As I was reading this thread I thought of this book and how it might be a good fit for the young man here. Really excellent book and it would be perfect for someone finding their way.
I would never want to be that age again. It is a hard age and if there's a message I would give him, it's that it gets better. It really does. I think the 20s are pretty sucky, the 30s are a bit better, and the 40s rock.
My mother, a very wise woman, once told me that your job, as the parent of an adult child becomes very simple. All you do is love them.
The way I got through all that angst at that age was I worked. I worked two, three jobs. I kept so busy I didn't have a lot of time to wallow. But there were days, weeks, months, when it was hard. I called it "the blacks," when it felt like life was bleak and hollow. I couldn't even verbalize what was wrong. When I would find myself at the bookstore perusing the self-help section was about the time it began to pass. And it does pass.
I agree completely. My twenties were the most frustrating, lonely, self-defeating time of my life. My ideas about how the real world worked were so totally wrong, and it took me a long time and much pain to figure that out.
I think your timeline is pretty accurate, although now I'm reduced to hoping that things start "rocking" for me in my '60s!
Bleak and hollow... I know all about that, believe me.
I once read an article about people who commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. They interviewed one of the rare survivors, who said that he jumped because it seemed to him that he was facing so many problems, all hitting at the same time, that he could never solve them all, and that ending it was the only solution.
He said that the instant he cleared the railing and the edge of the roadway, he realized that every single problem he had could be solved, except the problem he had just caused himself.