You're definitely making progress and with your resilience, I think it's just a matter of time before it all pays off well eventually. Hopefully it will happen sooner than later!
I think the safety of 9 to 5 can really be underrated against the uncertainty we now currently live in with the digital age and the work opportunities it offers. Sometimes and often, you'll do a lot of work and have little to nothing to show for it, whereas in a typical 9 to 5, you're at least guaranteed that the pay will come, one way or another.
Someone I know very closely wanted to quit their 9 to 5 because it was really affecting their mental health, but I was quickly to remind them that they wouldn't really understand the safety of having steady income until they lose it.
I agree that people should quit jobs that they deem to be mentally challenging, but not having money is a different beast entirely
Right, not having money is the part that rules out any other inconveniences with a challenging 9 to 5 job. It's not always a simple fix abd requires some planning and experimenting first, build up savings, etc before making a change. That in itself could also be an incredibly hard task.