Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?

Well what worked for me might not work for them - no one will get out of a rut without positivity though. Maybe getting high and playing video games is the solution and the guy goes full time streamer and loves his work all of a sudden! Who knows :)

    New York. [...] easier for me to find work as 
    a technical writer than as a software engineer
    [...] I started the job this past fall.

The job market was absolutely booming last fall, though?

I believe you, but it seems to me there is perhaps more to the story if you were unable to find a software dev job last fall.

    All I really look forward to these days is getting high

I think pot can be great, but maybe it's not working for you?

    Also, I have ADHD. This is probably relevant, 
    but I haven't quite figured out how.

Fellow diagnosed ADHD guy here. It's always relevant. It permeates everything. It definitely makes every job more stressful, unless it's some kind of magical job that somehow indulges your ADHD.

    but I haven't touched [my game] in months. I'm not 
    even sure I want to continue it [...] this is coming 
    from someone who got into computer science _because_ 
    of video games.

    *if you've ever been in this kind of rut, what was 
    the nature of that rut and what did you do about it?*

Maybe you've moved on from video games. I think that's happening to me. It's hard to tell if it's anhedonia and/or moving on from games.

It's scary to think perhaps I've moved on from games because (like you) they are/were very integral to why I do this.

What about this: what if you give yourself permission to step away from your game project for N weeks/months?

    what did you do about it?

It's such a cliched and often glib answer, but exercise and/or spending time in nature are pretty much the only things guaranteed to make you feel X% better. The trick with the exercise bit is finding some form of exercise you enjoy.

Therapy can help. Not a magic solution either but I think it's a net positive. But it's hard to find a therapist you click with.

What about going back to software development?

One thing that's basically true is you can't diagnose yourself. Like most of the posters, I recommend therapy. And therapy isn't instant. I'll attest that it sometimes takes a while to figure out what the underlying issues might be. Until you do the work to uncover that, all the stuff about aphorisms and 'find your passion' won't really work.

I was never able to figure it out by myself. Maybe because it's painful to think about and your brain is short circuiting that line of thought. If you're drinking, especially binge drinking, stop or at least cut way back. Lay off the weed. Get off social media and stop comparing yourself to others. It works by manipulating your emotions. Plus, all these things can be crutches that keep you from getting to what's really wrong.

This is good advice, but depression can make these things hard to accomplish.

I’ve experienced this before — falling into a rut, becoming depressed and having extraordinary difficulty getting back up. It’s like a motivation off-switch.

Talk therapy is good. Try to find a therapist that you can trust.

Don’t be afraid of anti-depressants, especially for something likely to be shorter term like this. They don’t change your personality (although you might put on 3 to 5 lbs).

Are you being treated for ADHD? Some people with ADHD find that their depression goes away when they take psychostimulants or practice CBT to manage their symptoms.

Cannot stress enough how much exercise helps. A healthy body goes a long way in maintaining a healthy mind.