Am I doing the right thing?

[beb7]

Hi,

I have been suffering from ptsd, anxiety, depression and social anxiety.

I was held up in a grocery store almost 3 years ago and it has completely changed my life. I used to be such a care free person and just genuinely happy now I don’t sleep, I am anxious wherever I go, I have missed out on great things like my sisters 18th birthday and even just being able to go to the shops by myself. I hate how I am and I try so hard to feel better.

After it all happened I was off work for about a year and then because I lived out of home with my partner we were struggling so much that I just went back to work and said I was okay (My partner did not want me to but I insisted) I didn’t think we had any other options. I was back for about 4 months and I kept getting worse, I almost lost my job as I would stay up all night not being able to sleep and then go to work, and sometimes I was so tired I’d physically feel sick, so I would call in sick to work. Maybe a month later my mum had a talk to me and said she noticed how on edge I was and how I was just always angry and she told me I think I should leave again. I agreed as I was so exhausted mentally and physically and I knew it wasn’t doing any good for me.

Because the pay is small and my partner actually got laid off work as there was no more work for him we lost our house and had to move in with my parents.

But the real point of this post is insurance companies. My one is incredibly pushy and make me do things that I don’t want to by threatening to take away my small $$ I get every week. They muck me around so much, adding new people into the case, I’ve caught them lying. And just the whole situation is sketchy. I do everything they ask. The one who handles my case is not nice at all, she has no sympathy and makes me feel like I’m just lazy. Which is so silly, why would anyone want this life. Anyway it’s gotten so bad lately (especially because they want me to travel 3 hours away for an appointment) that I was thinking of studying full time as I thought it would be a good start for some structure in my life. Although Tafe requires work placement and I just can’t. I’m not ready. So I thought University! But it requires a $200 fee just to apply which I cannot afford. What are some other options? I was thinking Centrelink until I save up enough money to pay for university. I am just not sure how it all works and what I am entitled to.

Thank you for listening to me!

Ebony

[Idkme]

Hi ebony,

It's great that you have posted your frustration here... I can't offer much as far as advice for study goes but I can suggest you need to speak to someone who is more supportive of your situation. It must feel horrible to be stuck justifying your hurt to people that don't appear to care when you know it's valid and painful. The most important thing is to help you though... what do you think will help you the most?

I'm only new on here myself but I could here the frustration and hurt from what you have written. Have you had a good psychologist who has helped you with the fears and uncertainties that you have?

Thanks for reaching out... I hope someone here can offer you more support... I just wanted to pop on and say "I hear you".

[Spl spl]

Hi Ebony, thank you for sharing your situation.

University- that's a great idea and honestly I really think you can get there. I don't really know your entire financial situation but I do think it's worth it to check out what Centrelink can offer you. This year I've been doing all of that myself so I think I might be able to help you there a bit, keep in mind I'm no expert though!

Okay first, do you have a centrelink office location near you at all? I found it really helps to just do it in person if you can. Just make sure when you go there to bring 3 different forms of your ID with you, otherwise they can't serve you.

Secondly, do you have a myGov account? That website is how you make the claim, so you need one. If not, you need a CRN (Customer Reference Number)- and to get one you need to go to the centrelink office so they can confirm your identity with your 3 ID's and give you a CRN. Then they can make that myGov account for you in person.


So yeah once you have a myGov account that is linked to centrelink- you can make a claim online. You just click a link in the top left and it lets you scroll through alll the stuff and it tells you what you're eligible for and what not. Hopefully you can find something- normally the questionnaire thing they give you is quite lengthly and you will have to put down exactly how much money you earn but it's all pretty self explanatory. Then you have a waiting period of around a month (depends what you're claiming) Then you get the money in your bank account automatically.

You may have to go back and forth to the centrelink office just to figure things out, please feel free to ask me any questions (or even just call up centrelink they're actually so helpful). And yeah I hope this helped even just a little!

All the best for you.

[beb7]

Hey, nice to meet you!

I have a psychologist who is super helpful but sometimes I find it hard to actually go to appointments (which I know is bad) but it’s because after I go to my doctors appointment and talk about everything again sometimes the last thing I want to do is go talk about everything again, it hurts too much.

Honestly for me, I feel like less pressure from the insurance company would help. I am happy to go to appointments and try my best to go to my psychologist ones too, but when they start adding more things for me to do and adding more strangers it pushes me further away than moving forward.

Other than that, exercise, going to psychologist appointments and just trying to be the happy person I was before would also help.

Thanks and if you ever need to chat let me know! It’s good to have people around that understand 🙂

[Idkme]

Great job Beb,

It sounds like you're doing the best for yourself, remember to be kind and brave. Whilst it's great to talk to your GP a psychologist has had many more specific years of training and should know more about how the brain and behaviour works, so if you can form a good relationship with your psychologist that could help you. It's a really good idea to write those concerns you have down and ask him/her next time you see him/her.

It's great that you realise you need to do exercise... do yourself a favour and do it.

I completely understand about the stranger thing, just ignore them if they aren't worth it.. i guess it's like picking your fights....

Be strong.