Help Tete get back on their feet

Hi everyone, my name is Tete or you can call me Lisa.

I’m a freelance artist who used to stream, but due to varied living situations, I haven’t been able to come back to it. So, in the meantime, I’ve been creating art for streamers and general OC lovers.

Why a GoFundMe is being created

I’m creating this because I have been displaced from my home. It’s a deeply personal matter over miscommunication and issues regarding my failed attempt at career swapping into construction. I am unemployed and effectively homeless as of the beginning of September 2025, couch surfing with my cat while my things are in storage.

The goal behind this GoFundMe

My goal is to get enough help to sustain myself for the next 2-3 months. My bills total to ~$1300/mo so I will need ~$2,600 for 2 months and ~$3,870 for 3 months. Any extra money will go into various costs of living like groceries and fuel. I will set the goal for a bit higher than this but will try to set it to go no further than ~$5k.

Thankfully the people who are kind enough to house me are wanting to help me get on my feet, so they are letting me stay rent-free for a time.

How things got to this point (TLDR)

My severe inattentive ADHD has gone untreated due to many circumstances, making it hard for me to keep several jobs.

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How things got to this point (lengthy read - I want to be fully transparent)

Around the middle of 2021, since I lived in affordable housing with friends, I thought I needed to leave due to the amount of money I made yearly at the time while working at a call-center. My portion of rent was significantly lower than any of the rent I would be paying in the future (~$600+ vs ~$1,100-1,700/mo).

Unfortunately, due to the neglectful and verbally abusive environment of call-center work, I left the company after a little over a year in 2023 due to mental health, with enough savings to handle rent. I was able to land another job 3 months after, which I kept for a little over a year (again), but this was when I properly got diagnosed for severe inattentive ADHD and started going through the motions of getting treatment.

My biggest problem with jobs as I’ve gotten older is being written up for being late by–at most–a minute. I would do my best to show up 10-15 minutes early every day, but I would get distracted by either doing my morning routine at home, or when I was at the jobsite at my locker, and clock in a minute late. I reached out for help via diagnosis since I felt something was deeply wrong and it was frustrating that I kept getting written up for being late. Nothing that was suggested to me worked–more alarms, leaving earlier, eating well, sleeping early–nothing. I properly got diagnosed, and sure enough, what was affecting me so much was, indeed, severe inattentive ADHD.

Management suggested I reach out to get accommodations for disability, but I was told by HR that it wouldn’t be effective as another coworker was going through the same motions and was denied. This destroyed me to hear and I wasn’t able to manage going through with the paperwork to appeal, as I got a denial notification later that day.

Unfortunately I lost the job, as I mistook a work day for an off-day, and I did not want to waste gas (30-40 min commute) only to get cornered by management and be told to go home (this is how they were recently firing long-time coworkers). My management understood, my coworkers understood, but the new people above them only saw how things were on paper. On paper I was on my last strike and it was stated that even if I tried to appeal and beg because of my disability, I would still get fired.

Since that job last year in 2024, I managed to scrape by on what money I had and comms I could get while I looked for a job and attempted to afford my therapist. I hit a lucky streak by being accepted into a pre-apprenticeship program to get women into the trades and landing a part-time job (grocery union). My hours for the program weren’t bad and my manager understood.

However, as the program went on, because I was late to work (even with understanding and passes from my manager) my hours were docked severely by upper management since it was unionized. I was only clocking 10-15 hours a week vs the initial 25-30 that was agreed upon.

When things started feeling out of my control (light SH mention)

I still kept the grocery union job and scraped by with monetary handouts from my program due to the financial hardship. Eventually this job didn’t work out. My manager started scolding me for not being able to do something in 4 hours when it was work for an 8 hour shift. I was only getting 5-10 hours a week now. Living wasn’t feasible, it cost more to go to the job than it was to keep it. I left, but found another job in the meantime within the month. Sadly, another poor work environment, where I was a keyholder within 2 weeks of being hired–to help management go on vacations since I was the only one with a car to go to different facilities. I had no idea how to navigate the job in-depth.

At this point, my pre-apprenticeship program was finished and I had graduated! I was simply waiting to hear back from the painters union on an open job. The pseudo-keyholding job kept me afloat a bit until the winter months hit–this was also where my mental health tanked the most since I couldn’t afford my therapist since the end of the summer. I also received news that one of my favorite cousins, who kept me safe and happy back at home in my abusive environment, passed away naturally, so young. It was devastating and unfortunately due to needing time to grieve (either by leaving a bit early, coming in late, or needing a day off), my management wasn’t impressed with my ability to handle things and I was let go for attendance.

During so much of this was when I started scrounging up for emergency chibi commissions, random skeb feeler comms, emote comms in private, randomly asking for $20 for a sketch, etc cause– I really needed help. I had no idea how to gauge my prices with how I value my work vs lowering them due to the amount of help I needed (and the rise of AI and the saturation of it). At the time, an ex-friend I lived with was kind enough to lend me money when I was short on rent (which would be paid back ASAP within the month), we shared groceries for a time if I cooked, or the cats needed essentials (we had 2, eventually 3).

What felt like an entire year of failure and me being a disappointment to others, exacerbated by a lack of grace with my diagnosis, fell into me going into an extremely dark place. I was in such a dark place that I cried for my elder brother because I was scared of SHing passively, so he jumped up to get me to visit. This was when I was abruptly traveling across the states out of nowhere sometime in January of this year.

Visiting my brother and sil helped a lot… The plan was if I felt fine to do so, I was going to move in with them across the states to properly get up on my feet. They agreed to help me financially, and with a newfound vigor (and depression medication) I was able to finally feel like I could manage and function normally. I didn’t want to move in with them, not just yet, since I was only #2 on the out-of-work list with the union and could get a call at any moment. I wanted to give it a fair chance.

Shortly after I got back home, I did land a job with the union! I was going to be able to pay off some debt (I did!) and work my way into saving again. However, 3 months in, my car was totaled. I left the job since it wasn't painting and was more light carpentry work. Since it was the summer, I was able to land another painting job 2 weeks later, so I could properly learn the trade. I was super-duper excited!

However, my health tanked. I ended up calling out for 2 days within the first week of me being there, due to vertigo and seeing spots from heavy lifting paint buckets and couldn’t make the 1.5ish hour drive in the morning to the worksite, no matter how much I doctored it. For context, during my pre-apprenticeship, it was discovered that I have a pinched nerve, and physical labor makes my entire left side go numb. I can do it, I frankly bust my ass to get the job done, but I need to always be with 2 other people, and I have to take an extra break or two than what’s allotted.

The crew wasn’t happy by my act in being safe for myself and those I would be working with. I experienced a very rough verbal berating the next day, even by the other woman on the crew. During one of the days I called out, the project manager was debating on ‘dumping me’ as a worker and reiterated the next day that there are plenty of other apprentices they could get.

As someone trying to change their career into this field, this was devastating to hear. I had plans that would cross the next 5 years into my ideal job that I wanted to do long-term. I still would like to do it, but I have to pivot once again to get there because of my health.

As Things are Now

This was when I took on emote commission work. I was able to make a few adoptables with my friends' concepts in mind, as their way of helping me. I needed to make money for rent, which was around the ~$1.6k mark (temporarily until the 3rd roommate moved in) and have enough for my car note. I was able to do it, but I am still struggling.

During this last year, there was some deep interpersonal miscommunication happening behind it all with the aforementioned ex-friend, the previous roommate. I had a feeling, but with my immediate stressors, I had no idea how to express or address it on my own. I focused on getting a job, working on comms, and going out of the house if I was invited privately, so I wasn’t feeling crazy from being home all the time. Eventually, after getting meds again, I was able to express that something was off, I didn’t want to feel so irresponsible anymore, nor did I want to endure feeling like a burden in the household by continuing to have to borrow for rent short-term. While I opened a discussion about how I felt, it was deflected back onto me, and there was essentially an agreement that I would be leaving.

The last two weeks have been me packing and moving.

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As things are now (cont.)

The plan initially was putting my things into a small storage unit and me living in my car with my cat, but during a moment of weakness, I slipped up and mentioned what was happening to an irl, and was provided a space for me and my cat to live rent-free temporarily. This helps me SO much, as whatever job I can manage to land will help me pay off debt and I can get to a point where I can be living on my own.

I’m trying.

Sadly during this time, with such an abrupt move, I’ve… missed so much… I’ve lost so much time to rest. ;; Everyone who’s been in contact with me about updates on their commissions knows a bit more in depth of what’s happening, but I can only ask for more patience so I can manage to figure… something out… while I can chip away at comms day-by-day.

Why now?

I’m to a point where I’ve exhausted all resources and this GoFundMe is my way of asking for help in an attempt to try and not carry this alone anymore. I try to be private about what’s going on because so much happens to me all the time and I know how annoying it can be for other people to witness. It’s just unfortunate that as soon as I felt like I could pick myself up, the rug was pulled out from under me. Multiple times. I feel like there’s nothing more that I can do and taking on more work would be irresponsible as well. I never thought I would get here–I need help, please.

I just hope that whoever sees this is willing to spare at least a few minutes to read or share what’s been going on with me. It would mean the world to me if I was thought of, even a little bit.

P.S. I’m really sorry to my friends and irls who come across this. I have a hard time asking for help due to the very reason why I’m being displaced. I don’t want to be a burden, and I especially don’t want to be treated differently while I’m working on it. Getting help is foreign; I have a hard time trusting that it won’t be conditional and held against me. If you know involved parties, please don't be odd about it.

If you (or anyone) reach out, please let me take a bit to answer, as being this open and vulnerable feels very shameful and scary.

Thank you.

-Lisa (Tete)