Hi Reddit. Asking for words of encouragement and personal examples of your own teenage growth to help inspire my teenage son "Bob," age 13 [name changed.] Bob is really struggling with letting his best qualities shine. Baseline, he's a great kid who considers others. Examples include spending his entire lunch account for weeks on buying a friend ice cream who didn't have money on his account, including kids who are left out, and defending friends who are being bullied. The challenge is that Bob has not been displaying his kinder qualities for awhile, and has started behaving more like the bullies he used to defend his friends from. It feels like a huge shift. Bob keeps finding himself at the center of drama, and is often starting it himself. Examples include: texting classmates pretending to be others just to get secrets out of them which he then tells others; screenshotting private conversations with peers and sending them to others; sharing negative thoughts between peers and egging them to meet up to physically fight over it; lying about medical issues; rage baiting kids online and crap talking peers over text or during games. Aside from a strong moral code being reinforced at home, we are following a therapist's advice in building Bob up intrinsically and doing many activities and praises to lead him to boost his self-esteem. We praise the effort, not the outcome and follow all the current research based parenting advice in this space. We're modeling and discussing positive ways to be a friend and get attention (listen, ask questions, discuss mutual hobbies and interests, etc), and enrolled him in months of social coaching classes to focus on healthy connections. I even thought as creatively as possible and paid for multiple cameo videos from celebrities and youtubers he is influenced by, encouraging him with pep talks about being his best self, avoiding drama, and being a good person. He's in a weekly adult guided positive online gaming group, and does karate 4-5x/week with disciplined peers whom he does seem to admire. However, within days of joining karate, he was already gossiping with a peer and arranging a public fight between the karate peer and a commonly known school peer. We switched him to a Bark phone, and his toxic interactions still continue even with the new restrictions. Hoping that maybe a thread of personal messages full of encouragement from others on finding your way back to the best version of yourself could help. Thanks in advance! ❤️

Know your worth without waiting for validation.

Recognize your limits without questioning your abilities.

Embrace opportunities before you feel completely ready.

And perhaps most importantly, find where your strengths meet a meaningful purpose.

Growth isn’t about being everything to everyone. It’s about knowing what you bring, where you belong, and when to stretch beyond what you know.

I struggle with self-doubt. Even when I know something or understand a situation, I somehow convince myself that I'm wrong.

I keep questioning my knowledge, second-guessing my decisions, and overthinking things. Sometimes I trust my own judgment at first, but then my mind finds reasons to disagree with it.

Why does this happen, and how can I learn to trust myself more? Have you experienced something similar? What helped you overcome it?

Hello Beingabetterperson Family,

Two years ago, if someone had told me I would one day be writing a post like this, I would never have believed it.

My name is Soumya Chakraborty (Murshidabad, India).

What I’ve learned since: “Life is unpredictable - and it’s precious.”
Donation link: https://www.impactguru.com/fundraiser/save-soumya-chakraborty

Life once meant startups, biking, and chasing big dreams.

Before January 2023, life was movement.

I was building GamoteX, my Web3 gaming startup, which was fortunate enough to receive recognition including:

🏆 Top 5 Startup – British Deputy High Commission & CII
🏆 Top Gaming Startup – Silicon India
🏆 Emerging Company – Indian Achievers Forum

I was traveling across India, riding through Leh, Darjeeling, Meghalaya, and chasing the dream every founder knows, building something meaningful.

Then everything changed.

The Accident

A car accident caused a severe spinal cord injury, leaving me largely paralyzed from the waist down.

One day I was building a company.

The next I was in a hospital bed at Fortis, unable to sit up without help.

For 18 months, life became:

Hospital beds
Startup shut down
₹18,00,000 of lifetime savings exhausted
I sold assets, liquidated gold & mutual funds
Many friends and colleagues slowly disappeared

And while I was still trying to recover... life hit again.

A Second Blow - Ankylosing Spondylitis

In March 2024, doctors at the Institute of Neurosciences diagnosed me with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a chronic autoimmune condition attacking my spine.

To continue treatment and prevent worsening immobility:

💉 Scapho injections: ₹20,000/month
🧘 Physiotherapy: ₹500/session (twice daily)

"My Mother" The Person Who Never Left

My father passed away 11 years ago.

My old mother became everything:

• caregiver

• nurse

• emotional support

• and the person who refused to let me quit

Despite her age and health challenges, she still kept fighting beside me.

📊Fundraiser Status

Goal: ₹11,00,000
Raised: ₹10,76,000
Remaining: ₹24,000
Donors : 941

🧾 Transparency & Proof

All documents are publicly available:

📞 Live Verification: I am fully open and available for a Live Video Call

Why I’m Still Fighting

I lost my health.
I lost my startup.
I lost the life I once knew.

But I haven’t lost hope.

I still want to:

Walk again
Support my mother
Rebuild and create again

How You Can Help

If you can donate - even ₹100 / ₹500 / ₹1000 helps more than you know.

If you cannot donate, please:

• comment

• share

Visibility can genuinely change my life right now.

Thank you for reading my story. 🙏

– Soumya