Do you ever just wish you could wake up at 16 again?

[Regretsfordays]

Going through a bad patch mentally. Think the type can’t wait to go to bed at night just to shut out from reality. have a nice life from the outside looking in but I actually sobbed earlier because I just want to turn back the clock to 16 and just live such a different life. People think because I’ve a good career I’m set for life. Little do they know I would live in a tent with no career and be happy rather than feel the way I do.

If I could go back in time and give my younger self advice, it would be to not try and grow up too quick and to really enjoy life at that point. Being an adult really sucks sometimes and my mental health has gone through so many rollercoasters. Not much advice OP just that I hear you and I feel you...

I’ve just had a shitty life and I am now married to a wonderful man and have the most perfect son but I find fault in absolutely everything. Before I met my husband I was moving my way up the financial corporate latter and just having flings. It wasn’t ideal but it was care free. Still have the corporate career and have progressed to where I want to be just I seem to be able to find the bad in everything and I hate that I’m doing that to my husband and so. At least when I was single it was only me I was hurting.

God, no: I was so lonely and unhappy at that age.

It’s not too late, sweetheart. You can make changes now if you want to. I made big changes in my 30s and again in my 50s, and smaller changes along the way.

Fuck, Twig - that is rotten bloody luck ☹️. I hope you have plenty of good, loving people around you to support you all the way, and that you have some beautiful experiences still to come. X

Oh Regrets, you poor thing. It's wretched feeling that low. Have you talked about it to anyone in real life? 💐

I definitely do. The next few years after that time were the some of the best times of my life

Well not if it was to go back to this date when I was 16 as I would have been just about to sit my GCSEs. I did very well back then but have forgotten just about everything so unless I went back with all my memories of studying throughout Year 11 I think I would fail them all now!

In general though, yes. I would stay away from the boyfriends I had in my teens and early twenties and look for my husband earlier. I would make a few changes career wise too. But if I couldn't guarantee having my daughter again I wouldn't do it.

God no.

Yes, I’m with you OP. I’d go back to those times like a shot if I could. This summer we’re about to have was one of my happiest times of life.

Yes waiting to get referred to psychiatrist x

I'd rather be 12.
16 is too late for bad decisions I made (not choosing the GCSEs I would have really preferred to do etc).

No not at all, I was deeply unhappy at 16

No. I've fucked up a lot in my life but I love my husband, children, and friends, and I wouldn't have those people in my life at sixteen.

I love my life but it would be amazing yo just go back for a week of carefree abandonment, never at any other point in my life have I been so free of responsibility than when I finished my gcse's with no plan for the future.

God no. I had pretty severe depression and anxiety at 16 and went through periods where I was self-harming. It was bleak most of the time and I hated myself, had no self-esteem at all.

At 30ish I am in a much, much better place. I feel sad just thinking about my 16 year old self.

@TwigTheWonderKid I am so very sorry- I don't know what to say! Puts everything into perspective. I hope you have support and some memorable good times to come

Sorry you’re feeling like this OP.
Nope, I wouldn’t go back to 16. Presumably there would be no guarantee I’d have the DS I have, and quite honestly no amount of corrected “missed opportunities” could make up for that. A life without him wouldn’t be worth living.
The book “The Antidote” by Oliver Burkeman is a brilliant read if you’re feeling down. Really great and quite profound. Best of luck.

No. My mother still had her controlling, patronising, belittling, narcissistic grip on me when I was 16.

Hell no, it was the worst year of my life. My teens sucked but that was the worst.

Oh fuck me no.

Maybe 26...

@TwigTheWonderKid That is so sad- I am very sorry. It is lovely that your life was so good this far, and I hope you continue to have many moments of joy and meaning.

Fuck no
Living at home with an overbearing mother, having to go to school and having very little independence. Sod that

Unfortunately not 30onwards my best years

Yes just for trying harder and not wasting time on people who didn't deserve my time and effort but at the same time, they were the making of me.

Not 16, still living at home with a demanding dm. 18 onwards if I could have some sort of warning not to get married to the man I did.