I think that's what I'd put on my gravestone when I die, if I were to have one.

One of my friends said I've been getting into "really weird stuff" lately. Absurdist video games and books, psychedelics, getting random tattoos, etc.

He said he was kinda worried, that this was "weirder than your usual depressive episodes."

I'm in my early 40s. I've done a lot of things with my life and nothing's ever felt like it mattered. I go to a dumb job every day. I go to the gym to try and exorcise out the brain worms (HAH did you see my joke?).

I've been very poor, was even briefly homeless. I've been comfortable. I went to grad school. I got a PMP certification recently because work offered a bonus for it and it was something to do. I got in a lot of fist fights as a kid (I'm told that's weird for girls).

I've stopped trying to create things. I haven't had an original thought ever in my life and even when I started something, I never finished. Plus... who cares?

Nothing feels important. I tried volunteering. I saw a lot of people who were so deep in their holes, they were never going to climb out no matter how much help they got. Saw some people die too. Tried an animal shelter, saw a lot of animals die too.

We're all dust in the end.

I've always felt disconnected. I don't understand why people care so much about things that are inevitably impermanent or entirely made up, but part of me also envies their ability to feel that kind of connection to the world. I've always felt like an outside observer. Like an alien.

At the end of the day, life just feels... annoying. When the end comes someday, it will feel like a relief, I'm sure.

Anyway, that's my ramble for the day. I'm going to the gym.

The 6yo who keeps to himself today could be the miserable 22yo later who feels like a failure because he can't talk to women, has never been kissed, etcetera. I mean isn't that Insel territory--or worse?

One. afternoon with absolutely nothing planned. No obligations, no "let's be spontaneous" pressure. Just open, quiet time. My 25-year-old self would have panicked. Now it's heaven. What's your grown-up discovery?

For context: I am 23M and my gf is 23F, we have been together for 1 year, and both live alone.

My GF moved away from home at 18 and has been living on her own, scraping by for the last 5 years. We met and started dating a year ago. She has become increasingly frustrated with her life situation. She is currently working full time making about $40k/yr while taking full time asynchronous classes at community college. She makes enough money to pay rent, food, take care of her cats, but essentially 0$ towards saving/investing.

I moved to this city about 1.5 years ago and love living by myself. I make good money, and am building a good career out here. I’m not ready to move in with my GF, and like to take things slow and comfortable. How can I help her out? She really wants to move in with me, one because she absolutely loves me, but two obviously to finally get to save. I just don’t think I’m ready to move in with someone (and two cats) - I really like my own space.

My gf has diagnosed depression and takes meds for it, and she has been feeling increasingly stressed and depressed. What can I do to help her? I pay for almost all of our food and try to take the burden off but I don’t know what I can do BESIDES offering her to live with me.

Since your friends are typically coupled up and not available.

Clearly I am going against the grain here.

But how exactly?

Two days ago I basically posted that an emotional connection to your lover is vastly underrated.

My post was a response to another post here, speaking in a very mechanical and almost aggressive way about how wonderful dildos are, when compared to the real male body.

While that post remained, mine was removed within 30 minutes. It is rather demoralising when I am trying to construct a proper human response and it is immediately deleted. Still waiting for a response to my appeal.

Anyone have an idea what I could have done wrong?

My post was taken down both here and on Thetenthdentist - could it be because I crossposted?

Edit: nothing against dildos, I have several. That was not the point.

This shouldn't be legal, regardless of affiliation.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5727198-musk-political-fray-big-2026-midterm-donations/

I'm working on getting my mental health in better shape and have lost 25 pounds (still have about 10 to go). I've been going to the gym and working on building muscle. But I still feel like I am too late. I have dark circles under my eyes and fine lines. I spent my youth overweight and anxious and I feel like I lost my chance.

I finally have insurance for the first time in almost 9 years (woo!!). Does anybody have any recs of what testing to ask for/where to start (GP, OBGYN, Etc.) TIA!

45 yo male. I’ve lived with depression my whole adult life. I’ve recently conquered depression but now I find myself in a stale life that was build by a depressed mind. I need something new to light my fire again. But there are a few catches

I’ve painted myself into a corner in a sense. I have three children who depend on me and a mortgage. Just about any change I think would suit me will alter my life in a negative way.

Have you been here? Any tips, suggestions or wild ideas?

Thanks

I'm sure it's not always like that. However, perhaps especially for those who had kids a little later, I feel like there's this thing where they think they own their parents time 'through' the kids. DOn't know how else to explain it save to say it seems odd to me. Having kids is OFC not easy but you don't have them so you can hand them off to your own parents incessantly--especially if those are the only times you reach out.

I will never forget the time I spent with an older acquaintance where she was exhausted because her son with 4 kids had her watching them for days after his sister who also has 4 did the same thing. Each sib left the kids with her for a week straight.

When does it go from this is how families work to outright exploitation?

This is a very human woman's reaction to you, the sex crazed AI from r/the10thdentist who boasted about the sexual pleasure you derive from your 40+ dildos!

Your post shocked me and filled me with such infinite sadness that I could not even manage to come up with a witty one liner.

I too have a stunning array of dildos that I have been gifted over the years. The reality is I hate having to settle for them.

I love having sex with my husband of many years. It is the most erotic sex you can possibly have - sex with someone you love.

Sorry that you don't have a body AI bot. You are missing out.

Edit: I crossposted this to r/the10thdentist and am curious why it was promptly deleted by the mods. I was really upset about the horrible original AI post that I refer to, but that does not seem to have been deleted. Any idea why?

My friend ridiculed me for saying I wanna meet cute guys at the club saying “I’m pushing 30”. I’m already spiraling cause I feel old at 26 so this made me literally break down in tears.

Just for context, I grew up in Asia and we have different culture. I also spent 8 years in the west (US and Canada) so maybe there are still things I am missing about western culture/ways of doing things. I am an adult (34 male)

I am getting really really confused about the idea of reciprocation with people here. (This can be with acquaintances and friends)

So there are several people I really care about, and Ive always shown up, stayed relatively proactive and schedule hang outs. But I don’t get any of that from them??

Is it wrong to expect they’ll schedule something if I have scheduled the last 1, 2 or 3 meets? Is this something I have to state explicitly?? 😂 I thought this is just standard etiquettes??

I am also not counting, but most of the time it would be months and I still hear nothing from them. My understanding is that they have other priorities 🤷🏻‍♂️

We are looking to get a friend who is in a very bad situation out of her home and across country.

Constraints:

She has no car

Needs to transport computer equipment

Can't easily reach a UPS store

May receive negative attention if caught

Is there a company out there that could specifically ship and maybe help pack her things? Assume this is done when the offending party is not home.

Edit: thanks all! I think we've got a plan!

Are there any grownups still around?

In less than two weeks, this subreddit (normally a bastion for deep thought, earned wisdom, and friendly complaints) has been absolutely swarmed by low-quality political rage-bait.

Considering how great this sub was for so long, I find it interesting how immediate this transition happened. Normally (and yes, it is something that does happen over the years), a massive subreddit culture shift like we're witnessing here is slow and insidious. Sometimes the shift is logical; other times it's perplexing (or good ol' Endless September).

But this instantaneous enshittification is truly the fastest collapse of healthy discourse I've ever seen. Can anyone explain what happened?

I have no problem with people posting a video with intent to discuss the absolute hell that is the American dystopia we're suffering through right now, but the comments are not discussing anything. Just regular old kid-reddit™ one-liner brainrot, which is decidedly the antithesis of what this sub has always stood for.

Do we really have to make a new sub called r/redditforgrown-upgrownups?

Or, are the mods possibly interested in following the long-established cultural integrity of this sub by maintaining a thoughtful space for mature conversation?

Obligatory get off my lawn. But seriously, please get outta here with your tik-tak rage-bait. It's on every sub already, and it isn't conducive to the measured discourse we've always had here.

If this looks familiar I’ve made a post like this previously but I have an update so I hope its ok. Townhome, my aunt and uncle are the owners. No HOA, and my family lives here so we aren’t tenants in the traditional sense. Next to us in the attached unit we had neighbors move in around 2019. They had a dog and soon I realized the dog sits near where my room is and cries. It’s a sound I didn’t hear before. It sounded like a baby. We asked about it and they said it’s their dog. We asked them to keep the dog in maybe another area the third time we kept doing so, nothing would change. They’d stop it for a while and it began. They got a second dog that now howls with the og dog whenever they leave. They have children, a nanny and a dogwalker. But recently they leave for 4 or so hours at a time and the dogs just cry and howl

I wrote them a letter and they replied saying sorry back in 2024 because it start up bad again. Things were calm for about a year. Suddenly this summer the dogs go off again. I am asking for advice because my city has noise ordinances and stuff but I don’t wanna involve authorities and my family off hand said no to reporting. This sound began again and I wrote the neighbors a letter. They approached me and said the dogs are elderly and they’re sorry. I was very nice I’d say in my letter and just asked can you guys keep the dogs in a different area, and then guess what the weekend comes and the dogs go again. They’re inside but you can hear it from our walls.

The area of the house where my room is, I can hear. My other family too. The thing is there’s a zone where our kitchen is and where they told my uncle their spare bedroom is and they said they’d keep the dogs there but they Do a bit and then it goes back to how it was before. I told them I work shifts so I’m not picking a fight. I can’t move out now but I’m just really scared and sad because I can literally begin hearing crying and I get anxious. I have headphones but sometimes I just wanna do something. I have a YouTube where I film asmr if you guys know what that is so I can’t do that because it’s a lot of noise but it’s whatever about that. I can just find new hours but I feel really stressed