You were disabled and realize it is not getting better, and no one seems to be able to fix the issue. You’re stuck laying down most of the day, you have enough mobility to function at home, but anything outside of home leaves you in bad shape beyond your control where you are not professionally functional. What do you do to earn a living and survive?
This is not a hypothetical for me.
It’s not a mystery what you can do to earn a living. Anything that is remote desktop work is your beat bet.
This is what I would do as a EU citizen.
Step 1. Register at the unemployment office.
Step 2. Have a meeting with the unemployment office and see what they have for you.
Step 3. While they help you find work you are capable of doing. You will recieve a social benefit check each month. It’s not much. But you will survive.
Step 4. Go to the interviews they set up for you.
Step 5. Repeat Step 4 until you have a job.
Most people i know in this situation become artists. And if their situation is worse, they might consult AI.
I am just able enough to do some company work, but I acknowledge some are not as good as that. Is there any way I can help? I have creations I don’t mind others using to aid them.
I’m lucky enough that I’d be able to just continue to do what I currently do, and write code.
You file for government disability. Hopefully during the filing process you can struggle through survival for a few years because the govt disability filing process takes a few years until MAYBE being approved, but everyone is always denied the first time, then you have to appeal and go through the several years process again. This is one reason why so many people are homeless by the way.
Everybody isn’t denied the first time. Some disabilities are blue-lighted which means automatic approval. I had a hemorrhagic stroke back in 2020 and I was trying to return to work till I found out I needed brain surgery. I applied for disability and it was backdated to the date of my stroke,
I tried that. I’m in a weird position where it is impossible to prove what is actually wrong with me in a way that I can get through disability. I did it once and was denied because I can’t prove anything conclusive. I’ve been to everyone reputable and a few less reputable; 12 neurosurgeons or specialists. They all spend 5 minutes reading the radiologist’s report, don’t see a thing they want to operate on, and spend another few minutes talking you out of the room. None of them seem willing to solve problems and look deeper.
Well fuck this sounds familiar… I fucked up my shoulder 12+ years ago but didn’t really notice how bad it got over time and now my arm hurts with most things I do. However, I’m not old enough for them to want to risk anything.
You may have something different but if you have me/cfs you need to hit up the support groups, you can prove disability with a 2-Day CPET test.
I’m not in the US but many of the Americans in my support group were denied the first time they applied and got it on the second.
I’m not sure what the acronyms mean.
A CPET is a cardiopulmonary exercise test. The 2 day CPET is when you get the test and then get it again 24 hours later.
People with me/cfs have different results than sedentary controls, so it’s a good way of helping prove disability.
If you didn’t know what ME/CFS is (myalgic encephalomyelitis) then you haven’t been diagnosed with it and none of this applies to you, but I thought it was worth mentioning in case you had.
I don’t have ME/CFS, but thanks for the reply. I’m kinda in a worse spot in that I was an amateur bicycle racer before I got the broken neck and back. I don’t ride like I did back then but I’m still relatively fit. My problems are related to simply holding posture. Even for a 2 day test, I think it would struggle to really show my issue. If I do anything sitting or standing for more than a few minutes I start degrading fast. I can push through the pain for quite awhile, I just get really stupid and lack attention and focus. That by itself is not the real problem. The real problem is that pushing like this will make it impossible for me to sleep much at all. The next day I will be a good bit worse than the first, but if I do it again, the cycle will continue until I shut down like a mindless zombie and I am flat out unstable after a couple of weeks without sleep.
I can ride a bike for an hour and a half but I know how to set up a road bike so that my back is completely neutral. The damage I have is super rare and from getting folded over backwards. My damage is thoracic (between the shoulder blades) almost all back injuries most people experience are in areas away from the ribs. Where mine is, it makes posture feel like lifting weights; doable but not for very long.
That sucks in terms of proving disability in your country (you would be eligible already in mine but since disability here is only half of minimum wage it’s not really the solution like it is where you are).
But it’s really fantastic that you are able to do so much!! That’s way better. You’re going to be able to work from home lying down. Lots of cool ideas in here.
I think you should still apply for disability every year. Maybe find a support group or organisation for people with broken necks/spinal injuries, they might know some aspects of the process.
Good luck to you. I know what it’s like to lose everything, and I really hope you are able to rebuild some kind of life for yourself.
If it is ME/CFS come over to !cfs@feddit.de.
We’re not very active but try to keep up with the state of research.
Anything on the phone and or computer.
There are also services in 1st world countries that help you get setup
Anything from Programming to helpdesk to customer service to ASMR and anything else in between is possible.
You can do it. This is good first step to ask.
If you can divulge your country and or state there may be people on Lemmy who can direct you to specific resources
Southern California
I could continue my current job, working from home as a software developer.
The problem I run into is not knowing what it takes professionally. I’ve learned a lot but I’m just a hobbyist and have no clue how to get past that phase. I struggle with complexity, but I know hardware fairly well at the registers/stack/ALU level and can make a gagillion IF statements do anything wrong for a radar proximity triggered cat toy in Arduino. I just don’t know where to go with that and without any networking potential it seems a little hopeless.
You can also do temp work, English language teaching, proofreading, data entry.
Alongside what cm0002 said, I’ve found that finding recruiters manually and putting yourself out there has significantly increased my callback rate. They really know how to pitch you a lot of the time, and I wish I knew this as a junior.
Basically, look for postings by TekSystems, Jobot and other recruiting companies and put in applications to their systems (make sure to only apply for a few so as to not seem like a “spray and pray” job seeker). Hopefully, you will get a callback and / or emails about positions. Eventually, you will get a call from a recruiter from one of the recruiting firms and they will ask you a bunch of questions about your tech stack, experience, what your preferences are for positions, etc and they will basically file you away for later. When they find a fit, they reach out.
It’s great to have like 5 - 10 of these recruiters (from different companies) since you know you’ll be getting calls even in dry periods like this one.
Also, I really cannot emphasize this enough - LEARN DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS. It sucks to get a call from a company, have them set up a technical interview and then fail it and lose out on the opportunity.
This Udemy course is a great place to start if you know JS and it regularly goes on sale for $15 like every two weeks (not sponsored, it’s just genuinely a fantastic course and it’s worth every penny at any price, but for $15 it’s a steal if you know JS): https://www.udemy.com/share/101WNk3@wU2BBFJCNjPisNOAOq7G4IopJulzdWP6mkQD_4_vkOPjMfs8zL8f8CUVsevYRvCjBg==/
Make projects for a portfolio, throw them on a public GitHub repo and shop that around to employers.
Make sure to have neat, commented and mostly polished code that covers a decent breadth of topics. Like authentication or low level hardware handling.
Also try your hand at submitting contributions (and getting them accepted) to larger open source projects and point to those as well
NGL, the employment scene for junior devs…isn’t the best rn, expect to have to put in hundreds of applications with few if any call backs for a while. BUT companies are always hiring for good hardware devs junior or not, so you might get lucky
In that situation I would try to be a vtuber.
I’m told what typically takes place is that the person ends up on disability and works a part time call center style job though.
Edit: might wanna check with your local churches to see if they have a support network you can lean on if you’re ok with religion.
The best answer here is something work from home in the tech field. Find what interests you most is best tho
What do you do to earn a living and survive?
No working anymore. I retire. Social security will take care of me.
(Things may be different in your country).
If you have the puppet manipulation technique you could transmit your self into a mechanical robot that fights cursed spirits - or even become a baseball server!
Try not to be a dick, though.
I feel you friend, this isn’t a hypothetical for me either. That’s literally just my life now. I used to work delivery, 12+ hour days walking 10+ miles per day. Buy after a dog attack standing for more than an hour a day just flat out hurts. Enough that I can’t really focus on anything productive. Thankfully I can still cook and tidy up while my partner makes enough to support us.
Mostly I read. Libby was an absolute game changer for me. I spend too much time on lemmy for sure, but it is what it is. I wish I had a better answer for you friend.
That’s my reality with Long Covid. But by now I can’t even function at home. I moved back to my parents who provide me with food and handle my paperwork.
I have struggled with long covid and it’s interaction with my hypermobility EDS for a little over a year now. Derailed my entire life…
Lost my job, strained my marriage so bad and caused my wife (who just doesn’t understand) to resent me…
I’m finally getting my life back on track. I am finally going to graduate school, and I am very close to working an in-person job again.
I still am not back to my old self, and I’m not sure I ever will be. Not just with the chronic fatigue and stuff, but my brain function/thinking still doesn’t feel normal…
I don’t even know how to describe long covid or where to begin. I was someone who never got sick. I was so close to dying for so long. I’m convinced I wouldn’t have survived if I wasn’t fully vaxxed. For a long time, I wished I hadn’t survived.
I’m sorry you’re having to move back with family. I hope you start to notice positive change, even if it’s so incremental it’s almost imperceptible. It was an unbelievably slow change for me, but it eventually became more exponential.
That sounds extremely difficult. I’m so sorry.
Trick question: I am and have already given up.
I work in an office typing on a keyboard all day. I could easily do this job from home.
Any job that fits that description will suit you. There are quite a few of them nowadays.
This can’t help in the short term, I would consider learning steno. It used to cost thousands to rent specialized equipment to do it. Now with Plover (foss), the software component is free. You just need a keyboard with n-key rollover to do it.
I wouldn’t actually recommend learning on a standard keyboard. I personally use an ortholinear for typing, and that’s what got me into plover.
One way this would help one disabilities to make money is that with high-speed internet, you can caption internet broadcasts or remote company meetings. There are nonprofits that you would work for to find companies that need your service.
