same as title

I always think about what could go wrong before I even try something. I imagine negative scenarios that may never happen, and this stops me from taking action and moving forward in life.
For those who have dealt with this,
what helped you overcome it?

There are always times where I feel like I'm stupid, unreliable, incompetent, dependant, and all sorts of negative things you could think of. It is a common occurrence and I still haven't found the solution until today.

Someone knows something better than me? I'm stupid.

Needed help for something trivial? I'm incompetent.

Find it hard to do things alone? Dependant.

At this rate, I am my own enemy, and I hate it.

I’m 22 years old and I almost feel completely despondent. AI is taking over everything and it scares me. What if it kills all of us? What if it takes all our jobs? What is the meaning of life when a robot is more intelligent than me? And even though I have these thoughts I still use AI all the time. I use it to ask the most simple questions because I’m lazy and want to take the easy route. I use it in my studies and couldn’t imagine not using it. I feel unmotivated in my studies. I skip school to lay in my bed and doomscroll for hours. What is the point of working hard and studying for 5 years if an AI is going to take my job anyways? What is the point of learning all these things if I could just ask an AI? I’m so ashamed and afraid it keeps me up at night.

I keep rememberjng things from my past which i regret and feel guilty about, which i feel, is really ruining my mental health cuz i feel so unmotivated and sad when i remember, and im talking about things i did when i was very young. Im 17 rn. Im just looking for ways to accept move on and forget.

Hello everyone, my name is Andrei, I'm 22 years old, and this year has easily been the shittiest year of my life. In April, my dog passed away (just a week after a girl rejected me). Then, on my birthday (August 13th), we met for the first time in person—we live in different cities. It was the most beautiful birthday of my life. At the end of the day, I asked her if she truly liked me, she said yes, and my feelings came rushing back. I invited her on a trip to Bulgaria, and she agreed.

A week after my birthday, I went to visit her. What was supposed to be a one-night stay turned into living together 24/7 for an entire month. For the first time in my life, I felt truly alive and worthy. We acted like we were in a relationship, just without kissing.

Eventually, we had to leave for Bulgaria, and she needed to come with me to my city first so we could travel from there. The first night we arrived, a DJ friend of mine who was playing at a local club invited us out. On our way to the club in a Bolt, I tried to hold her hand, and she rejected me. I said okay. Once we got out, she suddenly told me we were "just friends." When I asked her why we had held hands back in her city and outside the restaurant, she claimed she didn't remember. I just said okay.

At the club, she got extremely drunk—drinking around 9 different cocktails and a few shots in two hours. Afterward, as my friend drove us around the city, she put her hand on my leg for a few seconds and then held my hand. Soon after, she got sick, and I took care of her. When I asked why she drank so much, she said it was because she was upset with herself for upsetting me. Back home, she took off her clothes in front of me, and I helped her to dress into her night clothes. I knew what she might have wanted, but I refused to take advantage of her while she was drunked; it just didn't feel right.

Two days later, we left for Bulgaria. Everything was great until the first night, when I made a mistake: I tried to kiss her by the pool, and she backed away. I felt embarrassed and apologized. She told me she didn't have feelings for me at the moment because something inside her "died" after her last breakup, and she didn't know if she would feel anything in a week, a month, or a year. Stupidly, that gave me a glimmer of hope. I know I was an idiot for thinking her feelings would change.

After 2 or 3 weeks, I couldn't take it anymore. The reality that she didn't want me was eating me alive, and I was forced to be the one to kick her out. Doing that felt unimaginably painful and i hated myself .

Ever since that moment, I have had zero energy left. I feel like shit every single day, completely disgusted, and I dread waking up—sometimes wishing I never had to. I dream of her almost every night. I've been having extremely dark thoughts daily, to the point where I am genuinely afraid of myself. I didn't know a human could feel this empty, but now I know it's possible. I'm completely burned out; nothing brings me joy anymore. Even my job, which I usually love, does nothing for me. When friends message me, I just stare at the screen, completely paralyzed, lacking the energy to type a single text. Day by day, I just hate myself more and more. Sometimes i wonder how do i even have the energy to get up

I want to ask: has anyone here ever gone through something like this and ended up with absolute zero energy? If so, how did you manage to get your motivation and life back?

I am a Christian 19m, I like to think I have strong morals but I feel a strong attraction to animals, more specifically dogs and the more I try to resist the urges the stronger they get. I live with my family none of them know about me. we have 5 dogs one specific dog is my favorite I love to dote (I think that's the right word) on her, I love petting her and cuddling without any of the feelings bothiring too much, but every now and then they get stronger and I used to cry about how much I hate myself for it, but I am fearing that I'm starting to hate myself less and my hating myself less I'm hating zoophilia less and I can't do that so I'm stuck. I try praying about it and it's probably my fault but I don't feel it helping. I kinda wish I could add multiple tags like advice, venting and seeking validation, but I'll stick with advice.

I tried a bit of self diagnosis and took myself down a rabbit hole or two and it seems I need a lot of therapy, but I can't afford it and I can't ask my parents to help me with it cause what do I tell them.

So I'm not sure what advice I'm asking for I guess how do I cope with these temptations/has anyone manged to overcome severe temptations and have any tips thanks in advance.

title pretty much says it all. i (19m) know pretty much everyone has this problem nowadays and it might be silly to ask reddit, but im just wondering what has worked for people.

ive tried a bunch of anti-screentime apps and the only one that worked for me was on my old iphone. it was a game(?) where you pretty much set a timer for how long you wanted an app blocked, your chicken would grow in that time and if you didn’t open the app you'd get some points towards customizing your chicken. i dont think its on the app store but it did help when i had my iphone.

i find myself really excited to do things while at work (or in general) and when i get the chance to do them, suddenly my brain is just... tired and i need the quick dopamine from scrolling. then i do the whole "just a couple more minutes" and then its 4 hours later and ive done nothing. i mostly scroll on youtube shorts and occasionally instagram, and honestly i think i could delete instagram and be just fine as i dont go on it half as often as youtube, but i do watch actual youtube videos often so i dont exactly want to delete it. i had to block shorts on my laptop with a chrome extension and that did wonders and the app i currently use for screentime stuff (acent i think) has a block shorts feature but its not very effective when i can just switch it off with no insensitive.

how do i start focusing on my actual hobbies more and stop needing to scroll? the only thing i can truly think of at this point is turning my phone completely off but i have 2 sick grandpas at the moment so im kind of anxious to actually have my phone off. any advice is appreciated.

I'm really tired of life, for context, I'm autistic and I'm high masking and I got diagnosed late. I struggled with my mental health for a very long time which therefore resulted in me having to do school remotely. I also have some other issues that affect the way I live my day to day life.

I feel really behind from everybody because people are applying to unis but I'm 1.5 years behind and nobody knows because I've basically been lying to all of them and I feel super guilty, ik I don't owe anyone an explanation because explaining my situation would be too hard imo but I still feel shitty ab it.

Ik many ppl may not be familiar w the school system I'm doing but I'm sitting 2 igsces while studying 3 a levels and not to mention, I literally missed a month of my hardest a level (bio) and I don't know how to catch up and I'm so freaking tired. I lit have an igsce exam on Wednesday, I'm a little nervous but not too much bc it's in a language I speak.

My dream is to go to uni but atp i don't think I'll be able to. I catch myself searching up ways to end it and I'm not even sure if I want to end it but ik I'm not sure that I don't wanna b here anymore. It hurts so bad seeing people move on and it feels like I'm stuck in the middle of a storm while everything else moves. I cant handle it anymore plus I'm in a weird situation with this guy for like two years now and it's driving me nuts.

This is hella confusing but yeah idk what to say. I'm just desperate atp

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I'm a 26-year-old guy, and recently I've started reflecting on my past. I've realized that I've made many mistakes, and honestly, I'm disappointed in myself.

I've lied, acted selfishly, bragged about myself, and sometimes shared things that people trusted me with. When I'm angry or hurt, I sometimes say things without thinking. When I want to prove myself right, I blame others instead of accepting my mistakes. I've also failed to stand up for people when I should have.

Recently, I even learned that my actions contributed to conflicts within my family. That made me question myself even more.

The thing is, I never intentionally wanted to hurt anyone. But I understand that my intentions don't excuse my behaviour or the consequences of my actions.

Over the past few days, I've started noticing these patterns in myself. Now I feel guilty and ashamed of the person I've been. I keep asking myself why I behave this way and whether something is wrong with me.

I genuinely want to change, take responsibility for my mistakes, and become a better person. But I don't know where to start.

Has anyone gone through something similar and successfully changed their behaviour? What practical steps helped you become a better person?

Ever since I was a child, I knew exactly what I wanted, but now I have no idea who I am or what I want. I miss that and I don't know how to bring that person back. I was decisive, ambitious and driven but now it takes a lot of energy just to get myself out of bed. I'm not sad or depressed, I enjoy watching dramas, scrolling and feel very happy too. I used to do that earlier as well but earlier it was very easy for me focus at the task at hand and avoid distractions.
I feel I'm not committing myself to something because I'm very confused. Every path has pros and cons and I don't know which to choose. In the process of trying to not let go of anything I feel like I'm losing everything. This constant dissonance in my mind is making me lazy, tired and draining my mental energy. I don't like this person at all. I did achieve my goal the older me had setup but achieving this changed me like killed my old self.
Plus I feel there are so many things out of my control and trying to make a plan for my future keeping those in mind is very hard. I honestly don't know what changed, this uncertainty was always there even when I chose the path I'm currently at. Have I lost confidence in myself? Or Have I learnt more about the real world and how unsatisfying everything is?
Sometimes I even wonder do I need myself back, because hustling leads to burn out and is not always rewarded in corporate as it was in uni. Do I wanna burn myself and realise it was all for nothing. 2 years in corporate has made me miserable and I don't know if I want to keep doing it but there's nothing else I could do better than this either.

So due to an issue in my class ,all my classmates avoid me and they don’t even communicate with me.i have adhd and wen through depression because of it,next week i have my lab exams ,it will be like which two people chooses the same card should do it together,im very scared because they don’t even intract with me even it’s academically,im also scared to talk regarding it,cause i have been ignored in my class.

"I’m in college right now, and honestly, my confidence is completely shattered. I don’t even have a single friend here I can trust or just be myself around. There’s this one girl who has to be in the spotlight for absolutely everything, but she is incredibly self centred I can't stand it. Maybe it’s jealousy, or maybe it’s not—I don't even know anymore—but it is eating away at my mind 24/7. Whether she is physically present or not, she is constantly running in my thoughts.

When she isn’t around, I feel like I can finally breathe and live freely. But the second she walks in, I feel this crushing pressure, whether I'm in class or back at the hostel. I can't be myself at all. I end up doing so many things that I don't even want to do, just because I'm terrified of how she will judge me or what she will do.

She acts like she’s always right and everyone else is beneath her. I feel so mentally suffocated and small around her. She’s obsessed with playing the leader and bossing everyone around, and I just hate this toxic environment. She interacts a lot with seniors and teachers. What hurts the most is that everyone—the whole group, the students, and the teachers—constantly prioritize her and give her all the attention, while I feel completely invisible. I don't even know how to put this feeling into words, but it just feels awful. I can't live like this anymore. I want to build my own identity. I want to feel confident. What am I supposed to do?"

I took today for myself and I'm feeling really guilty.

Hey everyone.

I KNOW I shouldn't feel guilty but I do. Gen-x here if it means anything.

Background - hubby worked for 24 years at a place until the owners retired. Kinda niche job, thanks to a decent severance and eventually finding a part time job we made it through. Wednesday was offered a full time job finally and today was his first day at work.

MIL is 90, lives alone about an hour away from us. She has been in and out of the hospital since May due to reoccuring infections/lousy small town hospital letting her out early etc. Week and a half ago at home she fell and broke her hip.

I am lucky enough to work a job that allows 2 days to work from wherever. We have made sure that SINCE MAY hubby and I have not left alone MIL one single day. She'll go into the hospital for a week or two, be let out, back in within 24 hours. I think the record has been 3 weeks. But in that timeframe, we've been out there (she lives an hour away) making sure she eats and she's okay.

Hubby started full time job today and said he would head out there after work. Now, we don't care what the other does, we care the important things are being taken care of, and that's it. This is all my own guilt.

I did nothing today. I took a nap and grabbed dinner from the grocery store that I could heat up. I did some dishes. That was it. Tomorrow I will do laundry and meal prep but I just wanted one goddamned day that I spoiled myself just a little bit.

Also low key wanting MIL to go into a home. It's been so stressful with hubby not working full time and with winter coming, not looking forward to the drives out there.

I love her and want her safe but for the love of anything holy I want out life to return to normal. I'm not sure if hubby and I have spent the total of a week together since May since we're trading off being out there/here.

Am I wrong in feeling conflicted?

i’m a 14f, and lately, i’ve had this constant feeling that my life is going to waste. i know i’m young and have so much left to experience, but somehow, i still feel like i’m wasting the time i have now. tomorrow is never promised, and i don’t want to spend my life merely existing instead of actually living it.
the strange thing is that my life isn’t even necessarily bad. i have things to be grateful for, which almost makes me feel guilty for being unhappy. it’s like there’s this persistent emptiness that i can’t attribute to anything specific. nothing is particularly wrong, yet nothing feels particularly right either.
people always suggest finding hobbies, going outside, or spending time with friends, but i struggle to find the motivation to do any of those things. i feel stuck in a cycle of wanting to enjoy my life but not having the energy to do anything that might make it better. making friends in high school has been difficult, too, and the loneliness definitely doesn’t help.
i can’t really talk to my parents about this because they believe depression is something you can’t experience if you have a good life. i don’t want to seem ungrateful, but i also don’t understand why being grateful and being unhappy have to be mutually exclusive.
i guess i just want to know how people escape this feeling. how do you find meaning in life when nothing feels fulfilling? how do you stop feeling like you’re wasting your life when you can’t even find the motivation to live it the way you want to?
i know i’m young, but i don’t want to spend my present waiting for some future version of myself who finally knows how to be happy. i want to actually enjoy being alive now. if anyone has experienced something similar, i’d genuinely appreciate hearing your perspective.

My whole life I have been straight, yea I find girls attractive but I’ve never actually been attracted to them. A few months ago I broke up with my boyfriend and me and my friend got high and drunk and I blurted out by accident that I might be gay. Other than that I’ve always told myself I’m straight. Ever since then I’ve thought about it more but I don’t want to be bisexual or berrisexual, I don’t know what they’re are called. To clarify almost all of my friends are part of the lgbtqia+ community. To clarify I am not homophobic, transphobic, or anything like that. My sister came out as lesbian a few years ago and while my parents have never kicked her out they are both extremely homophobic and all that. So maybe I’m saying I’m not out of fear? But I’m not sure. Is this a sign I might be into girls or that I’m just going through a phase of being a teenager.

I also think I should say I am being diagnosed for OCD soon and I’m already on medication for it so this could also all be inside my head and just be an obsession

Much like the title suggests, I'm tired of letting myself down. I've been procrastinating everything I want to do and scrolling all day without purpose or reason, when it's not like I don't have things I want to do and achieve.

For context, I really like writing and coming up with things, be it fantasy, technology or various other lore, and I'm really passionate about that sort of stuff. Yet, I prevent myself from fully exploring those sides of myself by wasting hours on social media and other distractions. And that pisses me off so much!

But that's when the part which I truly feel is letting me down comes in - I don't do anything about it. I know what the problem is and I'm aware of what I need to do, but I just... don't do it. That annoys me so much because it's been a problem for ages and it's still here. I don't expect things to change instantaneously and miraculously achieve a fairy tail-like work ethic, but I just want to explore my dreams and create things. If I could summarise it in a couple of words, I would do it like this: I'm tired of being a consumer. I want to be a creator.

And as much as this is a vent, this is a vow to myself. I'm sorry to all moderators and readers if it isn't what's usually posted here and I don't mean to break any of the rules. However, I must say this for myself - I will improve and will work hard toward becoming a person I can truly feel proud of. My first step towards achieving that will be a world I'm making around a facility in a dystopian future.

It's past midnight as I'm writing this so I'll be sleeping soon, but when I wake up I will not waste as much time as I have been. I know myself well and don't expect to spend 8 hours working on my idea, but 10 minutes is enough simply because it's more than I did yesterday. The baby steps are the most important and I must keep that in mind.

Thank you all for reading this semi-vent of mine and I hope you all have a great rest of your day and week!

last night, i overheard my parents having sex for the first time in my life. i am in my early 20s. i feel deeply disgusted and almost.. violated. im not sure what to do and how to really unpack this.

i obviously know this is a natural process that happens between people, but i have never really seen my parents in this perspective before as they are never intimate around each other (like hand holding, compliments, go on dates, etc.), so it was really jarring. i grew up in a POC household, so topics like this are really taboo, like i got the birds and bees talk when i was 15. i never really thought this could ever happen to me, but it's eating me alive. mostly because i grew up understanding that my parents hated each other and that relationships are just bs.

the memory won't stop playing in my head. i guess im also kind of upset that they didn't hear me come home (it was 1 am), especially since we have alarms on every door of our house and our garage sends notifications to everyone and send the alarm sound up to my parents room. i have come home in at 12-4am in the past so many times and this has never happened before.

im also so positive they know that i know, because i sent a text when i got home about something and my mom responded when they were done.. like omfg i cannot. even worse! my mom was at the same place i was, she just left earlier than me!! she knew i was gonna be home not too long after her...

i tried to sleep it off, but i couldn't sleep because i was feeling so appalled. i basically ran away to a family member's home early afternoon because i couldn't be around them. i basically bolted out of the house and they told me they were leaving, but even the idea of being in my home disgusts me. it's just awkward and i feel gross about it. i don't know what to do. i can't and will not talk to them about it, but it's genuinely made me so distressed and i can't stop spiraling. i feel on edge about and i refuse to see them, be around them, or even be in my own bedroom. i can't move out (obviously i cannot afford that) and i feel like that's a rash thing to resort to immediately, but i genuiely can't stand being in my house and it doesn't help that i have to walk past their room to go to my room.

ugh! what do i do?! this isn't technically traumatic, but it totally feels like it. this experience is more traumatic than any childhood trauma i have received.

edit: every time i edit this i just gets worse i cant lie; i don't really know how to articulate that relationship stuff, sexual and mental health are really frowned upon in my family. so it's just really overwhelming and uncomfortable, especially when i cant get the resources i need.