My mother divorced from my father about 20 years ago and I lived with my mother and my sister for much of this time. My father has still been supporting my mother and my sister, despite my sister being 26 (my dad is in real estate.) My mom has been suffering with depression ever since she divorced, and it has seemingly harmed parts of her memory. She's been on some powerful antidepressants in the past 6 years alone (she's been medicated for all but one year since she was diagnosed with depression.)
My mother has tried training for jobs especially in the 90s but she hit a wall when she couldn't pass the GED test (primarily the math part.) I was young and it didn't occur to me if someone could've tutored my mom in math at the time. The resources that the government gives for passing GED tests are poor. The closest she had ever got to a job since she divorced was when she trained for dental assistant and missed key opportunities to get a job, but felt like she was too old compared to the young students (she was in her 40's at the time.) I wish I would've known what was happening to the job market and thus I would've tried better in helping her.
Well, my mom is in her 60's, not even a high school diploma (she immigrated from Central America, and she didn't have to pass high school there), and no paid work experience for a long time. Her dependence on my dad and lack of a job seriously contributes to her depression, and many times she feels suicidal and I try to make her feel guilty (if she tries it for real) but she still feels like she doesn't want to live at times. She would hardly get any money from social security because social security only gives 1/2 credit per year for the time she was married to my dad (at least 11 years.) Four of those years she was working in tech manufacturing (this was in the Silicon Valley) so she gets full credit for those years, but still.
My sister is age 26, but she has severe OCD (that thankfully is not as bad as it used to be due to medication), and never has had a job. She's going to the University now, and she has tried to get some internships but failed. She's an introvert and has problems with "not being sensitive enough" to other people, and thus has a lack of social skills, not to mention her OCD issues (a fear of certain chemicals). Add to it that she's fat (the medication she was taking for the OCD initially really contributed to her gaining weight) and thus she's not in a competitive position when competing with thinner, nicer more people friendly and functional young people for jobs. She doesn't have work experience as well compared to them. She's studying Psychology, but Psychology as a major doesn't become useful unless you get a Masters Degree or better (thus she still has to go for another 2 years to get her Masters degree after she gets her B.A.)
With the post-2008 reality being that jobs are ultra competitive, and that there are many forces contributing to the lack of jobs in the future (including artificial intelligence advances), and even that I read that now the GED test is much harder than before, I see little hope for my mom and sister at least in the short term in being able to support themselves. I feel like I'm going to have to step in and make more money just to help support them because my dad has been increasingly complaining about supporting them and I fear he would try to cut the money. My dad wasn't complaining when he was riding the 2000's real estate boom but even now the real estate market isn't as good compared to back then.
This hampers my ability to be on my own and to only care about my own life and to be able to deal with my TG issues. Is my situation with them really as hopeless as I see it?
