I don't have a choice

When people in your life don’t want u any more and you don’t have the physical and mental condition to live on your own, what comes next? Struggling til the last breathe?

I can’t support myself with the current job. The earnings are so little I can’t have 3 meals.

You could eat soup until you find another job. Do you have any family left who could help you?

I have 1-2 meals at present. I still have my mom. but I can’t imagine what would happen after mom retire.

I have chronic headache and fatique. I am afraid I can’t manage a full time.

Learn to make soup. Like Vegetable soup. Want more just put more water in it.

I eat soup twice every day. Have lost a lot of weight that way. Breakfast and lunch.

You can make soup of almost any raw food. Maybe your mom can teach you?

Sorry about your troubles. Bad situation. I lived in a board & care home from 1990 to 1995. It was all men, about 14 of us, the youngest was 17 the oldest was in his sixties, I was in my early thirties. We had almost no responsibilities, it was mostly two to a room and we had to make our bed every morning, keep relatively clean (no one stank) and we had to ALL eat meals together, though we could miss a meal if we a good excuse. It was a husband and wife who ran it. They did all the cleaning, inside and outside and cooked us three square meals a day. They also dispensed medication. I was employed while I was there, I was working at Sears, unloading trucks and I also was taking two classes a semester. I’m just writing this as possible option to maybe look into. It wasn’t a bad place to live for five years. I hope everything works out for you somehow. Can you get SSDI or SSI? Because as you know, you can work and still keep getting SSDI checks.

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Thanks for replying. We have very stringent criteria for benefits. I’m not qualified for now. But it is so little I don’t know how to live on it if I need to one day.

Thank you for your suggestions. actually I prefer rice to soup. I need carbohydrates to feel better.

I’m not telling you to quit but there’s no shame in scaling down your hours to make them more manageable and collecting disability. We are lucky if we can work but if it ends up we can’t, at least we tried. Comatose has a good point. There are ways to save money. Eating more economically might be possible. Do your laundry at your moms. Cancelling cable and getting ‘rabbit ears’. Hit the cheapest gas stations, you can find them online. Or buy a monthly bus pass. Get food stamps.
Shop at thrift stores or Good Will. Etc…

Here is what I did for many years.

  1. Breakfast- 1 Banana :banana:
  2. Lunch- 1 Apple :apple:
  3. Dinner-1 can of Heinz/Bush Baked Beans

:warning: Please do not follow this menu

Clothes/Household items- Thrift stores

Library Card- Books, DVD’S. :movie_camera:

Clip Coupons- :scissors:

Dollar Stores for batteries, toothbrushes, deodorant, socks

Read the weekly sale flyers :newspaper:

I don’t understand completely. SSDI is federal.The rules are the same for everybody and I work and collect SSDI. I can earn up to $1000 a month and keep my monthly SSDI check which is a nice chunk of money. I’m in a special position though. I went through trial work periods and all that. But after 30 years of rules I can earn my $1000 and collect SSDI for the rest of my life.

I don’t think I can live on your menu :cold_sweat:

I actually only spend on food and bus fare after the psychotic break. But I want to pay for the household.

Food banks, soup kitchens, food closets, churches.

Because I’m not living in the states. Our disability allowance only amount to 200 a month. SSDI amounts to 470 but I need to be homeless and no job. Idk how to live on 470 for everything.

OK, I see. Where do you live?

I live in Hong Kong. Wonder if u have heard of this city.

Sure I’ve known about it all my life, since my dad told me stories about it when I was a kid. He was stationed there in the 50’s when he was in the Navy when he was 19 or 20.
I was curious. Do you think the way your family treats you is because of your culture? Different cultures view schizophrenia or mental illness in different ways.

Our city is walking backward severely after 1997. 50’s would be a lovely age. We don’t have anything specific to sz or mental health in the traditional culture. Stories of people who live a life away from the crowd up in remote mountain does exist. Our culture values personal achievement over everything. It probably means prestige and endless pursuit and accumulation of monetary worth. Often hear some parents say, if you don’t get a good education and earn a lot, u are useless.

Some guys told me, what they learn in the school is wrong. They refer to being helpful to others. I really feel shocked when a friend of mine told me, if she helped me and I benefited, she felt at a loss and she can never get over the anger. So, this seems to be their motto. I think she is explaining her behaviors and those of others to me, they often come up to me for help when they have need and refuse to see me again when I have something to say. I guess this has become our culture, as it is really prevalent.

I use to believe in the old philosophy, a harmonious society where people take care of each other. My ex laugh at me when we are breaking up, saying that it is simply stupid. U need to pay a lot to keep a relationship. They need to take advantage all the time. My experience in this society tells me, it is all about calculation of resources and potential gain.

Does it sound unfamiliar to u?

Interesting post. We are pretty materialistic in our country too. But are system runs the gamut when it comes to helping others. We seem to follow the old saying, “The measure of a society is how it helps it’s weakest members”. I’ve always had all the help I need. I’ve always had access to a therapist available wherever I’ve lived. And though technically I’m on the bottom rung of society, I’ve enjoyed many aspects of life. Most of my friends have been in the mental health system and we have gone go to clubs and hung out with normal people. Societies are too complex to sum up in one paragraph. They can both be cold…and warm. In my first psyche ward, everybody was friendly and helpful. It was almost a vacation setting, I went jogging with a counselor.A women patient had a pass to spend the weekend outside with her family and asked me if I needed anything from the"outside world". I said, 'How about the Sunday newspaper"? And sure enough when she returned she had the Sunday edition of our newspaper for me.
But I was naive. When a year later I got admitted to a large locked psychiatric hospital I innocently thought that “We are all in this together and we would all help each other”. Wrong. It was a microcosm of outside society. No one helped me, it was every man for himself with hoods and cliques. I was a loner most of the time.
Anyway I could ramble on forever. So to answer your question about familiar or not I would say : “yes, and no”.
But anyway,what are you planning on doing? Do you have a social worker who can help you?