Mostly looking for advice from IPs, or people that consistently deal with this. Anyone is welcome ofc.
My usual go-to method is to throw myself into a hobby until something sparks again, just restlessly work on improving skillwise, drawing mostly. Hours and hours just ripping into paper, it's not working anymore though. I get no dopamine hits from drawing lately, so I've stopped.
It feels like you're submerged in wastewater and a black muddy staleness is filling your lungs and orifices. I've usually had a neutral or dismissive view of the future, but that was just choosing to ignore it in the past. Once I start actually thinking about it a great sense of heavy dread begins to permeate your being. Not anxiety, or fear. Just a sense of doom.
My parents have lived an incredibly mediocre life. They go to their office job and go home. They're too tired to do much besides watching TV and occasionally chatting with friends about nothing meaningful. They don't read or have hobbies. That future is the most terrifying thing I know. It's a life script not fit for wiping anyone's ass with. I want to draw comics for a living but our family is not blessed enough to afford failure. And nothing is guaranteed in that industry even if you're the most talented person on Earth and Heaven.
The more you go forward the more it's like stepping into a deep tar pit that dries faster and faster each time you lift your leg and put it down again. Your body stops moving and goes still. Time still hurtles through you while you're paralyzed, unable to do anything. Stagnation.
I don't think it's depression, although a change in mindset in needed. Something's broken. What helps without necessarily amounting to numbing yourself or ignoring the issue? Where do you find satisfying autonomy nowadays?