Young Adults Lost in Existential Drift

“So im a teenage male, my family is fucked. My mom is a vaper, my aunt is a smoker, my best friend, brother, and friends bully me, my uncle, aunt, ans cousins cant speak with me anymore. I have a medical vocal stutter, autism, and adhd. I've just been feeling lonlenly ans suicidal, i dont know what to do with my life. Advice? submitted by /u/Unlikely_Hat_6056 [link] [comments]”

“I hope this qualifies as 'not a sob story' I just turned 29 a few months ago and feel kinda lost regarding my 'professional' career. Unfortunately I didn't give a single fuck about school despite many teachers on the first year of Gymnasium apparently thought I "might be their best student yet" and just smoked tons of weed mostly. I didn't finish school or did any apprenticeship and for the last 10 years mostly did low skill low paid jobs to pay the bills and no”

“Hi there,I’m 19 and don’t feel like my life is worth living for multiple reasons i don’t have a job as I can’t find one I’m from the West Yorkshire area and due to not having a job I can’t do much and go places that I want to see. submitted by /u/Responsible_Law_3506 [link] [comments]”

“Like the title states. I feel like my entire life will be residing in the middle of nowhere like im currently doing, most days I feel ugly as sin and just want to shut myself in, I feel like everyone hates me even if they've never met me before. I was bullied and ostracized when I was 15 and never really recovered from that, its so stupid how benign the harassment actually was but it still affected me, I can't even make eye contact with people without thinking its some dominance”

“I work and I fill up my time as much as I can for example I went on a 20km bushwalk today followed by a catch up with a friend. But I still feel this existential feeling of boredom that can’t seem to fill with just hobbies and volunteering and meditation It’s like a listlessness of the soul - How do others deal with this ? I find reading absurdist humorous fiction helps like Kurt Vonnegut and Douglass Adam - I want to inject some more of that lightness into my life submitted by /u/En”

“Hi everyone. My name is Teja. I'm 21 from India, and honestly I feel like my life has no motion right now. I'm a 3rd year CS student in the same lame ass college that I hate so much. I don't like this place, I don't connect with the people here, and I honestly don't like my friends either. I know it sounds harsh, but that's genuinely how I feel. It feels like I'm at the wrong place with the wrong people, and I'm trapped. I tried a lot of times to get out of this c”

“Hello Guys, It´s my first time writing something on Reddit and english isn´t my first language, so pls excuse the the shitty writing. I´m 20 and first of all, i dont plan on doing anything, but i dont know what to do and have caught myself thinking about it multiple times now. I don´t see a reason in living, as all we do is go to school, work, pension and die. I somehow think i dont feel anything anymore, it all just goes over my head (I just dont care anymore?) and i think to myself: Well, does”

“Any chance i get, I nuke anything good. People dont understand in my life. I'm choosing to be unhappy to spare myself some pain. Yeah it gets miserably lonely but anytime i had a chance to be happy, i took the other path because whenever I'm happy, the bad shit happens. The really traumatic life altering shit, every single time. I'm not allowed to, hell I'm not supposed to be happy. I could have moved on with these other girls, made a life. I dont want to be alone but i choose to”

“been nothing but a failure my whole life. depression robbed me of a normal teenage & is now fucking up my college years too. i miss my lover but we had to split. heartbreak is consuming me. i have no one. don't have any skills. never worked a job. far behind all my peers in academics, life experience & skills. everything is overwhelming. i cry everyday. dad got laid off & being a depressed sack of shit for the eldest child is weighing down on me. no one to vent to. no hobbies or”

“to be honest i dont even know what to write im incredibly numb right now i don't know who to go to it's not that i don't have people i just can't go to them anymore for reasons if anyone just wants to talk please hit me up i'm not going to end myself and i hope you dear reader also don't your life means something and you deserve to live and if you think you don't well hit me up maybe i can convince you? submitted by /u/pyasi_aatma11 [link] [comments]”

“I feel like I’m at a point where I need to figure out what direction my life is going, but the more I think about it, the more stuck I feel. A bit about me: 23F in BC, Canada. I’ve worked as a youth care worker and child support worker for the majority of my working life. I have around 2 years of graphic design education, but I’ve realized I don’t want to do graphic design as a career. I’ve been lifting consistently for over 7 years and know a lot about fitness. I enjoy working out, animals, and”

“I literally have zero interests which are applicable to a major or career path and not going to college is not an option even though i'd MUCH prefer to. i don't like doing most of the things people are interested and i need to work on applications soon but i have nothing to go on. i have a good enough college fund to go pretty much anywhere and i have a 4.5 gpa (4.0 unweighted) so i know i have the potential and i feel like i'm wasting it. what do i even do here? submitted by &”

“I have no idea what career to take. I feel like high school has burned me out, and now I have no idea what to do with my life, nor do I have any motivation. I can see that everything is getting more expensive, so I found something called Geoarbitrage. Basically, what I've got from it is to work in a high-paying country and live in a low-cost country. I know I need a remote job for this, but the work I find is all like computer work, and unfortunately, I am not the most tech-savvy, nor am I t”

“And it’s just a random Tuesday. I don’t know what this journey was like for other people. But for me was extremely lonely and extremely painful. I remember throughout the years feeling like I was never going to be able to finish this work. Every time I thought I was on top of things, something would happen and I would be reminded that I was miles away from completing. I dealt with an impostor monster. I actually defended six months ago. And even after my very positive viva, where my examiners, w”

“I’m having a massive breakdown over my future and I just need to scream this into the void because the anxiety is paralyzing me. For as long as I can remember, all I ever wanted was to do a PhD, go into research, and be a scientist. I loved the idea of discovery and intellectual challenge. But now that I’m seeing how this world actually operates, I am in complete shock. The mediocrity that gets pushed through, the lack of recognition, and above all, the financial reality. I hate to admit it, but”

“Title: I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know what to do anymore. My whole life feels like it's falling apart. I always feel like nobody really cares about me. I'm never anyone's first choice. People only seem to talk to me when it's convenient for them, and then they forget I exist. Sometimes it feels like no one would even care if I died because I don't seem to matter that much to anyone. The part that hurts the most is that I genuinely try. I put effort into”

submitted by /u/Candid-Wealth1275 [link] [comments]

“First of all I feel ashamed to post this here bcs people have much worse problems. I’m 19 and never in my live I had the feeling that someone loved me. I cry every night in my bed and I can’t anymore. The fear of living alone forever is killing me. I don’t know what to do. I don’t see why I should live like this or if it’s worth to continue. submitted by /u/Key_Pepper5376 [link] [comments]”

“I moved to the Netherlands for the past 4 years to reunite with my Dutch boyfriend. I was really motivated at first to learn the language, try to assimilate into the culture here and find a proper job to support myself and our life together. So far I only found back breaking jobs, because I cannot for the life of me focus on learning the language at a good level. I feel frozen and stuck almost all the time and at the same time I feel like I am loosing my ability to think and everything seems ove”

“I'm 17 years old, and I study at a college. For several months now, maybe even longer, I have been living with a feeling of complete inner emptiness. I feel neither joy, nor sadness, nor anger - just a flat “nothing”. I can't cry, even when I know I should be hurting, and that makes it even worse. It feels like there's a huge black hole in my chest and silence in my head. It's more exhausting than any strong emotion. On the outside, my life looks normal, but inside everything is”

“This feels akward i dont think anyones gonna reply to this anyway i just wanna vent i feel weak and stupid i look in the mirror everyday i think i look good i go to school then some idiot immediately laughs at me calls me names bullies me and then i hate myself i keep trying to stop thinking i look good cuz ill always get hurt i had one girlfriend in middle school but then i found out she only dated me cuz she felt bad for me i just feel so ugly sometimes idk who i can talk to tbh i have nb to t”

“I constantly feel like shit and insecure and I just want to lay in bed all day doing nothing and just cry and it feels so much easier to just do that rather than change and I can’t get out of it it feels so much easier and safer to stay depressed and sad all the time and it just makes it worse it feels impossible to escape submitted by /u/Fisgh1 [link] [comments]”

“I’m in my final year of BBA and I’m honestly stressed. I’m not good at maths so CAT/XAT and stuff feels really intimidating. I also don’t want to spend years preparing for something if it’s not the right fit for me. The biggest problem is I feel like I don’t have any real skills right now. Everyone around me seems to know what they’re doing and I’m just confused. I’m open to doing an MBA but I’m also fine with going into a completely different field if it has better opportunities. With AI growin”

submitted by /u/moon_is_mooniee [link] [comments]

“I don’t know where else to share what i feel and maybe get advice but im hoping someone will see this and maybe understand what im going through Everything started around 3-2 months ago from what i could remember when i first got sick from a cold, then my left arm seemed to randomly go nim, from that point on i seemed to get more symptoms all on and off sort of, what stayed was a drunk feeling in my head, which to this day i still feel i tried not thinking the worst and i went to a chiropractor”

“I hate everything about me. I hate the job I’m in. I hate the way I look. I hate my “friends” that make jokes at my expense. That ignore me when I say something to them or trying and “rage bait” me to the point I lose it. I hate making friends, trying to find a partner, trying to make it through life. I hate that I’m so stupid and unlovable. I hate that I don’t do anything yet still feel like I have no time to myself. I hate everything. They say isolation is a bad thing, but it’s the only time I”

“No way I’m going to be 28 next year… I’m 26, about to turn 27 in a couple of months……. And let me just say…. I haven’t accomplished one thing that I’ve wanted to smh. The only good party of my twenties was 20-21. I’ve lost most of my twenties due to severe depression, adhd paralysis, grieving from narcissistic abuse and chronic pain. I’m terrified of what my life is becoming. Idk what to say about this. It’s a very sensitive topic for me rn and I feel so alone. I feel like most people spend thei”

“i cannot imagine ever being happy in life. i don’t want anything other than to disappear, i hate myself and what my life has become. no amount of money could make me happy, nor could any relationships. ever since i was a child i have felt this way, and it only ever gets worse and worse. i truly do not understand when i see my peers on social media out having fun. obviously, i’m aware that what you see on online doesn’t tell the full story, but i still can’t wrap my head around it. i don’t even q”

“I’ve hit so many roadblocks over the last ten years and I’m feeling like this whole thing isn’t worth. Every step of the journey has been unnecessarily hard. I feel like people around me just skate by, are given grace, exceptions and I’m not given the same opportunity. I feel like something is wrong with me. People can look at the various things that have happened to me and say that wasn’t fair or it’s not right but nobody wants to stand up for me I try to advocate for myself but I’m ignored. Ev”

Why’s that?

“I’m 17 about to be 18 in December and I feel like I have done nothing for my future. My parents want me to go to college and get scholarships but I’m not smart, being really honest I’m Only good at certain subjects but I can’t get a good score on the SAT to get a scholarship, and my parents refuse to pay for my tuition, if I don’t get a scholarship they want me to go to the army or navy, and I really don’t want to do that but it just feels like my last chance. I wanted to go to college for Histo”

Making things up isn’t helpful

“I (20F) am a college student, it’s summer break. Life feels so meaningless, I spend my days doomscrolling or daydreaming a lot to cope with my trauma, I’m unemployed looking for a job but it’s rare to hear back from anyone, I don’t have the motivation to spend time with friends because of my social anxiety, I have hobbies like art and reading but they’ve started to feel like chores, I have a strained relationship with my family, and all I see in my future is school, a job, and trying not to beco”

“Hi im a 16 year old girl and I can’t keep living this life anymore. Everyday whether I have school or I’m not doing anything is just so exhausting. I always tried to tell myself to live because otherwise I’d lose all the things I enjoy but I don’t think it’s worth it anymore. So mucg has happened in my life and there’s no one i was ever able to talk to and this has been going on for such a long time now, I’m so exhausted. Can someone please help idk what I’m doing submitted by /u/che”

“Whenever I want something I try and do it but the second I face challenges and realize I have to face hardships to get what I want I instantly lose motivation. I have been like this for as long as I can remember; the second I face something new and if I don't get the hang of it instantly I lose all motivation to continue. Growing up, I've been told I was a talented kid; good at whatever I tried, and I think somewhere on my journey I became so afraid of not reaching their expectations tha”

“Right now I’m 15 years old gonna be 16 in October, English isn’t my first language so I’m sorry if i misspelled or have terrible grammar. I felt empty since forever i felt no purpose in my life i barely feel. I can still feel anger,embarrassment,happiness, sadness but it doesn’t fulfill me its like only last for a few minutes before I feel nothing. I really wish i have an ambition an obsession over something but i cant no matter how i forced it to myself i just felt empty inside and hollow i don”

submitted by /u/CryptographerFew8099 [link] [comments]

“I'm in my mid-30s living in a VHCOL city and have never had a career. Due to some personal issues I never finished university and spent a few years as a totally dysfunctional adult. I was very fortunate in having a supportive family and was eventually able to somewhat reintegrate into society and find a low paying job through a staffing agency. I think I worked there for something like 8 years. Later I also worked in the trades which I entered again through a different staffing agency after”

“I can’t let go of my past mistakes. I’ve tried. I’m so ashamed. I don’t feel worthy of anything or anyone. I give up opportunities so easily, and let people go so easily, because I don’t feel worthy of anything or anyone. I tell myself my past doesn’t define me, but I live each day with the weight of the pain I’ve caused everyone I love, my own children included. It’s pushed me to want to end it often. I daydream about it often. I never do it because everyone says I owe it to others to show up.”

“what do i do with my life if i don't have the motivation to live it nor the strength to end it? i'm sorry for being so vague, it's genuinely so hard to describe the situation i'm in; all i know is that i'm frustrated. i'm sick and tired of everything and i keep spiraling again and again. even when i thought things were starting to look up a little, i end up falling in the same cycle again and i feel miserable for the same reasons all over again. i'm very very sorry if”

“my grandpa died last year in april and 4 months later my dad died, i’m helping my mom care for my grandma who has dementia which is toll on me and my mom, i have no license or “real” job, ive felt like nothing since i’ve graduated high school, i have zero motivation to do anything with my life nor do i have any motivation to better the relationships i have with people, i was sexually assaulted as a child and have had to deal with the worsening trauma of it the last couple years i have nothing go”

“not sad. not angry. just empty. wake up, work, sleep, repeat. no energy for hobbies. no energy for friends. just enough to get through the day and do it again tomorrow. i used to have things i looked forward to. now it's just... nothing. anyone else feel like they're just existing at this point? submitted by /u/ZestescentRUH [link] [comments]”

“I work a ton. Don’t make enough money to do anything I enjoy Usually use exercise to distract myself from life but im injured so haven’t been able to do that for months Im in a constant cycle of being unable to find a way to get out of this mental state (History of depression anger anxiety adhd and addiction) submitted by /u/bcsyjnbcgj [link] [comments]”

“for as long as i can remember, i have suffered from depression and anxiety. my depression makes me so negative, like everything is all doom and gloom. it makes me feel like nothing is ever ever gonna work out, it makes me not want to try, to change things in my life that are making me depressed, like i just am so alone. it’s made me lose all my friends due to the fact i just stopped trying and making effort, it’s completely my fault, the only real person i have right now is my boyfriend and that”

“I have no friends, l've lost them all. Recently my girlfriend and I broke up so I lost her and I’m dealing with all the emotions that comes with that also. I'm 25 still living with my parents in my childhood home and town working a dead end warehouse job for a pay that doesn't support just living. I want to move out so bad and move to a different area but am just so lost on how to do that because I have no career path lined up that would be able to support me simply living on my own.”

“Recently i turned 27 and im pretty sure my life is already over. I have no friends and the last one i made in person was over 10 years ago, obviously never even went on a date. I have a useless degree and a minimum age job i hate but nothing else is fucking hiring. Got kicked out recently and now im bumming on my dads spare room. I can see the dissapoitment in his eyes. By my age normal people had dozens of friends, multiple relationships and probably had sex dozens if not hundreds of times. The”

“i cant keep living like this anymore. it’s gotten too much. i used to be such a happy kid, potential they say. i play competitive sports, get good grades, lots of friends, a life many dream of. but for many months i haven’t been myself. haven’t been able to achieve what i used to be able to, just feeling burnt out and purposeless. everybody around me have been stacking up accolades and i’ve just been a shell of myself. i hate living like this, i wake up every morning hoping i didn’t. my life has”

“I just feel like I'm slowly going downhill with life and things are slowly building up over time. I'm also just feeling like I'm terrible at everything and it makes me so upset. I'm sandwiched between two naturally very intelligent brothers, so naturally, people think I'm smarter than I am, and, even when I demonstrate that I'm not, nobody listens and insists that I'm being hard on myself, despite there being literal proof suggesting against that. I'm fair to myse”

“every day since 7th grade has felt like such a drag my ocd symptoms started emerging farther from there and those little compulsions over and over make me so exhausted and tired, im always having physical pains and health issues i don’t sleep i dont have friends my old “friends” like to try their best to ruin my life and keep spreading rumors about me around school that aren’t remotely true and paint me as a bad person my gender dysphoria is terrible i cant eat my grades started slipping im tire”

“I’ll bet you haven’t been doing nothing. You’ve been up in your head trying to figure out what’s “wrong” with you. Figure out one thing that adds to your life and start doing it, don’t wait for your thoughts and feelings to give you permission.”

“Honest answer? any thing in life does not move linearly. You might think you're behind some of them but it only takes one bad luck for them to be six feet below you. It might only even take you a random tiktok video or comment to propel yourself to stardom. Heck, there's literally a non-zero chance of you overtaking Elon in net worth. Life is unpredictable. There's no point in comparing yourself to others, not because you're different or that youre unique or any of those empty se”

“I hate how I can't do anything but feels hopeless due to how much worse the country I live in has become. I can't help but feel useless because I can't do anything meaningful to atleast make something better I hate how I kept feeling this way even though I know these feeling will only amplify each other and make me have no will to do anything for myself or for others. submitted by /u/AnthonyJonathan1487 [link] [comments]”

“I don't feel like i have any purpose in my life, I am surviving life not living it. What should I do please tell. I am not at all Happy with my life. submitted by /u/Life_exist1 [link] [comments]”

“my life lacks meaning, why should i live? i study so that i can get a job in the future and then what? am i supposed to just exist like that, it all sounds so boring,. why should i continue to struggle and go through painful experiences just so that i can maybe be happy at some point. i dont care if i miss out on happy experiences in the future, i just want it to stop now. i have nothing i want from life and even if i did its just temporary until i eventually die of old age so ehy even bother tr”

“Let me ask you something. Is your identity all about and around your job only ? What will happen to your family and loved ones if you give up on life? I think you should talk to your parents and start spending time in activities you like and think this was a break which will take you to a better future and bring beautiful things in your life. So smile and be nice to yourself.”

“I'm ( M22 ) and unemployed I don't even know where to start I just have so many thoughts in my head and nowhere to express them so I'm just throwing random thoughts here so I used to be good at studies I actually had potential, but bullying slowly took all of that away i got bullied so much in school that I started hating it sometimes I'd hide my own shoes or pretend I had a fever just so I didn't have to go every day I'd lock myself in my room and cry at night eventually”

“Life feels so pointless right now. everything is so overwhelming. I'm having trouble keeping up with my medication and i really just don't have the motivation for anything in life. I can't will myself to keep up with my classes. i feel completely worthless right now. i've had these thoughts for around 8 years now and its a constant cycle of feeling alright and then feeling at my lowest of lows. I really think everything would be better if i just didn't exist. I know my friend”

“Dreams, do I really have them ?? I am (18f) and I feel like I m dying everyday, somebody asks me what I want to do in life, its not like I don’t want to answer them but I genuinely don’t have an answer anymore, I have given two competitive exams NEET and CUET, well didn’t score well in any of them, I feel like a loser and I really don’t know what to do anymore, I m so burnt out, I don’t have hope, desires, its been 2 months since I completed my 12 th and honestly it feels like somebody is chokin”

“just to start, no i am not in any danger from myself or anyone else. i just really dont know what to do, or say. i dont know why im even posting this. its so late and im just thinking about everything in this fucking world and i truly just hate it. ive always hated everything about being not just myself but being a living thing at all. i dont like this world or anyone in it. i have taken no interest in anything other than mindlessly destroying myself for a little bit of numbness. life is meaning”