I have some real stories shared by friends or that happened to them in their surroundings, which include some private conversations. We don't want to cross privacy boundaries, so we won't use the original names of people or colleges involved.

Content is just for awareness.

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I'm a Psychology BSc student at the University of Liverpool researching relationships and AI. Could really use so help with numbers!

Looking for participants who are 18+, fluent in English, and use an AI tool (Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) at least weekly.

Anonymous, ~20 minutes, fully ethics-approved (University of Liverpool, IPH 18586/26): https://livpsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3jClolNVA8ocCCW

Happy to answer questions/open discussion in the comments and share findings once it’s complete.

TL;DR: **Months of immigration uncertainty slowly turned my optimism about the future into anxiety, then exhaustion and numbness. I can feel depression creeping in even though I'm still functioning. Has anyone else experienced this?**

I don't know if I'm looking for advice or just people who understand this.

When this whole process started, I was genuinely optimistic. I had a future I was excited about, plans, things I wanted to do. I kept telling myself, I'll get there eventually.

Then months of waiting started turning that optimism into anxiety. And now I'm noticing something that scares me a little. The anxiety is slowly turning into exhaustion and numbness. Things I used to look forward to don't excite me as much. I'm less motivated, more restless, and sometimes I just feel this heaviness that I can't quite explain.

I'm still functioning. I'm still trying to study, exercise, keep myself occupied and live normally. But it feels like my life is happening in the background while I'm waiting for permission to move forward.

And the strange thing is, nothing is necessarily "wrong" with my life right now. I know I'm fortunate. I know I have a lot to be grateful for.

I don't think people talk enough about the psychological toll of immigration uncertainty. It's not just paperwork or waiting for a decision. It's what months of not knowing can quietly do to your sense of hope.

Has anyone else experienced this progression? How did you stop the waiting from turning into numbness or depression?

"I'm interested in the psychological and physiological differences between heterosexual men and women regarding the idea of same-sex intimacy applied to themselves.
Most heterosexual men report a strong, almost automatic physical and mental aversion to the thought of engaging in sexual activity with another man. For them, the scenario is usually not just unappealing, but conceptually foreign to their arousal system.
Do heterosexual women experience this same level of explicit internal resistance toward the idea of intimacy with another woman? Or does higher sexual fluidity make the personal imagining—or acceptance—of such scenarios statistically more accessible to straight women compared to straight men? I'd welcome insights based on psychological research, evolutionary behavior, or sexology studies.

Since the political left is largely focused on social revolution, I think this quote from J. Krishnamurti presents a different perspective on what a real revolution means. External change is limited if our minds remain unchanged. Without an inward revolution (without understanding our own minds), any outward revolution risks reproducing the same problems in a different form.

"Society is always trying to control, to shape, to mould the thinking of the young. From the moment you are born and begin to receive impressions, your father and mother constantly tell you what to do and what not to do, what to believe and what not to believe; you are told that there is God, or there is no God but the state and that some dictator is its prophet. From childhood, these things are poured into you, which means that your mind is gradually being encased, conditioned, shaped so that you fit into the pattern of society and not be a revolutionary. Since the habit of patterened thinking has already been established in you, even if you do revolt, it is within the pattern. It is like prisoners revolting in order to have better food, more conveniences, but always within the prison. When you seek God or try to find out what right government is, it is always within the pattern of society. So your revolt, like the so-called revolution brought about by ambitious or clever people, is always limited by the past. That is not revolt, that is not revolution, it is merely heightened activity, a more valiant struggle within the pattern. Real revolt, true revolution is to break away from the psychological pattern and to inquire outside of it."

— J. Krishnamurti on Society & Revolution

Notice how almost every conversation now either has to be productive, deep life-talk, or dead silence?

​What happened to pure, pointless, effortless banter:

🔻​Just talking random nonsense without turning it into a debate or therapy session.

​🔻checking in on someone without needing a specific context, agenda, or update.

​🔻Being comfortable with casual small talk without feeling awkward or bored.

​Because everything online is optimized for impact or high stimulation, normal everyday communication has started feeling like unnecessary effort.

​Who is one person in your life you can still talk complete nonsense with for hours without feeling drained?

When you've something that doesn't help, make it useful rather than trying to disown it.

Overthinking, is something we all face nowadays🥀. So use your overthinking ability of your brain to think more about useful side of the things, don't do OVERthink, do overTHINK. ✨*\*

Plan about different things, assume what could have been done in past situations, what you're doing right now and why and how will it help in future. Plan, strategize, indulge in works aand projects that require thinking. Build your career ​with your thinking ability in doing something that requires great thinking.

Remember, many people can't even give a fuck when you can think soooo much!!

The weird people who stalk your social media stories — some thoughts

Hi! I hope you understand the point I'm trying to make with this post. I'd also really like to hear from people who have noticed the SAME thing, and I'd especially like to hear your thoughts on what might motivate this kind of behavior.

Every now and then, I do a little social experiment/test on social media: I temporarily make my otherwise private stories public. I do it out of curiosity, just to see who comes to watch them — whether any non-friends show up at all, and if so, who.

I HAVE REPEATEDLY NOTICED THE SAME THING, AND IT BAFFLES ME BECAUSE I GENUINELY DON'T UNDERSTAND IT — BUT I WANT TO.

Almost immediately after I make my stories public, without exaggeration, within the first few minutes, a handful of men show up in the viewers. Every one of them is somehow connected to my "history." There are Tinder matches from years ago, exes, friends of exes... but mostly men I briefly dated years ago and then ended things with.

This part is important: I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with curiosity. It's human. But repeatedly and silently "peeking" at someone's life gives me weird vibes — especially when we have absolutely nothing to do with each other IRL anymore.

Why do you do it? And more specifically: why are you among the very first people to do it, every single time you get the chance?

Do you want to see what I look like these days? Are you bored and have nothing better to do? Are you atching my stories judgmentally? Are you watching because you're still attracted to me? Why don't you ever react or say anything? Why don't you ask how I'm doing, even though you watch everything?

These are the kinds of questions I find myself wondering about.

To me, it's completely different when someone actually shows that they enjoy my content, like me, or are interested in interacting with me.

There is one thing I've noticed that seems to connect these silent stalkers, though.

In my experience, they all seem somewhat insecure. They're the kind of men who don't seem particularly confident and don't dare to make a move. They also often seem dissatisfied with some part of their lives, but don't actually do anything to change it.

➡️Fan or hater?⁉️

#lurkers #haters #fans

It’s so that some people aren’t kind.

They’re just conflict avoidant.

They say yes when they mean no, tolerate behavior they resent, then secretly become angry because nobody respected boundaries they never communicated.

Being genuinely kind sometimes requires saying “no.”

Being agreeable isn’t the same thing as being good.

In the age of ai where everything is so easily available, ideas are everywhere, friends, followers, connections in 1000s but still why we feel so disconnected in real life? Why do people have to cry to chatgpt rather than their friends. Everyone is aware that social media overconsumption is bad it's continuously bringing constant comparisons, ai over consumption is making us dumber still why screen time of people of every age group is spiking.. what's needed to not let people in their 20s, youths waste 10+ hours in social media rather than making real life connections, memories, friends and actually living life..

Answerrr guysss.. pleasee.. what's really are we missing?

Hello y'all.

I wanna understand how things went downhill in terms of social interaction, specially at the start of my high school years (circa 2014). Usually I'm not much into talking and chatting due to my psychological condition and I tend to be very introspective, but I never refuse a good discussion with someone. To know more about the other person, to understand their motivations, explore their unique POV, even when it goes against mine, it still amazing to me to witness a different way the world around me manifests to someone other than me. Watching how this same dimension we're all in still materializes differently for each individual soul.

I absolutely love discussions and debates with others, however, like I said, when I started my HS years, I noticed that almost everyone became gradually less receptive and open, specifically when it comes to different/opposite opinions. Over the years, watching how the global social blanket has shifted tremendously, I could see how things turned out to be what they are now. Yet, I confess I still don't know why. It natural for the world to change, but it changed in a way I just don't comprehend. More specifically, here in my home country, I feel like there's just been "silence" everywhere I go. I mean "silence" as "I can't talk about this... no matter what.". I feel that certain topics I used to normally talk about as a child in public, if bring them up as an adult, I have to be extremely careful. But it's not any kind of careful. Depending on the topic, I must be very, very, very careful with each little word that comes out.

For a person like me, who already deals with a mental condition that makes me anxious about anything happening around, having my mouth "monitored" almost 24/7 makes me feel even worse. And, sincerely, just writing this confession alone, using such words, will still cause a lot of stir among many people, and not in a good way, even when I don't have any bad intentions. Euphemisms, metaphors, symbolic language... even when being "implicit", it still feels too "explicit" to write. When someone asks for my opinion, even when I answer "Well, maybe..." or "It depends...", even when I keep neutral, it still problematic for some people.

Not everyone will be receptive of your opinions, not everyone is going to agree with you, and these are straight facts. Yet, to me, personally, having a different opinion than most about a specific topic, it transcended the "weird" barrier. Nowadays it got into "problem" area. And to be fair, ever since childhood, my family taught me to be honest and it turned me into an upright individual. However, maintaining this valuable trait of mine, specially in today's society, feels more like a curse than a gift, 'cause the amount of times I had (and still have) to lie, pretend and disguise myself as someone I'm not feels just... PUTRID.

There's a lot more I'd still love to talk about, but I think it'd be too much for here. So, for now I'll leave you guys with this.

Thank you all so much for your time and your understanding.

Good Night.

P.S. I originally posted this on r/confessions, but I thought it would be interesting to post it here also to see how much discussion this could make.