Frustrated

I am getting really frustrated. I know that I really need help for various issues yet I can't get help because I don't have the money to afford it and don't have insurance. I have called around to places that advertise sliding scales but they are all saying that they don't have room for any more sliding scale clients.

I have also tried calling the community mental health center but they won't take anybody who isn't on Medicaid and I've been told I don't qualify for Medicaid because I'm able to work so I'm not disabled and I don't have a child. The thought has crossed my mind to get pregnant, so that I can get on Medicaid, get the help I need, save up to go to college and get a Chemical Dependency Counselor degree to get back on my feet. I really want a child anyway and my child would also give me somebody to cuddle with and who will love me unconditionally. I'd have Wic, Food stamps, and TaNF to assist in raising the child until I can get my degree and stand on my own two feet which would be three years from now (one year for treatment and two to get my degree).

Have any of you cut through the red tape and have any tips on doing it? It is beginning to seem like people don't think that us who are poor deserve to get help and they are just in it for the money. Chemical Dependency counselors start at over $20 an hour so as long as I have the bills paid I'll see clients who can't afford it for free. Thanks for letting me vent.

Those are not good reasons to have a child. But I applaud you for wanting to work on yourself and to get the education you want to get. Why not apply for grants and see if that is available. Many colleges offer counselling so you could take advantage of that as a student. Some also offer counselling to non-students at very low rates. One near me charges $10.

You can also work on your issues while you are learning about counselling. You can attend AA or NA meetings or other support groups. There are many fine books on issues and healing at the local library. There is a lot of information online as well. You can apply the same skills you will use as a student to research, gather information, sort through it to see what seems helpful to you.

I would volunteer and try to get a job in a clinic that way while using library books for self-help and saving X amount a week for counseling and/or school (I'd do school and use a school counselor or talk with a professor I met and enjoyed). Figure out how much you'd need for 5-10 sessions and save up that much at once, work with those sessions and then do it all again.

Other than, as Echoes says, not good reasons to bring another human into this world, for your own benefit, your "plan" shows a certain plannishness to it rather than a knowledge of the reality of how it will actually be. In other words, it looks good on paper but won't be like that and you'd have no safety net AND another person's life in the balance.

Have you applied for SSI ? http://www.ssa.gov/ssi/

Have you sought out counseling from church resources. Many churches have someone that you can get counseling from.