Work Reform

You're a valuable person outside of a job. Life sucks sometimes. I hope you're able to get better

Do you are using any antipsychotic and/or mood stabilizer? I'm 90% sure you are bipolar from what you are saying, and from my 27 to 29 I was barely functional in my job and not functional at all in any other area of my life without a mood stabilizer. And my life changed hard after it

Second on the other response about mood stabilizers and bipolar disorder.

Not to internet doctor here, but giving certain antidepressants and other medications to someone who is bipolar sends them into severe mania. That happened to me and I had no idea that anything was really wrong with the drugs they gave me. I didn't even know what mania even meant.

The psychiatrist at the university health center only had a 15 minute conversation and see you in a few months. If I wanted real therapy I had to go somewhere else. So thus I was pretty out of my mind for god knows how many months until I decided to stop taking them. Maybe almost a year? It was all a blur.

Takeaway is to advocate for yourself, take a look at the drugs they are giving you, and keep calling these doctors to tell them what is and isn't working. It is an uphill battle and the system is broken here in the US. I don't want to assume gender here, but I really feel for you if you are a woman and have to deal with sexism in the medical system on top of everything else.

Mental health is hard and it sucks when your life spirals so far out of control all at once. Take the safety net. You got this. I like spending time in cafes, so I can be around people for a while. I always find it kind of relaxing to be there, but not have to interact with anyone if I don't want to. Be kind to yourself, internet stranger.

Life doesn't have to be high stakes, there is only artificial scarcity. We have the resources to take care of everyone on the planet and live in harmony with nature.

We can split the atom, put a super computer in every pocket and build a logistics system to air freight me a bowling ball over night from anywhere to my door if I pay enough.

The stars are ours as a species if we choose, but not this way.

Eat the rich.

In the USA, make sure you fill out a SAVE Plan, if you're really working minimum wage then you probably qualify for $0 Repayment and in 10 years it will be cancelled under the contract terms.

https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/save-plan

Having a degree does not mean you can do the job!

I am not at home to check more into this, but have you looked in the Industrial Automation industry? A lot of game devs ended up being a good fit. While I am hesitant to recommend my old employer, the software guys make good money and I still have a few friends over there. My reasons for quitting had nothing to do with the software department. Check out Dematic and some similar companies. Dematic was at least good for getting experience and I learned plenty.

It may not seem super glamorous at a glance, but it is worth a shot.

Had a very similar experience, even with game dev. You should honestly just avoid game dev jobs but yeah, right now it's impossible to pivot out of game dev anyways. I wish I could say it gets better, and it will, but the game Dev job market will never be good. I graduated 4 years ago and still don't have a job in the field. They want you to be working on personal projects while working 40+ hours a week, probably because they will be working you 60 hours a week, lmao. We picked the worse major, I wish I wasn't scammed into serfdom at 19.

Game dev is extremely hard to break into. I've been in and out of the industry for some time now.

If you're dead set on working in the industry I'd strongly advise going the platform integrations route.

1. Gain experince working with API services and creating some C++/C# integration wrappers for UE and Unity (GoDot potentially too).
2. Pick up some contract work doing API development outside the games industry to strengthen your knowledge and experince developing solutions.
3. Find a game team that needs a platform(s) integration engineering role or a central publishing engineering role.
4. Develop a host of solutions professionally for a year or two.
5. Make the jump into the role you actually want.

This also gives you a ton of job flexibility in an industry that values knowledge breadth and has waves of job stability. Automation & tooling engineering, API development, services engineering, etc.

Wtf is going on with those numbers? Why are they putting a comma after the hundred thousands place?

You'd be surprised how many homeless people have hard science degrees or previously ran succesful businesses. Bad luck, ill health, medical bills, a family member who needs to be taken care of, (government) corruption, fraud, theft, builders didn't fix your roof right and you're stuck with the bill and negative equity, etc.

It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.

The idea that hard work will set you free, a slogan that historically featured above many a concentration camp gate, is a comforting lie but a lie none the less.

It even says he was a student. At 24, he didn't give life much of a chance.

I think there's far more to this story than we know, like his mental health status, social life, etc.