Cleaning up the mess

[sirod9]

Now that I am a year clean, I am faced with the huge financial mess I made while using. When I began adderall in 2015, I had a car loan, student loans, and 1 credit card with a manageable balance. I hoped to begin tackling my debt more aggressively as to become debt free. WELL, in walks adderall. As my use increased, so did my need to fill the void. I shopped, a lot. I lived way out of my means. I wracked up tens of thousands of dollars in consumer debt. I stopped paying on these accounts a few years ago, when I quit adderall the first time. When I went back on adderall, I was so overwhelmed with the whole situation and Covid, that I continued to ignore the obvious. well, I'm finally getting my debt in order, and I feel confident that I can do this. I know it will be a challenge financially, but I am confident that I can overcome this. As long as I stay sober.  it will be a relief to get this huge stress off of my chest. 

I'm sure others on this site have created similar messes. Any support or encouragement is welcomed  

[m34]

Congrats on one yr! I also had financial messes I was avoiding. It took a while to bounce back from it, but now I’m debt free and my credit score is high again.

 

 Also, now that I’m off adderall I don’t ever over spend. I use to love shopping for clothes on adderall:/  

Not just that, I would even buy unnecessary things at grocery stores. I would overspend on spontaneous purchases. Crazy how I never really blamed the adderall for that behavior back then. 

[sirod9]

I was a shopper on adderall too. And I normally dislike shopping. Now, I'm careful. Obviously, because I don't have access to credit cards. When taking adderall, I would randomly go shopping and buy like $300-$400 worth of stuff, for nothing. That stuff is sittling in a box somewhere. I would convince myself that I could pay this stuff off, but it became insanely unmanageable. After looking at all of my credit card debts, and the timeframe of when I used credit cards, I did this all within a 2 1/2 year timeframe. INSANE! 

It is good to hear I am not alone, and that folks bounce back. it just sucks, because I'm not getting any younger. I feel like my life is a series of almost complete self ruin, followed by a period of clean up. Looking to conduct myself differently from here on out.

[DelaneyJuliette]

I went bankrupt 10 years ago which was not helped by adderall fueled shopping sprees!!

[GettingOffOfIt]

You can do it.  I have been there also. Just as you have disciplined yourself to quit adderall you can get out of debt.  I was pretty deep.  Almost 35k in credit card debt as well as other debts.  I started in late 2018 and quickly paid it all off by 2021.  The trick is to change the behavior and then divide and conquer.

I paid the minimum on my higher balances and paid as much as I could on the lowest one until it was paid off.  Dave Ramsey calls it the debt snowball.  He says to save up $1000 as an emergency fund before you start so you won’t have to use the cards again while paying off.  I saved up 5k just in case.  
 

Ive got 4 vehicles now with no car payments no credit card debt and I’ve been paying around 500-1000 extra principle on my mortgage each month to pay off my home early.  I’ve saved up plenty of cash to help if something bad happened.  I did this with the same income I had when I got into debt.  

If you can battle the behavior and discipline yourself with patience you can do it.  And once you pay that first card off you will be off to the races with confidence.  Good luck.  It was the best thing I’ve ever done.  

 

[sirod9]

9 hours ago, GettingOffOfIt said:

You can do it.  I have been there also. Just as you have disciplined yourself to quit adderall you can get out of debt.  I was pretty deep.  Almost 35k in credit card debt as well as other debts.  I started in late 2018 and quickly paid it all off by 2021.  The trick is to change the behavior and then divide and conquer.

I paid the minimum on my higher balances and paid as much as I could on the lowest one until it was paid off.  Dave Ramsey calls it the debt snowball.  He says to save up $1000 as an emergency fund before you start so you won’t have to use the cards again while paying off.  I saved up 5k just in case.  
 

Ive got 4 vehicles now with no car payments no credit card debt and I’ve been paying around 500-1000 extra principle on my mortgage each month to pay off my home early.  I’ve saved up plenty of cash to help if something bad happened.  I did this with the same income I had when I got into debt.  

If you can battle the behavior and discipline yourself with patience you can do it.  And once you pay that first card off you will be off to the races with confidence.  Good luck.  It was the best thing I’ve ever done.  

 

Thank you! this gives me confidence. 

[sirod9]

It just shows how much adderall affected my personality. I don't like to shop. I didn't like it before adderall, and I don't like it now. But while I was on adderall, I would shop just because I thought I had to be getting stuff for this and that. And I would become so obsessed with completing a planned upon task, that I would shop until I found said object. Jeez! Now, if I want or need an object, I will just let it come to me, or let it go.