When a man asked people on Reddit: "[Am I experiencing] extreme harassment or am I going nuts?" they responded in the best possible way.
Reddit user @Shandyandy described feeling like he was constantly "hearing the neighbours talking about" him. He also said that his family believe he is suffering from a mental health problem.
Here is his full status:
Since before Christmas I have been hearing the neighbours talking about me, catching people signalling to each other. Most, if not all of "them", wear white earphones and follow me everywhere. At first they were only at home.
They'd message me on hook up sites, mentioning things that were so utterly and completely co-incidental that its sent me close to the edge a few times. They can get in my house when I'm not here, they get in my car.
They follow me when I'm driving and things happen as if their common goal is to make things as difficult and freaky for me as they possibly can.
I have tried reasoning with myself that the amount of people required, and indeed I'm sure they would have to be employed, would constitute an enormous wage bill that few individuals could afford.
I keep asking myself what I have done to merit this singling out for what is tortuous. I wake up each morning to the sound of the next door neighbours on both sides commenting on what I'm doing.
Their comments are seldom positive and there is one man's voice that cuts its way across the playing fields at the back of my house and garden and all he shouts is "cunt".
I have been more frightened this last 6 months than I have ever been before. I live alone. Everyone including my family think I am mentally ill but these voices are so real, so clear and the people that follow and stalk me are flesh and blood, of that I'm sure.
I've wanted to end it all on more than one occasion but the thought of the anguish I would extol on my tremendously supportive father and loving sister are too much for me to bare.
So, I'm trapped with these phantoms and monsters. They park in cars all around my house, mostly throughout the night. I have engaged with them where I just talk as if they can hear everything.
I'm pretty sure they have cameras and microphones thought my house. I have a huge fear of Police enforcement following an awful episode I had with them in my youth and it feels as if "they" know it. I approached a gay charity to see if I could talk it over with somebody who believe me, but for some reason I haven't followed through with my intention.
I thought that it was a rather unstable ex and his partner as things only they would know we're being used in messages both written and heard. I have tried to accrue as much physical evidence as I can but don't know what to do with it.
I feel as if I have been hypnotised and experience auto suggestion a lot. Whomever I have discussed bits of it with have almost immediately gone down the "you're ill" route.
I Know that it's real, that they're real. It was heartening in a way to read an archived post form a fellow Redditor who had experienced similar things. I'm exhausted. I hate that my father and sister are so worried. Any suggestions would be most welcome. I can't carry on like this. I am so isolated and now have been put on anti-psychotic medication. What do I do?
Soon after posting the honest and detailed status, the man was overwhelmed by supportive messages from strangers online.
Some suggested he visited his GP:
Others informed him about services that may be useful:
Above all, people wanted to let the man know that he wasn't alone:
In a separate post, the man said he had been "overwhelmed by the words of wisdom and encouragement" he'd received from strangers on Reddit.
He also thanked Reddit users for encouraging him to seek help, saying he had booked an appointment with a psychiatrist at a hospital.
If you've been affected by the issues in this article, please call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 or contact Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.