Your's is an interesting story. I'm glad for you that you were able to recognize what was happening and change. I agree that there is hope for everyone. Freedom

Your's is an interesting story. I'm glad for you that you were able to recognize what was happening and change. I agree that there is hope for everyone. Freedom to create your future is a heavy task, but as a song goes: "the weight is a gift". I had a similarly difficult transition to "adulthood" - mine happened after a vanilla engineering college experience though. After I found out post-college life isn't anything at all what I expected, I went through a period of self-loathing, depression, reckless behavior and substance abuse. Somewhere in the fog, I found a wonderful book about self-compassion and was able to muddle towards a better sense of wholeness. Then, I re-discovered a love for programming and threw myself into that with a renewed sense of direction. A common theme that I've observed in people's stories who were able to "help themselves" was the realization that they are solely responsible for their success in life. Circumstances and other people will aid or obstruct, but ultimately the only thing you can control is your response to external events.