Sorry to read all this man. Life really does suck sometimes, but as quickly as it turns to shit, it can also become unexpectedly awesome. Just gotta keep on keepin’ on 
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I am pleased to share what helpful experience I have. Hopefully without being boring. Generally, I have noticed that one of the best ways of getting out of “yourself” is to help someone else. Not always as easily done as said, but it reminds me of another of life’s great questions, “Is it better to receive or give a smile?” Bit of a trick question really ‘cos one usually leads to the other.
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That sounds awful and very scary. I hope through time a positive may appear and there is an opportunity to reframe this as a chance to start down a different path. Good luck
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Hi everyone. I wouldn[quote=“jolyon, post:199, topic:4865, full:true”]
Sorry to hear you’re going through this, it sounds horrific and nobody should ever have to work for employers like this.
If you’re on a proper contract with them and a permanent employee they really have no choice but to pay you statutory sick pay. Even people on zero hours contracts can have some rights around SSP.
It’s worth considering making an emergency GP appointment first thing on Monday, calling in sick, and getting signed off. If you say you’re worried about your mental health and you feel too unwell to work, and that going to work would be harmful and you’re worried about what you might do to yourself if you had to go to work, there is no way a doctor won’t sign you off for at least two weeks. But ask them for a month.
Contact HR as soon as this has happened by email so it is all in writing.
If they attempt not to pay SSP there are loads of routes you can go down. There is no way they can just not pay sick pay to someone who is properly signed off work, and they will lose. If you’re going to leave anyway then at least make them pay you until you find a new job.
Some more info here which may be helpful.
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Bloody hell… sorry hearing this…
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Dear all. I don’t contribute much to the forum but I love its warmth , generosity and inclusiveness. This may be the one occasion that I may post something of use or interest. I am a lawyerand have been for 30 + years. I want to offer help to anyone here who might need or want assistance with legal problems. I might not have the relevant expertise for your particular problem, but I will almost certainly know someone who does. I might not have an answer or solution.
Maybe send a direct message to me.
If I can help , I will.
Sometimes just a sounding board is good.x
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Very good of you sir 
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Jeez that’s a shit time right there. Love and wishing you better things to come
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You this Pete? Was in steady rotation when it came out. Need to give it another airing 
Kind offer comrade
i need to spend more time in this thread, if for no other reason than as a reminder to try and take care of myself, so i can find ways to be strong enough to take care of others.
first - @jolyon i absolutely understand your sentiments. starting around late october i find myself with compressed obligations, less daylight and once ever few years - a shit election to have to face. the things that should be joyous and rejuvenating don’t seem to work. i tend to disappear for a bit, or drink my way through what i can’t avoid. it’s a crap approach. no advice to give, just solidarity and empathy. i know you know you’re not alone in this, but if it helps at all, i get it. bleh.
next, to @Jesse3enne77 - what you’re going through is different than the general global frustration (though you might be going through that as well). again - no advice, because you’re dealing with a set of situations specific to you, so what good would advice do? all i can offer is sympathy, hope from a damn-near stranger, and well-wishes from one of the least spiritual people you’ll ever hope to meet. if i can will this universe to give you a moment’s peace, i’m trying. you’re on a new, challenging path and i genuinely hope that you’ll find guidance in people, moments and maybe even the ephemera of life.
oh, maybe i do have a little advice - i know the future seems tough financially, but maybe buy yourself something nice but not too expensive, to commemorate the moment. there’s a reason divorced dads run out and buy corvettes - i’m gonna suggest something more practical, like a good set of boots or maybe a skateboard or something you wish you had when you were younger. maybe a swatch. it’s a big change, give yourself a gift of some sort, something you can put your hands on to say “this is mine”, and then to be able to hold 10, 20, 30 years down the line? it may become a totem of your strength in the dark times. please try and be kind to yourself.
to @JackdawVersion - again, i’m decidedly unspiritual, but i absolutely pepper my life with these sort of tiny mantras that help get me through. one that has stuck with me forever is “it’s a sad and beautiful world”. so much beauty in the sadness, so much sadness in the beauty. never one without the other. beauty without sadness is superficial.
please be kind to yourselves, comrades.
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I got loads of tiny mantras! I should hang out my shingle as a tiny guru.
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“This too shall pass”.
Keep putting one foot in front of the other.
X
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An essential act of self care I’d say 
I read this from Oliver Burkeman yesterday and found it helpful…
‘The antidote to all of this, in the broadest terms, is more reality , more immersion in the finite here and now: more writing on paper; more gathering in person and in public; more looking strangers in the eye; more scruffy hospitality, more queueing for the supermarket checkout that’s staffed by a human, if there even is one; more feeling the weather on your face and staring into fires; more living as creatures, not machines.’
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Excellent read.
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Thanks for sharing
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My wife couldn’t have done more to encourage me to read his four thousand weeks book but I honestly can’t get through self help books 
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I hear you, but it was a good read and managed to avoid the worst excesses of the genre
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Right on! Thanks for the link.
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It’s more of a general thing for me. I can only really read books for pleasure these days, my mind wanders. Even the books I read for pleasure tend to be trashy dectectives/spies etc
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I would love to say that was me with talent and skills, but…Its not.
As I said, I am here to help, if I can. Im not perfect and it may take time for me to reply. but i will.
ive learnt a lot from this forum. Not just the insane brilliant music.
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