I saved up some money and quit my first programming job after a year and a half to freelance. I only had a vague idea of the work I wanted to do, but I wanted to have no master and I thought it would be my absolute best life.

Within two weeks I was deep into anxiety and depression. I tried to establish routines, tried working from a coffee shop, etc. None of it really helped. I was still fairly new to the city I lived in and didn't have many friends, and wasn't a social person by nature. I was incredibly isolated.

I started dating someone a few weeks later and that helped. I picked up some one-off contracts, built a website for a local music store, did some personal projects, etc. But still, after another six months I was back in a hole. I wasn't quite so isolated but I still crumbled under the pressure of not knowing what to do next, not being able to take a break from the working mentality even though I could barely bring myself to do any work at all. I ended up taking a desk job just to pull myself out of the spiral.

Economically I probably could have made that work as a source of income, but psychologically it was just unbearable.