Long story short I was married 14 years ago and raised two daughters as a single mother after Ex left me for another woman. My eldest daughter is 20 and my youngest is 16. Then six years ago I met a man who I married in 2022 we then had our son in 2023 last year August. Unfortunately my Husband started to go south with his mental health which resulted in him being physically violent to myself. He has since left the family home and lives in Brighton, he lost his job and has no income. I have now been left to carry the burden of bills, and parenting alone...Again! I managed to pick myself up the first time round, I went back to education and worked full time while raising my children. This time round seems more difficult.
I was prescribed anti depressants for the first time in my life and started taking them last week. I resigned from work due to poor performances, my manager who was very supportive told me to keep the 10 years good record by leaving before my poor performance gets flag.
I'm now in such a dark place I don't know where to start on building my life up again.
I'm not a high earner and my job was in the £28,000 a year bracket. I have GCSE's of C's and D's a level 3 diploma in Beauty Therapy. I want to be financially independent so I don't ever have to rely on ex husband and I don't want to go to my parents with a begging bowel, I'm 40 years old it's embarrassing. My family only know that we have marriage problems no one knows to the extent of what's been going on.
Should I go back into education to better my chances of getting a well paid job. I'm not unrealistic I know I'll never be on the higher end but a £35k to £38k will most definitely be better than what I was earning. There was two incomes of a £60k income when we were together so it's a huge chunk of money that I've lost so suddenly. I'm panicking and ex husband is too emotionally unstable to have a conversation about money. So I'm on my own with this.
Has anyone been 40 plus and gone back into education? Reinvented themselves, or has anyone got a positive experience/story to tell me after being in a bad situation and having a positive ending. I feel as though life has no value anymore, I can't seem to shake off this negative view of myself for allowing this to happen to me at the age of 40. How can I possibly get back on my feet at this age.