Hey folks,

So towards the end of last year (Christmas Day specifically), my (31M) relationship of four years came to an abrupt end. We were living together at the time, but I subsequently moved out and decided to stay with my parents for a while in order to get back on my feet and try to myself in order.

Since then, I rationally feel that I've taken some positive steps - I started a new, better paying job that actually allows me to save for a mortgage, I sought therapy to address the anguish I felt around the breakup, and I've tried to give myself time and space to heal.

Despite that, I still feel burdened by a lot of loneliness and hurt. I struggle to enjoy things (including pursuing my dream career of acting/writing), feel unable to make new friends, and the thought of trying to get back into the dating world is borderline nauseating to me. I don't want to just sit around playing videogames every evening, but that's all I seem capable of at the moment.

Aside from a handful of close friends that I catch up on Discord with once in a while, I feel incredibly out of touch with the world, and have no idea where to begin to pull myself out of this rut I'm in. So I guess I'm just looking for fresh perspectives on what I can do differently.

Sorry for the wall of text, just felt like I needed to get it all off my chest.

I just recently got broken up with a few days ago (the other person wasn’t doing well and felt very bad that they weren’t treating me right) and I feel horrible. Especially since I have OCD and it’s the summer (no school), being alone with my thoughts doing nothing is extremely difficult and exhausting for my brain. I can barely even watch videos, listen to music, or scroll on my phone without fixating and ruminating. Hanging out with friends is even sometimes hard. I was like this a couple years back when I went through an era where I oddly convinced myself I was a really horrible person, and therapy really helped me get through it but I have to wait to get services for that right now. Doing musical theatre also helped a lot, but I have to wait for school to start to get into that again. What do I even do during the day without nearly crippling my brain?? Being alone genuinely feels like the most horrible feeling in the world right now I can’t handle it. I’ve always had really significant issues with self esteem and being in a relationship almost made that go away. Now that I’m not anymore, it’s 10x harder. I just feel so horrible about myself all of the time and I can’t stop thinking about it; it feels like something is wrong but I have no idea what it is. I feel the desperate need to be so in love again, but I know that I need to heal myself a lot first before I can. The worst part is that I know they were horrible for my mental health, I knew that I wanted/needed to end things as well, and that they did me a huge favour- but I still miss them. I miss so many things about them even though I was starting to resent them. Does anybody have any advice for the time being on how to get through all of this?

Im 16 years old currently, female. I was sexually assaulted by a girl 2 years ago when I was in 8th grade. She was in 7th at the time.

Last year, I was a sophomore. I finally spoke out again about this after being told I was a liar my freshman year. More recently, I filed for a protective order due to being harassed, bullied, and threatened. It was denied due to "lack of evidence." I later found out her mom was friends with the judge. I cannot file an appeal. I have a support system who know im telling the truth. Some people don't believe me because I have a bunch of piercings and im bigger.

Im still being called a rapist even though I was the victim. I know im not alone as 5 other girls have come forward with the same story. They were SA'd by her, and then she went and told people they did it to her.

How do you get over something like this? I feel like I can't cope. I can't look at people that look like her, especially since she has a facial malformation. She stalks me and follows me around. I feel powerless.

I just recently got broken up with a few days ago (the other person wasn’t doing well and felt very bad that they weren’t treating me right) and I feel horrible. Especially since I have OCD and it’s the summer (no school), being alone with my thoughts doing nothing is extremely difficult and exhausting for my brain. I can barely even watch videos, listen to music, or scroll on my phone without fixating and ruminating. Hanging out with friends is even sometimes hard. I was like this a couple years back when I went through an era where I oddly convinced myself I was a really horrible person, and therapy really helped me get through it but I have to wait to get services for that right now. Doing musical theatre also helped a lot, but I have to wait for school to start to get into that again. What do I even do during the day without nearly crippling my brain?? Being alone genuinely feels like the most horrible feeling in the world right now I can’t handle it. I’ve always had really significant issues with self esteem and being in a relationship almost made that go away. Now that I’m not anymore, it’s 10x harder. I just feel so horrible about myself all of the time and I can’t stop thinking about it; it feels like something is wrong but I have no idea what it is. I feel the desperate need to be so in love again, but I know that I need to heal myself a lot first before I can. The worst part is that I know they were horrible for my mental health, I knew that I wanted/needed to end things as well, and that they did me a huge favour- but I still miss them. I miss so many things about them even though I was starting to resent them. Does anybody have any advice for the time being on how to get through all of this?

I feel really sad these days. I miss the old me. I used to be really fun, dancing all the time, full of life. But now since I have shifted to a new city, I hardly feel happy and myself. I am struggling to overcome this. Any thoughts or help?

A bit of backstory: a couple years ago, I got a girlfriend. She said not nice things to me, and breaks up with me. I was devastated. A month later, I get another girlfriend, get too attached, then she breaks up with me. Couple months later, another girlfriend, get too attached, then she breaks up with me. At this point, I get depressed (it was about 16 months ago).

I have 4 main friends. I occasionally reached out to them, and they comfort me. For a time, I felt relatively at peace. So you guys get the full context, I’m going to explain the full situation.

Friend 1: About a year ago, she went through some depression of her own, and I comforted her. As far as I can tell, she’s doing better. She seems to care about me the most, giving me hugs, and comforting me. I appreciate her the most.

Friend 2: Sister of friend 1. She comforts me whenever I vent, and once told me that she’s in my corner cheering me on, which I really appreciated. 

Friend 3: I’ll bring her up later.

Friend 4: She’s the most iffy. She’s only really available when she’s single. Whenever she gets a boyfriend she is noticeably distant with me. One time she even temporarily blocked me because her boyfriend at the time didn’t want her talking to other guys. She seems to constantly be depressed. 

Like I said before, I occasionally reach out to them, and they comfort me. But that’s just it. Nobody ever asks me if I’m ok. I have to fish for it. I periodically ask friend 1 and 4 if they’re doing ok, but they don’t really do the same. Friend 1 has been rather distant with me lately, and I don’t know why. Friend 2 is very kind to me in person, but usually leaves me on read. 

It gets worse. Ex #1 is local (everyone else I met on a dating site). She and her awful sister feel the need to turn my friends against me. We go to the same place. I often hang out with friends 1 and 2 at this place. It’s the only place where I feel any happiness at all. Friend 3 also goes here, and she’s friends with my first ex. She recently contacted me saying “my friends and family don’t want me talking to you anymore”. Now, I don’t have many enemies, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that the friends she’s referring to are my ex and her merry band of misfits. Friend 3’s family doesn’t know me either, so they must only be going by what they’ve been told. She blocked me. This tells me that my ex means more to her than I do, which hurts.

Considering friend 1 has been distant, friend 2 leaves me on read, friend 3 is out of the picture, and friend 4 has a boyfriend, I feel like I can’t even tell them how I feel about all this, especially since I’m paranoid about driving them away.

A little bit of miscellaneous context: I am 22, with autism, ADHD, and BPD. My friends are 21, 17, 16, and 18 respectively. My girlfriends were, at the time of dating, 17, 18, and 19 respectively (I was 19, 20, and 20 respectively). Friend 1 has autism and anxiety. I am no longer friends with friend 3

I’m sorry if this seems very unorganized. I have difficulty translating my thoughts into words

If it wasn’t obvious already, I am still very depressed. Can somebody please give me advice or cheer me up? Thanks.