I can totally relate to your current state. I too graduated with a degree in a field that I absolutely love and do well in, chemical engineering. However, working as an engineer sucks. I made some mistakes early on in my career and that has limited my skills, earnings, potential for advancement, etc. to the point where my career has reached its peak about 7 years in. I knew about 4 years into my career that I had made the wrong choice, I spent years 4 through 8 absolutely miserable. Year 7 was the worst! I almost ended up divorced, I was about 10 pounds heavier, high body fat percentage, binge drinking, etc. To make maters worse, my coworkers were starting to have heart attacks, having joint replacements, their spouses were dying, and more. Then I found MMM. It changed my life. I had substantial savings but I was pissing away a huge amount of money to fake happiness. So I started actually making myself more happy.
First, I returned to my old passions, dancing and sewing. I started to care less about work and focused more on my hobbies. Second, I got a job that gave me a pay bump and a lot more vacation time. It also let me change my schedule to only work 4 day weeks. With the better schedule, I started working on my passions and getting in shape. Being happier has meant that I have stopped spending so much money on crap, and my savings rate has sky rocketed. I'm not going to lie and say it was easy or quick. It took me about 6-months to a year to really get somewhere better.
So that's my advice, make yourself happy while you are working. I think this is important because EVERY job will have crappy parts, and you can't let them make you miserable. I suggest that you focus on reducing the "I feel like office work is killing me... physically" feeling first. For me that meant walks during lunch, a standing desk, a kettle bell for quick 5-minute workout sessions throughout the day, and doing squats, dips, and pushups in my office or in the bathroom. I also started doing yoga to help with stress relief. I like to use online videos since they are free. Once you feel better, try to see if you can get better time off, more pay, flex-time, paid or unpaid leave, etc. to leave you with more time. Then force yourself to make the most of your free time. For me, this meant forcing myself to stick to deadlines. For example, I got rid of a bunch of dance clothes and had to make 6 new outfits in 2 month for a festival. You could enter a baking competition or a craft fair where you could sell your leather work.
