Been really struggling mentally, I’ve struggled with my mental health for most of my adult life, and have been trying to get an adhd diagnoses for 5 years, I have recently been put back on antidepressants which I am reluctant to take as I feel like they just give me them and leave me to it. I am grieving and need support, there doesn't seem to be any support. Financially I am really struggling, worrying about my child going to nursery and the UC bullying me back to work, I have such anxiety over how I will afford my private rented flat, the council won’t meet with me to discuss social housing and I have again, like mental health, been told it could be up to 8 years, I feel like my life is being put on hold.

I feel exhausted, working 2 jobs, over 45 hours and still struggling to make ends meet because of living costs. It's a constant grind, no rest or break. It's scary thinking about the impact on health and wellbeing. :(

Hope everyone is doing okay

Having high fever is really bad can't even open my eyes and u need to take the kids to the park is bad

Struggling quite badly financially since my daughter left school. The money on her own claim doesn’t just switch from a child claim to a claim under her own name, despite nothing being different. This has had a massive impact on our cash flow in to the house and now I’m really struggling to make ends meet. My daughter lacks capacity so she’s unable to manage her own money. She really struggles in the usual school setting so trying to find her some kind of education provider for the past 7 years has been difficult. Pretty sure my daughter is on the autism spectrum somewhere but lack of education means no assessment so no diagnosis. I’m really struggling badly. As it is I was assaulted in my home and since then have hallucinations and quite poor mental health. The last place I want to be is stuck at home in my house with my bad memories but i have no choice. Can’t go out and do anything. Neither can I just get up and move. I’m feeling really lost and the worse bit is, even though my daughter doesn’t understand why I’m the way I am, she’s definitely picking up my distress.

Every morning I wake up very tired, about the pressure of life, everything seems to make me fall, I tried a lot to make everything better but I couldn't do it, life around me is full of difficulties. I tried to be good to take care of my daughter but I couldn't. I'm really tired!

Good day,

Feeling sad for the whole two weeks now, please God help me go through this.

Feeling down this week, it's been a tough week and I'm feeling really deflated

This month I have had an unexpected vet bill to pay of £200. I have now been left with no money for the rest of the month. I know I say it every month in my diary but I generally have had enough of living this life, it’s shit and I hate it. I would love to get MPS to come and spend a month living with me and saying how much things cost.

Really happy that the government have announced free school meals for all kids on universal credit, it should be all kids but I suppose it is a step towards that direction, but this starts in September 2026! There’s the rest of this school year and another to go before a bit of help? The crisis is now, it’s like the message from them is it’s ok kids just stay in poverty for over a year more it’s not like you matter that much anyway! Mixed bag of emotions from this.

Feeling very fed up with trying to live on nothing! Fridge is always empty kids don’t understand why!

I think Keir Starmer should be sacked he is even worse than Rishi living in his contented happy bubble .

Life in Scotland hasn’t really been easy especially being relatively new. I suffered unemployment for over a year and I lived on food bank and support from church. I couldn’t pay my bills at some point despite been a graduate. I later moved to Glasgow from Aberdeen. And I believe with me volunteering currently now that my experience would improve my employability chances in the future.

Do the middle class hate the lower classes? More the deemed undeserving poorer members of the lower classes, the unworking or invisibly disabled. Yes, I think they do. Not cos they understand our realities, I'm sure if they did they'd change their tunes.

I used to enjoy people watching in cafes, a cheap cuppa and nice view for my version of a day out. But these days it's becoming an activity I partake in less and less often because of the conversations I overhear. I live in a middle class town, with pockets of deep poverty but mostly middle and upper working class majority. And their attitudes towards people on disabilities benefits and the unworking are getting more and more derisive. This last year esp I feel everytime I force myself to go out, get out of my flat and try to have at least a semblance of some kind of life around my invisible but debilitating disabilities, I overhear more and more that makes me fearful for my safety. To hear strangers casually debating at the local coffee shop which disabilities are deserving of aid (often summarised as if I can see their disability then I won't argue they deserve aid - when most of the people I know in wheelchairs can do so much more, day to day functionality, than many with hidden disabilities, cos all disabilities impact each persons differently, visably or not). Or the usual complaints that if you're on benefits you shouldn't be able to go on holidays, if you're not working what do you need luxuries for, they're a reward for hard work, etc. I can go on and on. The tones they use when they say "unworking" "faking/lifestyle disabled" feel like a slur, like we're dirty. Undesirable, undeserving, unwanted. When we just want basic level of liability. Same as them.

But I don't get the impression they have this view due to lack of compassion, they often talk if one or two people they know who are deemed deserving in their eyes, due to harsh traumas or long term relationships(we have more empathy for people we know than for unknown strangers who are just numbers, statistics on a screen). It's a mix of accepting propaganda meant to turn the masses against the poor (and distracted from the rich), and a bit of fear. They fear becoming like us, so internalise their own work based abuses like a cloak of pride. Like if we get basic nessecities when such things are increasingly harder for even the middle class, then are they even better than us anymore. They fear us coming up to take from them, when it's rich businesses and corporations taking from all of us. They're closer to us than to the aspirational upper classes. But they're so busy trying to maintain their lifestyles that they fear it all being taken away, which it easily can be (as many of their deserving disabled poor friends who used to be super hard working before some tragic accident or illness). I have empathy for their fears, their instabilities and their anxieties. Why can't they see we're dying down at the lower classes, why can't they empathise with us and use their brains to see past propaganda. Why is that so hard.