I, of course, have my own ideas about what I would do in OP’s shoes. But I don’t claim that these are the “right” answers, and I don’t think these are the answers you “should” give. Literally all I’m saying is that OOP has options, and his biggest problem is that he refuses to believe they exist. So if you are in a similar situation to OOP, or empathize with him and want to know what advice would improve his situation, what I am saying is that you should start by opening up to the possibility that OP improving his life is under his control, and then just start thinking of ways that he could. And sure, some of these ideas you come up with will be dumb, or wrong. Some will seem like great ideas but will fall apart during implementation. And that’s all fine. There are no bad ideas, even if they don’t work, because the process of creating these ideas in the first place is the most important part of the process.