u/Chasingadream_

Hey y’all, I’m really struggling to get back into studying and staying consistent with trading. It’s been a rough year, I’ve been studying, trying, and failing prop firm after prop firm, and nothing’s clicking.

I understand charts and market structure, I can see setups, but I feel like I know too much and can’t commit to one thing. I don’t have a defined strategy I consistently follow, and every loss pulls me further into discouragement.

Honestly, I’m at my wit’s end. Even thinking about trading or studying for it makes me sad right now. I know this is a skill worth learning, not for instant results but for the long game, and I genuinely want it. But I’m overstimulated, unmotivated, and stuck.

I’ve taken breaks too, long ones and short ones, to clear my head and come back fresh, but I always fall right back into the same cycle. I need to know how to actually break it.

So I’m asking: when you’ve hit that wall, burned out, discouraged, questioning everything, what brought you back? What helped you reset and want to try again? And what gave you your aha moment?

I’m 25, work in customer service, have tons of friends and somehow completely lost my ability to hold a conversation. Anyone else?

I know how absurd this sounds. I literally talk to people for a living. I have a solid social circle. By all accounts, I should be fine.

But somewhere along the way, something shifted.

I’m okay in structured situations, catching up with someone I’ve known for years, or talking when there’s a clear reason for the conversation. But the moment it becomes casual? Unscripted? My brain just leaves the building.

Small talk feels impossible now. I can’t push past the surface level pleasantries into something real. I go completely mute. Blank. Like my social operating system crashes at the exact moment I need it most.

The worst part? I used to be good at this. I used to hold people’s attention, speak clearly, make people feel heard. Now everything comes out as a ramble or a mumble, half formed thoughts trailing off into nothing.

And when I’m around someone I actually want to connect with, that’s when it gets really painful. I open my mouth and either they don’t catch what I said, or there’s this awkward silence and the conversation just dies.

I don’t know if this is anxiety, burnout, or something else entirely. I just know it didn’t used to be this way.

Has anyone been through this? Did you figure out what caused it, or better yet, how to get back to yourself?