I’m kleptomaniac and can’t stop

I keep stealing things. I got caught a week ago, and now my dad wants me to attend the local anonymous meetings for teenagers to deal with my addiction. I went there last Sunday, and there was a girl from my school, a senior. I ran away before she saw me…

I’m scared!! My dad found out, and he said he’ll see to it that I stay next time. When that girl sees me, she’ll tell the whole school. I'll be a laughingstock. I don’t know what to do. Can I ask dad to go to a school counselor instead or something? Just not the group meeting. I can’t talk about it in front of other people much older than myself.

I want to stop stealing, and I don’t want to make my dad angry. I didn’t even steal anything expensive. It was a stupid bracelet, not golden. Celebrities like Lindsay Lohan do it and no big deal. I know it’s not right and I don’t want to go to jail – what my dad always says. I’ll never steal from shops again, and it’s the last time I stole from someone I knew. I apologized when I gave that bracelet back to our neighbor.

How do I convince my dad not to send me to that meeting again?

My 14 year old son wants to live with his father! We’re divorced, and my son has stayed with me all this time. His father comes to visit sporadically... I work part-time, and try my best to spend all the time I have with my son. We’ve had this continuous argument since summer about his future. He seriously wants to drop out of school, he thinks that being a blogger will be his career! I don’t know that much about blogging, but I want him to continue his education. His father told him he could move to another school that would take less of his time and is “more progressive”, whatever that means… I’m against it, so we’ve had rows daily. I’m also critical about my son’s friends. They’re not the best company for him... They smoke weed, drink beer and play computer games; I’ve never seen them do something constructive together. So, now my son thinks I’m a strict and unfair parent who ruins his future. He shouted at me yesterday, calling me a control freak and a monster, said I’d never understood him.

I know that losing my temper and arguing doesn't help. I know it's the wrong thing to do.

I don’t know what to do? My only child hates me!

Am I an awful parent? Can I fix this??

If only I could turn back time and say no to that first joint, things would be different. My social life has taken a hit, it's hard for me to interact with people. I've noticed that people around me seem uneasy. I can't even find a job. The constant feeling of anxiety and tension in my stomach is overwhelming, especially when I'm around others. I just want to feel calm and normal and that people feel comfortable around me again.

Hello. I’m a new member here and felt like venting lately, but unfortunately I have no one to talk to, no friends and family to speak out this stuff to. So… I’m hoping I can speak out my thoughts to strangers rather than tell anyone else in my life about my struggles. I feel they have enough on their minds to listen to my thoughts.

Lately I’ve been feeling really lonely and I’ve come to a realization that I’ve fucked up my life more than I want to admit. Things have been hard and I understand that every human being in this world has struggled at one point in their lives.

For context, I have had no one to talk to for atleast 5 years. Or rather, I had no friends and no social support at all. I had a family that talked to me about regular occurrences but other than that, I never told anyone anything that was on my mind or the troubles I felt. I was also diagnosed with persistent deppressive disorder, though I never really went through with my therapy and my mother refused to let me continue my medication. I was a shut in and isolated myself at home, though admittedly the pandemic made things even harder for me.

I’m also a loner and I hated school. And ever since quarantine stopped, I found myself going back to school face to face. I felt horrible about myself especially since I was the only one there without a friend. I sat at lunch alone and kept quiet most times. Unless I was needed, I rarely talked to my classmates. I realized now just how much harder being so isolated and being a social outcast is. I did everything alone and I wanted to stay that way. Whenever group projects and presentations came, I purposefully cut classes causing my grades to drop. I don’t even know if I could graduate at this point.

I kept thinking about killing myself most days. I feel so alone, like all this things I’m feeling is completely irrational and that nobody could ever understand me. Many times, I wonder if I’m merely overreacting. My family never really liked talking about mental disorders, my father always insulted us whenever we cried and my mother was a workaholic, never spending enough time with her children. My father was also a gambler and a sexist. He was always distant and rarely interacted with his children so I guess that’s one of the reasons why I could never talk to him and my family about anything.

Anyway, that’s everything I had to get out of my chest. I’m sorry for the long rant.