Ask HN: I need help. I'm struggling. Advice welcome.

While this will be a really, really cool story to tell a couple of years from now ('remember the time when I almost died in remote Australia while our car was on a breaking-down streak'), it's probably not what you want to hear right now.

There's a massive upside to your story: you lived to tell. It's surprisingly easy to get into life-threatening trouble in remote Australia, and the combination broken-down car and a lingering medical condition is a recipe for disaster. Of course, the money sucks, but as a CompSci major it's not a hole you can't get out of.

Grab a beer, celebrate the fact you're still around, and try not to worry about the rest too much. Good luck!

If you're health is going to recover then sorry to say it but these are minor problems and will pass. They are the biggest problems of your life so far - I acknowledge that. and I do not dismiss it. Wife leaving you, friends on drugs, suicide, cancer, bankruptcy, betrayal, death, disillusionment are some of the sorts of shit life will deal you as a function of age.

Ask long as you recover from your illness, get it in perspective and start fighting the fights life will be giving you from here. Man up. Good luck.

The thing is, life is going to happen to you. Sometimes its good, even very good—other times, not so much. I've been through a lot of bad times, which I'm not going to try to compare, but what I'll point out is that I'm still here. You will be too, and if you just keep doing the stuff you're supposed to do, things will get better. Even today, when I've got a relatively stable, enjoyable life, I find myself getting antsy whenever I don't have miles of clear road and good weather obviously in front of me. But if I do what I'm supposed to, things have a way of coming together. I literally walked out of a meeting a couple of months ago with a client who couldn't pay their full bill, wondering how I was going to pay my rent and child support in a month, when I got a random call resulting in a large contract—generated from working my network and a long-standing habit of trying to help other people when I could.

The bills will pass, your bank account and health will recover, and good things will happen in good time. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other as best you can.

Hey... hang in there. Randomness happens. You've pulled through this, some other month will be especially good.

You got the opposite of the vacation you needed, so make sure to get your relaxation in some other way. Australia has great nature not far away from where you are, wherever you are.

Good luck.

Had some very rough times myself, including the death of a relative, work harassment during 2 years and a very hard divorce... all at the same time. We humans are made to keep on living, your own human nature will give you strength to keep going. Compare yourself with older folks, who survived wars, famine, nazi holocaust... do you think you can do better? I'm sure you can.

Get some family help temporarily, do a bit of freelancing or stock supermarket shelves at night until you get going again.

If you call up the debt collection agency and explain your financial hardship, it's possible (or even likely) that they will give you a generous extension to the deadline for you to pay the fine.

I think that a lot of your problems wont seem like such undertakings once you are recovered from being ill. For me when I dont feel right things seem far worse than they are.

OP here.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and kind words. Just the fact that I got to vent my issues and have some people listen and care has been great.

you'll fucking survive man. this is a rough stretch, but you'll undoubtably have worse. hunker down and sweat it out.