Eh, what I've been told from multiple people including former PMs/founders is that if I'm out of work for another year and nobody is willing to take a chance on me, the gap will be interpreted as coasting and the door to tech career will close. I'd like to think that someone out of work for years can score just any job in tech because hiring managers are compassionate, but reality is companies need shit done and a candidate with even a 6-month gap will ALWAYS outclass a candidate with a 3-year gap. These things really do have hard limits and it puts a deadline on how much time before it's fruitless.
Assuming you're going the LinkedIn/recruiter route at least. If a friend is going to recruit you off the street it might not apply, but... at that point it's a different type of battle. How to make tech friends for material gain while chronically depressed, broke, moody...
> the gap will be interpreted as coasting and the door to tech career will close.
It's not nearly as stark as all that. It's true that some companies will take it as a negative signal, but not all, and it's not a thing that's impossible to overcome.
Mood definitely will get in the way. Can you do open source work? I would try to use that negativity and pick whatever OSS I use that pisses me off the most and start fixing things. Post about it and go from there.
Assuming you're going the LinkedIn/recruiter route at least. If a friend is going to recruit you off the street it might not apply, but... at that point it's a different type of battle. How to make tech friends for material gain while chronically depressed, broke, moody...