People who didn’t go to college, what did you do after 18

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I’m 18 and f****d up so bad with drugs and s**t, I now have bipolar and am on disability with no friends and I feel hopeless, people who didn’t go to college what did you do?

Look my life was spiralling down for many many years. I was written off at a very young age and told by almost everyone that there was nothing down for me, that I would be dead before I reached 20, I mean the list goes on.

No matter what anyone tells you, college is not the be all and end all. In fact I did the vast majority of my education in my late 30s and 40s.

What you do is, you get up in the morning, get a bit of a routine going and set yourself simple tasks. Look around for local groups to join. I dunno, there's always something to fill your time.

You do have a lot to contend with, with your mental health and wotnot but you're not dead my friend. Be brave.

I felt there is nothing in life for me at 17 so I went on a 5 long month meth binge planning to kill myself at the end, but I chickened out and am now living in a world of regret and suicidality

Yeah, you need something to make you feel alive again.

Extreme sports is good for that.

I tried a few jobs. I was not suited to direct sales, but stuck with that for about a year in order to see how other families lived. I hitchiked out to the coast, and then half-way back, and started a craft store with a few partners. I really enjoyed art metalwork, but barely made a living. Then I volunteered with a group giving free meditation lessons for a few years, until they stopped growing. Taking stock of my talents and interests, I then focussed on engineering for a more benign technology. I won prizes, but couldn't get a business going well. Then I studied the people I'd met who had not seemed to make sense until I found ancient subconscious patterns that are not in the textbooks yet. Along the way, I did a lot of "extra-odd jobs" - ones that the specialists didn't want. Some were disasters, but many were quite edifying. Doing my own work saved me vast amounts of money, as did using a bicycle. I did some property management, appliance repair, display work, and helicopter accessories.

I went into the Army at 17 and learned electronics. This option has not been available for most with health issues. However, they are having recruitment difficulties now and may offer waivers.

A friend of mine tried that with the USAF. In class, he asked for a detail on a navigation system. The teacher replied "I don't know how it do's it, Honey, it just do's it!" Bored thereafter, he fooled the radar into scrambling a fighter squadron.

I was unemployed for the first 5 years of adulthood, then finally got a job at 22 but it wasn't what I wanted, but I wanted a job and earn my own money so I just took the first job that I was offered.

I put up with it for the next 5 years then I got the job I'm in now, which I love.

I probably don't count for this since I didn't go to high school, either; I went to a vocational school to study business and accounting. Graduated at 18, and then I was hopping between unemployment and unpaid trainee jobs for a couple of years before getting a desk job at the police station in the city. I don't work there anymore, but it was a good enough first job.