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Yeah I relate a lot with you on that. But I never managed to actually keep at it. I've tried 5 times to pick up the guitar again after giving it up, and always failed.
That didn't really improve my mental health and self-esteem, ngl. So yeah, all props to you!
Yeah, I get it, guitar is a really hard instrument. I wasn't starting from scratch during Covid. I was a professional musician as a teen, playing other instruments, and picked up the basics of guitar. I put it aside when I went to college for music history, and then spent many years in the classical music biz.
So I have a very strong music background to draw from. When I picked it up again, it felt like Id never held a guitar before, but I still rembered the chord shapes, and I still had a good grip of music theory. I also have enough musical experience coaching professional musicians that I didn't need a teacher, I knew what I needed to do to learn this.
On top of all that, the best teachers in the world are on YouTube, so anything I couldn't figure out on my own, I had plenty of resources to consult.
Despite all of that, the real key was establishing a solid daily practice routine, something I couldn't do when I was young, in school, working in a record store, partying with friends, and chasing girls. Here's what I tell new players about practice:
Put your guitar on a stand next to your bed, so it's the first and last thing you see every day. Play it for about 20 minutes when you first get up, and 20 minutes before going to bed. Then find another 20 minutes sometime during the day.
That will give you 60 minutes per day of sharply focused practice. If you were to practice once a day for an hour, you'd be focused for the first 20 minutes, then your mind starts to wander for the additional 40 minutes. By breaking it up, every minute is focused practice, and you'll progress much faster. It also gives your fingertips a chance to rest after 20 minutes.
Also, if you miss a session, you only miss one, and you'll still get 2 others that day. If you only do one long session per day, and you miss it, you miss an entire day of practice, not just 1/3.
If all you do is practice once a day, then you really only get one serious 20 minute practice block each day. So if you do three twenty minute sessions a day, its like jamming 3 days of practice in a single day. At the end of a week, you've had 21 days of practice instead of 7. Obviously, your progress will be much, much faster.
So give it a sixth try, but use my practice regimen, and hopefully it will stick this time. Good luck!