I can definitely suggest “find a thing that helps people that plays directly to your areas of expertise” as a total existential despair coping mechanism, speaking as someone with a life-long existential despair problem
I’m working on gathering support for research and policy work focused on strategies for protecting civilians from deadly attacks (both kinetic and information/data based) from small drones, which is an area that desperately needs more attention.
I don't want to come across as some sort of toxic positivity nonsense person because I'm autistic and chronically ill and I know this feeling, but there are innumerable needs out there at all levels of society and useful doesn't have to mean skill-intensive.
i tend to think of things i have trouble doing due to health constraints, which is frustrating, but for example: showing up for community orgs trying to help people meet basic needs (food, cooling, etc). organizing/planning are skills, but they still depend on people showing up to help
i tend to think of the more skilled things i can do (quant analysis, data science, writing, photo and video editing, etc) as a niche sort of useful, but i frequently just wish i had a body i could rely on to be able to show up and help do the boring stuff that keeps things from falling apart
