Trapped in a career- MS makes it hard, where to go from here?
I had gone to an after-school trade program in HS for HVAC and then college for HVAC as well, and when working in hot attics I had (unknown at the time) a MS flare up that was quite severe, leading me to the hospital and eventually diagnosis in 2020, fresh out of college. Needless to say, the physically exerting work and hot temperatures of HVAC work were not doing my body any favors, and so I needed to pivot.
Fast forward to now, I have been working for the federal government for going on 6 years. In the beginning it was great, they had extra flexibility during covid so I was able to have a work from home setup, and without being blatant my job was about navigating databases, data entry, and fixing account issues related to tax. Occasionally, I would have to take phone calls, which I didn't mind. Well due to recent political events, no matter where you fall, being a federal employee is... rough to say the least, after months of fighting I finally got my work from home status back after it was taken away.
The job isn't what it used to be. We are so severely understaffed that my role is now entirely just back to back nonstop answering phone calls and talking to angry people. While occasional long bouts of talking is fine, the main way my MS symptoms manifest is speech. I'm stressed and speaking for maybe 6 hours at a time per day, I have constant anxiety and the only reason I've stuck around is because the pay is better than anything nearby (but still not a lot). Without just ranting about the things I hate at my job, it's clear I'm burnt out and want to move on.
I'm at a crossroads. My federal career has NOTHING to do with what I went to school for, and yet it's my most marketable skill at this point. Everywhere I look seems to want a bachelors and 5 years experience to even come close to 25 an hour. The advice of my friends is "money isn't everything, if you are miserable it's not worth it" and the advice of my family is the opposite, they want me to stick with the job because its safe and pays decent and the job market is really rough.
I desperately want out, I've saved somewhere close to 70k hoping to relocate and get a mortgage, but I don't know what I can realistically pivot to career-wise from here. I'm great with data and software and basically all computer-things short of coding- and my education is a wholly unrelated trade I've not thought about in 6 years. How do I leave the "safety net" of my current job? I feel nothing but dread every day before my shift, and afterwards all I do is sleep because how exhausted I get. Has anybody made a similar career pivot, or a "leap of faith" move to start anew after a diagnosis? I'm 25, so I guess still young, but I feel too old to be taking a complete risk and starting over especially knowing how scary the current job market can be.