I’m a 20 year old woman and I’m genuinely struggling to keep my life together right now, so I’m hoping this community might have some insight or just know what this feels like.
I was fired back in February over a “political” post on my private social media story — which still honestly feels surreal and unfair. Since then I’ve been piecing together income through DoorDash and babysitting, and it’s not enough. I’m falling behind financially and I don’t know what kind of work is actually sustainable for someone in my situation mentally and physically.
Here’s where I’m at health-wise:
I have PTSD, severe depression, and severe anxiety. I strongly suspect I also have OCD and ADHD on top of that — the intrusive thoughts, the compulsions, the inability to focus or regulate myself are all very real and very daily. I have never been medicated and have never had access to therapy, and I’m at the point where I genuinely feel like being unmedicated and unsupported is affecting every single area of my life. Getting out of bed some days feels like climbing a mountain.
I was also just diagnosed with PMDD five days ago and put on birth control to manage it, so that’s brand new and I’m still figuring out how it affects me. On top of everything else I suspect I have some kind of autoimmune issue — my hair has been thinning significantly, which is especially noticeable for me as a Blasian Hawaiian woman, and I have a lot of other symptoms I’m still trying to get answers on.
I recently got on Medicaid so I finally have insurance, which is the first step I guess — but navigating the system while barely functioning is its own challenge.
I don’t say all of this for sympathy. I say it because I want to be honest about the full picture. I’m not lazy. I’m fighting really hard just to get through each day, and I’m trying to figure out what sustainable actually looks like for someone dealing with all of this at once.
So my questions for this community are:
What do you do for work or income that actually accommodates the reality of living with OCD and other mental health conditions? Have you found any remote, flexible, or low-stimulation work that doesn’t punish you for bad days? Has anyone navigated getting properly diagnosed and medicated as an adult without it being a months-long nightmare? And honestly — how do you keep going when everything feels like too much at once?
Any advice, resources, or just solidarity would mean a lot right now. Thank you for reading all of this. 🤍