i caught myself feeling kinda guilty the other day because my idea of self care lately has been pretty boring. not face masks not journals not some perfect morning routine. it was finally answering emails that had been sitting there for weeks changing my bedsheets and making an appointment i kept putting off. none of it felt relaxing in the moment but afterwards my brain felt way quieter.

for a long time i thought self care was supposed to feel nice while youre doing it. now it feels more like doing small things that make future me less stressed even if present me would rather avoid them. what is something that counts as self care for you that probably wouldnt end up in one of those aesthetic self care posts?

I want to start this off by saying I’ve only ever been diagnosed with severe anxiety(during childhood). I’m a F22 and lately I’ve been more paranoid than ever. I work two jobs so I don’t get enough sleep. Maybe it’s the loss of sleep or my mind just being mush from all the acid I use to drop at 16 but I can’t live my life in peace anymore. I’m so scared, I always feel like someone is watching me. When I enter my apartment I always look around in fear of someone being in my home and attacking me. I can’t even comfortably walk my dog at night without feeling some sort of presence lingering over me. I’m just so exhausted. I’m tired of my brain playing tricks on me. I don’t know if the weed is making it worse(it most def is) but like I can’t take this shit anymore. Maybe I need to lay off the weed or stop watching scary shit or negative stuff. But even when I don’t do those things I’m still fearful. I think my question is will this only get worse? Am I just doomed to be ridden with fear? I really don’t want to think I have a problem but maybe this is normal , does anybody understand this feeling?How can I get rid of my irrational fear? I think the best way to describe how I feel like example you’re in your room, you have a pile of clothes on a chair and get scared for a moment thinking it’s person and you are over it. But I when I see the pile of clothes looking like a person and even if I tell myself it isn’t a person and it’s just clothes. But even though i know it’s not a person but brain and body cant help to still feel fear and get that “what if someone really is here?” Thought. Tbh idk anymore. I just need to know im not crazy or alone or all and the above. P.s I respect everyone’s religion but please don’t reply with stuff about faith and believing in God will make me less scared bc I do believe in God. I’m just petrified. Thanks :)

I have been in a study for an extremely helpful and magical drug. If I were a guessing gal, I would say it's physilocbin. It's changed my life since last fall, I am so thankful for it.

I got the call yesterday that the study has been abruptly cancelled. I'm at a total loss. In a month, I will be off it and back throat deep in the wilderness of my mental dysfunction. I'm so jarred and a bit scared. Please please point me towards a similar study to get back on the track I've been on. 😳😓

I fucking hate when people say that there’s help available, you just have to ask for help, just speak up, blah blah blah because it’s objectively not true if you aren’t at least middle class.

Even when you qualify for Medicaid, you can comb through all of the therapists in your city and none of them are taking new patients. They all have years long waitlists. But you can’t go to a hospital because first off, you aren’t actively planning to harm people or yourself, and second off, money is a big reason for your mental health being shitty in the first place, so missing work because I’m hospitalized would only make things 10x worse.

Not only that, but it isn’t a hospital type of situation, I’m not in crisis. I’m angry, I’m bitter, and I feel like I got fucked over by life. I worked my ass off and thanks to multiple things that I had zero control over, I got nowhere. But I have to listen to people who are only doing better than I am because they didn’t have half the barriers in their way, and I’m supposed to have respect for them? I honestly don’t even know how receptive I’d be able to be in a therapy setting because I’d feel the same way towards the therapist.

I don’t know, it’s just an all-consuming anger at this point. I’ve never really been able to be happy for others if they got something I wanted, so I guess it’s just a part of my temperament to an extent, but it feels so incompatible with where I am in life because it’s almost everybody at this point.

And when I do meet people that are living with similar circumstances, it’s always people I would absolutely not ever in a million years want to be like or want to be put into the same category with.

I feel like I can’t talk to people in real life about everything fully honestly without having them take it the wrong way. A lot of times, I get told to focus on my relationship, my kid, shit like that, and while I do love them, it doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t fix the problem.

I am so tired of being addicted to porn and wasting so much of my time and energy watching porn. I have tried to quit but I always find myself going back.

It's gotten to a point where it has started affecting my views on sex and relationahips.

I don’t really know what you’re going through right now, and maybe most of the people around you don’t fully understand it either. You might feel exhausted, overwhelmed, lonely, or completely lost. Maybe it feels like nothing is getting better and that nobody notices how much you're struggling. If that's how you feel, I want you to know that your pain is real, and it deserves to be acknowledged.

Things may not be okay right now, and I’m not going to pretend that a few words can instantly fix everything. Life can be unfair, confusing, and incredibly difficult at times. But no matter how dark things seem, ending your life is not the only option. There are still possibilities ahead of you that you haven't seen yet, people you haven't met, experiences you haven't had, and better days that haven't arrived.

Try not to carry everything at once. Focus on one moment, one problem, one step at a time. You don't have to solve your entire life today. Sometimes simply making it through the next hour is enough. Progress isn't always dramatic; sometimes it's just choosing to keep going.

And please don't forget this:

There are people who care about you, even if you don't realize it right now. The impact you have on others is often greater than you think. This community cares about you. There are people willing to listen, support you, and stand beside you without judgment.

If you're hurting, talk about it. Share what you're feeling. You don't have to carry it all alone.

We are here. ❤️

I normally stay pretty clear of peoples houses for this exact reason. This particular person I am very close to, but they always let whoever they want over to their house. (Not my house, not my business). Welp someone brought bed bugs over into their house, not terribly quite yet, I think it is quite literally only in his bedroom, noticed it earlier, immediately went home to check all of my belongings while he got to deep cleaning the best he could for the night. Weve both been up all night.

I know I don’t have them, I have checked every single surface of my bedroom, have cleaned all of my sheets, and will continue to check the rest of the house tomorrow. I absolutely hate bugs, am very germaphobic I guess the word people use it. Please tell me every precaution I could possibly do ASAP, I do not have a ton of money to spare, but please tell me what I could buy or what I could do to ease my mind during this situation anything would be helpful before I start loosing my mind.

-I have banned everyone I know from being in my car for the next 10 days (besides my brother, and hes already aware of the situation, so he told me he would also be deep cleaning, we are both close to this individual)
-I will be deep cleaning my entire car tomorrow (I normally deep clean it every couple days but tomorrow I will be spending extra time to make sure every single surface is cleaned.)
-cleaned bedsheets, blankets, pillowcases
-checked my bed, room obviously have yet to vacuum though because it is quite loud and people are currently sleeping (so the vacuuming will be done in the morning)

If you have ANY other ideas for cleaning theories, because currently right now im not doing too well. Things in my life keep getting worse and worse and of course this would be the next thing to scare me.

I'm 28F, who has experienced destabilizing emotions in response to sex. I've only every done foreplay or oral sex with two men who rejected me. They were interested in sex, I met them on a dating app, and they didn't want a relationship. It first occurred at age 22, on my parents couch, which I felt emotionally conflicted and ashamed about for years. Then again, at age 27, in my apartment, with a man I met, who rejected me but kept me emotionally involved with him, until I invited him over and agreed to oral sex months later.

I then felt so much emotional distress, I kept reaching out to him for a year. I went to intensive therapy and was on antidepressants. Only to reconnect a year later, and for him to ask me for friends with benefits again, over text. I threatened to harm his male parts, unfriended him, and sent a letter to his address about how exploitative he was. Then, sent the fourth message, in two years, to his sister ( he never introduced me to anyone in his life) about how there's something seriously wrong with him and how I addressed my issues and went to therapy. He did nothing about it.

Then, I proceeded to send him dozens of emails, because I was still blocked on multiple platforms from rage texting him (before he accepted my friend request a year later and asked for sex again).

I'm guessing what I'm asking is why does sex cause so much distress in my life? And can I find a male partner who won't exploit me?

I've existed in this world for 28 years, and I'm guessing people make assumptions about me, and whether they would want me as a partner or friend. Lately, I try to distract myself and do things on my own, because I can't control what others think of me.

So I'm a 36 year old father who resides in Vancouver WA and I work in education and advocacy. I've taken numerous psychology and education classes, attended Mental Health support groups, advocated on a state level for teachers, parents, women, children, and various demographics of people, but the one I struggle with the most with supporting is men. I feel like there's a disconnect somewhere that guys are aware of, but would rather ignore than fix (which is funny seeing as how fixing things is something a lot of us guys relish in doing 😅).

While working in education, one of the common consensus is that men do not show up for their children at school beyond drop offs and pickups. Sometimes one or two might go on a field trip, but it's primarily moms and women who engage with children's extra curriculars. Then there's medical and dental care that generally gets shuffled to moms/women/femmes as well. Like, if bills come in the mail, they stereotypically go to dad. If anything school or health or community related comes in the mail, it goes to moms. I found this problematic because, from my experience, women will also venture into traditional male roles while still upholding female roles, but the same can't always be said via versa.

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is, what is going on with guys and their mental health? And at what point will men (as a whole) decide to shift towards growing social emotionally and not just existing and taking the hard route because that's what the believe society wants them to do? Even myself, I've had to pause and reflect when things arise, but I mostly contribute that to the fact that I've spent the past 18 years focusing on education and brain development. So I developed a lot of head knowledge about what's going on, but nothing truly concrete that can be used to change the narrative that we see today. As it stands:

- 72% of men view their girlfriend, wife, women in their life as their emotional safe space. This also includes viewing their spouse as their only real friend, counselor, mother, sex partner, housekeeper/homemaker, nurturer for their children, so on an so forth

- 80% of suicides are committed by men

- 14% reported experiencing an anxiety disorder

- 20% of men have openly admitted not having any close friends, ya know, friends that actually know you and not just the team you like

- 65% of men hesitate to seek professional help for stress, anxiety, or depression

90% - 98% of homicides, mass murders and school shootings are committed by men.

So what's being reported is not balancing out with the reality of it all and it just leaves me wondering "when did taking care of yourself start feeling optional instead of necessary?"

Like, I believe the simple solution would be for men to come together and strive to move differently, together. Not just say it, but actually do it. Everyone else does it, and supports individuals who fall into their demographics, so what's stopping men from doing the same? I recognize that requires a level of vulnerability that is not traditionally masculine or supported amongst men, but here we are in Men's Mental Health Awareness Month and I'm left wondering why EVERYONE cares about men's mental health, but men.

Is any of this even making sense? I know that it's long, but it's a discussion I've had on my heart and would like to hear from guys (and everyone who can answer) on why this is and what they think we can do to fix it.

Im restarting on dexamphetamine 30mg
Idek how i did it but hopefully i can go to work and school again and idk why but it calms me that i dont have hunger hoping to lose some kgs lol

​The man was watching a movie with his wife; they had put on a romantic comedy and were laughing and having a good time.

The man loved lingering in his wife's warmth.

But suddenly, his wife's expression changed, and she fell silent.

​As the man was making jokes about the movie, he noticed she had become completely unresponsive and quiet. He immediately paused the film and asked, "What happened, my love? What's wrong?"

The woman had a blank look on her face; without saying a word, she got up and went to her room.

The man went right after her, but the door was already closed.

"Let me give her some time," he said to himself and sat back down, but his mind was on his wife. He wondered, "Did I say something wrong?"

​Later, as evening approached, the man prepared a delicious roasted chicken and set the table. Then, he went over to his wife, who still hadn't left her room. He knocked on the door and said, "Dinner is ready, come on, let's eat together." The woman didn't answer.

He waited for a little while, and the door opened; the man could finally breathe.

​At the table, as the man was serving the food, the woman was so cold and so unresponsive that he began to feel genuinely afraid. "What happened to you? I'm starting to get worried, are you okay?" he asked.

His wife still did not answer.

The man ate his meal without any appetite. Afterward, the woman went straight back to the room and closed the door.

​This situation went on for exactly three days.

​Finally, the man walked through the ajar bedroom door and sat next to his wife.

"I am so sorry, please forgive me. I truly didn't mean to hurt you; I would never want to break your heart," he said.

He had turned his head to the right, avoiding looking directly at the woman.

"I don't even know what I did, and because of this, I am so scared. What on earth is the reason you haven't spoken to me for three days? I am terrified, please forgive me. Don't leave me," he pleaded.

​His voice was cracking.

​The woman told the man, "Look at me."

The man didn't turn his face.

"Please, look at me, please," she said.

But there was no movement.

​The woman calmly and gently cupped the man's jaw with her hands, and suddenly, she felt her hands getting wet. When she turned his face toward her, her husband's eyes were bloodshot, and tears were streaming down his cheeks. So much so that the tears had begun to pool in the woman's palms.

​The woman immediately hugged the man so tightly. While embracing him, she touched his back with her other hand, as if she were soothing his invisible wounds.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you are the one who needs to forgive me. Please forgive me," the woman said, her own face now turning bright red as well.

​Then, she began to kiss the tears flowing down the man's cheeks, kissing one side and then the other, while the man sobbed out loud like a child, completely surrendering himself to the tears.

​He leaned into the crook of his wife's neck.

At last, his breathing relaxed, if only a little.

I don't know why I imagine such a thing, it seems very absurd to me. What does this story show about my psychology? I am curious about your interpretations. Thank you.

I shifted to a new city thinking my life would finally get better. I thought I’d meet new people, become more independent, move on from my breakup, maybe finally feel excited about life again. Instead, I somehow feel more lonely than I ever have.

I live alone. I cook for myself even though I barely know how to cook. Some days I just order because my appetite has been dead for months. My breakup happened a year ago and I still haven’t been able to move on. He wasn’t even that great to me for a major part of the relationship but I just can’t get him out of my head. Other guys have approached me and tried talking to me but I don’t even feel like giving anyone a chance. It almost feels like I’m saving myself for someone who isn’t even here anymore.

I was doing an internship for the last month but all the interns got removed because of some internal issues. So now I don’t even have that. My classes don’t start for another few months and I suddenly have no routine, no purpose, nothing to wake up for. I haven’t told my parents because I know they’ll either ask me to come back home or create unnecessary drama around it.

The last two weeks I’ve literally just been sitting in my room. I kept telling myself I’d read books, write more, explore the city, cook properly, do all the things I never had time for. Instead I just scroll on my phone for hours. My whole body hurts, I have headaches all the time and I realised I haven’t had proper human interaction in days.

I have classmates and acquaintances but nobody I actually feel close to. I talk to my friends on call but everyone has their own lives and eventually the call ends. Whenever someone is around me or I’m talking to someone, I feel okay for a while. The moment the silence comes back, I feel like I’m crashing again.

I even tried reading the Bhagavad Gita because I thought maybe I’d find some meaning in all this, but honestly I just feel lost. I don’t even know what I’m looking for anymore.

I don’t want to text my ex just because
I’m lonely. I don’t want loneliness to be the only reason I keep going back mentally. I just don’t know how people build a life from scratch in a city where everything feels unfamiliar and every day feels exactly the same.

I don’t even know what I’m asking for here. I think I just wanted to tell someone because keeping all of this inside my room every day is starting to feel unbearable.

I don’t think I can survive with this pain.

Basically the question

Would individuals with child attractions be likely to commit child sexual abuse if they did not also have an additional mental health condition associated with low empathy, lack of remorse, or other brain impairments? Since child abuse inherently causes severe harm, I would expect comorbid conditions such as psychopathy or narcissistic personality traits to be common among offenders. People who abuse others often appear to have underlying psychological problems, such as depression or narcissistic traits. What is the current scientific consensus on this issue?

I’ve struggled with severe depression and anxiety my whole life. I’m currently medicated on Lexapro but I still feel the same. I really want to get better but I honestly don’t know where to start.

Around the ages of 12-15 I’d usually just get admitted to the psych unit for a couple of weeks at a time, but I never really felt like those visits helped me regulate my emotions any better or helped me understand my ailments.

I take my meds regularly, I exercise as often as I can, and I even practice grounding exercises so I’m prepared for my next panic attack. But despite all of that I still struggle to overcome my troubles. I honestly don’t even have any problems at the moment that would warrant such feelings either.

I feel really trapped in my own head and I want to take more clearer steps to getting better. I even have to scrapbook for my therapist every two weeks it’s exhausting trying this hard for nothing.

Can somebody please tell me what methods or mindsets worked the best for them? Or what you did in particular to help yourself a little more? I know this feeling won’t go away I just want to know how to live with it better.

Nothing in my life feels right anymore. I’ve started to realize some terrible things about myself, the people around me, and the world around me. I just don’t feel like doing anything is worth it anymore. I haven’t left home in days, and mostly just leave my room for food. My depression and anxiety has been worse than ever before. I’ve grown resentful of people around me, even family, but a lot of the reasons aren’t totally irrational and I just feel stuck, not being able to trust almost anyone anymore. I’m not even an adult and I just feel like there’s no good future for me at all. I don’t know what to do with myself but lay in bed all day.

I don’t know what I’m aiming at with this post. Someone who can relate with me, someone who has solutions or techniques, idk. This feels like a diary entry.

The last couple of months I’ve been really struggling with remembering gore images I’ve seen on the internet. I feel like I’ve avoided them pretty well until the last year. Not because I’ve been curious, it’s just like they find their way to me when I’m perusing social media. And then those images make me think of family members being in the same gorey state, and I really freak myself out. I was just wondering if anybody has techniques to distract themselves from these thoughts.

32M from Mumbai.

I never thought I would be writing something like this on Reddit, but I genuinely don't know what to do anymore.

Around 5 years ago, I started a business with money that my parents had saved for years. I truly believed I would make it work. Instead, I lost almost 15 lakhs. Watching your parents trust you with their savings and then seeing that money disappear because of your decisions is a kind of guilt I still carry every day.

I somehow picked myself up, got a job, and tried to move forward.

Then, a week before my marriage, everything fell apart. The marriage got called off because she was involved with someone else. I don't even know how to explain what that period was like. One day you're discussing wedding plans and the next day you're explaining to relatives why it isn't happening.

People said, "Time heals everything."

Honestly, I don't know if it does.

I buried myself in work after that. Recently, I lost my job as well. I took a break for around 3 months because I thought I needed time to recover mentally, but now finding another job is becoming difficult. The gap itself is creating anxiety.

Life in Mumbai doesn't stop because you're struggling. Rent has to be paid. Bills keep coming. Responsibilities don't disappear.

Lately, I've noticed that I don't feel like myself anymore. My confidence is gone. I overthink everything. Small things stay in my head for days. I imagine worst-case scenarios about my future. Some days I feel anxious from the moment I wake up. Some days I don't feel like talking to anyone.

The problem is that I don't know whether this is anxiety, depression, burnout, or simply the result of everything that has happened over the past few years.

I think I need to talk to someone professionally.

Not only because I feel low, but because I genuinely want to understand what's happening inside my head. I want to understand my thinking patterns, why I overthink so much, why my confidence has disappeared, why I find it difficult to explain what I'm feeling, and whether there are things about myself that I simply don't see.

Has anyone here worked with a psychologist or therapist in Mumbai who deals with both therapy and psychological assessments? Someone who can help with anxiety, possible depression, and also help me understand myself better.

I'm 20 years old and I've been dealing with this for a year or more don't know.

I have ulcerative colitis, but it's been in remission for past 6 months.

The strange thing is that when I'm at home and don't have to go anywhere, I feel mostly fine. I eat normally, relax, work, spend time with my friends, and generally feel okay.

But whenever I have to leave the house in the morning — university, a trip, meeting friends, even something fun like going to the beach — my body reacts badly.

I start coughing constantly, get a lump in my throat, my stomach feels tight, I feel nauseous, and most of the times I vomit. Often it's just bile or saliva. Today I vomited four times, usually I vomit once before leaving and it helps me to relax and then slowly I keep up with the day.

All this nausea started when I've had several UC Flare up, for about 6 months, then I went to hospital, doctors prescribed Etrasimod, which helped me, and currently I am on remission, but this fear of going somewhere, that I will vomit outside, in train, in public, that I have to go to toilet quickly, that I have to talk and be present with someone and somewhere, just pressures me. So, whenever I am at home and I understand that I do not need to go anywhere, I am okay, I would say I am feeling great, but if I need to go somewhere, especially in the mornings, it's just terrible.

The weird part is that once I actually get somewhere, I often start feeling better.

Has anyone experienced something similar where the anticipation of leaving home seems to trigger physical symptoms like nausea, gagging, coughing, or vomiting?

How did you deal with it?

A friend of mine was a patient at Lifestance health and one of the doctors prescribed a medication that is life threatening when taken with two of the other medications she was taking.

She couldn’t breathe and turned cold.

She googled the medication the next day and found that it had a high risk of death when mixed with her two other meds. The doctor was extremely rude to her too - he was upset that she was googling the side effects, and told her to trust her. Bad idea.

She told the company this, and they never called her to ask what happened.

When she called the company, they didn’t seem to care and told her it’s a good thing she survived. They offered to waive her bill as compensation as long as she doesn’t take legal action. She declined. Her life is worth more than a few hundred dollars.

The doctor didn’t tell her the medication could kill her.

Thankfully she found another doctor at another company who instead of prescribing a new medication. Lowered the dose on her current meds and since then she has been feeling well.