My mental health is fine except for several occasional glitches which some of you may know. From 1990-95 I had a very active life. I was living in a board & care but I was employed the entire time I was there and attended college, I had a friend and was going to 5 or 6 AA, CA or NA meetings a week and on the weekends I hung out with my family and went to comedy clubs and barbecues and birthday parties and went camping or jet-skiing. I was also going to AA functions like dances and barbecues. I was very active, they were my most. productive years, I did a lot of different stuff.
Then in 1995 my sisters roommate moved out of my sisters duplex so my sister had a spare bedroom and said I could rent it from her. That was the start of my isolating. I was still working and doing a lot but instead of hanging out nights in the living room with my sister and nephew I chose to stay in my room and watch TV. I was still doing stuff with the same friend and doing stuff with my family but nevertheless I stayed in my room a lot.
I lived there three years and then moved into another house where this 55 year old guy rented out three rooms. He was pretty cool and I could have hung out in the living room every night and watched TV with him but I chose to stay in my room but we stayed on good terms. I lived there 4 1/2 years working most of the time though I took a year off and attended a day program. So I was isolating but I was going to the day program with 9 other people and still occasionally went to AA meetings and did stuff with my family.
So that’s why I would say it was a slow decline. It’s not like now where I spend 80% of my time alone. I still work and get out but now I isolate a lot but I feel it’s by choice, I just don’t want friends, they just end up putting me down and making my life miserable. I wouldn’t say I’m happy or even content but my existence is OK, my symptoms are way down and I enjoy being alone. I did enough stuff in my youth to make some good memories and I had friends and traveled and did vastly varied different things for fun.
Now I’m 65 and I’m just OK with my life winding down, uneventful and with little change. I may live another ten years and if I spend all of it alone so beit. I had my glory days and I’ll keep working as long as I can and then retire. That is my story and I’m sticking to it. There were other parts to my life. I lived in a house for 6 years with 7 other roommates and after that I lived with this traditional Vietnamese family and after that I moved into a nice studio and lived by myself for 6 years and did other stuff that I won’t go into detail about here.