Lately I’ve been trying to take self-care more seriously, but in a way that actually feels manageable. One thing that surprisingly helped me was setting aside just 10–15 minutes in the morning to do nothing but stretch, drink water, and sit quietly before checking my phone or starting my day. It sounds simple, but giving myself that time without screens or noise has made me feel a lot more grounded.

It reminded me that self-care doesn’t always have to be a big routine, it can be something really small that just shifts your mindset a bit.

Curious if anyone else has found a small habit like that that ended up making a big difference for you?

18M. I was eating breakfast with my dad this morning and out of the blue he goes, “I’m proud of you, you know that” and I’m annoyed with myself as this is something I don’t get often or let alone by the sounds of it many people get at all. I just wish I hugged him and could really tell him how this made me feel as inside this made my year. I didn’t really know how to react but my stomach churned up and I cried inside but tried to hide it. I wanted him to know how this made me feel really.

I mean I can't seem to just want to toss Barney in the trash. My friends all laugh at me. One even took her high hail shoes to a classic plush then unstuffed it. I enjoy the new Barney world. I also like Thomas, power rangers, and Pokemon. I have tons of Sesame Street plushies. Mostly Big Bird. I have multiple disabilities.

Theraphy is so damn expensive and nobody is really talking about that. They want to see you once a week, which is 300$ per week for months. So I would work my salary only for theraphy. It's only listening to someone and giving advice for 40 minutes. It's crazy how expensive that is. I don't know how therapists feel comfortable with taking that much money for doing little work. I don't know how else i will get better without Therapy as I don't have any emotional support. How do you support your mental health?

I always feel ignored by everybody. If I’m with my friend and one of their other friends comes along, the friend won’t even look at me or greet me. It’s happened a few times now. I also notice that my friends won’t take photos with me, but they do with their other friends. My insecurities and mental health tell me it’s all because I’m ugly and not cool, and people would rather not be seen with me. It’s exhausting. I wish I could just be a different person.

Iam 18 yr old I have no bad habits like scrolling, smoking etc. I barley use my social media or my mobile itself. Iam soo productive and consistent But i really have one bad habit that is over thinking it's really high that iam feeling useless of my life. I really want to get my life back. Any advice is much appreciated

Anyone else finding themselves initiating all their conversations with friends where it had been more balanced before? I'm not talking about just one or two people. I'm talking about a seemingly categorical drop-off in interest, but no one I've spoken to is telling me we have a problem. I haven't asked point-blank because that would announce I'm spiraling. Anyway, how common is this right now?

Would like to hear your stories :) because I'am currently hitting rock bottom and idk what to do beside scrolling on reddit...

Thanks.

So I'm currently trying to get diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder. It's heavily stigmatized, but I get it because a lot of shitty people do shitty things. The thing is, is that one of the worst things you always hear about from bad relationships is one of them is this horrible narcissist. I feel like too many people have a story of one. And I know being narcissistic and actually having npd are different things, but I was just curious of other people's thoughts of me still really wanting to date people despite it? Like I'm really good at dealing with it, I don't normally try to hurt people, my friends all love me, I know how to be a good partner. But even if I am a good partner I still have possible npd under it all, and I'm afraid no one will want to date me when they find out.

Whenever I try and open up about something, or send a risky text, or anything like that, I often start trembling a LOT like I'm out in the Arctic, and just can't make it stop even though I don't feel anything at the moment. Like my mind seems calm but my body is responding like I'm having a full on breakdown, and it feels like I'm piloting a faulty machine or something

I’m a 26 year old man living in an ugly city. I have nowhere to go or someone to talk to. I absolutely hate where i live. I get bored a lot and i feel like going somewhere but nothing worth visiting here. There are some places in my country that’s pretty interesting but with zero friends and limited money, i can go alone but I don’t want to experience loneliness going by myself. I’m afraid of loneliness. All i do all day is sit in my room and look at the ceiling and the walls and reflect on my dreams. I have dreams to travel and live abroad in the future but I don’t know if that is a fantasy or a possibility.

It's really weird I remember it being absolutely horrible but I just feel like it would be nice idk how to explain it (I've only had one before)

Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing well. I'm very frustrated and tired of having intrusive and negative thoughts. The truth is, I have a hard time controlling them and stopping them. Most of these thoughts are negative; on the other hand, other thoughts are from the past, which, honestly, wasn't pleasant at all. I've been thinking and suspecting I might have obsessive-compulsive disorder, but I don't want to self-diagnose. Anyway, are any of you in the same boat as me? Or were you able to find a definitive solution to this problem? I'll be reading. Thank you for reading this far. I apologize for the long text. Best regards!

(19m if thats important) It's like nothings enough for me. I swear I could literally have everything i could ever want and id still be miserable. I thought when I had finally made some friends it might have helped with my loneliness but it doesn't stop. Im so hungry for attention that you can't go 10 minutes without talking to me or I get depressed. I get jealous so easily to. It's like you can't have any friends besides me and I just get so upset when I see my friends playing with other people. I can't live like this what am I supposed to do. Im sick of putting myself and other people though my bullshit.

had a whole storybook written out but then i seen “of reasonable length” so ima try make a long story short.

stopped talking to my close “friends” as i realised they were just dragging me down in life from who i wanted to be (drugs, bad habits etc) since i stopped talking to these guys i quit pretty much everything besides nicotine. i’ve been improving my life a lot and i’m happy with my lifestyle now compared to 6 months ago

went to the bar with my one last close friend last night in hopes to connect with some of the people in his friend group. My friend is talking to a girl so i’m just sitting there alone drinking my pints while everyone around me is socialising having a great time talking to their boy/girlfriends and i had never felt lonelier in my life.

I get up and go to the bathroom to try and take a breather but i start crying and panicking idek what came over me i just wanted to go home. I go out to the beer garden anyway and sit back down with my friend and the girl he was talking to and they start asking those trigger questions like “your eyes are really red bro” and “are you alright” so it kinda all comes back up again and i’m crying in front of them like a pussy. They’re really nice people tho so they helped me feel a little bit better.

it just feels like i’m such a burden to everyone around me although i don’t think i’m a bad guy. i’m very sociable with people and polite and genuinely interested in others.

my thoughts are so destructive and i overthink constantly 24/7 i know i shouldn’t think this way but i can’t block it out man it’s all i do. honestly i feel like i’ve lost everything and when my dad and cat go it’ll be my time too.

i don’t mean to drag it on but it’s pretty much only a quarter of the night. Thanks for reading

I have honestly no real friends, especially none I can talk about my mental health to. But I think just talking to anyone would help me out. I won't trauma or dump a whole sad session on you. I just dontnknow what to do sometimes.

My depression has led me to rehome my cats. And now I wait every day for the day my boyfriend will finally be tired of dealing with someone as pathetic as me and move on. It's so hard. I'm so tired all the time. Everything feels like so much effort. I don't feel like I will ever stop really being depressed.

Throughout my life, I always happen to stumble upon someone who can understand me. I have no one now. And man it gets harder everyday.

Without going into too much detail, I have extreme abandonment issues from childhood. Both physically and emotionally. I’m in my 30s now, married, a new mom, I’ve been in and out of therapy for trauma my entire life.

I know my issues stem from abandonment, but when I do get into fights with my husband it feels end of relationship each time. I know it’s part of my defense mechanism I developed as a child to cope with abandonment (I leave you/accepting the relationship is over before they can leave me etc)

I’ve worked so hard in therapy, I’ve become so aware, I’ve been learning coping skills, but damn when do the childhood issues stop reappearing?

How many times does my husband have to tell me he loves me and chooses me and doesn’t want to leave me for me to believe him? Everything feels like a criticism and an attack on not wanting me. I know I struggle with self worth and I’ve been working on that too, but for once I really would love some relief from my childhood.

Edit: I am on anti anxiety medication *

I hope this is okay to post here. Long post ahead, TL;DR at the end. So, I turned 31 recently, about a year after I quit the only job I’ve ever had once and for all. On and off since I turned 18 I’ve done various forms of online only sex work. It was difficult to stay consistent with, in recent years, and never made enough for me to live on my own (I lived with my mom until I married my husband in 2017). On top of just getting sick of it and the market becoming incredibly oversaturated I also came out as trans a few years ago, hence, the nail in that coffin—at least until I start HRT and get top surgery but God only knows when I’ll be able to do either of those things.

I felt like I was doing okay just being a homemaker over the last year but I’m becoming restless, bored and concerned about my Husband and I’s future. He does have a pension but obviously I don’t and we have no savings. He’s British and getting my visas to allow me to live with him was VERY expensive and we’re still paying that off as well as other things. It’s getting better, we’re not in dire straits or anything, far from it. He makes enough to support both of us but I know that must be so much pressure on him to be the sole bread winner. In the past when he’s been unable to work we had to rely on money from his dad.

Reasons why I am extremely hesitant to start applying for jobs:

·        Biggest one, I’m disabled. I was on disability benefits before I moved here for my ADHD, anxiety, depression, and (misdiagnosed) bipolar disorder. I wasn’t entitled to benefits on my previous visas, I *could* claim now but they literally just changed the rules for PIP, making me ineligible, and to be honest I would feel disingenuous applying for benefits. I’m doing much better now, I don’t struggle to get out of bed or take showers anymore but I do still class myself as disabled.

·        I have plantar fasciitis and standing for longer than an hour causes me severe pain. I have self-referred to podiatry to get more intense treatment for this. I know this is probably going to be my biggest impediment.

·        I have social anxiety/am recovering from agoraphobia and the idea of dealing with people on a daily basis makes me want to rip my skin off.

·        I have NO IDEA what to put on a CV. I graduated high school in America and that’s it. I have no other certifications. I know how to use Microsoft word. I used to spend my time drawing, writing novels and doing music production, ideally I would be a full time video game composer but the last 10 years of my life were spent battling mental illness and moving across the world so to build my portfolio back up would take a lot of time and money, hence the wanting a part time job to help pay towards that.

·        I can’t drive. I think it’s actually illegal for me anyway because I have poor eyesight and a lazy eye.

Thank you so much to anyone who replies to this.

TL;DR: ADHD, anxiety, agoraphobia, can’t drive, plantar fasciitis, only has experience doing online sex work, no college degree, what jobs should I be looking into?