Here are the several contributing factors in my case:
- feeling of incompetence at work - sole provider for the family. - lost the will to code (I try learning new things but give up after a few days). - I’m 43 and have not accomplished anything, not even financial security for my family. - too scared to change the job I hate (gambling industry, corporate JIRA sweatshop, for 13 years) because I’m incompetent. - social anxiety. - racing mind, incoherent thoughts.
Edit: so incompetent I don’t know how to create a bullet list here
I've had times where I've gotten frustrated because with a literal deadline I'm still just too tired to get things done and I beat myself up over things I can't control so it's easy for me to negate the small progress I make because I'm comparing myself to a healthy version of myself.
I'm glad to see that you are in therapy. It's going to feel like some days you get nowhere. Remember that any goal you're trying to attain that's difficult is like climbing a mountain. The higher up you go the harder it is to see all the individual steps it took to get there. With life once you get to the top of one mountain, there's always another mountain to climb. It's a journey not an objective.
There's a Buddhist saying that's helped me when I get frustrated at myself for getting set back."Begin Again". Get stuck on something, begin again. Life intrude on your learning for a bit? Begin again. Lose everything in a terrible storm ? Begin again.
For reviving the love of coding, I suggest doing something you either enjoy with coding or something you see as having purpose. Make it small as a project, then break it up into smaller parts. Start with the hard part. When you get frustrated work on something easy or give yourself some time to just think on the problem. Is there a different way to view it, are you trying to be too complicated, what would it look like if you could be absolutely sure it would work, are there smaller tasks this could be broken into that would be easier to solve apart?
You're worth putting in this effort. You can do it. Love and light.
1. Basic self care: get enough sleep (~8 hours a night), eat plenty of healthy food and cut out as much junk food as possible, and make time for doing something you enjoy each day, even if it's only for 20-30 minutes.
2. Therapy: Either straightforward counseling or something more involved like EMDR or neurofeedback brain training. I can recommend the latter. It has truly changed my life.
3. Spend time with people you love and who love you. Self care and healing would have never been remotely possible or effective for me if I didn't have solid friendships with a few people who truly cared for my best interest and a good relationship with my kids and spouse.
*EDIT: I forgot to add, look into taking medication. I take a small dose of Lexapro daily and it has made a huge difference.
In order to heal and improve your situation, you MUST make time for these things. Don't try to add them on to whatever your day to day already looks like. Cut out other stuff as much as possible and increase the amount of time you spend on 1-3. Be forgiving and kind to yourself with this part, but do be as ruthless as possible with making time for 1-3.
In my experience, taking care of self and being involved in healthy friendships and family relationships creates a situation where the confidence and will to make changes to things like your job becomes possible.
Your financial security is just a product of the times. It used to be you could have a house, a lawn, a car and leftover savings just from working in a factory. Now, you are saddled with an unpayable house-loan even with higher education unless you somehow manage to find a remote job, or you win the startup lottery.
Last, anxiety can form bad feedback loops, where the lack of sleep means you are simply not able to do anything during the day. It can also cause other surprising problems, even wrist pains and RSI, simply because the anxiety causes your body to tense up.
I think you, first of all, need to find a way to let go of the feeling that your job performance has any bearing on your worth as a human being. It really doesn't.
I have a checklist I use to try and keep my mental health strong. The idea isn’t that you get a perfect score on this checklist, but that you ask yourself “what’s the easiest way to improve my score in this checklist at the moment?”
- Did you get a good night's sleep last night?
- Do you see your friends often enough?
- Do you have any enjoyable hobbies?
- Do you exercise or get moving every day?
- Do you have close, enjoyable relationships?
- Do you avoid abusing substances like alcohol or other drugs?
- Do you relax and take slow out breaths? (Or meditate)
- Do you do things for other people?
- Do you have any awesome pets?
Write up about it is here: http://wiki.secretgeek.net/protective-factors-for-mental-hea...
Good luck. Sorry I’m not a professional.
A few years ago I suffered from anxiety/depression for about a year during what I thought was the most important time of my career. I was overseas at the time, obsessively working at least 10 hours a day without breaks and usually every day of the week, drinking a bottle of wine or a couple of litres of beer a night sleeping on average 5 hours a night. I absolutely hated myself, I stopped playing and listening to any music, and actively avoiding staying in touch with family and friends.
Then one night, when I was very drunk and literally crying on the streets, I somehow decided to call my sister (whom I have already avoided talking to for months at that point) and she made me stop drinking, sleep, and seek professional help. I've always had a lot of respect for her, and I think hearing it from someone I deeply care about made and the fact that she picked up the phone when I needed someone the most made all the difference.
Anyhow! The point of the anecdote is I can't stress enough how important the things @farleykr and @robsinatra said are. Once you start feeling better you will be in a much better position to act on the advice that everyone else has kindly given about career.
As for feeling incompetent, I think a bit of that is a good quality to have because knowing and admitting what you don't know something is a very powerful skill; just don't sit on it forever (as others have said) because nothing will become better if you wallow in it.
And one last thing about dealing with incoherent thoughts: write them down. I think it's too easy to sit there to theory-craft/fantasise/make excuses in your head all-day long; so try writing them down while taking care to organise them, and be honest to yourself, as best as you can.
The very first thing you have to understand is that your perception is biased by your mental issues, is your feeling of incompetence backed by any facts? Is your boss continually complaining about your performance? And even if your performances are as bad as you think they are, I wouldn't be surprised since you seem to hate every moment of your life.
From how you described yourself, I don't see a loser, I see a 43 years old man who's going through a lot of sacrifices to provide for his family, I'd call that courage. I don't see a loser, I see someone with a serious case of depression, everything you described ticks all the boxes.
There is no magic pill to get you out of that, and coping mechanisms only goes so far. You need therapy, plain and simple, and, if possible, time off your job.
Start doing things you enjoy, don't code because you have too, maybe you're at a time in your life where code isn't what you want to do anymore, and that's fine, no shame in that, or maybe you just need a little time off. Many men completely turn their lives around in their 40s, it's not too late, but you have to take risks, you have to try new things, physical activity such as weightlifting is usually great because it'll raise your testosterone levels, but you can also start things you never thought you'd want to try: music, dance, writing, astrophotography, bird watching, anything.
Just remember this: your thoughts are not logical, it's not your analytic brain that's telling you you're worthless, it's depression, and pardon my French by depression is a bitch, it's that asshole of a friend, always in your head telling you just how much of a failure you are even when it's untrue.
Don't isolate yourself from people who care, there are more than you think and they need to know what you're going through. Seek medical help, and take it easy, friend.
"It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day —that’s the hard part. But it does get easier."
2) Make your diet clean and light. No soft drinks. No heavy carbs. Plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables etc.
3) Stop worrying about accomplishing anything. The point of life is to be happy and enjoy the journey not be in some race with others.
4) If you give up after a few days then just pick smaller things you can compete faster. And iterate between lots of different things to help reduce the chance of boredom.
5) If after all of that you still feel anxious then see a professional. Not just about medication but also how to program yourself to fall into less anxious patterns.
That's a ton, so I wouldn't start with more than one, preferably the easiest, then increment. They support each otber because constant anxiety for me is just the symptom that everything is going to crap.
Meditation has the strongest reward, but also the highest cost. Psycheselic have the best cost/reward ratio but may hide other problems: once you feel great, you may stop working on it.
Food, friends and sleep are hard, because they affect your life so much and requires motivation.
Supplements require no motivation, little effort to take and have a huge impact... But require a lot of reading, trials and errors et money.
Neverthless, I wish I knew all that 15 years ago. It would have saved me so much trouble, and actually work on the root problem, as anxiety is just one of the many small tip of a huge and deep iceberg.
Give yourself 10 minutes everyday to train your mind. I use the app Waking up.
Release anxiety through some physical exercise several days per week, ideally something you enjoy.
Every day, build some grit by doing something difficult - the fact that you’ve done it, and continue to do it, will become a foundation for overcoming resistance. I like to take a cold shower every morning, which seems silly until you step up to the faucet and have to pony up and actually do it.
Read books, so few people read anymore, those who do are able to absorb the distilled wisdom of many lifetimes.
Lastly, you are not alone, I don’t know how to create a bullet list here either. You are also not alone in your struggles, we are all human and suffer in our ways. Good luck.
If you’re already doing therapy, consider complementing it with meditation. Meditation, if done right, can be equivalent to years of therapy.
The benefits are great, and for your situation the most relevant are reduced/eliminated anxiety, more willpower, energy, clarity (to see through depression for example); but there many others.
However, there’s a catch: meditation is hard. It requires consistent effort and dedication, just like any practice involving a complex skill (e.g., going to the gym or swimming pool).
For a completely secular practice, I’d recommend “The Mind Illuminated” by John Yates [1], a neuroscientist and a master meditator, whose aim with the book was to create a modern manual for meditation by making old Buddhist teachings accessible to an average westerner. The book is a synthesis of those teachings complemented with both his experience as a master meditator /and/ as a neuroscience Ph.D. This means that along with detailed instructions on how to actually meditate the book contains theoretic chapters explaining in popular scientific terms how your brain works and what meditation has to do with it, by first introducing a simple model, and then gradually building upon it as you progress through the book and develop your skill.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrati...
2. You've mentioned feelings of low self-worth. That's a classic sign of depression. The racing mind and jumbled thoughts overlaps with many different illnesses though. You definitely want to bring this up with your doctor (especially the last part) as it might be a sign of something more serious (not to scare you or anything.)
On a personal level: try to celebrate your own successes more rather than being overly interested in what other people are doing. There's always going to be someone doing better and if you're always looking at them you forget the progress you have made. For the 'lost the will to code' issue -- its hard to say what the cause is. Depression causes a loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities, but honestly you might just be burned out and fried from the repetition.
Practically, I can understand why you would feel stressed out over financials. If I were you I'd look into moving somewhere with a very low cost of living and find yourself a high paying remote gig (not sure how practical this is for you -- probably asking a lot if you have a family and/or mortgage, idk.) I wouldn't bother learning any new skills tho. It sounds like you already have years of experience. You just have to sell your existing engineering skills and how they translate to designing and implementing different systems with any tech.
Good luck, hope your situation improves.
Add meditation to your daily life, excercise at least 3 times x week. For both activities you want to start SMALL, as small as you can so you don't end up discarding them inmediately. With meditation I recommend starting with an app like headspace or calm, also going to a meditation center after you have the basics (or inmediately if you can). In my case I meditate for about 7-10 mins each day. With excercise it doesn't really matter what you do, just pick up any physical activity and get your work done each week. It is important that you pick something you enjoy, so you see it as a hobby and relaxing activity instead of a chore: in my case I practice martial arts.
Also read the book "Feeling good" by David Burns, this book touches mostly on depression but some stuff can also work for anxiety.
I’d do everything and anything that could make your life more stable. The biggest, positive place to start is, and this can take a lot of work, sleep. Make proper sleep your first priority every day. There’s a whole lot that can make sleep better or worse, so there’s no way for me to be complete. But maybe consider going for a walk, writing in a journal, and consistent, exactly on the same time every day melatonin slow release - and low dose.
Others here have stressed the importance of sleep... https://digest.bps.org.uk/2019/11/21/a-lack-of-sleep-causes-...
I hope you have at this point enough insight to recognize that logically you are more capable that how you feel about yourself. Therefore, it is a matter of making sense of that feeling of anxiety that you should be addressing.
If you speak to the right physician you'll probably be diagnosed with ADHD, and it is driving a large part of your anxiety.
You should be careful about strengthening your ability to become more anxious. After all, any neural pathways exercised become stronger with time. Give yourself some quiet time each day where you get to ignore any anxious thoughts that arise. They are junk thoughts at this stage, you can safely ignore them.
If you need any more motivation, please recognize your family suffers when you cultivate thoughts like this. Find counter examples and keep reminding yourself of them.
My only suggestion would be to "climb out" of this trap. Since you can't find another job in your town (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21620176), try looking fo remote job openings. Freelancing and starting your own business are options as well, but I won't recommend them for you, at least for now.
Start looking here
All the best
My OCD is mainly health related - every pain or swollen part of my body automatically leads me to fear I may have cancer (or other terminal illness).
The constant fear that I may die soon is highly debilitating - I have times where its hard for me to function at work and be a good parent and spouse.
I'm currently taking SSRI medications, which really improved my well-being, and recently started CBT treatment, but it is still a struggle.
I know it is not a popular advice, but if you find it difficult to be productive, try medications at least for a short while. It can help you "break the cycle" and jump start your life.
And what I got out of therapy was techniques to kind of step back when I feel anxious, and to realize that the problems I have cannot be solved now, when I am lying in bed at 3am. That every step towards a goal is progress, and that I wont die and lose everything because of one day where things don't go how I hoped. Anxiety makes all problems immediate and life destroying. Most problems aren't.
But, that recognition isn't always there for me. What made it mostly there for me was therapy.
It's hard but possible. You can be in a very different state of the mind within 6 months. So do not lose hope. DM me if you need further info. Good luck!
How to spend less? I personally have found this blog to be both very inspiring and practical: http://earlyretirementextreme.com/
>feeling of incompetence at work
Read up on impostor syndrome. Being aware of this helps counter it.
I also think it (mental issues) is more common than people realise. A shocking number of my friends are on psych meds of some sort. Almost like it's a wider society issue. So I think a strong case can be made for "don't beat yourself up about it" - plus that wouldn't help anyway.
Then, some things that were helpful for me, and may be helpful for you, ymmv:
- check your health: maybe you suffer from physical issues, such as high blood pressure, and you can help it with pills, which will help with anxiety.
- drop coffee and sigarettes, reduce alcool, eat more vegetables and fruit; it's weird, but it helps.
- physical activity; I spend 1-2 hours every morning a day walking (or running), it's good for both body and mind.
- daily meditation; get a test account on headspace, try it for a week.
- face anxiety-inducing things ASAP; E.g. if you are stressed cause you wrote shitty code, just tell your boss/colleagues immediately; if you fucked up something with your partner, tell them etc. Once bad things happened, you will stop worrying about what might happen.
- "hedge" your anxiety-inducing problems; if you are worried about your family surviving without you, set up life insurance. If you feel incompetente and unable to find another job, spend some time studying something new, and try applying for another position, even if you don't want to take it, you may be able to find something else, or learn what's missing.
Good luck, anxiety sucks.
- Besides all the great ideas already here, consider religion. It can bring great calm. - If you have some talent in your job, just know that 'imposter syndrome' is real. Study it, you might get by. - If you have no talent in your job, start looking for something different. It's not worth staying in this case.
Wishing you good luck.
Do you know how many great entrepreneurs, professionals and artists got started at your age? A LOT!
Connectedness with a spiritual community is a source of energy.
Striving not to get too "believe after me" here, but how you answer the "Why am I here?" question is crucial.
I think your only option here is to
1. move into non-coding management role, you have to do everything at your work to make this possible.
2. Apply for management jobs everywhere after you have accomplished 1.
3. Get upto speed on system design, study a little bit everyday. Its not hard stuff.
4. Get your spouse to start working even if its a job at walmart.
5. Not sure what is going on with finances but why don't u have a 401k?
reading the book bellow helped me a lot, however you need to be patient and accept the situation.
HN has nothing for that. Use multiple newlines like so:
- bla
- foo
There are no good recipes for getting out of this state of mind (because you can't escape from reality). You may heal the symptoms by exercising, meditating and taking medications.
To cure the cause though would require significantly changing your attitude and reconciling your goals in life.
E.g.:
- work is just work; it's neither a way of expressing yourself, nor should it be used to measure your success in life
- maintain and nurture close relationships with your family and friends; establish relationships based on shared interests and fun, rather than on economical utility
- be political, engage in local and global communities; politics underlies everything and gives people a higher purpose in life, but somehow we all have been deprived of it in XX century; seek leaders and inspirations and try to become one yourself (e.g. in a local community)
i've never taken a pill so far chosen to take a more holistic approach and i consider that i'm not in a worse condition than i would if medicated and this gives me the extra benefit of considering drugs as a last resort of sorts if nothing else works, if i was heavy on drugs that probably would give me some sense of despair since it seemed there was no exit left, so if you need help seek a psychologist rather than a psychiatrist. also seek support groups with similar conditions in your area or online (that step we seem already making) since we humans are social beasts rather than solitary wanderers and we need the comfort of knowing we are not alone and somewhere there are people going trough the same pains as we; that might be a group instinct bias pushing us over to integrate but i feel that much more appeal with someone on the same track knowing what i am talking about rather than talking generic abstraction like "it will all turn all right" good intended as they may be, i prefer being down with someone that understand my pain than being pushed up to party by someone trying to compulsively cheer me up. i think we live in a society that overall is trying real hard for everyone to feel good because that way we are most likely to buy the junk that everyone is trying to sell each other on this post-capitalist distopia, but i am digressing, the point is i think i have the right to misery and to suffer, not passively but on my own terms, to reach nirvana, whatever that means, on my own pace. so here's my advice: don't put a bright face just for the sake of others, don't represent for them or you will turn into a caricature of yourself, if that way you are turning away some around you, maybe you are pushing the right ones and who's left are the ones you can count on
You should abstract yourself from the environment. Somehow force yourself to don't give a fuck because it's not your choice everything is shit. And let it go to ashes.