u/Clear_Channel_2090

I grew up in a family that never said "I love you", and I think it's made it difficult for me to develop deep relationships

Not even the other iterations, like just saying "love you", or even "love ya". I've managed to work up to those iterations with my wife, but even with her the full "I love you" is like internal nails on a chalkboard. My parents and siblings weren't particularly cold, but we were also never that form of close. We'd talk about anything, but there was never any touching or real signs of affection.

I realize they're just words, but I really do feel it's deeper than that. Seems like an unwillingness to be vulnerable, but maybe that's just me looking into it too much. Been married for years, so relationships are still possible, just feels like one of the deeper layers of them are mentally blocked off. What do you guys think? I don't suppose this is particularly rare, but I also don't think it's the norm.

Anyway, want to get over this hurdle, though in truth I'm not even sure where to start. Perhaps this is more in the territory of seeing a counselor, though I'm always curious for input on things.

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 1 day ago

Anxiety skyrocketing with travel - is this typical?

Planes certainly don't help, but it's the full deal that really does it

I'm flying to a wedding in like 3 weeks. Every time, the lead up is a nightmare. Surrounded by people I don't know on a plane of questionable cleanliness, likely sleep deprived, eating foods prepped by random people, everyone in this scenario are all using public bathrooms, frequently sleeping in hotels that are also of questionable cleanliness, then getting through that gambit and counting down the days just to return to a flight while still sleep deprived.

Feel like all these factors group together in some evil equation to equate to a 100% chance of food poisoning or norovirus. That's what my brain screams at me, at least

Now...I know this is irrational. I'm not asking for reassurance, just hoping I'm not alone in this whole "travel amplifies my anxiety by a million" issue. It's deeply irritating that the little life breaks we get which are meant to be fun get turned into nightmares

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 3 days ago
▲ 3 r/loseit

Hunger suddenly getting unbelievable as I get close to my goal weight. Any tips?

Gone from 225 to 165 over the past couple years with many small cuts. Male, 25, 5'11. I'm probably around 15% body fat at this point, I lift consistently, and have been feeling great physically so I want to keep it going. My energy/flexibility/mood/almost everything are up, it's just my hunger is also up

Since the cuts are short (usually a few weeks) with a few weeks of maintenance in-between them, I've managed to not cheat. Always eating either 2k cals (deficit) or 2500 (maintenance). I believe today I hit 3k, if not a bit more, for the first time since this whole thing started. I was so hungry it was genuinely kinda unbelievable - unsure I've ever been that hungry before, other than consistently over the past few days

Wondering if people here have any input on this! Does it just get hard when you're shooting for the last few pounds? Maybe it was a fluke? I really do want to cut a few more pounds, but I don't think I'll ever be able to push through the crazy hunger I've been feeling the past few days. Maybe it's a willpower issue, a health one, or both. Just feeling surprisingly discouraged from failing a day

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 6 days ago
▲ 133 r/BulkOrCut

Push the cut a bit further, or call it?

Want better abs, but unsure if it's all worth it at this point. Paranoid about becoming shrimpy

Male, 25, 5'10, 225 to 165 pounds via many month long cuts over the past couple years. Think loose skin may be keeping me from where I really want to be at this point, but not too sure.

Sometimes I feel like I undeniably need to keep losing, other times feel like I've already pushed it too much. Pretty torn over it

What do you guys think?

u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 7 days ago

Does anyone else get "finish line" anxiety?

Like you feel you need to make it to a certain point/time, and if you do that, then you're safe. The issue then is that, the closer you get to that time, the more sure you are that you're about to get sick.

For example, norovirus season. November-April dread, and feeling in April that "the season is almost over and I haven't gotten it yet, so I'm destined to get it soon".

In my case, it's that I work in an elementary school, and I haven't gotten noro yet this year. Has me feeling like, despite it being May, I'm destined to get it in the next week or two just due to it being near the end of the risk window. I know this is all illogical and not helpful, but curious if it happens to everyone. It's like I'm not the most anxious when I'm at peak risk...I'm most anxious when risk is going down yet I haven't been hit yet

So tired of it. Told myself I'd relax if I could make it to March...then that shifted to April, and now it's May and it's like my anxiety hasn't been higher. Ah, the joys of emetophobia

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 10 days ago

I'm 25 with 2 unrelated degrees and no relevant work experience. Could use some direction

Bachelor's in psychology and occupational safety and health. Long story there, though both degrees were earned online and carry no solid references or connections.

My work history is...odd. Worked in psych for a couple years, hated it, then went back to school for a second bachelors in occupational safety and health. Another long story largely centered around a preferable job market, but this means all I have now is a couple potential references from odd jobs that I worked 3 years ago.

Add onto this, my wife is doing travel therapy and will be for the next couple years. We've talked it through and agreed to this as the money is significantly better (she makes more travelling than we'd make not travelling while both working) and, honestly, we like the adventure aspect of it.

Biggest issue is this makes it difficult to get anything on the resume other than more odd jobs at grocery stores or something. Her placements are typically only three months long. I want to beef the resume and make myself a decent candidate somehow, but don't know how and don't love the idea of still practically having an empty resume at 27.

So, any recommendations for what I should do? I keep imagining myself in 2 years with these 2 weird degrees along years of unrelated jobs that were all worked for less than 6 months, and can't see myself getting hired at anything. I know the "obvious" choice is to say we can't do travel therapy, but for the sake of keeping things complicated, let's say that route isn't realistically on the table.

Any advice? Thanks so much

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 13 days ago

I'm a 25 year old man, and over the past couple months I've been suddenly remembering that I was sexually assaulted when I was around 7.

I have little snippets of memory. They're confusing, and mostly like...concepts, moreso than images or anything concrete. Neighbor, basement, lips, crazy levels of shame, she was older than me, that's about the extent. It had also happened to my brother and I remember my parents exploding with rage over it. Obviously in hindsight they were mad with the neighbor and not my brother, but I never realized that and kept it to myself.

Anyway, I forgot about that for almost 2 decades. Only remembering now as my sexual desires (or entire lack thereof) have always confused me, so I've been looking back on my life and questioning why that might be. It explains a lot, actually, but that's a whole other thing. Working to get into a therapist, but for now I'm curious if there are any methods to help people remember suppressed memories, or if it's worth trying to remember at all

Thanks so much, all input is appreciated

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 15 days ago

Is it typical to feel an urge to be defensive when someone that was never Catholic talks down on Catholicism, or have I just not disconnected myself?

You know how you can fight with your sibling cause you've "earned" it, but as soon as someone else does, it feels unjustified? I think it's kinda like that. I need to catch myself, cause when I think about it...I really don't know why I jump to being defensive. It doesn't apply here with the "excatholic" label and all, but tends to in other places

I'm not trying to say it's good or other people should be this way. Wondering if it's a me problem and I haven't done a good job distancing myself, or maybe it's just an innate human thing to do.

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 15 days ago

Made it through a winter while teaching kindergarteners

It was quite terrifying, I strongly considered quitting multiple times, but I didn't! Feel much better for having stuck through it. Just wanted to share my win somewhere, it feels like I stared down a demon for 8 months and managed to never fully break

Next up is to come to terms with the concept of actually having kids...one step at a time, though. Take the wins we can get!

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 18 days ago

First off, apologies if this is the wrong place for this. Felt...apt, but honestly I'm not sure.

Anyway, whole classic thing. Raised catholic, have some upsetting memories and first experiences around the topic. Largely just significant shame, learning it's evil, inhumane, gross, etc. etc.

I don't need to get into the nitty gritty, but I'll just say I'm now married and still have this issue. Sex almost scares me, it still feels gross to me. It's unfortunately very hard to describe, so I'm hoping this crowd knows what I'm talking about. I know it may sound like I'm just asexual or something, let me confirm that I'm not, I just have this stigma locked in my brain and I'm really trying to figure out what to do about it. I've known for awhile that this is my issue, but only finally accepting it and trying to move forward.

Anyway, you guys have any tips? Anybody else experience this? Again, I apologize if this is the wrong place

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 18 days ago

Remember I used to love/hate looking at emetophobia related statistics, so figured I'd add a good stat here for anyone else who "likes" doing that. There are good stats out there with the bad, even if you don't look at those ones.

Anyway, I've been looking back on my experience with the phobia, and good lord it was unreasonably hellish. I've been faced with many challenges all throughout my life, as I know everyone has, and none have even come near feeling (or sometimes being) as insurmountable as emetophobia. Getting sober was a breeze comparatively

Took awhile, but couldn't be more relieved to feel even moderately disconnected from it. There was no single experience that greatly reduced fear, no shockingly easy food poisoning or anything, just time and perspective. Actually, looking back, whether or not you vomit seems almost entirely unrelated to whether or not you get over the phobia. I don't think any big experiences like that are necessary to recover, but that's a tangent

Being terrified of your own body is like its own tier of miserable, and everyone here deserves credit for living with that. Especially since it can be seen as a "childish" fear. Your feelings are valid, your fears are valid, and unfortunately many people can't ever understand. In many cases, you simply must learn to motivate yourself with this one

Not here to tell everyone what to do, just here to say it's possible to truly be in the depths of this phobia and still look back on it as a bad memory (a huuugely worse memory than any stomach flu or anything ever was, for the record). Maybe this counts as reassurance, but it's not reassurance that you won't vomit, so I'm hoping it'll fly

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 21 days ago
▲ 36 r/loseit

I know it's a common theme to have more weight to lose than initially expected, which is part of where this question comes from. I started at 220 with the goal of 200. Made it there, decided that wasn't enough, so switched to 190. Repeat that a few times and I'm now 165 and still seeing that there's more weight there to be lost. Just feels like a slippery slope and I'm wondering if the end-point comes naturally to others and this is a me-thing, or if people typically need to set an end goal where they agree to themselves that it's time to swap to maintenance.

I'm just finding it surprisingly easy to continue moving the goalpost. I apologize if this is the wrong sub for this question, I just don't know of a better one

For context, should've mentioned I'm a 25 year old 5'11 man

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u/Clear_Channel_2090 — 26 days ago