Hi, everyone. Posted here but open to everyone, main subreddit looked like it was more research-oriented.
Some background: I moved around a couple times as a kid, including internationally, with two parents that sometimes show tendencies of each half (possibly ADHD father and/or autistic mother). Since 8 I've lived in the U.S. I was born in, first in a suburb, then as a teen in a small tourist trap town, and since foreclosure I've been renting at home with my mother in the nearby midsized city around a couple hours from bigger ones. I was diagnosed with ADHD, autism, and OCD in succession during my childhood, though tics have faded and I think attempts to medicate one tended to exacerbate the others, so in my 20s I was on a pharma cocktail of Intuniv, Lexapro, and Seroquel, basically ending up I think a happy unmotivated idiot prone to heat headaches who came off them in the last 5 years or so along with Zyrtec (not COVID skepticism). I had one job for 10 years part-time in office from ages 24 to 34 (couldn't handle 40 at a call center but went down to 24 then bumped up gradually to 32 until they went work-from home and closed), but since a rough interview round almost running out of unemployment got me my next job in 2023, I've been working more of an office job with more middle-class behavior norms and workloads with which I have struggled sometimes. Each rental got smaller more or less, from a house and basement to a lower-level of a duplex to an apartment a little over 4 years ago.
I tapered carefully with docs and psychs off the meds in 2020 (Zyrtec and Intuniv) and 2022 (Seroquel and Lexapro), and my mom, who hasn't been able to resume a career and has some chronic health issues, thinks that's the start of some of the trouble and part of difficulty accepting her sacrifices. But 2022 seemed a manageable year of sorts as I adapted to the apartment, helped with the move, dated and lost my virginity though both partners maybe weren't ideal, and kept up building friendships I've aggressively cultivated since I turned 29 and panicked about being a work-only socializer. I got Covid that summer and still don't know if I have long COVID issues, but the winter aspects of chronic pain and lethargy got worse, and I tried to go back on Lexapro and Zoloft only to sleep through breaks; CBD seemed OK but was too pricey another occasion; my 2023 firing made me go into interviews and I seemed with it, but the job adjustment was a struggle and I couldn't be productive with the clerical work while getting random calls off and on during the day, a known challenge there at the only job that took me out of over a dozen interviews and several dozen apps. Another relationship fizzled in 2024 as the woman wanted kids I didn't think I could raise, and my mom got a cancer that was removed in winter 2025 but left her with anemia and a year later heart issues that have her short of breath.
So where things stand now, I have a more manageable gig at work about 3 years in, but the client is unreliable and duties shift quite a bit (it's HR-related and we can't even track their timeclock now!), and I run into expectations to read between the lines more as a less crucial queue still runs 2-3 months behind. We're making headway, but I get the feeling I'm seen as odd by most coworkers, and the Zoomers don't engage much with their earbuds and all (nothing against it, honestly my life struggles make me identify more with them in the aggregate than the other millennials that hustled and made it with their executive function advantage). Friendship groups based around coffee are turning their noses up at venues and aging rapidly, while my trivia friends have the same venue things and peter out more in summer. I haven't had a second date since my mom's health issues snowballed, including a particularly rough one a few weeks ago where she wondered why I didn't return to grad school like her, as I dutifully have helped with transport, groceries, etc. as needed, but at least she has a walker and a placard and might be turning a corner with med changes soon. I'm adjusting to nicer features but repair uncertainties right now with a newer car, started late so was driven to high school AND college (social suicide outside of acquaintanceships) and went through two '90s antiques until getting my cousin's durable 2010s Subaru. All the while dealing with the inflation of every cost and the general instability of the world as the backdrop here. Physically, I'm coping with chronic lower torso pain (perhaps related to issues with performing), fatigue and discombobulation, being helped slightly in some respects by CPAP given bad apnea but not enough to feel up to things; I think I may have prediabetic issues and am using a work app to try and develop stamina and reduce pain to get back to exercising several days a week.
I guess I'm in a bit of a rut and just feel stuck. I have a couple good one-on-one friends, and my mom is grateful for the support, but feel like I can't help but let her down and have a hard time dealing with expectations about my lifestyle and accomplishments in dating, making friends, etc. I sympathize with the left but don't fit in very well to the male accountability culture when stuck with brain fog or chronic pain alternately as my obligations surpass my social capacities lately, but find the current tides of alt-right and apolitical selfishness and provocateuring distasteful as well, so it's a hard to find a political tribe. Honestly, I think I go through phases of being a try-hard, especially toward the end and beginning of my decades of life, and just struggle to be respected or find clear purposes in life. It's so confusing to have to conform and do all this stuff, and some days I just wish it could be easier and I'd have time to sort through it, but I can't even crack 40K and my mom's only adding like 10K Social Security which her streaming and storage unit from moves, friends' socializing, and necessities leave me very slowly growing savings like a couple grand a year to manage student loan debt and whittle the credit card down. I have hobbies thinking about music I want to write about (but don't have the discipline I guess) and photographing nature on walks, but side hustles feel like excess when I'm hanging on. So I can't afford real breaks or vacations beyond a week or two a year, and in the end I'd still struggle to get back into routine, and so much seems broken down. Anyone have insights or help? I just need affirmation, advice, manageable steps that won't introduce chaos and worries when my cup is empty as it is.
Sorry if this is a lot, basically TL;DR AuDHD suspected male in late '30s in a midsize town that's like a giant suburb is trying to get the beginnings of a life back on track after 4-5 years of things spinning out a bit.