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View Full Version : Was self-employed, going on benefits for my mental health, but frightened..



AthenaFaeyrn
01-02-15, 14:30
I was put on incapacity benefit some years back for another mental illness (BDD) and was going through therapy. I recovered successfully from it and became self-employed. But last year I could only work occasionally when my depression and anxiety allowed for it, and now I am pretty much completely burned out barely working at all, my illness has become so bad.

I need therapy so badly, and desperately want professional help for what I am going through, but I also need financial assistance.

When I am better, I will be able to go right back into self-employment, pretty much carrying on from where I left off, but a big fear of mine is being treated like I "need help getting a job", and being packed off into some one-size-fits-all "weekly group" that will have me doing things like brushing up on my CV or looking through newspapers looking for a new job, that will all be wasting my time when I just want to get better.

How are things done now? I have no idea. Reading up about benefits on on the website is all very confusing, complicated and nerve-wracking, and I'm frightened it will all be a waste of time.

I still make a tiny bit of passive income from a store I have still have active online that brings in scraps (£60 a month or less), but of course I cannot live on that. I'm worried that because of this, I'll have to constantly fill out forms all the time, stating how much I've made per month and I'm worried too that what I might get won't even be enough for me to live on and just me even more problems than help..