Not sure where to start

I_will_beat_it

Hi all. I am new to the site so thought I would say hi and introduce myself

Apologies in advance if I have posted in the wrong place

My situation is that I have recently been diagnosed with mental illness which has been severely acffecting my day to day living for the past few years

In this time I have accumulated a mountain of debt and am currently signed off work indefinately and have currenly been off for 7 months now

I have been living off savings which I had built up whilst "well" and these are now running dry.

This may seem bizarre that this has happened and i am still coming to terms with the illness that i had no idea of and am currently awaiting treatment but am under the care of the local mental health team

I just want to get back to work and pay off the huge debts I ran up whilst ill

I was reccomended this site and thought I would dive in whilst motivated

sparklychar

Hello!

Well done for making that step coming on here. It's a sign that you might be ready to tackle things. Sorry you're having such a tough time, but this step is really important, you're very brave.

I might suggest that given your circumstances, you would benefit from professional help from a debt charity such as StepChange. I've no experience of them myself but I know they can really help people, help you to manage a budget, make sure you're getting all your entitled benefits, come up with a debt management plan etc.

However, in the mean time, I suggest you have a look around the site for ways you can instantly help yourself with some cash - e.g. looking at your outgoings, are all your bills as efficient/cheap as possible? as well as looking at things like do you have old mobile phones about you could sell?

Little steps might help your stress levels, it's empowering to know that you are making changes for the better.

It's not 'bizarre' that you're in this situation - just look at the thousands of people using this site, with debt diaries etc. You aren't alone.

Hope you get on OK, keep posting when you need.