Ask HN: How did you rebuild yourself after having hit rock bottom?

the world is bullshit only physical exertion makes it good

if those are to challenging try walking far like 10 miles in a day, or if in shape 20.

live!!

Rock bottom is a complete dismantling of your life. Failed relationships (romantic, friendly, professional, etc), lost job, bills piling up, apartment a disaster, inability to build a mental model that can cope with your current situation.

It looks more like you're in a relative minimum. From what I understand about psychology a healthy balanced life generally follows a pattern of building yourself up to a relative maximum, getting something completely wrong that challenges the framework you've built to orient yourself in the world, hitting a relative minimum, and learning to build yourself back up to a new relative maximum.

Consider the alternative, where there are no relative minimums. That would imply you either know everything, in which case your trajectory would be completely flat or ascending indefinitely. Well, that certainly can't be the case because not even the most brilliant people in history knew everything.

There is no advice or shortcut we can give that your therapist hasn't given you. These things take time. There is something about life that you've gotten wrong. This is your opportunity to learn what it is, fix it, build a new mental model, and prepare yourself to not make the same mistakes again.

You're in the fortunate position to have a lot of opportunity. More people are in the dysfunctional family history boat than you think. Sounds like you've done well, despite that.

Keep going.

Some people don’t mind being homeless, for others it’s the pit of misery.

And there is no trick.

Life is an arse for everyone, and don’t assume golden boys who are always laughing aren’t hiding absolute misery. I’ve seen one of them dying alone of cancer. I know, I was the one there.

After a break-up, spend time just making friends repeatedly and relentlessly if you want to bounce back. CouchSurfing, Yap’n’go, nothing too much job-oriented, games nights or game bars... What people like is people who entertain them with light subjects. Make yourself apolitical, refuse that topic.

The girlfriend and the career aren’t for everyone, and it’s ok not to succeed. Try to give, from time to time, that’s what makes men happy, and the inability to give is often what makes them unhappy.