I'm trying to get into my very old apple account from years ago. I believe it was one of my first accounts but I couldn't remember the password so I went to forgot password, put in the email and it said the account is locked and can't be used. And the account uses an iCloud email. I don't know what to do. Is there any way to get into the account or am I screwed?

Machine: Macbook 2016 Phone: Note 20 Ultra, Note 8 Services: Primarily gmail accounts, google and samsung for cloud backup.

SHORT VERSION: My apple ID keeps getting locked when I hardly ever mess with it. Im an average computer user who doesn't do much outside of social media, youtube, reddit, quora, pornhub and occassional basic video/image/audio editing. Anyone have thoughts on likely culprits?

LONG VERSION: Why do you suppose this keeps happening seemingly on it's own? I used to think it perhaps had something to do with the rare occasions I used NordVPN because eventually it occured to me thats what kept getting me blocked out of the Mail app. But I havent used a vpn in a long while, like not since 2023. And I don't find myself at an apple ID login screen very much either. If I do it's usually because im trying to download something in the app store, or Dropbox (which I don't really use) is doing that thing where it randomly alerts me that I can't use it until I login with my Apple ID.

It's always months inbetween attempts, but whenever I end up needing to (certain the login info is correct), it tells me my "Apple ID has been locked for security reasons". When I go through the annoying procedure of unlocking it, it always takes some ridiculous extra steps because it never accepts my security answers. As if I forgot my first dog........yea right. As I am not especially cybersecurity literate, i am not sure whether this reads like a hacker threat or just a security wire I somehow keep tripping.

In summary, I am running out of oomph for this and im developing the habit of just saying "screw it" to any mundane problem that takes more than 60 seconds to fix. It's not even a laziness thing, it's simply becoming a "do i even care that much?" thing. I know these companies are trying to make our information more safe and secure but holy sheep sheet, it's just getting more and more annoying to deal with and making it easier and easier to leave it for other things. Is it just me?