And sometimes it lurches you just far enough forward to fall face-first into mud, struggling to get your feet back under you.

[I also had parents who believed I was making excuses about my mental health. They gave me the choice of attending (a highly-competitive & brutally expensive) uni right away, or never. The impact of that crash-and-burn lasted literal decades. Right before the pandemic I was finally prescribed meds that work for me. Since then, I've literally had family members remark on the difference and apologize for not recognizing how debilitating my issues were.]

OP, are you still stuck?

Wow.

I mean, I'm an indoors person for life, all the way -- the history of civilization is the expansion and improvement of indoor environments -- but if I were going to cheat on my indoors, this might be the outdoors that prompted me.

Also I've been awake for 21 hours, I think?

I'm not sure I follow -- you're saying being fiscal conservative "allows for more social programs"? I ask because most uses I've read of "fiscally conservative" are specifically about not spending on social programs in order to keep taxes low.