Hoping that this doesn't get too long (spoiler: it got long). Not sure where else to dump all of this. It was either here or the non-binary community because I might mention aspects of that. I feel like most of my problems are self inflicted, so I'm not even looking for sympathy or even acknowledgment here, just a space to put this shit out into the world, for whatever that might help.
I am stuck and have been for years now. My 20s were spent fucking around and my 30s have been mostly spent wishing I'd done a little less fucking around in my 20s. I dropped out of varsity and something one could call a stable career for stupid fantasies and life has pretty much just been chaos and uncertainty since then. Especially financial security.
And I'm stuck in this world now. Taking whatever unskilled blue collar back breaking soul sucking job I can get. That I never last too long in. And actually I've been unemployed and making scraps from odd jobs for a little too long now. And that's not even for lack of trying, my CV / resume probably just looks like one big red flag to employers at this point and I don't think my age helps the spotty and all over the show job experience look better either.
Now to actually get to mental health. I have been trying to work on myself and become who I am supposed to be and I'm finding over and over that while it might not necessarily be the source of happiness, the biggest obstacle to happiness is money.
For one, I highly suspect that I have some lifelong undiagnosed neurodivergence and tried going through the government system to get to the bottom of things. But so far I found that route to be nothing but actively worse for mental health and I get the impression that unless I have visible tics or 'act' like something is wrong, I'm not going to get very far there. And yet going to professionals on a private basis would cost a small fortune, on top of every other basic worry.
And as far as gender identity related stuff goes. I need money for basically everything that could be regarded as gender affirming care. And space and privacy which, surprise surprise, require money too. I need to be able to afford to live alone. And in the city where I can disappear into the crowd and not a town with all the pearl clutchers.
The biggest conundrum right now as far as being both unemployed and feeling close to exploding point at wanting to take the mask off and be my non-conforming self is that I'm waiting for the day around the corner where I have to cut my hair and put on a fucking golf shirt and brown pants or some shit for the next minimum wage job that I can't say no to and that doesn't actually improve your life in any way.
So here I am, stuck. I don't even feel like I deserve friends these days, I've cut myself off from all of my old ones and I feel too much like a loser in life at this point for new ones. Everyone has careers and marriages and children and shit. And here I am, taking what I can get, and spending Friday night smoking cheap weed and watching cartoons.
On that note I'm boring as fuck these days too. All of my good stories start with "years ago" and I barely feed my soul with the things that it needs anymore. I don't make any art, barely read or listen to new music anymore. I feel blank and burnt out and broken and somehow helpless to fix any of it. And I'm tired of being stuck here.
Thanks for reading, or not reading. Thanks for the space for me to post this garbage. Other people have serious problems, mine feel selfish and as I said, self inflicted. Just wanted to get this all off my chest though.