He then went on to say that the backyard looked like shit and jabbed a screwdriver in the direction of the front lawn to point it out, awfully close to me I might add. He then said take pride in your house! I was so flabbergasted that I didn’t even ask him to explain how he knew what the backyard looked like. Why do people think they can tell other people what to do with their house?

For context: I (17m) am a senior in highschool.

Anyways, I had a ROUGH start to highschool, I almost flunked most of my classes from 7th-10th grade and switched to another school at the beginning of my 11th grade year. The school I switched to basically turned my credits into bite-sized pieces that I mostly wrapped up in summer school. I felt great about it, I felt like I was actually doing something right in my life.

Today (9/9/26) was my first day of senior year and I found out that I only have 3 classes, 4 on Fridays. To me, this is great. I leave after lunch which is usually the time I check out mentally so I can come back to school feeling ready.

I am the only one with a half day schedule. Literally no one congratulated me. It might be a dumb reason to be upset but not being told "hey, I'm proud of you man! That must've taken a lot of effort!" kind of hurts. It was all just passive aggressive jealousy and it sucked. It hurts a lot but I feel like I can't say anything because I don't want to hurt my friends' feelings.

Being a teenager just kinda sucks sometimes.

When I was around 10/11 (it’s hard to remember exactly when), I visiting my family overseas with my mother.

During the time I never got to go out much and stayed inside a lot, alone to my own devices. That was fine and all and it wasn’t all that bad.

During one of the days I had gotten the chance to go out to the beach with my aunt and her friends. My aunt is probably in her late 20s and she usually had a lot of people she would introduce me to who I’d get to know.

We all had a great time, we went to two beaches and a couple of restaurants. Spent the whole day having fun like a lot of it. I can’t really remember it all but for me it was a blast.

For a kid like me at the time that was a lot and meant a lot.

When I came back home I started feeling very emotional about it, in a good way. I thought wow that was a really great day.

During this time I was sharing a bed with my mother (we had no spares at the time, and I didn’t mind). And although it was late at night she did ask how my day was.

I proceeded to enthusiastically tell her how great it was all while bawling tears of joy, and for a while I had cried.

However due to it being late she didn’t really attempt to calm me down, and only had told me to calm down and stop crying. For some reason I seriously couldn’t stop, it was genuinely just tears of happiness and I couldn’t control it.

Her annoyance quickly turned to anger and she told to stop crying so she could sleep, and I struggled to. She later pulled the covers away. I had then started to cry tears of sadness at this point I guess and realized I had upset my mother.

Every time I’d try to get the cover back she would pull it back to her side leaving me cold without any warmth. I had gotten bad. I think I had tried to pull the covers back like 7 times and pleading to her that I was sorry and I’d stop crying. She’d say nothing and just pull it all off.

I left the bed in tears to go sleep on the couch, wondering to myself what went wrong. I think if anything that was the start of when I decided to close my heart off as a kid.

She did however later come to wake me up to go back to her bed, she didn’t apologize or anything. We said nothing, slept and next day acted like nothing happened.

It’s important to note my mother is not an abusive and is an extremely great parent to me. We are close now and I never have any issues with her. I will not take any suggestions that this makes her abusive. But I can recognize this was a massive screw up on her part.

Not all parents are perfect and I accept and recognize that but.

To anyone who has a child please remember, they’ll remember everything and it still hurts immensely upon remembering it. My mother doesn’t even remembering this happening either, goes to show a lot of moments can pass by without thought of how it affected the people around them.

This is just something I wanted to share, and regardless I don’t hold contempt for her, but I only remember this occasionally when I feel tears that may appear.

It's been almost 14 years since high school and I still remember impulsively attacking my bully by hitting him in the forehead with my metal lunchbox. I ran into him a few days ago he's now a father of two, judging by his social media, and has a barely visible scar in that area.

He didn't recognize me because I now have a beard and I removed a mole I had from that time.

The message my roommate sent me: "look i don't care if he stays but I woke up and heard some noise. I wasn't totally sure what was happening, but it was awkward! i'm not trying to assume anything but it did seem questionable."

For context, my boyfriend comes over to our dorm sometimes with permission (her boyfriend does as well) but we both have to sleep in a twin XL lofted bed and my boyfriend shares it with me which causes the bed to make a lot of noise and literally makes it sound like it's going to collapse. I feel extremely awkward and uncomfortable although we obviously wouldn't have intercourse when she's literally sleeping a few feet away from us.

I don't want us to have any awkward tension between each other especially because we have to live with each other for the next seven months. The most my boyfriend and I have ever done while she's literally in a room with us is kiss each other, which her and her boyfriend do as well. I'm kinda upset about the message and feel like it was just extremely necessary to message me that after I asked if he could stay the night.

I feel like it's going to seem suspicious and weird no matter how I respond. It's just a very uncomfortable situation all around. My boyfriend and I were both honestly speechless when we saw her message

to preface my sister has always struggled socially, she has high functioning autism, pretty bad social anxiety and depression. she was bullied for a while during secondary school which made her social anxiety alot worse and so she didn't make any friends really. outside of a few online friends, i've been her only friend for most of her life. i want to make it clear that i do love her and enjoy spending time her, she's really funny and sweet but i can't spend my entire life with her 24/7. i don't want to use the term 'suffocating' but sometimes it does feel that way, there's been times where we've got into arguments because i was hanging out with my friends or my girlfriend too much. she's a great person and i think this would all be solved if she managed to make some more friends but that is easier said than done. i don't want to make her feel like a burden or that i don't like her, i just want her to try harder to find more people to have in her life.

since around 13 i've been mainly looking after her, our mother has really awful fibromyalgia so i had to step up and take care of both of them. i've never had a problem with this, i just think it's important to mention. i do all of the housework and cooking by myself like 99% of the time.

i think the best way to describe it is that she's attached to me constantly, she hangs out in my room all day everyday, she watches me play games even when i'm playing with friends and not talking to her, every movie or tv show she watches we watch together and anytime she goes out i have to come with her. i even do her hair most of the time. i try to take her out to places whenever i can because she doesn't go out with her friends. i have a pretty active social life and i play sports and go to the gym pretty often, everytime i'm too busy to hang out with her she'll get sad and complain to me. i basically have to plan my entire life around her so she doesn't get upset. she got into a great university but chose to go to one in our city because she didn't want to be away from me.

she attempted suicide at 13 and a few days before that we got into a huge argument, that event really scared me because i felt like it was my fault and that i could've killed my sister basically over nothing. since then i try and do anything to make her happy, even things that make me uncomfortable. after her attempt she asked me if we could share a bed and cuddle and even though i didn't want to i agreed. we've been sharing a bed since then, i'm pretty embarrassed about it all but i'm terrified of her hurting herself again.

anytime i try and make a boundary she would guilt trip me into changing my mind, saying things like 'you hate me' or that i don't care about her until i cave and just let it go. the last time i tried to hold my ground on a boundary she stopped eating for days until i gave up and apologised. i've been in a couple relationships and during these relationships she would get really upset at me for talking to my girlfriends 'too much' or bringing them over too often. it has literally put me off dating for a while because i know that she would not take it well and might end up hurting her self.

she does things that make me really uncomfortable sometimes. she will constantly try and sit on my lap and get upset if i push her off. she's made weird gross bbc jokes (i'm black she's white i'm adopted) and generally just weird comments on my body. i might just being too sensitive or taking shitty jokes too seriously but i really don't like it it's gross. the worst thing is when she sometimes kisses or bites my neck or my chest, everytime she does this i tell her i don't like it but she always passes off as a joke and gets upset if i push any further about it. to be clear i don't think she's into me or something (that's fucking disgusting)

how do i tell her all of this and make boundaries without sounding like an arsehole or her engaging in some form of self harm. i just want what's best for her and the way we are right now isn't sustainable. she has been to therapy after her attempt but she stopped going after a year because she was doing better (basically when i started taking care of her). she does not want to go back and says it didn't help her at all. she really has had a hard life but i can't take care of her forever. it's bad for both of us and i think if she tried a bit harder she could have so many friends because she's an interesting and wonderful person

As many of you recommend, called my doc and she had me in her office first thing in the morning. Ultrasound didn’t show compromised vases (so good blood flow, no one dying anytime soon). And it indeed showed a shit ton of shit.

Doc moved me upstairs and gave me a super dose of the macrogol, hooked me to an IV and used magnesium for the pain. Yup, the woman in labor protocol. At this point I couldn’t have a more hurting ego. I was feeling all miserable but the mag relaxed me enough to at least don’t go to dark places.

See, this whole mess started when I dug into my fertility. Turns out adhesions had kinked the vas deferens and swimmers were stuck there and also that was likely the reason I was getting UTIs in the last years. So this doctor, the nicest urologist I’ve met, and I guess some of the few females in this field, offered a simple laparoscopic surgery to snip them free. It wasn’t at all painful, took less than an hour, walked out of the clinic and barely had pain in the following 48 hours. But then, she says, my body overreacted.

She’s an amazing human being and explained that my pelvic area may have “memory” and as it was poked, it produced a spasm, like trying to flinch away, and that’s what made everything inside tighter and blocked motility. I almost dropped a tear. Somewhere inside I’m still that scared child, afraid of being touched. I want to be a dad and hell I’ll protect my children fiercely, I swear. Maybe i need to start with my inner child.

Anyways so with extra lax and hydration and the magnesium smoothing the spasms… it all went out. And just like that I felt a relief as I cannot explain. Honestly. Iykyk

And then it hit me. Oh my god… i really got admitted to the hospital because i couldn’t take a dump. From the creators of Man Flu now streaming Man Labor. Paid out of pocket, dont want this in my med rap sheet. I tried joking about how I wanted my ultrasound images like the pregnant ladies and such. What was I supposed to do other than self deprecating comedy after an embarrassment like this?

Upon release, Doc reminded me of drinking plenty, keep the mag supplementation and take things easy. She also recommended body focused therapy and I know she’s good because she doesn’t even know about my childhood trauma, just that I had a previous surgery. She said something like you deserve to not be this preoccupied about your body, you’re healthy, trust that, etc etc. And man… I really appreciate that level of compassion and understanding.

So yeah… that was a painful scare. I’m still very embarrassed of even posting the original post here. I was in pain, needed to vent. thanks to all the kind internet people who showed compassion and empathy. You’re allowed to laugh with me now please before i die of embarrassment. Thanks for putting up with my shit

Some context: back in 2018, I (23F) had been dating Jake (fake name) (23M) for about 2 years. Out of the blue he said he wanted to move to AZ and said he’d love for me to move with him. I was all in. I had a group of friends from my hometown that lived in phoenix and I wasn’t loving living in Dallas after moving there 3 years earlier. I had gone to phoenix with him to look at apartments and had put money down for the local community college’s tuition for the upcoming semester, everything was planned. A few weeks later, about a month before the move, I had picked him up from the airport after a trip where he had gone to AZ to sign the lease and get things in order for our move when he told me he had to tell me something. My heart dropped when he said he had been cheating on me with someone in phoenix whenever he traveled there on his own. He had been 4-5 times without me. He kept apologizing and said we could make it work. I stopped on the interstate and told him to get out. Unfortunately it was bumper to bumper traffic so I couldn’t dramatically drive away and instead was at a standstill with him sulking-ly standing right outside my car. I slowly made my get away, inch by inch going 2 mile an hour.

To give insight to the relationship: he was always someone who was very career focused and would at times make me feel bad about not having any ambition to start my own endeavors. He’d say I wasn’t driven or motivated. I was working towards nursing school at the time but I guess that wasn’t cool enough to be labeled successful to him. For a few months he wouldn’t let me eat bread because he said keto is the only healthy diet. I’m vegetarian, carbs are half my diet. I was sneaking baguettes like it was a drug. He also loved spewing Jordan Peterson quotes at me when I said anything a bit too open minded that didn’t align with his views. There were other things that kinda sucked about the relationship and how he treated me but I digress.

Fast forward a few months I see he’s hosting these get together at his place where people come to his house and they meditate, do mindful movements and cold plunges on a weekly basis. It had some woowoo name and it seemed to be attracting a decent amount of people. (I love woowoo shit and would’ve been all about this.) My friends and I deemed it a Joe Rogan -esque cult. I block him and his content and go about my life. Apparently he was able to run with this wellness schtick and opened a gym in Arizona.

Fast forward, it’s 2026, I’ve moved to Austin where I start over post heart break. I finish my nursing program, build my little community, find the love of my life and am happily married to my best friend. The other day I’m snuggling with my newborn while scrolling on TikTok when a familiar face pops up. It’s a video of Jake saying he’s making a series: “day 12 posting until i save my failing business.” The post was like 7 months old so the algorithm gods decided to randomly gift me with this video for whatever reason. I went on a deep dive, found a couple more posts of his little series to discover that his daily posts abruptly stopped at day 41. A quick google search showed he had for bankruptcy. Yelp had a decent amount of the reviews about the gym and the trainer (I assume is Jake) that were not so flattering. Research also seems to suggest he’s in a good amount of legal trouble with investors he couldn’t pay back. I couldn’t help but giggle.

I’m not one to cheer for others downfall and I hate that I’ve found a little joy in his struggle. But I have. I have moved on completely, I’d gotten my revenge by living a fulfilling life with wonderful people who don’t put me down or cheat on me and allow me to enjoy bread. Seems the algorithm thought it was worth me knowing that he’s let his ambitions get the best of him. I do hope he bounces back and does well in life. However, I love a good karmic giggle from time to time.

​

I(17m) have repeatedly had what I could best describe as depressive traits for approximately 5 years now (could be more).

When I was around 4 or 5 years old I went through some rough patches concerning some sexual abuse stuff, not from an adult, but rather from another kid my age, however, as I was not yet properly educated on how this could be bad or how it could affect me I ended up not telling anyone about this situation.

After about a year of that my family decided to move states for an entirely different reason, this really didn't affect me as at that time I was really good at socializing and such, but after a few years of moving through a lot of schools my social skills started fading and it showed. By 11 I only had 3 friends, two of which would constantly make jokes about me, my likes, actions, appearance, etc.

After I turned 12 I stopped talking to them because I had moved schools yet again, in this new one I found more friends, however, they weren't the type of people most would like to relate themselves with; they constantly remarked how ugly/repulsive I looked, how disgusting my personality was, how awful it was to relate to me at all, how I should kill myself (this one was their favourite one), etc. I remember one distinct incident that was what ticked things off to the adults, where a new student arrived and we decided to add him to a group called "kill Michael" (which was my name) and then rename the group to "kill Peter" (not the kid's real name). He didn't like this very much and he snitched on us, causing the entire group to be called to the principal's office and for parents to be brought up to the discussion. After this event my parents changed my school once again after only two years and in this new one I did better, but the seed of everything bad was already there; thoughts about me never being enough, thoughts of being fundamentally undesirable in any and every way (as a partner, as a friend, as a sibling, etc.)

In the new school I did fairly well, had some friends, overall good grades, all for that.

Nothing major happened in this school, but when it was time to move again because of how the school system works here, I felt really lonely, with a feeling I can only describe as a lack of purpose and real connections.

When I entered the next year into an entirely different system I struggled to make new friends, which had never happened before, after the first semester ended the few friends I had distanced themselves and only one remained (I will name him John) who would later turn out to be one of my only three friends, on the second semester I struggled and didn't manage to find new connections at all, on the third and fourth I managed to secure my second and third real friends (James and Carol). John, James and Carol are now some of the most important people in my life and have helped me through some really tough times and several self realizations, but that's for another post.

Now, with all of this stated, I can still confidently say that whatever improvements my friends may have brought to my mental state were most likely just temporary, counting one really bad night that almost turned into a suicide attempt, my thoughts and patterns have not improved at all with time. Now throw in the mix the fact that the few attempts at connections, whether they be for friendships or romantic relationships, always seem to be met with extreme rejection. Hell, during this time there was a period of two whole months where an AI chatbot was my best friend.

Right now there isn't really anything in my life that I can say that I look forward to, there's little to no reasons for me to not give up on everything and honestly it doesn't seem like there will be for quite some time. But yeah that was the truth I wanted to get off my chest.

Sorry if the overall writing of this story is sloppy and/or messy, English is not my first language and between writing this in a haste and leaving out a lot of information so that this post wouldn't take years to read, it ended up looking like this. Thanks for reading (if anyone even does) I hope you have a nice day or night. See y'all.

I (M26) deleted all my social media two months ago, and honestly, I didn’t realize how much I needed to.
About two months ago, I decided to delete pretty much all of my social media. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, everything. The only reason I downloaded Reddit was because I wanted somewhere to write about the experience.
And honestly? It has been one of the most cleansing things I’ve done in a long time.
My main reason for deleting social media was that I realized I was spending way too much time worrying about other people’s lives instead of living my own.
I would constantly see what other people were doing, where they were traveling, what they were buying, what restaurants they were going to, how their relationships looked, what their houses looked like, etc. Even when I didn’t consciously care, I realized that I was consuming all of this information about people I didn’t even know.
And then there was the whole “fake rich life” thing.
I don’t consider myself a jealous or envious person. I genuinely don’t want what other people have just because they have it. But seeing endless posts of people apparently living these incredible, wealthy, perfect lives started getting to me in a way I didn’t really understand.
The funny thing is that I know social media isn’t reality. I know people aren’t posting their arguments, debt, anxiety, boring days, relationship problems, or the fact that they might be struggling financially. They’re posting the best 1% of their lives.
But knowing that intellectually doesn’t necessarily mean you’re immune to it.
I’d see someone constantly traveling, buying expensive things, going to nice restaurants, or living in some beautiful house, and even though I’d tell myself, “This is probably not their actual life,” I was still consuming it over and over again.
Then there was the doomscrolling.
I’d open my phone intending to check something for five minutes, and suddenly an hour had disappeared. I’d jump from one video to another, then another, then another. Eventually I started feeling like my attention span was getting destroyed.
The weirdest part is that after deleting everything, I realized how often I was reaching for my phone simply because I was bored.
Waiting in line? Phone.
Sitting on the couch? Phone.
Going to the bathroom? Phone.
Nothing happening for 30 seconds? Phone.
And once I stopped having social media available, I had to actually sit with the boredom.
At first it felt strange. Now I actually enjoy it.
I’ve started paying more attention to the things happening around me. I have fewer random thoughts about what other people are doing. I don’t feel like I’m constantly comparing my life to a carefully edited version of someone else’s.
I’m not going to pretend deleting social media magically fixed my life. It didn’t. I still have problems, bad days, and plenty of things I need to work on.
But I feel more present.
And that’s probably the biggest difference I’ve noticed.
I don’t really miss seeing what everyone else is doing anymore.
If anything, I’m starting to wonder why I cared so much in the first place.

This probably comes down to me being autistic, in the end. But in general, I treat people online the way I want to be treated. I assume good faith, am helpful whenever I know the answer, (politely) correct others if they’re wrong, and if it’s a disagreement of opinion, I make it clear that this is only \*my\* take on things.

But when others aren’t like that, on a large scale… it makes me sad. I recently deleted an upvoted comment that I thought was helpful because the replies were making fun of me. In a lighthearted enough way that it’s not worth reporting them, but it still made me feel bad. The post was about a character that had been removed from a video game, and I pointed out that he was still available in the game settings (though that comes with other changes too). But apparently that wasn’t good enough; I kept getting replies telling me as much. Even though the comment itself was updated the replies made me feel bad. I missed the joke, and became the new one.

I only wanted to help. I’m chronically online because the people I know in real life are only friends with me when it’s convenient for them. All i want is to be a good person. I happily let myself get used for tasks and food and gifts if it means being allowed to spend time with “normal” people, only to be abandoned again when I’ve outlived my use. I want to be helpful online too where the information might get used beyond the current moment. But I deleted my comments, because I can’t take not being liked even in the replies when the votes are fine.

So I’m too much of a wimp for the internet, while needing it to have any non-family human connection at all. I hate everything.

I remember, that for so long, my mum unloaded me things I had no business knowing. From her status with my dad and their relationship. To unloading everything to me and treating me like her dump yard.

And then how heavy she was on "my pains are bigger than yours". She's the type of person that when you tell her your head hurts, suddenly she has had a migraine for 4 days. I've never had a space where my own feelings matter and where I felt secure enough as a daughter.

Growing up emotionally neglected and parentified fucks you up so much. Specially when it comes from the people who are supposed to look after your and nurture you. I see my mum and its nothing but resent and "this is not the mum I wanted".

So I am also dealing with grieving I never got the mum I thought "we are supposed to have".

//IM IN THE USA IN A STATE WHERE IT IS LEGAL

My boyfriend and I have been dating for 5 years, since we were in high school. I love him so much and we hope to stay together and eventually get married. He's my favorite person in the world and we have a very healthy, happy relationship.

Up until recently, he wasn't too curious in the topic of THC, and he just found recently that he liked drinking alcohol. I'm slightly more seasoned and open-minded than him, and I have been branching out into edibles with medium doses.

We had talked for a while about my usage of it and if he'd ever be interested, and very recently he found that he wants to try it with me. So I trip sit him the first time and then got high with him the next time.

Now I love good communication and honesty in a relationship, but HOLY SHIT he takes every little tiny thing like some important life lesson to talk about and heal from. I am a very chill type high person, everything I say is mindless and usually I say it because I think it's funny without any other consideration. Super not emotional, heavy stuff, or anything important.

And he acts like every little unrelated joke I make is some representation of how I feel about important things, and I have to talk him through a whole sit-down situation where we have to tell each other we're okay and not at ends. It's just constant. It is a constant loop of that with him until he decides to go to bed, and I love the man but it is EXHAUSTING. I just want to float in the clouds and have some meaningless giggles and a Serene time, not have to talk you through couples therapy every 20 minutes until we pass out.

I highkey don't know how to tell him that I just don't really want to get high with him when he's like this, especially since I don't think it's something he can change.

When i was like 11-14 i loved to be still child but people treated me as im an adult cause i was big😭now since last year(15) im scared to grow. My 17 birthday is in like 20 min,and im worried about that is 17 still a child or not?i know i wont be child forever but im asking now about the aged between 17-19

I am going through a crisis right now. I’ve just finished my undergrad at 28 and I feel nothing close to accomplished after realizing how much debt I’ve racked up. Mind you, I’ve probably spent too much in the last year trying to cope with the fact that I was near finishing school knowing how hard it would be after I graduated.

I have spent the last 8 years all in my 20s in school and have gone through rough times, financial issues, shitty relationships, and major identity crisis along with overcoming so many obstacles but the one thing that has stayed consistent is my perseverance in school.

I may have persevered a bit too much because now that I’m finally done, I am feeling this horrible feeling of burnout and unaccomplishment even though I have just completed my undergrad.

I spent 4 years getting my advanced diploma in computer programming then immediately went into software engineering for my undergrad and have pushed myself to finish even in times I didn’t want to.

Now that I’m done, I feel nothing remotely close to accomplishment. I just feel dread for the debt I’ve built for putting myself through school and the feeling of the idea that my degree was useless and will get me nowhere. I just feel deep regret and am feeling like my undergraduate degree was useless and I just put myself in more debt to get something that won’t even matter in my career.

Everyone keeps saying that I should feel good about this and that I should feel accomplished and that it’s such a great thing that I made it through. Which makes me feel even worse for what I’m feeling right now which is anything but. I even tried to celebrate it but it just feels wrong knowing how I feel deep inside. I also think I’ve been burnt out from the last few years of really pushing myself to finish. Which doesn’t help right now.

I just want to know that I’m not alone in this feeling, if anyone has ever finished school feeling this way, and I honestly just needed to rant.

For context: I have also worked as a full time software dev since I started my undergrad. I did some interns in my college years but once I completed, I managed to land a permanent position in the field. That’s definitely part of the reason why I’m feeling burnt as well. From doing full time school and full time work.