Image description: A crude drawing of a stick man sitting in a chair in an unusual position. Right leg is bent at the knee with the sole of the foot flat on the seat and the knee up towards the chin. The left leg is bent at the knee where the lower leg is flat against the seat and the foot is on the seat under the buttocks.
If you don’t mind me asking, what was the environment? That sounds miserable.
Oh that aspect was, other aspects were less bad; when I was a teenager, I kept asking my mum if I could have the basement for a hangout spot/workshop, she eventually let me.
When I started down there I was just a tad bit shorter than the doorways, by the time I left, I was having to crouch when I stood under the regularly ceilings.
Some aspects were good; it let me develop a love for taking things apart and rebuilding them, designing and building things from scratch, working with friends on projects, etc.
Some aspects were less than optimal; I had a 3d printer running almost 24/7 down there, creating a lot of nasty dust + I used to smoke back then, so the air quality of the space was terrible.
The big mistake was likely sleeping down there, being in that environment basically 24/7 was certainly unhealthy.
Okay that sounds a lot less insane than the mental picture I had. I was like, “mines? Some weird construction…? Snow piercer?” But it sounds like just regular level younger people doing obsessive things to the point of resembling self-harm.