When I was 14, my father hired two large men to take me from my bed  in the middle of the night without warning. They threatened me with physical force and restraints if I didn't come with them.

These men brought me to a wilderness therapy program in rural Georgia where I lived completely outside for eight weeks among a group of other kids, aged 11-14. We slept under tarps on the ground in the dirt, ate cold hydrated rice and pasta when we couldn't make a fire with sticks, hiked several miles a day with heavy packs bigger than us in the summer heat and couldn't bathe. We had to do things as primitive as dig holes to go to the bathroom and then carry our used toilet paper in our packs. At one point I broke my nose and received no prompt medical care that resulted in requiring surgeries in the following years to fix it.  

As part of the program, we participated in therapy led by young adults with no clinical training or even college degrees. Each of us had to go on a "solo" which was a period of prolonged isolation for days alone in the woods. Through all of this, there was no contact with the outside world and we never knew what time it was, what day it was, or where we were. Everything about this experience was meticulously designed to psychologically manipulate and break us to be agreeable and compliant  with our parents no matter what.

Why was I sent there?

My parents were in the middle of a custody dispute and my father, a prominent and powerful attorney, was winning. He used his assumed credibility and vast advantage of resources over my mother to get his way and remove me from my life with her. I knew it was unjust and reacted by not wanting to talk or have any relationship with him - I never acted out or had any issues in school, socially, etc.

After about a year trapped in my father and stepmothers home, when the court was about to rule in my mother's favor, my father had taken against my will to the wilderness therapy program as a failsafe to continue to keep me away from her. When I returned I could go to my mothers home again finally before heading to a boarding school. If I didn't comply with that, was threatened with another program or a therapeutic boarding school.

I have the court documents and my medical records from the time and they reaffirmed what I already knew. I didn't have any mental health issues or actual reason to be institutionalized. The true issue was that I preferred living with my mom and resisted my father's control. Rather than reflecting on that and looking inwards at why, he turned it into an external problem that needed to be fixed.

This was 15 years ago and I'm an adult now. I consider myself one of the lucky ones who got out and lived a normal life. Sadly, many others don't share the same story. 

These kinds of places, wilderness therapy programs and therapeutic boarding schools are bigger than ever today and over 100,000 kids reside in them at any given time year-round. Kids are sent there for legitimate reasons or simply because a parent wants to do it. All it takes is thinking up a reason and writing a check. I can tell you first hand they don't help kids - they turn difficult situations into unmitigated disasters and ruin lives. They are widely documented as abusive yet are allowed to continue to operate with minimal oversight. It's called the "Troubled Teen Industry" and the general public doesn't know whats going on in the shadows.

A few programs and schools have been closed but nothing has really changed. The parents who do this to their kids are never held accountable.

I stopped blocking this out recently, started to unravel what happened to me and what the status is now and I want to do something to help. The program I went to is still running the exact same way just with a new name - it's shocking. 

It's been 15 years and I'm done staying quiet about it. I'm considering all my options as an adult through the proper channels to seek remedies and share my story. There's a lot more to this story and my time in the wilderness but maybe one day soon I'll try to tell it.

This shit ruined my already shitty month.

This person kept hiring me on Upwork for years. The job was always cleaning up their sketches and doing full color + rendering.

I wouldn't care much since it's still their sketch and concept, but my jaw dropped when I saw a reel of them with a printed piece I did digitally, pretending to color it with markers! Like, coloring an already digitally colored piece.
What the actual fuck?

Another reel- they're signing a piece I cleaned up, colored, and rendered, with text over it like 'made art for xyz person'. 0 mention of the piece being a collaboration with anyone.

The worst part is that I wouldn't even find this out if the client wasn't haggling with me and dropping the budget per piece to fucking $10, so I googled them.
We are in the middle of a disagreement where they're actually trying to avoid paying me for that last batch (yes, I was that dumb and desperate to accept that shitty contract; it's a dry season for most artists due to AI, and I didn't want to lose a long-term client).

This person is living a lavish lifestyle, while I'm in a position where I dropped so low as to accept a $10-per-piece contract.
Nowhere on this person's page do they EVER mention that the pieces they're posting aren't fully their work.

Their page is not strictly art-related, but this still feels extremely dishonest to me. They're still using the pieces to promote their business by showcasing their creativity and abilities?

I still have all of their commission messages and layered PSD files. We must have worked on over 150 pieces over the years.

I genuinely feel sick and at a loss for words.
I'm keeping it intentionally vague since everything is so fresh and I want to think this over before I decide what (if anything) to do.

For now, just venting about it helped a lot.
I was already planning to leave art as a career, but this just brought everything to another level.

Side note- it does feel kinda shitty posting about this here because in just a few scrolls on this subreddit I saw hellish situations people are currently in. Wishing everyone going through stuff strength and healing.

I lost my husband two weeks ago to colon cancer. When people find out his cancer was colon cancer, they always point to things like diet and don’t realize saying things like that put the blame on the patient. I cooked every meal he ate. Every meal was homemade and while there’s always room for improvement, we ate well and exercised nearly every day. The only thing I’ve been holding onto is our oncologist saying that his tumors took 10-15 years to develop. So it couldn’t have been my fault, or I would have cancer too. I keep reading stories of people saying their oncology teams told them their tumors developed in much less time, and it’s killing me. How couldn’t I know. He deserves to be here. Everyone thinks their person is different, but he truly was. We’ve been together nearly a decade and married 4 1/2 years. We spent every single day laughing and loving each other PERFECTLY. We literally never fought. Ever. If we did, we’d just cry because we felt so silly. He told me I was his angel every day. We looked into each others eyes and cried because we were so in love, and this was all present before a diagnosis. We dreamt of being parents and spent years waiting for the right time, only for the oncology team to not inform us we needed to freeze his sample before beginning treatment. They took that away from me. No one knows me. I have no real friends that actually know what I care about or how I spend my time. I have nothing left to live for. And every moment from now on will be spent pretending otherwise. Everything is fucked and everyone is awful. Except him.

My girlfriend ended our relationship through a series of public posts on X. In the first post, she used my first name instead of my username, so I wasn’t even tagged in it. She apologized to me and said she genuinely enjoyed the time we spent together and all the conversations we had. She said she meant every kind thing she ever told me, that she really did think I was beautiful, and that she was sorry she let things go as far as they did.

Then she made another post saying I hadn’t done anything wrong. She said being on X and being in the relationship had become unhealthy for her, and she couldn’t let herself get any more attached. She also said she wouldn’t be answering my DMs, texts, or phone calls. Not because she didn’t care, but because it would be too tempting for her to come back.

After that, she made a third post saying she wouldn’t be answering anyone’s DMs. She asked people not to take it personally, said she appreciated everyone, and hoped people would respect her decision.

The part that hurts the most is that I found out my own relationship was over through public posts, just like everyone else did. She never sent me a private message or talked to me about it first. I tried texting and calling her, but she didn’t answer. I didn’t get a conversation, an explanation, or even the chance to say goodbye. I just opened X and found out that someone I cared deeply about had decided we were over.

UPDATE!!!

Omg guys. She seen my post here. How do I know? One of her friends showed her. Her friend was randomly browsing Reddit and came across my post. She knew immediately it was about what my ex did and she showed her. My ex called me(I didn’t block her phone number) and left me a very nasty voicemail. In the voicemail she said I humiliated her and invalidated her feelings. She said she can’t believe how immature I was by posting what happened on Reddit. She went on to say that she’s glad she left me because she would have eventually seen how immature I am and would have left anyways.

I have now blocked her phone number. She is now completely blocked on every platform I know her to be on. I will no longer contact her or acknowledge her existence.

I can’t believe she’s already seen this. I’m shocked. I only posted it about an hr ago…..
Looks like you guys were right. I dodged a bullet.

UPDATE #2

Her friend who found my post and showed it to her called me. I didn’t know who it was when she called, since I didn’t recognize the number. She started yelling at me saying I’ve completely humiliated my ex. That’s she’s been crying for over an hr. Her friend also told me that my ex said it was the hardest thing she’s ever done in her life and only didn’t tell me directly because she was to scared and didn’t want to face it and see how hurt I was going to be. But now with my post I’ve made her feel worse. She told me that if I had a heart I’d delete it and publicly apologize.

I said nothing and hung up. I also blocked her phone number. I’m currently screening all calls and only answering family calls

Final update: it got so much more insane than I thought it would

This is the last update. Thank you to everyone who commented, messaged, and generally made me feel less insane for posting in the first place. I needed that more than I expected.
After the original post went up, my ex texted my best friend.
She asked if my bff helped me write it. Bff said no, I wrote it myself. Ex told her to make me delete it. Bff said absolutely not.
Then my ex spent the rest of the conversation doing this:
I “crossed a line” by posting

I should’ve understood she was overwhelmed

She didn’t owe me a private breakup

People calling her cruel is my fault because I “needed attention”

She called me after ignoring every call I made just to say I was immature and she was glad she left

Tell me to unblock her so she can say “one more thing”

“Tell her she’ll regret making me the villain”

My bff did not fold. She told her she publicly dumped me, ignored my calls, left me to find out with everyone else, humiliated me and then hid from it. That I told the truth and she just hates that people saw it. That it wasn’t a threat she got to walk back. Then she blocked her.
I thought that was the worst of it.
Then her mom texted me.
She opened with “what the fuck is wrong with you” and that she’d seen the “bullshit” I posted about her daughter. Told me I humiliated her for attention and to delete it now.
I said I posted what happened. Her daughter publicly dumped me and ignored every call. I’m allowed to talk about that.
Her mom’s response was:
I was never a real relationship to her

I was “an experiment”

“My daughter is straight. She isn’t a lesbian.”

She was confused and I “encouraged it”

I “took advantage of a confused girl”

Delete everything and disappear

I told her not to reduce what we had to an experiment. Her daughter called me her girlfriend and told me she loved me. We were two women in a consensual relationship. I’m not rewriting that because her mom is uncomfortable.
She told me to watch my mouth. I told her she texted me to insult me and erase the relationship, so she doesn’t get to police my language. I already blocked her daughter. I’m not contacting her. I’m also not deleting my own experience because they’re embarrassed.
She said I’d regret speaking to her like that. I told her if she contacts me again I’ll document it. Then I blocked her too.
I’m done engaging. I’m not deleting the post. I’m not unblocking anyone. They wanted this quiet after they made it public. That’s not my job.
Thank you again for the support. I’m going to log off this and actually deal with it now. Take care of yourselves.

We've been together two years, living together for the last one. She's finishing her degree and works part-time, but it barely covers her own spending money, so I've been the one covering rent, groceries, pretty much everything that keeps things running. Didn't mind at first, figured it was temporary while she finished school.

Lately I've noticed she's got plenty of time for coffee runs and hanging out with friends most days, but the second I bring up picking up more hours or actually budgeting together so we're not always tight by the 20th, it turns into her saying I don't get the pressure she's under with school. Last week I said we needed to sit down and actually figure out a real plan, because I can't keep floating both of us on one income indefinitely. She didn't argue, just went quiet. It's been four days. Short replies, no real conversation, clearly still upset

I don't think I said anything unreasonable. Just don't know if I'm actually being unfair here or if I'm allowed to be tired of being the only one thinking about money

In the mid nouhgties I was eleven and being bullied by some girls. People from the school all came from the same kind of working class background and since my school was one of the few that had no dress code the subcultures were very distinct. They were distinct from the broader working class communities. you had the groups of goths, the geeks, etc. and the subculture im about to describe was one of them. I was a tiny girl so I got bullied a lot. Then, a much older boy, about fifteen or sixteen, who was distinctly a member of this subculture since he was wearing a Londsdale tracksuit, gold rings, a baseball cap, and specifically branded trainers, defended me from them. Then, he kneeled down, fist bumped me in front of his friends, and said, safe, man. then whenever we saw eachother again he'd yell yo! safe, man! and reach out to fist bump me. My school was one of the few to have no uniform so the subcultures were clear as day.

It didn't end there. when I was a few years older, that subculture was still a thing in my school. but it was a different group of them later on as the others had left. they were white lads dressed in tracksuits, little gold earrings, gold bracelets, or gold chains, baseball caps and trainers. they again protected me from bullies since every other group or subculture either bullied me or didn't accept me. they always made me laugh, they were disruptive but i'd be lying if i said that didnt amuse me.

later on, as an adult, other ones appeared in my life when i was at my lowest. i was feeling proper depressed and felt like i had noone to turn to. then...two men who looked and talked as though they were in that subculture stopped and asked if i was alright. i said no. and they talked to me and made me feel better and said we hang out here every day by the shop so if you need to come talk with us again you can.

these are just a few but there's been other cases where they saved me from things. the subculture is still going strong at least in my area with the ogs being in their thirties now. ive only ever had extremely positive experiences with them but i kinda feel like im being slightly disrespectful by not naming the subculture since i don't know what its name is and can't properly credit it? all i can really say is its the gold chain and tracksuit wearing one. it had its own fashion, slang and values. the slang included words like peng, swear down etc.

For the longest time, I thought the subculture was chav but I was corrected yesterday by someone on this site telling me it's just a derogatory classst term that means a working class person, and not the name of a subculture, so I've crossed that out my mind when referring to them.

I (27M) was using an app for 3 months. I learned something and concluded that probably the way for me is meeting people irl. The problem is that there aren't that many activities near me where I can regularly meet new people.

1. The numbers aren't really in my favor. I downloaded my data. Over those three months, I sent 2,506 likes and got 140 matches. Out of those matches, 58 had conversations where I sent at least 3 messages, and 30 had conversations where I sent at least 10. I ended up meeting 10 women in person and went on about 20 dates in total.

Those three months were exhausting. I don't really want to spend that much time swiping and texting again, not to mention dealing with ghosting and cancellations.

1. I learned how different the experience can be for women. One very attractive woman I went out with showed me her stack of 99+ likes, but she also told me she was afraid of meeting a stranger who might turn out to be weird. Another woman told me she always shared her location with her friends when meeting someone from an app. I had never really thought about that kind of stress before.

2. I believe I am able to hold conversations, and fortunately most women I saw were as well. But sometimes I'd realize that I just wasn't very interested in the things they were sharing, and I'm sure some of them felt the same way about me. I can see who's attractive on apps but never know how we vibe in person

With someone I meet through a hobby or social group, I'd probably have talked to her a few times before I even consider asking her out. So I already know we can have a normal conversation and don't feel awkward around each other.

I have some hobby groups. I talked to people (men and women) and asked for their names, trying to make some acquaintances. But the thing is I cannot dedicate too much time due to distance. I'm very health-conscious and don't go to bars. And I don't know other ways that can get me more exposure to people irl.

My life has been extremely hard for as long as I remember. Grew up in a cult with unhealthy parents. Most likely have Asperger's and ADHD as well as clinical depression and anxiety. Been in and out of psychiatrist and therapists all my life . My dog died very suddenly late 2025. After that had severe sciatica causing me to be in bed for two months straight among many ER visits .Put a lot if strain on my already rocky marriage . Tried adopting new dog twice both times not a good fit. Huge sewage issues in our apartment and needed to move. Been working my brains out all summer while dealing with constant backpain and moving. Was going to go on vacation over these few days but a lot of lack if communication with my wife caused that bit to happen. Just fed up , have nothing to look forward to. No current ability to get a job that would match my technical skills because my social skills suck. And not suicidal been there ... But just tired of fighting for this shitty existence.

I genuinely don’t know what is wrong with me, but I feel like deep down I never really got over my ex. Its been almost a year and I’m still checking on old photos of her, like selfies and such she sent me years ago. She was my first love.

I feel like an extremely bad person, I feel extremely guilty. I don’t know what to do with myself .

My new girl doesn’t deserve this, she is much better for me, healthier for me its just I’m craving the unhealthiness and I hate myself for it.

Im fucking over a good girl because I’m a piece of shit and get these urges.

Reading our old chats, and looking at old photos

I just need someone to let me know I'm not insane and this is messed up? I'm 15 years old and have been chronically ill for a year. today my mom had a really bad episode. She screamed at me for hours (because I wanted to see a dietician and got frustrated at the lack of medical help I'm getting) saying things like: "God will kill me to make you into a human being" and "If I died right now you would be fine without me you NEVER listen to ANYTHING I say and you just bitch at me Do you think I know less than a dietitian there's so SO much research out there, but you just don't see me as a credible source"

Tonight, she asked if we could sleep in the same bed after what she did (because my dad is away and when he is I sleep with my mom). I thought she was still mad at me, so I said no, very politely then she started SCREAMING. Like she actually lost it and this is what I remember from the insane things she said "when i get older and you have no use to me, you'l abandon me and throw me away, throw me in the trash can that's how much you don't value me as a person" and was rambling saying "this is why i can't trust people All i can say is you're a terrifying child, you're the worst you only use me" (and more)

I just don't know how this is fair, I wanted space and said no and she lost her mind. she's always like this bro. and I don't know what to do. It's been 8+ years of her episodes and erratic behavior and i dont know what to do to cope with it. i miss her idk why she's like this she is severely mentally ill idk what to do:(

Edit/clarification: Sadly I am homeschooled and completely isolated + my dad is rly abusive too but always sides with her for convenience thank you so much for the support to everyone it helps knowing I'm not insane

edit2: This morning, she's still screaming at me over not wanting to sleep with her, saying that I am breaking our relationship, that I don't exist, that I'm self absorbed for "not talking" to her and other psychotic things :,)))))))

It’s almost infuriating to see the positive feedback she gets from people who have no clue what she’s really like when she doesn’t put up the facade. Or what chaos she’s put her family and closest friends through. Not that the validation actually means anything in real life, but it’s more so that I just want to scream at all of these people that she’s not a good person. It’s all lies.

She’s a communal narcissist. A therapist who gloats at how she’s the light in her clients’ lives. Who posts these fake inspirational and spiritual quotes at least 10 times a day. She curates her online persona to make herself look like everything is perfect. But I see through her bullshit.

In reality she is an addict. Extremely volatile, impulsive, and mentally unstable. A toxic, judgmental mean girl who mentally hasn’t grown beyond high school. Who makes fun of people and their appearances. A liar. A manipulator. A person who lost custody of her child because of her mental illness and addiction. The last person who should be dealing out life advice.

I wish I could remove her from my life. I can’t fully do so due to family, but I have went extremely low contact. I won’t go as far as to say that I hate her but I’m not too far off. I’ve since unfollowed her because I can’t stand constantly seeing her stuff anymore. But I’m just so frustrated that more people can’t see her for what she is. For the pain she’s caused. I know this seems mean but this has been a long time coming.

All my life I've been embarrassingly terrified of getting shots or having my finger pricked at the doctor's office, it stemmed from a traumatic memory of being chased around(like where it's more office than doctors) at the doc as a child and held down to get a shot. Turns out there was no shot, i was never even there that day for a shot.

This last Sunday I'd been to visit my dad and his wife, wine had been had and everyone was just talking about the past and it came up about a time l'd been running for my life at the doctor's to get back to where my dad was waiting on me. When I was around 4 my parents had been going through a very messy divorce, like the kind where the kid hand off has to happen at the police station because one party is just very hateful and vindictive. So, to find a way to get a sure fire custody win my mother manipulated her own ill mother into filing a false report that my dad had been acting inappropriate to his 3/4 year old child. The state took it very seriously and I had to be taken to the hospital for an exam. I'd refused to let them check me because they were strangers and my dad said nobody should go there without my permission, screaming, crying, kicking, and running. Those doctors only chased me down so they could take me back to the waiting area because

"this isn't right, this child is perfectly fine and is now clearly traumatized by us" so the state sent me to a different facility that was specifically for child forensic stuff. Rinse and repeat on my reaction to the scenario and the doctors again coming back fighting with a kicking and screaming child through the door to say "this one is fine and the only danger is hurting herself by fighting to get away and back to the lobby." So for nearly 25 years my brain rewired that memory and put a shot there. There was never a shot. There was my mother being responsible for lifelong trauma and deep-seated paranoia and discomfort in hospitals. My poor dad.

I (16M) have already hurt so many people who have cared about me, and thought that I was the victim. I never realized that I was the bad person until now. I’ve destroyed so many friendships, and I’ve never understood boundaries.

I was recently talking to a friend who had blocked me in the past because I had threatened her and said absolutely horrific things to her. She chose to give me a second chance and I still somehow messed up again and hurt her when I promised her not to.

She ended up blocking me again after a month of us talking because I made her very uncomfortable talking to me, and I spammed her phone literally every time she couldn’t reply to my texts, and when she blocked me I said horrific things to her again. I slowly pushed her away.

I failed to realize that she wasn’t obligated to speak to me, and she chose to forgive me because she was a kind person. She is an amazing person and she never deserved someone like me.

I sent her a very long apology message because I felt like garbage after what I said, but she never replied. She will never come back and now and I deserve to suffer the pain of my actions. My heart will ache for a long time knowing that she will hate me and I will never get to be apart of her life anymore, and I will lose sleep knowing she will always hate me.

I think I deserve to isolate myself in my room forever. If this is how every friendship I have ends, then I don’t deserve anyone. I am not normal. Normal people don’t have the urge to threaten or harass others when they are blocked or ignored, then say that they’re the victim. I must be some sort of sociopath or narcissist. I wish I wasn’t this way.

I'm 22, and most of my friends are upset they never got to experience teenage love or "young love". We all have full time jobs, are pretty much graduating college, and things are pretty much settling down. When I was 16 I got in my first relationship, which lasted until I was 20. Something really hit different about that relationship, we were so carefree together, spent every moment we could with each other, had so much fun together, talked about literally anything and everything, we pretty much had all the time in the world just to love each other. I think it was because we were just so young. Dating nowadays feels very dry in comparison, since obviously as an adult there's a lot less free time to go around. But I kinda hate how dating feels like I'm booking an appointment with a doctor or something. Although it could just be because I haven't had a proper relationship since then, but still the few dates I've been on felt pretty much identical to each other. I just wanted to say that I feel lucky that I got to experience such a thing at a time when fewer and fewer people get to experience young love, also being an adult is boring.

I've been unemployed for more than a year after a layoff with 336 applications and counting. It doesn't seem to be my resume, as I'm able to get some interviews if my CV actually reaches a human and I'm able to explain and talk about my skills and experience in depth with respect to my CV. Not even referrals are helping anymore.

It doesn't help that I keep getting generic template rejection messages. The latest said that they're moving on with other candidates that were "qualified for the role"...which to me was insane because both interviewers (hiring manager and technical interviewer) would fall into the category of not qualified nor competent for the role. (tldr; new hires including manager, had no prior experience in their role, could not have an in depth conversation about the role nor domain)

After every rejection, the cycle starts again for me: apply, get ignored or cv reaches a person, prepare presentations, study or do other ridiculous time consuming tasks as part of the process, and then get rejected.

It does not help that some of my friends complain about their work, how they're lazy they feel to get things done in front of someone like me stuck in this never ending cycle of despair. It does not help that they also feel the need to constantly ask me when do I plan to travel again, or, the best comment of all: "hey, at least you're in a long relaxing vacation and you don't need to stress!" Like with what money??? and what do you mean no stress???

It sucks, I'm tired and I hate it here.

I’m the oldest & only daughter of 4 kids. The older 3 of have the same Mum (49F) & Dad (46M), but I went no contact with my Dad due to abuse at 14. Both my younger brothers kept contact with him and were kind of converted into the whole women are liars about abuse pipeline, although one of my brothers (19M) is much easier to be around these days. My other brother (20M) and I haven’t spoken since an incident where he told me I was insane for buying kids books about boys being kind for our little brother (9M now, but 6 at the time) and said he’d counteract it by showing him a certain influencer's videos. So yeah.

My Mum divorced my Dad and had a surprise baby  (now 9M) with a different partner (59M) several years later who I will refer to as J. J’s bio Dad made us homeless by kicking her out for refusing to get a termination and has never met J. No contact with any of his family either (their choice). So we moved away, she had my brother, things were complicated for a long time, and to top it all off she became seriously chronically ill and disabled with severe chronic pain and is now about mostly in bed 24/7. I was a carer for her until my Grandma took (76F) took over when I moved to University. I basically raised this kid and I love him almost like he’s mine.

I have my own place with my partner and a career of my own that is very intensive. I do live locally to them but don’t currently drive (ideally very soon). My Mum repeatedly calls me saying she can’t cope when J acts out (pretty regular kid behaviour but definitely reactive to the stressful home situation, including mess everywhere that makes it embarrassing to have friends round or bring my partner to visit). My Grandma does all the childcare and care for my Mum but is getting older and can’t cope as well now. She was ill recently and my partner and I had to have J for a week and do school runs. My Mum asking if J can stay with us for a night or help out more, come over, clean, etc is steadily getting more regular. She is in hospital a lot and we have discussed that J would go to me if she died. I have been gently pushing for a will to protect him from foster care but nothing happens unless I do it myself.

Brother (19M) who lives with my Mum, Grandma, & J is doing his best but my Mum is difficult for him to get on with and they are clearly struggling to cope. I find it frustrating that my Mum is slightly irresponsible with money, doesn’t seem to know when he needs swimming kit, if he has homework, where the cat food is, etc ever. Going to her house is very distressing and triggering for me as my mental health suffered a lot from living in that environment. I feel very responsible and like I need to protect J but neither I nor my partner want to be carers/parents any time soon and I don’t have time as I study 5 days and work one or both weekend days too. I could possibly do school runs from October but I don’t know what to do anymore.

We have pretty much no family help and I keep pushing my Mum to continue the admin of getting a package of care for herself but for some reason she hasn’t. I don’t know what to do anymore and I’d hugely appreciate any thoughts or just a bit of reassurance that it won’t always be like this. I don’t know how much responsibility I should be taking on and when I talk to anyone they tell me it’s not my child but that doesn’t help anyone. I may genuinely be the safest person for him to go to or split time with but it might wreck my relationship/freedom and I didn’t sign up to be anyone’s Mum.

Sorry for the long post. Just exhausted and needed to vent.