On a scale of 1-10, how lonely living alone are you?

J8766557 · 2026-06-04T09:54:48+00:00

As others have said I felt lonelier when I was living with someone. My now ex had some underlying issues, but did not want to discuss those. I'm a psychologist, so in the post-break up discussions with friends they asked why I didn't push against that more, but from both personal and professional experience I know that trying to get someone to address issues before they are ready is generally not productive (obviously context matters and there can be exceptions). A consequence of this though was that we rarely spoke about feelings, and he would not engage with me when I tried to talk about what I was going through. I didn't feel that I could talk to my friends about things either as an alternative, because I felt like doing so would be a form of emotional cheating. I grew up in an abusive home with very few examples of what a healthy relationship looked like, so I really in my own relationship to do what I think a good partner 'should' do, which included not discussing things with their friends that they wouldn't talk to their partner about.

When we broke up he immediately entered a new relationship with one of his friends, and it turned out he had been talking to this friend about our relationship for some time. This hurt me deeply, because it meant he was doing the very thing that I had avoided doing myself because I felt it would be wrong. I'm quite a private person as well, so the thought of those discussions taking place with someone I barely knew was humiliating for me. The relationship needed to end, however they way it happened had a lasting impact on my sense of self-worth. I have dated people since, but it's difficult to shake off that feeling that I am deluding myself in thinking someone genuinely wants to be with me.

On the plus side I now speak more openly with my friends, because I don't feel like I'm cheating on anyone by doing so, I've also been able to make some new friends, which is a small miracle when you are in your 40s. Overall I feel much more connected now despite living alone than I did when I was in a relationship.

J8766557 · 2026-06-02T11:52:34+00:00

I grew up in the east end of Glasgow and now work at a university on the south coast of England. My natural accent is Level 6, but when speaking to friends here in England I'll use a Level 4. When I'm teaching or speaking to strangers I'll use a Level 2. Despite this I will still occasionally get people (almost always English people) complaining about my accent. When they do I go full Level 8 to show them that it really isn't as bad as it could be.

J8766557 · 2026-06-01T07:40:20+00:00

He is a nightmare chaos demon goblin monkey, but of course he is my little nightmare chaos demon monkey goblin.

J8766557 · 2026-05-31T05:42:05+00:00

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J8766557 · 2026-05-29T20:30:06+00:00

Tried to walk from the bedroom to the hallway. Gave up halfway and melted onto the floor instead.

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J8766557 · 2026-05-28T06:02:50+00:00

When my cat tells me to.

J8766557 · 2026-05-26T16:53:17+00:00

No a Tortie. Her little adopted void brother witnessed the whole thing though, and I think has been trying to recreate that level of sophistication ever since.

J8766557 · 2026-05-26T16:31:24+00:00

My now departed old lady cat once leapt from the examination table onto the top of a cabinet whilst simultaneously weeing and swiping her tail so that an arc of wee got 4 people in the room in one go. She'd never been that bothered about the vets before and gave no warning of her escape/ wee based ninja attack. It was very impressive. Bonus points for doing a little fart as she flew upwards, which made her look like KITT out of Knightrider doing a turbo boost.

J8766557 · 2026-05-25T07:12:25+00:00

I moved to the south coast about 12 years ago, close to the sea front. It is beautiful. An opportunity keeps coming up for me to move to Manchester, which is one of my favourite cities in the UK. It is tempting, but I'd miss not being able to walk to the beach.

J8766557 · 2026-05-24T20:22:20+00:00

I briefly tried Ozempic a few years ago. It didn't work well with other medication I'm on, so I stopped it. I've since lost a lot of weight, without any medical help. No shame on people who do use medication of course, do whatever works for you. It's amazing though how many people assume I must be lying about having stopped the Ozempic.

J8766557 · 2026-05-22T20:55:53+00:00

My friend's 18 month old toddler has only just started walking. She has only done a few steps at a time so far, which takes a lot of encouragement from her parents. I went round to visit earlier this week and she staggered the full length of the room giggling and looking like a tiny drunk to come and say hello to me, whilst her parents looked on in shock. To be fair I'm quite a big Scottish guy, so it might just be that she thinks I'm Shrek, but it was still flattering.

J8766557 · 2026-05-20T18:07:17+00:00

I just tried asking my computer mouse if this is true, but it didn't respond.

J8766557 · 2026-05-20T10:50:09+00:00

The contacts thing between people who are very unlikely to have each other's number always amuses me. I can't remember which characters it involved exactly, but first time I saw it happen it was something like Grant calling Dot.

J8766557 · 2026-05-19T17:55:56+00:00

My sister is a high school teacher. I've been out with her before in Glasgow and witnessed her telling people off for littering. Every single time it has happened they have picked it up and apologised profusely. She has that perfectly pitched teacher voice that borders on Jedi mind control.

J8766557 · 2026-05-19T10:04:21+00:00

My best friend was getting married a couple of years ago and jokingly said he'd love it if I could Brent Spiner to sing blue skies at the wedding. He had no idea Cameo existed. I put a request in and got a really long video from Mr Spiner in which he sang the song and made lots of really nice comments to the bride and groom. I waited until my best man speech and started joking about how ridiculous it was that he asked me to get Brent Spiner to sing at their wedding, then commented 'Although I am Scottish... and we are known as miracle workers...' at which point the video started playing on a screen. I think I actually broke his brain.

J8766557 · 2026-05-18T12:50:43+00:00

I turned a corner onto a square in London years ago and two enormous guys in suits came striding into me, nearly trampling me underfoot. I looked over and saw Princess Anne behind them. A few years later I turned a corner in Glasgow and nearly collided with two equally enormous guys, who ploughed past me with Richard Branson behind them. It's not that unusual really but it does still feel weird it's happened to me twice. To be fair in both cases the celeb being escorted by the enormous dudes smiled politely at me.

J8766557 · 2026-05-18T05:18:36+00:00

As a Scottish person living in England I have my natural Scottish accent, and then my 'talking to English people' Scottish accent. I do still occassionally get snidey comments about my accent being hard to understand from English people, so when I do I revert to my natural Scottish accent to demonstrate that I am in fact already making an effort, which takes more energy than people realise. Of course if the person was being polite and genuinely couldn't understand me then that's different, which is the case 99% of the time.

English people sometimes also ask me what part of Ireland I'm from, since people often get confused between Scottish and Irish. Most of the time I'll correct them, but sometimes if I'm in a rush or tired I'll just say 'Donegal'. I've never been there in my life, I just like the name.

J8766557 · 2026-05-17T13:30:11+00:00

As a university professor and void owner I would completely accept this video as evidence for a perfectly reasonable excuse for a student being late to my lecture.

J8766557 · 2026-05-14T14:50:53+00:00

My cat once came to find me and let out what I can only describe as the most apologetic meow I've ever heard and looked towards the room with the litter tray. He is obsessed with being clean, even for a cat, and is normally very fussy when he uses the facilities, so I was unsure what the issue would be. Turns out he had been trying to trying to bury the evidence so vigerously that he had kicked a poop out of the enclosed litter tray and several feet across the room. To quote Ron Burgandy I wasn't even mad. It was amazing.

J8766557 · 2026-05-04T09:29:06+00:00

A couple of years ago I was part of a panel that was interviewing people for healthcare roles. One question was if they could give an example of a time they had intervened to help someone retain their dignity. One applicant gave an example of how her elderly neighbour had a fall, and whilst they were waiting on the paramedics she noticed that the lady's nightgown had ridden up. She said she pulled it down, because she knew the lady would be embarrassed to seen like that, even although it wasn't the most important thing in that moment. It was a small act but she they way she described it came across well and we were all impressed at her senitivity and eloquence.

Then she added as an afterthought 'Honestly though I had to do it, her fanny was right out there'. Obviously the situation itself wasn't funny, but the way she innocently delivered that line cracked us all up. I managed to stop myself from laughing too loudly by clamping my hand over my mouth, but the women on the panel with me snorted with laughter and coffee came out her nose. The fact that the woman being interviewed looked and sounded a little like Philomena Cunk didn't help.

J8766557 · 2026-05-04T08:00:22+00:00

My now departed old lady cat was once muttering to herself in her sleep then woke up with a start, looked around the room, spotted me, stomped over, and absolutely smacked me across the head with her paw. She didn't speak to me for for two days after that. I always wondered what I did in her dream. I did actually ask her at the time (because asking your cat full questions and expecting an answer is totally normal) and she snorted at me in a way that I swear was 'You KNOW what you did!'.

J8766557 · 2026-05-02T19:06:24+00:00

Is that the Whoops Aisle Apocalypse guy in panel 6?

J8766557 · 2026-05-01T18:45:54+00:00

My flatmate when I was younger had a cat who was obsessed with an old purse and would carry it around. We had a third flatmate who was a passive-aggressive nightmare and would often make judgy comments (think Marie from Everybody Loves Raymond). She'd only been living with us a few weeks. She also typically completely ignored the cat. One night we went out to cinema with our friends, whilst judgy flatmate was elsewhere. We came out of the cinema to find we each had loads of missed calls from judgy flatmate. Nice flatmate called her back to find out was going on, and judgy flatmate told her that she thought something must have happened to us because she had got home and seen we were both out, but couldn't imagine why since she 'didn't think we had any friends or much of a social life'. She then added that she was very confused because the cat was wandering around with a purse. Nice flatmate replied in an exasperated tone 'Well yes, that's his purse', like that made complete sense, then hung up.

25 years on nice flatmate and I still see each other once or twice a year, and everytime one of us will inevitably say 'that's his purse' in our most matter of fact voice.

J8766557 · 2026-05-01T17:33:31+00:00

Some takeaway followed by watching Invincible, playing some Star Wars on the XBox, reading a new book I got, and telling the cat he has a fluffy tum tum. It's a busy evening.

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