Finally I have a job. Why don't I feel better?

I have been very busy since I started my job in June. I moved to a bigger apartment because with the little money from OW, all I could afford was a tiny one bedroom for my son and myself. Even that place exceeded the limit allotted by OW for rent.

I finally have a decent home and a reasonably well paying job. Yet, with rent taking up over half of my earning after tax, I am still having trouble making ends meet. This is not a new phenomenon. Getting off of OW was hard enough, now I fear I won't be able to maintain that which I have worked so hard to acquire. It's not like I go on shopping sprees or hang out at bars drinking. Still, I find myself needing to borrow money and take out payday loans to survive. What I have to do is get another job. It is like the society we live in expect there to be two incomes per household, and that is that. It is no wonder that even the goal I reached by getting employment still hasn't eased my anxieties about the survival of my family - my son and myself.

Actually, according to E. L. Lipman, D. R. Offord and M. H. Boyle, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal single mothers are:

...more likely to be poor, to have an affective disorder and to use mental health services than mothers in 2-parent families. The risk of mental health problems is especially pronounced among poor single mothers. Further studies are needed to determine which aspects of single motherhood, apart from economic status, affect mental health outcomes.

From: Single mothers in Ontario:
sociodemographic, physical
and mental health characteristics

None of this really surprises me.