Help Reuben raise a deposit to leave an abusive household

Hey everyone <3

If you've been sent this link you probably either know about my situation already, or I trust you with this information about me.

I'm making this gofundme as a last resort, because I have truly reached breaking point. I should be living my 20s freely and not being constantly subject to emotional abuse by narcissists.

Most of you probably know me as a bubbly, fun loving easygoing guy, but life has been quite messy behind the scenes for the majority of my adult life.

This is going to be a long read but the TL;DR is that I live in an emotionally abusive household and it is a serious risk to my mental wellbeing and general safety and peace of mind. I am raising money to be able to move out because I genuinely believe I would not have had such a hard time with chronic illness if I had a supportive family environment.

Even if 50 friends donate £10 each, that puts me to a really good start towards getting out.

I skipped university to get myself into a career as quick as possible to get out of this environment, and was in a good position to do this until I came down with long covid in late 2022 and became bedridden till december 2023, a period during which I was also sectioned under the mental health act for suicidal tendencies. Simply surviving without being able to work for that long has meant I have gone through my savings and am now living off benefits and am very often in overdraft.

During this period my family was extremely manipulative and dismissive - my mother constantly accused me of faking illness and used to rip the covers off my bed to prevent me from resting. I was yelled at every morning to just get up and do things. When I had a chronic illness that left me bedridden. An illness that has been proven to affect people's energy levels at a mitochondrial level. I developed a stutter and had all kinds of neurological processing issues. Was genuinely worried I had dementia or something and would never be able to work in tech again. My father was worse, and accused me of being psychotic and having delusions that he is an abuser. This rhetoric led to the nhs mental health system believing him over me, and sectioning me against my will. I was in a ward for 2 months, and what's crazy is that even in that environment where my personal dignity was stripped from me, I still felt more at peace than I do at home.

Those of you that know me well will know that I've been working since I was 19 and generally trying to be as independent as I can be. I was not legally eligible to move out till late 2021 because of my visa status as a child dependent, which mandated that I was living under the same roof as my parents to keep getting visa extensions. I now have permanent residence as of 2022 so this is irrelevant. Things were in place for me to move out in 2022 but I became horribly ill in November 2022 and that derailed my entire life.

I am now at a place of luckily having physically recovered nearly 100%, and have returned to relative emotional stability too, as well as I can be right now. I have been applying for jobs in web development and retail/hospitality since February. Have picked up the odd bar shift but otherwise no work has come my way. The tech job market is terrible right now especially for anyone below senior level.

In the meantime I have started offering guitar lessons and looking for freelance work, but this isn't enough to actually save anything towards a deposit. I am barely getting by, and in the meantime I am continuing to be emotionally drained.

My family have completely erased my illness and refuse any accountability for how poorly they treated me.

I feel like I have built some good friendships with some absolutely amazing people over the years, and this is me asking for any help you can offer at all to get me out of here before I have another breakdown and am not able to support myself like I am somewhat able to right now.

I have set the target at £2000 as this should cover a deposit and one months rent, along with any moving expenses.

I wholeheartedly promise that for any kindness extended my way, I will be grateful for the rest of my life.

Lots of love,

Reuben