My roomate and I are completely different. While I'm open-minded, sex positive, lesbian, and an atheist, she holds conservative views, abstains from sex before marriage, and is super religious. She often seeks my advice on her love life, which I'm happy to provide. I also share some of my love life stories with her. Recently I had a casual fling with a colleague, which didn't bother me at first. Unfortunately, she (my roomate) started making offensive comments about me being a slut and even brought up my past sexual experiences with two girls from our social circle. Her words have made me feel ashamed and dirty. I know I've been with a fair number of partners, but most of them were in the context of a relationship. Her comments have really gotten under my skin.

I've always been determined to succeed, starting from a young age. I excelled in school, consistently earning top grades until my undergraduate studies. Along the way, I pursued singing, participated in quizzes, and now I hit the gym daily, competing in weightlifting and powerlifting events. I also enjoy writing short stories — it's a passion of mine. While I may not be the most outgoing person, I take pride in my physical strength as a woman. Independence is a quality that defines me.

However, my mental health took a turn for the worse in 10th grade. The pressure from school and my parents became overwhelming, and I began to feel like a failure. At 16, I started struggling with severe and persistent depression, which has persisted into my 20s. I'm currently undergoing psychiatric treatment to manage my condition. I had attempted suicide twice, once by injecting sanitizer and recently overdosing on migraine meds. However, I sought help, and now I'm taking 3 meds per day. I don't want to die, although it may seem otherwise. I want a good life, but when I see I'm failing to make that life, I become suicidal. I need to stay alive until I succeed. My psychiatrist is helping me, but I still feel like I'm stuck. I also had anger issues when I didn't take meds. Now I don't have them, but as I've had them since my childhood, my mind feels empty, like something is missing. I'm pursuing a double degree in Chemistry and Education, and my life is so chaotic. I wake up at 5, go to the gym at 6 am, come back at 7:30, go to classes at 8:40 am, live in a dorm at my university, and have classes till 5:30 pm. It's too hectic. I'm currently on vacation, and my psychiatrist told me to slow down, but I'm struggling to do so. I fear for the future because I need a stable and high-income job too.

What do you think? Has anyone experienced anything similar to what I'm going through? If yes, please share your experience. If not, please offer me some advice.

I can't ignore stories about a child with ADHD. My daughter is absent-minded due to ADHD. She's not very energetic, but mostly loses things, which is tough to deal with. She's lost many school items before, so I have to buy her a lot of pencils, pens, and shoes. Every time my daughter cries because she doesn't know where she lost her shoes. I feel bad for her and myself. Everything is scattered around the table and the room. I can't get her to clean up, she just ignores it. Her handwriting is messy and she misses letters. She has poor performance in math because she cannot concentrate. Lessons with a tutor help, but very slowly. She cannot memorize the rules. Or she doesn't want to. Studying is a torment for her. My fear is that she will not graduate from high school or get a trade. And if she's a homemaker, then . she might not be able to cook. She forgets food on the stove, food burns. Or she might put sugar in the soup instead of salt. It's useless to scold her, she only gets offended, but she doesn't correct herself. How do I prepare her for life? I cry sometimes, and I think I'll have to take care of her till I'm old.

I saw that people share success stories here to help others. I decided to write about myself. I suffered from perfectionism for a long time. That is, I exhausted myself by endlessly improving my work, myself, everything. It was in every aspect of my life. If I cleaned the apartment, it was necessary to choose the best solution for cleaning, to wash all the "crevices", as a result, the process was very long, and the dust appeared quickly again. And so in everything. It took me a long time to get the job done because I was self-critical and all the time it seemed "not good enough yet". Do you think I had reached the "heights" and felt good about myself? Of course not!!!

I experienced constant anxiety, a feeling of inadequacy, a sense of imperfection, and depression. Moreover, the slow pace of work due to constant improvement did not suit anyone either. At some point I realized that enough was enough! When I saw how successful my colleagues are, and I am not at all in comparison with them. But it's easy to say "enough." But what do you do? How do I get my head to work differently?

I was sitting on a bench at the playground and watching children playing in the sandbox. One girl was making "pies" out of the sand and another girl was making crooked shapes. The second girl got frustrated and her mom told her "I like it just the way it is! You're my imperfect perfection!". And then I thought, this idea could very well help me too, the perfectionist. I can be perfect by finishing everything exclusively to the right level. And then that would be the criterion of perfection.... I felt very easy and good... What I wish you too!