u/Silly_Excitement_602

It doesn’t feel worth it to live like this. I’ve called out of work every day for the past two weeks because I’m so anxious about having to interact with people. I feel like the biggest failure in the world. I’m broke all the time because I force myself to work just enough to barely afford rent, and even that feels impossible some days.
I can’t drive. I don’t have friends. I have no one to talk to. My head is constantly full of hate and jealousy toward people who seem normal and healthy, because I don’t understand what it’s like to live that way. Nothing fucking helps. Nothing makes it better.
I’m 26 now. I never thought I’d make it past my teens, but somehow I did and honestly, life is more miserable than I ever could have imagined. I don’t know how much longer I can keep living like this. I want to give up so badly, I just want to experience peace for once in my life.

I have a 4 month old American Eskimo puppy. She is a very sweet puppy, very smart, and I’ve been working hard on training and socialization. Ever since I got her she’s been extremely barky/reactive around new people, dogs, and environments, so I’m trying to focus on calm exposure and not overwhelming her.

The issue I’m having is with my down stairs neighbours and their dog (we share a yard)
Their Maltese is very reactive/aggressive around other dogs. When they see another dog, they bark, snarl, snap and become very worked up. I’m not sure of the exact reason behind their behaviour. I have been wanting to avoid forcing my puppy into interactions and instead teach her that she can calmly exist around other dogs without needing to greet them.

However, my downstairs neighbours seem to think the dogs need to “meet” and have been trying to encourage interactions.
Today I took my puppy outside to potty and my neighbours had people over. My puppy was already overwhelmed because several people wanted to greet her. I sat down and let her approach people at her own pace. She barked ALOT but did eventually go up, sniff, and allow pets, while continuously barking.

Then their dog came outside. My neighbour started calling their dog over so the dogs could get closer to each other. Both dogs immediately started barking. My puppy was on a long lead and started lunging toward their dog, getting up on her hind legs trying to reach them. Their dog was behind my neighbour’s legs, barking and growling.
I kept trying to get my puppy’s attention, but I didn’t have treats with me and she was too worked up to listen. My neighbour commented that their dog’s tail was wagging, so they thought everything was okay, but I didn’t feel comfortable because both dogs were clearly over threshold.

I eventually picked my puppy up and brought her inside, but I feel bad that I didn’t remove her sooner. I’m worried she spent too much time rehearsing barking/lunging.
The difficult part is that my neighbours don’t seem to understand why I don’t want them interacting. They believe the dogs should just “work it out” or meet, but I’m worried that repeatedly forcing my puppy into situations where she is barking and lunging could make her reactions worse.
My puppy is already barking when we come outside and she sees my neighbours or their dog, and I’m worried because I have to walk past them all the time to get to our potty area. I want to be able to calmly take her outside without her practicing this behaviour.

Am I right to want to avoid these interactions and focus on calm behaviour at a distance? How do you handle neighbours who keep trying to force interactions with them and their reactive dog????

My mom and I recently got a 17 week old American Eskimo puppy together, we both paid half and half for her. Neither of us has ever raised a puppy before, but I’ve spent years researching puppy training, so I’ve been trying really hard to set her up for success.
Right now I’m working on things like fetch, recall, and building confidence. The issue is that my mom has a very different idea of how to play with her. Whenever the puppy has a toy, my mom will chase her around the house trying to get it from her. She also gets down on all fours, approaches her toys, and uses a silly/“creepy” voice while trying to take the toy away.
The thing is, I’ve noticed the puppy doesn’t seem to enjoy it the way my mom thinks she does. When my mom does this, she often runs and jumps into my lap for comfort. My mom sees the running and excitement and thinks the puppy loves the game, but to me it looks like she’s getting overwhelmed and seeking reassurance.
We had an argument about it because I asked my mom to stop playing this way. She feels like I’m going to make the puppy “boring” and too attached to me, and says this is just how she plays with dogs and it’s part of who she is. She got furious with me, and felt like I was attacking her or something and went to her room.
My biggest concern is that I work 2–3 days a week, while my mom watches the puppy so I’m worried that the training and boundaries I’m trying to build could be undone when I’m not around.
Am I overreacting? Is this type of play actually harmful, or am I right to be concerned about creating a puppy who learns that chasing/avoiding people is a game?

She barks at everything 😅 the tv, my cats, me, any noise she hears, anytime someone leaves the room for a while then comes back, any sudden noise or movement.. is there something I should do to help this lessen over time or will that happen naturally as she gets used to my house?

For a little context she’s 4 months old and already crate trained.
I work full time but my mom is always home so she will be able to look after her

I just wanted to share that my family likes to tell me multiple times a day how boring and how surface level I am. It hurts so much, and makes me more insecure about myself than i already am. I feel like I’m a waste of space that can’t contribute to anything. I don’t know how to talk to people anymore, my brain is broken and I can never come up with things to say.
My creativity is completely shot as-well, I used to be an artist, ever since I was a kid I loved to draw and create things. now I haven’t even drawn in years and even when I try, I can’t think of anything and have 0 creative spark

Does anyone else have this type of terrible luck? I swear it happens every single time 😂

I just started keto last week and I’ve had a painful headache for the past 4 days, I’ve also been feeling light headed too. I’m an avid hiker and I tried to go for a hike the other day and had to turn around and go home because I felt like I could faint. I read that it could be an electrolyte imbalance, but I’ve been drinking lmnt packets everyday, eating avocados and salting my food, so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong here? Is it a lack of magnesium maybe? I’m surely getting enough sodium and potassium

It happens everyday, it’s like someone presses play on the song I was listening to the day before. Most days after work I see my music playing in the background but I never noticed because my volume is all the way down. This literally just happened before making this post, a song I had paused played for 2 seconds and then paused again on its own?? Why is this happening?