Support Mack's Journey to Safety and Health

Hi, all. My name is Mack. If you know me, you know I spent 5 years saving money from full time work in order to move from Houston where the humidity was making me very sick to the point that I couldn't walk or move my hands. Everything in my body hurt constantly and I struggled in very bad work environments. Since the pandemic I've been sexually harassed by a manager and coworker during a very intense relationship with my ex girlfriend that became physically abusive on her end. I went through a deep depression and finally separated ties which was extremely difficult and the whole process, which included her hacking into ever account I had and harassing me and friends of mine, threatening me, the list goes on, left me in a state of disarray and mental disregulation that has still not been remedied.

A few months after all of this I started a new job at a place called Canary Cafe. I met my partner there. I was doing better. Then the owner of the company, Joseph Pfaffel, fired all of the montrose employees without warning and simultaneously. My partner and I both lost our jobs and he later lost his second job.

All of these employees that were fired ended up at a company called Wild. We had mandatory training with low pay. I was bullied there after being transferred there from their sister location. They promised to honor my school schedule but never did, causing me to almost fail my classes. Their solution was to send me back to the sister location where I was treated horrifically and unethically by the barista manager who would make me do work no one else had to do while they took prolonged breaks and threatened to fire me multiple times after she had changed my schedule. I got sicker. I worked and saved until I was able to graduate with my associates and finally leave for New Mexico in May.

I was happy here. I thrived, I wasn't getting sick anymore. But my car I used the last of my savings on broke down after 2 months and my relationship was becoming more and more taxing with my partner causing me a lot of mental and emotional distress. He was lying to me and omitting information from me constantly. I got bullied by one of his friends all the way in Houston that I barely knew. Every time I would take time off and buy a ticket to see him in Houston he would displace a safe environment right before I had to go back home to New Mexico.

He moved here in September 2023. This was his idea. Not mine. Things progressively got worse. I work full time in Harm Reduction and talk to about 100 people experiencing houselessness and/or addiction a day. I would often come home to my partner having manic episodes with intense psychosis. I tried to be patient and help him through the episodes but it became more and more draining. He would drink. A lot. And it made the manic episodes worse. I started losing my patience. I was angry. I was mean. I was tired of being hurt, lied to, manipulated, drained. I was tired of him not leaving when I asked him to and my reality felt like it was shattering. I already suffer from CPTSD from constant childhood abuse that leaked into my adulthood. I couldn't handle it all.

My abuela passed. This allowed me to finally replace my car.

Things got better. Then worse. My partner started randomly disappearing without a word. It happened often when we made long distance plans with his friends (who I considered mine too but struggled to explain what was going on as I could barely handle what I was experiencing). While driving 20 min to El Dorado from Santa Fe where I lived to make sure he wasn't dead, I found out he was alive and had a huge tantrum. I was not nice. It was dark and I ended up getting run into the left turn lane. My car was totalled. I needed it to drive 35 min to my job in Española.

I told my partner I could not stay in the relationship if he continued drinking due to the severity of these manic episodes. I thought he stopped. I experienced a situation of bullying at work. The person was eventually fired for doing the same to others.

I was able to replace my totalled car eventually then got into a minor rear end accident due to someone 4 cars ahead of me promptly braking when they should not have been. I had barely had the car.

I was doing the work of 3 people at my job and severly burnt out. I started getting sick again. I continued driving to work. My car broke down on the highway on my way home from work the next day. I remained calm. Called a tow. Let my partner know what was going on. He said he was on the way with coolant. He should have been 20 min away.

An hour passed. I finally called. He said he had gotten pulled over. I assumed he had been speeding. An hour passes. The police call me saying he's been detained and is being charged with a dwi. I insist he's been sober, did they do a breathalyzer test to make sure? The cop yells at me telling me he doesn't have to tell me anything and hangs up. Half an hour passes. A new cop tells me they will release him but I have to pick him up. I tell him my car is broken down on the side of the highway and I am unable to do that. Half an hour passes. I get in the back of a squad car for the first time in my life. I wait 45 min. They release him. He admits he went to a gas station before heading to me. They didn't have Arizona iced tea so he got a 4 Loko instead and drank it in 15 min.

I break up with him. We had signed a lease together the day before as things had significantly improved for a prolonged period of time.

We experienced multiple fights where we were both very problematic and he finally was admitted into an iop program. I still had no car and was reliant on him and coworkers to get to and from work. I spent $1000 extra dollars on my car for it to still not be fixed. This past week it was dropped off at the dealership where I will be charged for who knows what extravagant sum of money.

Yesterday my partner abandoned me at work. I was upset that he had done this yet again. It has happened at least 10 times. I felt calmer than normal but we still ended up in a fight where he cornered me, blocked my pathway, and pushed through my door when I tried to lock myself in my bedroom. He was yelling at me. I yelled back. He started telling me he wasn't yelling and I needed to stop. His behavior and words where extremely frightening and I legitimately felt afraid to sleep. I urinated in a cup in my room because I was too afraid to go to the bathroom.

I realized one of us needs to leave. But I have no money in either my checking or savings account. He is in debt from the dwi and a hospital bill. Neither of us can afford our place alone.

This year I have had to pay all of my money to car problems and doctors visits and procedures.

I was diagnosed with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis when I moved here on top of ibs. My symptoms are getting worse and I'm starting to miss work. I'm getting sick again

I'm asking for help raising funds to either get a hotel room, move, or pay for the house alone so that I can be in a safe environment finally and begin to recover.

I also need to raise money to get my car back.

I did not expect any of these things to happen and understand that it's frowned upon to ask for help but I'm in a bad spot that is not my own fault. I did not expect to get sick and have to live with these illnesses for the rest of my life on top of my spinal fractures I got when I got hit by a car at age 20. I need help. I want peace and I want to be safe and heal from all of this.

I work full time and do sw and sell taxidermy jewelry to pay my bills. So I'm working 3 jobs. One of them is full time. I'm trying to work to live but its not keeping up with the expenses of life. I'm still awaiting a new therapist and do not have a reliable support system here. Please consider sharing even if you cannot donate. I know times are dire for so many of us right now.

But I have to try something to keep on taking care of myself and stay alive and safe.