This is very likely depression. Go see a specialist. This will unlikely go away by itself.

Yes.

And I see that you asked a different question in your post, too.

Yes to that, too.

The comments about seeing a doctor for depression are coming from a caring place, but the reality of being without work for a while means it’s hard to afford seeing a doctor.

Chemical depression is not exactly something you can work yourself through, there are some people who claim magic mushrooms can help, but I’ve not seen any conclusive studies.

A lot of people said depression, but instead I want to focus on something else.

For your new job, you talked about how the work is similar, but how do you feel about your new job? Do you have a similar friend network of coworkers? How is your boss compared to your last one? Is the company culture the same or different. I ask because there are a lot of intangibles to a job that may not seem obvious, and the new job may not be as tuned for you as the last one.

Regarding fatigue and lack of desire currently, did you feel these feelings when you were unemployed? Were you working on a limited amount of energy before going to work? Were there cases where you would feel this loss of energy while out of work and looking for a job?

You are focusing on being unemployed, but the issue may be the new job.

I think you’re asking the wrong question. It can take months, years, hell even a whole lifetime to get over something like that. Or maybe you’ll never get over it!

The question you should be asking isn’t “is feeling this way normal,” it’s “what can I do to approach this healthier?” It’s not about what’s normal or understandable, it’s about what you can do with your own autonomy to improve your condition.

And on that, personally I would start by finding and speaking with a counselor who can help you process your thoughts, feelings, and emotions to achieve a sense of clarity and empower yourself to confident decisions moving forward.

I got fired for being late with no written warnings. They walked me off the campus and everything. I was basically in tears. (In hindsight, they probably didn’t need me anymore, and didn’t want to give me notice. They probably also wanted me to be able to claim unemployment.) I was emotionally wrecked for months, even after I got a new job. The good news for me is that about 6 months after I got fired, I met the woman who would become my wife. We are now happily married. Keep on keeping on, friend!

First of all: As a healthcare professional but not your healthcare professional: What you describe has strong signs of a depressive phase and you should first and foremost seek professional help - don’t trust the internet on this and more importantly don’t start to self treat yourself in any way besides behaviour based measures.

Secondly: It can take ages. I’ve been there. Especially when your new job is similar to the old one it is quite difficult, as you “in theory” know what to do but in reality you still have to find your place in the new company. It will take time. But it will get better.

I’ve been there, about a year unemployed and spiralled into depression. Had to see a doctor. Have been working some shit jobs for about another year after that, and here we are, still looking for work.

I do recommend the doctor before it’s too late.

Brother, it sounds like you are depressed. Maybe it’s job related, maybe it’s not. A few things to do are:

1. Talk to your medication provider about these symptoms and consider medication specifically for depression.
2. Talk Therapy. Pills are good, talk therapy is approximately ::checks notes:: 10,000 times better. 2.1. Find a therapist that is a good fit. I’ve had good therapists over the years, and I have had bad therapists. My current therapist is amazing and a the reason why I didn’t die by suicide in January.
3. Don’t ‘should yourself’. Avoid using that word to describe anything, ever. You don’t have to do or enjoy anything right now, and you can’t feel bad for suffering from (probably) depression. It’s a mental illness. You didn’t do anything wrong and you are certainly not to blame.

I’m not a doctor but you should ask yours about depression and take a screening. I felt the same way after leaving a job(albeit by choice) and starting one a million times better. Even after several months, I still had zero interest in anything and realized I was in a “funk” I couldn’t get myself out of this time.

If I imagine being in your situation, I’d probably feel comparably off track. I mean, it probably feels shit to be laid off. And it is perfectly okay to feel shit after something shitty happened. Now the question is: how long is it “ok” to feel that way? I’d argue this is very individual.

I hate it when people on social media pretend to be able to give diagnoses, like “This is a depression!”. This is not a medical forum, just random people saying random stuff.

However, I would seek professional advise on your situation. See a doctor or a therapist. It will help you identify techniques to deal with how you feel - anxiety, depression, or just normal reaction to something negative happening to you.

Also, speak with friends. They might have made similar experiences in the past. And even if not, it just feels good to get stuff off your chest.

How much did the job search burn you out?

The last time I jumped jobs, I was absolutely exhausted from the old job. The new job was perfect, but took another year before I didn’t feel exhaused 24x7.

A lot of the time, we have a lot of our identity kit tied into our work. Sometimes that also means to specific jobs/employers.

Losing that for any reason can be anything from a mild annoyance to fully traumatic. And unexpected job loss not only affects one’s self view and sense of purpose, it’s a threat to stability and survival.

So, yeah, it can take years to move past.

It’s a form of grief, though that isn’t always easy to understand, and how intense that grief is is variable even for one person in specific. But it’s not at all unusual for someone quitting a job, in a planned way, to experience loss emotionally. When the loss is involuntary, that stack, then it being unexpected stacks higher. A long job hunt after adds more to the pile.

With anxiety already part of your existence, that grief is prone to hitting harder as well as deeper.

It looks like your grief has turned into depression as well. That drained, empty feeling is your brain and mind saying it/they have hit a limit to how much they can process.

I’m going to echo the suggestion that some talk therapy would be beneficial. Processing such events in life can be difficult to do alone because it’s so hard to see things culturally clearly from the inside.

Don’t think you’re alone in what you’re experiencing. It’s a very common thing to go through.

Yes. You got laid off unexpectedly. Now you have more cognitive load knowing that your job can just disappear. Go easy on yourself. It’ll get better with time. Talk therapy is also a possible way to speed things up a bit.

I’ll add another voice to the choir: yes, something else is going on. Before you get a breakdown, do look for a good therapist and most importantly do take a look at what really matters to you. If you are not doing something that really matters to you (this need not necessarily be your job), depression will come