Having some weird existential crisis. Help?

I (M) turned 28 a few weeks ago. And I'm extremely anxious about life right now. I'm stuck in my home town with no money for long term travel (though I'm going on vacation to NOLA in a week). The past 10 years, I got my degree at a local college, COVID happened and dashed all my other plans. I've worked 10 jobs in various industries (exercise, nature parks, journalism and media, furniture delivery, EMS) and am not "established" in anything. No real prospects for a long term career.

I tried to do other things too, BJJ, boxing, even was a volunteer firefighter. I tried to be "manly" but now I feel like I wasted some of my life pursuing these things. I loved these things but I did them because I slightly felt expected to, as a man. Now, I just feel like I've wasted time and I'm afraid I'll literally blink and be old.

I'm also clinging to/getting back in to things in my childhood and adolescence I liked (anime, video games, some fantasy, etc.). I've spent a good chunk of my adolescence and early adulthood not necessarily avoiding it but stepping away from it or hiding it because it was "childish". I've started going to local punk shows to get out of feeling like I missed out. I'm going to therapy, too, and I feel better about myself. But, weirdly, it simultaneously feels like nothing that I've done so far is working to help me feel okay.

I spent a good part of my life avoiding life and staying at home due to anxiety, some bullying and a diagnosis of ASD. Many of my friends are now parents, or they've moved so far away I can't see them. I feel trapped, alone and feeling like I'm never going to get out of here. I spent so much time avoiding what maybe made me happy in order to be a "man", which I still don't feel like. And as stated before, I'm so afraid I'm getting old. What the the hell am I going to do?

Posted Jul 11, 2026, 1:37 PM UTC

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