[joeclark]

I believe you are more than one step ahead of many in analogous circumstances because you recognize that your feelings are caused *by your circumstances*. You’re feeling depressed because your job is depressing, according to what you tell us.

While it seems counterintuitive, doing something each day marginally better than the previous day gives you objective facts to look back on. That could be one more push-up, five more pounds on squat (you *are* going to the gym, I trust?), journalling one more page. It could be as simple as making sure you get through 10 pages of a book you like, or listening to an entire episode of an interesting cultural podcast like the Perfume Nationalist, Red Scare, or What’s Left. (Dull normie podcasts are worse than staring at the boob tube.)

Those objective daily achievements – you’ll be jotting them down so you can look back at them – will buttress you while you look around for a better job, or something else that might alleviate your depressing circumstances.