u/loveisaacc

Hi everyone! I'm probably gonna get yelled at for admitting this, but my septum piercing was pierced around the end of 2024. I never wanted to gauge it, but decided at the end of May I was gonna do it. I went from 16 to 14 and felt no pain, so a couple of days later, I put 12g in. I used a pincher cause I couldn't get a horseshoe in properly, and it went in with minimal to mild effort. My eyes watered a bit, and then the pain was completely gone within a couple of days, so I put a horseshoe in. That was probably about 2-3 weeks ago. Today I put a 10g pincher in and felt minimal pain, less than 12 to 14, my eyes didn't even water or anything. But I felt as though I was doing this a bit fast, and I looked it up and found out you're supposed to wait MONTHS in between stretches. So am I completely screwed and probably caused micro tears and a blowout, or is there a chance I'm okay?

BTW, I didn't use any lube for any of my stretches

Hi everyone! New to this subreddit and don't know if this is even the right place for something like this, but I am a young adult and struggling!!! :D

I don't know where to even begin, but I guess I'll start by just saying I need advice. I'm a 20-year-old male, living at home with my parents and not in any higher education at this moment, though I do have my high school diploma and some college credits. I work and have been working, but I'm not making much because my jobs have all been part-time and entry-level positions (california min wage is 16.50/hr). I was earning 20/hr at a fast food job I was at for about a year and a half, but quit due to how miserable it made me. Now I'm a busboy/host at a restaurant in the downtown area of my city.

Life after high school has been.. weird. To be fair, though, life IN high school was weird. I was never able to keep a friend group or a girlfriend, but I always had both. Relationships would start, and we'd date for a year or two, then break up, and everything would go to shit, and the friend group would go with it. I never actually took the time to introspect on why and realize that I was part of the problem, so I just kept up the cycle, bouncing around and destroying friendships and relationships with drug and alcohol abuse. My last girlfriend and I broke up about a year and a half ago. The pain was so bad that I decided I didn't want to engage in relationships until I figured out what went wrong and how to prevent it in the future, so I've been on a path of self-discovery and reflection, and here I am now! Single for a year and a half, working on myself, and finally (~95%) sober!! Only been a couple of months without anything hard, and I'll have an occasional drink, but I don't like how I feel when I do, so I might just fully bite the bullet and go 100% straight edge. But this has led to a rift in most of my friendships, as all my friends ever wanna do is go out and party. And I'm struggling to meet new people, even though I don't consider myself socially inept or someone who has ever struggled making friends. I just haven't been able to meet anyone. I try to talk to people at work, but it's all so surface-level, and I don't see it going anywhere past small talk. I used to meet people at parties or through my current friends, but now that I don't really engage in degeneracy, I don't have anything in common with the people I'd meet, with the common factor previously being getting fucked up together. So I guess I'm struggling to see what connection is past that, I guess.

I do have a band, and we're all pretty close! 3 people, not including me, and we are all somewhat on the same thought process. All used to be big partyers, but have straightened up a bit to focus on the music and our lives in general, so I'm not completely alone! I see these people being in my life for the foreseeable future. I truly do love them like brothers. Yet I still want to meet new people and just don't know how.

Past that is education and a career, I'm lost there, too. All I've ever cared about for a long time was getting drunk/high and making music, but I've lost or am losing passion for both of those things. I still love music, but I want more in life than to be a broke, struggling musician, and I was never that great at anything in school other than English or creative writing, which I did decently at and toy around with pursuing from time to time, but it isn't something I'm passionate about to go through with. I've considered blue-collar, office jobs, healthcare, everything, but nothing is speaking to me. I feel as though if I just pick something, I'm capable enough to mold myself into it, but I'm just struggling with those first few steps.

Anyways this whole long-winded post is basically a mild cry for help and some vent to compartmentalize the issues I'm struggling with. I truly do think I'll be okay if I just take action rather than life passing me by. I have every support system and a decent head on my shoulders; I just need a push in the right direction. Any and all advice is appreciated and would be a major help. Thank you to anyone who even read this, as it makes me feel just a little less alone.