u/Excitement_Local

I’m going to try to explain the best I can.
I’ve had some fairly bad depression off and on since I was Eleven years old. I am also chronically ill. My fatigue and overall symptoms worsened severely after COVID.
My family consists of my mom(42f), my grandpa(70s), me(22nb) and my little brother(17m)

I’m at the point where I do not have the energy to keep up with the expectations of my family(mom and grandpa.)
For the past year and half I have been unemployed, it didn’t exactly bother me at first. I picked up some more work around the house to make up for it.

But I just don’t have the energy to keep up with what I’m doing anymore. I’m not sure I ever really did and I’m trying to start working again, I’ve managed to start making money from home.

I’m supposed to keep the kitchen clean. But there are four people in this house including myself. We MAYBE eat a single meal together in a day. However it’s not uncommon for several people to cook something for lunch or even breakfast. (I do not do this, as I rarely eat breakfast and lunch)

This means I am supposed to clean several meals worth of dishes everyday.
I don’t have the energy or time to do it everyday. So things will often pile up and become unmanageable.

I get help with this maybe once a week. Almost always from my mom. Who works full time. My grandfather also works full time and his vision means he tends to miss dirt on dishes when cleaning.

My brother goes to school online, he is at home all day. I often help him with homework. His grades are passing. So I can’t really see his school being an issue.

But he also spends SO much time just playing video games. About 80% of the time I check on him during the day he’s playing a video game.

I just want him to help with the dishes a bit more. Like. Maybe twice a week? So there’s a little consistency and I have time to do other things like clean my room or actually spend time with our dogs.

Edit because everyone seems to be missing the first few sentences: I AM CHRONICALLY ILL AND CANNOT WORK FULL TIME. IF YOU WANT TO GIVE JOB ADVICE PLEASE DO SO OVER HERE WHERE I DETAILED MY EXACT ISSUES FINDING A JOB: Link to post

For context, I am diagnosed autistic. One of the biggest struggles I’ve had throughout my life has been food.

As a child I had an INCREDIBLY limited diet because I was terrified of new foods. Through some counseling and gentle encouragement from my family I have steadily gotten better as I’ve gotten older.

Now as an adult I am excited to try new foods, often opting to cook them myself to ensure I can adjust the texture to my personal preferences. This has increased the amount of things I can eat.

However I still cannot eat many ‘normal’ foods such as pizza, a number of frozen foods, and other classic American style foods.

I cook most of my meals because of this. This does not bother me. Most of these meals consist of things my family considers ‘basics’

However I’ve noticed over perhaps the past few years, possibly a little longer. I’ve had a number of incidents in which there was nothing in the house for me to eat. I couldn’t even make a grilled cheese sandwich.

All of these incidents led to some rather extreme emotional reactions on my end. These events have become more and more common over the last year.
In part due to some financial difficulties within the family.

However a lot of it is my younger brother refusing to make real food and instead eating half a loaf of bread for a snack. He has options. He likes and enjoys all the foods I do not. We ALWAYS have some sort of pizza he can make.

I’ve tried bringing this up before however was dismissed because he’s a teenager.
I get it. I do. He’s a guy and he’s still growing.

I’m genuinely not sure if I’m reacting so strongly because of the autism or if it’s deeper than that.

For context, I am diagnosed autistic. One of the biggest struggles I’ve had throughout my life has been food.

As a child I had an INCREDIBLY limited diet because I was terrified of new foods. Through some counseling and gentle encouragement from my family I have steadily gotten better as I’ve gotten older.

Now as an adult I am excited to try new foods, often opting to cook them myself to ensure I can adjust the texture to my personal preferences. This has increased the amount of things I can eat.

However I still cannot eat many ‘normal’ foods such as pizza, a number of frozen foods, and other classic American style foods.

I cook most of my meals because of this. This does not bother me. Most of these meals consist of things my family considers ‘basics’

However I’ve noticed over perhaps the past few years, possibly a little longer. I’ve had a number of incidents in which there was nothing in the house for me to eat. I couldn’t even make a grilled cheese sandwich.

All of these incidents led to some rather extreme emotional reactions on my end. These events have become more and more common over the last year.
In part due to some financial difficulties within the family.

However a lot of it is my younger brother refusing to make real food and instead eating half a loaf of bread for a snack. He has options. He likes and enjoys all the foods I do not. We ALWAYS have some sort of pizza he can make.

I’ve tried bringing this up before however was dismissed because he’s a teenager.
I get it. I do. He’s a guy and he’s still growing.

But for fucks sake it should not be a Herculean task to leave me enough cheese and bread for a sad sandwich.