Resilience

This week's posts are sourced and moderated by the Antipoverty Centre (@antipovertycent). As Australia’s new federal government swings into action following the election on 21 May, we're highlighting people’s lived experiences of social policy to drive reform. Today's article by Melissa Fisher addresses two important questions. Does poverty really make you a better person or build resilience? Or is this something we tell ourselves so we can ignore the damage that's being done? Melissa is an Adelaide based artist relying on income support through JobSeeker due to disability.

Discussing poverty online recently, I raised the topic of how youth allowance is so low and was met with “kids are tough, it makes them resilient”.

Growing up and living in poverty and still being in poverty today, I thought about this long and hard. Am I more resilient than someone who hasn't been in poverty? No.

Some people call it character building, like that makes it okay because somehow you're going to be a better person in the long run - right? Also no. Maybe I was going to be empathetic anyway, without the horrors that poverty bestowed on me.

So do I believe poverty has affected me? Yes, and it's nothing good. It's damaged me. It's caused long term changes to my thinking and it's touched every aspect of my life. I can't simply walk into a store and buy a pair of shoes without internally panicking over the cost. Even if I have the money to cover it, I’ll still stand there and wonder if I should be spending the money on something else. This frustrates friends and family because it makes me indecisive, and it’s time consuming. Spending 45 minutes to decide to buy $15 shoes isn't a normal behaviour.

I'm always overthinking - my mind never stops - and even if I'm surviving this fortnight my mind is already on how I will survive next fortnight. I keep a constant tally in my head about money coming in and money going out. I have to plan everything to the last dollar. If an unexpected bill comes in it's an instant panic and I do one of two things. I call them and make arrangements to pay, or I completely shut down. I never know which one’s actually going to happen - I have no say in it.

My health has been impacted the most. I eat bad foods because I can buy a pack of pasta for 87 cents, throw in a jar of pasta sauce, and there's dinner sorted for two or three nights. It's empty carbs and has little nutritional value, but it feels me up cheaply. A loaf of bread can be stretched for toast for breakfast. Rice can be added to other meals to stretch them further. After a while this takes a toll. Eventually you lose vitamins and nutrients that leave you feeling fatigued and tired and opens you up for more bad choices because you can't be bothered to cook. You rely on sandwiches and processed foods that you only have to heat up.

I've avoided going to my doctor countless times because I don't have the money to get there or for prescriptions I know he will prescribe. So I ignore things that I should most likely get checked out.

Studies show that constant stress takes a toll physically I have high inflammation markers. My doctor says he expects to see it in people like me who are in poverty. He's seen it happen over and over again.

Mental health is another big issue affected by poverty. It's constant and it's dark. You don’t want to leave the house because you don't want to spend money. You become isolated. I hear a lot of people say - mainly professionals - that there's good things to having a job, like socializing and giving someone a purpose. I've thought about this and in my opinion we can do this by simply lifting people out of poverty. For instance, when the COVID supplement happened, I joined a gym, I started socializing, and I started looking at things to study because I had the money to do so. I no longer have that so most of my days are spent at home isolated from my community.

We need to get rid of the belief that some things about poverty are good and helpful, like character building and resilience. There's nothing good about poverty. It touches and damages everything. We're not out here becoming better people because we are going hungry and missing medications - we’re out here suffering and asking our government to do better. This cruelty is a policy choice.

Content moderator: Antipoverty Centre