Life has its ways to make you stumble

I have been recently diagnosed with mixed anxiety and mild depression by a psychiatrist and was prescribed medication. Also asked to exercise everyday and pursue my hobby of reading. Any other tips on how to handle depression better while I am on medication?

One of the toughest day of my life started on 03rd September, 2024. I just did not want to leave my bed at all. The world that I imagined has just crumbled. The future that I envisioned no longer cease to exist. Sense of failure in all aspects of my life has hit me. A failure in professional life, a failure as a son, a failure as a brother, a failure as a friend, a failure as a partner. A complete failure in a nutshell. This is the lowest point in my life where I want to run away, from everything. Not care about anything, not face anyone, and just run away.

I woke up with a notification that started with “Hope you had a great weekend. Unfortunately…” I didn’t have the courage to open the entire mail. I knew what it was. A little context here, i have been unemployed for the last 5 months. I got laid off from my first job with not even an year of work experience. We all know how bad the market condition is, and how harsh it is for freshers. Me being the optimistic person that i am, ignored all these setbacks and began my hunt for my next dream job. With the help of my friends, I started preparing for interviews. I was lucky enough to get shortlisted for few good companies. But somehow or the other things always went south and i ended up without an offer. I made sure to not get disheartened and keep trying my best with a positive attitude. And then i interviewed with this one company, that perfectly aligned with me. All my interviews went well and made it till the final round. Now it was a call from the leadership. I strongly believed that this is my shot. After months of feeling stuck, I thought this is going to be my moment of relief. Even though this journey was hard i made sure to enjoy every bit of it. But now here i am with another rejection mail. I am now questioning my entire belief system. And not sure what to do next. Any advice/suggestions are welcome :)

This question is to people who are in their late 20s or older. Life shows its ups and downs to pretty much everyone. And when you are younger, living with adverse situations that impact your mental peace and health, paving your way becomes difficult. All this can lead to uncertainty about future, can make you doubt yourself and your decisions, or can make you think whether you would be able to make something of yourself or not. If you ever felt like this, how did you handle it? What would you tell your younger self about how to navigate through these situations and feelings?

Why even after working your ass off from office and being part of Big Financial giants You have to get laid off and doubt yourself from the core?? And some just even after being at best mediocre, Enjoy all the benefits of remian employed? Working from home? Enjoy the perks?? P.S. I am not demeaning anyone. I know the person personally and I know what he/she is capable of 😀 But here I am super depressed thinking even at all I will be able again to come back on track?? I am just sooo depressed Have a family to support and bills to pay.

So I’ve been a below avg. looking guy my entire school and college life. Got a decent job offer (8LPA) during my campus placements. This was the story till January 2023. Now It’s been around 1.5 Years. I’ve been working out 6 days a week (rarely skips), eat super clean food (monthly 1 cheat meal), started a skincare routine and tried to learning new technologies in search of a better job. This is the routine I followed for the entire 1.5 years. Right now, I’ve a high paying job and a great physique. (Went from 68Kgs to 81Kgs) A few women have approached me in last 3-4 months. In the gym, people come and talk to me regarding my diet and workout. A lot of people are sending me linkedin connections requests, asking for referral and guidance. But now I don’t wanna talk to anyone because no one wanted to talk that ugly, lean and broke me. Wish someone would’ve came to that old version of me and said “You are enough”.

[TL;DR former National quizzing champ dropped out of B. Tech in 2020 during peak of addiction and depression . Got over it and sober in Jan'23, resumed college and completed my B. Tech in Feb'24. Picked up coding again and feel ready for a job now Should I be honest or lie about the gap? Been ghosted my few recruiters whom I was honest with.] JS developer here. I used to be a decent student, public speaker and one of the best quizzers in the college scene (former National Champ). But I never addressed some traumatic events that took place in my life before I turned 16. My depression took refuge in substance abuse and I abandoned all studies/career prospects during the pandemic. Eventually after 7 years of using, I got clean/sober in Jan'23 and resumed my studies. I earned my degree but on paper it took me 8 years to complete a 4 year B. Tech (2016-24). Reasonably I get asked about the gap in my academics by hr/recruiters whom I push my CV to. I've been dead honest to them about my struggles with mental health and addiction in the past. And I've been getting ghosted. (It could be because of skill reasons on my part but I'm not even getting a feedback). Should I not tell recruiters the truth about the gap? Should I leave the addiction bit out? How should I word it? I've never held a real coding job before but been slogging for the last 6 months to get better each day (my github and projects will reflect that). Please help me out with all your valuable suggestions. If you're a tech recruiter let me know how you would perceive my case.

(I know Osho type question hai but just curious)

I joined AmEx Gurgaon in 2015 in PoS Fraud Strategy as a Business Analyst. I was having a rough time at AmEx as I really wanted to pursue my passion of Mathematics in the US. I had secured an admit at Univeristy of Illinois - Urbana Champaign and UT-Austin in their MS programme and was totally checked out at work. During my tenure at AmEx, I was mostly bored. Looking at internal tools and spreadsheets was the worst. This coupled with the fact that I was travelling to and fro between Noida and Gurgaon meant that I was commuting a solid 4 hours everyday. In this time of mental agony, I met this charismatic young woman, she was an Analyst in the Credit Underwriting Team. I don't know what got into me and I asked her out to coffee. We went to the Starbucks in CyberHub the next morning and she was the most delightful personality ever. Sweet and elegant, she talked of her passion with vigour, from her ideals to writing poems. I left that conversation feeling uneasy though. She reminded me of what I wanted but also of what I was scared to lose in her. We continued to date for the next 6 months in a hush-hush manner to avoid any suspicion at AmEx. I had to start the process of getting my F1-visa for the US and when I told her about it she was extremely disheartened. In my heart, I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my days with her and life without her was nothing but an empty void. She came with me to the US Consulate Office, and I don't know what got into me but I kissed her. I knew that I wanted her more than anything else. Decided not to give the Visa Interview and applied to ISB with my GRE score. Got into it and ended up becoming a Management Consultant in MBB. We got married in 2019 and welcomed our daughter into this world in 2021. I wonder what life would've been living in the US. But whatever it would be, it couldn't be better than being in her arms when we come back from work. Have faith. Everything will turn out to be okay. Trust the process

How did you react to it? Were you depressed? How life has changed post that ?