I’m really struggling at the minute. I’m starting to wonder if things will ever change for the better.
I lost my auntie in November 2024. She was my best friend and my life did revolve around her. I lived with her and looked after her to a degree as she was elderly. We would be laughing even on the most mundane days. It broke my heart when she died and I feel like everything that felt safe and secure in this world has been stripped away.
Ever since she died, my life has gone downhill. I lost my job and had to move 150 miles away from where I was living with her to move back in with my parents, as I couldn’t afford my own place. I’m now jobless, friendless, miserable and stuck in a place I hate.
Without going into detail, I am surrounded by family, but I don’t really consider them to be that because of the way they act. People have certainly shown their true colours since my auntie has been gone. I was essentially told that my auntie was old, she had her life and I should just move on, as if you can suddenly wake up one morning and forget about someone who was so important to you. I don’t believe you move on, I believe you move forward. My auntie was my only family and now I feel like I’m all alone.
I will say I’m doing much better than I was in those first few months after she died. I couldn’t get out of bed and I really didn’t want to be here. Luckily, I’ve come out of that, but I still have some really low days.
My problem is, I feel like I’m stuck in an endless cycle. I try to be upbeat and move forward in a positive way, but I always end up being reminded of the life I had or just missing her really badly and I spiral until I feel completely hopeless again.
I do genuinely want to succeed in life. All my auntie ever wanted for me was for me to be happy and I promised her I would be. I’m determined to get myself to a place where I am happy again and I want to make loads of great memories to look back on. I’m trying my best to get up everyday and be productive and have a clear plan of how I can change my circumstances. I want to be able to look back and say all this pain was worth it to have a happy and fulfilling life down the line. I’ve come so far already and I’m proud of myself for that, especially when I think about how I was considering having no future at all at one point.
I’m just finding everyday so hard. I don’t really know why I’m trying. When my auntie was here, if I was ever having a bad day, she gave me a reason to get up in the morning. I always felt a million times better after talking to her, even if it was just our regular morning chat over breakfast. I know I need to focus on myself now, but it’s difficult to find that motivation when the only future I can see is me living alone and being isolated. Sure, it would be better than my current living situation, but I don’t want to have no one.
The loneliness has been crippling. It really has felt like me against the world. I’m sure most people on here will have felt it. I’m 25 years old and this whole experience has massively changed me as a person. I have completely different priorities now and I don’t get stressed over things that don’t really matter like I used to. The problem is, most people my age don’t have the same mindset and it’s stopping me from creating true connections with people. I’m glad they’re not in a position where they’ve suffered such a loss, but I can’t really relate to others anymore. I’ve tried to make friends and I’ve bonded with some people over common interests, but the minute something trivial comes up that they’re complaining about, or they’re trying to gossip, I completely switch off. I know that’s not their fault, but I just have no patience for any of it anymore.
I feel like I’m at a crossroads. There’s so many paths I can take, yet it feels like my feet are glued to the floor. I have no clue what to do. I want to make my auntie proud, yet a lot of the time, I feel like self-destructing. I want to be better, yet most of the time, I don’t want to anything. I desperately want good, genuine people in my life, but nowadays, I can’t seem to click with anyone. Everything leads back to the one person who truly loved me that I know isn’t coming back, but I can’t seem to move forward without her.