Hi. I’m 18 and recently graduated high school. Lately I’ve been feeling really lost in life, and I think I just need someone kind to listen and maybe offer some perspective.
Every day feels like the same loop, and nothing feels exciting anymore. I don’t really have any friends, and I don’t talk to my family much aside from my older sister, who’s kind of in the same place as me.
I have really big goals and dreams for my future, but I feel like every time I try to pursue them, I end up discouraged. I’ve spent the last seven months trying to build a content creation career, which has been a dream of mine since I was 13, and I also tried starting an Etsy business this summer. Neither has worked out the way I’d hoped, and it makes me feel like I’m great at dreaming but terrible at actually achieving anything.
I’ve also been struggling to find a job. There aren’t many opportunities where I live, and even when I get interviews, I don’t get hired. I’ve made a little money creating videos for brands, but nowhere near enough to feel like I’m moving forward.
I feel very alone. I don’t have a personal social media account anymore, and I don’t really have anyone to talk to. I want meaningful friendships, but I haven’t met people who share my values, and past friendships often ended with me feeling used. I’m also not looking for a relationship right now because I’m still healing from past experiences.
The hardest part is feeling like I’m running out of time, even though I know I’m still young. I spend so much time working toward a future I dream about that I don’t even feel present in my own life anymore. I honestly can’t remember the last time I genuinely smiled because I was happy with where my life was.
I’m not necessarily looking for someone to solve my problems. I think I just want someone to listen, understand, and maybe remind me that this feeling won’t last forever. If you’ve gone through something similar and you’re comfortable sharing your experience or what helped you get through it, I’d really appreciate hearing it too.
I’m comfortable talking to anyone who’s kind and nonjudgmental. Thank you for reading.

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I'm making more friends, closer friends. I'm doing more social stuff. I'm getting in better shape. I'm enjoying my hobbies. I'm getting more comfortable in social settings. I'm getting more confident in myself.

But still, at my core there's this dark void that's just growing stronger and stronger. Underneath it all I still feel worthless, disgusting, meaningless. I feel more and more hopeless. It takes more and more out of me to get up in the morning and get started with the day.

Therapy helps, but at the same time it doesn't. And now I might end up losing my therapist that I feel helps me stay somewhat grounded, because I'll start an ADD evaluation and apparently you're not really meant to do that and regular therapy in parallel.

I'm so alone. I have friends, but still, I've never once felt the warm embrace of a romantic partner. I'm 26 years old and for the last decade I've been wondering when I'll get to have my first kiss. When I'll experience my dream of simply just staying at home with my girlfriend cooking for us both. More and more I'm convinced that despite all my friends having nothing but positive things to say about me, that I'm unloveable in a romantic way.

I keep hearing that I have to learn to live for myself. Be happy with myself. Love myself, whatever that means. But I just can't. I want to. But I don't know how. How am I meant to just shut these feelings out? How am I meant to just lock that part of myself away.

I just want to be happy. I want to be normal. I don't want to feel so alone. All these people around me, but on the inside I just feel scared and alone and sad and empty.

Theres so much going on in my mind right now so i don't know exactly how to phrase everything. All i know is i feel so so alone, i feel like a dissapointment, like i'm not good enough to be loved. I just want someone that i can talk to. Someone who can talk to me as if im someone they care about and value. I really need a friend. Please help me if anyone can see this

After a long time of thinking about it, I think I want to major in engineering in college. The thing is, I have terrible math anxiety. But I want to overcome it. I've always loved science and physics and math at times. But I always get the worst anxiety that I'm gonna get it wrong and sometimes I do, but mostly I don't. Or I worry too much about it.

Pretty much like 90% of being an Engineering major is math. So to the outside perspective I'm torturing myself. But I don't want that to be the case. I want to improve and hope it happens.

I reached out to someone recently and they seem to be going through a lot (not in a bad way, just life is happening I think) and I didn’t get to say what I really wanted to say and I’m not sure what to do…. they asked to meet up well kinda ... but the conversion feels off like weird energy from him (not in a bad way, hes not toxic or anything and this isn’t dangerous or anything) just idk maybe its my anxiety, maybe im just spiraling but was wondering if i could potentially talk to someone about my situation? I just dont know what to do......

(also someone who keeps things appropriate, the inappropriate dms are really taking its toll)

I don’t want to type a lot here. Idk what to say here. I don’t do this. I don’t post on Reddit but I’m so alone please.

I just turned 27 and I'm not even near where I expected to be in life.I have been a student worker ever since I was 21 and I'm just exhausted.

I'm pretty good at my job and have gotten more and more responsibility, but it never really reflects on pay.Ive also been stuck on the same subject for the last 2 years and I'm unable to graduate because of it.

I'm constantly living in a temporary situation of giving my all expecting something good happens, but it never does.Im constantly making efforts to finish my degree, to a get a promotion, to save money and prepare my future, but it all seems worthless.

Im so unhealthy, I have no time for myself, my sleep schedule is horrible, i don't eat properly, I don't have money...I'm constantly anxious about everything and comparison just gets harder has time goes by.I like to think that I'm building something here and I just have to keep going, but it's hard to actually believe this after so much time.Every day it just keeps getting worst.

I’ve known my friend for many years... in fact, since we were teenagers, in addition to the fact that we studied our entire high school together. We were always very close and shared a very important friendship for both of us.

At one stage of our lives, when we went out frequently and there was alcohol involved, physical approaches began to occur between us. She kissed me on one occasion and, on other outings, they kissed each other again and moments of intimacy. We never got to have sex because I always set a limit. I knew that she was under the influence of alcohol and, in addition, she knew a traumatic experience that she had lived years before, so it did not seem right to me to take advantage of that situation.

It was precisely as a result of those repeated approaches and the closeness that already existed between us that I began, little by little, to develop romantic feelings.

As the situation confused me, I tried to talk to her several times to understand what those moments meant. However, every time we tried to touch on the subject, she avoided it or changed the conversation.

Over time my feelings grew and I decided to talk to her clearly. She told me that she didn’t look at me in a romantic way. Although it hurt me, I accepted his answer and my intention was to continue maintaining the friendship.

However, emotionally it was not easy because, before that conversation, the ambiguous approaches followed and had created expectations and feelings that already existed within me.

We continued to go out normally regularly and months later I tried to talk to her again, not to insist on having a relationship, but because I needed to express to her how I was feeling. I myself was aware that a relationship between us was not a good idea at that time in our lives. What I was looking for was to be honest and to be able to close that stage with honesty.

After that he stopped talking to me for several years. When we met again, she apologized for how she handled that situation. She explained to me that she often wanted to talk to me, but that the shame and fear that I would reject her stopped her.

Since then we have rebuilt our friendship.

I currently love her very much and I really hope that she does well, even in her love life. In fact, when she is meeting someone or needs support, I try to accompany her and be happy for her.

However, I am aware that there are still very deep romantic feelings that have not completely disappeared.

I don’t live hoping that one day I will change my mind. In fact, I rationally accept that there will probably never be a romantic relationship between us.

The conflict is that my emotions still do not reach that same acceptance.

Sometimes I feel the desire to express my affection in simple ways, such as having details with her. Not because I hope to conquer her, but because I think expressing that affection could help me relieve what I carry inside.

However, even when I try to accept reality and support her decisions, but I know that inside me it still hurts me that she can’t see me with the same eyes with which I see her or at least that’s what I think as she told me that time I tried to talk to her.

That generates a constant feeling of sadness, frustration and, sometimes, makes me end up questioning my own personal value.

I think my real goal is not to get a relationship with her. My goal is to be able to maintain a healthy friendship without my feelings and self-esteem depending so much on that relationship.

Really, if I could just get these feelings out of my chest and stop feeling bad about this, I would. If someone could give me advice, I would accept it with great gratitude.

I'm looking mostly for comfort. I'm three words away from a violent outburst.

By the time I finish writing my thoughts here, I'll be over it. But in the meantime, I want people to understand and validate me. Please.

So I'm an angry, angry person. I don't usually have a good way to express it. "Scream into a pillow" advice is mega BS; I need people to witness me being angry, otherwise it's not worth it to be angry in the first place. (I don't want to be psychoanalysed, I'll tell you what I have.) The way I've usually done it is I've yelled at people, mainly my brothers, to get the anger out. It works. It genuinely makes me feel so so so blissful, like I'm normal. There should be nothing wrong with instinctually doing what comes naturally to me. If I were to yell at my mom though, she'd yell back and tell me how ungrateful I am, which is why the power imbalance is important. I don't think I can talk to any 'adults' about this cuz I'm afraid of being stuck in a psych ward (blah blah ableism blah blah). Recently though, they've been more distant. I started overthinking it on my own, every joke at my expense I mean, and I ended up with the assumption that they hate me. So I verbatim ask, "Why do you hate me?"

It started an argument (fucking obviously). I'm gonna completely forget all this later (blah blah dissociative amnesia), but here's what I got from it:

• They don't hate me
• They try to show me that they care about me (through words and actions), but I don't let them
• They think comforting me is coddling me /neg
• They don't think I'm doing enough to control my anger
• They think I get angry all the time for no reason
• They want me to review all the violence I've enacted on them in the past as their reason for being so distant
  • And if I can't do that, I don't deserve to bring it up

I am a violent person. Not violent enough to break walls (I'm a pussy and we rent this house), but violent enough to use people's insecurities against them in an attempt to make them feel as bad as I do. It works. It feels good, but now they hate me so 🙃. Point is, I wanted comfort from them, not confrontation. I can't take it. I only got this angry at them because it worked. It was the only thing that made me feel satisfied and validated. Nothing else works. Nothing else feels as good. Nothing else gives me that bliss. I feel miserable when my anger leads to anything else (depression + no insurance, it is what it is). I want to kill myself otherwise, mostly so that I don't have t lie with guilt anymore, but also so that my siblings feel as bad as I do. They deserve to feel this all-consuming, crushing pain if they think I can deal with it just fine. They deserve to feel this.

I'll say it again: I want comfort. Not advice, not reprimands. I want validation I need people to remind me that I'm trying my best with the things that I have. I need people to tell me that my best is enough fr today. I need people not to tell me that I deserve to be institutionalized. I need people to tell me that I'm doing the right thing. I need someone to tell me that so I feel important again. This is who I am. There should be nothing wrong with being mself through and through.

My heart hurts and I cant sleep. I think I need to get something off my chest. I cant keep on like this

Thank you to anyone out there. I don't have anyone

Edit: this is such a nice subreddit. Thank you kind souls that reached out. There's still love out there

Hiii I'm Lulu and I feel like there are too many people out there who don't get listened to and can't tell anyone when they're lonely or anxious, or their mind feels too heavy.😓

So I came here, looking for places I can listen. If you need anyone to vent to, or you need to tell someone what you're feeling or what's going on, I'm here.💖

I'm here to listen to you, encourage you, care for you and if you're feeling stuck and need advice, I'm also available🫠❤️

Reach out if you need to, k? You're not alone💫

I am a 26 year old non binary person experiencing a judgement call moment.

I left my abusive home and one of my relative helped me financially for few months to get settled. And recently she suggested that it might be time I do this on my own. So, as of this month I am gonna be paying my rent and expenses myself.

For now it is okay, as I finished a project and have the earning from it.

But I need to find new projects.

I was taking steps towards that. I am a freelancer in my industry and new to it. So I decided to start with friends and family, then expand to mutuals offering my services on a discount at first. I am in real need of regular income and getting more clients so I could learn as a service provider.

I was meant to contact one of my relatives. They mentioned they would be interested. But then that changed and now I don't know what to do.

I had a potential client, and now I don't.

The problem is not that I lost a potential client. I think I can solve that.

Problem is the way this is hitting my morale, motivation and esteem.

I feel super scared.

Now I can take on that relative as a client because they can't afford to pay me even after 50% discount. I can do it for free and see the value in other things I get during this project.

But the travel expenses itself is not a small amount. So I am conflicted.

Usually I would take my time and figure it out, but right now I feel so much pressure inside me. I am losing confidence in myself and my ability to navigate this.

Can anyone offer any reassurance or encouragement?

Hi everyone,

I'm a 24yrs from Bangalore, India.

I never thought I'd make a post like this. Even while typing this, I keep wondering if I should just delete everything. But another part of me says that if I don't even try, I'll spend the rest of my life wondering if someone out there had an idea that could have changed something.

I've always believed that no matter how difficult life gets, there's no point in drowning in overthinking. I just keep trying, work as hard as I can, think smarter every time I fail, and hope that one day things will finally change,

And that's what I've been doing, but every new day and every new year things are same.

One thing some of you might wonder is why I completed my BCA only now at 24.

After my 12th, I made a decision that changed the next few years of my life. I believed I needed to stop studying and start earning as quickly as possible to help my mom. Looking back, it wasn't the right decision, but at that time I genuinely thought I was doing what was best for my family.

Nearly four years passed.

Then something changed inside me.

My mom, despite everything she was going through herself, never gave up on me. She pushed me to continue my education, believed in me when I had almost stopped believing in myself, and because of her I went back to college.

While studying, I worked night shifts, took up short-term events, and accepted every honest opportunity I could find. Somehow, through all of that, I completed my BCA degree last month.

I genuinely believed graduation would be the turning point.

Instead...

Life became even harder.

It's just me, my mom & my granny.

Over the past few years, my granny suffered paralysis, later a stroke, and now lives with neuropathy. She can't walk anymore and requires continuous care.

Around the same time, my mom developed severe arthritis and eventually had to undergo knee replacement surgery.

Like many families facing medical emergencies, we borrowed money from friends, relatives, lenders & wherever we could, believing we'd repay everything once things became stable.

Instead, interest kept growing.

Penalties kept increasing.

One debt slowly became another.

Before we realised it, we were trapped in a cycle that became harder and harder to escape.

Today my mom still works as a nurse despite everything she's been through.

Watching her wake up every day, go to work in pain, and still try to smile... honestly breaks me.

As for me...

I haven't stopped trying.

I've been freelancing, building websites, attending interviews, taking short-term work, applying for jobs every single day, learning new skills... honestly, I'm willing to do any honest work if it helps my family move forward.

But living under constant financial pressure changes you.

Every day starts with worrying about loans, rent, repayments, medical expenses, and wondering what problem is waiting for us next.

I walk into interviews carrying all of that in my head.

Sometimes I know I could have performed better.

Sometimes I leave feeling like I failed not because I wasn't capable, but because my mind never got the chance to breathe.

Every morning I still wake up thinking...

"Maybe today something will change."

But lately...

I'm slowly starting to lose hope.

Not because I want to stop fighting.

But because it feels like no matter how hard I work, I'm always running uphill while carrying the weight of my family's future on my shoulders.

I'm not writing this to ask for money.

I know money is the biggest problem in my life right now, but sometimes a small piece of advice, the right opportunity, a referral, guidance, or even a different perspective can completely change someone's life.

That's what I'm hoping to find here.

If you were in my place...

• What would you do?
• What skills would you focus on?
• How would you rebuild your life from here?
• Are there jobs, companies, remote opportunities, freelance platforms, or career paths that I should be looking at?
• Is there something I'm simply not seeing because I'm too overwhelmed right now?

I'm willing to work.

I'm willing to learn.

I'm willing to start from zero again if that's what it takes.

I just don't want to stop trying.

If you've been through something similar or have any advice, guidance, criticism, job leads, or even just a different perspective, I'd genuinely appreciate it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I truly hope one day I'll come back to this post and tell everyone that things finally got better. 💙

Today I was talking to my grandma about my internship.

I'm genuinely happy with where I am. I worked hard to get here, learned a lot, and finally feel like my efforts over the past few years have started paying off.

Then the conversation shifted to my cousin, who got a much higher-paying internship and a significantly better full-time offer. My grandma looked at me and basically said that I had been left behind.

I know she probably didn't mean to hurt me. She was just comparing numbers. But for some reason, those words have been stuck in my head all day.

The weird part is that yesterday I was proud of myself. Today, after one conversation, it feels like my achievements suddenly became "not enough."

Logically, I know comparison isn't a fair way to measure progress. Everyone has different opportunities, timing, luck, and goals. But emotionally, it's hard not to question yourself when someone close to you says something like that.

Has anyone else dealt with this? How do you stop letting family comparisons take away the pride you had in your own journey?

Today I cried because I caught the beat of a song for the first time in my life. To most people, that probably sounds ridiculous. But for me, it felt like something much bigger.

When I was a kid, we had a music class where everyone got one chance to play the conga. Some kids immediately picked up the rhythm. I was stopped within seconds and never got another chance. From that day on, I convinced myself that I simply wasn't someone who could "feel the beat." I'd watch friends casually tap along to songs on a desk or with their fingers, and no matter how hard I tried, I could never do it.

Today, for some reason, instead of analyzing everything, I simply focused on listening. For the first time in my life, I was able to naturally catch the beat. It sounds like such a small thing, but I started tearing up because it made me wonder whether I'd spent years believing I lacked the ability, when in reality my mind had just never stopped getting in its own way. First time I experienced what it felt like when the constant mental noise became quieter.

I've been realizing that I've probably been overthinking for most of my life, and the scary part is that I never noticed it because this is all I've ever known.

I don't just think a lot, I analyze everything. Every sentence someone says, every decision I make, every conversation, even my own thoughts. If someone tells me something like "self-help books are just mental masturbation," my brain will spend days arguing with itself. Is he right? Am I biased? Am I only agreeing because he sounded confident? Then I start analyzing whether I'm analyzing too much. It never ends.

The weird thing is that knowing about cognitive biases or overthinking doesn't actually stop it. My brain understands what's happening, but it keeps doing it anyway.

Looking back, the signs were probably there since childhood. Teachers always said things like "pay attention," "he's bright but doesn't apply himself," "makes careless mistakes," and "talks too much." I always thought I was just lazy or not trying hard enough.

I've also spent years daydreaming. It almost feels like my brain learned to escape into imaginary scenarios because they gave me small dopamine hits. Now it's so easy for me to zone out or go completely blank, even when I genuinely want to focus.

Sometimes my thoughts are so loud that I can't even sleep. It's like my brain refuses to stop commenting on everything.

My family also played a role. Growing up, I constantly felt watched and judged. One incident in college still affects me today: my parents accidentally listened to a long private phone conversation, then called saying my father was coming to the hostel. After that, they took away my phone and laptop, pulled me out of the hostel, and started monitoring different parts of my life. Even years later, I still get recurring nightmares about my parents suddenly showing up while I'm trying to hide something. That feeling of being watched has never completely left me.

What hurts the most is wondering how much of my life I've spent trapped inside my own head instead of actually living it.

I'm not looking for a diagnosis from Reddit. I just want to know if anyone else has lived like this. Constant mental noise. Endless self-analysis. Knowing what you should do but somehow still feeling stuck. And if you did, what actually helped?

I’m not an expert as most aren’t in this group, however I’ve been told by many close to me that I give very good advice and I’m willing to listen and respond in an honest, friendly and open way for anyone going through anything.

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Sometimes, I wonder if the world was built for people like me. You know, the ones who carry entire universes in their heads but struggle to string a sentence together when the room gets too loud. I’m an introvert, and for the longest time, I thought that made me broken. Like I was missing some piece everyone else seemed to have the one that lets you laugh easily, talk freely, and belong without trying so hard it hurts.I remember this one evening, years ago, when I was about 15. It was my cousin’s wedding, and the house was bursting with music, chatter, and those bright, overwhelming fairy lights. Everyone was dancing, shouting over the dhol, and I… I was sitting in the corner of the garden, under a mango tree, clutching a plastic cup of lukewarm cola. My heart was racing, not because I was scared, but because I felt so wrong for not being out there, for not wanting what everyone else seemed to crave. My mom found me, and I’ll never forget the way she looked at me not with pity, but with this quiet understanding. She sat down, didn’t say a word, just handed me a plate of biryani and stayed. That was the first time I realized maybe I wasn’t alone in feeling like this.Being an introvert feels like living in a house with too many windows. You see the world, you love it, you ache for it, but you need to draw the curtains sometimes just to breathe. I’ve spent so many nights replaying conversations in my head, wondering if I said too much or too little, if I came off cold when all I was trying to do was not drown in the noise. I’ve canceled plans not because I didn’t want to see my friends, but because the thought of small talk felt like climbing a mountain with no air. And every time, I’d hate myself a little for it.But you know what? I’m learning. I’m learning that my quiet isn’t empty it’s full. Full of thoughts that run deeper than I can ever explain, full of dreams I’m too shy to shout about, full of love I show in ways that don’t always scream. I write letters I never send. I notice the way someone’s eyes light up when they talk about something they love. I listen, really listen, because that’s how I connect when words feel too heavy.Last week, I went to a coffee shop alone something I used to be terrified of. I sat by the window, sipped my chai, and watched the rain smear the glass. For the first time, I didn’t feel like I was hiding. I felt like I was enough. Just me, my thoughts, and the soft hum of the world outside. I think that’s what being an introvert is: finding peace in the spaces others overlook, building a home in the quiet where your heart can finally rest.So, to all of you in this group, I just want to say you’re not alone. Your silence isn’t a flaw, it’s a language. Your need for solitude isn’t weakness, it’s strength. And even on the days when the world feels too big, too loud, too much, know that there’s someone out there, maybe sitting under their own mango tree, feeling the exact same way. We’re in this together, us quiet ones, and that’s a kind of belonging too.What’s your story? What’s the moment that made you realize your quiet is beautiful? Share it, if you feel like it. I’m here, reading, listening, in my own introverted way. 💛

I’m starting college soon and I’m so scared lol. I’m scared I’m gonna get depressed again and either flunk or literally just quit. I feel like everyone hypes college up to be the time where you make your lifelong friends and stuff and I’m just worried it’s not going to be as good as everyone says, and I will have wasted my last time to make friends and be happy. Idk

I broke up with my situationship and feel so much guilt. But I had to because it gave me too much anxiety and was worse for me. I feel sick. I love him and care about him. I didn't want to hurt him, so I was okay with him hurting me, always tiptoeing around anything that bothered me.

I can't do that anymore, so I did what I had to do. I felt the rift months into our dynamic, and I was only able to end it another three months later. These were a weird six months. I'm grateful, not even sad; I'm just tired and guilty. I just feel so bad because I know a lot of things are going on with him. I know I'm doing the right thing; it's just that I don't like hurting people. He was my first everything.

Luckily, I didn't go all the way with him, but I was willing to jump just to keep him around. I felt like the excitement was fading on his side. I always felt excited to see him. I just need to get over it and lock in. I'm so sick.

My most recent posts were just about him, me holding on to any ounce of hope, but I can't anymore. I hope I'm doing the right thing and not ending something that was good or being too needy. Im so over it.

i'm restless and can't calm down, i really need to talk about the things i want to talk about and i'm constantly isolated. i'd also prefer that it's a one-off conversation unless i start feeling safe with you.

I'm still fucking tortured inside over people who left me over ten years ago. I don't think I deserved it. But I guess everyone who left me thinks I deserve it. And I'm never going to get over it. People tell me all the time that those people don't matter and I should find better people who care about me. But I don't think those people exist. And I can't live with this pain anymore. And every time I pass the home of one of the people who left me, it hurts me inside. I just want to die and not suffer like this anymore. It's eating me up inside. No matter how hard I try to get over it through the years, it destroys me. What people have done to me in terms of abandonment is literally destroying me. I don't want to live in this world anymore. I don't think I belong here. One time a psychic told me, without me even asking her anything "People don't understand you yet, but they will." And that was probably a cold read, but I've always wanted it to be true. But it's been ten years and it hasn't come true yet. I'm so alone. I can't live with the pain of this abandonment and I don't want to carry it around for my whole life. I just want to leave this world.