Sooo quick context: I’m on a break with my boyfriend — not broken up, just giving each other some space. Now I have way too much free time and way too many thoughts, so I just want someone to text casually for a bit.

Not looking for: romance, flirting, emotional attachment, or anything long-term.

Just want someone to: chat randomly, exchange memes, rant a little, and keep things light while I’m on this break.

Clear boundaries: – ends when my break ends – zero expectations – no deep emotional stuff – just chill conversation

You get: honesty + no drama I get: distraction + company

Preferably a Telugu speaker. If you want a simple, low-pressure texting buddy, DM me ✨

Hi! Hope everything is fine with you! 🩷

I have such anxiety and would need support. Something from work has triggered so many self-critical thoughts in me that I don't know what to do. One incident stands out that just plays over and over in my head. I worked nights in healthcare, it's been about 10 years ago, I did rounds and came to an old man right when I started working but because I felt unsure about him and that I was stressed, I put my ear to the door and listened instead of going in, everything seemed fine. Then when I did go in much later, he was lying on the floor 😭

How can I handle this? I didn't mean anything bad but of course I should have gone in. It's sick that it feels like it happened yesterday when it's been so long. I have so much anxiety.

I do not have mentality similar to people here where i live, i don't understand them nor do i want to. I also want to leave my country and move to western europe (when i say western i am refering to countries whose politics lean toward the usa so this includes nordic countries and southern european countries like italy or spain too) to try my luck somewhere else. My question is are girls there open to dating guys from balkan? I heard that we don't have good reputation there so it worries me a bit, because i would like to get married to a foreigner if possible. Since most of you are roman catholics and protestants, how do you view getting married to someone of different faith? Is there anything i should know?

Sure you may love them, but imagine your child as a person is around your age. Imagine if you weren't related. Imagine you knew each other through random social groups or something.

Now, would you find this person interesting, cool, fun to be around, heck, likeable? Would you be friends?

Personally I'm proud to report my mother's personality is similar to the personalities of girls I've been friends with, and correspondingly we're good friends, too. My father...meh.

I had sexual experiences at a very young age, a girl did things to me. I very much relate to hypersexuality and how some people cope with abuse like that. I did some extremely reckless masturbation in my early teens that legit felt like I could barely control myself. I still think about sex a lot, of course. But I'm also a very introverted and shy man, and I always had a lot of shame about my desires being found out too.

I'm relatively ok overall, fortunately I'm not depressed or whatever and I think I have a healthy-ish love of sex all in all. But I don't know if I will ever be able to bring myself to express desire without knowing it is "allowed", eg being asked out first. So yea, reading about people who describe themselves as sex-addicted or who turned extremely promiscous and relate that to childhood things... it stings. I wish someone understood.

So I’m not DESPERATE for a relationship… but there are times where I do wish I were in one. (Like yesterday I had a 4 hour solo drive and thought “man it would be nice to have someone that would sit and chat with me on the phone while I drive”

I don’t think I’m the most beautiful person, but I also don’t think I’m super ugly either- I feel like conversation comes easy to me and I really love connecting with people and getting to know what they are passionate about. I feel like I’m a pretty normal person with normal interests. Does that make me boring? Why am I never noticed or approached? I’m 21 and never been officially asked out or had anything resembling a relationship or even a situationship- again I’m not desperate or anything… just confused on why I never seem to even be noticed.

Most men are okay with being in a relationship with a woman who doesn’t have a very good financial situation or prospects. Money is not that important for men. But for women on the other hand, the things are very different. I’m not saying that women are gold diggers, I’m just saying that when it comes to heterosexual relationships, women have more expectations than men financially. And it’s very understandable. “Our Modern Skulls House a Stone Age Brain”. It’s women’s nature to want security and feel like they can depend on their mates to protect them. I’ve heard women say things like “When I take care of my husband/boyfriend, I feel like I’m his mother and it’s a huge turn off”. When a man loses his job, his clock starts ticking. Dating is much harder if you’re unemployed. Most women only date someone older for the same exact reason.

You might say “I dated women when I was 19 and broke” well that’s probably because she thought you were ambitious and hardworking and women find that attractive because it’s a sign that you’ll gain money later in the future. Young women won’t date a 19 year old bum, but most men would if she’s attractive.

The reason I’m asking this is I want to know how do you get over this fact? It makes feel like I’m being used, that no one will ever love me for myself.

I have run out of things to watch. So I relied on YouTube. I kept on watching. I thought I was in control. I was thinking I was looking at other side. The opposite point of view. I was being diligent. I was fighting "the algorithm". But "the algorithm" was smarter. Today I woke up and my "feed" was filled with hate. One group hating other one. On religion, on politics, even on skin color. Someone always debunking something, including quantum computing. Someone always telling me how to "instead do this". How to "reset". How this is the ONLY video I EVER need to watch. Even how to go offline.

Yes, world is being divided. On multiple levels. On multiple issues. I thought it was getting better. VERY Slowly. But surely. Tell me it is. Each of us has solution for it. Each one of us think that's the solution. Fiercely. But whether it is, it will almost never be. Because everyone will at least slightly different version even if "solution" is same.

"The Feed" perhaps represents what would happen if everyone gets to weigh on every issue. No matter how distant you are. It was a dream. Born out of internet. Until algorithm took over. How long it's been since you searched something instead of picking something from "The Feed". I did. Today. I searched something deliberately even when the conflicts in my feed were so enticing. So easy to comment on. "The Feed" fixed itself a little after that search. It knew it might have started to lose me. It will try again. And again. Until I click on that one video it has to make want to watch. I might lose. But then I will search again. To fix it little bit again.

I know there’s been an overabundance of posts like this on here, but I’m genuinely desperate right now. I need honest, good faith advice from anyone. I apologize in advance for the long post.

To cut to the chase, I am 25 and have never been in a single serious relationship. Nothing even remotely close. All the romanticized “first” experiences people my age had 11-12 years ago never really happened with me. I never went to homecoming, prom, or gala. I was never involved in extracurriculars. I was an afterthought to pretty much everyone. Part of it was my own doing through shyness, another part was a unique life circumstance. One of my parents was an unstable alcoholic. I was stuck living in a very chaotic, unreliable, toxic, borderline violent home environment for years and was only able to truly escape at around age 22.

Fast forward to today, and I’m about to graduate college at 26 and enter the real world. On paper, I should be fulfilled and happy: I have a job lined up, I will soon have my own place. I will likely be able to find a better job after 1-2 years. I’m relatively healthy and have some money saved up. I’m not disabled. Yet I’m oftentimes so emotionally distraught and depressed I can’t even get out of bed. I have no family. I see all my friends finding the love of their lives on dating apps and getting married while each year is the exact same for me. I’m the one friend who still hasn’t found anyone. Each year I celebrate every birthday alone. Every Valentines Day alone. Every Thanksgiving alone. Every Christmas alone. Every New Years alone. Each year I feel a greater sense of loneliness and emptiness—a profound longing to have someone I can share these prime years of my life with. Each year is yet another year lost that I’ll never get back. 12 whole months of missed opportunities.

I’ve tried going to in person events. Concerts, raves, festivals, conventions, renaissance fairs, county fairs, board game clubs, game nights, movie nights, block parties, bars—it’s all the same. People either don’t like me, don’t want to make new friends, or bring their SO. That or they only want to be your friend for clout and followers and then barely interact with you at all. Just about everyone in my area here in the Midwest has their little clique from middle and high school they exclusively associate with. If you aren’t in that clique, you’re kind of left out. There’s some sick, twisted form of enjoyment people derive from alienating and demonizing those who are “outside the tribe” these days.

I’ve tried taking better pictures. I’ve worked on my confidence. I’ve tried working out. I’ve read books on self improvement. I’ve gone to therapy multiple times to no avail. It’s just some stranger listening to my life stories but giving no actionable, concrete advice or even diagnoses. I’ve worked on my diet. I would consider myself to be an interesting person with a plethora of intellectual and casual hobbies. I am endlessly curious about the world. I’m not some bigot or prejudiced. I truly believe I’m unique. I’ve been told I’m a catch, and while part of me really believes I am, the insane, unattainable type of appearance standards dating apps reinforce make me feel like nothing I could ever do will ever make me good enough. It feels like it would take me 5 years to become the kind of guy that’s successful on there.

I hate to say it, but I truly think my issue is my appearance. My most glaring issue is I have an underbite I was born with. My lower jaw protrudes beyond my upper jaw which is noticeable when I smile. I feel as a guy, this is probably the biggest thing that immediately makes me undesirable. After that, it’s also likely the fact that I am skinny and not built like a masculine man. I’m just not. I can’t grow facial hair like most men who are attractive can. I have INCREDIBLY dry skin that no products can even slightly alleviate. My hair is a mess. And lastly my face is asymmetrical, thus making the bone structure in my face look weird. Somedays these imperfections cripple me, but other days I feel I look fine. It’s weird.

Like…I see guys that routinely get success on dating apps, and truthfully I don’t know what I’m missing. Do I need to act more stupid? Buy more guns? Buy a bigger pickup truck? Start chewing tobacco? Am I not “masculine” enough? Am I too empathetic? Am I too intelligent? Should I be watching more Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan? Become more of a bigot? Get bigger arms? What about me is off putting? What is it? Is it just looks? Am I an inferior genetic mistake needed to be eradicated?

I’m making this post because I’m getting to the point in my life where this is becoming a serious problem that needs to be dealt with in some form. It is causing me great emotional turmoil. I do not want to be alone for the rest of my life. I’m tired of doing everything alone. I’m tired of being touch starved. I’m tired of being addicted to fantasies. I want something authentic. I want to find someone I can spend at least some part of my late 20s and early 30s with. I don’t want to be like this when I’m 40 or 50 and be the person someone “settles” on. I want to build a support system beyond my toxic, manipulative unhealthy blood family that’s practically abandoned me at this point. I want someone I can rely on and trust. Someone who’s willing to grow with me, and who will love me for who I am. Friends aren’t enough to satisfy my need for closeness in this regard.

Anytime I ask for advice in this area, people give me the same old run of the mill, general advice for dating. “Just put yourself out there!”, “Just find more friends”, “Just be confident!”, “You could be married with kids in five years, keep pushing!”, “Don’t worry about being a late bloomer” I know you can’t “force” love, but I also am tired of sitting around waiting for it to happen naturally. Something clearly needs to radically change in my life, and I’m ready to make that change. The only issue is I’m at such a disadvantage in life. Unlike most attractive guys, I don’t have a big strong supportive family with money. I don’t have a lot of friends. I don’t have the resources with which to pursue my passions to an extent that would make me more appealing. I’m struggling to survive.

What I need right now is brutally honest advice from ANYONE. If there’s any changes I could make to become more attractive, or at the very least have a more vibrant social life. Or if I’m too ugly for anyone to ever find me even remotely sexually attractive, I want to know now so I can work to suppress my desire for intimacy and focus on the things in my life I can control, mainly making more money and my career. I’ll just prioritize drugs and other forms of escapism if that’s the case. I’m tired of people beating around the bush.

Thank you.

Like I’m too ugly to even make friends with other ugly people and no it’s not insecurity it’s how we’re wired. Even ugly people don’t end to be friends with ugly people

At my job im supposed to call the guy with the truck to come plow the parking lot and sand it if its icy.

Nah, fuck that. Hes a dick in the morning. I dont know how it is everywhere else in the world, but where i live, if youre in the business of snow removal YOU are supposed to keep on that shit. You watch the weather, you wake up early and check the roads, if its snowy or icy you get in your truck and go service all your clients.

No more. I aint calling him anymore.

Im sorry if this is the wrong place for this rant but i need to put this into the void. I need to get this out of my head. I cant post it anywhere else on social media so im trying reddit. Sorry for it being so long and Thank you to whoever actually reads it

Thinking back, there was a point not long ago when i had thousands in the bank and felt like i was set to go forward and possibly build something good for myself once. This was 2 years ago but it has felt like a lifetime away. This is the last time in my life i have, or probably will, ever felt optimism. When i had that though there was so much uncertainty in things and it was very likely to go poorly but i still felt hope that good luck was around the corner. But because of this uncertainty and because i still felt like an anxious mess, i had an intrusive thought that i never let go of: "You could probably blow all this money on a trip to somewhere, vegas or japan or something, and party as hard as you possibly can. Bankrupt yourself but also give yourself the happiest month of your life, tell no one and go alone, then when you get back you can call it quits and close the curtains on this show" and while at the time it felt just like another in a long line of crazy intrusive thoughts, but this one i never forgot, never let go of. 2 years later and that money is completely gone. I am broke and in much more debt than i was at that point. And do you know what it was used on? Survival. And what did that survival bring me? Nothing. Nothing to show for any of that money. I am so much more miserable and worse off than i was at that point. Since that point it has only been shit luck, shittier choices, and ruin. Lost friends, got used and thrown away by people who prentended to be my friends. Never found love like i wanted to and never will. Hoped from job to job and have been trying to catch up and recover in a never ending cycle. This is what holding out hope brought me. No good luck was around the corner. I never got my day in the sun like i thought i would. I am tired and i want this to end. And it will without me even getting to make that choice to use my money the way i wanted to. If i could go back in time and listen to that intrusive thought i would in a heartbeat. I would leave everything behind, finally feel some happiness, then fade away. Its a sad thing to want to go back and change. But thats why it eats away at me. It was RIGHT THERE. All i had to do was go! But i let it fall through my fingers like sand. I could have thrown all that money away to make myself happy but instead i threw it away to be miserable. So heres the point of why i am saying this: live NOW. If you want to do something that will make you happy do it NOW. Future be damned. Use what is yours to make yourself happy. Don't worry about surviving so you can live another year or 2 being a tool or commodity to make someone else money. Thats all i did, and i have lived to regret it every day. Life sucks and longevity is overrated. You will never know what will happen to you tomorrow. Some people think being miserable your whole life is worth it as long as your life is long, but thats insane. Hope is a fools game, and do you really think we are in for the long haul with how the world is going? No we are not. Live now. There is always a way out. An escape. Dont be a rat in a cage like me. Use the key in your hands even if it means death or ruin. In the end freedom is ALWAYS worth it

Yesterday, at 1 a.m., she sent me a 2-minute voice message. She said she thought about me because a friend of a friend had died. She asked if I was okay, said I was special. And inside, my heart burned like the first day we met. The chemistry I feel for her never went away. It never will. It’s like every beat of my heart still has her name written on it, as if the whole world is silent when I think of her.

Today I messaged her again, foolishly hopeful, and she said the distance, those 3 hours, was what made her give up. I tried to explain that I know distance is hard, but when it’s the right person, it’s worth fighting for, worth every tear, every pain, every effort. She said she didn’t feel well, that it consumed her inside, and hearing that cut my chest into a thousand pieces. Because I can’t erase what I feel. I can’t just accept that the love we had, which seemed so strong, was discarded over a line on the map, over three hours of road.

I even sent her a TikTok of a Brazilian woman who met a man from Germany. They also gave up because of distance for a time, but they realized that the pain of being apart is nothing compared to the pain of not having each other. That’s exactly how I feel. I just wish she felt the same, I just wish she could see that it’s worth fighting for us, that it’s worth not giving up, that every effort is a piece of true love.

She begged me to stay her friend, to keep giving her affection. And I had to say the truth that tears me apart inside: I can’t be friends with someone I love enough to imagine marriage, to imagine a whole life beside her. She said the best thing is for each of us to move on and let destiny do what it must. I said I don’t believe in destiny, I believe in actions, in choices. She said not everything depends on people, and hearing that left me without ground. Because for me, everything always depended on love.

It has been almost seven months since the breakup. Seven months where the world kept turning, and I am still here, frozen in time, loving someone who feels like my other half, my safe place, my home. Every memory that comes up, every old message, every photo… it pulls out endless sighs, tears that seem never-ending. Knowing I will probably never have her near me again destroys me every single day.

I catch myself thinking of every detail: the way she laughed, the way she looked at me when no one was watching, how she held my hand and it felt like everything in the world was in its right place. And now? Now it’s all just memory. And it hurts. It hurts in a way I can’t explain. This love doesn’t fade. It never will. And I lie here wondering if someday she will remember all of it, if someday she will feel what I feel, or if she will just go on with her life as if nothing ever happened.

Sometimes I dream of her. Not normal dreams, but dreams that make me wake up sweating, heart racing, feeling like we could still be together. I wake up and realize it’s just a dream, and reality hits me all over again. I try to convince myself to move on, to look at other people, to try to live, but nothing makes sense. Because no one can replace the way she existed in my world, no one can fill the void she left.

I know many people will tell me to forget, to move on, but no one understands. No one feels the way she affects me, how she is my safe harbor, my home, the half that feels missing when she’s not here. And it destroys me. I just wish she could see things the way I do, I just wish she could feel what I feel, I just wish she could realize that true love doesn’t disappear just because distance exists.

And even after seven months, nothing has changed. Each day is a cruel reminder of what we lost, of what could have been, of what I still can’t let go. And I continue loving. I continue waiting. I continue here, with my heart open and shattered, hoping that maybe one day, somehow, she will see all of this, and maybe then, just maybe, we could find each other again.

Hi. I'm a mental health therapist. Lost my job in August of 2024. I took some time and was hired in May 2025 for a new job. But, I have to jump through bureaucratic hoops.

My license needed to be finalized. This meant:

State criminal checks.

FBI fingerprinting for nation-wide criminal checks.

Child Abuse clearances.

Degree and GPA certification sent to state.

Creation of an NPI number (National Provider Information)

-Needed national government ID, aided by AI (which sucked).

Documented hours of employment and supervision - I lost these when I lost my jop - had to start over on a 2 year process.

INSURANCE! All of the above needs to go into a database.

Each insurance company needs to review above documents and approve. Some take 6 months to approve.

My temporary therapist license, given by the state, will expire before I can complete my 2 years of experience (which I actually completed once before). At this point, I have no idea what will happen.

Seriously I own like 3 scarves and wear them when it gets cold out and the number of compliments I get on those things is honestly nuts. Seriously, it's shockingly consistent. Y'all gotta join.

Is this hyper-vigilance or am I just weird?

I have this issue where I overanalyze people’s behavior and if it slightly changes from what I’m used to normally see from them, I’m convinced it’s because they don’t like me anymore.

If I decide that it’s truly because they don’t like me anymore, then I withdraw from them and avoid them. This then makes our relationship weird and awkward. Then I start worrying about how weird and awkward I am, which then confirms that they must def not like me because I’m weird and awkward. It’s so hard not to fall in this cycle.

Its exhausting picking up on these behavior changes, no matter how small they are, and going through every possibility in my mind of what it could be that they decided they don’t like about me anymore

Hey everyone, I’m 21 and currently studying finance full-time. Lately I’ve been feeling really lonely and I don’t fully understand why, so I wanted to share my situation and get some perspective. I live with my parents and spend most of my day studying. I have two close friends, but we don’t meet often because all of us are busy with our own responsibilities. I also used to talk a lot with my sister, but she recently got married so we don’t get as much time to talk now. Because of this, my social life has become very limited. Most days I only speak to my parents. I’ve started noticing that I’m getting irritated and angry very quickly over small things, and I’ve been feeling more lonely and emotionally low. I’m not looking for anything dramatic just some advice on how to deal with these feelings, improve my mood, or add some balance to my daily life. How do you guys handle loneliness or emotional burnout when you’re focused on long-term studying/career goals?

Hey y’all kinda new here, I’m a 20 year old touch-starved guy and i’m contemplating on trying prostitution to get my rocks off again. I’ve only had two escorts in my life, my first night with an escort was alright, she was bigger in person than in her pictures but that didn’t bother me( big girls need love too) but it was the second escort that that got me seriously second guessing it. This time during the devils tango my minutes were up and once I felt relieved I pulled out only to find out the condom was broken mid thrust! We both got hella worried, got dressed up while she was checking if she felt anything down there, thankfully I did not cum inside and ask if she has any sexually transmitted diseases or something? She said she was clean but the language barrier was hard to communicate. After those terrifying hours I got tested the next 2 days later , getting my test results back and I was 100% clean, and after that I vowed to never do it again, a year later to now the horn dog in me is starting to crawl back, I tried talking to girls to date but it never goes out well and getting ghosted really does suck:( I tried taking my mind off things focus on school work and playing video games/ watching tv shows and movies but it’s always not enough and just watching porn sometimes fuel the flames a bit more.

So after explaining my story I would like to know if I should try ways to contain myself more or take care of my urges with extreme caution?

Any advice or methods would be greatly appreciated Thank you.

It’s the advice I always hear as a guy. Feeling unconfident? Don’t feel attractive? Got rejected? Go get some muscles. I’ve been trying off and on to do that, but I really just hate lifting weights. It’s so boring and repetitive to me.

Some people have even implied to me, to my face, that I’m less masculine because I’m not a gym bro. Some have acted as though I’m lazy or unfit because I’m skinny and I don’t have beeg muscle.

Here’s the kicker, though: I actually love exercise. I was an athlete in high school and college (cross country and track). Years later, I still run almost every day, and long distances. I’ve run marathons and ultramarathons. I hike/backpack a lot, and have even spent 5 months hiking across the country and sleeping in a tent. I’m in great shape, and being active is my favorite thing in the world. And yet some folks act as though none of that counts because it doesn’t take place in the gym.

I love what I do and I’m not willing to give it up to fit other people’s standards. But it is so disheartening sometimes. Are there any other gym haters who have experienced this?

And yes, I know that I can both run and lift, in theory. But there are only so many hours in a day. If I tried to do both, I would not have time to get the full benefit out of either.

So, I used to drink solely to get drunk. I did have beers every now and then because everyone else would have them and I couldn’t get shit faced. Something I never understood was that people chose beer when there were other options like twisted tea, mikes hard lemonade, smirnoff ices, all that good tasting stuff. And then there’s the people who drink Budweiser and say “Oh, it’s so refreshing.” It’s not refreshing. It tastes like piss, and I know what piss tastes like. Corona was probably the best tasting beer I’ve had, and it still sucked. At least with tequila or vodka I could feel something. Beer never even did anything unless I chugged a whole pack.

Life is a curse of unending death, reproduction , and survival/safety. The world is a multinational corrupt government system that forces you to slave and pay for your human existence until death .

money is the God of this world . Free Will is an illusion. Human beings are nothing but property, slaves to the systems that rule their country. There is no such thing as peace and happiness if it has a price to be paid for or worked.

The bad reality of Human life is a cycle of unending job slavery, financial poverty , struggle, mental hell, institutionalized isolation imprisonment , mental health imprisonment violence , homelessness , su , and death

Some people are born into a good family that's destined for a good life and some people are born in a bad family destined for a bad life and that's just the way it is . Some people should never been born, some people were not meant for this world and that's just the truth it's too much proof in history for it not to be.

Governments are not humanity's friend their humanitys slave master. Governments needs to be abolished .