Ptsd And Bankruptcy

[RedAnther]

I discovered I had heart issues a little more than a year ago. I didn't have insurance and ended up in the emergency room several times. I can't function at work and I was too sick to do anything but lay down and try not to throw up all the time. I wasn't able to get help for my bills. I just wasn't there for it. I did get my heart issues fixed but I'm still sick with other things.

The bills went to a collections agency and they wanted me to pay $400 a month for it. I just got fired from my job for being sick too much and now I have a lawsuit and I need to move out of my place by September. I'm just crumbling under all this pressure and I just can't do anything.

I'm struggling with family stuff, ptsd from family, etc. I'm just really scared and I hate that I know it's my fault because of my inactivity. I've gotten anger issues from all the traumatic events in my life too. My mantra today to get myself out of bed was that I'm selfish and cause other people trouble all of the time. I just kept thinking that. I feel like a sinking ship.

Has anyone else gone through this with PTSD? I feel so helpless and just want to die.

 

[Friday]

1) It's a Constitutional Right...
Just like freedom of speech, the press, the right to bear arms.

2) If I'm remembering the founding fathers quote correctly...
"No man can truly be free while imprisoned by his debt"

3) Any business going under that fails to "restructure" (aka declare bankruptcy) is held to be a pariah, fools who deserve to fail for not pursuing every legal means in order to stay afloat during rough times. And yet... There is a huge stigma for individuals and families to exercise the exact same constitutional rights. Ummmm? Beg pardon? It's laudable for a company but a person should be ashamed? Oh. Wait. Where did that stigma come from? Right. Corporations who have restructured countless times themselves, that hold your debt. Not hypocritical at all. <sarcasm>

4) Consolidating your debt is as much of a hit to your credit, for twice as long and with none of the protections, as bankruptcy. Wait. Did I say protections? Yep. Bankruptcy law includes protections for you (including but not limited to) deferred payments while you're sick or unemployed. Say you have 48 payments. You make 10, lose your job for 2 years, then start working again. Those 2 years of being unemployed? The bankruptcy payments get deferred, and then when you start working again,,you make your 11th payment. No late fees, penalties, defaults, or repeated credit hits. Another is that instead of saying "You owe $400 a month" regardless of what you earn (10k or 1k per month)... There is a series of worksheets which require budgeting to include recreation, savings, retirement & higher education savings, etc. After both living expenses and smart living expenses (R&R, retirement, kids educations, etc.) then you payments are based on what's left over. And if that's $38 a month for 5 years? Then it's $38. (There are time limits on payments).

Bankruptcy law is designed so that when you're out of bankruptcy, you're on your feet, not even deeper in another hole.

5) In my area bankruptcy attorneys charge a flat fee based on which chapter is being filed (7 or 13). $800 & $4,000. If 4k, the attorney's fees are spaced into the repayment plan. There is a basic understanding that you're already broke in bankruptcy.

5.5) The first thing your attorney will tell you to do is to stop making payments on anything you're filing on. Can you even picture that? The space that will give you to breathe? Seriously. Go get an attorney. Get the numbers run.

 

[franciemarnie]

I believe medical issue related bills are the chief cause of bankruptcy in the U.S.

I went bankrupt years ago. That's what happens sometimes.

I don't think that morning mantra is doing anything but bringing you down. Did someone else talk to you that way systematically once upon a time by any chance? Just wondering how you you got in that habit. It isn't functional. It's irrational because it isn't true.

When I talked myself down like that, it drove me into a deeper and deeper hole, and I ended up in the hospital. Do you feel that mantra is really accurate? Is it necessary? Is it kind?

You have to give yourself a break. It isn't fair not to. I know it is a hard habit to break, but you can do it and you will feel better and have more energy to take action.

What you say to yourself about yourself simply isn't true.

 

[RedAnther]

Well I've been more supportive of myself lately and it's just festered my anger more.

Do you still have to make payments after bankruptcy? I am so broke right now I don't know where to start. This is a lot of information to take in. Did you get a lawsuit in the mail? My room mate signed for it when I was away so I have less time to get myself together. And she opened it which was embarrassing.

 

[RussH]

I completely understand how you feel, and I empathize with you. Your circumstances may have caused this hardship, but that doesn't make you responsible. Medical issues happen with people, and that is typically not their fault, it is just what happens, and the circumstances brought about by those medical issues are simply what happens.

I guess what I am trying to say is; you have enough to deal with regarding the circumstances without feeling guilt on top of it. So don't blame yourself on something you did no have control over; your heart problems. Nor do you have control over the heart problems (Hard-heartedness) that your former employer has.

I truly hope you win lawsuit.

 

[franciemarnie]

I went bankrupt about seventeen years ago. Back then, there were two choices you could make. One was you paid nothing to anyone. I think the other was some kind of payment plan, which was not a possibility for me given the debt. I don't know if these two choices remain or if there are more. You need to look at this head on and read anything sent to you. You will feel better to just deal with it and learn the facts. It's the unknown that is terrifying. You can Google your options too.

I went to a bankruptcy lawyer. It was $1,000 and very simple. I just detailed what I owed to who, we went to a bankruptcy judge and I was in and out in five minutes literally.

I had bad credit on my report for ten years although Capital One always gives you $500 or so on a credit card and you can always get a car.

It gave me the opportunity to change the way I lived too and that was good.

I never have carried a balance on a card since though I have a lot of credit to use on credit cards now. (It's a rip off!) I have a nearly perfect score too now so although it's rough at the moment for you, in time this all heals up.

 

[madmax]

Chapter 7 you owe nothing chapter 11 you pay a negotiated amount.

Was not aware of Capital One granting credit.

 

[franciemarnie]

I got a card from Capital One right away, unasked. I had to pay a fee every month for a lousy $500 credit. I don't care for Capital One. Trying to close a card was very difficult. At least that was my experience.