Burning out? Help
So I am finishing up my first year in a healthcare doctorate program. We have a kind of weird layout, where many of our lectures are asynchronous, and we just watch them on our own time, while meeting for class once per week for each class. We also spend 30ish days in our lab doing focused hands on work each semester.
All that to say, our time actually in person with our classmates is limited. I have a close friend group in my cohort, but we only actually see each other for a few weeks each semester, and, when we are together, the majority of the time is spent heavily studying or practicing our hands-on skills.
I live in the same city I went to undergrad in, as the COL is cheaper and I was able to actually buy a house here. It seemed like a smart choice in the moment, as I was able to get ahead a little bit and save some money on rent, but I feel like I'm drowning here. All of my friends from college have moved away, and we've grown apart quite a bit. My undergrad is 10 hours from my hometown, so all of my hometown friends are basically virtual friendships unless I can get up there to visit my parents for a long weekend. I live with my boyfriend, but he is from this city, and all of his high school friends never moved away, so he has a very deep friend group here, while I feel like I don't really have anyone. None of his friends have girlfriends, or, if they do, they rarely bring them around.
All that to say, I'm drowning in school right now, with seemingly nothing to distract me from it. My favorite hobby is traveling, which sucks as I 1. don't have time and 2. don't have money. I spend virtually every night just sitting in my house, either studying or feeling guilty for not studying. I can barely even go out to eat without bankrupting myself. I can't go do things without feeling guilty for not studying. And, honestly, I just feel like a loser.
I'm mainly just wondering if anyone else has found themselves in a similar situation, and, if so, how did you get out of the funk?
Posted Aug 3, 2026, 1:54 PM UTC