How many people here are NEETS/ Hikikomori's with genuinely nothing to live for

[forever21soon]

My first post I guess. I've been lurking here for a while now and I often see posts with users mentioning having friends or significant others or sometimes even families of their own, I know everyone here is dealing with their own shit but still I can't help but feel bitter. I wonder how many people here are genuinely physically and socially isolated from the world or have been for years and actually have near to no one. I've been a shut in and a NEET since my early teenage years and have basically been living in my room alone and closed off from the world for 5 years now. I used to think I would eventually claw my way out of this and be able to live a normal life but reality has truly hit me that, that will never happen. Once you start young and that's all you've ever known and experienced during your most fundamental developing years there is no getting out, your resources are more and more limited and your mind rots and decays by the day until it begins to eat itself. I wonder how many of you here are in a similar position

 

[Emerita]

I haven't left my house in three years. At first, I isolated myself because I was suicidal, but I never followed through because I didn't have the means. The isolation didn't seem to affect me much at first, but eventually, it did. Now, the life I once had and the person I was are unrecognizable to me. I have lost basic social skills, and I feel like my brain has shrunk. I've grown accustomed to this state, and time feels distorted. The world feels unfamiliar, and if I were to go outside, it would feel surreal. I am alone all day everyday. This way of life just digs you in a deeper hole day by day and like you said when you start young you miss out on fundamental developmental years. I understand your frustration Im sorry.

 

[tercermundista]

Me... and because of my age there's no turning back.

 

[forever21soon]

I haven't left my house in three years. At first, I isolated myself because I was suicidal, but I never followed through because I didn't have the means. The isolation didn't seem to affect me much at first, but eventually, it did. Now, the life I once had and the person I was are unrecognizable to me. I have lost basic social skills, and I feel like my brain has shrunk. I've grown accustomed to this state, and time feels distorted. The world feels unfamiliar, and if I were to go outside, it would feel surreal. I am alone all day everyday. This way of life just digs you in a deeper hole day by day and like you said when you start young you miss out on fundamental developmental years. I understand your frustration Im sorry.

The brain shrinking truly is the worst at least at the start of my NEETdom I had the capacity to somewhat be productive and engage in interesting shit but now I'm so consumed and trapped by my own thoughts I no longer have the room for that. Heavy on the time becoming distorted part it's terrifying how the days blend together so fast and aimlessly I swear it was 2023 just two months ago

 

[Açucarzinho583]

I haven't left the house since I was 16. It's been so long that I've lost all sense of what the outside world is like. My room became my universe. Here, within four walls, I created routines, refuges, and excuses to avoid facing what lies beyond the door. Social interactions felt forced, as if I were playing a character everyone expected, but one I didn't even recognize myself. School was a minefield of silent judgment and suffocating expectations. Friends? They drifted away with time. Their lives moved on—mine stood still.

 

[Arrival03]

Been a NEET for almost five years now. Want to recover, but not sure how to when my social skills are basically none-existent.

 

[forever21soon]

I haven't left the house since I was 16. It's been so long that I've lost all sense of what the outside world is like. My room became my universe. Here, within four walls, I created routines, refuges, and excuses to avoid facing what lies beyond the door. Social interactions felt forced, as if I were playing a character everyone expected, but one I didn't even recognize myself. School was a minefield of silent judgment and suffocating expectations. Friends? They drifted away with time. Their lives moved on—mine stood still.

I'm the same became a NEET at 13, then went back to alternative school at 15 where I met my only friend, dropped out after they did and became a NEET once again at 16 aside one futile attempt of getting an education that crashed and burned and only lasted three or four months. I've practically spent my life living in my head, I'm greatful I have one friend at least but we're drifting with time as well, we go weeks to months without talking

Been a NEET for almost five years now. Want to recover, but not sure how to when my social skills are basically none-existent.

Same I think past a certain point there is no recovering because this lifestyle is so addicting it's like a void that sucks you in that you can't get out of, though I do have a small sliver of hope it's dying by the day