Unconventional Income

[Toms306]

Run a vinyl cutting business from home... oh wait.... :/

do some 3D modelling and sell things on shapeways? Then you can just sit at your PC all day designing things and the making and distribution is up to someone else!

I'm terrible at design though, part of the reason the vinyl stuff didn't work out really!

Breaking cars would be an option if you had some space. Tried renting a council lock up?

Councils are very strict with doing anything in them lockups other than storing stuff.
Right with regards to being self employed, don't worry about the adverts and what not. The sort of money you will be earning, you won't pay a penny of tax and will just pay NI. Its all really easy to do and i can PM you tomorrow when I've got some time to explain a bit better. The biggest gist of it is to keep records of your receipts, monthly ins and outs and do your tax return at the end of every year. It sounds harder than it is believe me!

With work, i think something home based would be good for you but finding something would probably be difficult. Home jobs are generally very desirable.
A Hermes driver could be very good for you but don't expect much money. I THINK they get paid about 50p a drop but normally do over 100 drops a day. That may sound a lot but they work such a small area that you could do several parcels per road! All you would need to do is add work use to your insurance which i did with mine many years ago and it added about £50 a year so for you, probably even less! Its shit work but your in a routine, your out of the house, most of the time you have to say "sign here, thanks" if that and you get to try and beat your MPG record all the time

http://hermes-europe.force.com/recruitment

Moving out. Why not have a chat with Rowell? I assume he pays his parents rent so I'm sure you two could get a small 2 bed place. Its not that expensive up your way, Rowells down here spooning me several nights a week so you get the house to your self and he's in a routine. Plus, i think he would understand your needs a lot better than most.
Its worth both of you sitting down and working out figures assuming he's up for it!

Hmm, maybe I don't need to be so worried about tax stuff then!

The Hermes driver round here has been the same one for a couple of years so I doubt he's going anywhere, but that would be a good idea, time dependant, though.

Probably gonna get slated and have my pants pulled down here but...

The amount of time your on the net, do some research into stocks and markets.

Not sure that's something to do as an amateur though?  Seems like a massive risk!

Tom, have known you for a long while and as others will testify this is a thread not dissimilar to others you have posted before.

Now some of the issues you have are genuinely not very nice and we can only speculate what it must be like to live with them. However, some of these issues can be overcome and are purely state-of-mind. I think you recognise this yourself but haven't been empowered to do anything or provided with the correct outlet to overcome them. 

I'm not trying to be an amateur psychiatrist but I definitely feel that you need to set yourself some targets. There's nothing physically stopping you using a public toilet but fear itself. I worked for someone who had incredibly similar issues and it took him far too long to come to terms with his problems and take control of his life. But you know where he is now? Touring America with his wife on yet another extended holiday. 

He is now in his 40s and it took him until he was in his late 30s to start making changes. I wouldn't want you to wait that long.

You need to get professional help and support. You need to have the confidence to be away from your preferred loo. You also need to start believing in yourself; a negative attitude is going to set you up for failure. 

Focus on the skills you do have rather than those which you don't.  You write clearly and comprehensively,  something which escapes 80% of the "professional" workers i have come across. Presumably you can operate a computer rather competently too, considering the time you spend sitting in front of one! 

If you can use excel, write emails and show technical understanding you can do pretty much any entry-level office job. What you need is the confidence and self-belief.

Start with the basics and work your way up. Stop being negative.

Chris, you would definitely be my sort of psychiatrist!   Probably more experienced than the ones that have just left Uni that I've seen as well.

Using a public toilet is one of the most frustrating problems I have to be honest.  I agree its mind over matter, but there is a physical reason that it doesn't work, admittedly controlled by the mind, but it just wont allow certain muscles to 'let go' in that situation.  It's been the same for as long as I can remember, definitely back to primary school.  And it IS one of the things I'm working on atm amd have been for years.  Now every time I do a longer distance trip I try and use a public toilet at a supermarket or whatever...and it still hasn't happened yet, no matter how desperate I am.  I've tried various methods, counting, sums, singing in my head, even breathhold which seems to work for a lot of people and nothing seems to work for me!

Professional help is no use to me in this situation, I know what I need to do, I've seen therapists etc but need basic things first which I cant have here, this is the whole point, once I'm on my own, with a routine and time and space I can work on other things, but I don't get the chance here.

Yeah I suppose one skill I hadn't thought about is writing, I can use the basics in Excel and write emails etc. 

Also I thought I was being quite positive this time lol, being negative would be just giving up and saying 'f*ck it, why bother'.

As above mate, couldn't have put it better. It's going to be hard, it's going to be uncomfortable and occasionally unpleasant, but that's just life and if you don't do something it will only go downhill for you. I spent six months doing a job that stressed me out so much i developed eczema over 30% of my skin, but it was the only income i could get so i stuck to it until i found something else. Take the bad with the good, it IS worth it, the feeling of progress and achievement from hard work is second to none in my experience.

There is a lot of remote work out there for typists, proof readers, etc. You might even find a local office that's willing to make extended provisions for your conditions as it'll help them fulfil their equal opportunities jazz.

Remote typing/proof reading is something I hadn't thought about and could probably do reasonably well tbf.  I'll have to look further into that!

Just to echo what is written in last couple of posts, what you have to ask yourself if this, will doing something you don't like kill you? If you ate something that freaked you out or used a different toilet, would you be here tomorrow to tell the tale? Of course the answer is yes, you would and you would be fine if not better than before for the experience, everyone has to push themselves out of their own particular comfort zone, yours may be smaller than most but the same rules apply, here's a true story for you,
I used to know a few undesirable guys when i was younger, one in particular had done a fair bit of time on the inside, one if the first times he went at her majesty's pleasure the canteen staff were putting Beatles in his food, after starving for a number of days he went and caught a live Beatle and ate it to prove to himself that he would come to no harm eating the contaminated prison food, there after he didn't give a fcuk.
So the moral is, life can be tough but every time you push yourself you grow, like the saying goes, "do something every day to scare yourself"
It's honestly the only way and you can do it, being a victim can be a comfort blanket, throw it away and start pushing things every day, before you know it you'll be normal like the rest of us! Yeah right, no one is normal, everyone has insecurity's, so take some solace in that mate, i promise you, everyone is fcuked up in their own way, but we grow and learn in time x

If I ate something that made me ill in my current situation, it would have massive repercussions.  It has happened in the past and is one of the worst things that can happen.  As I'm already in a situation that I can't cope with, adding something that I'm terrified of on top just completely breaks me.  Hopefully when I'm a better situation I will be able to cope with something like that better.  As said, this can be worked on once the basics are in place.

I don't think I have a comfort zone lol, don't feel comfortable anywhere!

That is a good saying, and one I do live by, I do do something every day that scares me, as said I try and force myself to go out no matter how bad I feel, and then do other things whilst out that push it a bit further, sometimes it goes badly, but occasionally it does go well and is worth it when that happens.