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24 and feeling unmotivated to work.

Brendan17981998
Community Member

Hello, I decided to come here to post my current situation to see if anyone else is dealing with or has dealt with similar issues. For the past 2 years or so (although been studying a course online) I have felt unmotivated and slightly lost with life. A big issue is work, I have had many opportunities at jobs to consistently make $ while studying but wake up and talk myself out of attending shifts. When I think about it, I dont know why I do this... especially when majority of the jobs seem tolerable and its temporary work until I hopefully find myself a career in my graduated industry. I feel like a lazy disapointment as my family will be working and I am at home, I have even found myself pretending to go to work just so they think I am. Which reminds me of another issue, I care way to much about what people may or do think about me :/. I have a lot of overthinking thoughts which probably is a contribution with not wanting to go attend shifts and be around new people. It is getting to a point now where I worry if I am going to be in this rutt forever, I am turning 25 early next year and after school i assumed I would have everything in line and sorted by now.

Anyways, does anyone have any feedback, thoughts or similar stories? Happy to hear anyone...

3 Replies 3

Yana8216
Community Member

Hi Brendan, I can totally relate to your post. I was lucky to have a psychologist who helped me understand society expects us to fit a certain pattern that not everyone is suited to. DON'T FEEL GUILTY IF YOU DON'T FIT THE MOULD SOCIETY EXPECTS YOU TO.
It's difficult to feel motivated to work unless you have a goal in mind like buying a home, or a mint condition classic car or the most amazing entertainment system....
I have realised after many years of working in different admin roles that my happiness lies in working at a supermarket part time and that WHEN IT COMES TO POSSESSIONS - LESS IS BEST although I want to always drive a really cool car. I think 1980/90's Volvos are the hottest right now. I had one 20 years ago and was so embarrassed haha!! Now one lives in my street & I drool over it.
You are very cool! Be it.

RoseK
Community Member

Hey dude, don’t feel like your not enough. It’s such a lie that we are sold that we must have it all figured out. There isn’t a rush. I know it really seems like it and can be disheartening when we aren’t where we wanna be. I’m 25, unfortunately my mental health was bad for a bit from 19-22 and spent most the years in hospital. I’ve come to learn that although I am not where I am meant to be and hard to watch my peers so much further on, it’s not a rush! No one is going to ask you in 10 years time when you first got a job your wanted. From how I hear my friends talk, lots of them that did are no longer happy anyway. They were really young to decide what they enjoyed. Please don’t feel like it’s a rush. It’s just expectations placed on us all. All it does is make us feel rubbish, when in reality you have no reason to be! The very fact it’s bothering you shows how much you want to get where you wanna go. I still have no idea what I’m doing depaite working ib my profession for a bit now. And like I said, no one knows! I hope that can make you feel less alone. Your not a failure, your trying your best and just feel proud of that! ( definitely not trying to dismiss your feelings, it’s real and hurts - I totally get that!) just know it’s not anything wrong with you! 

Bob_22
Community Member

Hi Brendan,

 

Thank you sharing your story and posting here. I'm sorry to hear about your current struggles with motivation and school/work. As previous posters have mentioned here, you are certainly not alone.

 

I'm aware that you've come to the depression thread of the website so I imagine you've had a skim over some of the resources around depression, specifically causes which can be found here: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/depression/what-causes-depression

As is mentioned, depression is not always caused by a specific set of circumstances and everyone is unique. For myself personally, I started to experience similar feelings to yourself in my early 20's also. I found it difficult to concentrate at uni and would struggle with anxiety during the day for seemingly innocuous reasons. Similar to yourself, I would also find it difficult to motivate myself to go to work during the nights and on weekends and found myself disengaged when at work. I would also stay in bed alot more than usual even when awake. Things such as assignments and study started to pile up and my GPA dropped significantly as well as my general enjoyment at uni and at home.  

 

It wasn't until visiting my GP that I learned that alot of the symptoms I was experiencing lined up with depression which until that point I thought was a personality trait. I was informed that even thought things in my life were going well, sometimes depression is just more predisposed in certain people for unknown reasons. Following this I commenced treatment with a psychologist and medication. Both of these helped significantly and I found both my concentration and motivation improving to where it was before. 

 

I hope that by sharing my story I haven't trivialised what you're experiencing or over-simplified. As you mention in your post I'm just hoping to share so to let you know that you're not alone in what you're dealing with and many of us have walked a similar road. It's also nice for me to hear from younger people these days who reflect what I've experienced and can relate to me also. 

 

As mentioned before, please don't hesitate to seek professional help through a GP if you find things getting on top of you and feel free to update us with how you're going here. 🙂

 

Bob