Thank you so much. Seeing this list of reasonable accomodations (although I have depression, not bipolar disorder, but I’m sure the accomodations are similar) gave me hope that I can return to work someday.

There are increasingly many employers who are familiar with bipolar disorder and no longer fight these accommodations. That’s the good news. The bad news is there are still ones that will. BUT, you can find the ones that will and also do what it takes to stay as stable as possible so you don’t need many accommodations.

I had a bad experience in getting accommodations. I was a professor at a state university and the accommodations I had in my plan were to teach no off campus courses, teach at least one online course if eligible to teach them, and no early morning classes. The first semester back full-time from a leave of absence they broke all of them. I wasn’t able to continue working.

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder several years ago. I’ve worked for the same employer for nine years. I have a Master’s Degree in Counseling. About 5.5 years ago I requested an ADA accommodation to leave the unit I was working on. I was sick all the time and the stress and trauma of the work was too much for me. I asked to be reassigned to a job that was much less stressful, required only a high school diploma and relevant work experience, and was on a different unit. My request was honored at that time. On September 30th of this year, I was informed at a meeting in front of about 30-40 supervisors, coworkers and administrators that I was being reassigned to the unit I asked to leave 5.5 years ago. I was already struggling with depression because of problems at work (problems not caused by me but affecting me nonetheless), but this announcement sent me into a panic/manic episode and I left the building to figure out what to do and also to try to regain my composure. I had already notified HR that I expected my employer to honor the ADA request from 5.5 years ago, so I don’t know why I was reassigned to the unit I specifically asked to leave. I also told HR I would be leaving if the meeting in question went poorly as I suspected it would. The HR representative was at this meeting and I also told her, when the meeting was over, that I was leaving and was upset because I didn’t understand why they revoked my ADA accommodation. On 11/4/10 I was suspended for 2 days without pay and given a written reprimand for leaving work without telling anyone, and also for distributing hard copies of an e-mail I sent to the person from HR. The only person I gave that letter to was the person from HR. I’ve been trying to file a complaint with my local EEOC office, but they never answer the phone and I want to know if it’s even worth my time to file a complaint with them. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. I work for a county government in child welfare casework.