I am a 41 year old man, with no children and no plans for any (luckily my wife feels the same way), I rent my home, hold down an entry level job that gives me a decent but not impressive income (and allows me to draw to my hearts content, as is seen here on DevArt!).
I have no responsibilities, really. This is a good thing, for me at least.
I can't deal with stress and responsibility. I DON'T deal with stress. My mind panics, shuts down, disappears off into a darkened corner where it turns to jelly beneath a thick comfort blanket, and all it can say is "NoNoNoNoNo" just like that cat on youtube.
14 years ago, I think I had a nervous breakdown. Panic attacks, reluctant to leave the house, all I could do was listen to the radio and curl up in a ball in my bedroom (fortunately I was still living with my parents at this time, and they were extremely understanding). I lost my job, saw a doctor, took the happy pills, but kept my girlfriend, and without my then girlfriend, I may never have met my wife (that's another whole story!). I eventually pulled myself out of this, changed the whole course of my life as well as my outlook.
Depression is a constant battle, feeling that black dog breathing down my neck and trying to keep a step or two ahead of it, and despite a couple of bad patches, I'm still around.
I've just had a really bad week. As my car slowly began to break down (this has been over the past few months, but it finally came to a head this week), it dragged me down with it. Understand that I have no interest in cars. I mean, ZERO interest. The mechanics of a car are alien to me, my mind just won't work in those ways. Talk to me about cars and I hear you like Charlie Brown hears adults.
It's all sorted out now, thanks to my saint of a wife, Jennifer (she's sorted out the financing and basically done everything that leads to a new (to us) car outside), and I can't thank her enough, but that's not what this is about. In my rambling way I wanted to point out that my mind shuts down when it's confronted with a) stress, and b) something I have no interest in.
My mind is out of that darkened corner now, but it's still clutching the blanket to it's chin... just in case.
Thanks if you read that, apologies it kinda led nowhere!