I finally found a job so I am going to move out of my parents' house soon, in order to live in the large city where the job is located with my gf. I should be happy about finally becoming independent and being able to see her every day, however I only feel dread about the transition, the lack of free time for my interests (probably intensified due to my shit executive functioning) and the fact that I will miss my family. How did you handle such a transition?
Thanks, that's very kind of you to say. I'm not qualified as a therapist nor in any sort of related profession like psychology.
I have worked in paraprofessional roles that are either explicitly peer work or that I have kinda implicitly made into peer work roles because I'm going to bring myself to those roles and there's not a damn thing that anyone can do about it lol. (I have worked in the youth/mental health/disability/community sectors in different capacities.)
I think a lot of it is just having been through a lot of shit and having sought out ways to turn horrible personal experiences into something that makes a positive impact on the world in some small way; I've had more than my fair share of bad times, and for a lot of them I don't really see me ever truly making sense of them or being at peace with them, but if I can draw upon that shit to make something good out of it then it helps to give purpose to what I've been through - and maybe that's the best outcome I can reasonably expect.
The other aspect is I'm some sort of weird nerdy autodidact creature that just pours themselves into subjects and absorbs information like a sponge, and I'd say that it's mostly out of sheer luck that I ended up with the right combination of things that makes this work for me. I can usually hold my own when it comes to matters of psychology or social work or whatever, although I'm no expert.
I think in the next year or two I'm either going to get back in the saddle with this stuff or otherwise I'm going to throw myself into party work/work that's parallel to a party but I'm not quite at that point yet.
Sounds like you have done a lot of good. I hope you end up doing something to your liking