Ready to give up

I'm 28 years old (almost 29) and I don't have any purpose in my life as of this point. I still live at home and only work a few times a month. I received my Bachelor's degree in Psychology in 2013 and it has done nothing for me whatsoever. I was working a steady part time job that paid the bills, but accepted a full time job. That job went to hell after 3 days (long story) and I have been on unemployment since September. I apply for jobs every single day but rarely get any calls even though I have over 8 years of experience... Lately I have just felt like giving up because it seems like things are just getting worse.... I also struggle with anxiety and depression which doesn't help this situation at all. Has anyone ever been in this type of situation? How do I turn things around? I had an emotional breakdown last night and today I acted out in anger. Doesn't help that I've been sick so I've barely left the house in over a week. Help

Hello pgs1986: Well, first of all, with regard to you anxiety & depression, the obvious suggestions include individual & / or group therapy & / or psych med's. If you don't have at least one of these services you may want to consider this. If money is a problem, see if there are free or income-based services available inn your area.

As for your job search, would you be willing to say what types of jobs you're applying for & how you're going about applying? Also, can you describe what your 8 years of experience include? Have you checked to see if you are eligible for any vocational rehabilitation services to help you secure employment? Does the college you graduated from have a placement office? Do they have any services that would be of benefit to you? Have you considered doing some volunteer work while you're searching for new employment? Thanks. I hope things begin to look up for you soon.

Well technically we all die alone and dont take a single penny to our graves. Technically you can live off with meager income.
Anxiety and depression is mostly related to our own genetic makeup and has a lot to do with our current lives. Now some of it we can control and sometimes its not within our hands.

Make a decent resume, find what the market wants in a candidate. Change your looks and your attitude even if you have to smile and lie that the world is great around you. Its all bout making an income. Secondly, do meet with friends and family just for the selfish heck of it. A lotta times jobs and positions open up coz of that.
Ask your employment officials/agency to help you with some night time university courses and concessions. Dont think that you have a passion towards career goals, but atleast have some plan in mind to 'get by'.

A degree often isn't enough, anymore... Do you have any idea of sorts of things you might like to do? Could you study some more? Often one of the best things about a degree... Is that it can be a platform into a more applied (job focused) post-graduate certificate option.

There are several factors at play here. We're about the same age and I had the hardest time finding a job that didn't pay me so little money that I couldn't afford to do pretty much anything. Unemployment is a really hard thing to explain to employers, so what I did with mine was talk about the skills I developed during that time. If I was reading articles on Forbes or BusinessWeek, I was researching business administration. If I looked at guides on Sharepoint, I would say that I was developing skills with those software programs.

There was also a period of time where I had to find SOMETHING to do to earn a little money, so I tried my hand at some freelancing. Basically, I was helping people with projects online in exchange for a little money. Freelancing can be difficult and you do have issues with people not paying or trying to get out of having to pay, but there are sites that require buyers to put up money in advance and once you finish, you the seller can then collect it. That freelancing gave me more to talk about as far as saying that I was an independent worker capable of self-motivation and managing projects. It helped me at least get my foot in the door at some places.

The other big part is making sure your resume sounds professional and highlights your most valuable skills. You really have to sell your usefulness to a company. It depends on what kind of job you're looking for, but there are certain programs that having a working knowledge of will make you a more appealing candidate (like Sharepoint, for example).

Also, keep in mind that most companies use job sites or programs that automatically sort through resumes to look for certain keywords. What this means is that if you want to improve your chances of getting a callback, you have to make sure you're including words from the job posting in your resume. Otherwise, perfectly qualified candidates DO slip through the cracks and do not get called back.

Thanks everyone for responding and giving me good suggestions. I really appreciate it and also appreciate the non judgement. I'm trying my best to stay positive and take it one day at a time. I'm going to have someone look over my resume this week to see if there's anything I need to change.