Navigating Unemployment: Financial, Emotional, and Professional Strategies
3. Reinvention, Resilience and Growth - How to survive emotionally
In difficult times of global crisis and moments of professional upheaval, it’s natural to mainly focus on our practical existence, by securing financial resources and looking for a new job, but emotional survival is just as important. Becoming and being unemployed can often bring hard emotions such as fear, grief, anger, guilt and even a conflicting sense of identity. Unemployed individuals who experience long-term job searching report higher levels of depression, anxiety and reduced well-being (Gómez-Hombrados and Extremera, 2025) - so take extra good care of yourself throughout these tough times. Society has trained us to view ourselves through the lens of status, so our job title (or lack of) creates uncomfortable links to our worth as human beings. Remember that your value and your purpose extend far beyond any career role. Healing and rebuilding take time, and you don’t have to do it alone.
This section offers resources to help you deal with the emotional baggage and mental load of job loss, systemic crises, and personal uncertainty, including tools for mental health support, communities for shared resilience, and practices for self-care and adaptation.
Please send us (ourstopgap@gmail.com) any other mental and emotional health resource you know of so we can share it here.
Insightful People to follow for mental health and psychology-career advice (related to social and climate impact)::
Anabella Botbol is a social psychologist specialized in mental health for social impact
Tori Tsui is a climate justice activist and author who explores the intersections of climate change and mental health.
Peter Shallard Founder of Commit Action, regularly shares psychology-career advice including burnout, productivity and toxic work dynamics.
Amber Rae is a creator sharing self-reflection and emotional coping strategies around uncertainty and identity loss.
Support Organizations and Platforms for Mental Coping:
Letters to Strangers is the largest global youth-for-youth mental health movement and provides anonymous letter-writing, science-informed peer education, and grassroots policy-based advocacy
BetterHelp is the world's largest (online) network of licensed, accredited and experienced therapists
The Climate Psychology Alliance is a transdisciplinary community dedicated to offer support around climate-related anxiety and grief throigh research on eco-emotions and the psychological impact of the climate crisis, training to translate these tough emotions into action, support spaces for people of all ages
Climate Awakening is a project focused on supporting climate workers through collective emotional processing in the form of small groups to sharing and listening sessions about the climate emergency.
Job-Seeker Peer Support Groups either through Linkedin, Reddit, Facebook or other platforms where individuals in similar situations can exchange thoughts with each other.
To-be-read picks to feel understood, encouraged and inspired:
Job Seeking When Struggling with Depression and Anxiety Article by Heather Spiegel for mental health practices, practical tips, goal setting strategies, positive self-talk.
Burned Out, Broke, and Still Applying: Surviving the 2025 Layoff Wave and the Mental Health Crisis No One Talks About Article by Megan Rose on how prolonged unemployment is fueling anxiety and depression, definitely recommended if you’ve been laid off, ghosted after interviews, or are stuck in the exhausting loop of job applications with no response.
Rest as Resistance Book by Tricia Hersey advocates for rest as resistance and restoration, through spirituality, art and activism.
The ‘It’s Not Just You’ Book by Tori Tsui explores the intersections between climate change and mental health, featuring interviews from Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Mikaela Loach, Dominique Palmer, Isaías Hernández and many more.
Friendly reminders:
Even if it doesn’t feel like that at the moment, you are employable and you will find a job again.
Although feelings of shame arise with unemployment (and its financial consequences), be gentle and have compassion with yourself.
Think of ways of how to gain back and retain purpose, structure and social connection. Through projects that are meaningful to you, a routine, regular social interaction and continuing to learn you can find mental stability and a sense of competence.
You are more than your job. Think of other aspects of your life where you feel like you have more agency and that define you. Your work is an expression of your values, not the source of your value.
You are allowed to say no, set boundaries, protect your peace and not accepting any opportunity that presents itself if it doesn’t align with your non-negotiables.
Looking for a new job already is a full-time employment in terms of time, energy and mental load, so take breaks and give yourself credit! Looking for openings, tailoring CVs, submitting applications and attending interviews while keeping up with daily tasks can be draining and consuming. Rest and recharge (not the same!).
If you are experiencing prolonged and/or severe emotions of worthlessness or hopelessness, or signs of depression, anxiety and exhaustion please reach out to professional help (therapy or counseling) and let your loved ones know.
You are valuable, it’s just our system that is broken, politically and economically speaking. Unemployment is a temporary state, this is just one more chapter in between, and you will get there :)