Your post reminded me of Gautama Buddha, who looked around and saw suffering, and devoted his life to seeking an end to suffering, and that's what his enlightenment was about, the four noble truths of suffering. Enlightenment doesn't mean getting high and happy, it means full understanding, which is grounding, not "out there."
I'm not a Buddhist but I study Buddhism and there is much that makes sense, and I also think Gautama was somewhat of an ass, which is actually quite helpful and keeps me out of an unquestioning cultlike mentality. Sometimes making sense of things releases unnecessary suffering caused by illusions and attachment to them. I highly recommend reading about the four noble truths, and if you want to go further, the book In the Buddha's Words, which is based on the earliest written records to get as close as possible to Gautama's original foundational teachings. I also recommend reading about the eight wordly winds or vicissitudes of life.
From a philosophical perspective, there's a lot of good stuff in Buddhism. Along with Stoicism, which has a lot of overlap and is, to me, more practical to practice than meditation, they are complementary philosophies that help me to manage with my eyes open the shit of life you talk about, because it's not going to go away. It's always been around. Mindfulness, awareness, whatever you want to call it, it's not a high, it's not woo-woo, it's recognizing the shit as well as the good, which is temporary (and therefore bound up with suffering), being mindful through all of it and not clinging to any of it, and therefore having a level of well-being and equanimity throughout both the highs and the lows so that neither throws one off balance. I prefer Buddhism as a philosophy rather than a religious community or practice, just as I enjoy Stoicism as a philosophy. As the Stoic philosopher Epictetus said, one goes to philosophy as one goes to the hospital when one is ill. That's also why one goes to religion, which is also a philosophy. Both religion and secular philosophy bring healing and guidance for the spirit, which experiences all as well as provides a compass, only with religion there is the illusion that a deity is on one's side, which can help with feeling supported but can also harm. Philosophy has soothed me and helped me to maintain and fortify my grounding after realizing there are no higher beings supporting me, but there is something higher in everyone that they can connect with; in Stoicism, it is one's virtues.
Let me know if you want any resources, I'm happy to share, but don't want to push if you're not interested. My thing may not be your thing. You may seek different answers, or different paths to finding answers. Every path can directly and indirectly reveal much just for having engaged with it. That's also what philosophy is about, besides medicine and guidance -- it's about seeking answers, seeking truth or, really, Truth. That activity is something life has to offer.
