On/off productivity cycle + loneliness as an international student — anyone relate?

Hi everyone,

I feel stuck in a pattern and I don’t really understand how to get out of it.

I’ll have a week where I’m super disciplined, motivated, working hard, staying on top of everything, feeling focused and ambitious. Then suddenly the next week I crash — I feel exhausted, unmotivated, emotionally low, and I kind of detach and stop caring about things.

Then I recover… and the cycle repeats.

It’s like I’m either at 100% or 0%, never stable in between.

For context:

- Im a pre med student about to transfer to UCI. i leave by myself in los angeles, don’t have a lot of friends- and my family lives in france (im an international student). I have a hard time building real friendships like I did in Europe. friendships here feel more… ephemeral and superficial. I have a hard time connecting with people here on the long term. so it feels so lonely and isolated.

- whenever i start to feel like im about to go into a crash out it always starts with doomscrolling as the first “symptom” (i feel like an addict for that)

Has anyone experienced this kind of “on/off” cycle or live the same situations? Any advice ? or would you like to share your stories ?

I’d really appreciate any advice or personal experiences 🙏