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Hi everyone - I'm 42, fairly happily married, 2 lovely kids. That side of things is good. But in terms of career and general life I feel kind've stuck. To cut a long story short, after a very promising, high-achieving academic career and some big creative ambitions (and a small initial degree of success), I ran into problems with alcohol and fell into teaching. I've been sober nearly 10 years now, feel like I successfully got my life back on track and have found happiness in my relationships (at home mainly). But I'm essentially stuck in a job that's convenient and pays just well enough that I guess I could keep coasting along with it. But it just doesn't feel f…

I just started a new job in a different city after graduating. The city is 60 Km from my parents home so it's possible to come and go to work from there, but tiring. I tried it for one month and then I decided to move out to the city where I work. I thought about renting an apartment with some friends, but I kept being stood up. So finally I found a small room with a good price, with people I don't know, in a nice place and I was happy because I found a solution to my problem. I was excited to start this new life, new step, new phase of life ... But all of these feelings were converted to anxiety, fear and doubt once I found myself inside the apartment ... I started…

I have anxiety and depression, but hide it extremely well… so well that neither my boyfriend nor family noticed. I’m a 19 y/o Realtor and I constantly feel like people do not like me. I feel like I lack the skills it takes to create strong and meaningful connections with everyone I encounter, and it’s really stressing me out. I want to be able to walk in a room and be a ray of sunshine but I limit myself so much that I feel like nobody wants me there. What bothers me the most about not making connections is the referral side of the business. I feel like anyone I work with would not refer me to friends and family. I’m a great Realtor, but my personality…

I'm a 15 year old boy and I'm just about to do my gcses and go into higher education but I don't fit in anywhere everything I enjoy I'm really average at. Also I'm average to lower average on looks and I have close to zero social skills (because of my autism and other mental conditions.) so I just sit in my room watching gore or horror movies and playing ps4. I've started to hate people I just seem to attract awful people who are just ***ty to me I just wanna find my niche and find someone to love where do I start to do that.

After lots of problems in my life I am stepping forward slowly , I m gonna be 20 this year and gonna join the army next year hope for the best , my crush is also preparing for getting into medical field , any tips to grow and enjoy life a little 🌟

For Military Family Appreciation Day A personal reflection : Feeling much more calm this morning and slept well. I woke up with no headache or anxiety this morning. Might be the beginning of settling into our new home. Still a lot to do but the anxiety is lifting. Being a military family is hard. You have to upend your life on the military’s schedule . Leave family and friends and people behind. It is a tough life for all concerned. When I was a child and a very young adult it is not something I would have considered. I knew I had a deep love for Canada as the best place on Earth. I had travelled the country so widely as a child. I knew my family’s conne…

Hi In the past I have written a lot about things and why I am not here to talk about them. My journey toward personal growth is never ending. I have had different people at various times tell me conflicting things about me. Some have said I am much too critical of myself while others say I am too lenient on myself. I know both are bad so how do I or anyone for that matter strike the balance of being self compassionate but also taking personal responsibility? Have a great day!

So I’ve been doing research into how to improve my self esteem. I came across a “celebrity therapist” and hypnotherapist named Marisa Peer. She has a lot of videos on YouTube and has done Ted talks etc. Her theories seem to make so much sense but I’m struggling with her claim that she has transformed severely ill patients after a few sessions by treating the 3 core causes of their issues, rather than the symptoms of their depression etc. I have been trying out one of her practices for the last few days and I’ve got to say, I do feel a lot better and that’s making me consider purchasing one of her courses (she has free short ones I could trial I think). I can’t find mu…

Hello, I realize it's not that long ago (<1 year) since my last thread on this forum, where I explained that I was living my best life yet worried that I was lagging behind on everyone else in terms of relationships (I was single, haven't been pursuing, still am). Since then, I frankly put it on the backburner and haven't been too worried about it. Unfortunately, that all changed at the start of this week. I encountered people talking about "the wall" -- women hitting 30 and "deteriorating" from then on forward. First I wrote it off as just another made-up cultural belief, but it did bother me. And the more I read up about it, the more I realized that, while …

Hi all. It's been a while since I've posted, probably longer than 2 years, but I feel I'm in a good place to start sharing my life again on these forums. As it stands, I was struggling for while with near-poverty and some mental health issues, most of which are well behind me. Now I just want to move forward, the 1 - 2 years of COVID isolation notwithstanding. I'm trying to find my passion and I'm having trouble finding out what it really is. I thought, for example, I had a passion for literature but, somehow, even after years of studying lit at university, it was a passion that didn't hold my interest(which may be due to working an uncreative office job for …

I've been going through a really tough time for a while... I'm about 6 hours away from home staying with my sister and I've been here for months. This is a result of my relationship with my ex if you've read my past posts. A lot has happened since that situation, but for times sake I'll try to keep this on the topic I'm talking about. But maybe I will make another post concerning those things. Ever since that occurrence I've been staying with my sister and her family. I am 22 just for reference. Since I've been up here I started going from feeling okay to just wanting to go home. But I'm not allowed to. My mother wants me to be more independent yet she wo…

This is a difficult topic to discuss, because my brain gets all twisted up when I think about it. It's basically the relationship between my mom, my sister, and me. My mom has positioned herself as a middleman between my sister and me. My sister is happy this way, my mom is happy this way, I am not happy this way. I've tried to circumvent it in the past, but have never been successful. My sister and my mom have (what I believe to be) a very codependent relationship with each other. I think it's a natural dynamic for their personality types. They are both naturally manipulative people. They actually conspire together to control situations, and they can do it almost w…

I am 33 years old and due to health reasons, I still live with my parents. Prior, I lived out in A

My mom didn't want another kid but couldn't afford to abort the pregnancy. So my dad came up with this brilliant idea to abort it through the use of drugs. Unfortunately for them I was born anyway. My development was certainly delayed but I was still able to come into this world. My parents wanted a independent boy and it was my dad's job to make me tough. But I didn't want to be tough. But again my dad is brilliant. Comes up with another great idea. Abuse makes people tough. The males in my family would beat me until they were bored and then pass me on to the next person. At some point I had spotted crying and pleding with them. It didn't seem to make a difference.…

Does anyone have any advice or recommendable resources for learning how to do the above? Example: the other day a local First Nations man who creates good art and then cold canvases people on the street to buy it for not insignificant amounts of money, approached my friend and I. Actually I’ve bought art from him before but he gave no indication he remembered me. This time I don’t have cash to splash and after reiterating that to him a few times he switches to asking my friend who goes as far as to say ‘how much?’ ‘$100’ ’I could give you $10’ ’$10?! ********* $10?!!’ *insert torrent of agitation bordering on aggression here bec…

I once again, had another light bulb moment go off for me this week. I had a very stressful week, and I find that in those moments of great stress, when things calm down again, you can sometimes find great clarity about different things in life. (not always, but sometimes). I realized that there is a huge difference between avoiding a situation and actually being healed from a situation. Anytime any of us goes through an upsetting situation, the obvious choice in the future, is to avoid that kind of situation. I had not allowed myself into a certain situation for years...many, many years. I had thoughts on it, and I could see how badly it affecte…

I started this job which I had been working towards for the past two years. To be honest it’s sort of a dream for me, but also it’s a lot of pressure and it’s the most I’ve ever made my entire life. Right now, I’m sort of just studying a lot because I’m going to be working on this really big software project and I’m exhausted like everyday. After work, I just try to exercise as much as I can so I can fall asleep because I have really bad insomnia and I sit down all day. When I got my first programming job, I told myself I would start dating more and meet people, but I was just tired all the time and on the weekends I didn’t want to stress myself more. I wanted t…

All my life I've really valued romantic love, and one of the most important things to me is finding a partner I can make memories with. Unfortunately, I seem to go for childish dudes and I am trying really hard to change that but not sure how. I know I need to love myself, and I am getting better at that. But I have a long way to go I think. For example, just yesterday for Valentine's. I had been talking to a dude for a while, and he seemed so perfect. He was spiritual just like me, and that's mostly what we talked about. He read part of the book I'm writing, he did meditations with me. I really thought that he was the dude I had been waiting for. He even physically …

Hi Before I begin I am not only interested in comments good or bad to what I say but also the things you struggle with (if u decide to share such things) There are two things I have struggled with One I feel I have been making headway with but it can be so easy to fall back I need to be careful and the other I have failed miserably at. I will begin with the latter People yelling and screaming at me. I remember when I was 10 my dad yelling at me about cleaning the tub and no matter how hard I tried to do what he wanted I was getting it wrong. It got worse and worse until I broke down crying in the tub and while I think somehow what happened affected me deeply because whil…

I turned 40 a few months ago, I got pregnant at 17 y/o with my 1st daughter who is now 22, then I had a 2nd girl 5 years later. Needles to say my marriage didn't last, we were way too young and not ready, After my divorce I stayed single for a few years, then dated on and off, I have had 2 serious relationships that ended badly The common denominator here is me. I am very needy, I have this horrible need for affection and acceptance that I try for it not to show by acting aloof but deep down I just want to be loved. I fall very quickly for unavailable men who use me for a while or who lie in order to get with me. I feel very lonely, otherwise my lif…

She copies the way I speak! How is that even possible!? I'm not sure If you have read my previous posts, but if you have you would know she has never liked me. In fact, I'm sure that's why my oldest sister and her started talking bad about me. I know, this sounds extremely petty, but this behavior is getting on my nerves! I am a very good writer and most of the people in my family know that, but there was one time where I brought it up and she responded with "I didn't know you were a writer!". Keep in mind she barely knew anything about it at the time. Now, she's on to copying that! She took a writing class at her college, but I shouldn't be freaking out about that. It's …

So I'm 25, my sister is 22. We haven't talked in about 3 years now. That reason being her boyfriend. They started dating when she was 18 and he was 35. He is a gigantic creep, has come onto me, cheated on her, had her using heroin. ANYWAYS, even beyond that, one time him and my sister made sure that I walked in on them having sex when my boyfriend at the time was out of town. They knew I was home and chose to act like that with the door wide open. Anyways, called my then boyfriend, be called and confronted her boyfriend about it and it was a big ordeal. Because they didn't "understand why that was wrong". Fast forward 3 months, my boyfriend was sleeping prio…

I am moving hopefully soon, it depends on the housing situation in our new location. Since it has become more real to me I feel myself detaching from this location. I don’t care about connecting with the people or events etc. I feel irritated if people ask me to feel involved. It is almost like I am desperate to move on.

(I didn't know where to categorize this so I apologize if it's wrongly placed 😬) So my grandma lives fairly close to me (within half an hour). She lives next to my dad, but in her own house. The thing is, she is a bully. She is so mean and always has been. But I know she's so lonely. And occasionally she can be fun to be around. But even though I live so close I see her/talk to her around once a month because sometimes that is literally all I can make myself do after being around her for so long. She has tormented a good portion of my life (though I don't believe it was all intentional). Also she is like that to everyone, not just me. But I just feel lots o…

I went through an unhappy chapter of life in 2012-2015 (early 30s). I was living in an unfamiliar town, and had little luck forging personal or romantic relationships. To boot, I was in a job that made me miserable. I was happiest when I had the opportunities to leave town, which was as frequently as possible. That period taught me a lot about what I didn't want out of life and really forced me to grow and come out a more mature or stronger person. It prompted me to grapple with my sexuality (I'm gay) and begin the process of coming out. In 2015 I moved to a new city, which is where I live now. I've fallen in love with life here, met the love of my life in 2018, got …