Honestly, picking up some shifts at a local coffee shop might help. Or doing some fine arts night classes.

Or if he's lucky enough not to need to worry about money for a while, then spend half a year doing Peace Corps or some sort of voluntourism project. Walk the Camino de Santiago or the Appalachian Trail. Spend a week in the second-largest city of every country in Africa, in reverse alphabetical order. Whatever.

His current situation isn't making him happy. So try something very different for a while, get some perspective, then reassess.