[PenWithNoInk]

Hey all,

So, I'm in a precarious situation. I have no money, I'm very far behind at work, and I just can't seem to get myself to go.

I had a major depressive episode a few weeks back, I hardly worked if at all for over two weeks, and I had a short period where I bounced back from that and managed to show up a few times and work unproductively, but I still can't get much of anything done and I skip days like crazy. In addition, I think I may have slid into a hypomanic state and I stayed up all night for the past two days (too much energy to sleep, too wired, too busy with projects and interests). Needless to say, I haven't been to work.

I've decided to try getting into freelance creative writing, since that's where my passion lies. I got denied from Upwork, but I've sent some submissions to greeting card companies. I'll see how that works out. I've also been working on some personal projects, mostly poems and novels, and I'm really not very anxious about things. I'd prefer not to be homeless, certainly, and I'd rather not continue to burden my friends and family financially, but I think I've reached a fairly peaceful state of mind on the whole thing. It's not that I don't care, but I don't fear being homeless, and I'm not really stressing over it. I think I've just gotten to the point where I can accept that whatever happens, happens, and I can go with the flow on this one. Perhaps it's best to let things fall apart and pick the pieces up, rather than kill myself trying to keep it all together.

Anyone have some input? Questions? Maybe advice for being homeless?

[reb569]

A long time ago, when I was 18, I was homeless for a few months. It was no fun.

Do you have a therapist or friend you can reach out to? If you are hypomanic I suspect you will regret not doing something to prevent becoming homeless sometime in the future.

Please reach out for help.

[bpforever1]

Where is your family? I was homeless but had family who helped me in the time of need. If you don't have any family to rely on, please go to the homeless shelter. I went here and received advice from social workers who told me to go home to my family. I don't know if you can't sustain yourself on your writing, you should look into other jobs. When I was homeless, I worked as a stripper but realized it was no way for me to get out of my situation. I needed help- medical help from a psychiatrist. You should think of other avenues of work to help pay for your bills. If you can't work at other jobs, then you should rely on your support system- family, church, friends,etc. If you don't have any support system, then you must find a way to survive by creating a support system. Since you are almost indigent, go to your local social services office and at least receive food stamps and medical care. I don't know if you have an illness or not. If you are disabled from an illness, you should try to get disability payments. Also, if you are indigent,you should qualify for Section 8 housing but this takes a long time for you to qualify and to find a place. May be, the best bet is to go to the local homeless shelter and ask for help there. If you are living in the US, the Rescue Mission is a good place to check. I went here myself and even though the best advice they could offer was for me to go home to family, they saved me from making my situation worse than it was. I could have become a prostitute out of desperation but somehow avoided this path even though I was psychotic. I hope you don't end up homeless. I did learn from my experience of being homeless but truthfully would not want someone else to be in that situation. As a woman, one has to defend oneself from rapists and criminals at night on the street. It is not an easy way to survive. I suggest if you do become homeless to sleep at the doorsteps of churches. It is safer here. I wish you the best!

[PenWithNoInk]

Originally Posted by reb569

A long time ago, when I was 18, I was homeless for a few months. It was no fun.

Do you have a therapist or friend you can reach out to? If you are hypomanic I suspect you will regret not doing something to prevent becoming homeless sometime in the future.

Please reach out for help.

I have some friends and a therapist I've been talking to about this, but I don't really think they have the ability to help me with this particular problem.

Originally Posted by bpforever1

Where is your family? I was homeless but had family who helped me in the time of need. If you don't have any family to rely on, please go to the homeless shelter. I went here and received advice from social workers who told me to go home to my family. I don't know if you can't sustain yourself on your writing, you should look into other jobs. When I was homeless, I worked as a stripper but realized it was no way for me to get out of my situation. I needed help- medical help from a psychiatrist. You should think of other avenues of work to help pay for your bills. If you can't work at other jobs, then you should rely on your support system- family, church, friends,etc. If you don't have any support system, then you must find a way to survive by creating a support system. Since you are almost indigent, go to your local social services office and at least receive food stamps and medical care. I don't know if you have an illness or not. If you are disabled from an illness, you should try to get disability payments. Also, if you are indigent,you should qualify for Section 8 housing but this takes a long time for you to qualify and to find a place. May be, the best bet is to go to the local homeless shelter and ask for help there. If you are living in the US, the Rescue Mission is a good place to check. I went here myself and even though the best advice they could offer was for me to go home to family, they saved me from making my situation worse than it was. I could have become a prostitute out of desperation but somehow avoided this path even though I was psychotic. I hope you don't end up homeless. I did learn from my experience of being homeless but truthfully would not want someone else to be in that situation. As a woman, one has to defend oneself from rapists and criminals at night on the street. It is not an easy way to survive. I suggest if you do become homeless to sleep at the doorsteps of churches. It is safer here. I wish you the best!

My family could provide me a couch to crash on, and little else, but if I wind up homeless I'd rather just leave everything behind. I've never really liked anything about my life, so I'd prefer a fresh start somewhere else. I highly doubt I could bring myself to work any other jobs in the fields I have experience with, to be honest; at least right now. I don't see any other options for making money, either. I'm trying to go get a psychiatric evaluation to get a formal diagnosis. I've applied for food stamps and I'm just waiting to hear back from them.

[profound_betrayal]

Can't offer help here PenWithNoInk, but am thinking very much about you during this time.

[JoeS21]

I hope that things get better for you and that you find a way to make money to the point that you no longer have to face the possibility of homelessness. In case, this does turn into a reality, I made a list of stuff I struggled with (below) when I was homeless earlier this month. Again, I really hope your situation improves and am sorry to hear about what you are going through. To help us help you, do you have any idea about what might begin to make this better?

1. There are different degrees of homelessness. For example, living on a friend's couch vs. on the streets vs. in the school's 24 hour library.

2. Problems I faced included finding a place to shower, a place to sleep, to do laundry, and a place to store belongings. This can be trickier than it sounds. (I used my school library to sleep, a gym to shower, and a laundromat for laundry, and kept only one bag of items or just 3 outfits and one blanket which is all that would fit. I hid that bag in the library with a note in it that I would pick it up later that day with my phone number. Luckily nothing was stolen.)

3. Before you become homeless find a place where you can have your mail sent, even a PO Box will do.

4. As soon as you become homeless, sign up for a section 8 and public housing. They will need a way to reach you so step 3 is important.

5. Shelters are sometimes all full, have limited hours, and other problems.

6. I lost my health insurance while homeless because I couldn't verify my residency.

I hope you don't have to experience that. If you have insurance, maybe even checking in to a psychiatric hospital would be an improvement over living on the streets. I am very sorry to hear that you are facing this, and I hope things get better fast.

[reb569]

Originally Posted by JoeS21

I hope that things get better for you and that you find a way to make money to the point that you no longer have to face the possibility of homelessness. In case, this does turn into a reality, I made a list of stuff I struggled with (below) when I was homeless earlier this month. Again, I really hope your situation improves and am sorry to hear about what you are going through. To help us help you, do you have any idea about what might begin to make this better?

1. There are different degrees of homelessness. For example, living on a friend's couch vs. on the streets vs. in the school's 24 hour library.

2. Problems I faced included finding a place to shower, a place to sleep, to do laundry, and a place to store belongings. This can be trickier than it sounds. (I used my school library to sleep, a gym to shower, and a laundromat for laundry, and kept only one bag of items or just 3 outfits and one blanket which is all that would fit. I hid that bag in the library with a note in it that I would pick it up later that day with my phone number. Luckily nothing was stolen.)

3. Before you become homeless find a place where you can have your mail sent, even a PO Box will do.

4. As soon as you become homeless, sign up for a section 8 and public housing. They will need a way to reach you so step 3 is important.

5. Shelters are sometimes all full, have limited hours, and other problems.

6. I lost my health insurance while homeless because I couldn't verify my residency.

I hope you don't have to experience that. If you have insurance, maybe even checking in to a psychiatric hospital would be an improvement over living on the streets. I am very sorry to hear that you are facing this, and I hope things get better fast.

This is a lot of really great advice.

Originally Posted by PenWithNoInk

Hey all,

So, I'm in a precarious situation. I have no money, I'm very far behind at work, and I just can't seem to get myself to go.

I had a major depressive episode a few weeks back, I hardly worked if at all for over two weeks, and I had a short period where I bounced back from that and managed to show up a few times and work unproductively, but I still can't get much of anything done and I skip days like crazy. In addition, I think I may have slid into a hypomanic state and I stayed up all night for the past two days (too much energy to sleep, too wired, too busy with projects and interests). Needless to say, I haven't been to work.

I've decided to try getting into freelance creative writing, since that's where my passion lies. I got denied from Upwork, but I've sent some submissions to greeting card companies. I'll see how that works out. I've also been working on some personal projects, mostly poems and novels, and I'm really not very anxious about things. I'd prefer not to be homeless, certainly, and I'd rather not continue to burden my friends and family financially, but I think I've reached a fairly peaceful state of mind on the whole thing. It's not that I don't care, but I don't fear being homeless, and I'm not really stressing over it. I think I've just gotten to the point where I can accept that whatever happens, happens, and I can go with the flow on this one. Perhaps it's best to let things fall apart and pick the pieces up, rather than kill myself trying to keep it all together.

Anyone have some input? Questions? Maybe advice for being homeless?

Even my favorite writer Jack Kerouac was homeless, then he moved in with his mother after he ran out of money while On the Road. Jack stayed in his childhood room until he married, continuing to write his novels, keeping in contact with Allen Ginsberg, et al the Beat Writers (men and women). He even married and his wife moved in with him and his mother at her house.

If you want your homelessness to be temporary, crash on your parents couch or move back into your childhood room for 6 months while you figure things out. But, if that length of time is not possible, here's a list of resources for low income housing and shelters. Try to get your ducks in a row, as they say. Make phone calls to these shelters and low income housing to see how to qualify for section 8, etc. Talk to your supervisor/boss about what you're going through (if you don't think doing so will risk you losing your job). Ask to lower your hours to part-time for a month to help you take care of everything, then return to full-time hours afterward when you'll be able to handle the work responsibilities at full-steam ahead again. Hope that helps.

https://www.shelterlistings.org/city...sville-fl.html

There's literally no shame in moving back home, when finances hit the floor or life becomes too much. Only in the U.S. does society attach "shame" to adults moving home. But everywhere else, living with your parents into your adulthood is the total norm and no one bats an eye about it.

Stick with your creative writing outlet. That's crucial. I gave up my hobbies and passions, due to lack of money (which is no excuse, if you think about it) and have been isolated and miserable ever since. I am determined to pursue those again, empty wallet be damned. We need to nurture our soul, to gain a new perspective about life.

Also, I applied for the PC Community Grant for $500 and was approved. You should do the same. What have you got to lose?

http://psychcentral.org/projects/gra...nt-guidelines/

[Rose76]

I'm sorry you are in these circumstances. Do keep seeing the therapist and get yourself diagnosed by a doctor, preferably a psychiatrist. It sounds like you have recurring depression. Getting diagnosed cam make you eligible for help you might not otherwise get.

After getting diagnosed, hook up with your state's version of Vocational Rehab. I believe every state has such an agency. They can be quite supportive, but you need a diagnosis to go there. One year they gave me gasoline vouchers when I was looking for and starting a new job. They paid for new eye glasses for a friend of mine.

The reality of being homeless may be more distressing than you foresee right now. But you're probably wise not to get in a panic anticipating it. It doesn't usually kill people. Take things day by day. Any chance you could get into an educational program, or have you already gone to college? It's hard to make it on raw talent.