Sweetie, i'm sorry to say that having been thru such similar work issues....that i really don't know what to tell you - especially since you are in the UK and i don't know what differences there are over there from here in the US (although it seems you have SO MUCH more help and support than we tend to get over here).
the noise issue really really bothered me at work a lot too and when i could remember/think to do so I would plug in some headphones and listen to music off the internet so i could focus more on my work.
if you don't have to or need to tell your supervisor about the 'actual' BP diagnosis....i don't know that i would. it seems to me that most of my hardest work experiences have been with people who HAD or HAVE a significant other or family member with BP (my first editor or fired me and made life totally horrid....had a bipolar brother; at this last job....my 'friend/smoke buddy' was the assistant managing editor who's husband is bipolar and she 'ratted me out' several times to upper management about things that didn't concern her or my job....and SHE is why i got fired on the day that i did!!)
My theory on that is this: it's MUCH easier for them to ACT on their thoughts, feelings, anger, worry or whatever toward a co-worker rather than their family member!! This last 'friend' kept telling me she understood and was my 'friend' BUT at EVERY opportunity possible she stomped on me and either hurt me on a very emotional level or went behind my back to tattle on me for what 'she thought was the right thing to do.' She even said i was acting like a "victim" and she wasn't going to watch me act that way.
She had NO clue!!! Because she had HAD to MAKE her husband get on meds after they got married!!!! So she put ME in that same kind of 'forced to help the bipolar' mind-frame b/c of her only personal dealings with how she ASSUMED all bipolars act and are. I TRIED explaining to her how seriously i have taken my illness over the past 5 years and have struggled to constantly make certian i could stay on my meds (even when having no insurance), BUT her personal life experiences totally over-road everything and anything i told her.
Oh, and i don't know much about the background of my first editor who fired me after I revealed my bipolar disorder except that he told me his brother had been bipolar and he came across very angry toward mention of that (as if his brother had been some horrid person or something) and he IMMEDIATELY started treating me in that same manner until he finally convinced the publisher, and corporate, to fire me.
Both firings came within about 6 months time from my return to work from medical leave (in which i'd disclosed the mental illness right before going on leave).
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That's the only 2 cents i have.
Sorry that i can't be any more helpful.
Just know that i completely understand the weight of all the stress and anxiety you are going through!!! I too and VERY good at what i do when i am well (among the top 10-20 in my state actually), but none of that matters when supervisors can't "see" the illness or even understand it. Bipolar disorder isn't viewed to be as life-threatening and difficult as cancer or MS or AIDS or even pnemonia!!!!!!!
All we can do is keep trying to get well, hang on and accept whatever happens as being something that was meant to happen for whatever reason we don't yet understand.
I ended up with a MUCH MUCH better job and work environment after my first editor fired me (plus i got to recieve unemployment income while i continued to get through my major depressive episode...which mostly involved LOTS of sleeping).
(oh...and I was hired onto the next job at a salary of $8,000 a year more and then given a $2,000 raise after the first year. So after 2 years at the new job I was making $32,000 plus benefits (and LOTS of extra freelance gigs that paid really good), instead of only around $22,000 a year and having to work nearly twice as hard also...often putting in 60, 70 or 80 hours a week!!)
And I have a LOT more quality images i've produced and published from this last job i was just fired from for my illness....which will help me probably get an EVEN BETTER JOB!!!
It's hard, but i TRY to view both my discriminatory firings as "forced personal growth." LOL
Really, that's the ONLY way i've been able to even handle this last one in the slightest.
So just remember that, no matter what happens, "forced personal growth" can OFTEN lead us to such bigger and better things than we would have even realized was there for us to grab hold of!!!
(BTW, this last job....was the first job i'd been hired on as a full-time photojournalist, which is what i'd been working toward for about 8 years at that point. AND, since it's such a SMALL career market, i had actually applied to the paper because of an ad stating they were looking for a reporter. The editor looked over my resume and responded by asking if i'd rather work for them as a photographer b/c the opening had just become available and they hadn't even had time to advertise the opening yet!!!!"
