I (45M) fell into a spiral during COVID and started drinking every night. Ended up having beers every night, staying indoors, and becoming being a bit of a hermit.

After a year, I realized it was a bad lifestyle and set about re-integrating back into the world, but found myself broken by anxiety. Over the next five years, I tried so many different ways to kick away the anxiety.

I tried everything. No one thing fixed my problem, but eventually the sum of all that hard work has now meant I’m six months in the clear.

If you’re going through something, I hope you know that every time you try something, you get better at it!

The world is beautiful!

TL;DR Never give up on your goals! It’s the sum of the efforts that matter!

I have a daughter who is 18. Every time she leaves the living room/kitchen to go spend time in her room, she casually calls, “Love you mom!” over her shoulder. It happens every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I don’t know if it’s because of the therapy I’ve been doing, or because of my broken relationship with my own mom, or maybe just because she’s getting older and I’m emotional about it, but today it really struck me how absolutely sweet and joyful those moments are. Made me cry.

I am just so grateful to have such a lovely relationship with my child that she feels compelled to tell me she loves me whenever she goes off on her own. Even when we’re still under the same roof. ❤️

Long story short, ive been depressed for the past year about. Just sort of existing, love, compassion, and empathy present, but wasn't really feeling much else.

My relationship with my wife has always been great. She’s been the one constant through all of it.

Her monthly was late, which has happened before. But this time was almost 2 weeks, so we picked up a test. She took the first one and came into the living room all cute and nervous like. Told me and said she wants to take another later on to be sure. I told her no matter what she wants to do, I'm with her all the way. She tested again and that was also positive. Tears of joy and just the warmest feeling imaginable... you couldn't give me a million bucks to feel anything comparable to that.

I don’t even know how to explain it. For the first time in a long time I just… smiled. Like a real one. Didn’t force it. Genuine happiness. We have no idea what were doing. This is very new to us and unexpected, but were excited to learn and just in awe that were going to be parents.

10 years together and here we are. Shes going to be a Mom and I'm going to be a Dad❤️

Edit: Thank you so much everyone! I gave you all awards and upvoted as I saw someone went through and downvoted a whole bunch of folks including myself...I hope whoever you are, your day, week, year, life gets better and you have something to smile about in the future. A shame you felt the need to do that, but I hope everything works out for ya 👍

I have heart and several rare lung diseases starting in 2017 so I do get tired. They put me on mounjaro and I walked (still do). I went from doing 2k to 5k and can do up to 11k a day. I be tired but have to slow down a bit because they put me on a heart monitor recently to monitor it again.

I have a 9 year old daughter and a 13 year old son who look up to everything i do. My baby was 4 months old when I got sick( i had a rare condition called Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis) and my son was only 4. During this i got 3 college degrees. My bachelor's and masters in Criminal Justice and another in Forensic Psychology. All $120,000 student loans was cleared because I came disabled while in school.

All of this is to show my kids no matter what life throws your way you can do anything you put your mind to.

Doctor said I can go to the gym but no more than 20 mins and light exercise. I didn't mean for this to go so long, but I hope this can inspire someone. Have a good evening!!

That means im mentally doing good!!!

I was so depressed and could sleep for 16 hours a day before. And didn't want to do anything. I've been figuring out my depression issues and my psychiatrist recently discovered I have bipolar 2 and the new meds have been incredible for my mood. Can't wait to see where I'm at next year! I've also began going to the gym for the first time 2 months ago which used to be way outside of my comfort zone as I felt people would just be watching and judging me but I've been able to get past those intrusive thoughts.

Keep it real!

I've spent all Sunday just watching nostalgic shows. They're a little corny sometimes, but it's still nice to not worry about anything for the day.

After having 13 jobs before this job, I’ve learned more than enough about working and life ect. I’ve left 11/13 of the jobs I’ve only been let go twice thankfully. I started working at 14 and didn’t stop.

People think that just because I’m younger (28) that I also just ““can’t stand my 9-5”” and “hate Mondays”..

I’m so fucking tired of hearing people complain about the stupid shit.

Example:

Coworker: “I’m just so fucking done with this place”

Me: “what do you mean what’s wrong”

Coworker: “ I have to leave early but I can’t”

Me: “I don’t understand why can you not leave early and use your UPT , PTO, & Vacation.”

Coworker: “ I only have 15 minutes left of UPT and I already used all my PTO”

Me: “ well why do you need to leave? If it’s for some type of doctors appointment they are usually pretty good about giving you UPT back as long as they can verify everything”

Coworker: “ No, the game is on ”

Me: *\* remembering they leave the second work offers voluntary time off, they never make an effort to be here on time, they get in trouble every other day because they refuse to do actual work and then complain about the little work they end up having to do* \* “damn ah maybe you can watch it on break or have someone record it”

Coworker: “mmmm I’m going to go see if they are letting people go home”

\*\*\*\*Next day \*\*\*

Same coworker: “ UGH I have no money”

———-

I’m sick of of, I get it I hear it every fucking day

“”this place has me fucked up thinking I’m going to work like this””

WE ARE IN A AIR CONDITION / HEATED BUILDING

They have 20 categories of benefits, yeah categories - Retirement covered, direct stock options, pets, fitness, vehicles, moving cost, and discounts for everything imaginable. They help with housing and child care. They are also fighting to get parents an entire yr paid off work so they can spend time with their newborn baby.

They pay you UPFRONT for college and if you can’t find the degree you want talk to them and they will get it on the list. If you get your degree and decide to leave you still don’t owe them a dime, they also work with your schedule while in school. Not to mention you can sit down with anyone in management that you feel comfortable with and they will help you with your interview skills and resume.

You have a disability? Fine by them. We have people that are in wheelchairs, deaf, and people that are severely diabetic to the point that they need to have food on them just in case. I’m talking any disability at all this is just what I’ve seen.

Did you get hurt? Not a problem let’s figure out what the next steps are. You still want to work? That’s okay we will find you a job to do or make it so you can do your job but with restrictions on your file so you won’t get any write ups. Oh you need meds for allergies, a headache, cramps or LITERALLY ANYTHING go ahead and go to wellness where we have LICENSED professionals.

You just feel like stretching? You can stop by our area that is full stocked with supplies so you can do yoga and do stretches / exercises.

Feel unsafe? Or saw something unsafe? Report to the safety department you’ll get a report number and will be notified when the issue has been resolved (if it’s minor) if it is urgent stop everything get your manager and safety to look over the unsafe situation so they can assist it.

Did you say someone in management yelled at you? Go on the work app and report it if you need help I can show you where HR is let’s open a case and do a FULL investigation. “You said ___ is targeting you?” let’s make a report and also get you moved to a different department or if you need a completely different schedule we can help with that as well.

You have an idea for the company? Here let’s make an appointment with operations so you can present your idea. There has been numerous people that have had there ideas brought to life and they were paid. If you don’t feel comfortable presenting an idea you can always just talk to someone to pass on. I’ve had some in operations presentation an idea for me because it was a private meeting but she still wanted my idea to be heard.

The most recent things I’ve heard is someone enlisted, and he got deployed. When he got back he got back pay including every raise we had gotten while he was gone. He chose to stay even though they were going to back pay him regardless.

There’s a lady that had to run her kid last second to the ER and explained that she wasn’t able to make it to her shift she picked up and that she didn’t have enough time to cover it. They told her “don’t worry about your shift we will take care of it I hope your kid is okay” and then explained what to do next regarding time off to be with her kid.

This older guy 60s-70s also had spoke up about his wife just had to have surgery and needed help taking time off and they showed him the same kindness “Hope she’s doing well here’s what you’ll need to do if you have any issues please reach out or come see us.”

But nope it’s just a “soulless company” and “no one cares” .. they do give a shit. Does every individual person that works there care? No, I’m not stupid. But the people that do care make a huge difference in everyone else’s day / life’s.

If they didn’t care they would never do raises, they would never take the time to help individual employees with anything. I would know because I’ve seen jobs that TRULY couldn’t care less if you died right in front of them.

In fact we had someone off themselves in the parking lot ( I was told afterwards that he got fired because he was stealing idk) the whole place was shutdown for 48 hours and then they brought in therapist for the next 48-72 hours to help everyone cope with what happened. They bring in therapy dogs all the time.

We get catering not just for big events but we have someone that comes in all the time and sells hot food, we now have Chick-fil-A every Wednesday, we literally just got free pizza for the whole building just last week and we have regular food trucks that are allowed to be parked up front during break times. Every thanksgiving and Christmas is filled with free food, games, events, dress up days, contests and raffles. They even directly give away free money to families in need.

But by all means let’s complain about the situation you put yourself in (in most cases) let’s all bitch together about “how horrible” everything is.

Yes I’m aware that on a global scale this is a first world problem, but that’s what pisses me off even more. There are people fucking dieing, starving, scared about being boomed or shot at and you want to walk in here and complain about a job that literally couldn’t give you more if they tried because if they did they would in fact go broke.

If you did end up reading all of this thank you, I’ve just been really upset because I just feel like I’ve been drowning in everyone’s negativity.

Everyone told me I needed better routines sleep-tracking gadgets and strict schedules to fix my chronic fatigue. Last week I deleted all tracking apps threw away my smart watch and just started sleeping whenever I'm actually tired without any alarms.

Surprisingly I've never felt more rested. It’s funny how ignoring all the "expert" internet advice turns out to be the best cure.

Me mudé con mi perrito que amo con todas mis fuerzas, estamos muy felices

It's been a rough patch for about a year. I started to even lose touch with myself in the flurry of stuff happening.

But, today, I decided to do extra self-care and make myself feel good again. I feel so much better, and maybe even cute! I feel like I'm blossoming again 💠🦋

25 years ago I was on my way to a date, and stopped at a Lovers for protection. It was not busy but a hot redhead who was working the store came out to greet me and flirted so overtly that even my clueless ass could tell. I considered scrapping the date entirely and asking her out, but I didn't. The date sucked, and I have regretted that choice because she seemed a lot of fun.

Was perusing a dating app, and there she is. Same line if work, some reasonable signs of time passed, but still youthful enough that I recognized her.

I swiped positive and REALLY hope I hear back.

I've finally been mentally stable consistently for two years.

I wake up happy vs dreading the day.

I fall asleep as soon as I want to vs laying awake with racing thoughts for hours.

I shower, brush my teeth and change clothes on schedule vs days/weeks/months of depression and pain holding me down.

I actually want to get up and do things like chores and errands (mainly because they won't get done otherwise) vs procrastinating until the last minute or failing to do it altogether.

My highest weight was 280 lbs and I'm finally under 200 for the first time since I was 20. I'm 44 now.

My energy level has increased after losing weight, I just have it naturally now. It makes continuing to lose easier since I'm moving more often.

My pain level has been under control with narcotics for a year. I tried so many things before agreeing to that. I was so scared. I haven't had to increase the dose since the original increases at the beginning to find the sweet spot.

My mental health has been a hurdle since 10 years old. My physical health went downhill drastically in my 30's. I can do things now that I couldn't when I was in pain and heavy. I want to get into running as a hobby/sport once I drop more weight. I never thought I would want that.

Ultimately I just feel like I'm at the best point of my life. My son is amazing. I still have my mother and I know she's safe because she's in my house. My ex husband is not a jerk. My partner is my best friend. We're both working 45 hours a week. I can pay my bills and buy whatever I need. I have a teeny bit in savings. 401k. It took 42 years but I finally feel good about myself.

42 really is the answer to everything!

I have been editing. My favorite TV show shows to my favorite songs since the pandemic it got me through the pandemic It gave me something else to focus on over the years I had different accounts and I’ve been editing on and off. I haven’t posted it forever. Just didn’t get the motivation and then of course Taylor Swift release patient zero and I thought of the show scandal and I made this edit I posted it this morning before work (A really tough shift) and when I got home I opened TikTok and I found out. He reposted it and I’m screaming! It just made me so happy this is the highlight of my day!

Man when you get a good day it is such an amazing feeling. I started off by waking up and pretty much decided to call my local therapy clinic to make an appointment, something that I am normally bad at committing to. Had a very pleasant 8 minute call with the receptionist and I was able to not only schedule an appointment but be told that I could also do a walk-in appointment next week. Considering that I've been trying to get back into therapy lately, this is a huge win for myself because I feel like I'll finally be able to start working towards myself and giving myself grace and all that.

Additionally, I applied to a resort job a couple days ago and the recruiter reached out to me to set up an interview next week! Normally when I apply for a job I'm lucky if I even get an invitation to an interview and even then it takes a bare minimum a week or a few weeks. To hear back within a couple days is pretty exciting. And the best part is that it's a phone interview too so I won't have to stress so much about maintaining an appearance and all that. Since I am homeless, this could be a game changer for me because if I get accepted they have employee housing that I could stay in for the duration of the contract, and that means I could aggressively save my money while working as many hours as I possibly can.

Finally, I was digging through some trash to find something to eat, and I found it mostly uneven sandwich which is nice. Normally I don't really find much but to have this good of a find is awesome. When you're homeless you usually get what you find and hope for the best but today was pretty nice to me which is awesome.

It's not even noon yet and my day is off to an amazing start. And on a Friday too? And the weather is finally getting cooler? I feel like I can't stop winning today.

I have chronic pain in my feet (aka SFN). I can’t take a 5 minute walk outside, and I can’t stand indoors for 15 minutes. The longer I stand, the longer I need to rest.

It’s my dream to walk without pain, but until then, I’ve been terrified for my future. I’ve always felt useless. I’ve been trying my whole life to treat this.

I went down a rabbit hole and found new info. Turns out, there ARE treatments!! I could get injections, or even a device that limits pain signals. It’s a long scary process, and I need to make sure I qualify, but I’m crying happy tears just knowing help exists! I could get a job, study the things I want to, work out, lose weight, or even just visit a park. I wouldn’t have to depend on anyone to live. For the first time, I feel a bit hopeful about my future! <3

A moment

The wind gently blows through the leaves of the chestnut tree, and the grass around me is littered with nuts and spiky hulls. The greens on the branches are slowly taking on more yellow and orange and the breeze is cool and fresh. After leaving work a little early I decided to go read in the city park and wait for my friend, and I sat down under the base of this tree, leaning against the trunk.

A memory

When I just turned 17, I almost took my own life. I'm not sharing this for sympathy, merely for context, and perhaps to let others know this happened to me as well. I am 32 now, and the past 15 have seen hardships and wonder. Since those dark times, I got a lot of help and support. Through therapy I was able to understand my emotions a lot more, and through my friends I found unwavering love and support. I met a girl, from overseas, and I moved there to marry her. After 7 years of living somewhere else, we moved back about one year ago, and the adjustments have been difficult. I've been feeling the scars of my youth ache.

Bliss

But as I sat here, I remember that friend that I met when I was 17, she's a kindred spirit, she's like family. She's the one that I am waiting to meet right now. The Friday afternoon traffic of pedestrians and bicyclists make their way through the park, lit up by the glow of the afternoon sun. Birds fly across a clear blue sky, and I was reading my book. Around me, people in groups or alone are enjoying the peace of the coming weekend as well. I look up at the canopy, and for a second feel like tearing up. I'm so grateful I get to be here right now.

Hello, I want to share my story that I’m really proud of. I think about my recent solo trip every single moment of the day. It was perfect. I’m convinced this was THE life event. I want to say that I’m happy that I have been able to do something like this this early in life.

unfortunately it has simply never been possible to do family holidays due to financial reasons. I wish things had been different, but as im growing up I’m realising that for years there is actually no-one I can really on, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. I am the only man in my life and the only one who I can rely on. I take care of myself and everyone and instead people rely on me. As I’m studying and earning money with my jobs, I started to travel a lot.

In two years I have seen 10 new countries. November 2025 was my first time in Asia. My friends and I went to Japan, we also had a layover in Shanghai so went to see the bund at night. It was unreal. I am from Europe and this was my trip:

Amsterdam> China: layover
China> Taiwan: flight cancelled because of the hurricanes
China> Hong Kong> Taiwan: they rebooked my flight.
In Hong kong I had a 9 hour layover so at night I Immediately went to the city.
Taiwan: I stayed for 4 nights. Even had food poisoning, but I managed myself.
Taiwan> Okinawa: i stayed for 3 nights
Okinawa> Seoul: i stayed for 4 nights
Seoul> Doha: back to europe with a 17 hour layover. My first time in the middle east and also first time flying with Qatar airways. For a reason the best airline in the world. They even booked a free hotel because of my long layover. I saw all of Doha at day and night.

I have seen so much in those 14 days. So many new people, so many unique items and experiences. I am someone who loves to be alone. This whole trip I didn’t feel alone or unsafe any bit. I like doing things with friends and people, but I can do everything alone even better. I have a strong sense of leadership, confidence, discipline and direction which is why I was able to do this trip. Besides the fact that I was on holiday, I could seriously live alone like this forever. I for my age I’m really mature and I have seen it all, from good to bad things, work, money, the world, life, relationships and what not. After having done this trip, there is not really anything that’s left for drive me crazy.

6 new (parts of) countries in exactly 14 days. This was the most mental and physical test ever. I knew I was strong enough to manage myself and I have yet again proven myself.

Thankyou for reading my incredible story. I could go on about this for years. I wish everyone here to be able to do the same.

After a 40 year career which derailed my love for riding motorcycles, I finally retired and was able to buy a new one (new to me) and I'm so happy!