u/Shopkins_lover

I have a 2015 Mazda 6, I am getting new wheels and an alignment soon . I installed new brake pads recently and two new rotors. She drives great and has no issues at the moment. As far as maintenance, I get an oil change regularly and every other oil change I use fuel injector cleaner (maybe not necessary but I do it anyways) , i rotate my tires as needed , change my own engine air filter out, just cleaned my Maf sensor and throttle body (just cuz to be honest) .
The only issue I had was needing new tires but I’m going to do that in a few days with an alignment and then once it wouldn’t start but my battery terminals were filthy so I cleaned the whole engine bay properly and she’s great.

Again, no issues really , drives beautifully, such a lovely car. I do not know a lot about cars to be honest. I’m currently learning but am a beginner . I recently heard about Italian tune ups and doing them every 300 ish miles. Is it actually beneficial? Is it worth doing ? Or is it something that isn’t really needed or necessary at all?
I looked it up but found mixed answers and opinions on it so that’s why I came to Reddit for it

The only time I redlined my car wasn’t intentional and it was to take over a lane to get past a semi. It did fine but I was always scared I could’ve caused damage by doing it.
(Also, yes I know it’s not cool to pass semis like that but I do it very rarely and I promise I make sure the other lane is 100% clear. Never at night, never on a road I can’t see far ahead of, I make sure I’ll be able to take over the semi and get ahead of it quickly I know they don’t brake the same way cars do, etc)

I (18 F) believe I have social anxiety. If I am wrong please correct me and I can take down my post if it feels irrelevant. I have tried therapy just to put that out there.
Sophomore year of high school one day I noticed I talked to a stranger very briefly. Like I had dropped my pencil, they handed it to me and I said thank you and that was it. I noticed my face felt very hot. I looked at the reflection of my phone and realized I was bright red.
I was horrified, little did I know this would become my whole life.

From that day forward, any interaction with people I wasn’t close with already would result in me having the face a color of a stop sign. Even if people glanced at me in the hall my mind would assume it was out of disgust and my face would turn red. I began seeing a therapist who told me when I noticed I was getting red to think of something random or breathe calmly. Naturally, that didn’t do anything.
Eventually, I was able to stop assuming people who merely glanced at me were thinking I was horrible or something. But since that day the red face problem has persisted.

All I want is to get past it. If someone looks at me I still get red , if I talk with someone about ANYTHING ? I get red. I tried more therapists and they said the same thing. I can no longer afford one sadly. I will be honest I don’t like when people look at me because I assume they will make this discovery that I am hideous. I didn’t grow up being bullied, nothing particularly traumatic happened to me , I don’t have friends really but that never bothered me a whole lot. But I have this fear of people seeing me. I know I just need to get over myself. No one concerns themselves that much with strangers, I know I don’t.

But despite countless therapists, research, etc, I am still in the same position where if I order food at a restaurant I turn red.

Now, this may be a bad idea but I ordered these things off tiktok. They were really cheap. It’s these small individual mini surprise packs. They have a tiny plastic mystery animal in each of them. I want to work up the courage to ask people if they’d like them. Or make small talk and offer them. I will start small, but I thought maybe this could help expose me to my fear and maybe I’ll get better.

I’m at a total loss and will try anything. I’ve heard beta blockers can help but I can’t afford all that right now. I think it may be social anxiety, if anyone here has advice at all I would deeply appreciate it.

Ok actually I did have a brief history where I was SA’d freshman year (or maybe I wasn’t even it’s complicated I don’t know) but I am not sure if it is relevant and I have told my therapists that and again not helpful. I am also unsure if I can talk about it here.

Thank you.

Hi! I’ve made a very similar post on another thread just a heads up. And I know this isn’t really about a car in specific but I do need advice.

In short, I know NOTHING about cars at all but I have this deep itch I need to scratch. I have this pull I feel towards cars. I want to know them, understand them, how they work, why they work the way they work.

The only work I’ve done is brake pad changing, brake rotor changing, oil change and cabin air filter replacement and my god it felt good 😭.

I promise my knowledge for cars is about as much as knowing they have 4 wheels. But again, I just really feel this need and want deeper than ever to learn them and work on them.

I tried out a year of college and DESPISED it , though I’ve never enjoyed school. I need to figure out a career for myself and I know I need to do more research but I was kind of thinking about mechanic? I know this is for car people but I made a post on the mechanics forum and a lot of people said it’d just make me hate it.

I can see how that’s a very very real possibility. And I will hopefully have a project car soon so I can tell if I really do love it. But just the small tasks I did felt euphoric.

If anyone in this thread is a mechanic or similar, please tell me - is it worth it? Is it really just a dead end like people were saying? I think I might really have a passion worth exploring but I’m scared of just regretting it. I know you can work on cars as a hobby but I think I want it to be my life? Idk yall maybe I’m just losing it or just hoping for someone to tell me to do it because I might anyways .

Please share your advice and your opinions it is deeply appreciated and needed