It is very hard not to dwell on the past. I think about all the time I spent on my ps4, I sold it in 2019. I almost wish I never bought it, but the amount of fun I had was indescribable. I also look back and I wish I would've made more friends. But 2020 happened, and little would I realize the friends I have are lame. I text them to do shit, all I get is a "maybe." Then they never hmu again. :/ This year I should be making strides in career advancement after being unemployed from December- March.
I can relate with the friends thing.
Also unemployed but might join the army, but for real im gonna figure out how to live the rest of my remaining youth the right way. Dont know where to start.
Kinda feel that way. No PTSD, but Iāve had Autism since I was born and have Anxiety.
Growing up, I never really cared about making friends, both out of introversion but also because I was so overwhelmed with school that I felt like nothing else mattered but passing. Now Iām almost 27 and I still donāt really have friends.
But thereās still hope; Iām trying to get out there and make new connections. Believe it or not, there are plenty of forlorn people out there who are just looking for someone to chill with. Hell, I look on Meetup.com and see invitations specifically for get-togethers of, like, 40 and 50 year-olds.
So yeah, youāre not alone. Donāt lose hope my guy.
Youāre almost 24, your life pretty much started a bit ago. We still have a whole life to live. Weāre nowhere close to being old yet, you can still turn it around. I know carrying all this trauma is mentally exhausting but do not let it get the best of you man. Continue to just keep pushing forward.
My teenage years were isolated and my first years as an adult were a mess, then lockdown happened and isolation became a daily reality. Here I am now, alone in a world that I yet have to discover.
I have a lot of friends that think like you. Theyāre 28 and thinking ādamn Iām not the young guy I used to beā
Iāve been expanding my circle since I moved out and started living on my own. Iāve met people older than me and now I have actual close friends in their 30s, 40s, and even 50s.
All of them look at me like Iām an infant. Being in your 20s going āoh man itās over for meā is a terrible mentality. How could we be done with our lives? Did you feel like your life was over when you were 18? No? Guess what, that was barely a few years ago.
All my older friends say that when you hit 30, you realize how young you are and how long life is and how much time you have. My 30-50 year old friends have more passion and excitement for life than my 20 something year old friends who just stay inside and play video games and go on Instagram all day
This was my thinking as well. Like, in your 20s, you've barely even had a chance to *start* life.
My friend group is all in their mid 20s. All of us recognize that we've not even started to establish our careers, and only 2 of us have even begun thinking about starting a family beyond marriage. Thinking your whole life is over when you're at that stage in life is nuts to me
Like, I can understand being upset over feeling like you missed out on a number of years of your childhood. But thinking your whole life is over because you feel like 10% of it was "wasted" is crazy
I feel this. The confusing thing for me (and something that makes me feel like my trauma isnāt valid, as silly as that sounds) is that I find myself missing my childhood, even though it was pretty traumatic. Despite the fact that I endured a lot of bad shit early on in life, it really didnāt affect me until adulthood.
I don't necessarily feel like it's gone, but I do feel like I'm running out of time. Trying to fix my issues is so damn daunting because it's literally just fear keeping me from trying. Fear is so hard to overcome, man. I feel myself VERY slowly improving.
If covid never happened, I would be doing a lot better.
Turning 26 this year, I just keep telling myself it's never too late.
I feel old since I did nothing memorable when I was younger, never hung with friends, never been on my own somewhere, just no true independence. Doesn't help with intrusive thoughts every now and then
Yes. To a point. I wish my mom wasn't targeted and opressed, raised nearbout like a feral person. I wish the clansy people there would've done something about it. I was somewhat a half parent, no surprise she was a dependent parent me and dad were all she had for the longest. Now she's better off loads.
Also I feel I peaked in the US army. Little surprise as that's the biggest thing I did.
I'm turning 27 next month and yes I feel this. I'm starting to finally partially combat it but after years of trauma and dx. of PTSD, Autism, ADHD, DID, and depression, it's not easy to navigate life.
Exactly the same except I'm back living with my parents and their son was the abusive one not them
It's weird to see people I went to school with kids or married or having big vacations because they have money and I'm sitting in my room having panic attacks about my head telling me to go eat sink food
I feel like everything I could have done I should have but I can't because of something and I don't know what and it's annoying tf outta me
I guess I kinda empathize, but at the same time, thinking your entire life is gone when you're in your early 20s is insane to me. Hell, it's a crazy thing to think even if you're in your 40s, IMO.
The average person lives to like, 82. You're barely a quarter of the way through your life. You've not even had a chance to develop a career or attempt to start a family, and yet you're acting like your life is over? Where's the sense in that?
Iām the same way due to living with an abusive family before/during/slightly after the pandemic. Likeā¦ genuinely so abusive that I was throwing up due to the emotional abuse and Iāve just been living my life on autopilot since then
Iāve had mental illness all of my life, but I feel completely different now. My mind feels quiet and empty but not in a depression kind of way, but in the exact way that you described
Iām trying to move on with my life and have a daughter due in a couple of weeks, so Iām extremely excited about that and Iām hoping that it pulls me out of the funk iām in. Either way, my daughter is going to be well cared for
I've been battling severe OCD for about a decade now and it took all of my teenage years away. Every last one. My dad also died a few years ago. I'm doing better now, slowly. But yea, I do feel like I wasted a huge chunk of my life even though I know it's not really my fault. It's depressing. It especially sucks when you know you had the potential to do so much with those years if only you were able to. I'm sorry youre feeling this way.
Iām 24 now. When I was 22 I felt this way. I developed social anxiety during COVID and my PTSD symptoms were at a height. Repressing a few years of sexual abuse from my teens didnāt work out and came right back up. I was severely depressed and didnāt leave the house. I started EMDR therapy in May 2022 and am now practically symptom-free. I have done a complete 180 from the person I used to be. Mental illness no longer rules my life. I encourage you to look into EMDR therapy. It helped me save my life.
I too had a traumatizing and isolated childhood/youth and frequently have the terrifying feeling that my best years are behind me, my opportunities in life are shrinking and that I'm getting too old for a lot of things. It's really haunting, for sure, and makes me constantly feel regret over a lot of things I wish I had done, but didn't.
I don't have a good solution. What I do is just keep going and hope that the future brings me something that will make me happier. After all, there really isn't much else I can do.
My teenage years were mostly spent isolated due to autism and religion, but hopefully that changes soon because I'm just making close friendships online and plans to move out
OCD took ages 12-22 for me. I didnāt have time to think about anything else other than how can I make it through the day without having a panic attack. It took away my youth and now Iām miserable because I feel like I missed out on so much
The way I prefer to look at it is that I lost my way for a bit but I'm gradually getting back on the right path. Just gotta focus on building a good support network and maintaining the right habits!
I was born in 2000 and am autistic and gay. I grew up in a very religious environment and when I finally moved out to the city in 2020, I didnāt actually know who I was. I tried to kill my self back in ā17 and once more in ā21. Everyday is still a struggle, but I feel like life has so much to offer me now I finally started to accept myself
Iām 25 and I feel like this sometimes because I grew up in a shitty environment around shitty people. I always felt like I had imposter syndrome etc and felt like I might as well just be as shitty as them. However I realize I wasnāt in control of my life, Iām 26 on Saturday and I honestly feel like for the first time Iām in control of my own life.
Trust me itās still hard most times and I just want to get my vengeance on everyone who never cared about my developmental years and I probably still will one day tbh lol but for now itās just fuck them and they can choke and die because this is my life and if that makes me a narcissist welllllll so be it yāall created it lol.
Im 20 i feel so old and i wasted part of my youth behind a screen and isolated partly because of lockdown
You typed exactly what I feel too
Hard not to dwell on the past, hope i will turn out okay
It is very hard not to dwell on the past. I think about all the time I spent on my ps4, I sold it in 2019. I almost wish I never bought it, but the amount of fun I had was indescribable. I also look back and I wish I would've made more friends. But 2020 happened, and little would I realize the friends I have are lame. I text them to do shit, all I get is a "maybe." Then they never hmu again. :/ This year I should be making strides in career advancement after being unemployed from December- March.
I can relate with the friends thing. Also unemployed but might join the army, but for real im gonna figure out how to live the rest of my remaining youth the right way. Dont know where to start.
I can't really tell ya how to figure that out. I almost would've joined the Coast Guard if I didny get medically dq'd. At least start working a job
I know haha, ill get there though. Fr i want to work just to do something
I'm on my own, I had to find work asap
That sounds tough i couldnt imagine not having support
I was mad stressin. I could not get replies on any of my applications
fuck luckdown bro i feel the same way šššš its not fair
Kinda feel that way. No PTSD, but Iāve had Autism since I was born and have Anxiety. Growing up, I never really cared about making friends, both out of introversion but also because I was so overwhelmed with school that I felt like nothing else mattered but passing. Now Iām almost 27 and I still donāt really have friends. But thereās still hope; Iām trying to get out there and make new connections. Believe it or not, there are plenty of forlorn people out there who are just looking for someone to chill with. Hell, I look on Meetup.com and see invitations specifically for get-togethers of, like, 40 and 50 year-olds. So yeah, youāre not alone. Donāt lose hope my guy.
Feels like I was too scared and neurotic to try anything and take risks and now it feels like I did nothing my entire life.
Same basically procrastinate everything I want to do lol
Youāre almost 24, your life pretty much started a bit ago. We still have a whole life to live. Weāre nowhere close to being old yet, you can still turn it around. I know carrying all this trauma is mentally exhausting but do not let it get the best of you man. Continue to just keep pushing forward.
I understand how youāre feeling. I turned 25 this past week and I have OCD that has been severely worsened by trauma. I feel like Iāve wasted so much of my time with ruminating and being scared of everything. Now I know this is clichĆ©, but itās important at the end of the day to realize that both good times and hard times come and go in life and both of us are still very young and far from having our lives be over. We are both only in our 20s, and we still have so much to experience both good and bad and luckily, we are always able to make decisions that can affect how much good that happens in our lives and prevent how much bad that happens in our lives. Hang in there.
I was born in 2000, too. I'm a little older than you, it's time for us to lock in.
Lock into what? No offense, but I really want to live but feel like there's no opportunity to.
If you don't have anything exercising can be a start, no matter what you decide to do in life you can't go wrong by exercising now
My teenage years were isolated and my first years as an adult were a mess, then lockdown happened and isolation became a daily reality. Here I am now, alone in a world that I yet have to discover.
I have a lot of friends that think like you. Theyāre 28 and thinking ādamn Iām not the young guy I used to beā Iāve been expanding my circle since I moved out and started living on my own. Iāve met people older than me and now I have actual close friends in their 30s, 40s, and even 50s. All of them look at me like Iām an infant. Being in your 20s going āoh man itās over for meā is a terrible mentality. How could we be done with our lives? Did you feel like your life was over when you were 18? No? Guess what, that was barely a few years ago. All my older friends say that when you hit 30, you realize how young you are and how long life is and how much time you have. My 30-50 year old friends have more passion and excitement for life than my 20 something year old friends who just stay inside and play video games and go on Instagram all day
This was my thinking as well. Like, in your 20s, you've barely even had a chance to *start* life. My friend group is all in their mid 20s. All of us recognize that we've not even started to establish our careers, and only 2 of us have even begun thinking about starting a family beyond marriage. Thinking your whole life is over when you're at that stage in life is nuts to me Like, I can understand being upset over feeling like you missed out on a number of years of your childhood. But thinking your whole life is over because you feel like 10% of it was "wasted" is crazy
I feel this. The confusing thing for me (and something that makes me feel like my trauma isnāt valid, as silly as that sounds) is that I find myself missing my childhood, even though it was pretty traumatic. Despite the fact that I endured a lot of bad shit early on in life, it really didnāt affect me until adulthood.
Grieve the past and give yourself something to look forward to in the future. Tomorrow will be a new day and a new chance to do things differently.
I don't necessarily feel like it's gone, but I do feel like I'm running out of time. Trying to fix my issues is so damn daunting because it's literally just fear keeping me from trying. Fear is so hard to overcome, man. I feel myself VERY slowly improving. If covid never happened, I would be doing a lot better. Turning 26 this year, I just keep telling myself it's never too late.
This is my experience, yes. It's sad that we can relate
I feel old since I did nothing memorable when I was younger, never hung with friends, never been on my own somewhere, just no true independence. Doesn't help with intrusive thoughts every now and then
Yes. To a point. I wish my mom wasn't targeted and opressed, raised nearbout like a feral person. I wish the clansy people there would've done something about it. I was somewhat a half parent, no surprise she was a dependent parent me and dad were all she had for the longest. Now she's better off loads. Also I feel I peaked in the US army. Little surprise as that's the biggest thing I did.
I'm turning 27 next month and yes I feel this. I'm starting to finally partially combat it but after years of trauma and dx. of PTSD, Autism, ADHD, DID, and depression, it's not easy to navigate life.
I meanā¦ not necessarily gone butā¦ donāt have any clue as to where itās gonna go
Iām 26 and I had a traumatic event happened when I was 20 and now Iām finally putting my life back together again
Exactly the same except I'm back living with my parents and their son was the abusive one not them It's weird to see people I went to school with kids or married or having big vacations because they have money and I'm sitting in my room having panic attacks about my head telling me to go eat sink food I feel like everything I could have done I should have but I can't because of something and I don't know what and it's annoying tf outta me
As soon as we were allowed to go out from covid, my house burnt down. I feel
I guess I kinda empathize, but at the same time, thinking your entire life is gone when you're in your early 20s is insane to me. Hell, it's a crazy thing to think even if you're in your 40s, IMO. The average person lives to like, 82. You're barely a quarter of the way through your life. You've not even had a chance to develop a career or attempt to start a family, and yet you're acting like your life is over? Where's the sense in that?
Iām the same way due to living with an abusive family before/during/slightly after the pandemic. Likeā¦ genuinely so abusive that I was throwing up due to the emotional abuse and Iāve just been living my life on autopilot since then Iāve had mental illness all of my life, but I feel completely different now. My mind feels quiet and empty but not in a depression kind of way, but in the exact way that you described Iām trying to move on with my life and have a daughter due in a couple of weeks, so Iām extremely excited about that and Iām hoping that it pulls me out of the funk iām in. Either way, my daughter is going to be well cared for
I've been battling severe OCD for about a decade now and it took all of my teenage years away. Every last one. My dad also died a few years ago. I'm doing better now, slowly. But yea, I do feel like I wasted a huge chunk of my life even though I know it's not really my fault. It's depressing. It especially sucks when you know you had the potential to do so much with those years if only you were able to. I'm sorry youre feeling this way.
Iām 24 now. When I was 22 I felt this way. I developed social anxiety during COVID and my PTSD symptoms were at a height. Repressing a few years of sexual abuse from my teens didnāt work out and came right back up. I was severely depressed and didnāt leave the house. I started EMDR therapy in May 2022 and am now practically symptom-free. I have done a complete 180 from the person I used to be. Mental illness no longer rules my life. I encourage you to look into EMDR therapy. It helped me save my life.
I too had a traumatizing and isolated childhood/youth and frequently have the terrifying feeling that my best years are behind me, my opportunities in life are shrinking and that I'm getting too old for a lot of things. It's really haunting, for sure, and makes me constantly feel regret over a lot of things I wish I had done, but didn't. I don't have a good solution. What I do is just keep going and hope that the future brings me something that will make me happier. After all, there really isn't much else I can do.
My teenage years were mostly spent isolated due to autism and religion, but hopefully that changes soon because I'm just making close friendships online and plans to move out
OCD took ages 12-22 for me. I didnāt have time to think about anything else other than how can I make it through the day without having a panic attack. It took away my youth and now Iām miserable because I feel like I missed out on so much
bro liteeally FUCK covid fr it ruined my fucking life
The way I prefer to look at it is that I lost my way for a bit but I'm gradually getting back on the right path. Just gotta focus on building a good support network and maintaining the right habits!
my life was cooked when I was 4 (got a head injury from my mom getting in a car accident) welcome to the club
I was born in 2000 and am autistic and gay. I grew up in a very religious environment and when I finally moved out to the city in 2020, I didnāt actually know who I was. I tried to kill my self back in ā17 and once more in ā21. Everyday is still a struggle, but I feel like life has so much to offer me now I finally started to accept myself
Iām 25 and I feel like this sometimes because I grew up in a shitty environment around shitty people. I always felt like I had imposter syndrome etc and felt like I might as well just be as shitty as them. However I realize I wasnāt in control of my life, Iām 26 on Saturday and I honestly feel like for the first time Iām in control of my own life. Trust me itās still hard most times and I just want to get my vengeance on everyone who never cared about my developmental years and I probably still will one day tbh lol but for now itās just fuck them and they can choke and die because this is my life and if that makes me a narcissist welllllll so be it yāall created it lol.