Friday, September 16, 2011

The Ups and Downs of Unemployment

I haven't been in much of a mood to post anything here in the last couple of days. On the positive side, I attended a truly excellent session on resume writing at ProNet Charlotte the other day. But on the down side, financial issues have been putting me in a depressed mood.

That's always a problem with long term unemployment. Every positive, every cause for hope or optimism, seems to be canceled out by another problem or crisis. Every carefully prepared application and resume you send out seems to disappear without a trace. Every unemployment check is spent as soon as you get it. And every time you turn on the news there's more negative stories about the economy and the unemployment rate.

Depression among the long-term unemployed has to be a chronic and serious problem. And to make matters worse, it can be extremely difficult to get assistance with medical expenses. It was five months after I lost my job and insurance before I and my wife were able to get into a sliding scale program to help with doctor visits and medications. And my nineteen year old son, because he works part-time while he is going to college, is still ineligible to be covered by the sliding scale. This is an issue that I think needs to be addressed by our lawmakers, although I seriously doubt that will happen.

Although I sometimes get really sick of people telling me that I just need to keep a positive attitude and don't give up, that's really all that I can do.

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