going back is hard though... the longer you are out, the harder it gets. You "forget" things and simple papers no longer come natural to you.

If you have the option to try and to quit if it seems too hard, it might be worth it. Look, don't want to be discouraging, but you may never be as stable as you would like to be. Maybe work is less stressful as doing nothing and having all time in the world to focus on your bad situation (in another unhappy experience of mine I did not get into master's program and was unemployed..... and it almost cost me............).

imho, Ts and pdocs don't know the full implications of "time off" often. time off means not only stress free time. It means time to focus on stupid ****, social isolation (what are you supposed to talk about to people? "eh, I am doing nothing at the moment").