Exactly. You're right about that. The problem IS your self-image. It's what we call inner game. It's your confidence level about who you are. You're not comfortable within your own skin.
I do understand the desperate feeling as well. I felt that way myself until I lost my virginity when I was about 19. Even after that first girl I felt desperate, thinking I would never find another girl. I completely understand the feeling.
Now, today, some say that I'm "unemployed" because I don't work a "normal" job. But, my identity isn't tied up in what I do daily or the lifestyle that I lead, as in I don't try to keep up with Jones's in an effort to derive my self-worth from that.
Without love it all seems worthless. Yes, I definitely understand that one as well. In fact, when you have a person that really means something in your life, it truly does make everything else just something that you share with them. The material stuff isn't the main thing.
It's all about how you feel about yourself. That's where it starts. You have to like yourself first. You have to be ok with who you are, with or without whatever job you do. With or without whatever you drive or where you live.
You have to know who you are. Not who the world wants you to be, but who you actually are.
And btw, 24 is young