I was successful prior to 2019. I thought life was pretty good. I had built a successful business. I had a great family with three amazing kids and I was truly in love with my wife, who was a stay-at-home mother raising our three girls. I was living the dream, my dream that is. Well, in January of 2019 I found out not everything lasts forever. While I was hard at work trying to build the future that I thought my wife and I both wanted, she had become unhappy with the marriage and things quickly started to unravel. This was kryptonite for me. The thought of losing my wife and so many future memories with my daughters was beyond heartbreaking. Everything I had done for the past 15 years was for my family. I was beyond crushed. I fought hard to keep myself in a good mental state during the separation and divorce process, but the divorce process got ugly and I started my downward ascent.
When 2020 started, I was optimistic about the future, but the timing of the pandemic and subsequent shut-down could not have been worse. My business took a huge hit along with the rest of our industry. I was really struggling, so not only was business difficult, but I was in a horrible place mentally. As the months passed, I struggled to keep up with my family's expenses and my payroll. I could only burn through so much savings until I eventually had to shut the business down.
I had gone from thinking I had it all in January of 2019 to hitting rock bottom 2-years later. I was probably depressed or that is what my doctor told me. I struggled to focus on anything productive and instead spent my days ruminating on what had gone wrong with my marriage. I couldn't think about anything else. My vision for our future together is what motivated me every day. My depression got so bad that I stopped caring. I stopped checking my voice messages. I stopped opening mail and started paying my bills late, if at all. I started drinking more and partying. My house was always a mess. I lost a lot of money on high-risk investments and gambling. Then, on June 28th, my car got repossessed because I neglected to sign and return a simple form for over six-months. For some reason, the car repossession snapped me out of it. I stopped drinking the next day and got myself together. I started working 6-days a week as a consultant in the industry that I spent 20-years in.
Finally, I am building my cash-flow backup, but I have gotten behind on everything and for the first time in my life, my credit score is really low - having dropped 160 points. I am wondering, do you think creditors/banks have any leniency for someone that was struggling with mental health issues? I told a few bankers/creditors that my wife left me in 2019 and in 2020 my booming business fell apart, which caused a mental breakdown. They didn't say much, so I continue to bottle it in.
I just want to dig my way out of this hole. Any feedback or direction on the credit score (or other strategies) are appreciated.
Thanks so much!
Mike
Submitted July 28, 2021 at 10:08PM by Revolutionary_Big705 https://ift.tt/37mdyiF
