WRT to the labour laws; I'm in the UK and I thought the insurance thing applied to the US and Australia, but now I can't remember why I thought that so I probably made it up. Please ignore that.

More importantly - on rereading my comment, it sounds overly harsh and that was totally not my intention! The reason I asked is that wanting someone to be there so I can put responsibility on them for things in my life is something I do, so your post struck a lot of chords but I wasn't sure if I was reading it right. You could have been writing a good chunk of my life there, except that when I'm that low I lose all ability to communicate. The fact that you can communicate that horrible low so well is pretty amazing to me, and is also why I wanted to clarify because I often can't put it into words. I chose a particularly bad way of phrasing it, and I'm really sorry.

I'm not going to tell you that all you need to do is apply yourself or make a commitment, because that's a pile of steaming bullshit with no connection to real life. If you're at a point where you want the help and are able to go get it, that's a big step forward anyway, and way more than I can do half the time.

I am really, really sorry for any hurt or upset I might have caused. It was very much not my intention, particularly when you're at such a low point.