Does Agoraphobia Affect Your Income?

[Maggie May]

I don't know about you guys, but my anxiety has prevented me from landing the very best jobs I'm qualified for, and consequently from making as much money as I would have if I weren't anxious. I don't have a dime saved for retirement and I am in school to get a degree that will allow me to make enough money to support myself and put away enough for retirement. However, not everyone is able to do this.

People with anxiety disorders are usually highly intelligent, creative, sensitive, conscientous, and thoughtful - but those with agoraphobia in particular have a very hard time making a living. No one wants to be on disability, but for some it's not a choice. Meds and therapy can be very expensive, particularly if you don't work and have no insurance. And since therapy and meds together can be a powerful solution to anxiety, if you don't have enough money to pay for them, it is very hard to get better.

I had an idea the other day about how people with anxiety could make money. My parents always told me it is impolite to talk about money, but people with severe anxiety don't have the luxury of not having to talk about money and we're all here to give and get support, so I thought I'd post a poll and see if there is any interest. It's not going to make anyone a millionaire, by any means, but if it can help an anxious person make a little more money, it's worth mentioning.

I'll post my idea regardless of the results of the poll, but I thought I'd put the poll up while I'm working on an explanation of my idea. The only work outside the home it involves is driving or having someone drive you diffferent places to pick things up.

Anyway, I'll stop being mysterious and post this and get to work on the explanation.

Maggie

[Fear]

Yes,thanks post it ,please!

[Maggie May]

Hi Friends!

Sorry for not posting this sooner, things got a little crazy in my life and my attention was greatly needed elsewhere.

Anyway, this is certainly not a get-rich-quick idea, but I just made an interesting connection between two internet sites that I thought could be an instrument to help people with anxiety, who usually have a hard time with finances because of their anxiety.

My sister told me about a site called Freecycle.org. It's a grassroots organization of hundreds of local groups around the country. Check the link to read the specifics about it, but in general, it's a place where people from one area, for instance, in my case, in the San Francisco Bay Area, can post possessions that are in good condition or are still useful that they don't want to just throw away, and they don’t want to go through the hassle of selling them. They post their item on freecycle, say, a 27 inch Sony TV, and whoever in the group sees the post and wants that item, they email the person, and if they're the first person to respond, they are free to come and pick up the item.

Freecycle has only 3 rules: one, the items must be completely free. Two, the items must be legal (can't give away drugs or whatever) and three, the items must be appropriate for all ages. (So no posting bondage paraphernalia) :)

When I moved from Chicago about six months ago, we had a ton of stuff that wasn't worthless but would cost more to move it than it would to just buy a new one. So we ended up posting a ton of stuff on Freecycle and people came and hauled it away.

The people who want the item will email you with the times and days they are available to pick stuff up and the person with the item just leaves it on their porch for the person to come pick up. You don't have to meet the person and talk to them and shake hands, and do all those things that anxious people generally don't want to do. I have found it particularly useful, when letting a member know where to pick up the item, to say that I have babies who are on various sleep schedules, night and day. This allows me to let the person pick the item up without having them ring the doorbell and forcing me to go through the whole meet-and-greet thing with them on the porch.

Everyone on freecycle wants their item to go to someone who is in need. It’s a pure gesture of altruism. And many items that are extremely valuable get posted, for instance, I’ve seen several high-end scanners posted that work perfectly, but the owners are super rich and want to replace it with the latest and greatest scanner, and they just want the old scanner to go to someone in need. And here’s the important part, for all of we anxious people who are very scrupulous, if someone is offering an item that they specifically want to donate to a church, school, non-profit organization, etc, they will specify that in the post, and double check that the person is indeed working for one of the above-mentioned organizations.

So here’s the interesting connection I made.

Many of you are familiar with Ebay, an auction website where people can post pictures and information about an item, and then people who want that item bid on it, and at the end of the auction, the highest bidder gets the item. The seller mails it to the buyer.

The connection is that people who are too anxious to have regular jobs, who are on disability, or who just need extra money for meds or therapy, could find valuable items on Freecycle, try to be the first to email their wish to have the item, pick them up and then sell them on Ebay.

Now, before I say any more, I want you guys to know that I have checked with Freecycle extensively about this. As an overly scrupulous anxiety sufferer, I would not feel comfortable taking items that I don’t need from people who wanted to give them to someone who actually needs them. Freecycle’s response was, “We have no way of proving that the people who acquire items through Freecycle actually have a desperate need for them. It’s not necessary, and plus, there’s no need to try to verify. If a person who has an item to give away, and it’s an extremely valuable item, and they specifically want to give it to a school, church or non-profit, they put that in the post. Everything else, is frankly, up for grabs.

I am sure that anyone who posts a valuable item “up for grabsâ€

[shoe]

Maggie May,

thats a nice idea, I'm sure it will be a big help to some people :)

thanks for posting that!
shoe