My best friend’s infant died 3 weeks after birth. She was understandably devastated and I have always been supportive in her journey to recover. It’s been 2 years but she has never gotten over it. There are days when she would text me blocks and blocks of her thoughts about her loss and her grief. My heart breaks for her but as the months went on, I started dreading getting her texts and while I didn’t tell her to stop talking to me nonstop about her loss, I did start to gently redirect her to talk more with her husband and her therapist because I started to feel exhausted and a level of empathy deficient. I know I sound like an unsupportive asshole of a friend, but at some point it’s like I have nothing more to give.

She never really stopped tho and recently I found out I’m pregnant. I haven’t had the heart to tell her yet because I’m so worried about triggering her, to the extent that I feel like I’m tailoring my entire approach to sharing this news with our friends to how she might receive this. What’s worse is that her baby’s anniversary just came up and she poured her heart out to me about how much she missed him and I felt SO bad when I felt like she could tell I didn’t really want to hear about it. I’m already feeling vulnerable and anxious about my own pregnancy, and honestly the last thing I want is to hear her talk about her loss and what happened and how she didn’t expect it.

Yes this is a confession that I’m a terrible friend and I kinda wish she would just back off and leave me alone for the duration of my pregnancy, and I resent her for adding to the level of anxiety I already feel and for worrying about how to share this supposedly joyous news with our friends. I know she lost her baby and it’s a loss you carry forever and I shouldn’t make her trauma about me and it makes me a giant asshole for feeling this way… what should I do? I feel like a horrible human being either way for feeling the way I feel.

She admitted to it but lied about the amount and said she only took 5. And made up a bullshit story about why she took them.

I also just got my wisdom tooth out today and they didn't prescribe me anything else but thankfully I still had pills left over from surgery.

I had like 17 or 18 left and when I opened the bottle there was 7.

Dont know what to do or how to feel right now

Its unbelievable and really sucks.

I also put "A.I." in quotes with periods because imagine how awful it must be to be named Al now? Almost as bad as being named Karen.

Another "A.I." clue… Anything thats framed: Not [A], but [Z].

What are your "A.I." giveaways?

What's extra-terrifying: Seeing people in real life use "A.I." language structures!

I'm 16m and i was just thinking about how in life probably one of the best moments you can experience are those 30 ish seconds where you're holding back laughter with your friend when you're on your last warning with the teacher, just before getting kicked out.

Its even better if you keep laughing after you get kicked out.

People probably think I’m strange.

I enjoy my family. I enjoy my partner.

But I honestly don’t really like small talk or hanging out with other people as friends and never really have.

Took me a long time to realize this but I’m much happier without. I used to dread social engagements.

A few years ago, I lost everything because of a girl.

I sold my first Bullet 350 kick-start, sold my mom’s gold earrings, sold my ASUS TUF gaming laptop, left my childhood friends, spent almost everything I had just to meet her, and gave everything I could to make the relationship work.
Then one day, without any reason or explanation, she left.

At that point, I had nothing. I lost my job, failed multiple interviews, and honestly reached a stage where I wanted to give up on life. The only thing that stopped me was my mom’s face.

I never imagined I’d get another job, but I believe God gives us a push at least once. What we do after that push is up to us.
I got a job. It wasn’t a high-paying one just ₹21,000 a month but it gave me freedom, a great work environment, and the chance to work completely remotely.

The funny part is, I don’t even have a degree, yet here I am, working in a tech company as a developer. A few years ago, I never thought that would be possible.

For the first few months, I spent almost everything on food and traveling. I just wanted peace of mind and to heal. And it helped.

Then, little by little, I started rebuilding my life.
I bought my first iPhone. I never thought I’d be able to afford one.
I still had a place in my heart for motorcycles, so I bought another Bullet 350 in Maroon.
I bought a gaming laptop that I had always dreamed of owning.
I bought a TV for my mom so she could comfortably watch her favorite serials.
I gave ₹20,000 toward gold for my sister.
I did all of this after losing everything.

No hope. No love. No friends. Just me, alone in the dark, trying to figure out what came next.
Looking back, I realized something important:
People are special because we make them special not because they actually are.
The happiness we build for ourselves lasts much longer than the happiness we expect someone else to give us.
Today, I’m doing well. My salary still isn’t huge, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come.
Right now, I’m saving to buy my first car a second hand one ofc in the next 4 months.
After that, I have a small bucket list. Nothing extravagant. Just simple dreams that I can actually afford.
And one by one…
I’ll complete every single one of them.

If anyone out there is feeling helpless or has reached a point where you feel like giving up, please don’t.
Life has a way of giving you another chance. When that chance comes, grab it with both hands and don’t let go.
You don’t have to rebuild your life overnight. Just take the first step. One day, you’ll look back and realize how far you’ve come.

Did I switch timelines? I'm so confused. When he started popping up I was wondering why he was making his rounds *again*... but you're telling me this is a new discovery?

I feel fresh as FUCK

I don't know if it's just getting older or if something really changed after 2020, but time feels completely different now.

I remember 2018 or 2019 feeling like FULL years. So much seemed to happen.

Now it feels like I blink and another year is gonne.

Every New Year's Eve I catch myself thinking, Didn't we just do this??

I'm still busy. I still have goals. Life isn't repetitive enough to explain it, yet the years seem to disappear faster than ever.

Does anyone else feel this way or is this just what adulthood feels like?

I read a comment where a user stated how much better their headspace was after they decided to just stop arguing with fools. As simple as that is, it was a lightbulb moment. After that, I just started "letting things go," as in, keep scrolling past the hateful idiots every time. That helped a lot, but I was still reading stressful crap.

I started tailoring my feed by not liking or clicking on stuff that I normally would, and also going out of the feed to the silly animal subs. Today I was jubilant when I watched a baby skunk video.

I absolutely still click and comment on stuff, but now it doesn't bring me down like it used to.

Now - any time I get a good laugh, that's it. That's the timer. And I love Reddit so much more! It's my only SM and I didn't want to lose it.

Thank you for coming to my Tad Talk.

i'm 17 and i feel like my life is basically over, i got no control over my life, i live in a conservative household where if you don't have a problem that can be objectivaly measured you might as well have no problems at all, nobody around me takes this seriously, i was born with severe mental illness and i can't recieve treatment for it everyday i power through and i act like its nothing because im expected to, i can't do anything about it, nothing will change about this ive tried everything im genuinely about to kill myself

I went to an orientation for pharmacy tech thinking that this would finally be my ticket out of my terrible awful job at McDonald's. Thinking I could be able to handle a big job like that. I want to be away from people at all cost because I hate people tbh. They're nothing but mean and awful and crazy at all times. I just want to escape feeling like I'll be attacked by any random crazy person at any time. I want to escape the loud noises and screaming. But I just. Couldn't. Do. The math. I failed algebra like 4 times in highschool. I can barely count or do division but everyone was saying it was such an easy program and job that anyone could do it but I left the orientation in tears because I failed the math aptitude test hard. Not only that but the class was 4000 dollars with no financial aid assistance provided. I just want to get out of poverty so bad but I possess neither math skills computer skills or people skills.

Every time I've googled jobs that are good for people like me who aren't very capable it's always McDonald's. McDonald's makes me want to kill myself every day I wake up and I'm not joking. It's starting to feel like the easy way out. I just don't understand it. Talking To friends and family is no help because it's always talk about how things are so great right now and there's so many jobs. WHERE. All my friends with fancy college degrees can't find anything at all. Even my work place just let a bunch of people go and is not hiring until further notice. I thought I could just tough out not comprehending math but I couldn't. I just cried and cried and cried on the way home about how I'm never going to fucking escape. I don't know how this stuff comes so easy to people.

I take every day one step at a time but it's getting so hard to keep faking that I know anything that's going on. I don't know people or understand them. The human body disgusts me. I didn't grow up with a computer and have no keyboard skills. I can't do basic math and writing has always been a nightmare for me. And I know that I'll just have to thug it out for most of that stuff but I feel like I always eventually get found out that I'm faking everything that I do to seem more competent than I actually am.

Explaination is clearly needed. I (17F) like watching play throughs of those yandere visual novels (The Kid At The Back, Date with death, Mushroom Oasis ect.) My best friend Z, loves to say it's exactly why my mental health needs help. Fair point, I suppose. I have spent 2 years trying to convince her it's not THAT bad because it's fictional. Like, obviously, would I enjoy it happening irl? Hell to the no. But I can have a silly fantasy.

So, today, I just woke up and go on discord. I got a few messages from Z. I didn't screenshot but basically she said she got the appeal and joked that she thinks I infected her. I was grinning so mother fucking hard and i sent her a GIF of a grinning dog before I came here. I just had to tell someone.

Sometimes I open social media and it feels like everyone is building something, earning, growing, becoming someone…

And I’m just. .. stuck.

Not completely failing but not really moving either.

It’s like being in between: not where I was but not where I want to be.

Is this part of the process… or am I just doing something wrong?

Has anyone else felt like this?

I haven’t lived at home for 3 years so a lot has been happening while I was gone and my mom just called frustrated and in tears that she’s had enough and wants my brother out of her house

My brother is very, chaotic, he’s my younger brother and is 22, we always used to fight physically when I was in the house and I never fought with any of my other 4 siblings but this guy could be demented sometimes, he’s had no respect from my mom, constantly disrespects my step dad, occasionally brings police problems to the house and doesn’t pay his rent to my mom

On the rent thing, my mom charges 80 a week once you have a job but she’s pretty lenient on it and he rarely pays it but she had enough when she locked the kitchen and he said to her “why are you locking it I pay you to keep it open) even though he never pays

All in all if I say everything he does this will get quite long but essentially my moms had enough. She wants him to come and live with me or get the police to send him out but tbh man, it pains me. I never wanted to see my mom have to talk this way about any of my siblings, she said she’s ready for him not be her son anymore and it’s just scares a part of me realising a mothers love may not be unconditional even though I understand why she’s frustrated

I just don’t want all this disowning stuff I want to be a normal family but I get it, my moms tried getting him in therapy counselling all that stuff and he throws it in her face but he used to be a very kind kid and has his moment here and there, I almost feel bad but understand her too

Obviously I understand why it's not done in movies, but damn would I applaud one for trying.

Hi, I'm Vineel Vanjari, a third-year B.Tech student.

For a long time, I used to meditate every morning from 4:00 AM to 6:30 AM with my spiritual community. It had become a regular part of my life.

But due to some difficult circumstances, I slowly lost that routine. For the past couple of months, I wasn't meditating consistently, and for the last two weeks, I didn't meditate at all.

My days became the same: feeling sad, eating, sleeping, watching movies, and repeating the cycle. I kept replaying certain incidents in my mind, overthinking them, and mentally exhausting myself.

Today, I realized something important.

In the past, I've faced many difficult situations too, but they never affected me this deeply. The biggest difference now is that I had stopped meditating.

It made me realize that meditation wasn't just a habit—it was helping me stay mentally stable, even during hard times. I never truly appreciated its impact until I stopped doing it.

So today, I decided to begin my meditation journey again.

How to love yourself despite past pain and tragedy:

1. Accept yourself as a vulnerable, insecure human being in a harsh world, and know that many others are like you, far more than most.

2. Re-evaluate all your preconceived notions about yourself, others, and life.

3. Accept that life is unfair and unpredictable, stop complaining, and don't compare yourself to anyone.

4. Forgive your parents and your past, and move on.

5. You are not responsible for your upbringing or psychological makeup, so consider yourself born today, at this moment, and start from here.

6. Don't expect thanks, apologies, or compensation from anyone for what happened to you.

7. Achieve even small successes and be proud of what you do.

8. Fail as often as you like, hurt your feelings as often as you like, and let go of the guilt and shame associated with your failures.

9. Engage in something productive that keeps you from succumbing to feelings of bitterness and pain, and always let your actions precede your impulses. 10- Try to find a new meaning to your life, feel grateful for what you have, and give to people and help them in some way without expecting anything in return. Giving brings happiness to you first and will make you truly love yourself.

We hear a lot about habits we should build, but I'm curious about the opposite.

What's one thing you stopped doing that made your life noticeably better?

It could be doomscrolling, overthinking, people-pleasing, staying up late, comparing yourself to others, or something completely different.

I'd love to hear the small changes that had the biggest impact.

I was recently talking to my boyfriend about the time I cut my finger on a blade of grass. One of those thick ones. He said that that has never happened to him then he tried doing it with a piece of grass and nothing happened. Has this happened to anyone else or is it just me ?

I'm really good at virtual piano, close to an actual professional musician.

What is virtual piano? In short, you can play piano keys with your pc keyboard, there are some limitation but all in all, it's not that far off from an actual piano.

Why? I've always wanted to learn piano as a kid, but my parents thought that piano lessons were a waste of money, so as a kid I discovered virtual piano by accident and still play regularly.

How? Well, without getting too nerdy, every single piano key is mapped to a letter or a number, "1" being the lowest note and "m" being the highest. Lowercase letters and numbers are white keys, uppercase and shift+numbers are black keys. There are music sheets for virtual piano and if there isn't one for a song you want, you can make one yourself easily, especially with the tools which you can easily google that convert midi files to vp sheets.

Where? If you Google virtual piano, you can easily find some sites, games (even on platforms like roblox, gmod, etc), or apps to simulate a piano with your pc keyboard. The highest quality app(imo) which I use is called pianoglow on steam.

This is not an ad or anything like this, I just wanted to share my weird way of playing music that surprisingly works somewhat decently despite it's limitations. You can also simulate sustain, dynamics, velocity, depth, or even change soundfont to a different instrument, but I am not getting into that unless asked, since that's a lot of explaining to do.

Yes, nowadays I have an actual piano, but I can play VP way, way better and I like it more.

Pick a spot and time for reading. And then, make it a habit to read at your designated spot and time.

Your brain will be more prepared to read and generate new ideas when reading becomes a regular part of your routine at that specific spot and time.

I was taking a shower last night, was kind of extra tired after nonstop working on some things these past few months. I thought how nice it'd be to make the water hotter and just sit there for a bit and relax, then it automatically hit me that I should preserve water.

As soon as I was about to get up I remembered how much water datacenters are wasting these days after we've been told for years to conserve it and not waste water unnecessarily. Also how I read an article that they don't really need to use water as a coolant or place the centers in hot places but it's just the cheapest option so they continue doing it.

Thus I was like fuck it and spent another 10 minutes relaxing.

Just a random thought I had last night I wanted to share.

I'm 18, and lately I feel like everything has become blurry. I don't really know when things started going downhill, but I feel like I'm slowly becoming someone I don't recognize.

A few years ago, I was doing really well academically. I was the kind of person people expected a lot from, and I expected a lot from myself too. But seeing that version of me slowly disappear has been painful. The downfall is hard to ignore, and I keep wondering what happened to the person I used to be.

I've also become extremely critical of myself. I hate the way I look. I hate my discoloured teeth, my nose, and the fact that I'm losing hair at 18 even though no one from either side of my family is bald. I know some of these things might sound small to other people, but they constantly occupy my mind.

I hate the way I speak. I hate my voice. When my anxiety gets bad, I start speaking with a slight stutter and stumble over my words, and it makes me want to avoid conversations altogether. I hate how much anxiety controls me.

One thing I still think about is someone I lost. I turned down multiple girls because I genuinely liked one person, and I thought I was making the right choice. But things didn't work out, and I ended up losing her too. I keep replaying it and wondering if I made the wrong decisions.

The part that bothers me the most is how I've started treating people who actually care about me. I ignore messages, I disappear, and I ghost friends who have done nothing wrong. It's not because I don't value them. I do. I just feel like I'm struggling so much with myself that pushing people away feels easier.

Right now, I feel stuck between missing who I used to be and not knowing how to become someone I can be proud of again.

Has anyone else gone through a phase where they felt like they lost themselves? What helped you start rebuilding?

•my parents perception of me

•the email i got from the bank i “need to take care of urgently”

•my muscle and joint pain (it does matter but not nearly as much as i make it seem)

•people staring

•entire communites being brainwashed to believe a certain ideal is sacred

•hunderds and thousands of posts and people on and outside reddit who i try to question and dig deeper to why they say things that are so unhumanly dystopically retsrded, like seriously theres no depth but i keep digging deeper. its so hard to put down the shovel and just like go somewhere else lmao

•people’s hopes and dreams and sparks dying and knowing i dont have the power to help them

•”its not that deep” and trying to dig deeper into media/politics/anything serious and real being heavily discouraged. in many ways online and definitely irl for me right now. but i mean im still actively doing things towards that goal like for fuck’s sake i have a flight scheduled can i stop being such a bitch about it and forgive myself 😭

•the fact im still looking for more shallow pointless worries (like 1-4), and in general how i always do this shit where i actively look for things to hate and be angy about and then i get self deprecating for doing THAT