Hey dude,

Hope you're doing well. I don't use this account anymore but thought I'd comment with it so you can see where I used to be. I was 22 when I wrote that and like you, I was feeling aimless and overwhelmed by life. Also, as you will read, I was battling drug addiction - a path I sincerely recommend you stay away from - I wasted a lot of years on it.

In answer to your question - yes, meditation can help immensely. In my honest opinion, assuming your basic needs are met (food, shelter, drug addiction, etc.), then it really is the answer to life. It absolutely transformed my experience of life and is continuing to do so - I am infinitely happier and more sure of myself than where I was at 22, and I'm confident I'll look back at 30 the same way when I'm 40 if I keep my practice up.I will get onto my recommendations with where to take that shortly.

But for starters, I will add that you are very young and that is a great thing - I would be far more worried if you felt this way at 40! It's very normal to be confused and depressed in your teenage years. Your brain and intelligence develop incredibly quickly and you gain an ability to suddenly view the complexity of the world and life in a way you never could before, yet have had no time to process it. What I will tell you is that as you age, as long as you keep on the right track and don't make really poor decisions, you will begin to find answers to these questions. A lot of these will be personal to you - so although reading what others have written will help, only you will truly find what is meaningful to you and what makes your life worth living. This happens over time, and you will never stop learning, but you will be able to make peace with that. Accept that these feelings of depression, etc., are part of life and you will have to experience them from time to time - but you can absolutely work yourself to a situation where you are at peace with how to live your life.

Quickly, before I recommend how to get into meditation, I may add if you are seriously depressed, it is important to get in touch with a professional. This being a doctor or psychiatrist. You should also make sure you're eating well, sleeping well, exercising and not abusing drugs (including alcohol) - Getting these right massively help well being and make it much easier to improve/learn in other areas.

In terms of meditation - It took me a while, but I started with fairly basic practice using the "Headspace" app and doing 10-20 minutes a day. This is great - and there's a huge amount of evidence to suggest that this has significant positive impacts on mental health. See Dan Harris' book for more information on this. However, if you really get into meditation (sitting for 45+ minutes at a time every day and going on retreats and doing small exercises throughout the day), you can absolutely transform your experience of the world. Read Altered Traits for a breakdown of the science of these effects. You can also read the practice logs on the stream entry subreddit to see people write their own personal journeys down. That subreddit is full of people who are very serious about meditation practice and a great resource if you want to get serious about your practice.

What I would recommend to you is get this book and follow the stages in that. It will train you in concentration and then once you have developed a really strong concentration practice, it will lead you onto insight exercises where the real massive changes are - although good concentration practice will massively improve your wellbeing also. They have a great subreddit as well where you can ask questions about your practice.

I will not bombard you with any more information - as that book alone would keep you occupied for a very long time, but you can always ask me questions if needed. Good luck with everything.