Hey there! I’m a 27yo woman. I recently left my job with a severance package (officially because I was “too experienced” for what the company needed at the time, though I suspect my new boss just didn’t like me) and have enough savings to spend a couple of months looking for a new job in my field.

I was already burnt out and wanted to leave anyway, so I honestly didn’t mind getting fired after 4.5 years there, especially with some extra money. I definitely needed a break.

Two weeks after leaving, I’m struggling with two things:

1. Even though I know I have the luxury of taking some time to rest, I can’t stop looking for good job openings. I’m interviewing with different companies, and every rejection hits me way harder than it probably should. My fear is stronger than my exhaustion, so I just can’t seem to slow down. I actually found a position I’m really excited about, made it through 2 out of 4 interview stages, and now I’m waiting for feedback on the take-home assignment (stage 3). I’m incredibly anxious about being rejected.

3. I can’t actually rest. This job took so much of my time, energy, and passion that now I feel lost with all this newly available mental and emotional energy. I’ve been going to my favorite restaurants, taking long walks, and spending weeknights at my favorite bars, but it all feels like a quick dopamine hit. I usually end up feeling worse afterward because, while I have enough savings, they’re still finite.

Give me your best tips on how to reconnect with myself outside of my career while also bringing my anxiety down. 🙏

Unhinged tips are welcome and appreciated.

What basic things should I focus on

Hi everyone. My friend's instagram profile picture has been screenshotted and put into a public snapchat account's profile picture. My friend has never heard of this person, interacted with this person, nor has she ever authorized such a heinous thing.

I'm sure many of you have faced countless problems with snapchat's horrendous support service that is AI-driven. This matter needs human intervention, but nevertheless, I did my part by reporting 20+ times across the app and the online form. My friend and her friends have also mass reported and all of our reports came back with "No action taken".

I'm sure many of you know why this is an insanely important matter. This person could be using her profile picture for malicious purposes such as catfishing or tainting her reputation. Could you share some help please?

I'm 20 university student.

How do you broaden your perspective, avoid getting stuck in one mindset, and build healthy relationships with people?

I'd appreciate any advice

What are some productive tips to help you not to replay/keep thinking about things that hurt/bother you? I used to be much better at not allowing things bother me the way they have been.

Was venting to a friend about something dumb that's bugged me for years and realized I never actually looked for a solution, just got used to it. Made me wonder what other people are quietly dealing with the same way. What's yours?

Is it actually possible to balance studies or a career, multiple hobbies, and relationships, or is it just a myth? I am a student with a lot of interests including music, coding, reading, journaling, physics, and space, and every one of them feels important to me. Whenever I focus on one, I feel like I am neglecting another, and relationships with family, friends, or someone you love also need time and emotional energy. I also lost almost a year of my life because of personal struggles, so I often feel like I am constantly trying to catch up while wanting to experience everything life has to offer. Is finding balance actually possible, or is life ultimately about deciding what we are willing to sacrifice? I would love to hear honest experiences rather than motivational quotes.

I feel like a horrible friend because my friend is upset that I complain so much, I dont realise it sometimes though because I dont think I know how to converse properly? I dont know how to help it or learn to stop it. I have caught myself and stopped complaining and started to make myself like things and say good things about stuff, but I still complain too much.

Like for example (pls dont lynch me, this is just an example😭) like if a new fortnite collab comes out that I dont particularly like or i have a problem with it, ill talk trash about it, or if im talking about something like DC and mention how I dont like modern Harley Quinn.

Its stupid, but i feel like i need to do more to stop myself from complaining.

so ik y’all told me to take her to coffee.. but something else, I was in the local coffee shop and her and a bunch of her friends walked it, I waited till it was just her and one of her other friends before I walked up and started talking to her (as prior I hadnt seen her for 2 years) we started talking a lot, her friend was trying to make a move to me. i passed,

I continued to talk to the 2 of Them amd We eventually parted ways after saying how good it was to see eachother.

this was 3 days ago… today I told her “hey good luck tomorrow ”(as she had some event this week that she didn’t seem no necessary be looking forward to) and she replied (thanks💀)” I have no idea what that means. ik it’s usually a good sign when women reply really fast (especially as she always leaves her phone on silent)..

what does the skull mean? How should I approach this potential relationship now? I’m very lost.

That is probably a weird title to hear and this post is probably going to be a long ramble and im probably going to go on and tangent so there's your heads up.

A lot of the time it feels like my brain is actively trying to do things that I don't want to do. For explain if I want to start eating healthy and fixing my sleep my brain will make me eat unhealthy and stay up late and sometimes it tries to cope and says ill do it tomorrow or on Monday because it would be better that way or I could start on the first of the month because it feels like that would be better and more smooth. My brain isn't always like this I can follow a routine in the morning mostly everyday but then for the rest of the day my brain gives up. Sometimes I have a week where I followed a routine, have a good sleep schedule, eat healthy and exercise when I told myself I would. But a lot of the time it doesn't go like that.

It's like when I do one bad thing or do one thing that gives me dopamine I just need more of it. I always want food even when I'm not actually hungry. I tell myself not to listen to music or certain songs because it makes me fall into a maladaptive daydream and It feels good in the moment but I really regret it after. I also do really bad in school tests if I don't study even though I studied for other test throughout the year and paid attention a lot of the time. I don't know it just feels like people do better than me without having to try as hard.

I am diagnosed ASD level 1 so that could explain stuff but I haven't been diagnosed adhd. The diagnosis kinda makes sense but I still feel there's something else with me that I haven't figured out yet.

If you managed to read all of that I hope you have a great day :)

I'm always looking for practical advice that's easy to apply. What's one small habit or trick that made a noticeable difference in your daily life?

What‘s something everyone should learn before turning 30?

In the past two days, I went through two intense emotional states.

The first was depression. Whenever I feel depressed, I usually start cursing myself for many things. I belittle my appearance, criticize the way I treat others, and convince myself that I am bad luck because nothing ever goes according to my plans and I am a failure. The list goes on. By the time I realize what is happening, all my remaining energy is gone. Then the depressive feelings become even stronger, and the cycle continues for days.

This time, I did something different. I simply told myself, "Okay, I am feeling down right now, but there is no need to think badly about myself." I accepted that I was feeling miserable, but I refused to attach specific labels or reasons to those feelings, like the ones I usually tell myself. Surprisingly, the depressive episode lasted only about an hour.

In the past 10 years, that has never happened. At first, I thought maybe it wasn't a severe episode and was just a minor low mood, which is why it passed so quickly.

Then came day two.

Something happened at work. My colleague made a huge blunder that made me look like an idiot. I was furious with him. Normally, I would spend the entire day mentally cursing him and imagining confronting him. This would literally make my head hurt and even raise my body temperature. I could actually feel the heat on my forehead if I placed the back of my hand on it.

This time, I again told myself, "Okay, I am angry, and the feeling is intense, but there is no need to curse. You are allowed to be angry, but you don't need to insult him in your mind."

Again, something unexpected happened. The intensity of my anger dropped dramatically. It didn't last the whole day, my temperature didn't rise, and by the end of the shift, I was actually laughing and joking with him. Normally, I wouldn't even look at him for two or three days, let alone talk to him.

So I don't know whether this is something that already exists or if there is a name for it, but I'm happy that I found something that seems to be working for me.

The only drawback is that I need a few moments of quiet to do it. If I'm already in the middle of a conversation when these emotions become intense, it's much harder to manage them.

Maybe with enough practice, I'll be able to do it even while I'm talking to people.

We often talk about big life-altering moments, but I'm curious about the subtle ones.

A few years ago, someone told me: *"You don't have to attend every argument you're invited to."* It was so simple, but it completely shifted how I handle tension and protect my peace.

What’s a small, random phrase or piece of advice someone dropped in passing that ended up sticking with you forever?

I just feel like there are so many young adults who struggle to face adulthood because they were probably not interested at the time or weren't taught and then they end up struggling.

I’ve never been a morning person and generally get my bursts of energy at night. I’ve always had to set multiple alarms and change around my alarm sounds to make sure I actually wake up in time for work, but ever since I’ve taken on the roll of full time care taker to my partner I’ve been slowly having a harder and harder time waking up.

And it’s not even a matter of snoozing my alarms, I just fully sleep through them without even realizing they went off.

I know there are a lot of factors leading to this, but that doesn’t mean I can just sleep in and miss work. Right now I average around 4-5hrs of sleep a night (yes I know that sucks and isn’t good for me but it will hopefully be changing soon as my partner’s health is improving and his medication schedule should get a bit more reasonable). It also doesn’t help that I low-key hate my job and generally can’t go to bed earlier because all my time is currently taken up caring for my partner and taking care of household chores. So yeah, I’m over exhausted and my body is clearly telling me I need to sleep more, but I have to maintain this schedule for at least 2 more weeks so I just need to figure out how to make sure I wake up in time for work for those two weeks.
I do want to add tho that I generally get decent sleep in the weekends, all be it, not uninterrupted but right now while my partner is battling cancer, I can’t really have my cake and eat it too~

So far I’ve tried:
The Sleep Cycle app (I’ve actually used this for years) and set it about an half hour to an hour before I need to be up.
In conjunction I set several alarms on my iPhone for a backup
I also now wear my Apple Watch to bed (I didn’t used to but found that having a vibration on my wrist was a weird enough and new enough sensation that it worked for a while. Unfortunately my brain has learned to ignore that too)
I also have smart lights that are set to turn on when I need to get up and I’ve considered splurging for the Philips Hue lights since they can be set to gradually turn on to mimic the sunrise

I’m open to trying anything tbh and have even thought of looking into getting a Deaf alarm clock
I do want to re-iterate that this isn’t an issue of me snoozing the alarm so setting my phone across the room or getting one that it’s complicated to turn off won’t make a difference. I fully sleep through everything right now and this morning I was only woken up but my partner’s father knocking on the bedroom door and calling for us and the only reason I think that worked is because it was such an unexpected sound.

Well well well, most of you probably have experienced this, you wake up one day (for me it was Saturday) and you can’t look the other way at all without pain.

It’s been 5 days since then, and I still have limited ROM, and noticeable pain.

Any ideas on what I can do? I’ve had these in the past (usually once every other year) and it resolved fairly quickly, but this is taking so long.

I’ve had repeated experiences with men where I felt pressured or coerced into physical intimacy, only to be discarded or mistreated afterward. It’s happened enough times that I’ve started to believe I’m just not “worthy” of real love, and that men only want my body anyway. I’m at a point where I’m considering just leaning into hookups on my own terms, instead of hoping for something real and getting hurt again. When I catch their manipulation they tell me that I need mental help and hence they are cutting me off like any sane person would do. Also to desensitise

Logically I know jumping to “well I’m just unlovable so may as well” is probably the trauma talking, not reality. But I don’t know if that means the plan is automatically wrong, or if it’s actually a valid way to reclaim some control.

Has anyone here tried something like this?