u/Zotzotplz344

I’m a new therapist trainee. I’ve been seeing clients for roughly 2 months now. It has been an immense struggle for me psychologically. I have crippling anxiety and dread every day. My social anxiety (which I had experienced as a teen and quelled through my own therapy) has returned with a roaring vengeance. I question whether or not I want to do this work every day and have a hard time seeing myself still doing this 10 or even 5 years from now. I’ve been in my own therapy for years, and though it has helped my symptoms in the long term, the tools I normally use to help myself are no longer effective in the context of being a therapist. I have intrusive thoughts of being a failure, of my clients hating me, analyzing every little thing I say or do. It’s agonizing and seriously impacting my work. I’ve never been medicated before (except concerta for my ADHD) but I’m considering it now. I want to be a therapist. I want this. But I don’t know if I can deal with this anxiety much longer. I also feel guilty given the implications of me needing to take medications for my own mental health symptoms when my one job is to provide an organic solution to those symptoms for others. Anyone else deal with a similar dilemma?

As much as I enjoy this work, I absolutely hate being broke. I’m a trainee who just started his internship and I am already resenting the fact I have to perform
hundreds of hours of free labor. I have a job but I’ve had to cut my hours since starting my practicum and I get paid jack shit anyways. I have no money to spend on me anymore. No more eating out, no more concert tickets, no more weekend trips. I’m penny pinching over here. Doesn’t help I’m in CA and my rent eats up my entire paycheck. My Dad, who doesn’t love that I entered this field, is constantly asking me how much I’ll be making when I graduate. I always tell him 80k+ when I know that’s just not true. I try to look on indeed for post grad jobs as hope but the market looks grim. Group practices with no benefits and shit pay v CMH burnout city. Seems like most of the associate therapists I know who are in private practice just live off of their partners money. Thats not super comforting to me since I’m on my own. It feels like I’ve made a mistake until I remember how fulfilled I feel after seeing clients. If only fulfillment could pay my bills.

I (24m) have always thought I was just heterosexual. I find women physically attractive and fantasize about having sex with them and all that stuff. However, when it comes to the actual act, I have a very hard time imaging myself doing it with someone unless I loved and trusted them. I would need to find the person very physically attractive in order to have a casual sexual relationship. I don’t know if this makes me demisexual because from what I know for demisexuality, emotional attraction is a prerequisite for both sexual and romantic relationships. I’ve never had a serious girlfriend, and tried hooking up with someone in high school but couldn’t go through with it because I was extremely anxious. Didn’t help that I barely knew the girl. I feel sort of alien compared to my friends, who have no issue finding and engaging in sexual relationships with people they barely know. But I also find myself in a sort of gray area where I don’t totally identify with the label of demisexual either. I’m just confused

Why the fuck do I have to pay 300$ for a parking permit when there is no parking. I spent two hours driving around a fucking moron looking for parking, only to find a spot in lot 10, where I proceeded to walk through the hot and muggy fucking weather for 30 minutes to get to my job, which I was already 2 hours late for. This school is a cancer, a pestilence, which has only brought me suffering and agony. I long for the day I can be free of its shackles and never set foot on its premises again

I (24M) injured my back in May. Was carrying some boxes and strained my thoracic spine area. Supposedly the tissue is healed now but I’m still having spasms. Been in PT since June. Do my exercises religiously, as well as have modified movements that are triggering. There are some things I’m trying to get back into, like rock climbing, that trigger my back. No matter how much warming up and stretching I do, my back still flares up after these activities. It just feels very tight and hurts. I can’t imagine having to live without being able to do the things I love, and don’t know why I’m still dealing with this 3 months a later when I was told it would only be a 3-4 week recovery process. My PTs have no answers for me, they just tell me to keep doing my exercises and use heat and rest when it flares up. Which is fine, but it’s very annoying when I’m trying to enjoy time with loved ones or do every day tasks and suddenly I need to go lay down because my back is flaring up.

At this point, what would help? I was told surgery would not be required since there was no tissue or skeletal damage. But PT doesn’t seem to be addressing the issue either, as my progress has been stagnant for months.

I have to record sessions with clients at my practicum site. How did yall go about doing this? I don’t really own a camera besides my phone and laptop webcam, but idk how secure that is.

Edit: to be clear, I don’t mean tracking my hours, I mean literally video recording my sessions for supervision purposes

3 years ago I was at a low point in my life. I was almost 180 lbs (I am 5’3 so that is pretty overweight), balding, fresh out of college with no purpose and no direction. I had no girlfriend (and still haven’t had one), and the few friends I had left had moved away or became with their new careers or relationships. I was alone, for the most part. I decided to apply to grad school, got in, and moved to a new city, where I built a new life for myself. I lost 40 lbs, cleaned myself up, took up some new hobbies (like chess, fitness, and bouldering), and made some new friends. I look at myself in the mirror and I FEEL better. I’m genuinely proud of myself for getting out of that slump.

However, I still can’t help but feel stuck. I’ve progressed in so many realms of my life, yet the things I truly care about still seem so distant. I want to be in love with a beautiful girl. I want to do all of the little things you do with a partner, like going to the movies and holding hands, l buying each other gifts, and falling asleep while holding one another. I am almost 25 years old, and I’ve not done much more than kiss a girl, and the last time for me was almost 5 years ago. I’ve tried my hand at dating apps, cold approach, meeting thru mutual friends, group hobbies, everything. Yet I feel like I’m invisible. Attractive Women turn away from me when I make eye contact. They express interest over text but ghost me right before we go on a date.

My female friends all tell me the same thing. “Girls just suck” “you’ll find someone, you’re a great guy!” “Height doesn’t matter to girls with the right guy” maybe these things are true, maybe not. I can’t help but feel like the guys who do end up in relationships do so mostly out of luck. Being in the right place at the right time, with the right person. And as much as you can improve your odds and create opportunities to meet others, there is absolutely nothing you can do to MAKE someone fall in love with you. Whatever “it” is that triggers those feelings in others is not something I have. I’m so lonely sometimes I can’t bear it. I just want to touch, and be touched. It’s been so long…

I’m starting training for an on campus job tomorrow and I don’t rly wanna pay for parking since I’m only here two days a week. Anyone have any luck parking over by the habit/college park during the day?

So I’m not a terrible communicator by any means. I can hold down a conversation if I need to and I have an okay sized social network, but there is definitely room for improvement. I particularly struggle to hold conversations with someone I have little in common with. Does anyone have any recommendations for books or materials that could help me improve upon these skills?

I’ve read how to win friends and influence people but it’s been a few years so I’m prob due for a re read

I (24m) injured my back last month, and it has sent my mental health down the toilet. I can’t work out, i can’t rock climb (a new hobby of mine), I am in near constant discomfort, I’m losing sleep because my pain meds wear off in the middle of the night or because I’m so anxious about my injury I can’t fall asleep in the first place, etc. I lost my desk job earlier this year so I had to pick up a shitty retail job that has me on my feet all day, which aggravates my back. It’s not fun. I’m trying to stay positive, and luckily i am finally seeing a physical therapist next week, but man am I depressed.

I already spent half of 2025 injured with biceps tendinitis, which kept me out of the gym for what felt like ages. After months of diligent rehabbing I was finally back in the gym pushing new PRs only for my back to give out while carrying a stupid fucking panda express catering box. The gym gives me a sense of purpose and consistent pleasure, so not being able to work out or do anything remotely physically challenging sucks. I spend most of my time now playing video games or trying to write music (which I have hit a wall on recently) and doing anything to distract myself whilst I pass the time. But I hate living this way, feeling stagnant and doing nothing with my life.

The cherry on top of all of this is am actually in grad school studying to be a therapist. So there’s an added layer of guilt knowing I have many strategies to cope with this situation (social support, therapy, cognitive restructuring, etc.) but none of them have made me feel less miserable. It makes me feel like I’m incompetent or not applying my skills correctly. I know this is not a helpful or rational way of thinking, yet I can’t seem to evade the perpetual stream of negativity and self disdain that has emerged within me since getting injured. Building a good physique is one of my biggest goals in life, and being barred from doing anything to achieve this goal is just soul crushing, especially after recovering from another injury so recently. Anyways i could go on and on and on but I really just needed a public forum to complain on.

I (24M) have been injured 3 times in the past two years while starting to take the gym seriously. I have been working out for 10 years in total, but the first 8 I was just kinda fucking around and not really making it anywhere. Two years ago i decided I really wanted to change and began training with more intensity and progressive overload. However I have injured my ankles (meant I couldn’t run for 3 months), developed biceps tendinitis (kept me out of the gym for 6 months) and most recently strained my back (not even in the gym, it was from lifting a stupid fucking Panda Express box).
I’ve tried to adjust my training each time by lowering volume and intensity and properly stretching and warming up before each set but it never seems like enough. It’s like every time I take 2 steps forward I take another 40 steps backward and I am barred from physical activity for another few months. I just want to build my dream physique but at this rate it will take me decades to do so.

Just a thought experiment, got no agenda with this