People Who Have Lived In Poverty Are Sharing The About The Experience

17.

“Growing up in poverty traumatizes you for life on multiple levels, even if you by some miracle manage to escape it. If you can’t afford doctor or dental appointments, your physical and mental health can be impacted for life. Teeth don’t grow back. Unchecked chronic medical conditions take their toll. Digging yourself out (or trying to) is also traumatizing because you have to work 10x harder than somebody with parents who can provide support. You really do work 10x harder at absolutely everything, and you get tired. You’re exhausted all the time. And you know the rest is not coming. You cannot afford it. Stress. Misery. Grief. My teen and young adult years were spent working and worrying instead of growing up and figuring out who I was and what brought me joy & fulfillment. I’m still at least 10 years behind on that, probably. But the lack of financial support from parents takes multiple tolls.

“There is an immense amount of comfort in knowing ‘I can call my mom/dad if I get a flat tire or if my car breaks down’ even if it never happens. And you don’t know how comforting that truly can be unless you’ve felt the absence of it. Just a constant ‘Wow I’m so f*cked.’ Constant planning. What if this goes wrong? What if that goes wrong? Catastrophizing so that you are never caught without financial resources. You do it to bring yourself some comfort, but that comfort never comes.

You just repeat the cycle. The constant ‘I have to do this by myself for myself because I have nothing and nobody and I never will’ never goes away. It’s a constant stressor. I make more money than anybody in my family right now by a lot, and money is always a worry for me.”

—u/Unlikely-Sugar