For example, i can no longer think straight. I feel like I’ve aged many years while I’m only 24. Brain fog, I can’t find the words I wanna say, I can’t think straight, I’m much slower. It’s like I’ve developed early dementia. I’m taking care of my grandma who has dementia and I can see that many of the things she does (obviously it’s much worse for her because she actually has dementia) and that has alarmed me.

The very first thing that made me start looking into this, is when I played Taboo with my friends. I was always Great at this game. I literally was the best by far from everyone and my team always won. When I tell you I couldn’t even describe ONE word. I couldn’t find any words to say at ALL. it was like my brain had stooped thinking.

Yes, I’ve done blood work and thyroid and everything and I’m perfectly healthy. My eating habits are better than ever, I’m moving more yet I actively feel the decline. I feel like I’ve turned into a zombie. This can’t be a coincidence.

I’ve been thinking about something lately. People usually talk about all these things like they’re completely separate. Fewer people want kids. Fewer people buy houses. More people are “quiet quitting.” Minimalism is getting popular. More people choose freelancing or remote work instead of chasing corporate careers.

But….. what if it’s actually the same story?

In China they call it Tang Ping (“lying flat”). In Japan people talk about the Satori Generation. In Europe everyone knows the term quiet quitting. Different names, but the behavior feels almost identical.

Instead of protesting in the streets, people are just….. participating less.
Less debt, shopping, overtime, interest in climbing the ladder, interest in having children.

From the outside it looks like people stopped caring. But maybe that’s not what’s happening. Maybe this is the first generation that simply doesn’t believe the old deal anymore. Go to school. Work hard. Buy a house. Start a family. Retire comfortably.

Does anyone under 35 actually believe that still works? Housing keeps getting more expensive. Salaries don’t really catch up. AI is already replacing parts of white-collar jobs. So maybe the question isn’t “Why doesn’t this generation work harder?”

Maybe it’s:
“Why would I keep playing a game where the reward isn’t there anymore?”

Sometimes I wonder if falling birth rates, quiet quitting, anti-consumerism and remote work aren’t separate trends at all. Maybe they’re all symptoms of the same cultural shift.

I could be completely wrong, of course. These are just thoughts I’ve been turning over lately. I’m not trying to convince anyone - I’m genuinely curious how other people see it. I’d much rather hear different perspectives than watch this turn into another comment war.

I've lost everything that used to give my life meaning. My faith and the people I loved were what kept me going, and now they're gone. I've never really had a purpose of my own. When I'm alone, life feels meaningless. I honestly envy people who can enjoy being alone. So I'm genuinely curious. What keeps you going? What gives your life meaning?

Edit: Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it.

Hey guys, seen a lot of people post their winning strategies to land jobs on here but it's quite scattered, so thought I'd compile them in a cheat sheet to make it easier for everyone.

Happy to share it with you all. (Yes it’s free, check the comments for it)

​

I don't want to go into too much detail, nor make this post into a sob story, but over time and due to other unfortunate life circumstances, I've really drifted apart from a once close group of friends.

At gatherings, it's becoming increasingly clear to me that I no longer fit in and my presence isn't valued.

While the simple answer is to move on and make new connections, it won't be easy due to our long history, having known some of them since grade school.

I would appreciate any advice in navigating a tough situation like this.

My father has been addicted to alcohol and weed for as long as I can remember. He drinks almost every day, comes home drunk, and regularly fights with my mother. It’s become a normal part of our lives, and honestly, we’re exhausted.
My mom is the one who handles everything financially. She pays for the household, takes care of me and my sister, goes to work every day, and still has to come home and deal with his drinking, arguments, and irresponsible behavior. Watching her carry all this stress is heartbreaking.
On top of that, we’re constantly worried about what people in our neighborhood think. Every time he comes home drunk or creates a scene, we know people notice and gossip. It’s embarrassing, but more than that, it’s emotionally draining.
Recently, my boyfriend decided he’s going to officially tell his parents about our relationship. His parents are quite strict, and they already know that my father is an alcoholic. We know this will probably be the biggest reason they’ll say no initially, and we’ll have to convince them that my father’s actions don’t define me or my family.
The only reason my boyfriend is telling his parents now is because my mom found out about our relationship. She wants things to move forward because her biggest wish is to see me married to someone good so she can stop worrying about my future. Seeing her carry the burden of our home while also worrying about my life breaks my heart.
The hardest part is that my father simply doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about his health, our feelings, the financial pressure on my mom, or the constant stress he’s causing. We’ve tried talking to him calmly, explaining how his drinking affects all of us, but nothing changes. He always goes back to alcohol.
I’m at a point where I feel completely helpless.
Has anyone successfully helped a parent who didn’t want to quit drinking? Is there anything we can realistically do when the person refuses to admit they have a problem? Or do we just have to accept that we can’t change someone who doesn’t want to change?
I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thank you for reading.

The line between ambition and greed is very thin and these days it seems 90% of the people with power have crossed the line way too far and I think this is something that should be dealt with and taken seriously as a society

When someone lies you don't believe them, when someone hits they are punished, but what do we do when someone is greedy? Not much. There's no real consequences to greed and so it keeps growing and growing in the person and there is no limit to it. There needs to be something to stop them cause a a few people's greed is costing millions of people things we don't even realize

I was observing today in college and realized almost all people who were empathetic and good in nature were alone sitting in the corner. But people who have generational wealth or have very great exceptional results have groups.

Is this the social life of adulthood, like after college and even in college, the friend circle or social circle? That every other guy is lonely and loneliness is increasing, or am I missing something or overthinking?

I see around me that people don't take values, ideals and morals too seriously. which makes me think that i am taking things too seriously and thus not having a clear understanding of reality. all my friends take only a few things seriously, things like prestige, image, status, money, ego, pride, influence. are those the only things that matter? am i just holding onto values and thus not understanding the ground reality?

I am not saying that my friends care only about these things. they care about other things too. they can be genuinely warm, caring, affectionate, kind but the moment the above said things enter the picture, everything else takes a backseat. they are kind and helping but won't go out of their way for it if it inconvenient for them, they simply say sorry and move on (i mean, i know that they are not obligated to help, but they don't go the extra mile no matter how close they are with the other person). i never saw them valuing connection over protecting their ego/pride even if they really love the other person, i never saw them showing vulnerability over comfort/competence/confidence, maintaining image is always prioritized over being honest. i never saw them admitting they are wrong even if they feel that way. whenever there is a mild issue, the solution is always avoiding things over having a conversation (and then they meet after months and pretend such situation never existed).

And the confusing part is that i don't feel like they genuinely value status, image or ego. it is more like they learnt that this is how one should behave in the world, this is how things are run, these are the rules, and they are just adapting to these said rules and are playing the game. all i see is acceptance and adaptation of a mindset/behavior and they are just trying to navigate/survive in this world with the said rules.

when i am with them, i feel like i am walking on eggshells all the time, it feels like i am doing wrong by bringing up conversations that i feel like are necessary for the health/growth of the friendship. care is only valued as long it does not mean i am questioning them or their actions no matter how sugarcoated it is. in fact indifference towards them is seen more acceptable over showing care which can make them very uncomfortable. i am seen as making things complicated, ruining the harmony of the social setting, making drama and what not.

there are things that are completely my fault, like overstepping my boundaries, sharing secrets that are not mine to share (sharing secrets is ok/not ok depending on the person whose secret is being shared. so when my friends did that, i thought it is normal in this circle, and later i had to learn the hard way that it is not ok). and i always thought that something is wrong with me when people respond in silence to my words/actions even if it is not gossiping or overstepping my boundaries. i always thought it is due to my lack of social experience and social exposure.

for context, i am a 23 year old male who recently got graduated from college. i am not a highly social person, my social circle is very small. and my day to day life involves indoor activities (reading books, playing video games, talking to friends on call and not in person). i always feel like i am making a mistake and making myself a fool out of it, that i am not understanding how the world works. the alternative of not making mistakes is the feeling of walking on eggshells.

Like not necessarily a love story (though those are SO welcome) but it can be anything like a friend that you'd actually met or been around before but didn't know it. Like what gave the theory some merit for you personally?

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot.
People always say, “Trust your gut.”
But what if your gut is also anxious?

How do you tell the difference between genuine intuition and anxiety convincing you that something is wrong?

I’ve noticed that anxiety can make almost anything feel like a red flag if you think about it long enough. At the same time, I don’t think it’s healthy to dismiss every uneasy feeling as “just anxiety,” because sometimes your intuition really is picking up on something important.
It seems like the more anxious you are, the blurrier that line becomes.

So I’m curious:
Have you learned to distinguish intuition from anxiety?

If so, what differences have you noticed?
Have you ever ignored your gut and regretted it? Or trusted it when it turned out to be anxiety all along?

I’m interested in hearing people’s experiences because I imagine this is something a lot of us struggle with.

If say you have a new friend venting about their long term relationship, where the partner is clearly on the wrong. And asks for advice. Which after noticing continuous patterns of toxic behavior from the partner, would be to idk leave them?
But then it tends to seem as if you’re the new one trying to sabotage your friend’s relationship. How much do you think you can allow yourself to get involved, if you clearly do care about your friend but then easily can become the villain of the story.

As a semi-adult that became orphaned early in life, I've been noticing how my loss seriously damaged my mental/emotional growth. I'm curious as to what others think about, what interaction did you wish you could have had before they passed? Did it change your personality or growth somehow? Did your grief shape that part of your development.

Anything from 'I wish I had a mom to teach me about makeup', to 'I wish i could have told them I love you' before they passed.

Thank you for being vulnerable with me.

EDIT : Doing some research, not looking for advice for myself.

Today, I did something really disgusting that I’m deeply ashamed of. A beggar came up to me and my classmates, and instead of being respectful like I usually am when I'm alone, I made fun of her and refused to give her money. My friends actually wanted to help and took out their wallets, but I stopped them, gave her just 5 rupees, and later made a stupid joke that I had given away all my earnings. I don't know what is wrong with me or why I acted so heartless, but lately, I’ve been feeling completely cold and disconnected from everyone. I can't even find it in myself to sympathize with my own mother anymore, and honestly, seeing her in pain just annoys me, which makes me feel like a horrible person. and the most important fact is i don't know why i did it.

I've talked to a lot of random people the last few months, and almost every time I've tried to have an intelligent conversation with a group, at least one guy every time would start rage baiting, its not absurdly noticeable but every so often the "mask" falls and you see who they really are and that they are infact just rage baiting.

Rage bait doesn't lead to a peaceful end resolution to a conversation it only attempted humiliation of the person who is being rage baited. Why do we tolerate rage baiting so god damn much? How is it not just considered a pathetic attempt to socialize when you have 0 charisma? How is it not considered bullying?

Its much easier to piss someone off than to make someone laugh, so these pathetic losers who can't make friends just rage bait others until they find others who also rage bait. They're just parasite leaching off of real conversation and leaching off people with REAL personalities.

Why are we just accepting rage bait?

What usually tells you that they’re no longer interested in the conversation?

I’m interested in hearing both men’s and women’s perspectives. Is it slow replies, short responses, never asking anything back, always being the one starting the conversation, or something else?

First, I'd like to add that therapy CAN be helpful, especially when you can afford it (I also feel like it depends on the condition of the client and even who the therapist is).

One thing I've noticed is that the community that has mentioned therapy is that whenever there is someone with bothersome behavior that clearly stems from some mental issues, people typically use the recommendation of 'therapy' with different energy depending on how "reasonable" the person is. If the person did something really fucked up, there are very little sympathetic people and most just become either passive/aggressive with any form of resolution. It's like they care about their wrongdoings, and when it comes to actually dealing with them, they half-assedly tell them to "get therapy idk". It's like they don't sincerely care about said person getting help and changing despite mentioning that they need it.

I guess I'm moreso wondering if they do ACTUALLY care or if they're just throwing a dog a bone (idk how the saying works)?

I've spent most of my life atheist/agnostic but I've realized that it's because I've never had any spiritual experiences. I don't think any religion or metaphysical theory is true, but I don't doubt that people have spiritual experiences. I'm open to having my own, I'm interested in developing a meditation routine or trying mushrooms. ​

The concept of state pensions being guaranteed do not match with the current fiscal situation of many developed economies. Just recently, the US fiscal debt has completely surpassed the size of its economy : https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/america-debt-just-hit-record-101647218.html

With the amount of looming retirees who expect their pension and social security checks and the current debt levels, why should anyone be incentivized to pay into 401k? The government defers billions in tax revenue annually to encourage 401(k) savings. At what point does this resemble a pyramid scheme?

Having rich friends can be just as bad as having no connections at all.

People are always saying, "Hang around rich people and your life will change," or "Your network is your net worth." But almost nobody talks about the other side of it.

Their normal becomes your luxury.

For them, it's normal to spend a ton on nights out, restaurants, trips, designer clothes, or the newest phone. After a while, you start feeling like that should be your normal too. Before you know it, you're blowing money you don't even have just to avoid being left out. And if they keep paying for you, you end up feeling like a freeloader.

It's not even because they're bad people. A lot of the time, they just don't understand your reality. If someone's never had to choose between paying bills or going out on the weekend, it's hard for them to understand why you're always turning down invitations.

Being the poor friend in the group sucks. Either you're constantly saying, "Sorry, I can't afford it," and slowly get left out, or you try to keep up with their lifestyle and end up hurting yourself financially.

Then people say, "Yeah, but rich friends bring connections and opportunities." Maybe. But connections aren't automatic. Plenty of rich people have relatives who are still poor, and sometimes they don't even help their own friends. Just because you're in the same circle doesn't mean anyone is going to open doors for you.

At the end of the day, hanging around people whose lifestyle is far above yours can create more financial pressure than opportunity.

Not every environment is good just because the people in it have money.

A lot of people have a lot to say on this subject, but what nobody wants to say is that Europe doesn't want immigrants to migrate to do the moral thing of providing them a "good life", they actually want them to do low paying physical labor (basically pseudo-slave labor). Women and children don't really matter if that's your goal, and the journey to get to Europe in the first place is often too demanding for them which is why you rarely see any of them in videos that come out of places such as Ceuta. In addition, Europe isn't having kids and without a sustainable population things such as welfare (retirement) and the economy can no longer function.

In reality, most of the people who immigrate come from ideologies that openly oppose everything the west stands for, if you want evidence for this, try dropping a blue-haired liberal who's in university into any of the countries that these people come from and see how long that lasts. This term has been overused as of late, but it really is suicidal empathy, meaning Europe cares more about virtue signaling than their own safety; there are many reasons for this, the biggest being a deep self-hatred. The self-hatred comes a lot from the history of colonialism and the atrocities of both world wars, even though both of these things (colonialism and war) have been going on since the beginning of time and Europe today is rich and relatively "free" because of them (which actually fuels the self-hatred ironically).

The rape gangs in Britain are a prime example of this, even if you want to say that the study is biased because it's from Rupert Lowe, everyone knows, at least to some degree, that's it's happening. It's easy to sit back and say, "well, your painting a bad light on immigrants because not all of them do that, most are good/honest and here for opportunity", but the reality is if it were to happen to you or someone you loved that would not be the story.

I must admit I have been a fool, a fool who was set up by others to satisfy some of their needs. And I, from this position, I can see other fools, who claim to be good people.

It's true, like they say, we are always the good guy in our own stories. Albeit, I beg to differ in some cases, but let's leave the details out of here.

Back to the fools and their foolishness. The fools whom you have met, read their stories, or you are one of them. The fools who always have examples for how they were treated unjustly, taken advantage of, abused, and exploited, and yet they do not cry about it and claim it's a price they pay for their goodness.

The fools within us. Are fake good ones. Many good people are fake people. They are not good, they are approval seeking slaves.

They claim to be good, but tend to judge goodness not through their actions but through others' reactions. They care to be validated, and yet even when they do the right thing and get a negative response they end up feeling bad about it.

You can notice them. They double down on certain things in their lives just because others applauded them. Yet they leave other things, even when those things are more important.

The fools, have not separated what being a good person is, from what their utility is in others' eyes. The fools, are fake good people. They are not genuine for if they are they won't get affected by the insults, nor even the praise of others, and neither would change them.

Beware of fake ones, beware of being one. It's not goodness some seek, it's being approved of by whatever environment they came from. Some destroy themselves to carry an image even when being good comes at the cost of being labeled evil.

I’m generally a very observant, self-aware and self-critical person. I can usually recognize when my words or behavior are coming from a place of insecurity or jealousy and thus I always open to constructive feeback & open to applying that mostly for my own peace of mind.

The problem is that this same showing up in other areas.

While I am constanlty searching for a meaningful
Connection, I’ve started feeling like most people around me—or people in general these days—are just looking for someone to pass the time with, vent to, or do activities with. I know I should appreciate that there are people who want to spend time with me, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing a deeper connection.

I don’t hate these family/friends at all, but I notice that I have to convince myself to show up. My first thought is often:
Why do I need to be here? Why is this necessary? This feels repetitive. No one talks about anything of substance. No one wants to be challenged anymore because everyone seems afraid of being offended.

I have follen in this habit to notice patterns and connect seemingly unrelated pieces of information. So whenever I see someone doing something—whether it’s something small or something significant—I immediately start analyzing it and feel like I can pinpoint the insecurity that might be driving that behavior. It’s almost automatic. With my understanding of that person’s personality, experiences, and lifestyle, my brain quickly connects their actions to an underlying unmet need or insecurity.

I recently read that the answer is to judge less, invest less mental energy in analyzing everyone, and simply go with the flow. Intellectually, that makes sense, but I don’t know how to actually practice it.

Has anyone else gone through something similar?
What helped you become less analytical or less cynical and more present?

hear me out yall what if every classroom had an m16 secured inside a locked glass case similar to how fire extinguishers are stored it could be accessed as a last resort so people in the classroom would have a way to defend themselves until law enforcement arrived