Hey there
I sincerely hope all me comrades are having a nice day
I’ve been in a somewhat not amazing situation for quite some time (not best mentally, in transitioning and unemployed again), thought I’d ramble a bit and ask for a little advice. I despise almost every job I get and years of constant stress are ruining my physical and mental health to the point where I struggle to keep on going at all. I don’t want money from anyone here but I’m trying to figure out how I could fill my budget before I stabilize a bit more and will be able to keep a job which should happen later in the summer.
A friend suggested a free psychological counseling available here where I live which might be a good start.
I’m getting a little bit of income that pays for ~40% of my room rent and receive some help from the family (mostly food). I generally stick to intermittent fasting and get ready to sell some music gear I don’t use much. I used to make some small money doing side gigs (physical labor) or constructing a tiny website here and there but I’m not an experienced developer and it shows so can’t do it professionally. I found learning python and c++ fun btw (clears my head from worries (: ) but it seems I have to sort out adhd stuff to think about rebranding seriously.
Generally if anyone has any ideas how I could earn or save some extra cash to deal with a small crisis, I’d be very happy to read some advice.
Hugs
if you’re starting from nothing in terms of food here’s my list. whatever you can get cheapest of the following beans/lentils/chickpeas/tofu. vegetables. rice. onions. cooking oil. salt. Go to small shops for produce and a bulk store if you are near one of tried stuff. you can often get spices for very cheap from bulk stores as well. if you have nothing to make your food have taste good you can often get free sauce packets from fast food places if you ask nicely.
this might be very regional advise so sorry if this isnt helpful
Thank you for all the suggestions
Tap every social service you can. Food benefits are often the easiest to get. Find a free health clinic, find a place that does free meals for the poor. Take every opportunity to receive help from others.
While you’re doing that, you will meet people. Some people may have job opportunities for you. Some may have volunteer opportunities for you. Keep the conversations going.
Don’t worry about not being professional enough to do web development. Just do it and get paid. It’s ok to fail a couple times. Do local, get paid cash, keep your world turning.
Find other free resources. Your public library might have tons of things happening that could benefit you. There are other institutions that undoubtedly do free things in your area as well.
But most of all - believe that you will make it, believe that it’s possible, believe that you can both heal and obtain the resources to live. Because you can and because believing it will help you psychosomatically and psychosocially.
Thanks, especially for the second half
That’s funny, I could write pretty much this exact post myself. And since getting out of my head and following my own advice feels impossible, here it is for you. Look up the address of the employment services office that’s closest to you, don’t bother researching beyond this point. Wake up tomorrow, do some pushups until you’re bored, take a shower, eat a snack and go to that office. Either get a meeting then and there, or get one scheduled and repeat the steps on the day of. Tell them what you hate about working, and that you struggle getting your foot in the door, so you’ll need some help with finding openings. You got it from there c:
Also buy a jar of creatine, it’s great for brains and ADHD brains especially (I can find the research I went through if you’re curious). 20g a day for a week, then 5g a day. And energy drinks are great if they don’t make you feel bad, you can buy powdered ones for cheap. Mix it with the creatine after breakfast, makes for a decent brain day. Good luck!
Oh, I’ll definitely research the creatine stuff today because you got me intrigued (: thanks for the comment and good luck to you too
This is extremely reductive, but the gist is - creatine is good for brains. In part because it regulates glutamate. People with ADHD have significantly higher glutamate levels, which cause synaptic spillover - synapses triggering neighboring ones and essentially spamming the brain. Stimulants help with that by improving the metabolism of glutamate. And oral creatine supplementation just increases creatine levels to fight the high glutamate levels. Both result in ADHD brains being quieter.
This is a pretty deep rabbit hole and a heavy read. But here are some interesting papers if you wanna dive in. I’m by no means an expert in any of this. I’m just interested in understanding my own ADHD, and at one point was curious how does creatine actually help, since I feel better taking it c:
Glutamate/Creatine ratios and ADHD
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3222884/
Effect of oral creatine supplementation on brain metabolism
https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/S0925-4927(03)00046-5
Effect of methylphenidate (ritalin) on metabolism of Glx in ADHD
I’d avoid internment fasting. Instead, it’s better to eat something more often but cheaper. My cheapest diet plan is basically beans, rice, carrots and onions with whatever greens I can get + a few more stuff. You may look up what cheapest veggies your area (hopefully) has unless you’re in Greenland.
If you want to become a dev, you should look for more webby things like Python and JS. I don’t think C++ is helpful for junior jobs
My digestive system is very picky and I find it easier to schedule a couple hours during the day when I can risk some mild discomfort or sluggishness rather than snack all day and feel so-so all the time (: but rice, veggies and unprocessed meat / small amount of diary is generally safe.
Thanks for the advice. I will stick to webby things for now
goto a local asian or middle east grocer - humus, za’tar and white wine vinegar - mix with red chilli flakes, salt and garlic to preference.
I eat it with a 6 pack of pitta breads that I steam in a toastie machine/tabletop grill by dripping some water over the top - works out to be about a week straight of healthy lunches for about £3-4 (granted a bit more if you need to buy some of the other bits but it gets cheaper to reload once you do)
This is not really advice about saving money per se, so this might not apply to you. Plus it’s very US specific.
In lieu of having money in an emergency fund, having access to better loan terms can be life saving — at least in the short term. One way of doing this is building “good credit” or repairing “bad credit.” The bigger your credit score number the better access to favorable loan terms you can get. So here’s the very general advice I have:
- Keep paying debts if you have them to the best of your ability. It doesn’t hurt to ask lenders for forbearance or debt forgiveness. Sometimes (rarely) it works.
- If you have credit cards, pay statement balances in full, if you’re able. If you don’t have any open lines of credit, get a secured credit card from a bank (this is essentially a debit card that pretends it’s a credit card).
- If you have debts that have gone to collections, either fight these collections or pay them. This will require a lot of time on the phone and being a bit confrontational.
The “how” of doing these things varies a lot. Feel free to PM me if you’d like assistance. And this goes without saying, but all of this very silly and no one should have to play this Calvinball style economy system, which is designed to keep you paying debts forever, but here we are.
I don’t live in the US (I forgot it’s always assumed until stated otherwise…!). It doesn’t seem drastically different than how it works in my country but I can’t be sure, I avoid loans like my life depended on it. Thanks for the advice though
