@muninn I know that here in France we've got a unions syndication (USS/SUD) with a union federation for precarious persons. (In each local department, Précaires Solidaires are part of the local union, are a national federation of precarious persons, and have their word at the national bureau.)

Is there anything similar in the US? Would you mind if I sent an email to my local union?

@redbookworm There's not anything even close that level of organization in the United States. Maybe NGOs like NAMI and DBSA could, with 20x the funding and a decade or two of work, become somewhat equivalent.

I'm personally not in danger, if you were asking (thanks!). I'm just dealing with a very slow recovery with not enough help. I have a place to live and food for now though.

@muninn Anyway, if you ever need money, that's what the Internet is built for. We'll try to help, share, and give what we can.

Stay safe!

@redbookworm Thank you :) I have gotten a few bucks from folks on Mastodon before, I will likely ask again when I have more of a concrete plan, if I don't have a job by then. I'm just glad people get some benefit out of what I post while I try to figure it all out.

@muninn

I hear you.

What hit me a bit more, though, was "her family plans [...] burial."

@kafkaesqueNomad Yeah. :/

@kafkaesqueNomad @muninn I'd missed that, and had to see what fresh hell this was. Yep, it is indeed fresh hell. Not surprising hell, but it is just one more insult on top of everything else.

@JigmeDatse Yeah I normally don't post too much fresh hell / upsetting news but this woman wanted to make a point. Well, point made. The thing is, I'd be way too scared to do what she did but I understand far too well why she did it. @kafkaesqueNomad

@muninn

I don't mind the occasional posts like this. It is genuinely helpful when these points can be made, but don't end up drowning themselves out with the shear volume of them.

@kafkaesqueNomad

@JigmeDatse @muninn

I'm thinking a lot about family these days. Like, who'd be my "family" when things would really go down. The friend I mentioned in the other post... well, his brother and aunt are playing gatekeepers, thinking they need to shelter his mother from him. Other hell I've heard from other friends.
What does "family" even mean?

@kafkaesqueNomad I'm thinking the same things. In my case, chosen family has been very important for 20+ years because my biological family is a smoldering ruin. And I'm almost out of chosen family to fall back on if I lose what I have now. And old age? I'm banking on getting well and making a lot of friends, or global collapse, whichever happens first.
@JigmeDatse

@kafkaesqueNomad

Family for many people is split decisively between "those who I accept as family" and "the family I was born into."

Family ultimately to me are the people who will support you no matter what. Not that they won't call you out. But that they will *still* support you in calling you out.

None of the family I was born into come *close* to that.

@muninn

@JigmeDatse I think one (1) of my relatives would be like that if they weren't being crushed by life themself, and they're younger than me with fewer resources. All the rest? Those who do nothing for me are the best of the lot.

My biggest frustration with my MH issues is not being able to help my one blood family member who is also chosen family.

@kafkaesqueNomad

@JigmeDatse
I'm seeing a bit clearer after your post.
Here in germany a friend ran into: "Wait, you're homeless, neuroatypical AND have a substance abuse history? Well in this case we cannot help you here. Might turn to [that other place], though."
While at [that other place] he heard about the same thing.
So in the end he had to organise things himself.
@muninn

@kafkaesqueNomad
@JigmeDatse Yes, and for some of us, not being able to organize or execute certain types of plans very well is a primary symptom... but unless you're going to an ADHD specialty clinic or something, there is almost zero help for it. It's maddening. The state of the art in treatment here (USA and apparently Canada) isn't good enough.

@muninn

As a child I had "attention issues". I have been diagnosed as autistic (well as "having autism spectrum disorder" but that's both awkward and overly clinical).

Executive dysfunction issues cross multiple different issues, and everyone has some degree of it some of the time.

That said, most people don't spend 3 months trying to get their banking fixed.

@kafkaesqueNomad

@kafkaesqueNomad

My housing right now is living with my parents. This isn't because they provide particular assistance, but because I wouldn't get any better assistance elsewhere, and I just can't afford to live elsewhere.

@muninn

@JigmeDatse Yeah, I'm lucky to be getting one type of fairly intensive therapy for one set of ineffective behavior patterns but it doesn't address executive dysfunction at all, and turns out that's pretty damn critical as well, and absolutely none of the #mentalhealth organizations I've dealt with are set up to deal with it at ALL.

@muninn My only real experience with finding ways to handle executive dysfunction, is that attempting to minimize the external things which impinge on good executive function is fundamental. Things like "task journals" (a variety of formats exist) can be helpful, if one can actually use them. But they can impinge, if they become a cue to the fact of the executive dysfunction issues.

@JigmeDatse Yeah I need to find my way out of my current low a little more before I can make another push on the bullet journal and everything else. It's so frustrating. I've fallen off routine badly in the past couple weeks to the point where I taped "CHECK YOUR TASK LIST" to the wall by my bed today. I've got to get my sleep and my mornings under control.

@muninn Whatever works. It's been... April 18th... That I was last doing reasonably well with my executive function stuff. Well, no, I'm not sure it was quite that long ago, it was whenever I wrote the post for the 18th of April, which I think was more like the 23rd.

@JigmeDatse Yeah, April was looking super promising for me, I got massively derailed on May 6th and am still trying to make my brain cohere again since.

So frustrating. Hopefully both of us will get back on track soon.

@muninn I'm not expecting it until about mid September. April actually was really amazing for me, despite it being "Autism Awareness Month". Which many autistics don't want any more awareness of many people's hatred for them. They want acceptance for themselves as they are...

@garbados Fucking hell I am so sorry. For all of it.