Our hometown food pantry made front page of last week's local newspaper. The article mentioned decreased food donations and a dramatic increase in the number of individuals served compared to last year. I thought how we were once regular contributors of the pantry. We are now among those who go weekly seeking food.
I became depressed. How did we get to this point? It would be easy to point a finger at the debilitating economy, but our problems run deeper than that.
Only a few years ago we had a $70,000 annual income, health insurance, retirement, life insurance, bonds, investment accounts, and long term care insurance. Now everything is gone. What happened?
My husband is a recovering alcoholic/addict with one year sobriety. He is also possibly bipolar. Between 2000 and 2007 he accumulated two tickets and five arrests which resulted in numerous attorney's fees, fines and other miscellaneous fees.
In 2005, unbeknownst to me, he became involved in an email lottery scam and lost a great deal of money. Two bank accounts were in the red. When his license went under suspension for the second time in 2005, he resigned from his 25-year government postion.
All the jobs he has worked since then, he has not been happy with. The job is too hard or the pay is not enough.
As I sit here, I cannot blame the economy. Our personal downfall from middle-class to poverty is of our own doing.
From Middle-Class to Poverty
By emogirl - Posted on October 30th, 2008
It sounds like it was largely your husband's doing. And I suspect, from what you described, that you may be right about the bipolar thing. I'm not a mental health professional, but what you described sounds just like my uncle who is bipolar. It can be very debilitating and very hard on family members.
I wish you the best of luck in working through all this with your husband.
"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman