I’m totally defeated. Mentally and physically. I just can’t do any more. Life is just a lie. I shouldn’t ever be born. This is the worst thing that has happened to me. They tell me to work hard and now I can’t even carry on anymore. I have no motivation. I’m a total failure. 😣 I feel ashamed I’m so humbled I can’t do anything. I don’t even wanna do anything. Fck you life

I'm 24, male, from India. I'm unhappy with myself because I feel I've made some big mistakes, and now I'm lost. I can't talk about this with my friends or family because I don't trust anyone.

I'm kind and helpful, but I overthink a lot. I've been jobless for almost a year, trying to build my own company, and it hasn't made any money yet.

Here's what happened. I was working at my friends' startup. Some of my expectations weren't met and I felt left out, though I learned a lot. Around the same time, my ex-girlfriend (who I now realize was somewhat toxic) was working on a similar project, and I started helping her. It felt like I was betraying my friends, so I told one of them about it. Now I'm scared he'll tell others. I've since told my ex I don't want to work with her anymore because of this, but I still feel guilty.

There's something else. I have feelings for a girl I call my sister. She's not my real sister. She's my grandmother's sister's granddaughter (a second cousin). Our families are very close, and I feel like I'm making a huge mistake.
I feel depressed and can't think about anything else. Can someone give me their honest opinion?

I don't really know how to write this, but I guess I just need to get it out somewhere.

I'm 25, from India, and lately it feels like everything in my life is falling apart at once.

My parents' relationship is a mess, there's constant fighting at home, and now my dad has apparently considered throwing me out. I don't have much money of my own, I'm financially dependent on my family, and I honestly have no idea what I'd do if I suddenly had nowhere to go.

My education hasn't gone the way I planned either. I started engineering, struggled and dropped out, then went back to college to study History. I'm now in the fourth year of my degree, but I still have no clear idea what I'm going to do afterwards. I'm scared of graduating and finding myself with no decent job, no financial independence and no real direction.

Meanwhile, it feels like everyone around me is moving forward. People I went to school with are working, earning, pursuing their ambitions and building their lives. I'm still trying to figure out how to get through my days without feeling like a complete failure.

I've become so isolated that even replying to people who reach out to me feels difficult. I have friends I could probably talk to, but I've withdrawn from them so much that I don't know how to explain what's going on anymore. I spend a lot of time at home, but home doesn't feel peaceful either. Going out and doing things costs money I barely have.

I'm tired. Not just physically, but in that deeper way where even thinking about the future feels exhausting. I've been having suicidal thoughts, and there are days when I genuinely struggle to see a reason to keep going. I'm not saying this for attention. I'm saying it because I don't know how to carry all of this by myself anymore.

I know people have problems far worse than mine, but that doesn't make what I'm experiencing any easier to deal with. I'm tired of comparing myself to others, tired of feeling like a disappointment, and tired of pretending that I have some plan when I really don't.

I don't need someone to tell me to work harder, become successful, find my passion or remember that I'm still young. I hear enough of that already.
I just want to hear from someone who has been in a really dark place and somehow found their way through it. Maybe your circumstances didn't magically improve. Maybe you started with nothing. Maybe you spent years feeling lost before things finally changed, even a little.

Tell me about it. Tell me what helped you hold on when you couldn't imagine a future you'd actually want to live in. Tell me about something small that made life feel bearable again.

I don't expect a stranger on the internet to fix my life. I think I just need to be reminded that a terrible period of life doesn't necessarily have to be the whole story, and that people can find some stability, connection or peace even after years of struggling.

If you've read this far, thank you. Even that means something right now.