I made a throwaway as a few people know my username..
Anyways, I am a 20 year old college dropout who is in dire financial stress.
I went to a 4 year University for 3 semesters. During the last semester, I became very depressed and suicidal. Towards the end of the semester, I spent some time in the hospital. By the time I was released, there were only 2 weeks left until finals and I had just missed a good amount of classes. On top of that, I was already struggling so I ended up taking incompletes in all but 1 of my classes (the class had a contracted "instructor" meaning I was unable to take an incomplete in the class for some reason) which resulted in a GPA of around 0.9 and an automatic academic suspension. This hit me very hard.
But this is /r/personalfinance so let me get to that part of it.
As part of my mental state, I've had a really hard time taking care of obligations such as paying for tuition my final semester. In the end, I was never able to pay for it and the debt went straight to state collection and currently sits at about $10,500.
As a result of my debt, I now cannot attend another school until the debt is paid off which will probably take me a few years (if it was my only expense).
So currently I am stuck at a $11 dollars an hour retail position and living at home (I recognize that I could be doing worse). Prior to that I was unable to work mentally (and realistically still am but felt that I had to do something/was being yelled at everyday to get a job literally).
Anyways, on top of the $10,500 I owe to state collections, I also owe money for the student loan I took out to pay for my freshman year. As I am no longer attending school because I am unable to (mentally and financially) they now want me to start making monthly payments of around $110 or a total of $7,500.
On top of that, I have other federal loans (at least a Stafford loan, I really cant remember) I took out that I have no idea how much I owe on.
And that's just Academic debt
Since my first hospitalization, I have been hospitalized 2 more times since then. I haven't been able to make any payments on those hospital bills yet but combined they are around $6000. On top of that, I have visited 7 different therapists and been in 2 hospital outpatient programs totaling me around $4000.
As I haven't been able to keep a job until recently, I did a dumb thing and took out 3 credit cards that are now maxed. On top of eveything, I'm a semi-serious shopaholic. I've been known to buy things I can't afford to try to feel good. Anyways, I owe around $1600 on the cards but I should be able to pay them off in the next few months if I make it a priority which is my plan. Beyond that, I have no idea how to proceed.
To tally everything. That's about $18,000 in academic related debt, $10,000 in medical debt and another $1600 in credit card debt.
I have no idea where to go from here. Having any sort of plan I feel might help however instead of ignoring my finances like I have been doing for the last year as I've just been too scared to face it.
At this time I'd love to be able to focus on my health until I get to a better place mentally but I'm just not sure if I can afford it and the debt is one of many huge stressors in my life right now. I've sunk around $10,000 into trying to improve my health but nothing's really changed.
Not sure if this was the best place to post this but here I am. If anyone has any advice for me or advice as to somewhere I can turn to for advice. That would be greatly appreciated.
Submitted November 15, 2017 at 10:54PM by iwontusethisoneagain http://ift.tt/2iXOYuP
