Reduce exercise; that alone could deplete your "stress-alleviating well". Obviously, you (unconsciously) see your work as pointless and it probably is; many job

Reduce exercise; that alone could deplete your "stress-alleviating well". Obviously, you (unconsciously) see your work as pointless and it probably is; many jobs these days are just useless busywork, even at top companies, even with dubious moral background. Market might also force you to unlearn better ways to program, e.g. if you are forced to switch to JavaScript from a better language, so motivation can get a hit from that as well. You might also notice that most of jobs you can apply to or are contacted by recruiters for are jobs nobody wants to do and for meaningful jobs it's all about networking, reducing motivation to bother to minimum. The only way I see is to study new things on your own and do your own stuff if you find something you like; to survive try to get some part-time/remote work until you can reap fruits of your labor later. By all means avoid people that are putting you down; they do it so that they could dominate you and feel better about themselves. Start practicing some forgotten virtues, that would make you unique and stand out.