Surviving Financially

I'm sitting at home, relaxing, feeling lazy, eating cake. Its Saturday and I'm having a legitmate rest as I had a tough physics uni exam yesterday. But I'm feeling worried about the future...

I can survive now on a student loan which just about covers my rent and food for a year. I can turn to my parents in an emergency but what will I do when I leave uni? The prospect of a job completely terrifies me. I've only ever had one before and I blew that. I want to work with machines in the future, but I know there will still be some level of human interaction needed to get by. God damn.

My question is this; how do you guys support yourselves financially? What jobs do you all have, and has your social anxiety meant you putting up with a job you dislike or are unsatisfied with?

money

Hiya Black_mamba

I didnt really have an option of working when my sp/sa started getting really bad because of a different issue that was going on at the time,But im on incapacity benefit and disabliity allowance because of my sa/sp.I mean its nice knowing i have finacial security on thes benefits,but they stop the benefits and make me go to appeals at any excuse they can come up with .The good side of it is that i can deal with my sa/sp without the pressure of having to face work, but i think working is better as you will probaly get a bit of self esteem from working and its more secure than benefits.

I have passed up some pretty good situations because of my sa.I started a small business in home remodleing with my father.He loves to talk so that makes the selling end of it easy for me.I would have chosen a different path in life if I was more confident with myself.My sa kept me out of college,wich i feel is probably the most important thing to acomplish if you want to become finantualy stable.I get by not as good as some but i get by.Find out what it is that you love to do more than anything and give it your all,and the money will come for you.....good luck.

Fortunatley i work,i think if i hadent gotten a job more or less straight after leaving school then i would be worse than iam now.Iam too scared to change jobs so SA/SP is kinda holiding me back in a way.Theres so much else i would like to do and that i could do if i wasnt held back by this.

work

i run my own buisiness thankfully wiv my sis that way she can do all the meeting new people !! i do all the phoneing etc i couldnt work otherwise

i travelled for a year and came home early cause of my sp. i stayed with my parents for a few months and got the dole. after sympathy from my parents and encouragement frm my sis i applied for a job. It was horrible and i left after a wk. i received disability benefit then. when i felt together and i applied for a floristry course for sumthin to do. it helped cause everybody there seemed at a loss, they didn't knw what to do with their lives and thought this course might help. Gave me the confidence to look for a job. still at the same place but every day is hard. i think try when feeling confident seize that moment! even if its short

p.s. i left the course on the 2nd wk cause i thought all 16 people hated me and when going home i got my 1st panic attack. i cudn't take in my breath. i knw what to do but my mouth or throat wud'nt take the breath..

im sorry to anyone whos read this far.. i take ages to say what i want to say.
x

hmm

thank you for bringing this topic up. I work part time and I have all these bills. I work as a stock person. The job is less interaction with people but I neeed more money.I know I should be doing more because I finish my studies but anxiety holds me back. I look at search engines for jobs and I am very picky. I am scared of numbers or anything that has to do with cashiers or serious computer situations. My advice is go to abook store and read on different careers or alternative careers. I am studing to see what else is out there.

also..

just to add, I am a stock person as far as workin gin a store and not as a stock broker... night security is cool too except the uniform thing bothers me. But for those of you would not mind doing that for a while that might be a good thing to do like the other person said. depending on where they send you it can be a easy job.

taws

taws you are right about the security guard situation. It is good for something to do for now, but it is hidden the problem. You are very right. I am very passionate about this subject matter because jos situation is the main anxiety issue I am going through. I am afriad to do many things so that put a damper on my financial situation. I am sure thousands of you all can relate too.

Perhaps you can go to a bookstore that have careers or check the internet for those Occupation Outlook career book that list jobs and future prospect. Also depending wher eyou live, check out Dept. of Labor or Workforce for training and job coaching. they have programs for the disabled if you are qualified and they help you withb with job coaching. A social worker told me about this program for people with physical or mental disablility and they help you with situation like that.

Sad to say, but welfare, food stamps and free government (medicaid) insurance can help a little bit in the meantime while you get yourself together. The welfare department will put you to job search or program. When I had severe depression and anxiety I was scared and EMBARRASED TO accept government help but i did . I needed it while I sort my life out. I swallowed my pride. I finally got courage to get a small part time job as a stock person. It is a bit physical but I do not deal with customers, unless they want me to find something in the stockroom but sales people deal with them. sorry for the long writing but hang in there folks.
For those that are good typist and good with computers perhaps you can try becoming a Legal WORD Processor.

You end up with a public personna that's very outgoing and extorverted as a means to sheild yourself. In fact I had a co-worker say she envied me because I was so confident and appeared to be a mover and a shaker. Little did she know that I was actually petrified of everything (and I was in sales, to boot!).

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Thats crazy! I tried 'pretending' to be confident, and at times, it works. Because your trying to fool other people you fool your brain into thinking your an outgoing person. Sometimes the cracks show however, I don't think I could be consistently good at the act long enough to hold down a job.

Doh! 8O

Re: surviving financially

Well. I'm unemployed and have been for some time due to physical problems. I now face the horrible prospect of going back to work. I'm likely to end up working at a job I don't want helping assemble diesel engines and a long commute. I didn't get a B.S. in Math/Physics and work 22 years as a computer programmer for this, but it's all I've got right now.

I believe that SPia tends to increase with age because life responsibilities and the need to interact with more people on a more serious level tend to increase with age. Greater exposure to people.

I'd like to retire, but am probably 5+ years away, if I live that long. Like I said, health problems--exacerbated by the stress of SPia.

hey McShy, i do exactly what you do. i was terrified to get a job but it's hard to be picky when you're only 19 and need to pay for college and stuff. i work in retail (and still need a certain level of comfort). but while at work i'm a completely different person. many times i surprise myself. i become an employee, no longer myself. i represent the company rather than myself.
i've managed to become a good worker and gain good references and can be a little picky plus i have alot of work ethic which seems to be hard to find these days... :roll:

Well, I am 22 yrs old and in college. The only real part-time job I had until recently was babysitting for family. In March, I applied to a department store. They asked me to come in for an interview- I dressed nicely-drank vodka before the interview (Im starting to see a pattern here) and got through the 2 interviews. They probably wanted me because I had no real work experience so my salary is not that good.I just go to work and do my thing. I mainly do recovery.. sometimes have little monkey tasks here and there. However, they schedule me as cashier every now and then and I don't like it. It's okay, unless I have to do a page (which you have to speak loudly) and the whole store hears it.

i teach english to primary school aged children. They are really sweet and it means that I don't have to interact with adults (which is the scary bit for me). The salary is terrible, minimum wage, and I scrape by each month which is very frustrating. My financial situation is a great worry to me.I literally just earn enough money each month to live on only for that month. I don't earn enough to save, go on holiday or even afford birthdays and weddings etc. All of my expenditure has to be carefully planned. I hate it

Thats a good question. I have a job typing data entry from my home. I only have to go in to work once a week then I have to pretend to be confidant and make an effort to look people in the eye and talk. It's exhausting!

The best job I ever had as far as SA goes was doing prep work at a restaraunt. You pretty much worked by yourself and noone really supervised you. Just cut all the meats, cheeses, and vegetables. But it was not a glamorous or well paying job, of course.

Now i'm gonna take some Microsoft Certification courses, which only takes 20 days, I think I can handle school for that long. Let's hope I can handle the career.

I think the main problem (at least for me) is similar to the "simple" rules of society, and how I don't know those rules, never learned em. Yet it seems common sense to many others... It's like that with careers, I have no idea what the actual career or job entails. What it will be like to actually work in that field. So deciding is difficult.