u/Comprehensive_Law442

So this is about my friend (he doesn’t use Reddit).

We studied together in college. After graduating, he started preparing for government exams and never took up a job. He was in a relationship for a few years, but they broke up recently. I don’t know the exact reason — he says it was due to lack of time in a long-distance relationship.

Now coming to the main issue: both he and his ex were very conservative. Even during the relationship, they never got physical, so he’s still a virgin. Lately, he’s become very anxious because we’ve been telling him that finding a similarly conservative partner might be difficult nowadays.

He doesn’t agree with the idea of staying single. He has this “fairy tale” vision of family life and says that since he’s a single child, he has to get married.

When we suggest trying casual dating, he says he doesn’t have the resources for it and also feels he’s not attractive enough.

Career-wise, things aren’t going well either. It seems unlikely he’ll clear a government exam anytime soon, and because of the gap plus the current job market, getting a private job also looks difficult.

Whenever we suggest that he should focus on getting a job first and think about marriage later, he says he can’t concentrate because of all this stress.

All of this seems to be pushing him into a negative spiral, and we’re genuinely worried.

Any advice on how to help him?

Edit: He is 25yo