer in a couple of bands including one of the X-Factor finalists Jonjo Kerr, friends with a couple of M-People musicians and did quite a bit of work with an ex boy band member (A1) Pail Marazzi.
I run a community group which identifies and develops young people's talent in the arts, and chairman of a boxing gym run by former World Welterweight Boxing Champion Michael Jennings with my focus on funding for projects to engage young people.
Lastly I'm also an active Arts Award Advisor and Moderator for Trinity College, it's a nationally recognised accreditation and qualification for young people to work towards in the arts which I deliver in various settings but also as a moderator I verify other advisors marking of arts awards to ensure they are passing or not at the right criteria level simply because it's administered by Trinity College.
So I'm a busy person working and making a living in a variety of different ways, it's not 9-5 but that's what I enjoy as apart from my LMS wirk my week is flexible.
As for my illness ive always been pre disposed to anxiety and underlying endogenic depression and have had 3 previous full on relapses, the first time I experienced full on anxiety and panic though came out of a promotion when at Aviva to Birmingham just after my first daughter was born in 1994 and found myself completely out of my depth, living during the week in a hotel and going home at weekends, I was experiencing debilitating anxiety and panic attacks and drinking heavily so I came home and returned to the Preston office.
Whenever I feel or think of something that makes me anxious I worry about relapsing which I need to cognitively get sorted as its Sonething that has "caused" my relapses, I basically fear relapse.
I need to re organise my relationship with anxiety which is generally triggered when I feel cornered with no exit (which I did in Birmingham).
Despite the trigger my anxiety then moves from this as I get it sorted and latches on to something else and the depression comes very quickly as its a genetic thing just waiting under the surface and I'm in a cycle not helped by the fact I have an obsessive personality so my obsession comes out with overthinking and analysing everything to try and get myself out of the illness, I know I'm on the mend when I start to switch off and forget my illness and am able to unconciously concentrate on other normal things, and start to think normally, then my anxiety and depression subsides.
Work has been great and happy for me to be off as long as needed although I go down to half pay after 6 months, I've kept playing and rehearsing which has been difficult and continued to do some voluntary work for the community group I run, although it's been put on the back burner which I can do.
Its my big 50 in June so I'm determined to be fit and well for then and am contemplating reducing my voluntary work and letting others run it but keeping involved as and when, but increasing the number of gigs I do with the two bands I'm involved in in order to keep my drinking to healthy levels as I didn't like gigging because it prevented me from binge drinking at weekends on my own which hasn't helped and contributed to this relapse and issues in my marriage, if I gig, I drive and rather than hitting the vodka when I got home at 1am I'll just go to bed (I'm getting support with my old drinking habits) and only had a couple of pints since September.
So there you go, probably more info than you wanted!
Nx