Messages not working on MacBook Pro 2020 + macOS Monterey 12.4 update not working either

Hi, was wondering if anybody could help me. Messages on my mac have stopped working and it either shows the log in screen (I tried logging in multiple times but it loads for about 5 mins and then shows a message saying "Unknown error occurred. Please try again.") or, if I force quit the app and reopen it, it shows my conversations but then, when trying to send a message, it says "Cannot send message. iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message." I've looked at my settings and everything is enabled for messages, so I'm really stumped on what to do. I've tried searching online for solutions but there's nothing specific to my problem. This has happened before though, but I couldn't get to my conversations before. I have also frequently had some problems with my iCloud so maybe it's a problem with that? On that note though, I'm also having problems to update my Mac with the newest update. I couldn't update properly before and had to boot into Safe Mode to do it (it did update but nothing changed e.g the tabs on Safari are still the same). It's possible that the Messages problem could be linked to the updates but I'm clueless on this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you!!!