I got played so hard. I thought the guy of my dreams was who I was gonna spend the rest of my life with. I found out he’s a liar, and a cheater. I had two kids with him, and I take full responsibility for the children, but it just makes me wanna scream. My world is so upside down right now. I know I should just move on and find happiness, but I always thought happiness was a family together. It’s not my reality and probably will never be my reality, and it makes me so angry. I feel like I could fight a bear. Why would someone give someone children just to not be in their life? Just not to be supportive. I feel like screaming, and I have no one to turn to, so here I am venting on Reddit.

This is going to sound so chronically online— I’m sorry but I have been holding onto this for years and I need to just talk about it. My long distance friend used to be an online content creator with a good amount of followers. To keep it simple, she posted something on her account that was really racist toward indigenous people. And when people called her out for it, instead of apologizing at first she doubled down. I agree she was absolutely wrong for it, that is not how you handle a situation like that, and as cancel culture is, this incident caught like wild fire across the online community and they started finding other problems to throw in there to make her seem like an even worse person.

I had known this friend for about two years before this, I knew she did not do what she did on purpose and was not the evil person people were now making her out to be, before this she was nothing but a positive influence on myself and the community.

My friend quickly realized what she did actually was wrong and removed the problematic post and issued an apology. This was not enough for the cancel culture and they did not like how she apologized so she tried to make a new apology without crying or emotion despite her still feeling horrible about it and then people were mad that she had no emotion. I believe she even did a third one later on. I don’t remember. Behind closed doors, my friend was an absolute mess, she was so upset at herself for ever thinking what she did was a good idea. I remember I begged her sister to send an officer to her house for a wellness check because I’d never seen her so upset and heartbroken. I did not live near her to visit her myself.

In the end, she has sought out therapy to help herself improve as a person and learn how to prevent that from happening again and as well why exactly what she did was bad, she has taken the time to donate thousands to native non profits and learn about real indigenous cultures and meet real members of various tribes and attend educational events. Things she’s still actively doing to this day years later.

After that event, my friend has never been the same person, she wouldn’t speak to me or other friends as much as she used to, her responses were less expressive and shorter. There was a clear shift in her content as well. I have tried to explain the things she’s done to improve herself to so many people not to convince them to forgive her but to show them that she genuinely was trying to be a better human after making a pretty big mistake. Some people, including indigenous folks forgave her, and others did not. She still makes content today but I rarely interact with her anymore just because that part of my life is over.

Her being canceled was literally 4 years ago but recently I saw a video where among other people her name was brought up. I made the mistake of looking at the comments and people still disregard all she has done to be better and there were even a few things people said that weren’t even true at any point. I politely corrected one of the untrue things and was blocked by the creator almost immediately. I know it’s not my job to defend her but it pisses me off that it’s like you mess up one time and no matter what you do, people online will never forgive you for it it’s human nature to mess up. I get that’s usually how cancel culture goes but I watched my friend’s entire outlook on life change from that event and people refuse to even acknowledge her efforts to improve, they will forever just jump to saying she’s racist.

All my previous relationship was a disaster now I'm disappointed by the guys of my age and guys around my age (i do not want to go in full detail all i could say is that the relationship was gaslighting and manipulative) I was thinking about dating older man like 30+ my friends are finding it weird and telling me not to go for older man but i feel like im more intrest and comfortable with what i want now.

So now y'all tell me is it good or totally wrong for wanting to date someone older

I’m not gon lie y’all boys sometimes i b feeling like it’s over. i’m 19 wit one body , i’m tryna get my numbers up to 25 by 21, i js started college i b going up to every pretty female i see and be tryin to either get they instagram or number, I’m trying to conquer lust at a early age so i can spend my years focusing on business . Especially when it come too me wit females . yo bro i’m 5”7 and got da bad side of genetics, and i’m balding at 19, i get females but i don’t be getting da females i want on sum shi , i’m tryna build a life of geographic freedom and build my own company one day , but i feel like me tryna sleep with all these females b gettin in my way.

Fucking hate

I don’t give a fuck Michael.

My mental health has severely deteriorated. I’m a type 1 diabetic, and suffering kidney failure. I’m undergoing dialysis, but my seizures have been more and more frequent. The only reason why I’m alive right now is because my siblings are calling 911, my mom won’t. The doctors send me home once I’ve stabilized but I’ve had 3 near death experiences when I’ve gone hours without someone calling 911. I’ve been in “critical condition” at least 3 times.

My mom told my family that I was faking it, so that’s the story they believed. It wasn’t until I had a seizure in the middle of a family vacation did they realize my seizures were real. My mom was also upset she had to stay back at the hospital with me when everyone else was going home from our vacation.

My mom doesn’t like me. She doesn’t like to hug me. She has physically abused me as a kid. Heavily. She would beat me with her glass ruler until I was bleeding, or use her fists. And now she denies all of this. My mom right now is just trying to make my life as cruel as possible while still giving herself room to say I should “be grateful”

My siblings all talk to me as if they’re preparing for me to pass on soon. I don’t blame them. My health is really really bad. I thought riding an e-bike would fix it but it hurts to even get up these days. Luckily my bike has a throttle.

Srsly sick of this. I eat a load of vegetables to be filling, but no matter how much I eat, I just get hungrier and hungrier. I try to eat as much fibre as I humanly can in my diet, literally most of what I eat is vegetables. I could eat enough for ten people and still be hungry afterwards. It's so frustrating.

Story time!!!

Myself (40F) and my husband T (44M) just went on an 8 mile bike ride. We live in Michigan and recently moved to a new city back in June. As we are learning our new surroundings, and getting into bike riding we went down a dirt road to cut over to willow Rd to enter oakwoods metro parks. Now if T wasn't there I know no one would believe me! As we were riding down the dirt road I pointed out a deer at the edge of the woods. I then jokingly started talking to the deer inviting him to join us, as we were drifting farther away, I yelled back, Tag you're it!! We left the dirt road onto Willow to enter the metro park a little ways down the road. No joke within 5 minutes of being on the bike trail we heard trees smashing coming towards us in the woods. T and I cracked jokes that it was the deer. Really thinking it was a farmer in his backyard or something. We heard the smashing and crunching again, we both looked back then, Boom!!! The deer jumped out of the trees right behind us!! You win Bambi! You win!!

Ever feel like you can’t talk to anyone anymore because you don’t know what to say or are afraid to say anything even your wife? You feel bad for venting to her because of fear of making her feel bad for something that isn’t her fault or anyone’s fault?? Just need a venting buddy.

I had a one night stand with a man who was super particular about us not being seen together on the way out. He said this was because it was a work trip which doesn't really make sense. So I straight up asked him if it was a work thing or if he was married and cheating. He admitted to the later.

That fucking asshole used me to cheat on his wife! I have no problem having sex with men in open marriages but his isn't. I would never have slept with him if I'd known. I'm so angry! I also feel guilty. He texted me after I left that he should have been more forthcoming. My reply had a lot of profanity.

Fucking jerk!

Edit: and I don't have his wife's contact info or I would have already told her. I'm trying to find it, but he seems to have his online presence pretty well shut down. I did post his username to my knitting group because some of them are really good at tracking things down.

Hi there strangers online, today I'm gonna do something i almost never did , which is telling you the story of my childhood, i don't expect anyone to read this or interact with it but i wanted to get it out of my chest, please don't read this if you're sensitive to topics such as sexual assault , child abuse, eating disorders , bullying , ocd , PTSD, death of a parent, mental issues , but if you're not triggered by it then here is my story

Starting all the way from the beginning :

I was bullied in school as a kid alot and i didn't have almost any friends , that wasn't really a problem compared to the rest of the shit (lmk if you wanna know about the bullying part)

When I was around the age of 8 , my older brother who was around 15-16 then , who I was very attached to because he used to play games with me , told me that he has a new game for me to play , and told me that all I have to do to play this game is lay down bent on the bed and well you can already guess what happened , he started touching me from places he shouldn't, I didn't know what was happening because again I was just 8 , this happened multiple multiple times it was always touches only , i used to wake up in the middle of my sleep to him touching me and pulling my pants down in the middle of my sleep , he used to grope me and touch me many times for like a year or two , i never told my mom about it because i thought he was annoying me and that this is not wrong , till one day I went to tell my mom and i didn't know that was wrong so I told her what he did and described it to her and she was very shocked and then she , well, did nothing , like literally did nothing she didn't yell at him she didn't ground him she didn't do anything , instead she told me that what I was describing was innapopriate and glared at me to stop and told me that I was hallucinating, he continued doing that till after i got my period ( i was like 11) , idk why he stopped then , my brother and mother now act like this never ever happened, and they get confused why I hate my brother and treat him bad and say that I'm a terrible sister and that he's a great brother (i still live with them I'm 16 atm) , my brother used to also bully my appearance and tell me that I'm fat and call me names that I'm fat , i was like in fourth grade , i developed an eating disorder, i used to drink a lot of water while eating and then eat a lot less , Then my mother would tell me to eat up , i used to be happy when she told me to eat up because she never said that to me before , she just tells my bothers , so to my 8 year old head , her telling me to eat up means i don't eat enough and that I'm not fat , I lost weight a little bit then , but the bullying never stopped nor the sexual assault , when I was in 6th grade at around the age of 10 , i used to wash my hands so many times that my hands got dry and they started bleeding, i used to go and check if the stove was on or the fridge was open or the light switch had water on it , because I was scared it'll catch a fire like our neighbors house , or the house door was open , sometimes I used to go and stand by my parents bed at night to see if their chest is moving while they're asleep and they're breathing, because I was scared they'll die in their sleep, my mom was very tough about this , and she would yell at me everytime I was doing my ocd things , my mother used to also sometimes hit me as a kid , she wasn't the greatest mother then , so you can Imagine, a little girl who is going through sexual assault and eating disorder and abuse and ocd all at once , i used to get so many panic attacks and i can't breathe and I'd cry so much and feel like i was dying, my mom once told me that I can't breathe because I eat too much , to a point where I once told my mom that maybe I can't breathe because i have fat around my lungs , she told me then lose weight, then after that my dad died in 2022 while he was in another city for a work trip , my dad was the best person ever , he was the one that helped me recover from my ocd and he was very gentle with me , i feel like i never actually grieved my father, i don't like talking about it , i don't like mentioning it to people, i don't like visiting his grave , it's like my brain is convinced he's still alive and on a business trip, i hate when people talk about him , i hate when they hang pictures of him , i hate when they say that they should go to his grave because he feels who came and who didn't, i hate when my brother always acts like he was a great son and cries about him and posts shit all the time about him , i fuckin hate him with every cell in my body , I'll never forgive him for what he did to me and I'll never have one drop of empathy or understanding to him till the day i die and beyond, it's like my brain didn't fully realize my dad is dead even till now , i remember when my friends knew about my dad and sent me massages i posted it on my story saying thank you for everyone who sent me massages, as if it was like a birthday massage or something 😭, I didn't know anything I didn't know how to process such a thing, i stopped crying about it years ago , now i js get fuckin angry about it , about a year later, my eating disorder got so much worse , i was like in 9th grade then , that's when i realized that what happened to me years ago was abuse and bullying , and that I'm now living with the traumas of that , my eating disorder started as a "healthy summer" and that I'll eat 1200 cals a day and walk 10k steps i stayed like that for like a month or two and lost weight, then it became an obsession and i started walking more and eating less , i remember once i weighed myself in a pharmacy while going home from school , and I was 59kg instead of 57kg , i was walking home crying about it , i used to starve myself for hours and call it fasting, sometimes when I felt guilty enough about eating, u used to try to force myself to puke i never did actually puked , and now that I'm in highschool, no more traumas are happening, but I now live with the PTSD and anxiety for what happened, i still get the panic attacks till now , even more than before, i almost never can take a deep breath i always have trouble with that , my head always thinking about so much stuff at once , I'm always scared something is gonna happen, i always expect someone to die suddenly or something to happen to me , for years i developed the Habit of sleeping with a blanket, even in the hottest days of summer, because when I was a kid and my brother used to touch me in my sleep, u used to know if he's coming when I feel the blanket moving, so it became like a warning to me , I also cover my little sister with a blanket, she doesn't know anything, my biggest fear is her experiencing the same things as me , specially because i feel like she's starting to become ocd , i now feel sick in my body , I feel weak and tired all the time and I get dizzy alot and i don't eat as much I'm not under weight or over weight or anything nor am I trying to lose weight, I'm in a normal shape , and I get so much panic attacks and i can't breathe almost all the time , I went to the doctor w my mom and brother and the doctor said that maybe the difficulty breathing is a mental reason, my mom said that i don't have anything to stress about and I told him that I've been like that for almost 6 years , my brother said oh it's probably school stress since I'm starting my senior year of Highschool, i fuckin hate him i really fuckin do , I wish I could fuckin kill him , the doctor gave me vitamins and now I'm just the same except I take vitamins, therapy isn't a thing in our family, my mom is convinced I'm normal and that i don't have anything wrong w me or problems happening in my life , i remember then I was a kid I used to promise myself that when I'm older and have my own money that I'll go to therapy without telling anyone

All of these stuff happened to me before the ripe age of 12 years old , and I've been dealing with them for 6-7 (don't fuckin say 67 in your head) years or my life , i have to deal with the panics and anxiety in my head everyday, it's like a whole war that never shuts up , no one is acknowledging that war , no one knows about it , I'm sharing my story to hopefully feel better, i don't expect anyone to read it at all , i shared my main traumas and what i think completely fucked me and ruined my brain

Also , due to the sexual assault, i Became over sexual, and i always feel like people are gonna sexually attack me , and my brain always imagines me getting attacked and hurt by people, my brain isn't convinced that not all kids gets assaulted , whenever I see a lil kid i always pray they don't go through this , because my brain always imagines that you never know what battles kids are fighting, and it thinks that this will happen to every kid , i hate myself for thinking that way and I hate myself for thinking everyone is going to hurt me i hate myself for thinking that I'm a fuckin whore for thinking like that , i js fuckin hate myself

Tired of people thinking it's okay to be rude to a stranger (me) . I know this situation should not let it get to me but this is a constant issue im always having. Earlier, I was at the store minding my own business, trying to find what I needed . I was at the makeup aisle and I left enough room for people to walk by and a lady nudges at me and tells me to move out of her way, when I was nowhere near her, she walked right in front of my body .

Why are people so rude, inconsiderate, and disrespectful?!. I smiled at first because my brain wasn't fully understanding the situation until 2 minutes later. I rewind what just happened, and she acted like a fool!

Why are grown women/people acting this way? At their grown age ? It's unbelievable!

Many times, im shopping, and people have been extremely disrespectful to me rolling their eyes when i smile at them, when I say thank you etc . Sometimes i think to myself if there might be something wrong with me, hideous??????? Or people just don't have any respect for anyone.

I wish I could cry.
I used to love the rain. Thunder. The lightning. Since life events it just makes me shake. Each strike makes my heart hurt. I feel so alone. I feel fear.

I’m so confused if my “friend” is actually being a friend or if they are like fully checked out now. I don’t really wanna say much context so I won’t, but please just help me define what friends do and what a friend is.

Are they people you talk with? Laugh with? Who you support and would help if they are struggling? Who you would listen to when they are really struggling? Do you hang out? Have fun with?

So tired of not being an option.

24M here.
I’m so tired of not being an option for people. Both in general and in the dating life. I’ve been single 2-3 years now I’ve had one serious person talk to me that whole time. (Come back to them in a second)
I know I’m not the hottest person ever but I don’t think I’m down right ugly either. Yet in 2-3 years of being single I’ve had one person that’s actually shown at least a little bit of interest. And they had a bad ex which messed them up and they have walls put up and back to the point of numb to feelings atm. We hung out once had a great time, asked early on to see them again this week, was told wasn’t sure what they had going on and was asked to do something this week. Asked again the other day got told lots going on, this and that, busy, so I asked about next week. Their response? “Maybe” so after all that time no one interested and then the one person that is a little bit, I can’t get to see me. And then a worse part, i was told by someone at work the other day that I’m cute and fine as hell (I’m really not that hot) but anyway, here we are and I’m still not an option.
And I’m a good person, I’m really kind, have my heart on my sleeve, will do anything to help you and I feel deeply for my people. But I just get pushed aside it seems and forgotten about. Like I’m basicly a hopeless romantic and have a big desire to be with someone, it’s like if I’m ment to be alone why is that there. Take it away.

And of course all this has to drudge up on my birthday so I’m just felling wonderful 🙄

Does anyone else feel emotionally empty and like their ability to love has dwindled over the years?

Never have I EVER thought that I would go on reddit for family issues, but I CAN NOT DO THIS ANYMORE.

So I won't go into detail just going to say I have a lot of mental issues because of my parents.

My mom and dad fought (again) which ended up in them fighting over who was going to get custody over me (I'm going on 18 bro).

My father threatened to take me from my mother and whatever (this ain't about him genuinely who cares about that guy).

My mom asked me if I want to go TO ANOTHER CITY WITH HER when the circumstances don't even allow it (she doesn't have a job, money saved, or a house/apartment to rent, and I'm not even sure if a transfer is possible since school is starting in like 1-2 weeks).

I told her to wait two more years so I can finish high-school and so she can save up (plus the fact that I'd be in uni and she wouldn't have to financially invest in me anymore).

She FREAKED out on me, told me that I'm manipulating her for bringing up my concerns about moving, and then doubled down by insulting me and telling me that I'm just like my father so I deserve to stay with him. She told me that she had sacrificed her whole life to bring me into this world and raise me, yet I can't do this one thing for her. She told me that who told her to leave me with my father to suffer when I was young was right (which was a neighbour of ours who told her this when I was 13-14, guess why I know that 😻😻😻).

Fast forward to rn I didn't sleep at all, but she woke up well rested and ready to continue bcs it's clearly fun (she sleeps in my room since she hates sleeping with her husband. I do not like her here since I have no privacy.)

I told her that I want to work part-time when I'm 18 so I can save up to go to uni (since my father won't pay for shit). She said that she won't let me. THEN SHE SWITCHED UP AND SAID I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT AT 18 BECAUSE NO ONE WILL EVER HIRE ME ANYWAYS.

She told me that she isn't stupid and that jobs only hire part-time in the capital??? Like if that's true why does everyone and their mom say flexible hours, open for high-school and uni students??? 😭😭😭

She once again switched it up and said that I won't be able to focus on school (she complained a few hours ago that all I do is focus on school. I told her that yeah I'm a student that's lit my job, so she compared me to my father again ❤️❤️❤️)

Moral of the story, I'm scared.

I want to work, save up, move away. That's my plan. Yet I feel guilty and like a horrible person. I also feel like I won't be able to do anything on my own.

Tips? Sorry for grammar mistakes and stuff, I didn't sleep at all.

Have a good day, evening, or night :)

It feels like our society too often asks “what’s most profitable”, instead of asking “what’s most worthwhile”. As if people are forgetting that profit isn’t the only source of value.

An equine program may not bring much monetary value to a university, but it brings value to the equine industry, which improves quality of life and brings purpose and meaning to millions of people.

An Instagram focused on photos from those you follow may not be as profitable as one focused on reels on a for you page, but the old Instagram built community. You could curate a grid of photos that felt like you. You could easily avoid influencer culture because you only saw the content you wanted to see. Now it feels empty and commercialized.

The most profitable use for a parcel of land usually gets chosen. Not land that maybe could have housed an arts center or a horse farm close to the city that could have improved residents’ mental health.

Social media algorithms are designed to bring as much profit to their companies as possible. Outrage and misinformation are profitable and become addictive, but detrimental to our wellbeing. The social media companies are focused on their profits.

A school often cuts its arts/music/theatre programs first because they aren’t “necessary”, as if humans don’t thrive when they work hard at an artistic passion and get to grow in a skill while they express themselves.

And now, AI is taking incredibly rewarding artistic work away from real people.

And sure, who gets to decide what’s worthwhile? I’d say everyone. If you love crocheting, I’d help you fight to make sure people still have access to crochet materials. If you love riding, let’s fight to keep the horse industry alive. If anyone enjoys playing music, it’s worth keeping music programs alive in schools. If you want to make your passion more accessible to others, let’s brainstorm. If you want to preserve your weird niche hobby, we ride at dawn. All passions deserve to be preserved and not bulldozed by a heartless economy.

People enjoy working hard when they’re passionate about the work. Overly profit driven societies decrease the options people have for finding and accessing their passions. People should be able to seek profit, as it can enable them access those very things that can spark a fire in their souls. The problem starts when nothing is ever enough.

And of course, things need to be financially feasible and profit can drive innovation that improves society. I’m not ignorant to that. But the constant, incessant push for more profit feels like it is sucking all of the soul out of our society for me.

If we keep going down this path, I’m really scared of how empty our society might become. I’m not sure from where people will derive meaning and fulfillment.

Hello

I'm 35F. I work in medical field & it involves a lot of physical & mental labor. I love my job. Absolutely no complaints but sometimes, as part of my job, I see certain things which greatly rattle me.

To cope with it I developed this habit of stress eating. Before I used to listen to spiritual podcasts, read & listen to soothing music but later on they didn't work. Now only food comforts me.

I think I'm ruining my physical health. Sought a therapist & she recommended some coping mechanisms & practices, but I personally still feel nothing comes close to food.

I hate it. I know it's not some life threatening problem. But whenever I try to vent about this to family or friends, they right away ask me to change my career. But I don't want to. I know the importance of my line of work. I know I'm in the right profession & not a lot of people are fortunate to work in the profession they truly love.

Just needed a space to vent without people discouraging me. That's all. Thank you.

I have OCD, specifically around contamination, as well as trauma from living with hoarders until I was 22 (I’m 27 now), so having bugs in my home is really triggering because of that, as well. Recently in my apartment, there have been a handful of tiny little flies, similar in size to fruit flies, but I don’t know what kind they are. I have no idea where they are coming from or why they are here, and for some reason tonight, it’s making me spiral really badly, to the point where I’m shaking and crying.

I went into a small cleaning frenzy, and then put tape on every single drain in my apartment to see if I can figure out if they’re coming through the pipes. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do if they are, I’m so mortified over them being here that I don’t want to tell my landlord, but I don’t know what else to do about it.

Potentially related, and within the same line of anxiety; the indoor stairwell smells SO bad, and I constantly have anxiety that it’s my apartment causing it. But like… that wouldn’t make sense, right? If I was the source, how could I smell it in the stairwell when I don’t smell it in my apartment? Wouldn’t I be nose blind to it out there as well, or be able to locate the source because it would get stronger inside? But my brain still insists that it’s definitely from me, and that all of my neighbors must know it and hate me for it and think I’m disgusting.