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Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (May 2026)
This is a monthly thread for those who need it. Vent, share your experiences, ask for advice, talk about how you are doing. Let's make this a compassionate space for all who may need one.
I’m going to make two mistakes here: posting from mobile (causing me to be short and lose nuance) and posting to vent (in what seems to be an “advice oriented” thread). So, apologies in advance.
My mental health is not what I would like. I feel like I oscillate (vacillate?) between extreme rage and extreme lust. There is an in between, but I don’t experience / remember it without extreme effort. It’s frustrating and demoralizing.
The sheer intensity of the feelings causes me internal strife / adds to my rage but pointed at myself this time for having these feelings. So it snowballs until I go to sleep.
I’m venting here. Don’t want you to fix it. I just want someone to know. One of my biggest issues is that I don’t feel I can talk to anyone about it because they will be dismissive (you have such a good life just look around) or helpful (I’m worried about you).
So anyway, thanks for listening!
Edit: subbed lust for horny
Thanks for telling us!
Venting is welcome here, personally I'm grateful when posters let us readers know if they are venting, looking for advice or w/e but I obviously don't speak for everyone.
Sorry if this falls under "advice," but just in case it helps to name it this is called emotional impermanence (like "object permanence," but feelings). It's not uncommon (I have it too) and it really does suck. If you ever need someone to vent to, feel free to DM.... I'll do my best to only give advice if it's explicitly asked for.
I'm going through a rough patch in my relationship. Luckily it's not a surprise and my partner is talking to me.
It's frustrating to me because I think I can see quite clearly how we can fix our problems and improve the relationship in a lot of ways (and yes I'm careful not to voice all my "solutions" during our conversations because I know that's extremely detrimental). However my partner is autistic and is really struggling not only with her own emotions but also the completely overwhelming relationship. I can see so clearly she needs time and space to process the relationship and I know she wants me in her life, but she's saying a lot of hurtful things and completely disengaging right now, and it's really hard on me. My rational brain is telling me is short term. Especially with autism she needs to decompress.
She's also booked time to see a therapist which I thought was extremely mature of her. I know she's not going to go for one session and come back different, but it's a step in the right direction to help herself.
I feel like she jumped into the relationship too early without thinking about it and she's now realizing she wasn't ready. I love her a lot, she loves me although she doesn't really understand what that means.
So yeah, I'm currently dealing with a shutdown partner and we are not in sync. It's really hard on me and she's not really processing any of this.
I can see this working really long term, I'm not sure she can look that far though, her mind is locked in today/tomorrow.
In the mean time, I've been trying to keep up giving her as much space as I can while just doing extremely small acts of kindness, like making her cookies or making her favourite meal.
This was a bit of a vent, but I'm willing to take some advice if anyone has any about being autistic or having an autistic partner.
If anything from the sound of it you're handling it really well. Quite often people, autistic or not, need to find the answers themselves. The process of finding the answers is often as important as the answer itself.
As for some actual advice...
A lot of, and woman on the spectrum in particular, are taught to mask. No doubt you know about that. One of the possible consequences is that we're internally really out of sync with our needs and wants. It's pretty close to basically being gaslighted from a young age about what our needs and wants should be.
I think that guiding her to find the answers on her own is great, as is doing small acts of kindness. One other thing you can do is essentially show that when you need to decompress, that you communicate that and show that you can do that. Essentially, showing her that that is a valid need.
More often than not we've grown up never having seen that, or only having seen that with a lot of conditions(such as then immediately jumping back in overwhelming environments when that's too much in one go).
Hope this helps!
Thanks a lot for the reply!
It's useful advice, thank you.
I do allow myself to get completely smothered I won't lie, but it also doesn't bother me the same way it would someone with autism. But I definitely will make a point of taking my own time to decompress. I started going to the swimming pool every week and I find it extremely relaxing, it also gives her like 4 hours on her own, so it's a win win.
It's going to be a long journey but I'm happy as long as she's making progress!
Again, appreciate the input!
Not too great tbh. I'm feeling quite alone tbh.
I asked a woman out at work for a coffee at the end of Jan. She rejected, and I thought that was that. Ever since then the work office has felt like an incredibly hostile environment where people seem to ignore me. This has been going on for months now. And at work there was these social events which have completely stopped ever since I asked the colleague out for a coffee.
I absolutely appreciate I've made things awkward and that a workplace romance isn't a good idea (I didn't understand back then but now I 100% get it), and I just feel so alone and isolated. Luckily going into the office isn't mandatory, and the only reason why I've been going is a suggestion by my therapist. Even the online slack at work feels hostile. I haven't even tried to make friends with the woman I asked out because I get she needs her own space, but it's like everyone hates me now.
I don't know. I just feel emotionally bummed out and drained. I'm also pretty sure it's because even though we are both South Asian, I'm Pakistani and she's Indian. At least, it's the only reason why I can even think this negativity has been going on for as long as it has. I'm also aware my brain is frantically trying to piece together anything to try and make sense of it all to come up with a solution. It just feels emotionally exhausting and draining.
Been a while, but still alive and kicking. Had a few rough months and motivation is far from where it should be to function normally. Depression really sucks. Finding the right therapy, going from one to another, drains you a lot.
The state of the world also has been taking a toll and as someone who is chronically online and sensitive to these things it really gets to you. Wars, dictators, AI, less positive outlook towards the future by younger generations. The only thing we are missing is a global financial crisis that acts as a match to an already precarious and fickle balance. And as usual the poor, minorities, animals and nature suffer the most from all of it.
almost one year on antidepressants. yesterday started to feel really bad again. i thought that the most horrible time for me would be winter or something. but why now? i don't know.
not sure what to do. i mean partly I know, but, how to word it properly? there are a lot of things that need improvement. a psychiatrist is great, but I think I also need money for a therapist, but right now can't afford it.
Since I "broke up" with my therapist about a month ago and I feel like I'm going through it.
I am currently on the waitlist of another therapist but I am still waiting. It feels like everything is coming apart.
I am struggling very much with myself. It feels like I am acting very unnormal or very self-destructive, almost.
I just want to be away from all people. I just want to be alone. But for better or for worse I can't be / am not alone.
I also immensely struggle with dealing with my own emotions / feelings. It just feels that I am constantly fighting myself. With my own feelings.
Which is quite exhausting.
Plus all that with not sleeping well due to some other stuff isn't a great combo and I just hope I will be able to graduate soon (this summer) and then start working on myself.
I also hope that I will fight with myself less because in summer I will have less stress and I'll have some time for myself.
But at least it could always be worse. I'm also at the same time going through my autism assessment. Just everything happening all at once (as usual).
RAAAAGRRAAAHHHHAAAAAAA
(my feral screaming into the void)
I had one of those epiphanies that I'm sure I've had multiple times and that aren't really new for anyone but somehow helped me a little just now:
I feel kind of miserable so I make somewhat worse choices so my life matches how I feel.
I might take the bike over the bus, chances are at leasr up slightly over 40% from below 20%
I'll probably need to change my medication. ADHD medication hasn't been really working well lately, and I probably need to up my dosis. On the other hand, with my anti-depressants, I wonder if some side effects have gone to strong.
But it's a bit scary to change things. It has been years since I've been on my current dosage on both. So I'm in the process of gathering up courage...
I had a weird April. I've started properly keeping track of my the mental breakdowns that I end up supporting, and I ended the month at 19 breakdowns* that I supported. I'm hanging in there, but I think the miasma of the world is really leaking into my friends and myself.
I had a few breakdowns. I know I need to be better about taking care of myself (and anyone in my life will tell me that), and I'm trying to do just that. I've gotten a bit better about setting boundaries.
I'm finally fully medicated again. My insurance kicked in May1st, and I was finally able to get back on my prescriptions. I think it's helping.
Gas prices are high. People are tense.
The world, right now, feels surreal. I get the sense that a lot of things are coming to a head, like the kind of weirdness you see before revolution or a climactic change. I want to discount that thought, because I think that's a really easy takeaway to have, and so many things have just blown over. Still, I don't know. I keep hearing a lot of worrying statistics. I keep wondering if the bough will break. Or worse, if we'll just adjust to this as a new normal.
In a rut, rethinking choices and just sitting with this bad mood over dumb and petty stuff, while the world is unwinding. There’s a vein of intrusive thought about an old flame and how cutting off a relationship was me making a good choice that still hurt, because we wanted very different things and trying to keep the friendship going was not viable. It still feels selfish, even with distance, and I probably could have used my words better, but even in the most generous interpretation, they weren’t hearing what I was saying and what I did say was turned against me, and that’s a hard pass. I understand that my avoidance wasn’t a good match for their anxiousness, and that makes me the worst, but at the same time, better I know this about myself and do better in the future.
I’m also a little wound up about my brother moving quite a ways away for school (which is probably why this the above is on a flare-up) and blowing a good chunk of my deductible on talk therapy because I misread my insurance policy (ugh), but that’s more of the stuff I can’t control.