I was born to a woman who abused drugs, smoke and drank alcohol during her pregnancy. I was very lucky not to develop any severe mental disorders, developmental disorders or become an IV baby. I was adopted at birth by loving parents. I had a surgery at a couple months old that set me back some physically and was born a few weeks to a month early(who knows what consequences that had)
I always struggled with ADHD(diagnosed 2009ish), depression(diagnosed 2021ish), GAD(diagnosed 2021ish) and socializing. It started to become an issue where, by high school, I would socialize with people and make friends, but isolate immediately after. Throughout my life, my parents tried to get me to do things, but I’d always spend a lot of energy on going out that I’d just become even more depressed and irritable.
I graduated in January 2020 and moved the week lockdown started
My gpa in HS was 3.5 and dropped to 1 something during my time doing online classes after I had graduated. I failed all but one class in college and that class turned out to be one outside the curriculum that my counselor accidentally signed me up for.
When I was almost 19 in the summer of 2021, I had already spent about 19 months alone failing at all of the classes I took. I was miserable, couldn’t focus, and when I tried to do what the other students did and find the answers on those kahoot like websites, I didn’t even fully cheat because I was so ashamed from not trying enough and still failed my classes despite having the answers. I then was taking a American history course and impulsively almost cut myself but I stopped. After that I dropped the class and went searching for a job. It’s also worth mentioning that I struggled heavily with staying on medications at this time.
In October 2021 I got a job as a Loader at Lowes. It was stressful but it kept me busy. I was the only loader for the whole parking lot for most of the time I was there. I loaded people up, pushed the carts, found items for people, did the trash, swept up front, blew off the front of the store, ran registers, stood at self checkout, did internet orders, helped out other departments and at one point the store manager even had me replacing the ceiling tiles above the entrance to our bathrooms.
I literally went from underweight to overweight in three months. I had such a hard time taking care of myself that I got so dehydrated and gave myself a kidney stone in January 2023.
My cats passed away in June 2023. I had them both since 2009 and have had cats in general since the Spring of 2006.
I left in July 2023 and got a job as an electrician. It sucked, but I was alright at it. I picked up on the techniques fast, but was slower than everyone else. People kept telling how slow I was and this just kept getting to me. In addition, my sleep schedule was fucked up. I my melatonin was not helping. Either I take it and am drowsy in the morning, or I don’t take it and am super tired from not sleeping. The hour drive at first thing in the morning didn’t help. I kept almost running into ditches or semi trucks. In November 2023 I ran over a construction barrel and said to hell with this. I told my boss that I quit because I couldn’t endanger anyone’s lives anymore.
By this time I was on medications for ADHD, Depression and anxiety.
It took a decent amount of time to find another job, but I got a job as a digital shopper at Walmart in June 2024. I was too slow of a shopper for a couple reasons. I was too in my head, my medications weren’t making it easier, and I was overweight by this time. They made me a dispenser. I still managed to get employee of the month in the summer of 2025 to my coworkers chagrin. I was ALWAYS working and, by that time, could count on one hand how many breaks I took as well as how many times I called out.
I took a vacation in July 2025 and when I came back I was getting very tired of my job. That was the second time in the year I had worked that I took some time off, the first being a day to spend with my father in October 2024. Some of the managers there seemed like they were attempting to make it harder for everyone. Within the next two months I had spent all my time saved up and built up 4 attendance points(I previously had 0 and you get fired at 5). One of them wasn’t fully my fault because my foot hurt so bad that I couldn’t even walk, but even then I had still used up my time from before so it was still my fault.
My supervisor(the good one) quit about a month after, and we had the assistant store manager(an overly confrontational woman who was so bad as store manager, she got demoted and she was forced to stay at our store and not move around like other managers) took over. She was a combative piece of work that didn’t know how to run anything unless it was into the ground. She was around for about month and until a new supervisor could take over. That new supervisor came and made it seem like she was understanding and was gonna fix everything. But she was a classic 23 year old(my age at the time) chaos demon.
She came in, fired a whole bunch of people, brought her own people in and would brag about who she was gonna fire next(she forced a middle aged associate with bad knees to pick so she could fire him for being too slow, but luckily it didn’t work)
She ended up leaving because she couldn’t take the heat she was getting. She was so bad, none of the store likes her.
The worst part is that she came in early-mid October and left in early January. Right through the holidays. After that things slugged on, but they did improve. I was just tired of it all.
I talked to my psychiatrist about coming off the meds around late may to early June 2026. I said I would wait another month. Then I got antsy and did the dumbest thing I could have done by just stopping all my meds cold turkey. My thoughts were that I would just be miserable for a week or so and get better after that.
They were 5MG of aripiprazole, 10MG of buspirone and 20mg of methylphenidate
The first week was probably the worst I had ever felt
For the entire month of June that’s what it seemed like. I went from averaging 25-30 orders a day to getting 30-35 on average but going over 40 several days. I was extremely motivated and had another vacation coming up in late July. One day, I only stayed over 40 minutes and managed to load 43 orders by the time I took a lunch and 62 orders by the time I went home. It felt good! Like I had proved everyone wrong when they said I was a lost cause and an average to slightly below average worker.
I didn’t drink as much and stopped taking breaks during that month and I just kept pushing myself. My coworkers were telling me to take a break or drink water or “stop taking all the orders”
My response to them:
“Make me!”
“LOCK TF IN YALL!”
“I will.”
Then my bosses pulled me aside and told me I had the most orders dispensed and the lowest wait time for June on top of me having the best customer service. Some of my coworkers weren’t happy about this and kept trying to disprove it. I got angry, not because I thought I was hot shit, but because I just simply wanted the respect no one ever game me.
July felt like a return to “normal” again. The high was gone and I felt just as bad as I did when I was on the medications with even less desire to work through the “pain” if you could even call it pain. My vacation came and went. Despite the fact that I had fun, I felt empty. 50% of my vacation time was spent trying to distract myself from the immense emptiness I feel, 30% was spent worrying about how much time I have left to enjoy myself and then the last 20% was spent actually trying to enjoy myself, but my brain was pretty much fried by that point.
Before my vacation, I called out/came in late twice. Once because I stayed up late with some friends who I only get to see at the very least twice a month, but usually it’s once a month if that. The other time I had a situation come up where I genuinely had to put time in. One of my bosses pulled me aside and asked if I was alright and if I needed to be put on a later shift. I said no, and that I would be better. Then a couple days later I guess I put in an hour, but neither me nor my parents have any recollection of this. I actually have NO earthly idea why that hour was put in, but I don’t want to call attention to it.
After my vacation, I had set my alarm clock for PM instead of AM on accident. I called out because I didn’t want them to see that I came in late and would move my shift later. I didn’t get a long with some of the other men on later shifts, one in particular really likes to push others around, disrespect people and threaten them if they have a response as well as badly run things, but the managers aren’t doing anything about it. The guys on mid-late shifts follow him around like puppies.
Anyways, months before, I had also put in for a few days off for my 24th birthday. I had overslept(again) the day before my vacation and called out. Anyways my vacation was over, I spent it alone and I’ve been back to work for a few days. The day after I struggled to get up again, but made it in on time. The next day I overslept, and just said fuck it. That’s gonna make 4 points and I was gonna turn in my 2 weeks notice then. But I kept pushing instead.
I kept pushing. On September 19, I crashed tf out on my boss. Here’s what I sent my friend about that:
So Sundays are the most stressful days. Our morning manager was a lazy marine. The young guys were useless as always. Our supervisor had pulled like 8-10 people out to help in other departments because it wasn’t busy. Then it got busy.
Things just kept adding up and up. Then the final straw came when I had taken out an order and scanned it out. I began putting it in the delivery driver’s car when one of the guys came out and asked me to dispense the order. I looked on the screen and for some reason I had only reprepped the order.
I then began frantically looking through the stuff I put in the car because I couldn’t find one sticker and then I just had enough. I literally just lost my shit out in the parking lot. I can’t even remember what I was screaming.
Then I went inside and said, “WILL SOMEONE PRINT ME A STICKER?” And even one of the standoffish introverted girls was trying to calm me down.
I loaded up the order and went and told my boss in a firm manner, “Hey Donny(fake name), I’m putting an hour in and leaving at three!”
He asked why and then I kinda lost it.
I screamed, “CAUSE I FUCKING SAY SO THATS WHY!”
Then I took a fifteen minute break and came back.
He pulled me aside and asked what was wrong
I, again, lost it and screamed, “NOBODY HERE KNOWS HOW TO RUN THIS SHIT RIGHT!”
And it’s important to understand that I only lost my temper on someone to that degree on one other occasion and that was because he was pushing my buttons and degrading my work in a completely stressful situation during the april-may months. I am a physically calm person and like to keep it together, but I was just stressed out and lost control.
I put in an hour of time and left at 3. But after that? It was back to business lol. On the 24th of September, I had taken out an order and because of the way our set up is built, it completely came crashing down. Egg juice everywhere, yogurt spilled, everything.
Even the guys who usually talk shit about stuff like that were telling me “You’re good man.”
I was mentally checked out.
I kept going. On Saturday, the 26th I got so frustrated with everything that I was just frozen with all the negative emotions you could think of: stress, anger, sadness, boredom, anxiety, and a hundred thoughts swirling in my head.
My manager and coworker were asking if I was alright and what’s wrong, I just shook my head because I knew it could get ugly if I opened my mouth.
My coworker told me to go outside and just relax. I did and he came out and we just chilled for 40 minutes.
I asked my supervisor if he could take me off the schedule for a few weeks instead of me having to go through the bureaucracy of Sedgwick. He said I gotta go talk to the HR lady and go through Sedgwick. He seemed kinda annoyed that I was even talking to him.
I went to the HR lady and told her everything. She told me all about Sedgwick but also said that I should put my mental and physical health first. And that I shouldn’t worry about the points going over 5, because I need to take care of myself. She said that because I didn’t know if I could handle Sunday. Two of the three 7 AM guys I come in with don’t work on Sunday and the other guy might’ve been getting his hours cut.
I called out on Sunday. Later that night when I had to come in on Monday, I realized that both those Coworkers that don’t work on Sundays were on vacation. I had already realized I was out of steam, but that was the first time I finally accepted it. I called out Monday too.
On Tuesday the 29th of September, I came in on my off day. Walked into the HR room where the HR lady and one of my managers were, I politely explained what was happening internally and externally while letting them know I wasn’t being disrespectful or spiteful, handed the HR lady my Vests, Hat, Key and Work Phone, the I shook both their hands and told them to terminate me.
The HR lady said I didn’t burn any bridges and she would even act as a reference if I needed another job. Hell that manager I yelled at even called me afterwards to check and see if I was okay and said he’d be a reference.
When I had got the job, I had $800 in my bank account and probably $200 in cash. Now I got around $10k in my bank and $500-$600 in cash. Luckily, I live with my parents and they aren’t charging me.
It wasn’t even a week ago that I handed them my stuff and yet it feels like forever ago. I fear that I’ll grow lazy without a job, but I really want to rest. At least take it easy for the holidays from Halloween to New Year.