The sedentary office lifestyle is genuinely disastrous for your health, both mental and physical. It's especially insidious owing to the fact that the effects are largely invisible, just massively increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. That's not to say that the other extreme of constant manual labor isn't also disastrous for your health, just that I don't think the health effects of a sedentary lifestyle are taken seriously enough by institutions and people in general.

Switch the company to something that feels more meaningful, if you can.

I thought I had my dream job - being a research software engineer - but it turned out that there's only funding collected by corrupt professors, nobody has any clue where they want to go, most projects die the moment some PhD student graduates or there is some opportunistic incentive to just dump it and do something else, nobody even wants you to write software for them because it means they have to change their workflows, and all that leadership cares above is not useful software, but that it looks good in reports and presentations to get more funding.

Just saying, one can be perfectly miserable even when working for the supposed "good side". My motivation was at an all time low once I saw through all the bullshit and grew hopeless.

I quit that job after 3 years, and now I'm in a mid-size company with an interesting business domain, people care about my work, and I doing great. My team lead appreciates me, I get to actually do some stuff that's suitable for my qualification and also what I enjoy.

I think with ADHD we can't force ourselves to work in jobs that do not feel meaningful or intellectually stimulating. Other people are also suffering in bullshit jobs, but we literally cannot take it. But in the right environment we can thrive.

Ah, and "thanks" to whoever is responsible for the mess that is MSVC and Windows. I'm happy I can work on Linux 99% of the time (most teams are in Windows/ use Visual Studio), but we gotta support cross platform builds, and everything by Microsoft tends to be the odd, slow, half-broken special configuration, or imposes a limitation we have to work around. Because either it's not standard compliant or just buggy.

I totally can imagine how you can burn out from working at Microsoft. Feels like this company alone is wasting millions of hours of work all around the world.

Oof, I think I might be you from about 13 years in the future, after it all falls apart and you are deep into putting it all back together knowing much more about yourself.

I'm trying to think of how to distill this down into something memorable yet meaningful...

Make your personal well-being a top priority in your daily life, and make actual decisions based on that. But this is easier said than done, because we all have differed customized manuals for our brains and bodies, and we do not get a copy, so we must reverse engineer it. So look for opportunities to do the thing that you know will lift your spirits or get you moving instead of the thing that you actually want to do. For me this was usually socializing with friends, or giving in when my son wants to play way too much and I'm in the middle of a game or project. Or with work, deciding to drive to work with the windows down rather than snoozing a bit longer and working from home because my ADHD ass is useless working from home.

Lean into your hobbies, especially if they do not involve what you do at work. Double especially if they get you outside. Make conscious decisions to funnel more of your time and money towards the big hobby. This should not feel like a commitment or homework, it should feel like permission to do something you already want to do. Having something to be eager and excited about, something to look forward to, is good for the mind. For me, this centers around nature and animals. We have tons of pets now, but my big hobby is my koi pond. I am upgrading it this year, so for several weeks I have been spending hours at a time outside playing in the dirt, doing construction. I am lifting heavy shit while listening to music and going extended periods without seeing a screen. My phone is often in some shade by my tools while I use wireless earbuds.

Oh and drugs are your friend. That goes for ADHD medication, other mental health meds, and of course weed used in the right ways.

Hope you find something that makes your life easier. I am about to graduate, and I'm already discouraged about finding a job as most jobs nowadays don't have direct impact.

Good to know, thank you. I only know them anecdotally as it's used to say "just because someone fails some exam don't discredit their intelligence".