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Crime Scene Cleaners Share The Grossest Thing They've Seen On The Job

I will never unsee that!

Crime Scene Cleaners Share The Grossest Thing They've Seen On The Job
Photo by Richard Bell on Unsplash

Cleaning up after death and/or violent crime is a hardship. Yes it's good money but, it is a situation. Violence haunts you and you will see things you can never... ever... forget.

Redditor galaxybutton wanted to hear from the clean-up crews out there by asking...

Crime scene clean up workers, what was your weirdest, grossest, or most spooky experience while on the job?

empty.....

"I worked with a few first responders who picked up a motorcycle helmet after an accident that wasn't.... empty."

CulexKai

"I worked as an EMT in South Dakota."

"At least you got a helmet law there..."

ihatetheplaceilive

There was a pool of blood on the floor.

"I was called one day to the bathroom of a local popular pizza place. All it came over the radio to me as was an "assist ems" call, no details. So I get out before the medics and head to the bathroom to triage and provide first aid if necessary. What I found in that bathroom was something from a haunted house."

"There was a pool of blood on the floor. It seemed like a liter or so. It was running out under the stall and into the floor drain. Other than that, dead silence....."hello, police is anyone here?" I called out. I jumped when I got a response "yes. Hi." He sounded fine, but the stall was locked so I asked "'o what happened here?'"

"He explains to me the whole situation. He recently had surgery to close an anal fistula. For those that don't know, a fistula is essentially an infection of some type that tunnels its way through one cavity in your body to another or to the outside. In this case it's a simple abscess that bypasses the anus. Needless to say having a hole from one part of your hole to the outside is not good. So it was surgically drained and closed."

"However during his time at the pizza shop, his sutures broke. Thus he was bleeding profusely...... from near his anus. So he rushed to the bathroom. Long story short EMTs got there and took him to the ER to have it reclosed and the employees of the pizza place were left with an unfortunate amount of blood to clean up."

copnonymous

The Senses Attack.... 

"The mess sometimes isn't the hardest thing to clean. It's the "smell" that is. A few days is bearable for me. Anything past a week is impossible for me to be around without a mask. I can't stand the smell of decomp personally, but I've seen people eat snacks on a scene where a guy is melted into a couch. It's actually quite interesting and gross."

"When you die, your body leaks all of your fluids and 'bloats' with gases (I want to say it's sulfur?) This also results with your skin turning black and beginning to peel off slowly as miscellaneous bugs begin to essentially feast on your body. If you're still interested I think Vox has a couple videos on YouTube about biological decomposition."

CodePack

Hardening....

"I remember listening to a podcast about crime scene cleaning years ago."

"The one thing that stuck with me is that brain matter hardens like concrete and needs to be chiseled off the walls for things like shotgun suicides."

Nebarious

The Tub... 

"One of my former coworker's husband is one. She told me one time someone died in a bathtub and they sourced strainers from to dollar store to get the remains out."

KatesGivawayAccount

"In another comment on a similar post a while back, someone told a story of a woman who had fallen in the tub while filling it up, and she couldn't reach the tap to turn the hot water off. They discovered her days later when someone else in the apartment complex noticed water seeping out of her apartment."

"The commenter, who I believe was a first responder, said that when they found her, she was still alive, but when they tried to lift her out of the tub, her skin slid off her body. She didn't survive."

shoopvedoobop

being a paramedic.... 

"I have a friend that's been a paramedic for about 8 years. He said he's lost count of how many times he's had to respond to a call involving someone chopping their own penis off. Apparently, chopping your penis off is something that is common amongst people who are high out of their minds. And when you work in a major city, there are a lot of users."

"I have another friend whose dad spent many years working as (I'm not sure what the correct job title is) one of those people who investigate locomotive related deaths. Essentially, he'd be called out when someone was hit by a train to locate the body, assess the scene, do paperwork, and have the body removed."

"He's seen a lot of really messed up stuff. And yet, he's one of the kindest, most humble and soft spoken humans you'll ever meet. Such a wholesome man who is really joyful despite all the stuff he had to deal with regularly for years. Thankfully, he's retired now."

Reddit

Carbonized...

"Not me, but a guy I worked with at a summer firefighter job told me about finding carbonized bodies that had been trying to reach the door. Well, it was a bit of a sad case - he had brain damage from having almost drowned at some point in the past, and was a little bit slow. I never knew if he just had mild aphasia or something deeper. I don't remember his name so I can't google or Facebook him... I mean the firefighter guy of course."

axnu

In Buckets....

"Im a mortician, we work along side of crime scene cleaners, this particular situation i found myself cleaning more than them, apparently a local guy got involved in some really intense gang stuff, so they put him in a barrel of acid (or something else that melts flesh). By the time we got there, his body was separated into two buckets, one of bones, the other was skin and etc... Family still wanted him cremated so we had to collect all the body parts we could."

ghostiekat

The OD

"Not me, but my mom works for a doctor and one of their patients was telling her how his daughter died. She had problems with I think heroin or meth. Anyway, she was sober for a while but one night she didn't come home. Apparently her dad got the call that she overdosed. And I didn't know this was part of procedure or anything, but they took him to see her body, which was still where she died."

"She was in a room, still sitting upright in a chair. Her eyes and mouth were wide open, seemingly frightened, her body was tense, and her arms were outstretched, as if trying to reach for something. I can't imagine being a parent and witnessing your child in that state, that must be so traumatizing."

"Also is it protocol to take a parent or loved one or whatever to the crime scene like that? I can see them coming to the morgue to identify the body but I had no idea can actually bring them to the spot like that. I don't know, either way it gave me the chills."

iwannabebrittany

God I'll never forget that smell... 

"Worked maintenance at an apartment complex... got a call from the local police that there was a wellness check and they wanted us to go knock on the door/ check it out before they got there. Went to the door and knocked, no answer, I let myself in and the first thing that hit me was the smell... God I'll never forget that smell... I saw what appeared to be an obese African American woman on a recliner, the thing is the tenant was a thin 30 something white woman."

"Cops said she'd been dead for at least a week or two... I had to ready that apartment for their next tenant too. She was there so long there was a 3-4 foot spot on the carpet from where her bodily liquids seeped out... never going on a wellness check again."

Sketchelder

in the tub...

"I know a guy who had to run a VERY hot bath in a lady's house to get her off the sides of the bathtub she died in... Thing is he didn't know what to use to scoop her out of the water once she was melted off, so he went and found a pasta strainer in her kitchen and scooped her out that way."

BumpyBandwagon

until you see it...

"Not a crime scene clean up guy, but a Firefighter. Made a scene where this young guy crashed into the back of a trailer that was loaded with rebar. Whole left side of the car was destroyed. Guy was ejected from vehicle, decapitated and bones pretty much broken everywhere. You don’t know what you don’t want to see... until you see it. Will say it messed with me for a little while after that."

REDDIT

Like a Baby Bird

"I've cleaned up two different death scenes. One thing that surprised me was the deep sense of intimacy that I experienced, especially at the second scene -- a suicide. I've dealt with intrusive suicidal ideation for many years, and I felt a strong, sad connection to the woman who had shot herself in the house where she lived alone."

"Her body had been removed, but behind a bookshelf I found a bit of brain matter and, unsettlingly, a tooth with a bit of jawbone attached. I held it gingerly in my palm like a baby bird. It felt wrong to just toss it in the trash so I went outside and set it down in the grass."

littlest_ginger

On the ceiling

"I heard from a friend in law enforcement that they responded to a scene of a guy who shot himself under the chin with a shotgun. They found one of his eyeballs stuck to the ceiling fan overhead."

weedwhacker7

"My brother and his friend were in 8th grade when the friend miscounted the bullets in his dad's revolver while playing Russian roulette. He shot himself in the face and his eye landed next to my brothers foot... my brother is scarred from that experience, understandably."

BeezyBoLeezy

The Freeway

"Aussie state emergency services volunteer here... We can provide lighting and help for the police here. A few years back an old man crossed over a busy packed freeway, cars were having to avoid him as he walked. Some poor probationary driver didn't see him in time, 8 cars and a B double truck later this guy was in pieces along 200 meters of the freeway."

"Freeway was shutdown and we provided lightening. It was a shock when we saw the morticians lobbing body part into trash bags, they were literally throwing bits and pieces 3-4 metres into these bags laying on the road."

elfmere

A Wellness Check

"Not a crime scene clean up worker, but I did a ride along with a local police officer a few years back that involved walking into a room with a dead body in an... odd position. Long story short, she was a wellness check and we found she had passed away while likely masturbating. She was spread eagle on the bed with her hand on her clit in full rigor mortis. Odd sight, really."

_Than0s

The Camps

"My cousin who is a fire fighter was telling me how he responded to a homeless persons camp where the guy put another homeless persons head on a pike outside his tent. He also said that a lot of homeless people living in the woods will surround their camp with their used needles to deter invaders."

TaxiFish

So much blood...

"Couple years ago in my neighborhood, a guy was living with his mother, the son suffered from mental illnesses, a lot to lists off. Anyways, he had a mental break down the voices in his head were telling him to kill his mother. He killed her, one of the police officers said it was bloody as hell. Blood all over the ceiling and all over the son."

yungazzeater

These are some harrowing stories! Do you have something to add? Let us know in the comments below.

If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.