How to Get Out of This Dilemma? Seeking Your Guidance

I'm writing this today not just to share my story, but to seek your counsel. I've been a member of this forum since 2013, and this place feels like a digital home, filled with memories of a wilder, earlier time in crypto.

My journey here started with the classic Proof-of-Work coins. I remember the excitement of CPU mining XPM (Primecoin), searching for those prime number chains. Then came Datacoin (DTC); I even mined some and a kind stranger on this forum gifted me a few hundred DTC, an act of generosity I've never forgotten. I dabbled in Protoshares (PTS), and was fascinated by the emergence of hybrid models with Blackcoin's shift from PoW to PoS.

I was there for the "color coin" era, experimenting with the likes of Whitecoin, Yellowcoin, Redcoin, and so many others. More recently, I believed in the vision of Kadena and had accumulated a not-insignificant amount of KDA, which represented years of belief and effort.

For a while, I was lucky. I made a lot of money early on. I witnessed history with all of you.

However, during a period of re-engaging with the forum, I became consumed by leveraged contract trading. My downfall, like many others, was hubris and leverage. I ventured into contract trading on exchanges. It felt like a curse – if I went long, the market would drop; if I shorted, it would pump. It was a brutal, relentless cycle that eventually wiped out my entire savings and left me in debt. Everything I had built, gone.

Now, I am left picking up the pieces. The financial burden is heavy, but the emotional toll is even greater.

So, I come to you, my fellow veterans and new members alike, to ask: What should I do now? I am desperately seeking your advice and guidance.

For those who have been through similar downturns, how did you mentally and financially recover?

What are the realistic first steps I can take to rebuild?

Are there opportunities in the current crypto space that I might be overlooking?

Or should I step away completely and focus on traditional means to clear my debt?

Any wisdom, any word of encouragement, or any practical suggestion would mean more to me than you can imagine.