I was approached by 2 teenage boys while I was on my way to a friend’s house and they asked if they could pray for me, and I said yeah because I believe also in God and I need all the help I can get when I’m about to get on the road 🫩. After they prayed they asked if I wanted to check out their thing on Sunday for young adults and I said sure, so they asked for my number to give me the details. The whole time I didn’t know what their religion was, and only found out after looking up the address of the church that they texted me. I only go to Catholic/Christian churches, so I don’t really want to go anymore or get texts and calls from them. How do I politely tell them that?

My mom has always had mental health issues when I was growing up, but this past year they have gotten much worse. It started with her randomly leaving to go live with some guy off the internet, then to her living with homeless people, she came back and then tried to break into my neighbors house twice, and then claimed to not remember doing it, she then was giving random men our address. She also physically hurt my brother and my sister. Then it got even worse she started talking to herself, like having hour long conversations just talking to herself like she was talking to someone who wasn’t there, she would even deepen her voice say something then respond back in her regular voice. She said she could see this person as well but there was no one there. Today I thought maybe asking if she was ok and who she was talking to would maybe snap her out of it, (keep in mind I’m 20 years old, and have no experience dealing with a person like this) I just wanted to snap her out of it, maybe make her realize that she isn’t talking to a real person just to herself, she at first seemed normal and said she hasn’t been talking at all, I then responded and said but I could hear you talking, she then flipped completely changed she got super angry and said “ if you lie to my face again little girl your going to regret it” while she was standing like she was about to lunge at me, so I left the house so i didn’t escalate the situation more. I’m just at a loss my siblings and I feel unsafe in the house worried she might do something because she’s completely unpredictable right now. She has called the police saying we are locking her up and we have never done that it’s impossible to be locked inside our house, she has threatened to ruin my dad and his family lives, she’s been saying crazy lies about everyone to her family and random people online. I don’t know what to do, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I want to get her committed to a mental hospital but that has to be voluntary or she has to commit a crime. But every time she has committed a crime she has only been there for a couple days to a week and then they send her back home.

I have so much I need to get done, yet it's been impossible to do it because of the fact that I lose motivation, which makes it nearly impossible. I'm holding myself back in a lot of different ways because I do not have very well developed self discipline, and I just shut down.

So I’m on the fence about selling my PlayStation to get back some control in my life fiscally.

I’m not in a crazy amount of debt but I have been made insolvent before, so I know what’s it’s like when people are just chasing money from you, and all that jazz.

But I’m like this cash can create a buffer, pay off my credit card, or pay 4 months towards my contracts so I’m just not sure if it’s the wisest decision.

I do also have an Nintendo Switch 2 what I seem to enjoying playing more anyhow.

Im sixteen and Im in college and part time work so basically whatever day im not at college im working and im also really badly depressed. I havent been able to bring myself to get out of bed for work or college in two weeks. Im on medication but it doesn’t do anything because I feel the exact same. I dont like work or college really but if i do nothing ill be depressed. I dont know what im supposed to do in this situation because its my first job.

For the past 4 days I had this nasty cold, and yesterday I sneezed too hard which caused a little pain in me ribs. I didn't think much of it but now at 00:20 at night and I was in absolute pain, I've finally managed to lay down on my good side.

How long will it take to feel better? (Also my cold is practically gone).

I'm looking for work that I can do online, I don't have a car so I can't work irl, plus I'm not in school and don't have my GED yet (it's a long story. I'm very poor so I don't have money or extra clothes laying around to start a small business like selling things. I was wondering if there's anything else that I can do? Any advice, pointers or anything helps!

We are a trio. Me (M) and let's call the other 2, X(M) and Y (F). We 3 are very close, but lately I've noticed one thing.

That is I am the one initiating our hangout plans more often and I am very happy to do that but the main problem is that I am the one always adjusting to their schedules and their choice of place.

Whenever I suggest something or the place, they just dismiss and then decide with each other where they want to go and it's more often than not Y (F) and then we always end up going to her choice of place and according to her schedule.

And also the main thing that bothers me is that whenever even one of them is not able to make it to the plan the plan gets dropped off, but when I am not able to make it, they just go ahead with me.

Has anyone gone through such situation?

Should I take a step back from this friendship?

I don’t want to mention any names of cities or whatever for my own privacy but I really need advice because no one in my life is going to tell me the truth. It’s either going to be my parent trying to get me to come home or my friends saying “just do what feels right”. I need brutal honesty with some care ofc, because I’m really sensitive at the moment.

Anyway, I’ve been planning this move for over a year now and got my visa to move to this city, months ago! I saved up like crazy, like didn’t really buy or treat myself to anything at all because I knew I’d have to look for a job and have to be unemployed for a bit. I had like 30k saved up in the country’s currency which put me in a good position. I’m only mentioning this to let you know how much I’ve planned. The silly thing I did though…I never visited the city. I didn’t really have the time because I had weddings to attend,etc. And I would have had to dip into my savings. I took word of mouth, from people who really enjoyed their time in this city. It’s very unlike me because when I wanted to move to another city a few years ago, I visited it first. I should not have listened to those people for many reasons but one being that they all moved with either friends or a partner…I came here solo. Which isn’t groundbreaking but I do think it would change things for me.

Anyway, I’m here now and umm…I HATE this place, not dislike, HATE. Not only is everything on hard mode here like finding a house but I also don’t feel safe here at all. I solo travel a lot! I do things on my own a lot. Never been afraid to walk alone at night or explore things and I thought I’d be doing that but since I’ve come here, I’ve literally stayed in my temporary accommodation all day with the exception of quickly going somewhere to top up on food. I’ve just realised that people have a different idea of what is safe lol. This place is a bit nuts for me if I’m going to be honest. I’ve had to get off transport because someone was making me uncomfortable. And that does happen in my home country too, but not every day??? Every time I step outside, something crazy is happening. And people keep warning me to be alert or get pepper spray and then they say “but it’s safe though”…what??? I would never tell anyone that in my country, like never.

Anyway, the advice I need. Now I’m thinking of just scraping this altogether. I’m thinking of moving to another city that I considered before, where it felt safe and I won’t need a visa in a long run. Am I being stupid? Is this ridiculous?? Like I’m honestly thinking of when I do find a job here and have no choice but to walk in the dark because winter time is coming and I just don’t feel comfortable with that thought. I’ve cried almost every day of being here but I also don’t know if it’s just me being sensitive. I would really appreciate any advice because I need to make this decision today!

My ocd theme is meds storage. I am balding since I was a teenager and I take meds daily to prevent the progression of my baldness. I have Always lived in a different region of my country, now I moved back to my parents from months Who live in a poorer region. So I am buying meds from the local pharmacies. Well my worry Is that they store meds poorly in these local pharmacies since the region Is poorer and hotter and there are less controls and people are more naive. I am also losing more hair than usual and this Is making me very anxious. So I am Always wondering whats the best pharmacy to trust here etc ....

Can you please help me? I don't know what to do, I am so scared of losing my hair. do you think all of this Is stupid? Should I Just change to a pharmacy where they have to ship the new meds (while the current One has them already stored) Just so I'm gonna be less worried?

I've been at the same studio for about four years. I started as an apprentice under an artist called Fiona, who died in a car accident partway through, and the owner (I'll call him Randy) stepped in to finish my training. So there's a lot of loyalty there.

The shop itself is great. The artists are good, it's clean and professional, and the clients are decent. That's not the problem.

The problem is Randy. He's a nice guy, but he's in a lot of debt, has a spending habit he openly jokes about, and has a habit of going out the night before and not showing up for his morning clients. Last week we turned up to work and the landlord had changed the locks. Randy had missed rent again and hadn't told any of us.

He's got us back in. I think he sold some stuff or took out a loan. The arrears are mostly cleared. But this has clearly been building for a while, and I don't trust that it won't happen again.

The other artists have been there since the start and won't even talk about leaving. Honestly, the stress of never knowing whether I'll have a job next month is starting to get to me.

I've got one other option: renting a room at the back of another business, in a building shared by a few small businesses. It's affordable, and it'd be my own closed room where I'd run things to my own standards. There are a couple of other artists in the building, and their hygiene isn't bad, it's above board, just not at the level you'd expect from a good, reputable studio. It wouldn't directly affect my room, but it's not a tattoo studio, there's no name behind me, and it's not somewhere I ever pictured myself working.

So do I stay with the devil I know and hope this was his wake-up call, or take my own room somewhere a bit below the standard I'm used to, just to get away from the instability?

Anyone been in a similar spot? What did you do, and do you regret it?

So my friend is having mental health issues. She tells me she spoke with a social worker today and they told her to join a PHP starting tomorrow morning and to send an email tonight informing her boss she is starting a leave effective immediately. An attorney was supposed to contact her today but never did. Apparently the social worker said something like “if you broke your leg you would just go to the emergency room. You wouldn’t wait for approval. This is like if your brain was hit by a bus.” I work in HR not on the leaves side of things so I don’t feel qualified to confirm that’s how she should do it. If it makes a difference, note that she has been on a PIP here before but has repaired her reputation. Her boss is also known to encourage employees to take vacation time so her hope is she’ll be understanding of this too.

I live in New Jersey, usa.

I'm 20 years old.

I moved out of my toxic & (probably abusive but don't want to think about it right now) parents' house suddenly out of necessity.

My bio dad / parents are cutting me off pretty much.

I happily don't have to pay food/rent/utilities because I live with extended family.

My bio dad is kicking me off health insurance at the end of the year, even though it is supposed to cover me til I turn 26. he just refuses to keep me on the plan

I have health issues. a lot of them

and he KNOWS it. he just denies it and has accused me of committing health fraud and lying to doctors.

he has constantly downplayed EVERYTHING for me & my siblings.

one of my siblings broke a bone and didn't go to the doctor until a teacher at school stepped in.

I had to BEG to go to the eye doctor.

my first dentist trip was at 10.

and none of this was due to $$$, we could absolutely afford it

but my bio dad was allowed all the medical care he needed.

I developed severe food allergies as an adult.

now I work full time.

a few days ago I had to leave work in an ambulance because of severe chest pain and terrifying cardiac symptoms.

now I have no idea how im gonna pay for that or any of my doctors.

im making 16.05/hour in a profession i went school for.

im burnt out and exhausted and this is a hugely physical job.

I need support and kind words.

and I apparently make just enough to not qualify for state health insurance.

my job has insurance I can enroll for next month but idk how good it is.

I hate money.

im sick and cant afford it.

I’ve had rib discomfort in my left side for 3-4 years. It’s had all sorts of transformations. There was a point a few months back the pain was sharp when I’d breathe too deep, now it’s kind of a discomfort that’s spread as it feels weird to lay on my front rib and hip as well. There’s a bit of discomfort as well when I press down the area under where the ribs meet and a bit on the left side. I have some kind of hypersensitivity in my torso face and back now because after I scratch my skin it kind of leaves a weird lingering feeling after. Doctors I saw said my back was tight was forcing my ribs to take all the pressure.

Now I have weight loss (I really don’t eat a lot in the first place and was already skinny but I feel like I haven’t changed my diet habits). I also get swollen itchy spots around my body sometimes which I saw an allergist and they did a skin scratch test. Basically my whole LEFT SIDE where I’m concerned about was coming out positive with hives. If that weren’t bad enough I had spotting for the first time and a heavier period which during these points I felt some pressure in my left ovary. Oh and did I mention my lymph nodes seem a bit swollen? CBC testing all came out normal but my sedimentation rate value was a bit high, which concerns me as well. An xray of my torso was ordered which came out normal everywhere except my doctor said there was seemingly a lot of air or something in my colon. That prompted him to do a ct scan which im waiting to get done soon. I’m just worried, I can’t imagine what else it could possibly be besides you know what. Not only that, this has been an issue for YEARS which seemingly could have spread and who knows how much if so.

What do I do? I know nothing can change whatever happens, and of course I’m hoping for the best but I fear it might not look good for me. I know my post is written quite dramatically but I’m okay right now, I just want to be prepared for anything because I don’t know if I will be later. I’m mostly afraid of having to tell others if it ends up being something bad. How do I cope with any scary information?

I am confused about what to pursue in life, why to pursue and if the hassle is worth it.

If all the hard work is worth it.

Can't we just chill out.

Is it important to be ambitious?

..... And many more

These people who I haven't spoken to since may have called me 3 times leaving immature voice mails. On Monday they called me twice. I'm quite fed up with it and idk if its the type of thing I can report to their school. Will the school take this type of thing seriously? For context they used to mock me while we were friends and I don't have evidence for it but i know factually that they use my pictures to mock me privately now.

I don’t want this to be a dark post, and this may just end up as a vent no one reads, but I feel a short background is needed. I had somewhat of a rough childhood as I grew up in a very conservative Christian and sports based middle and high school as the only fat guy not in football and the only gay kid at all as I was outed. It was not uncommon for me to go months without having a social interaction outside of my mother just for the first one to be a preacher sitting me down telling me to be chaste or go to hell or random guys just calling me a slur. As a devout Christian my mental health declined pretty fast as I stopped doing school work, had unhealthy coping mechanisms, and ultimately didn’t care about my future as I didn’t expect to live long enough to have one. 

Recently when speaking with my roommates, they all talked about how they had friend groups back home and at school, how they hang out with friends almost weekly, how they are always doing something like studying or being a part of extracurricular groups etc etc. I know some of it could have been exaggerated, but I realized that, even now when I am twenty one and trying to better myself, I’m still the same as I was. I still don’t have any in person friends, any funny stories, interesting facts or cool experiences to tell people, I’ve never gone to a party, hangout, study group, anything. It hit me hard and made me realize how far behind I am compared to everyone else at my age. They’ve all been living lives, having experiences, improving themselves and running towards their dreams. I feel like I’m starting a journey that people have been on for the past decade. 

It’s not even just socially either. Today during a required class to teach freshmen about opportunities at my school (I’m a junior transfer student so I had to take it anyways) where student representatives came to promote their clubs and societies I realized I missed out academically and professionally too. All of these leadership opportunities require so long to become members or join and I only have three semesters left. This whole class so far has been just telling us how college has so many opportunities and how you’ll never get this time back and I just feel like I’m so behind in everything. 

So what do I do? I’ll be ending my schooling with little to nothing outside of a degree at this rate. What’re the main things I can do to get my life back on track in general.

I’m a young person, looking for some older people’s perspective. I’m 24 and started my first professional job (PT).I put a lot of pressure on myself to live up to and exceed past my managers expectations and not be seen as a “24 year old”. And I’ve made some mistakes with tardiness 2-3 times. Which, since I’ve gotten hired at the start of August, I’ve tried to correct and prove I won’t do it again by trying to always be early (not sure how many times my manager has been there to see it). But I’m extra anxious about a mistake a made today:

I made the mistake of not following procedure the first day I was on a shift by myself after training. I do outreach and I was supposed to call and say I’ve arrived at the location when I got there which I forgot. My manager sent me a teams message which was kind of formal saying “you need to be in the office and call at the specified times”. I called early for the next 3 weeks following. But today an unexpected work-related event occurred when I got to work and I forgot to call right away as I was busy mitigating the problem. My manager is on vacation so now I have to wait a week for her response to my message taking accountability and stating my plan to not forget in the future. I don’t know how she will react.

Whenever I do something I always double check, triple check, and if I didn't get satisfied with the checks IT WILL TAKE UP TO MAYBE 10 CHECKS. And I would be really careful on checking it until I'm done after like 15 checks LIKE this also always happens when I ask something to my mom. I always ask her repeatedly about questions until I'm satisfied with the consistency if not I'll ask again. To the point where my mom says "I've been repeating my answer to your repeated questions for the past 11 whole minutes." Even my head starts having a migraine cuz I JUST CAN'T STOP IT. And when I'm writing I always check first if there's extra space so I undo the past 3 types of my writing for like 6 undo times and back LIKE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME ITS AS IF IM WORRIED IF I CAN'T GET THINGS RIGHT?! I also lock and unlock my door for like idk maybe almost 20 times whenever its time for bed bruhhh. I even have this weird obsession with covering myself with sanitizing alcohol everytime I go to bed cuz I have this feeling of wanting to be clean before going to bed and I panic when I ran out of alcohol. 😭 I always buy 2 bottles of it just in case. Idk if this makes sense but I hope it does cuz it's really HARD to explain it clearly. 😭

I'm in a position where I really need to focus on exam I'm preparing for next year. Ive tried quitting gaming but somehow I relapse. It's not that I don't study , I can get in 6 hours and for a while when I quit 8 but I can tell it's not my best , this is so anxiety inducing when I'm aware my competition is putting in 10 hours minimum . I haven't hit a burn out like some of my friends describe going through, it feels like I'm not doing enough. Any advice. The thing I'm preparing for is in next 4-5 months . An embarassing post to make for someone in their 20s

She (35) is religious and i (19f) am not. Im very undecided on any of that stuff. She was thrilled for me to be a bridesmaid but invited me out to breakfast to "talk about the wedding". I couldnt make it to breakfast this morning so we talked this evening and she seemed anxious and sad. Saying she doesnt know how to say it so shes just going to say it but doesnt want it to hurt me or for me to think shes judging me. Basically, the religious elders which are like pastors, said that if she wants to get married in their hall, her chosen bridesmaids must be living according to gods standards and would therefore, in their words, be "inappropriate". Dumb as fuck. Not my sister. Just the rules.

I understand a no smoking wedding.

I understand not wanting me to smell of smoke at the wedding.

But to not have me be my sisters bridesmaid who really wanted me to be, just because of a private personal life style habit that has nothing to do with anyone else has annoyed me. It sounds so weird to me now too. She was saying "i dont want to jeapardize my relationship with god". As if me being a bridesmaid would deeply disgust him

I've had a couple of compulsions I could think of growing up, but none of them affected my life or anything and were negligible. But this ones been nagging me for almost a year and its really frustrating.

It's kind of stupid, but in middle school, there was this one teacher who would always give us these "pep talks" at the beginning of the day that were really corny and were stuff like "don't give up" and "hard work beats natural talent" etc. etc. I also just generally resented my teachers, especially my homeroom/math teacher, who used to speak in this really annoying voice at the top of her lungs, and yell and scream and shout even when she wasn't angry, and I'm naturally sensitive to noise and it really bothered me. Now up to this point I didn't think I had anything against the teacher that gave us prep talks (he was also the reading teacher) but I began hating him because of my hate for my school and also because he turned out to be really arrogant and entitled. I also want to mention I began to love reading at this point in time, and while I read, stuff we talked about in class kept coming up in my brain. I wanted to forget about class and school and my reading teacher, but the more I tried to ignore him the more those thoughts kept coming into my head. What ended up happening was he was now living rent free in my head, all his shitty prep talks, all the classes I had with him, all of them popped up whenever I did something, and I felt like my life somehow was getting better because of his prep talks or because of his lessons. Whenever I wanted to get good at writing, for example, my brain would play for me: "hard work beats natural talent every single time!!! Remember what the rise guru said??" and when I tried to get rid of the thought my body kept acting against my will and begin to feel motivated. It kept getting worse until my brain took the most trivial things he said out of context and to heart, and to the point that I felt like I had no free will anymore. Everything I did, said, thought, etc. was all because of him. "Man, I should say sorry to my mom for getting angry with her." Brain--> "Remember when he said 'be nice to your parents?'" "Alright, time to practice piano." Brain--> "Remember what he said about hard work?" And then I would purposefully practice an inadequate amount because I didn't want him to be the cause of my doing well. This also became the same for every person I didn't like. My brain always made it seem that the people I didn't like were controlling my every action.

So a couple of weeks ago I went to a behavioral health clinic and completed intake for therapy and a psychiatric evaluation. My first official therapy appointment will be in a few days, but my psychiatric evaluation won't be until the 24th of November. Since I'm in a bit of a vulnerable position both physically and mentally, I don't know if I can wait that long. Even though I am aware now that these appointments are usually booked weeks to even months in advance and I just so happened to get lucky with one of the shorter wait times. However, over a month is still too long of a wait for me.

I just got off the phone with 988 and the operator told me that I can go to the ER to get a psychiatric screening on the spot as well as medication and other things that can help me with my vulnerable position. I'm posting this because I feel like I need some sort of second opinion on whether or not I should go as well as, I guess, how to execute this plan. If I go there, what do I even say? How do I get myself admitted? What questions do I ask to get the stuff I need (psychiatric evaluation, medication, case worker)? Am I just overthinking this entire thing? I'm not sure. I just don't want to mess this up and put myself in a bad situation, so I figured I'd consult the internet for what I need to do.