Posts by Lisa Barnes3

I honestly have no clue who decided to write something like 'because just $67'

$67:
grocery money for the whole week
a student pass to Washington, D.C. and lunch at McDonald's
modding a PS2 with a chip
some fancy shoes
a shirt from some random boutique

with $67, you know how much water supplies you could secure for those poor kids in Africa
how much food you could buy for all those starving animals at the shelter

it’s just plain moronic to think this is only $67, seriously, anyone who says that clearly hasn't lived through a day without food or water before 🧐

if I were you, I'd be digging my heels in, and actually, the smartest move would be to demand the receipt for all that nonsense—the pipes, the water heater, or whatever else—or just straight up ask for a refund $167 ☕

Gerald Jackson6 said:My bad to the mods for starting a new thread—I totally missed this one already 😬 so, quoting myself here:

So, I’ve got a pierced lip and nose and I'm heading down to Miami with my family soon, so I'm looking to pick up some jewelry for the trip. Nothing specific, just something like this:



If there are any locals in the Miami area who know where I can grab stuff at a decent price, please let me know. 🙂

Maybe a tattoo/piercing shop?

Sandra Parker3 said:The logic is a little mixed up here.

Basically, forcing yourself to eat things when you're already full isn't going to help a single hungry kid; all it's going to do is make you overweight.🙄

The mindset should be different—like, don't hoard food you know you won't finish, or maybe just eat bread that's a couple of days old instead of tossing it... though I honestly have no clue how doing that helps anyone else.

And look, I hate wasting food too; it actually makes me feel physically sick whenever I do it, but I truly don't see the connection between my trash can and feeding the hungry.🤷

straight up—exactly🤷

my conscience eats at me too... but at least I feed the pigeons or some hungry animal... or I'll give my buddies half a sandwich or something... that's how I handle it... because I feel for them... I know how much it would mean to someone... but these kinds of posts---🙄

just don't make any sense to me

Samuel Miller21 said:When we are struggling with depression, the most common way people try to comfort us is by pointing out those who have it even worse—as if witnessing someone else's misery is supposed to somehow lift our spirits...

Those of us prone to depression are often also prone to intense feelings of guilt, which usually results in—or at least in my case, exacerbates—an even deeper depressive state.

Similarly, I constantly receive these chain emails filled with slideshows about starving children or the destitute, always paired with some lofty message about harmony, happiness, and finding peace.
Most of them feature that overused, award-winning photo of a malnourished child waiting for a vulture, all seasoned with these hollow humanitarian platitudes about enjoying life and appreciating the little things.

Is it just me, or is there something deeply perverse about this approach?
Should someone else's tragedy really be used as a motivator for our own happiness?

Yeah, I'm with you on that, it honestly makes me sick... I can't remember exactly which video I watched, but they were always filled with messages about how we should be grateful and stop wasting food, backed up by photos of starving children... and then there's that whole bit about how we ought to be thankful and happy! Like, hold on a second... how
can you actually feel happy when you're looking at how much other people are suffering? It just doesn't make any sense to me!

Alex Wood3 said:I’ve been trying to make sense of all this...
all of it...
it’s just that everything feels larger... yet smaller at the same time...
it’s not that one thing is big while another is small, or that they change shape...
it is simply that they are both large and small simultaneously
I can't quite put my finger on it... I once had this dream about a shipping container that was impossibly tiny, falling from the ceiling right toward me, and everything felt so... jittery... like when a computer glitches out (it was only about 1x1 cm) and then I woke up... I don't know why, but it hit me so hard that I wasn't really myself for two whole days...

Can someone take a look at my clip and tell me if the vibe is similar?

Here’s the link again:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7CxHCasts

Thanks, I'm actually pretty curious about what you guys think.

wiredmaker18 said:Just a little something, though it was quite a while ago. I’m planning on diving back into his work this summer. I’ve read plenty over the years—stuff from Sai baba, Meher baba, Babajia, and the like—but it’s been ages since I really sat down with it. There’s some interesting thought there, even if I prefer keeping my distance so I don't end up following anyone blindly like a mindless drone...

seriously, why does everyone have "Bab" in their name?🤷

🤣

wiredmaker18 said:It’s not hallucinations. It’s more like this sensation... thoughts constantly clashing over something massive yet somehow tiny at the same time. Like this quiet voice that manages to be piercingly loud, almost screaming at me, wrapped up in this underlying fear. Then there's the feeling of sliding through something perfectly smooth and level, only to slam straight into chaos—a nightmare of jagged edges and sharp points—and I'm moving through it all at high speed.

This exact thing has been happening to me since I was a kid. It only hits occasionally, so I never really gave it much thought, but reading this definitely caught me off guard.
Usually, when it happens, I first see something incredibly pure, white, and completely smooth. Then comes the dark stuff—crinkled, rough, and sharp. After that, it's images of things that are impossibly huge followed by things that are microscopically small, or a mix of both. Like seeing something massive and heavy standing right on top of something tiny and distant. That whiteness and purity before the rough, crumpled part sometimes gets even thinner, paler, and finer, just before hitting that jagged mess. And there's never an emotion attached to it, like sadness or joy. Just a sensation...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7CxHCasts

Something like that, just kidding... but seriously, check it out, it's pretty wild.

brisklynx51 said:😲
I get the same "thing" happening—no warning at all. It usually hits right when I'm drifting off. It feels like these little bubbles or spheres just growing inside my head. As soon as I snap my eyes open, it stops. And yeah, it can happen again 🤷. I eventually pass out... it doesn't really freak me out, but I guess I'm curious about the how and why 🙂

As far as the sleep stuff goes... sometimes when I finally hit the mattress, I get this sensation like I'm sliding through some kind of smooth tunnel at breakneck speed, and then suddenly—BAM—everything just grinds to a halt. It scares the hell out of me every single time, jerking me wide awake and leaving me drenched in a cold sweat🤷

Kenneth Martin said:Not too long ago, the Catholic Church suggested that hell isn't necessarily some
specific physical location, but rather a state of being—a condition of the soul where one experiences total separation from God, which is really just an isolation from love itself.
A disconnection from love, or simply, suffering.
At the time, that sounded like nothing more than an abstract concept to me.

That was before I began my slow descent into hell, becoming intimately acquainted with its sheer destructiveness.

I’ve been watching my peace and my very sense of purpose slip away day by day, sinking steadily through despair and eventually settling into a heavy, hollow indifference.

My capacity for empathy, that deep-seated compassion for others, and the genuine joy I used to feel in
helping people—it all started to wither away. That ability to lose myself in the beauty of the world, to actually feel the warmth of the Earth as the first rays of the morning sun touch the ground...
It’s all gone.

By facing nothing but selfishness while giving everything I had—clinging to the belief that love is the ultimate answer—I essentially burned myself out, destroying the best parts of my character. I found myself punishing my own soul every time I failed to communicate the overwhelming magnitude and beauty of the love I felt. It felt like I was painfully plucking my own feathers out, one by one.

Today, I feel like a void.
I’ve become a mere puppet of illusion, and with every passing day, the process becomes more agonizingly difficult: I am slowly forgetting how to love.
It’s as if five different poisons are coursing through my veins, tearing me apart from the inside.
I am powerless to stop loving her, so instead, I hate myself; I use my own longing as a way to sink deeper into
oblivion, even though I know my own ego and pride are clouding my vision. My envy fuels my arrogance, and I find I no longer have the desire to seek any kind of enlightenment.
I am trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of suffering that offers no exit, a loop that only seems to expand.
I am fully aware of the futility of my actions, even when I consider the final end to this agony.
There is no way out; that is exactly what hell looks like.

It’s when the person you love tells you straight to your face that they don't want to see you, that they want you out of their sight, that they wish you would simply vanish from their thoughts—and it doesn't even hurt as much as it should because
you’ve grown indifferent over time. Or perhaps, the pain would be so unbearable that feeling it would be synonymous with no longer being alive at all.
That is the definition of hell.

It’s when she turns away and avoids your gaze, looking through you with a coldness that pretends you don't exist.
All you want is to hurt yourself.
When you reach the point of self-inflicted torment, that is hell.
There are countless ways to destroy oneself, but I am starting to realize that this might be one of the worst: systematically dismantling the best parts of who you are.

How do you explain to her that her behavior is cruel? How do you tell her that having compassion for a starving beggar in Africa means absolutely nothing if you are incapable of feeling the suffering of the person right next to you who loves you? It isn't enough to just perform emotions to manipulate people; you have to actually be able to feel the love and the pain of those around you—their struggles, their foolishness, their malice—and actually know how to help them. Otherwise, if someone truly loves you and is capable of feeling your essence, and you fail them, you are subjecting them to immense suffering, forcing them to live in a true and literal hell.

I can no longer look at a lush, green valley bathed in soft morning sunlight and dancing shadows.
I can no longer appreciate a sunrise on a deserted coastline, cool and refreshing after a long, sweltering summer day.
It doesn't take much effort to realize that such beauty is now unbearable to me.
So, I retreat into the nearest dark corner, trying to forget that I am even breathing.
I try to forget every shred of hope.

I drift into sleep, only to wake up in hell.

me too🤷

nimbleviper142 said:I'm definitely with you on this... I probably wouldn't be so aggressive about it, but you're right...
Anyway, I get the feeling the OP is still pretty young (didn't specify age), so I get that things feel heavy, but I really don't think this is some massive crisis that warrants jumping off a building, right, Eros? 😉
Maybe it feels like absolute Hell right now, like your life is over, but it's not. Not even close. And I'll stand by that—you just need someone to snap you out of it because you're actually fine, you're just stuck in a bit of a depression/apathy funk.
You gotta realize there are people out there going through way, way worse, fighting actual debilitating illnesses, and keeping that in mind might help... maybe not right away, but eventually...
Just stop and think for a second... imagine being someone who's seriously sick and has nobody to look out for them. Trust me, I'm not the type to pour my heart out for others and, frankly, I don't give a damn about most people's suffering, but whenever I feel helpless—like when I feel like ending it all because this damn sickness is eating me alive—I remind myself how much worse it could be. People are usually so ungrateful for what they have; they take their own lives for granted, which is terrifying...
Think about it... you've got parents who love you, maybe a few friends, and your health. That should be enough.
🙂

I don't really see it that way because, for instance, when I fall into a slump... when someone tells me "well, someone else has it even harder," it doesn't make me feel guilty or anything... it actually just makes me feel incredibly sad... that's why I'm probably more depressed because of the state of things rather than any specific situation—the fact that I find less and less joy in simple things, or kindness in people, or the fact that everyone seems to be getting unhappier... and please, don't just tell me it's because of the news or the media constantly pushing bad stories... I only have to look around me to see how much empathy is missing and how selfish everyone has become... and also, don't try telling me to go look elsewhere to see if I'm lacking something... because that's not it; I'm a genuinely good person to everyone else... I'm just difficult and a little cruel to myself, and I feel like I'm worth nothing and don't deserve anything

stormyowl21 said:I’m mostly opening up here just to vent a little, to let out some things I need to say to people who don't even know me. Sure, I have a few close friends who are basically brothers to me—guys I can pour my heart out to—but it’s just not the same thing, you know? I share certain parts of myself, but there's always that deeper side I keep locked away inside.

So, here’s the story. Back on January 21st of last year, I was driving home from a birthday party, totally wasted, and I just lost control of the car on a sharp turn. I slammed into a tree and ended up sliding right into the river.
I honestly can only thank God that I made it out alive and didn't take anyone else down with me. I spend so much time living in regret, constantly playing back the "what ifs" in my head—wondering how things could have gone differently, what if I had taken a different route, or what if I hadn't been drinking in the first place... it just haunts me.

That car I wrecked... man, I absolutely loved that thing. I spent so much time washing it, detailing it, keeping the engine pristine; it was always gleaming. Because it happened on such a busy stretch of road, the damage was total. The only way to actually fix it would have been importing a whole new chassis and parts all the way from Germany. My old man shut that idea down immediately because it just wasn't worth the money—he was the one who gave me the car in the first place, so I hadn't really earned it myself.

Since that day, not a single one has passed where I haven't thought about it. Almost every time the memory hits, I find myself tearing up. I can't even put into words how much I miss that car and how much I hate myself for letting things get so out of hand that I crashed while drunk. I’m constantly dreaming about turning back the clock and doing things the right way. I catch myself imagining being behind the wheel again, sitting in that seat, running my hand over the dashboard and feeling every single detail like it’s actually happening.
I know I probably sound a little crazy, but that green machine was everything to me. 😢

That’s the part that’s killing me—not knowing how long this weight is going to stay on my chest or when the ache will finally stop. Anyway, if there’s anyone else out there who finds themselves grieving over something that isn't even alive, please reach out. I could really use someone to vent to.
Thanks 😉

Your connection to that car was more than just mechanical; it was emotional (a gift), something you cared for, showed love to, and maybe even took a lot of pride in😉. Losing something like that hurts because it cuts that tie between you and something incredibly precious, if you catch my drift.
It isn't just about the car, though. You're carrying that guilt toward your dad and the choices you made, knowing that losing the car was entirely on you and you're the only person you can point the finger at.

I honestly don't know what to tell you, or when the feeling will fade, because if I knew, I wouldn't be hanging out on this forum instead of studying for tomorrow. I'm a total moron who can't seem to force myself to hit the books... ah... whatever...

Megan White4 said:Everything she imagines becomes an absolute necessity, regardless of logic or reason. Of course, trying to reason with her is a completely futile exercise.

We can't bring ourselves to toss out her belongings, even when they’re ancient or worn out, but anything that isn't hers just becomes clutter that could actually be useful...

Whenever she decides she needs to buy something—even if we don't need it at all—she spends whatever it costs. Then she has the nerve to lecture me about "going broke" when I need cash for gas or unexpected car repairs.

She nitpicks every tiny, insignificant detail, and nothing I do ever seems to be quite right.

She insists on doing everything herself, only to complain later about how much she has to carry.

The moment I question her actions, she immediately starts the theatrics, acting like the entire world is out to get her.

My patience is wearing thin because her constant nagging and whims seem to escalate every single day... 🙄 ...while my father was still around, he managed to handle her somehow, but now (since I'm just a kid to her, it feels like I'm talking to a brick wall no matter what I say)... 🙄

classic my old man... but hey... I guess it's somewhat acceptable...

I’ve been wondering about something—what actually got you guys into smoking, if you even started that way?
What’s the sensation like? Is it just straight-up gross at first until your body somehow adjusts?
Is there even a point to it, or a purpose (if there is one)?
How would you describe that "craving" and what does satisfying it actually feel like?
Do you ever get hit with the fear of lung cancer or heart disease?
Why do people even bother doing this in the first place?

...I’m honestly just a curious soul here, and I’d really appreciate some answers because I definitely don't want to have to figure this out on my own😉...

thanks

gentlefox18 said:I honestly feel like people in this world carry far too much influence over one another, especially since they seem to have no concept of the weight of their actions or the damage they can inflict. Take a former classmate of mine, for example. pick on him relentlessly, yet if I were to step in and defend him, I’d likely end up being targeted and insulted right along with him. I find myself searching for just one decent person—someone who actually understands the gravity of what they're doing—but there's nobody to be found... I look around and I simply can't believe it. It's baffling how people can be so incredibly thoughtless, failing to use even a shred of logic or consider how their behavior affects someone else. Out of a hundred people, I can't find a single soul with any empathy. Then I come home, replay the whole scene in my head, and wonder again. It makes me genuinely worried about where this country is headed.
Of course, I’ve been guilty of hurting someone before, but never for sport; it was driven by pure malice. Honestly, seeing someone suffer like that fills me with such intense regret that it feels as though the pain is happening to me personally.
Where are these people supposed to turn for help? To a psychiatrist who witnesses these exact scenarios every single day, amidst the tragic reality of the suicide rates we see, or should they just be left to rot? Try stepping into their shoes for a moment; imagine being mocked by everyone around you multiple times a day, and then have some stranger act like they just landed from outer space, acting shocked that people resort to suicide. I truly hope there are still enough good people left in America who actually think about the consequences of their actions.

It’s honestly pathetic how you can only "make a name for yourself" by being slightly better than someone else, rather than just being the best version of yourself without stepping on anyone else to do it... you know what I mean? I guess...

Seriously, where is this world going? Even back in my own classroom, people like that were everywhere (I assume😉)

honestly, I’m just glad I stumbled across you😉

Anonymous said:Everyone thinks they’re a genius in their own eyes, and nobody wants to admit they don't get something because being called "stupid" is such a huge insult these days...

Honestly, you should just be able to say, "Man, I'm lost, can you walk me through this?" But sadly, thanks to modern culture, it feels like everyone has swallowed an entire encyclopedia. Everyone acts like an expert on everything. It's wild, isn't it?

I swear, I nearly die laughing whenever I hear people acting like that...

offt:insult😂
ont: we're all idiots—just live with it!

What’s the vibe when you finally crash in bed feeling totally accomplished because you spent two hours straight grinding through studying, only to take a test and absolutely bomb it because your brain just hit a wall and you couldn't even remember the most basic stuff...

Honestly, those pills help me focus just a tiny bit, but I still can't seem to retain a single thing I read

...honestly, when I see how much I have to cram all at once, I feel like just pulling a muscle and calling it quits...

The worst part is my concentration is absolutely shot. I’m supposed to be sketching this mural for my art class 😵 and trying to nail down some stupid English pronunciations, and even though I actually have the time right now, I just feel totally cheated out of everything else, like I'm being punished. Getting a B+ isn't even a big deal to me—that's just a Tuesday. But when I pull a D or lower? I'm straight-up depressed because I know I actually put in the work, but then I just completely blank during the midterm or the final... It’s like, the professor starts asking questions in Latin or whatever, and I’m just sitting there zoning out, and then she calls on me and I’m just like: "I'm sorry, could you repeat the question?"😵

Roger Chase2 said:

I mean, I really am not like this!

the weakest link🤣