Hi somat, Three years ago I admitted to myself that I was living in a situation that was unhealthy, unsafe, and generally miserable. I put the word out to family, and a little bit to friends, that I needed to change my life in a major way, much as you have done here. Telling people made me feel responsible for making a serious change. A year passed and things were worse. Another year passed and things were terrible. This past April my living situation had become downright dangerous and entirely intolerable. My life was in danger, no mistake about that. One night I said ENOUGH. I packed up my most valuable possessions (stuffed everything into my car), my nine cats, my pet rat, and went to a relative's house. Yep, all the pets and me. Relative was less than thrilled. Too bad, that's what family is for, and I was a polite house guest.

I came to terms with having lost so many of my possessions. Not an easy thing to accept, but I had to cut my losses. I quit my job of twelve years, immediately applied for unemployment benefits, and spent 6 hours every single day searching for a place to live. It took two weeks until I found an apartment for my fur family and myself. We moved in. I love my new home. I am safe here. It's just right for me. I just keep looking ahead, moving forward...'Go Forth' is what I constantly tell myself.

Recently I pounded the pavement until I was able to get help with buying groceries and get on medicaid. It took a lot of doing over a 4 week period, but I got it done, with persistence.

I am content. Still battling my mental health issues every hour of every day, but my life overall is incredibly improved from the hell it was 5 months ago.

That's what I did when I realized I was stuck in a place, pattern and lifestyle that wasn't working.