i lost my kitty Elsa a year ago it absolutely broke me she was a great companion she always stayed with me when i was working i work from home. She would cuddle with me as well i still miss her so much.

omg, I can't even immagine. I think I'd be done with my life.

You've spoken no words truer than that

Wow. Anybody saying that to a person who's been abused ought to be ashamed of themselves and rot slowly in hell. Feeling love for the abuser is what ennables abuse to continue in many cases. And the adult abusers know that very well and bade their manipulations on that.

An anxiety headache feels like a vise around your head, with pulsating pain radiating downwards throughout your whole body, down to your toes. And it's not the kind of pain that is helped by aspirin or tylenol.

a lot of people just think its feeling down and think by saying cheer up will make it better but in reality its not feeling down exactly but feeling nothing feeling empty. I wouldn't wish it on anyone i have struggled with it myself and people i love have as well its absolutely horrible.

I never told anyone about it because I thought they wont believe me and as i am guy would be probably be made fun of

So much this! I have OCD and have just started therapy (again). You always have to be in fight mode because you can't let the monster in your head win or it will take away everything that's important to you in your life. It's very hard to fight intrusive thoughts. People just say “Your fears are completely exaggerated” and can't understand that I know this myself.

Healthcare is such a difficult concept that only the top 99% of developed countries are able to provide one. Except for ...

That sounds awful

I met a woman who had been stalked for years by a random person she had once worked with. She would change every detail about herself (phone numbers, etc), but he would still always track her down. Police wouldn't help, because he never crossed the danger line. Her entire life was on the run (I met her while travelling).

executive disfunction is the worse knowing what you need to do wanting to do it but you just cant make yourself do it.

I tick three of the boxes and people severely underplay how traumatic being cheated on is. It scars you for life because it hits on your trust system. Being a single mother has been a walk in the park compared with that (even working three jobs to make it).

I remember seeing the sheer destruction that combat causes and being floored by it, I remember thinking that no natural disaster can compare to what us humans can do to each other. The amount of fear that combat brings is incomparable to anything else.

This is me. I've been on several family vacations where one minute we are having a great time wondering the beach, shopping etc and the next I have to go back to the hotel and sleep. I know I'm going to miss out on ABC but it doesn't matter my eyes HAVE TO CLOSE MEOW

Growing up poor and seeing my mother want and seeing how I didn't have the same level as others (though never felt poor until I joined the military and saw the difference of others), it is easy for me to buy things for my wife and kids "You want that? Sure go ahead." But the moment my wife tells me to get something like... socks, or a new razor, or other necessary things I turn into "It's alright, I can wait it out a little longer".

My sibling and I went through this with our mother three years ago. It's an experience I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy's dog.

And sometimes it never escalates to physical violence, but there's insults, economic abuse, etc. It's even more difficult to prove then and just as difficult to break a cycle. And victims of abuse are normally ashamed to admit it until they're well into therapy.

Someone told me that an abuser will always keep the abuse just under one's level of tolerance. If a punch would make you leave, they'll give you a slap. If a slap would make you leave, they'll grab you hard, or give you a shove, etc. Always makes you question yourself. When I finally left (after years), someone asked me 'but did he ever hit you with his fist?'.

Abusive relationships are a complex issue. It begins as something so subtle and leaves the victim blaming themselves and eventually doubting their own sanity. They become more and more anxious to please and become a shadow of their former self. The abuse gets worse and becomes the norm, and the victim doesn't feel worthy of anything better or even believes that there is such a thing as a relationship without abuse. It's crazy what you can get used to. Getting out isn't necessarily the end of it as I found out when I left my ex-husband.

We know that victims of DV are much more at risk of being attacked or killed after they've left, because the perpetrator feels like they've got nothing left to lose and thinks "if I can't have them, no-one can." So, a victim not only has to leave, but has to be sure they can leave safely. This is even harder if their are children involved. Perpetrators will often isolate their victims from their family and friends meaning they've got nowhere to turn to if they do want to leave.

There was one time before the last time that left me disabled, and yes, he DID try to kill me via strangulation. The first attending police officers testified to court that it should be attempted murder not physical assault btw... I did 'leave'. It was when my bedroom door handle broke. He knew that it was broken but shut the door anyway. He broke my bedroom door off it's hinges and threw me into my hallway radiator, punched me in my face. I didn't talk to him for ages after that but then did... Then came the last night. My life changing night... Court cases after court cases adjourned due to the Pandemic. Taking the final one on while in hospital with Covid and Spinal Bruising. Yeah........ "Why don't you just leave?"... Darlings? It's more complex than that. Be grateful that you'll never, hopefully, know just exactly HOW complex it can be. Emotional Abuse, Monetary Abuse, Psychological Abuse... Gaslighting... It's not just about the physical side.

Also trauma bonding is a real thing. So is negative reinforcement conditioning.

I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll mention it again; my life could have gone a bit differently, for the better, if I had been diagnosed young. The woes of being a masking, high-functioning gal… and my secondary school teachers saying that they apparently made a referral but nothing ever came of it, meaning I got diagnosed about five years later instead of, you know, then.

Or upper back. or any chronic pain actually

As a psychologist I can't upvote this enough.

It literally feels like you're f*****g dying. Absolutely horrible.

My Dad just passed away a couple weeks ago after a month of suffering from a fall in the shower (he was 87, lived alone independently in the house we grew up in after losing our Mom almost a year ago, and wasn't found until the house cleaner came 36 hours later). I live 10 hours away and spent the month with him in the hospital and rehab. I was actually packed to go back home and was stopping at the rehab facility to let him know I was going back, but when I walked in he was actively dying so I knew I wasn't going anywhere. I held his hand for the next 10 hours until he passed.

Sometimes people who think they have insomnia actually have a bimodal or biphasic sleep pattern (sleep for a few hours, up for a couple hours, sleep for a few more). This is common in pre-industrial societies and among other mammals. It's natural and not unhealthy, just inconvienient in modern society. Colonials called it 'first sleep' and 'second sleep', and it was considered quite normal.

This.

Acquaintanceships can be genuine, caring, non-judgemental, and undemanding too.

What I noticced was that people say "if there's anything I can do, if you need to talk" and then don't have the time or don't want to listen. I could not talk about my husbands death for months so when I did call some were "too busy, call later, no now, will call back, etc. I am however grateful for the ones who did have time and kept "pestering" me and therefor helped me crawl out of my depression.

An eating addiction is different from all other addictions. You can stop using d**gs, you can stop drinking alcohol, but you can never stop eating. How successful do you think recovered alcoholics would be if they still had to take a drink three times a day to survive? With an eating addiction, you're trying to quit eating and lose weight while still having to eat. It's almost impossible. Every time I hear someone making fun of an obese person and saying they just don't have any will power, I'd love to drop 150 pounds and an eating addiction on them and see how they cope with losing weight.

Addiction sucks....the worst part is no matter how long u are sober for (2 years for me) the thoughts will always be there. Going through some stress? Brain says let's relapse. Dealing with family deaths and unhappy times? Brain: let's feel better and self medicate. It's a constant battle for the rest of your life. If you don't want to stay sober you never will. It is a conscious decision you have to make every day. To all those in recovery...day by day i won't use today, I won't use today, I won't use today. Especially in those stressful moments that your brain wants to push you to it.

May I add termination as well. Not only are you scrambling for benefits, it is the stigma involved as well. You never get over it, especially if you were a top performer and you ended up melting down because you were on an island regarding your co-workers efforts.

For me, not eyesight, but hearing. Every time I catch a cold now, I experience hearing loss. It's terrifying, and each time the hearing loss lasts a little longer.

I can not fathom what you're going through, my thoughts are with you and your family.

Wow - that sounds awful.

and CPTSD.

It's like walking around with a label on your forehead, saying 'treat me differently'. It's just hard to know if people are treating you like c**p because they don't like your ethnicity, or if they're just having a bad day and would treat everyone that way. It's very tiring to give everyone the benefit of the doubt all day, every day.

My Dad just passed, he was 87, but it was still unexpected. He made me executor in his will, but everything is a MESS. Until I get the official court appointment, I can't do ANYTHING about his bank accounts, bills, credit cards. I can't even FIND all his financial accounts. It looks like he may have a life insurance policy but I have NO IDEA because his office looks like a tornado hit it. My sister and I both said we are NOT doing this to our children.

I sometimes feel envious of people with families who help them out with dinner and grandparents looking after their kids and those kind of things you mentioned. I think they are normal and aspirational, because it's evidence of strong, healthy family bonds. I don't give a hoot about generational wealth. Life is hard in different ways for different people. There will always be people who have more in the bank than us (not difficult at all at the moment!) but I think we have made a happy home for ourselves and our children, far away from our families. And that's definitely for the best. I am envious of people who are close to their families, but it feels so alien to me.

I started babysitting at an early age. While in junior high I volunteered at a daycare center. I was a nanny, a Sunday school teacher, a preschool teacher, worked for an after school program, and eventually became a substitute teacher while working toward a teaching degree. Working with kids is something I'd done for as long as I can remember. None of that--NONE of it--is even remotely close to what it is like to be a parent. Until it's all on you 24/7, you won't understand. It is just nowhere near the same thing.

And having to live with them in the same house until you're old enough to leave them in the dust (while praying to god your little sister makes it another two years until she can leave).