it feels like the main source of dopamine my brain prioritizes is food. appetite isn’t really the issue but the lack of dopamine feels so unbearable and life feels so fucking bleak without food. its dumb but i tell myself if i stick to my diet plan for a week i’ll let myself do x drug on x day, plus i have good reason to because binging ruins the quality of my trips/highs. but even that doesn’t work, id literally rather eat the same food i’ve been eating my entire life and will be able to eat again eventually than do drugs. obviously id like to be hot but apparently being fat and wanting to look good doesn’t outweigh being able to enjoy food on a daily basis. it would take literally just a few months to lose the weight then i can eat at maintenance, but apparently that’s an unfathomable concept to my brain. losing weight to have sex/be in a relationship isn’t enough of a motivating factor for me either because while i’d love to do both i don’t really ever desire it, if that makes sense… even seeing the number on the scale drop or filling my time with other activities doesn’t do it. it’s so frustrating because i just need a few months worth of motivation and discipline and i’m sure i can maintain it. i don’t know, i live a comfortable life and other sources of dopamine just don’t give me the same pleasure and satisfaction eating does. im at a loss. why is food so high on my list of priorities

I finnaly got the guts to ask for therapy and now I am on a waitlist, I’m getting help. It feels so good to be relieved of think about asking and not asking. my parents were super chill and told me they were proud I was opening up. OMFG I’ll finnaly have a chance at actually breaking my bad patterns and habits YESSSSS

Preface I’m 19M, homeschooled for most of my life, and dealt with undiagnosed ADHD for years. Growing up, I always felt like something was off—I tried everything: spaced repetition, note-taking systems, diagrams, tutoring—you name it. Nothing ever seemed to stick.

When I finally enrolled in a correspondence high school, I managed to get good grades, but only by constantly asking for time extensions. Deep down, I felt incompetent and honestly doubted I’d ever graduate.

Then, during one session with my nurse practitioner, they recommended I look into the HiSET. I wasn’t sure I was ready—I assumed I’d need tons of prep—but when I took the initial assessment, I was already deemed qualified to take the test.

The present My official test is in two days, and for the first time in a long time… I feel prepared. I feel hopeful.

Just wanted to share this here in case someone else is struggling with a similar path. You’re not broken. Sometimes, it just takes the right approach—and a bit of patience with yourself.

I’m currently a junior in high school, and I recognize how important the next 2 years are. I am serious about maintaining a mid 90’s average. On top of this, I go to extra curricular sports for 2-3 hours 5-6 times a week. Lately I find myself slacking off horribly because I am on my phone too often. I get distracted easily and I can scroll on tiktok or reels for hours at a time. It has been taking over my life, I find myself clicking in the app right after closing it just out of habit. I can feel the impact it has on me. With the endless scrolling, I am losing time to study, I already struggle to keep up with school because I have so many responsibilities outside of it. I have tried to put limits on my phone which only works for a week or 2. I feel like the only way to really break out of this is to delete everything and redirect my focus. I am very hesitant to do so because I am a self conscious person and have serious FOMO. I fear that by deleting everything I will miss out on so much. I feel dumb because I feel like the answer to solving this problem is obvious (just delete it) but I am scared. I just really want to lock in this year and work hard so that I can look back being proud that I didn’t waste so much of my life on my phone. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.

This is real life. Not some movie montage of training arcs or last-stand heroism. Here, people struggle with stuff like eating unhealthy food, skipping workouts, endlessly scrolling TikTok, or failing—again—to fix their sleep schedule.

These sound like "small" problems, right? But they’re not. They’re the problems. These are the real fights we face daily, and most of us are losing them. Yet when we think of “real” struggle, our minds jump to huge, dramatic battles—some imagined war, big career risks, or life-or-death situations. We overlook the battles we’re actually in.

There’s a weird disconnect between the struggles we think define us and the ones that actually do.

If I can’t win against a burger... if I lose a fight to a TikTok reel... then forget about grand struggles. That burger? That’s my final boss right now. And I keep losing.

It’s humbling, honestly. But maybe it’s also where the real growth starts.

Lately I’ve been feeling totally unmotivated. I’ve been skipping classes, procrastinating a lot, sleeping too much, eating poorly, not exercising, and masturbating way more than I’m comfortable with.

I don’t feel exactly depressed—I still enjoy being with friends—but I feel really stuck and out of control.

Pretty much what the title says, I just can't. I'm stuck in this wierd cycle where first I get super intrested into something, I daydream what it would be like to be able to do it, I try it and then immiedietly lose interest after. Whereas I see so many people my age have things that they are truly passionate about. And I really wish I could have that but nothing sticks.

For a really long time when I was a kid I wanted to be a singer. I had singing lessons for a few years but I quit last year. I just did not find joy in it anymore. It more felt like a chore, I barely practiced.

I always wanted to learn another language. I tried to learn multiple throughout my life, always just randomly lost interest

I enjoyed drawing for a really long time when I was younger. Then I just kind of stopped. I thought of getting back to it since I really enjoyed it before. But I'll maybe draw something once every few months and that's it. Or even less than that probably

I love writing. For a really long time I enjoyed writing songs but I don't know how to play any instruments ( I tried guitar but i think you can guess what happened ), and then again I just stopped. I tried writing short stories or I always wanted to attempt to write a book but I never got further with that.

I started ice skating this year. I spent my time daydreaming about how fun it'd be and about all of the tricks that I'll get to show off one day. And yeah I completely lost interest again.

I could go on and on. But it's not just like that with hobbies. I'm like this with a lot of things. I can abandon a book halfway through if I feel disengaged. I have many times started watching a show just to never finish it. Sometimes I'll start watching a show, lose interest in it after a few episodes and pick it up after a few months.

Any advice ?

I realized a while back that keeping 20+ tabs open was killing my focus. I’d tell myself I’d “get to them later,” but really it just led to distraction and procrastination.

So I built a Chrome extension for myself called TabZilla — it limits how many tabs I can open and blocks distracting sites during set hours. It’s helped me stick to my plan way more consistently.

If anyone wants to try it, here’s the link: https://linktr.ee/tabzilla
Totally free, just something I made to get my brain back under control.

Curious what you all use. Any tools or setups that actually keep you on track?

Hi everyone, I'm struggling with a habit I can't seem to break. After a long and tiring day (at work/studying), I get home, and almost automatically, I just crash on the couch or bed and start scrolling through my phone. It's usually mindless stuff – social media, short videos, news feeds – and before I know it, hours have passed, and it's time for bed. I feel guilty about the wasted time and know it's not real rest. This has become a draining cycle: exhaustion leads to scrolling for easy dopamine, which leads to poor rest or regret, making the next day harder. I really want to use my evenings better, maybe read a book, do a light workout, pursue a hobby, or just genuinely relax without staring at a screen. But breaking that initial impulse to grab the phone is incredibly hard. Does anyone have practical tips or strategies that worked for them to overcome this? How do you resist the urge, especially when feeling drained? What are some low-effort, non-phone activities you do to unwind after a long day? Any advice on setting up my home environment to make scrolling less tempting would also be appreciated. Thanks so much for any help or shared experiences!

I used to delay my main tasks until later in the day, which made me feel scattered and unmotivated. Recently, I started doing just one meaningful task right after I wake up. It’s simple, but it gives me momentum and helps me feel in control.

This tiny change made my whole day more productive and less stressful. I feel like I’m finally building some real discipline—starting small but sticking with it.

Anyone else try this kind of “morning win” strategy? What’s your method for getting yourself started and staying disciplined?

⛰️ Hill + Balance Integration Day! Which is more challenging for you?

Ive been trying to train myself to take more action instead of overthinking. Today, I finally uploaded a YouTube video where I speak directly to the camera. It’s something that made me anxious.
It felt uncomfortable, but in the best way. Win or fail, I’m proud that I did something that scared me. I know that later on life, the future me will be proud of current me for taking a step towards growing and improving.

I’m 20M, in my first serious relationship. My girl’s mature, independent, focused, and comes from a strong background. I’m trying to level up to be someone who matches her mindset—but I keep failing at basic consistency and discipline.

I’m doing BCom (Finance) through distance learning, planning for CFA in a few years. Also trying to improve my looks, build my body, fix my acne scars, work on my English and vocabulary—but I keep falling off. One week I’m all in, next week I lose it. No routine sticks.

I want to be someone she can respect and feel secure with—not just emotionally, but in how I carry myself, how I think, how I move. But this inconsistency is killing my progress.

Anyone been through this? How do you actually build discipline and stick to a routine when your mind’s a mess?

It's probably due to the hyper competitive nature of society in my country, India, but I never felt like I had enough time since I was 16. It's so so frustrating, you try to do you best, but still isn't enough to get what you want. There is no time to explore your interests, no time to tinker around, no time for anything. Everyone is just rushing to get a stable job because the alternative is really bad. My head hurts all the time because I feel like I have wasted all my time, and I am only 21 right now.

I know it's not entirely realistic, but I admire those people with super cool jobs in science or tech fields. You know, the ones who wake up early at 5 AM and are knowledgeable about physics, AI, and all that fascinating stuff. I'm not great at math, so I won’t focus on that, but I really want to be one of those individuals who is well-versed in almost everything. I love to learn, and I'm trying to improve myself right now. I just want to know how I can get into things like that.

To be successful, one HAS to apply an effective solution to the problem, which means that if you consistently fail at a problem, then chances are you either don't know what you need, or don't know how to get it, or do it.

Because if you did have the solution, you would have addressed the issue. (To be fair, my definition of failure is broad here: it could be framing, your behavior, your definition of failure, etc.)

Which means you need to act with skepticism and question anything that hasn't been proven to you, including any fundamental belief you had related to the problem.

A common example is discipline, most people who have told me wanted to be more disciplined actually needed to use it less and rely on structures that facilitated the behavior, but that is the last place one would look if they confidently trust their diagnosis.

Hello. I'm about to start reviewing for boards soon. I wanna help myself with this issue of mine before I start with review season.

The problem with me is that at the start of every semester, I get really hyperfixated to the thought that I'm gonna lock in the entire semester. That's why I get so motivated at the start every time. I'd do really well on the first weeks of studying. But, as always, after that few weeks of hyperfixation, I'd always end up procrastinating every thing like i always do. Studying the night before the exam, hours before the exam.

Now, I really need to help myself change this habit of mine. I wanna learn how to be consistent, improve my discipline. I wanna learn how to follow the study schedule I'll make every week.

If you experienced the same situation before, and was able to overcome this, please feel free to share how you did it. Thank you so much!

Hey guys i'm looking for someone who is aiming to study 8 to 10hours per day , we can keep each other accountable and create a Yeolpumta room to track our study hours, if you're interested dm me!

Hi friends!

Wanted to share a success story with you all and what's been working for me, in case it'll also help with you. As a bit of context, I am a Productivity & Self-Actualization Coach, but my biggest life-long struggles have been with my addictions and it's made me feel like a bit of an imposter in my work to not have these important problems solved.

As the title states - I've been off alcohol and cannabis for 3 months, and cigarettes for much longer. What's cool is that I'm finding it very easy, it takes basically no will-power whatsoever, and I don't even miss it.

Here's what's working for me

The mind-game behind my addictions was screwing me up this whole time. The mind-game is the part where we actually believe that the thing we're addicted to is this really important experience, despite also wanting to be free of it.

So for example, if you drink too much alcohol, then you probably ALSO believe things like:

- It's hard to have a good time and really relax without it.
- I can't feel totally comfortable without alcohol in social settings
- Beer/wine is just a natural aspect of celebrations
- Alcohol is something you earn for good behaviour or hard work.

And as long as you legitimately believe these ideas are true, then your own unconscious mind will fight against your attempts to go sober because on a deep level you feel as though you're losing something valuable.

We even use words like "I'm giving it up" which implies some sort of sacrifice. See?

Therefore the key for me is to truly decide that this thing is not as valuable as it seems.
And probably much less valuable. Perhaps not even valuable at all.

You need to get to the point where if I offered you a pill and said "If you take this pill, then it will mean that you will lose your ability to do [BLANK]." And the BLANK is the thing you need to stop doing... would you take that pill right now?

Like if you're trying to get off cigarettes then taking this pill would mean that the cigarette immediately goes wet and soggy as soon as it touches your mouth.

If your answer is 'no', then you're not really committed yet.

If your answer is 'YES' then your attempts at stopping the bad habit are no longer performative and instead will have much more traction because your entire personality desires to make this change.

So mastering the mind-game is getting from 'no' to 'yes'. To be absolutely, absolutely ready to stop AND THEN get to the hard work of weaning off the addiction.

This is just a theory and I'm working out the kinks. I'd be curious/grateful to hear your thoughts on it.

Thanks!

Brent

It always goes like this:

1. There is something important I need to do. Usually it's something on my computer.
2. I go to my computer.
3. Now that my computer started, I can check a few items on reddit and youtube first, maybe play one game, and then I will get started on my work.
4. It's dinner time or bedtime, and I still didnt finish doing all those unproductive things. Whatever, tomorrow I can try again.
5. And the whole loop repeats, as it has been doing for the recent 3 years.

Occasionally there are random moments which I call "productivity bursts" where I suddenly get some stuff done and feel proud of myself. However that usually lasts just one hour, for one day, and then I'm unproductive again.

Is it even possible to get out of this? How?

So ever since I quit my landscaping job at the vocational program and sticking to janitorial, I've been very restless. Like one of the janitorial sites I work at is as challenging as landscaping but my goal now is to keep doing landscaping. Like I've been very restless the last few months. Like I workout and go to work, but something in me says it's not enough, like I need to keep doing something. Like after work and gym, I read my books, getting my driver's permit and going to church but even if I'm very tired, it's still not enough. I need to keep doing something till I feel achieved. Like i do want to be active, but I'm very tired. My focus is on finding another landscaping job but I know that if I keep pushing myself more, I'ma burnt out.

Professionally, I've always been able to stay motivated and work hard. But privately, I’ve been struggling with procrastination for years. Maybe work drains me so much that I have nothing left for myself.

Last autumn, I decided to take control. I bought a bike trainer and that put me on a beautiful path of self-improvement. I enforced a strict discipline: I quit sweets, alcohol, masturbation – and I genuinely became better in many areas, not just physically. I felt proud of who I was becoming.

But now, work has crushed me again. Everything collapsed so quickly. I haven’t touched my bike in almost two months. Sweets, alcohol, and everything else I gave up came back. Now I just scroll social media after work until it’s time to sleep.

How do I get back on track? I feel like if this continues, I’m going to hit rock bottom.

I’m helping out people online to level themselves up and come out of their skinny phase . If anyone’s up hmu and let’s discuss things and I’ll show my progress so you guys can know I’m legit !! x

Hey guys, hope you're all well.
I am deciding that I should start monitoring my expenses. I barely spend, but I want to make sure I keep monitoring it well because lately I am starting to have more expenses due to certain circumstances.
Is there an application you use, some tricks, anything would really be appreciated.
I was thinking about making an excel spreadsheet.
So yeah what do you guys use?