Making me ill

Oh my goodness, I'm not surprised you're stressed, especially if it's not even pleasant at home and you feel under pressure to earn money for a more comfortable future.

You know in all my long working life I never once heard a retirement speech in which a boss said, "I'd like to thank ….. for all those times when they came to work feeling stressed and ill."

The others are right, you need some time away from the job to recover your equilibrium, and if you can't manage that in the time you can self-certify, please go to the GP and tell them what you've told us. (In my practice you'd be lucky to get an appointment in less than a month.) I'm not a medic, but know that the crying is a sure sign of stress overload.

If you are a member of a professional association you might have a word with them, as they often run courses on wellbeing and workplace stress.

If you ve only got a year to go stick it out with a week off to recover no point in letting it all go for such a short time to work
Hopefully things might get sorted at this meeting fingers crossed

Evie
I've posted plenty of times on here about work related stress and angst; worried about letting people down, how to word things, feeling guilty about giving in my notice.

I've made myself feel ill with worrying about how everyone will be let down and so on.

Guess what though? I'm still alive, nobody hates me, and the jobs either got someone else to step into my shoes or they didn't.

Really, think about yourself first.

Thank you to all of your for your kind advice, I really really appreciate it. I was hoping to work until I get my state pension, but, like thousands of women born in the 1950s, I won't get it until I'm 66. A colleague has contacted me tonight to say that the powers that be are coming in on Thursday to discuss staffing. I'll wait and see if they offer any solutions. If not, then I'll have no option but follow your advice and take some time out to recharge my batteries. However, I know I will feel incredibly guilty at leaving such a skeleton staff in the team to cope whilst I'm away. Also, nobody covers my personal workload if I'm away, it just sits there until I return. It's all so impossible, but, you're right, I need to put my mental health first. Thanks again gransnetters. Thank God for this site.

How many more years are you hoping to work? If you take time off as MissAdventure has suggested (you need it!) and when you feel more positive look at your CV again. Jobs you did in the 70's are unlikely to be relevant to anything you do now so just list jobs over last 20 years approx. and summarize earlier ones without dates.

I wonder if I could get away with 10 years LTS ?

I'd do as MissAdventure has said. In the past, I've known a couple of women who were on long-term sick until they retired.

You dont have to put ALL your jobs and qualifications on your applications, relevant highlights is fine

Why not take a week off (self certified) and see how you feel during that week?

If you still feel unable to return to work after that, then go to your doctor and ask for some more time off.