Overwhelmed at 33

​I am a 33-year-old male. Ever since I moved out of my parents' house at 18, I have been highly optimistic, naive, and driven to build a good future for myself. I now hold a master's degree, but I feel like I just don't fit into the local culture here.

​Over the years, I built four businesses: two in culinary, one academic consultancy, and one SaaS. They generated decent profits, but they weren't sustainable for the long term. In total, I only brought in a net profit of roughly 50 times the local monthly salary, even though they ran for six years. Maybe I was just terrible at managing people.

​Later, I took a job with a below-average local salary and never received a raise. Despite getting glowing compliments from almost every department head, whenever I asked for a raise, management rejected it and threatened to fire me. They told me plenty of people wanted my job and that I should just be grateful for what I had.

​My love life has been equally disastrous. Over the last 10 years, I've been engaged twice, and both partners cheated on me for fun.

​Now, I’m back at my parents' house. I've been here for more than a year, completely overwhelmed and too afraid to put myself out there again. Finding a stable job or creating a sustainable business feels nearly impossible right now because the competition out there is fierce.

​My anxiety is through the roof, and therapy hasn't been helping. I don't trust anyone anymore, every time people say something, I become deeply skeptical and overanalyze their motives. My life just sucks right now.