The Cornell 7 case doesn’t just raise questions about women’s safety but also about how misogyny is rapidly multiplying because of the Internet. Read about how the case intersects with the digital space in my latest newsletter!
https://yourweeklybrainunrot.substack.com/p/what-the-i-am-jane-doe-trend-tells
Heya folks! I’m thinking of making a women's only book club that focuses on modern living and women's identity.
Basically, a feminist reading circle where we sit with a book, share our thoughts, and find a more intentional way to read more (because tbh, even I need a better reason to get reading, lol).
Should I create a Discord community or something? Would anyone care, haha?
I've got some really fun creative analysis and writing exercises planned to turn the discussion into a cute journal entry, too (if you are into that).
Anyway, I'm just toying with the idea, but I've got a couple of great (and not crazy difficult) books on my TBR list.
I am working on a story for a contest where one of the guidelines is to fail the reverse Bechdel test, meaning:
Now, I wanted to ask if a reference to a conversation between two men, that happened in the past before the story and involves no direct conversations, will cause me to not fail the test?
Basically, my story mentions a merchant and a customer haggling over prices before the scene opens, so there's a reference to them getting interrupted but no dialogues. Does that mean I am not failing the test?
Just came across a post on the legal advice sub about a woman getting assaulted. Unsurprisingly, too many people in the comments were talking about the how girl was at fault for going to a man's house AFTER SETTING A CLEAR BOUNDARY THAT SHE ISN'T INTERESTED IN INTIMACY (which he violated after she got drunk).
Now the police are refusing to take the case saying it's the girl's fault for going to the man's house, and people are comparing it to sextortion crime (YUCKKKKKKKKKK).
This is a PSA for every woman out there: Never ever ever ever ever go to a man's house, either sober but definitely not inebriated, unless you have already made a sober decision to be intimate with him. And never ever ever go to a private space with a man unless you know him for AT LEAST 6 months to a year (or more depending on your comfort level).
This is a personal rule I made for myself when I started dating, and it has paid well. Obviously, it's not perfect: A man can pretend to be someone completely different for a very long time, he can keep forcing himself even if you withdraw consent in the last moment, and at no point do I mean to imply that this is a fail-safe solution or that it's your responsibility to not get raped (because that is a GROSS thought process).
But the reality of this country is that there is NO ONE, not the police, not the lawmakers, hell, not even your own parents in most cases, who will fully support you and help you get justice. Do you listen to me, girls? We have NO ONE, so WE need to advocate for ourselves, WE need to protect ourselves, WE need to keep ourselves safe.
At least until we are able to leave this godforsaken country for good and maybe move to some other place that is marginally better (because let's be honest, there's no country on this planet that is misogyny free).
I'm not trying to prove a point. I genuinely wanna know other feminists' thought process on this, and I'm absolutely open to reconsideration if I've got it all wrong.
But from my POV, it just doesn't make sense to let a woman's parent go if dowry related cruelty/death occurs? Dowry is a system that is sustained from two sides: the person who demands for it is obviously in the wrong, but so are the people who are giving in to the system.
A woman who faces torture or death due to dowry also faces so because her family decided to go through with the wedding even when dowry demands are made. So why not persecute parents of women who accept such alliances as well?
Not only would that ensure that parents actually think twice before marrying off their daughter with dowry, but it might actually push these parents to use that money for the daughter's education instead of using it for this regressive practice. At least the people who blindly marry off their daughters despite this VERY OBVIOUS red flag will be deterred to some extent.
Because rn the parents marry off the girl, and then if she ends up dead, they go and cry on national television of abuse and whatnot, with not a single person questioning THEIR role in allowing such an alliance.
What do y'all think?
I was feeling pretty low yesterday and was scrolling Zomato. Ended up getting a bento pineapple cake to treat myself. This is the first time in my life that I've bought a cake without a special occasion. Being an adult can be fun sometimes 🤣
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This case is from Delhi University North Campus.
A mother cat gave birth to 5 kittens, but just 2–3 days later she was attacked by dogs. Despite treatment, she sadly passed away yesterday.
The kittens are only 4–5 days old. Their eyes haven't even opened yet, We are currently feeding them Lactol KMR, but this is only a temporary arrangement.
We urgently need an experienced foster who knows how to hand-raise neonatal kittens.
Please DM me immediately if you can foster them or help us find someone experienced. Time is extremely critical.
Every single time I share one of my newsletters on Reddit or in a Discord community, there's at least one person who confidently declares that it's "OBVIOUSLY written using AI."
And before you come for my neck: no, I don't spam communities with links. I usually just give a snapshot of the topic, try to start a genuine discussion, and leave the newsletter there for anyone who's interested.
Yet somehow it always turns into, "The em dashes. The bullet points. The questions. Such an AI giveaway."
It genuinely makes me lose my shit every time. Not just because I've spent most of my life writing, both personally and professionally, but because the whole accusation rests on something that just isn't true.
People talk about "AI writing patterns" as though they're objective. But AI writes the way it does because it was trained on millions of pieces of human writing. Even AI detectors can't agree with each other, and one of them famously identified the US Constitution as AI-generated.
Like, it's literally in the news right now for actually consuming books out of existence to feed its database!!!!
And like idiots, writers and creatives keep adapting to AI without even realizing it's stealing from them.
At my previous workplace, we were literally told to stop using em dashes because clients associated them with ChatGPT. Writers are deliberately making their work messier, more slang-heavy, less polished, just to prove there's a real person behind the keyboard.
Y'all, a punctuation mark became a criminal overnight.
This tech is LITERALLY breaking the very mechanisms we use to decide what's real and what isn't. Yet we don't even bat an eye and keep squabbling over what AI writing even sounds like.
But no one is stopping to ask: What happens when the very mechanisms you've relied on your entire life to decide what's real and who to trust begin to fail? What else about the world are you accepting without stopping to question it?
If this got your gears turning, I unpacked this whole idea in a newsletter if anyone wants to read it: https://yourweeklybrainunrot.substack.com/p/ai-generated-content-broken-trust-digital-landscape
Edit: y'all are serious assholes trolling me rn. I hate you guys omg 😭😭😭
I can't imagine them having any sort of consciousness and they are so amply available that I can't think the environmental impact would be the same as meat.
What do y'all think?
Basically, any books that pickup local folklores/fairy tales (especially lesser known ones) and expand them into a heart-touching story that makes you feel a whole lotta heartwarming emotions, a touch of sadness, and just overall make you believe in magic even as an adult.
I ask because I read Eowyn Ivey's The Snow Child recently and it seriously gave me the same feeling that reading fairy tales and Arabian Nights used to give me as a kid.
Any books that are similar?
Edit: I'm overwhelmed by the crazy number of amazing books recommended on this thread. Thank you so much to everyone who shared their recommendations!!!! You've given me enough suggestions to keep me busy for a LONG time 🫶😭
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Before someone comes after me, I'm someone who always makes sure to tip a polite delivery partner. I let them fill their bottles and offer water during summer. Despite that, some of these fuckers act so bloody rude I just feel like an idiot.
For context, I'm lying half dead at my place because I'm down with viral. Most days I cook my own breakfast but today I was just too tired. I decided to order some chai and idli and Zomato assigned me the most miserable prick possible.
First, the guy was extremely late. Okay, whatever. Maybe it wasn't in his control. Then he calls me and tells me to come down. When I tell him I'm sick and I can't, this guy says "koi baat nahi order cancel kardo"???? (No problem cancel the order)
Genuinely, wtf? Then he cuts the call and I report him for delivery partner fraud. Immediately he calls back and says he's outside my house. I open the door and he's not there cuz he didn't bother to listen to the address for 2 mins properly. Then I explain it to him and he says I'm wasting his time. That's when I snap and tell him delivery karna aata nahi hai toh karte kyu ho (why do you do deliveries if you don't know how).
Finally this asshat somehow gets to my door and I grab my order and shut it on his face. But gawd, this was literally my last straw today and it's not even 2 in the afternoon. Istg I'm never tipping or doing anything nice for these ungrateful shitheads. Despite being sexually harassed by some deli partners, I've always treated them with dignity.
My mistake apparently.
A lot of us say we want an Internet with better privacy, fewer ads, and less surveillance. But then I started wondering... what would that Internet actually look like?
Would Spotify still know exactly what music you'd like? Would Google Maps still predict where you're headed? Would Instagram stop recommending products that genuinely interest you? Would half the conveniences we've gotten used to simply disappear?
Somewhere along the way, it feels like convenience and exploitation have become tangled together.
I recently fell down the rabbit hole of the whole "our phones are listening to us" conspiracy theory. But the more I researched it, the less interesting the microphone question became.
Because even if our phones aren't secretly listening to us, the Internet is already watching us in so many other ways that maybe we're asking the wrong question entirely.
I ended up writing a much longer piece on surveillance capitalism, the digital panopticon, and why I think this conspiracy refuses to die even after years of debunking.
Curious what you all think: Is it actually possible to have an Internet that complements our lives rather than consumes them? Or are those two things inseparable?
If you want to read the full breakdown, here's the link to the article: https://yourweeklybrainunrot.substack.com/p/is-your-phone-listening-to-you
This is a summary of an essay published on Your Weekly Brain Un-rot. The full post can be accessed via this link: https://open.substack.com/pub/yourweeklybrainunrot/p/why-obsession-became-an-internet-culture-phenomenon
A lot of people have been wondering why have so many posts, theories, and discussions about Obsession have gone viral in the past three weeks. I think one of the reasons the movie not only became such a hit (it actually broke a 44-year-old record) but also sparked so many debates is because it works as two completely different films depending on who is watching it.
Obsession was a success because of how differently men and women reacted to it
I've spent a long time in the past few days going through deep-dives, comments, and posts, and I keep seeing the same pattern re-emerge.
For (pre-dominantly) male viewers, it's a classic monkey's paw story: an underconfident, love-struck man makes a careless wish and pays the price for getting exactly what he wanted. The horror lies in the consequences.
But a lot of female viewers seem to see the horror somewhere else entirely: in the wish itself.
"I wish Nikki Freeman loved me more than anyone in the f*cking world."
The same scenes that some viewers interpret as Bear being awkward, lonely, or unlucky are often read by others as selfishness, entitlement, or a desire for control. Even the movie's most controversial SA scene sparked completely different conversations depending on whether people viewed Nikki's "haunting" as possession by a separate entity or as a violation of Nikki herself.
(For context, a lot of people argue that since Nikki says that "she had never been with Bear before" towards the end, the intimate scenes in the movie cannot be considered SA — which, in my personal opinion, feels like complete hogwash.)
But what interests me isn't which interpretation is correct (I'm sure everyone has their own thoughts). It's what it has to say about the world we are existing in today.
Obsession arrived at a moment when men and women are increasingly socializing, dating, and understanding consent through very different lenses. So discussions about the film quickly became discussions about gender, loneliness, agency, and power.
And maybe that's why it resonated with so many people: Because it surfaced a variety of different anxieties for different people.
This is obviously a very condensed version of the argument, but I ended up writing a much longer essay on why Obsession became such a cultural phenomenon, how different audiences interpreted Bear and Nikki, and what those reactions might reveal about the changing politics of gender online.
Is it just me or is social media CONSTANTLY pushing something or the other to purchase, either subtly or very, very directly?
Some reels are outright sponsored by brands, while others have some stupid #ad hidden in the caption. So many people rely on influencers for good, honest reviews because it somehow feels more authentic that TV ads or celeb promotions, but at the end of the day, it's all the same.
I recently put up an essay on the topic in case you wanna give it a read: In 2026, my top 3 icks are cockroaches, wet socks, and lifestyle content.
Do you feel like your Instagram feed is making you more consumeristic?
And if you're looking for a fun read that explores the Internet — what's hot, what's not, and why's that — check out my newsletter if you want a dose of Your Weekly Brain Un-rot.
I am NOT Original OP — OOP is u/Silent-Occasion-6870 posting in r/AITAH
TRIGGER WARNING: >!gambling addiction and abuse!<
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[Original]
May 4, 2026 | AITAH for not donating for a sick kid which led to others doing the same?
My (39M) husband (35) has a big family and they are always in about each other's business and causing drama. I generally keep out of it and let him deal with them all. This time I was dragged into it and it has all blown up.
He has a cousin who is married to a twat of a guy, they have an 8 yo boy. They are all about show and live outside there means, everything is on finance. Nice cars, luxury holidays etc. Through the family grapevine we have heard that they are in about 80k of debt. He has a job that pays about 100k a year. We have never got on. There have been the gay "jokes", nothing too bad but irritating. He also HATES the fact we both do extremely well for ourselves. Not to brag but we have access to 7 figures in savings and investments. The family knows but people on the outside have no idea. We live a quiet life, no flashy cars or insta posts about our holidays. Last year he came into a decent inheritance in the form of a 750k house, would not shut up about it. This is all relevant.
Now to the issue, unfortunately their kid has become ill, extremely ill, not going to die but their life will definitely be more difficult. There is a treatment available that MIGHT help but it will cost around 250k. They came to us and asked if we would pay for it. We said we would need to discuss it and ultimately went back to them and said that this isn't something that we would do. This was not a fun phone call, he kicked off calling us every name under the sun. Our reasons will become clear soon.
After this call they put us on blast in the family group chat and Facebook. We were getting calls and messages from people going in hard on us. This is when I messaged the chat and commented on their FB. I explained that if they could not afford it, we would have helped. They have a paid off 750k house. I pointed out that there is nothing stopping them from releasing some equity in the house and this would pay for the treatment and clear their debt. Their mortgage payments would be less than what they previously paid in rent. I also pointed out that they could cancel their 2 upcoming 10k holidays and down grade their cars. I said that I felt like we would be paying to maintain their lifestyle and as parents they should be doing everything they should to help said kid.
Since this there has been more name calling and dramatics but most of the family have now pivoted to our POV this has led to some of them who previously promised money pulling out. We are all being called monsters for not helping a sick kid. I don't think we are but that is why we are here, AITAH?
UPDATE: https://www.reddit.com/r/AITAH/comments/1tcbg22/update_aitah_for_not_donating_for_a_sick_kid/
Relevant & Top Comments
#1
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OP: Apparently because we are rich and don't have kids we should cough up. They have also pointed out how we have helped other family members. We have paid for 3 of their University's and also bought 2 houses for ones who were genuinely struggling.
#2
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With people like that, if I did want to gift money for such a reason, I would ask for the bill amd pay it directly. If they refused, I would know something was up.
OP: The whole thing is horrible. My husband's family do not have a lot of money. They were all trying to see what they could scrape together, if they were lucky it would have been 15/20k. This is what made me say no, they are supposed to be going on holidays totalling more than that this year and they were happy letting the rest of the family make pretty severe sacrifices.
#3
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I feel like it’s obvious but it’s your money, why do they expect you and your husband to “help their child” when they’ve shown who they are as a person against you two and the way they treat you. This isn’t even about “helping their child” it is essentially helping to maintain their lifestyle, as a parent it is their job to do whatever they can to be the first ones to help their child but instead they choose to ask others just because they don’t want to make sacrifices with their lavish lifestyle and maintain a facade. They should write a note to themselves, always treat others with kindness cause you never know when you’ll need their help, also that’s a basic human thing to do.
As a side note I just want to say that you are what I aspire to be, a successful gay married couple that is able to help family, the ones that are actually in need. please teach me your ways hehe jk
OP: Thank you but I feel a bit of a fraud being called successful. The money came from a payout that I got when I was 13 and my parents were killed, it was invested well. I didn't "earn" it. Me and my husband started a business doing something we love, it does well but 75% of our money comes off the back of the payout.
This is why I like to do what I can for his family who need it. It kind of feels like dirty money and it makes it feel cleaner by doing what we can for them.
#4
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OP: The family have bailed, they won't be getting anything. The sad thing is that the kid is going to be messed up because of it. Not because of their illness but they have apparently told him that his family won't help when he is sick and they are going to "lose" their house because of it and I am the number one villain out of everyone.
#5
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Absolutely not! If they're comfortable living in a high debt lifestyle, the kid's treatment is roughly the price of a new car. If their kid isn't worth the price of a car when they already have equity waiting to be tapped. So since they essentially already have the money. It's not that hard to get an equity loan then, poof! Money!
You're right in your assessment that they were looking for a way for this to not ripple their pond. Besides, any hospital will make payment arrangements in their billing department. That's what us poor folks do. So, it not like the answer was ever really going to be no for the kid.
That's like a burning itch in my brain though.... Sitting on 750k and running around with their hand out like they're overextended and strapped for cash.
Didn't everybody else know about the house too? Yet your knowledge of their assets was what they needed in order to "get it"
Well, in a family that likes to be up in each other's business and spin drama, y'all better watch your back. Cause when all this is said & done with their kid being sick, they'll be aiming at you.
You better shore up your lives, and make sure you've got nothing going on that they can get a fingernail under to expose. Expect them to come out petty. Unless they've already got something from years & years ago to throw at you cold.
I mean, I hope they just go - and go away quietly. But from what you described about your family in general, I don't see that as an option.
OP: This is going to sound bad but my husbands family are not well off and he was the first to go to university. There is a lot of issues in the family that comes with living close to poverty.
My parents died when I was 13, it was 100% the fault of a large company and I got a substantial pay out. This was invested well and I have maintained that in adulthood. I met my husband at Uni and we started a small passion business that does well. There is nothing nefarious in how we came into our wealth so he has nothing on us.
We regularly help his family out and we don't begrudge them at all, they might be annoying, but they have had hard lives due to generational trauma. We try and focus any money we give in helping the younger generation break that cycle. We pay a full time therapist just to work with his family, she has no other clients. We pay for further education and help out the ones that don't want to study start their own businesses. We have shares 2 landscape businesses, a hairdressers, a plumbers and a bakery.
This is why he can't get his head round us not giving money for a sick child when we do these sort of things for the rest of the family.
I was an only child and don't really have family of my own, his family are far from perfect but most of them have good hearts and have taken me in. That is why we overlook a lot of their behaviours and help where we can. They money will be no use to us when we are dead and we have more than enough to see us out with the lifestyle we live.
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[Update]
May 14, 2026 | UPDATE: AITAH for not donating for a sick kid which led to others doing the same?
Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AITAH/comments/1t2ztpo/aitah_for_not_donating_for_a_sick_kid_which_led/
It has been a crazy couple of weeks so I thought I would update you all.
First off, a lot of you were right, there was a lot more going on than anyone knew. There was something off about the whole situation , but the one thing we knew is that the kid was sick. My husband saw a post on socials that his cousins husband was out of town for the weekend, we decided to reach out to the cousin and see if she would meet us for a coffee, she did and she invited us round to their house.
I know a lot of you will say we were stupid to go round but my husband had been close to his cousin growing up and just wanted to see if there was something that could be figured out, I was against it but it was important to him. I didn't need to be there but I am going to be honest, I was there for the tea.
Anyway things were off in the house, I don't know how to describe it but she seemed out of place in her own home, on edge. At first I thought it was because we there and the whole situation was awkward. After everyone was settled, we started talking and basically said that we stand by what we said but if we could help in other ways that worked for everyone, we would. She broke down and it all came out.
It turns out the her husband has a gambling problem and the 80k was nowhere close to their debt. He had taken out 550k against the house as soon as he got it, this cleared what he owed on credit and to some less than savoury people. The problem is his gambling problem did not go away, surprise surprise, and it had crept back up again to the tune of about 100k, fucking crazy.
As predicted by some of you, the out of pocket for the treatment was not 250k it was closer to 125k, he decided to double it and approach us to kill two birds with one stone. Clear the debt and pay for treatment.
Before I go any further, we are now paying for the full treatment directly to hospital. Appointments are being made and hopefully the little guy will start it in the next few weeks.
What we didn't predict and what nobody had any idea about was what else was going on in the household, I won't go into details because I would need to post trigger warning but I am sure you can figure it out.
I have to say, I had said that his family can be troublesome but they rallied as soon as the flag went up. The cousin, the son and all of their personal belongings, documents etc were out of that house within two hours, there was not a trace of them left. I was impressed, all the family shit and dramas were forgotten.
We moved both of them into our guest house and that is where they will be staying for the foreseeable future.
Sunday night the shit hit the fan. He came home to an empty house, his stuff was still there. She had blocked him on everything so he started going round all of the family members kicking off, he was met with a wall of silence. Everyone denied all knowledge of anything and told him where to go.
The only place he couldn't get to was ours, he couldn't get past security. We had given them all his details, told them the situation and said that under no circumstances was anyone to be let through to visit us without calling and confirming with us. He showed up and made a scene, but got nowhere, I think security enjoyed it, it is normally a pretty boring job.
Next thing we knew, we had the police at our door. I think he had called in a welfare check as he guessed/ knew they were here. We explained the situation and that went nowhere for him.
She is talking with our lawyer and they will be dealing with everything for her. The main thing is that they are both safe and her kid is getting the treatment that he needs.
I know I shouldn't take any pleasure in this but I do, I hate the guy. He will lose everything, they have been missing their mortgage payments, the house will be gone soon. Divorce will be happening and there is apparently an excellent chance of full custody for her. He is spiralling, it would not surprised me if he messes up his job as well.
So for now everything seems to be under control. I don't expect anymore updates unless he does something spectacular.
Edit- There have been a lot of comments saying that he could be dangerous right now as he has nothing to loose. While you can never be 100% we are in a good position. He would need to get past 2 security checkpoints just to get to our front gate. There patrols that drive about 24/7. We have 5 dogs, admittedly 3 of them are useless but we have a Doberman and a German Shepard who spend most of their time outside, by choice.
She has no desire to venture outside of this right now and if she does she will be with someone on high alert, just until the dust settles and we see how the land lies.
The lawyers are doing their thing in regard to restraining orders etc but I don't think we will know what is happening until next week. Thank you for your concern but for now they are both totally safe.
Relevant & Top Comments
#1
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honestly all of this
also, Op is a MUCH better man than i am, cause even though HE said shouldnt take pleasure in this asshole getting what he deserves I certainly do lol
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#2
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OP: That won't be a problem, money wise things should be close to balancing out. There will just be nothing left. We will be helping them get back on their feet, my husband was looking for therapists today for both of them.
I expect them to be here for a couple of years, she has talked about some courses she can take. Even though it reeks of nepotism we will create a job for her so she can start building her confidence back up. Once she is ready of course.
#3
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OP: We are aware that this is a risk but I don't think she will. We are getting her into therapy. She is sleeping a lot just now, I think it is just the release from all off the stress.
Materially she does not need to worry about anything. Family are all coming round, there is a really good atmosphere around her right now.
I know that will fade when people go back to their owns live and I am sure the nights will be difficult for her. I think they have found someone who specialises in her situation who will hopefully help her.
Also her kid is much happier, he is coming out of his shell. He is loving the pool and we bought him the new Switch 2 since he has been desperate for the Harry Potter game, I am letting my JK boycott slide this one time. It is a bit annoying I have made such a song and dance about getting rid of all my old HP stuff, the game looks really good. My husband can tell I am desperate to play it and finds it amusing that I won't. Might have to come down at 3am for a quick shot of it.
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THIS IS A REPOST SUB—I AM NOT OOP. DO NOT COMMENT ON THEIR POSTS
I know I know this is AskIndianWoman but the male version of such subreddits are usually quite toxic which is why I am posting here.
I know someone who is going through a very low moment in his life and struggling a lot with suicidal thoughts. While I am doing my best to keep encouraging him, are there any resources to give him some sense of purpose? Kinda like the Tam Kaur for men or something 😅 I'm asking cuz this kinda content was what pulled me out of my depressive rut and pushed me towards working on my life.
I know therapy is the right step for someone in this position but believe me when I say he really cannot afford it at this moment. Ladies who have partners or male friends that struggled with this phase, what helped? Men who experienced such feelings, how did you heal from it?
I am really lost and it hurts me to see this person suffer so much when he's one of the most wonderful people I know. Any suggestions, tips, techniques, resources, literally ANYTHING would be useful.
I am already there for him and console him and encourage him but he is suffering from an extremely low self-worth due to a parent's passing away and his inability to find a better job in this shit job market.