Thanks Wooven for your kind words. It is a very lousy situation. I brought it upon myself though, not vetting my roommate better. I didn't think to ask her, if she was on antidepressants or anything (not that she would have been transparent with me to begin with, as she is still a complete stranger to me 5 months later living with her I don't know her any better than when I first met her, other than learning more about her mental illness and the web of people involved who perpetuate it with her). The other 2 choices were just as bad. Be homeless, or live in a woman's basement where her estranged husband still had access to, where there was a large dog, a toddler, the homeowner/estranged wife, and her friend/roommate in AA.

All because I quit my job to move in with my mother after she had a stroke and deal with her dementia for a year as it grew worse. What if I hadn't quit my job and just put my foot down with my sister and did everything from my own apartment I still had at the time? A totally different outcome, most likely. Oh well. That's not self-pity either. It's self-awareness that the choices I made last fall weren't in MY best interest long-term. But, how does one successfully forecast the outcome of their decisions long-term? There has to be a fool proof methodology.

I am motivated b/c the alternative is my roommate down the hall from where I sleep right now; a very mentally ill middle aged woman. Not someone I want to become. All I can do is channel my negative emotions. I'm writing a paper on creative problem solving and my professor gave me permission to use my living/unemployment situations as my paper's topic. Quite apropos, don't you think?!

I told my professor that I'm writing this paper as a way to motivate myself to solve my two major problems using all the tools and resources taught in her course. So, there's more than a passing grade riding on this paper. Can I actually make my solutions work, that I propose?