for the past couple of months i've been wanting to write a story that i've been thinking about so often, and maybe even one day make it into a tv show or a book. it was a silly idea my friends and i came up with but we brainstormed so many things, and we started to take seriously. i have always loved writing, and thinking up scenarios in my head, but i never thought of making a career out of it. i enrolled in college for environmental science, because i thought i wanted a career in science, another thing i was very interested in when i was little. i dropped out after a semester and i was unemployed for a bit until i got a job at this restaurant i work at as a dishwasher. it's not terrible, not like the fast food place i worked at in high school, but i am not happy there. i feel like every day is the same. i don't want to be a dishwasher. i feel like such a failure. on top of that, i'm chronically mentally ill and agoraphobic. i think i might be autistic and have ocd but i don't have an official diagnosis yet. i don't have health insurance and i am not really in a financial position to get therapy right now. i'm 20 years old and a stoner who stays in their room most of the time if i'm not at work. i've gotten better, but there was a point when i was unemployed and dropped out of college, inside all day every day, sleeping through the day and staying up all night to get high and play video games. i was looking for a job, obviously, but i wasn't getting any interviews. until i applied as a dishwasher for this relatively small family owned restaurant. i feel like i don't fit in at all, and most days i just turn my brain off, listen to music or a youtube video, and stay in my own world, ignoring everyone around me. only occasionally speaking when others acknowledged me. recently i've been talking to people more and i feel proud of my improvements. i got a girlfriend last year, and she's been a big help in my journey to mental health. i have a long long way to go and lots of childhood trauma to unpack, but i have a hope that i can get better. the thought of writing a story feels like it's my path. i want to make the idea i have for this show a reality, but i can't bring myself to just??? do it???? like the initial buzz i had just ran out after i wrote a few pages of notes and a first draft. i still think about it so often in my head, usually at work because i literally have nothing better to do than think, but i get home and i'm so burnt out from masking and dealing with so many people that i just wanna get high and waste time online. i have to admit i have gotten better at being offline, and i spent time outside of my room more often. i deleted basically every social media except for instagram, and i don't use that often. i have discord so me and my friends and gf can call when we play but i only talk to them because we actually have been irl together, like a friend i met in college that i still keep contact with. so, i clearly am ready for a new stage of my life entering my 20s. but it feels so overwhelming to know what i need to do. i feel like perhaps a therapist can help me with finding a clear path, and i'm working on that, but right now i feel stuck. and burnt out. anyways i started watching welcome to the n.h.k. recently and that has kinda been a wake up call to me lmao.. proud to say i'm not as bad as he is but unfortunately i do see myself in him a lot and i DO NOT want to end up like him. yikes. so yeah, maybe one day i can make this idea into a reality.

Heyo RENTEN! The initial buzz you mentioned is motivation that is unfortunately hard to count with and unreliable. I've been stuck with making any progress on my projects for years and the only thing that actually helps is building discipline. Creating anything is a long-term marathon and making even small bits of progress every couple of days adds up. A friend of mine understands this and pursues his creative art after 12h shifts, trying his best to stay disciplined and make progress. It's very difficult and as far as I know, there's no way to make it easier besides discipline. Identify what takes up your free time and try to use some of it for creative purposes. Something that helped me is completely quitting MMOs and no longer watching short-type content like tiktoks (I assume that's what you meant by mentioning deleting social media). It's actual hypnosis that eats so much time lol.

I don't know if my thoughts on this matter are of any help. I did manage to release a videogame and the experience from that helps me continue pushing it, but it took a lot of time to learn to work and treat creative stuff with enough seriousness to accomplish anything. I wish you good luck!!

>>2 i absolutely need to build discipline. and i totally agree that avoiding short form content did wonders for me. i find myself preferring hour to two hour long videos on youtube, and i see way more things i'm actually passionate about and help me get inspired and creative. tiktok used to constantly push extremely negative and triggering content that would get me stuck in spirals, and i even became detached with reality and was getting sucked into all kinds of conspiracies and spiritual rabbit holes.

i appreciate your response! i need to hear from people who have experienced this and are getting better/managing it. i'm glad to hear you released a video game. knowing that you could achieve that goal helps me feel more hopeful. thank you and good luck to you as well!!!