Anonymous venting

i put love stories for all types of love. i think there’s something wrong with me. i wear off on people and i genuinely don’t know what part about me makes this happen but it DOES happen. people tell me just because im a teenager im overreacting but they’ve never lived my life so how should they know? i just want love. i want it so bad and as soon as i grab it it just goes away. one of my favorite shows, bojack horseman, has so many quotes that i relate to, but the one i relate to most rn is the one from the cat in the show, princess carolyn: “You know the worst part? I knew this was gonna happen, and I let myself get excited anyway.”

that’s how i feel when i finally wear off.

my kitten is named after princess carolyn n i call her pc for short

Are my feelings valid? When I hesitate to give to my husband’s family. They’re not well-off, but they’re managing. We already have our own family, and his salary is small and barely enough. We still give to his family from time to time, and I agree to it, but sometimes it becomes too much.

We always argue because he always wants to help his family. I don’t really have a problem with that — it’s just that his salary is small, and we also have a baby who still needs milk. But his mom and dad sometimes ask us for money, even for things like his sibling’s school allowance.

We give when we can, so it’s not like I’m being selfish. I just don’t like it when it becomes excessive, because we’re not rich either. We argue because he thinks I’m being selfish toward his family, but of course, I’m also thinking about the fact that he already has a family of his own now — us.

And when I cry during our fights, he tells me, ‘You act like you’re the one being mistreated.’ I just want to express my emotions because I’m not used to us having serious fights.

Are my feelings valid?

I want my voice to be heard someday

I'm a young adult who want(s/ed) to be an artist, a coder, a helper, and a nice person who wanted to change everyone's lives, but I feel no motivation to continue what I love. I find no passion for anything anymore, and it's all my fault. I'm in a never-ending cycle of hatred towards myself and in a cycle of wanting to see the people who had hurt me get their consequences. My interests are as varied as white bread: corporate, childish, soulless, samey; mixed in with the most obscure stuff people that nobody knows about. When I say I want to get into something that is remotely indie, I turn it into my whole personality, then I feel nothing afterwards. I am not good at human interaction, and I have a lot of problems with talking to people face to face, so it started affecting how I talked to others in school. So, I started to use the internet to talk to others.

It all started on Discord, where I decided to make an account after the pandemic started changing our lives and when I started feeling friendless. For the first two years, I was fine, even if a bit cringe. I was progressing in my art goal, albeit in a very different way, and this was when I finally started leaving a mark on the internet, which is what I always wanted to do, until... I got in trouble with a community, which led to a friend of mine leaving me eventually. I always needed an art tutor, but I never really knew how to go about requesting one. I also did not want to pay because if I paid, my parents would've been against it. This was a horrible mistake, as it made others think I was a beggar, when in reality I needed help. A lot of people claiming to be my friends also left me for the stupidest reasons and even spread rumors about myself. This was when I decided enough was enough. I restarted everything about myself online, and my goal to leaving a mark on the internet had completely reset.

There was this thing one person said that stuck out to me: How their interests did not match my interests. This still haunts me to this day, because I have not been able to get into a lot of indie stuff a lot of Gen Z users like, or even popular stuck others like. I can't broaden my interests because everything still feels either samey or ruined by terrible communities or friends.

I wanted to draw the same thing my favorite small online artists drew. I wanted to share the huge passion I had for storytelling and character design. Every single one of my favorite artists felt like they all brought their own version of their own world, but in reality, they all felt very similar to each other to a fascinating degree. It was like a small group of small artists that understood each other, even if they had different approaches. I needed to get in, but if I wanted to get in, I needed my slate to be as clean as possible and to practice a lot.

I used my new, yet still lacking set of art skills to build a new name and new stories, and with it, I promised myself to broaden my horizons. I started making a lot of new friends in a new community that took a while to get used to, but when I did, I started warming up and making it my go-to place. They didn't find my interests boring or samey. However, there was this one friend who wanted to assist me in my path. They were very nice, but what I didn't realize at the time is that they were too nice to me. It wasn't until it was too late when I found their true intentions.

At one point, I started feeling too distanced from the real world. I got into fights with my family members more frequently, almost like if I was being controlled by a puppet. Not even online had my behavior differed from the real world, as I started feeling this uneasy feeling that everyone would start hating me again and seeing everyone in my group starting to suffer mentally horribly, it started making me go insane. Months would turn into days, and the date finally came. I found out what they really wanted to do to me, and so did my parents. However, when it happened, the punishment was way, way off.

I had to leave Discord and my newfound name I wanted to leave a mark as. I could feel my life falling endlessly as my goals slowly vanished, all ties to my friends were cut. My electronics were all confiscated, even my Switch. My family members were not afraid to show their anger towards me and even told me that I should BEG God for forgiveness, because he wouldn't forgive me in a lifetime. Everything fell down to the gutter, but I still tried to put a positive spin on all of this. At least it's all better than what that person was going to do to me, right?

I had changed a lot since the initial punishment. I became more socially active with my family members and had tried a little bit harder to change and find my own self, and some things from the initial punishment were lifted too, but there's still something. I found an artist with a great style, one that felt like they belonged into that small group of small artists I wanted to be like. They literally checked all the boxes in just a week, but there was something different. I wanted to continue my goal, but then, creative block struck, and not just any creative block, an entire 1000 lb weigh in my brain was put. I couldn't draw my own custom things anymore, so I had no choice but to use ChatGPT to keep my creative visions alive, even if severely flawed as methods. Then, I found no passion for coding at all, as I had nobody to give suggestions about my code, then I resorted to having to use Copilot to give me blueprints. I started yearning to use Discord again, but my parents still don't trust me, and I doubt they will give me everything back anytime soon.

I have no control of my own life anymore. I can't go on without having friends or motivation. I can't go on without having free unlimited access to creativity. I feel stuck, and I had a realization. I got myself into this. My entire motive to get going with art was to find ONE friend who valued me and my projects the most, one who could contribute to my own creativity, someone I could rely to. I would search all over the communities I was interested in (which weren't a lot) to find someone if one person refused and bullied me for it. I should've stopped trying to force a friendship with someone.

I don't know what to do anymore. I didn't even feel like writing this that much, but it HAD to come out somehow. I had been trying to build my own online brand for 5 years but ended up hurting myself in the long run. I'm still friendless, still limited, and still getting stalked by that person who ruined everything. Every time I go out to the yard, I have this flashback of that fateful day where everything went wrong. I wanted a hobby and a job I enjoyed so much, and I still want to draw and code, and maybe even blueprint a mall one day, but I don't find myself motivated to do any of those things anymore. Am I still doing something wrong?

not gonna lie, 37 doesn't feel anything like what i thought it would. sure, i'm older and theoretically wiser, but when it comes to self-worth? it's like i'm stuck back in high school, constantly questioning if i'm enough. i mean, you’d think by now i'd have it figured out, right? maybe it's just me, but society keeps pushing this insane idea that by a certain age, we should have it all together. yet here i am, feeling like a complete failure in various aspects of my life.

sometimes i wonder if it's society setting the bar so damn high, or if i'm just incompetent. ever feel like you're just going through the motions, ticking boxes but not actually moving forward? that's been my reality for a while. career-wise, i’m stuck in a job that's more soul-sucking than rewarding. my friends joke about their "real" jobs while i'm over here hustling in something that pays the bills but kills the spirit. who knew following passions could lead to this much existential dread? 🙃 how many others are out there, grappling with the same silent despair because they haven't “made it” yet?

and don't even get me started on relationships. it's not that i'm desperate for companionship, but sometimes the societal pressure feels like a chokehold. those phrases like "biological clock" and "settle down" aren't just words, they start to feel like accusations. even my family, who mean well, toss in their two cents every goddamn time we talk. as if i haven't considered it all before, as if i'm oblivious to the endless cycle of tantrums at family dinners. can they not see i’d figure it out if i could? the audacity! i swear, if i hear another "when are you going to settle down?" again, i might scream. am i really the only one who feels this exhausted by it all?

the worst part? social media. it's a double-edged sword that's mostly torture. scrolling through endless posts of other people’s curated versions of success just fuels the sense of inadequacy. everyone looks like they’re winning at life, and it’s hard not to compare yourself to yet another “inspirational” story. it’s as if speaking about feeling worthless online is the last taboo. why pretend to be perfect when nobody actually has their shit together? it's baffling. can we just agree that being in your late thirties is a confusing mess, and maybe it's okay to admit it sometimes?

so here i am, 37, female, feeling lost and stuck, but still trudging forward. does it ever get better, or are we all just faking it until we make it? who knows. i've accepted that maybe there's no one-size-fits-all answer and that maybe, just maybe, the key is to stop giving a damn about what everyone else thinks. a person can only handle so much “constructive criticism” before it just becomes noise. until i figure it all out, i’ll keep venting here. thanks for reading, whoever you are.

This morning I checked my class group chat and a guy in my class called Thomas got and admin to remove me because I posted a gif of a Dalek witch my friend had also done. The admin who removed me called Ellis has voiced how Thomas has pissed him off but he calls me gay so I’m not surprised that he removed me. But more about Thomas. He is just a bully he targets this guy called Nathan in my class. Thomas has repeatedly told me “shut up you’re not funny” when I posted a video of that drug abuse is the new slavery PSA but when he saw it in school he chuckled but there’s more about Thomas in the first semester he slide tackled my friend and my friend started crying (Thomas is taller and bigger than my friend) and Thomas is just generally annoying. Sorry if this is a mess

For the longest time, I’ve been stuck in this cycle of excuses. I’d wake up every morning telling myself I’d make changes, that today would be different, but by the time the day ended, I was back to square one. Whether it’s eating healthier, exercising, or even just cleaning my space, I keep putting it off. I’d tell myself, "I’ll start tomorrow," but tomorrow never seems to come.

Yesterday was my breaking point. I was scrolling through social media and saw an old friend post about running their first marathon. I remember how we used to run together, how much I loved it back then. And now? I can’t even jog up the stairs without feeling winded. It hit me like a ton of bricks—what am I even doing with my life? Why do I keep finding reasons to avoid what I know I need to do?

I looked around my apartment after that. Clothes piled up on the floor, dishes in the sink from who-knows-how-many days ago, and a gym membership card collecting dust on the counter. That’s when it finally clicked—it’s time to stop. It’s time to stop avoiding the hard stuff, time to stop pretending everything will fix itself, and time to stop being my own worst enemy.

I don’t have a perfect plan yet, and honestly, I’m scared I’ll slip back into my old habits. But I know I can’t keep going like this. If I don’t make a change now, when will I? Maybe writing this out will help me stay accountable. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you’re feeling stuck too, maybe it’s time to stop and take the first step. We’ve got this.

Hey everyone, I’m not usually one to air my personal stuff, but I really need some advice here. For the past few months, I’ve had this gut feeling that my wife might be cheating on me, and it's eating me alive. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but the signs are starting to pile up, and I’m just not sure what to do.

It all started when she began staying late at work more often. At first, I didn’t think much of it—she’s always been dedicated to her job. But then, she became super protective of her phone. She used to leave it lying around, but now she keeps it close and seems to be on it all the time, even at odd hours. And when I casually ask about her day, her answers feel...vague? Like she’s hiding something.

Then there are the little things. She started dressing up more than usual, even just to “run errands” or meet friends. It’s almost like she’s trying to impress someone. I’ve tried to brush it off, telling myself I’m being paranoid, but every time I bring it up, she gets defensive or says I’m just being insecure. It makes me feel like maybe I’m overthinking, but part of me feels like my concerns are valid.

To make things worse, I found a receipt for a fancy dinner that she said was a "work thing," but I know her company usually doesn’t do dinners like that. I keep second-guessing myself, and now I’m stuck in this loop of anxiety. I don’t want to accuse her without solid proof, but I also can’t keep living in this uncertainty.

So here I am, asking for advice. Has anyone else been through this? How do you confront someone you love without it turning into a huge fight? Should I even bring it up again, or am I just being paranoid? Any advice would be appreciated—I feel like I’m losing my mind here.

I've come to the harsh realization that perhaps, I'm not the nicest person around. In my mid-thirties, I find myself surrounded only by a single friend and a girlfriend, yet I can't shake the feeling that I'm somehow superior to others. My lifestyle is quite reclusive; I shy away from any social gatherings related to work, and most of my routine revolves around my job, hitting the gym, smoking weed, and cycling. Traveling and cycling in the forest are my escapes, the rare times I don't feel swamped by depression.

Interacting with people, especially in groups, is a daunting task for me. The fear of turning red-faced and being judged negatively is always lurking. Thus, I avoid such situations altogether. There's a worrisome intensity in the way I live; I indulge too often in alcohol or getting high, viewing people merely as elements that enhance my own existence. My eyes wander too freely, admiring every attractive woman I come across, often blatantly flirting in the presence of my girlfriend. Even though these thoughts are never vocalized, I often catch myself belittling others or feeling utter disdain towards them internally.

I confess to being a staunch atheist, holding a disdainful view towards those who are spiritually inclined, believing myself to be smarter, better-looking, and stronger. The resentment builds whenever I see someone possessing what I desire, although I manage to keep this anger bottled up within.

Dominating these emotions is a profound sense of isolation, mixed oddly with a perverse comfort in wallowing in my misery. Sometimes, hurting my own feelings seems like a twisted form of pleasure, perhaps because it means feeling something at all.

My family background does little to lighten my outlook. My brother lives with the dark shadow of being a murderer and a former heroin addict. My father was a violent man, devoid of emotions, who ultimately took his own life. My mother, afflicted by illness so severe that she has been bedridden since my childhood, sparks a guilt within me for not taking care of her. However, I've chosen a path of self-preservation as dedicating myself to her care would consume my own existence entirely.

This life I've crafted for myself is one I despise, yet a part of me feels I shouldn't. With a good education, a well-paying job, and an undeniable appeal to women, I should feel fulfilled. Instead, I’m left feeling empty and, frankly, disgusted with myself for sounding like a self-pitying fool. What the hell is wrong with me?

Despite my efforts not to belittle others overtly, the impression that people don’t like me is hard to shake off. Loneliness is a constant companion.

If I were to join a reality show, my character might be polarizing. Would the audience appreciate my brutally honest introspections, or would they be repelled by my self-confessed arrogance and emotional detachment? It's intriguing yet terrifying to ponder how my persona would unfold under the constant scrutiny of cameras and a public audience.

I chose the friendship stories category but yeah it's related to friendship, love, family, work... I am like that.

I grew up in a very religious family where our faith has always guided our lives and choices. The teachings I’ve known my whole life tell me that being gay is wrong, and yet, I feel these undeniable attractions that make me question everything. I’ve tried to push it down, to change, to pray it away, but it’s always there, a part of me I can’t ignore.

I don’t know how to reconcile my beliefs with who I am. It feels like every day, I’m torn between two worlds: the expectations of my family and faith, and the reality of my own heart. Am I wrong for feeling this way? Is this something I can change, or should I even try? I’ve heard so many opinions, but deep down, I just want to know if I can truly be at peace with both my faith and myself.

If anyone has gone through something similar, or if you have advice, I’d really appreciate hearing from you. I feel so lost and alone in this struggle, and I just need someone to help me see a way through this.

I never thought I’d end up here, but here I am, dreading every single morning when my alarm goes off. I hate my job. There, I said it. I’ve tried to convince myself that it’s just a phase, that everyone feels like this sometimes, but it’s been almost a year, and nothing’s changed. If anything, it’s gotten worse.

The work itself isn’t even that bad. I mean, it’s not what I’m passionate about, but it’s tolerable. The real problem is the people. My boss is one of those micro-managers who has to be involved in every tiny detail. No matter what I do, it’s never good enough. I’ll spend hours on a project, only for them to nitpick and make me redo the whole thing for no real reason. It’s exhausting and makes me feel like all my effort is pointless.

Then there’s the office culture—or lack of it. Nobody talks to each other unless it’s about work. Lunch breaks feel like detention, with everyone silently eating at their desks or scrolling through their phones. I tried to make friends when I first started, but everyone already seemed to have their little cliques. After a while, I just gave up.

What really gets to me, though, is the constant pressure. It’s like they expect us to give 110% all the time, but they don’t give anything back. Overtime is practically mandatory, but don’t expect a “thank you” or even acknowledgment for staying late. And forget about a raise or promotion—that’s a pipe dream. It’s hard not to feel bitter when you’re working so hard and getting nothing in return.

I keep telling myself I should just quit, but it’s not that simple. I’ve got bills to pay, and the job market isn’t exactly booming right now. Plus, there’s this tiny voice in the back of my head that keeps asking, “What if the next job is just as bad—or worse?” It’s like I’m stuck in this cycle where I hate my job, but I’m too scared to leave.

Even at home, I can’t seem to escape it. I’m constantly checking emails or stressing about the next deadline. It’s like my job has taken over my entire life, and I don’t know how to take it back. My family keeps telling me to just hang in there, but they don’t understand how draining it is. By the end of the day, I’m too tired to even think about applying for other jobs, let alone pursuing something I actually enjoy.

Sometimes, I wonder if it’s me. Maybe I’m just not cut out for this kind of work. Or maybe I’m being ungrateful because at least I have a job. But then I think about how miserable I am, and I can’t help but feel like there has to be more to life than this. Doesn’t there?

If anyone else feels this way, I’d love to know how you’re coping—or if you’ve managed to get out, how did you do it? Right now, I just feel stuck, and honestly, it’s hard to see a way forward. All I know is, I can’t keep living like this. Something’s gotta give.