For what it is worth, creative pursuits are awful at making money but what makes life worth living. I was in much more debt than you are now about a year before I wrote this post.
I'm literally just working to pay the banks back at this point. Every now and then some big expense comes up and resets the counter. If I had no debts I could work less than 30 hours a month and have the same life.
It turned out to be ADHD but as a recent discovery I've not quite worked around my defective-ass brain yet. I have since got my freelance rate up to £30/h from a full time income of like.. £12/h but it's never going to be enough to move the needle haha
Sorry to dump, just a little stuck tbh. I'd kill for just the one year lol
The one positive of ADHD so far is being able to quickly pick up a new skill. I love working for small agencies as they've got the most empty hats and the most fires that need fighting, loads of dopamine (the only resource worth chasing) in quick learning. It's also how I know unfocusing the beam gets you nowhere.
Back when GDPR became a thing I printed the law off on a Friday and was advising law firms on how their site needed to change to be compliant the Monday. Have yet to be sued so I'm still pretty confident I got it right :)
Not to brag (seriously, I have nothing worth bragging about) but everyone I've worked with eventually calls me a genius. Genius lmao, bro I'm just bored. I can't accept that when I'm in debt anyway, geniuses can pass leetcode and get paid at the FAANGs. I'm also aware that people say things like that so you stick around longer.
Besides which, learning quickly is just understanding the 4 stages of competence and skipping the first one. It's not magic, just know you're shit until proven otherwise.
I already know the patio11 advice. I'm earning double my most well paid friend as it is. 30/h is already lottery win level of pay in my circles. I don't have wiggle room for "probably" yet. I only started freelance in sept and that's because a fixed salary wasn't breaking even anymore. Needed to be able to do more effort = more cash. If that probably turns into a cheapass that doesn't pay then I'm eating potatoes for a month.
I'm already minmaxing everything to the point of reminding the bank that their calls are costing me 50p a minute when they get distracted. I don't want to be a jerk but they're wanting me to rattle off my budget each month for no reason. I wish they'd give me forms to fill in, doing things over the phone is so excruciatingly slow. They (every one of them) call you asking if they can help every month if you're in persistent debt too.. is it not obvious to banks that they're not actually able to help? I talk to some of them more often than family! I know they're just covering themselves legally in reality, I'm familiar with the illusion of help haha.
To be honest I've played myself anyway really. Turns out if you work fast you get paid less freelancing lmao
In any case I'm only doing freelance until I can launch my own business. Working for someone else is for chumps like me.
I know whenever I rattle on about myself people either don't believe me or confirm that I ain't shit, I already know the latter and I can prove every claim otherwise. I can barely keep up with the truth so I try not to lie.
Congrats on the diagnosis. Hopefully, it helps to clarify ways to move forward.