Hello folks.

We're a small and kind of strange family: me, my partner, and our dog Benzo. Both of us are disabled, my partner much more so than I, and I'm the only one who's able to work for a living. I was laid off from my last job in late 2022, and I've been searching constantly for a new job ever since. But the downturns in the tech industry, the rise of generative "AI" breaking the hiring and application processes across the board, and my own age and disability, they have all left me still looking for reliable work almost two and a half years later. Anyone who's had to look for work in the last couple of years knows that I'm not alone in this struggle.

We've been barely managing on a combination of my disability benefits and the kindness of others. But our ongoing medical bills, the vet costs for the little man (who has his own problems), the rising costs of food and necessities, and the sudden onset of dementia in my partner's mother have all drained our credit cards and other assets to the point where we have to ask for substantial help again.

If we can get our credit card bills under control, that will give us time for me to continue looking for work, or maybe find an alternative to traditional employment for me. Our money situation is badly exacerbating my partner's disabilities (which include C-PTSD and panic disorder), and I hope that we can at least stabilize our finances temporarily.

Who Are We?

I am an old tech nerd (started out on the TI-99/4A when I was about nine and never stopped) who is psychologically disabled, and my parter is a slightly younger artist who has ADHD and, as noted, severe C-PTSD and panic disorder. I used to post on cohost before it shut down, and sometimes I still use tumblr , but neither of us is really using social media much right now for mental health reasons. We prefer to not share photos of ourselves because our particular damage makes that difficult.

On the other hand, this is Benzo, our little man who was diagnosed last year with IVDD, a kind of vertebral disorder that some dogs suffer from, but which so far we've been able to manage without surgery. He's a Chihuahua/Rat Terrier mix, and he was supposed to be a therapy dog but he turned out to be his own little bundle of trauma responses. He gets away with everything because he's adorable and clever. You can see more of him here on Bluesky .

What Is Our Situation?

Due to my extended unemployment and continuing expenses beyond what my disability benefits can cover, we have several credit cards that are basically maxed out at this point, with monthly interest payments that are getting impossible to manage. This is why I'm setting this Gofundme goal so high, because if we can get rid of the monthly interest payments we can maybe handle things for the foreseeable future. In the interest of full disclosure, these are two of our three cards, and the other is in a similar state:

How Can You Help?

Obviously, our primary goal here is get our credit card debt under control, so any donations, however small, would be appreciated. If you can't help financially, sharing this Gofundme elsewhere is the second best thing you can do for us. If you want to reach out to offer some other kind of assistance (like a job opportunity for someone who's whole career has been about triaging various kinds of technical and administrative problems), you can email me directly via "apocryphalmess at fastmail.com".

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help.