
Doctors Share Stories About Patients Who Made Things Worse For Themselves
[rebelmouse-image 18348181 is_animated_gif=Doctors often prescribe self-care for patients, however, some people don't follow instructions, leading to even more problems. And when they're in the hospital, patients get double doses of crazy from loved ones.
BadElf21 asked, Doctors and nurses of Reddit, what was the craziest example of someone stupidly making their condition worse?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
It's only a flesh wound.
[rebelmouse-image 18348182 is_animated_gif=Had a patient come in and had accidentally stuck a chainsaw in his leg the day before. He managed to cut the fibula I think and partially cut the tibia. He put some diesel on it and wrapped it in duck tape and kept working. The next day he steps off something and it snaps the rest of the way through. Came in the front door with his leg flopping/ bending where it shouldn't be. And to top it off he rated his pain at 6/10. Tough old man. We admitted him to the ortho to clean out the diesel and necrotic flesh.
Using a screwdriver to remove and elbow screw? Really stupid.
[rebelmouse-image 18348183 is_animated_gif=Surgical nurse here: Had a patient return to the OR who had some hardware (plates and screws) put in their elbow for a fracture. The hardware was causing them discomfort so instead of talking to her surgeon they decided to try and remove one of the screws with a knife and screwdriver.
I got the case for the wound clean up and replacement of said exposed screw. One of the strangest ones I've had yet.
Oh sure, ride roller coasters while your eye literally falls apart. Great plan.
[rebelmouse-image 18348184 is_animated_gif=I saw this young guy in the ER once who had gotten into a drunken brawl with some guys at a bar. When he woke up the next morning, he started getting some vision changes. He said that it was like a "black sheet coming down" on his left eye. This is a textbook symptom for retinal detachment. Picture an incredibly thin, delicate membrane on the back of the eye, slowly peeling off because of trauma. It's an emergency in ophthalmology because if it fully detaches, you get permanent vision loss. You basically need to immediately go for surgical repair, and then be extremely careful with that eye for weeks afterward. You even have to keep your head down most of the time for the next couple days to help the re-attachment process take.
So, naturally this guy goes and rides roller coasters all day at the local theme park with his buddies. He first presented to our ER two days later with permanent vision loss in that eye. Six Flags was not worth it, poor guy.
Um... ouch.
[rebelmouse-image 18348185 is_animated_gif=A male patient was in for dehydration and other very routine issues. He had an indwelling catheter placed. Now an odd thing about some men is that they cannot wrap their minds around not standing up to pee. So even though he couldn't feel any urge to urinate he stood up to pee. Felt the catheter, forgot why it was there, and promptly ripped it out. Now he's incontinent.
Oxygen is inflammable and smoking kills, y'all.
[rebelmouse-image 18348186 is_animated_gif=My wife (nurse) has seen on more than one occasion, a person on oxygen for emphysema blow themselves up with a cigarette.
Doctors>Chinese medicine. Or else you'll have a bad time.
[rebelmouse-image 18348188 is_animated_gif=Had a patient with stage 0 breast cancer, decided not to get the lump taken out and instead pursued traditional Chinese medicine. Came back a couple years later with metastatic breast cancer EVERYWHERE.
Another patient treated her breast cancer with coffee enemas. spoiler alert it didn't work.
Gut pain is confusing and unpredictable, but this sounds terrible.
[rebelmouse-image 18348189 is_animated_gif=I WAS a nurse for 20 years, but this is a story about my husband. The man has a very high pain tolerance and is always hungry, so one day when I met him for lunch I was worried when he wouldn't eat and said his lower abdomen hurt. I talked to a doctor friend and husband was sent for an immediate CT scan. Husband was sent home to wait for the results. So....being him....felt better and ate two chili dogs with Fritos. Of course, when the doc called and told him to get to the hospital NOW because his appendix was about to rupture, husband had to be kept in a holding pattern for 12 hours because he'd eaten a big meal. I may have shouted at husband a little bit that day.
Teeth are important, don't be cheap.
[rebelmouse-image 18348191 is_animated_gif=I used to work at an oral surgeon's office.
A patient came in needing a tooth pulled and bc the root was near the jaw they needed to remove it under anesthesia.
The patient did NOT want to pay for the anesthesia ($350) so he decided to try and take it out on his own. He used pliers and ended up breaking his jaw....we had to go and fix his jaw and wire his mouth shut.
Ended up costing him $9,000 instead of $500.
Just a little sweet tooth, they said. It'll be fine, they said.
[rebelmouse-image 18348192 is_animated_gif=I'm a tech.
This fairly large woman came into our unit with type two diabetes and diabetic ulcers all over her lower legs, toe amputations, and a wound that would not heal. Her husband frequently visited her, and just before my shift brought her SIX tubs of the chocolate Pillsbury frosting icing because of her "sweet tooth" and "they have insulin at the hospital to match the sugar."
When I stopped to check on her she had already finished tub #4 and said to me "but I'm already at the hospital I might as well."
Glasses "spoil" your eyes? Sure, and oxygen spoils your lungs.
[rebelmouse-image 18348193 is_animated_gif=I'm an optician and optometrist and SO MANY semi-blind people refuse to get glasses because they don't want to "spoil" their eyes. They come back six months later with migraines and complain about not being able to drive in the dark or read, and get angry because their eyesight is not getting better although they're always "training" their eyes. It doesn't work like that.
This happens more often than you'd think... *shudder*
[rebelmouse-image 18348194 is_animated_gif=Patient here. I got an itch in my eye one night and figured my contact had dried out. I went to remove it but the damn thing was stuck in my eye! So I started pinching, hard, trying to get it off, and then my vision went all wacky and my eye started to really hurt.
Gave up and went to the ER cause I couldn't see. Turns out my contact had fallen out before the whole process started and I'd been scratching my eyeball. Had to wear an eye patch and put in some very unpleasant drops for a week or two.
Oops.
What a terrible wife, why didn't the hospital stop her?
[rebelmouse-image 18348195 is_animated_gif=The condition was not worsened by the patient himself, but his choice of life partner certainly did not help.
Patient wad utterly ravaged by advanced cancer. Several doctors have told him and his wife that his condition is terminal. Patient seemed to understand when he was lucid. Wife said she understood as well. He was in hospice for comfort. One night he had trouble breathing (as the dying tend to do). Wife called 911 against patient's wishes. Thus began a three week pointless and painful, painful ordeal that involved life support, dialysis, at least one round of CPR (on a man whose bones were riddled with metastasis) and diarrhea.
Wife was adamant that he will get better through holistic medicine. She filled the intensive care room with all sorts of new age chachkies like inspirational pictures and rocks. She even refused pain medicine because it would, like, dim his chakras.
Wife left a crystal geode on the bed. Crystal worked its way underneath patient's hip. Patient developed a raging bed sore that never closed. On a patient who wanted to die and was in already excruciating pain.
This was years ago. Still, I can honestly say I hate that woman.
That pesky paperwork, I'll do it my way.
[rebelmouse-image 18348197 is_animated_gif=I had a client with a stroke, who received TENS-Treatment in rehabilitation (really low electric impulse to stimulate muscles and nerves). After Rehabilitation he was offered to get one of the things for home-use (completely free of charge/ costs) he refuses because filling out the paper (1 page) was too much work. He decided to just use what he had at home. And tried using a transformer/ transistor for this 'therapy'. That completly destroyed the small amount of nerve function we had achieved in rehabilitation and screwed up his condition a lot.
DO NOT TRY THIS. THIS HURTS. A LOT.
This is what cigarettes do to you...
[rebelmouse-image 18348198 is_animated_gif=My mom's current bf has oral and throat cancer. Guy literally has a stoma and no tongue was still smoking 3 packs a day until recently. MIL got diagnosed w stage 3 lung cancer quit smoking and drinking for a couple of months. As soon as Dr said her condition was improving she went straight back to smoking & partying. Only took a few months for cancer to get to stage 4 and spread to her liver, kidneys, and brain. She smoked up until a couple days before she died and even then only because the brain cancer caused her to lose control of her limbs and she physically couldn't hold a cigarette anymore. It was so sad to watch. Am incredibly proud of my husband tho, he quit smoking with her to help support her & never started again even after she did. Said he never wants our girls to have to go through that with him.
He's insolent for insulin.
[rebelmouse-image 18348199 is_animated_gif=M.D. here. Had a patient who was found unconscious and taken to our hospital. Turns out he was diabetic (unbeknownst to him) and went into a coma. We got him straightened out and sent him home with insulin.
Fast forward a week or two and he comes into the ER for vomiting, dehydration, and blurred vision. He hadn't been taking his insulin since 'only really sick people need insulin'.
Meth. It does nobody good.
[rebelmouse-image 18348200 is_animated_gif=Work comp adjuster here had a claimant completely disappear after a surgery was ordered. Fast forward 2 years and he gets an attorney who demands the surgery be approved now. After months of back and forth, we approve the wrist surgery.
2 days post op the police find him walking down a county road, blasted out of his mind on meth, ripping out his stitches. Apparently, he went on a meth binge and just tore apart his surgical site.
The doctor dropped him, his attorney dropped him, the state basically closed his case. The last I heard was he got out of jail, grabbed all his meds from home and disappeared again. Never followed up with the doctor. I cringe to think what his arm looks like.
Maggots? In my head? Nope nope nope.
[rebelmouse-image 18348201 is_animated_gif=Homeless man came into the ER with a small cut on his scalp. Doc stitched it up but he went back to sleeping in the gutter. Never came back for his checkup a week later. Six months later he showed up with an entire colony of maggots living under his scalp.
Never give a dog ibuprofen (it's not even good for humans) or chocolate, isn't this common knowledge?
[rebelmouse-image 18348202 is_animated_gif=I'm an animal nurse (vet tech) and had a chihuahua come in that had been limping. The owners had been giving him ibuprofen inside of pieces of chocolate.
Herbal cures are scams and they really do kill people.
[rebelmouse-image 18348204 is_animated_gif=Oncology nurse here. Had a patient with a relatively treatable cancer fail to tell us about an herbal cure that his son bought for 300 dollars a bottle. He was taking it while getting chemotherapy. He wound up basically shutting down his liver and kidneys, hospitalized for weeks and delaying treatment, so yea, the cancer spread. System too weakened to resume treatment. He's dead, and all because of the snake oil cure. Sad that families spend hundreds to thousands of dollars out of desperation, and wind up causing more harm/ death.
Short of having a shopping addiction, no one actually likes spending money on stuff.
Why would you ever willingly give it away? It's your money!
Which might be why it feels so bad when you have to spend money of something that should be free from the beginning. People/ corporations are going to chase that cheddar, though, so there's little you can do besides complain, which frankly might be the best thing the internet is for.
Reddit user, woodside37, wanted to know what we should never have to pay for again when they asked:
"What should be free?"
Let's get these out of the way first...No, let's get this first one out of the way first.
Hidden fees are the worst.
Hidden. F***ing. Fees.
"Transaction/processing fees when you order a digital product online. Such as a concert ticket, where you pay 6 euro extra while you pay online, and have to print the ticket yourself."
rickmitchel
"Or processing fees to pay bills that you need. Duke energy charges a $7 processing fee for you to pay your energy bill. Like wtf."
CrispyCrunchyPoptart
Pay To Pee
"Public bathrooms! The amount of human piles of poop around because the homeless have no where to relieve themselves!"
AuntyMarcy
"Live in a very tourist-y part of the U.K., all public toilets charge and most cafes/pubs/libraries won’t let people use their toilets. As someone who lives here year round it’s really frustrating and doesn’t seem to make sense."
JonesNewport83
Want A Better Society? Educate Them.
"College. Or at the very least, college APPLICATIONS. If you're gonna require it for most careers, atleast make it accessible for people. And I just think it's stupid that people have to pay to get rejected."
callmeventibcimavent
"Oh god I hate that so much. Same with applying to apartments it’s such a waste of money if you don’t get approved. It racks up quickly too."
Kydra96
It does feel grimy when "official documentation" that is "mandatory" has to be bought and paid for not by the people requiring it, but by the people needing it.
Forcing Us To Pay For Something We're Forced To Have
"ID cards issued by the government. Especially since you need them for almost every aspect of daily living."
waqasnaseem07
"I. Exist."
"Birth certificates"
alexchico3
"I'm not the biggest fan of free stuf but having to pay for a piece of paper that says "I exist" is ridiculous."
Spaghetti-Evan1991
It'll never not feel bad having to pay for something we expect to be free, but it feels ten times worse when it's something you need to get by in life. As in, need to live.
Let's All Agree To Take Care Of Each Other
"All base needs up to a level. I mean stuff we need to survive, eg. power, water,... and things we are required to use to be relevant in daily life internet,..."
"Seeing how now power companies are fuel companies are having THE biggest profit in years while more and more families are pushed into bigger and bigger deths just to get by."
"Same goes for internet tbh, poor kids are just not getting by in school becasue they lack the basic stuff every other kid has to get further in life. I am not saying they need the fastest possible internet with unlimited dl, but give them so they can work for school so the vicious cycle can be broken."
Amelsander
We Need It More Than Anyone
"All mental health services. If you don’t have benefits or a VERY good paying job, they are unaffordable for how often most people really need them. At $120-160/ session even once a week is not affordable for most people these days"
pennylayne77
A Fine Line Between Need And Want
"Water"
selfishnerd77
"Drinking water, sure. But water is an expendable resource and it should honestly be more restricted when we think about cases like people watering their lawns."
I_Am_Become_Dream
Paying To Live
"Insulin. People are dying because of greedy pharmaceutical companies."
Astronimus123
"But We're 'Pro-Life'" - Jerks
"Birth control of all kinds."
"For anyone who b*tches about spending taxpayer money, I'd ask whether it costs more to provide condoms or to house prisoners."
AlexReynard
"Giving birth (In the us)"
z0k0n
"As a female US citizen the more I learn about the whole giving birth sh*t the less I want kids. My friend just had a baby, there were some complications. She is now paying off a 14k hospital bill! The lowest I have hears is 8k. 8k just to have a f-cking kid! For a country that is gung-ho about forcing women to have kids they have missed the mark completely."
Main-Yogurtcloset-82
Everyone is looking for their payout, and unfortunately sometimes we're the ones who have to give it to them, whether it makes sense or not.
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The worst part of having breasts is Florida.
I didn't even say large breasts. Just breasts, any breasts. Florida and breasts are mortal enemies sworn to battle one another into oblivion until the end of days.
In other states, you and your ladies can live a more peaceful life. Here in Florida, it's A Song of Sweat And Fire Ants.
Ever get tiny little jellyfish stuck under your side-boob? Happens here all the time.
Bikinis should come with a "Sand Lice, Your Titty Crease, And You" informational pamphlet.
Wanna jog? Hope you accounted for the fact that the air is soup and will chafe and cauterize your nipples.
Know what limits your field of vision, making you more likely to accidentally step on a snake and/or gator? Boobs.
Know what slows you down as you try to escape the angry reptile from the above paragraph? Also boobs.
Reddit user Saibotnl1 asked:
"What's the most negative thing about having boobs?"
Now take all this stuff they said sucked, and then put it inside of a steam oven filled with mosquitos. That's Florida.
And Florida is incompatibile with breasts.
Cardio Is Hardio
"I love them but running can be a nuisance even in a good sports bra."
- [Reddit]
"When I go to work, there is a woman that usually runs on the shoulder of the road. I gasp at how much her boobs bounce. Isn't that doing damage to tissue? Painful?"
- notanotherbreach
"Yes! I literally always hold mine when going up/down stairs so they dont bounce. Running is uncomfortable even with a good bra :/ "
- k_g94
"If it's a sports bra that holds you, it's so tight that it's impossible to get into or out of without a whole team of people like a pit crew."
"If you can comfortably get into it, it won't hold the girls for long."
"Cardio is just not worth all this."
-[Reddit]
"As a kid I wasn't fit enough for jump rope, but now that I'm older and have the big boobies it feels even more impossible to ever indulge in."
- PoiLethe
Literally In The Way
"They get in the way!!"
"Lately I've been getting frustrated with exercise. My personal trainer will say to hold something a certain way and I'll try but it's so uncomfortable because my boobs are completely in the way."
"She has small boobs so she doesn't account for them being in that space right in front of your chest."
- J09Lynn
"My English teacher in 10th grade was drinking water one day when a few drops landed on his shirt. He then complained about getting older and how he never stuck out far enough to get his shirt wet."
"I just sighed."
"4th grade. 4th grade is when I stuck out too much to avoid drips."
- wheredMyArmourGo
"So very much this."
"I refuse to do mountain climbers when my trainer suggests it, she started to get mad saying it's a great exercise. My retort was that I'd really rather not knee myself in the breasts as part of my workout."
"The lady has small boobs and replied that she had never thought of that!"
- Pauliester
Growing Pains
"Probably growing them."
"It hurts, and if you get big boobs young and quickly, it’s both physical and social agony."
"It hurts to grow them, first of all, your chest aches and bumping them against anything really hurts - and since they’re a sudden, large addition to your body, you’re ALWAYS bumping them on stuff."
"But the social aspect is worse."
"Your female family members comment on them slyly and smirk at your response."
"Your male friends look at you weird and you have to realize they see you as more sexual than girls with smaller chests, even though you literally cannot control this."
"Other girls can be nasty and jealous."
"Eventually I learned to manage all this and I like having breasts now; but from like 11-16 I was so frustrated and upset that I had developed them at all."
- Individual_Ad_7523
Two Volcanos
"The sweat and itch!"
"Also that they're like two volcanos, which isn't especially practical during summers or when you're a constantly hot temperatured person anyway."
- Queen-of-meme
"No matter what I try, the skin under my boobs never cools down!"
- Local_Masterpiece_
"Boob sweat is the bane of my existence when it's even a little bit hot outside - and sometimes even when it's not lol..."
- PleasuredMeatStick
"I hate the feeling of sweat on my boobs. I just put tissue between and underneath my boobs to hopefully absorb the sweat so it won’t start to itch and drip."
- LuckyBugHarley
Technological Advancements
"I STILL am not able to remove them after a long day. Why?!"
"Why can't I just set em aside for the night, all done. Why hasn't technology advanced to this possibility yet??"
- IAmNotLookingatYou
"Absolutely they would. The relief we would get ... oh my god it sounds divine."
"Maybe I wouldn’t be so b*tchy."
- Object_Prize
"I’d honestly probably only wear them for ren faire, and leave them at home the rest of the year."
- AbbyNormalKnits
Double Trouble
"The double standard of girls with small chests and big chests."
"If you have a big chest no matter what you wear or do it's sexual. But for girls with smaller chests they can get away with crop tops or v necks or even swim suits."
- BigBunsLittleBunbun
"Lol the bigger girls who spent their entire grade school years getting sent to the principal's office for breaking dress code will agree with you."
"Loose shirts will tent and billow up in the wind as you walk-- dress coded."
"Tight shirts that don't tent but cling to your chest-- dress coded."
"And don't even think about anything but a crew neckline, or you'll be dress coded again."
- cryptic-coyote
"Exactly!"
"I always got in trouble for wearing dresses in school, but skinny Minnie wearing something even worse gets by no problem just because she doesn't fill it out the way I do."
- APD2269
Expensive
"They're expensive."
"Bras are expensive and you need regular bras, sports bras, probably something special like a strapless or low back if you have a special occasion or something."
"And don't even get me started on women's healthcare ..."
- SailorSpoon11
"Stage 4 breast cancer patient here, and it costs me about an extra $5000/yr to stay alive if everything goes well."
- insertcaffeine
"I just stopped breastfeeding and none of my bras fit anymore."
"I’ve just been wearing sports bras every day because I don’t even know what cup size I am anymore and I don’t want to spend a fortune replacing all of my bras."
- kaytay3000
"Plus if you choose not to wear bras for any number of reasons, you’re treated as deviant or an acceptable target of inappropriate attentions."
- letsjumpintheocean
Getting Comfortable
"Laying on your stomach can be tricky."
- ChadweenaThundervag
"Laying on your back can be tricky as well."
"And on your side."
"Just laying in general with big boobs is a hassle."
- Skkaj225
"Am guy."
"However women in my life have found it difficult to get a decent back massage because of this. I've seen plenty of massage tables with head holes, but none with boob support..."
- DeluxeWafer
"Semi-suffocating yourself on the beach while trying to get some sun on your back is fun."
- Miikami
Either Or
"The fact that I look like a walking refrigerator if I wear a loose fitting top, as it billows shapelessly around my body in an odd fabric rectangle."
"But if I wear something form fitting, I look like a lady of the night and am treated as such."
- batchofbetterbutter
"OMG this !!"
"I feel like all my girlfriends around me have such a fashion sense and can wear things with such grace but I always look as you’ve described. Like either I look like a couch pillow or Jessica Rabbit."
"Sometimes I just want to cut them off honestly."
- octokisu
"Yeah I’ve been wanting a reduction since a was a teen because of the back pain and catcalling, and many people I know with a bigger chest feel the same way."
- didithedragon
"I had no idea women hated their boobs so much! It honestly is shining a light on an idea I have never thought of."
- Peter_the_pear
Attempted Murder
"They might try to kill me."
"Breast cancer runs in my family and I have to have my first mammogram this year at 36."
"My mom was negative for both BRCA genes but there are 6 others they’ve discovered since she had cancer that we haven’t been tested for."
"Insurance won’t cover me to test unless she tests positive for one."
- Outrageous-Proof4630
"Fun fun fun."
"My mom died from breast cancer at 46. I started getting mammograms at 34."
"Luckily, I took the BRCA test and was negative."
- lil_ho_on_da_prairie
It's Constant
"Constantly being sexualized."
"I’m the least sexual person but people assume I’m super sexual because of my body. And I hate it"
- Plus_Bison_7091
"Yup, I'm ace and I honestly just want them chopped off to be rid of the constant sexualization of my body."
"It makes me really uncomfortable."
- zapsquad
"My friend in elementary school had a condition where she went into puberty super early and had large breasts by 3rd grade."
"We would walk together to elementary school every morning and get cat called a lot, but we were too afraid to tell our parents because we thought they wouldn't let us walk together anymore."
"She would have teachers make comments about them."
"When we were older she talked about how insanely awful and alienating it made her feel growing up. Her younger sister had the same condition, but went on puberty blockers for it."
- gentlybeepingheart
Destroyed
"These pendulous bags of hell have destroyed my back."
"Even a decade after a reduction surgery, I remain in daily pain. And now as an added bonus they get to be misshapen, scarred horribly, and completely useless for raising a baby."
- Originalluff
"I didn’t realize how heavy they are until I got together with girl with big boobs and woooooow they are heavy!"
- I_love_pillows
"I got C cups in fifth grade and those f*ckers went all the way to G by senior year."
"My posture was/is awful and I've felt like an old woman since I was a teenager. I don't even want babies, so they're never actually gonna be useful either."
- Rozeline
See what I mean?
They're kind of awful once they hit a certain size, and that size is pretty much ANY size if you're in Florida.
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There are humane ways to tell someone to go home after a... liaison.
How can one be so rude after being so intimate?
I'm not saying you have to snuggle and profess love, but damn, a quick... "thanks, I hope life is kind to you" goes a long way.
Redditor sumyungdood wanted to hear the tea about the times they had to tell a lover to take a hike. They asked:
"What is the worst way someones asked you to leave after sex?"
Tell me your worst. Mine our stories where I had find my clothes in the dark and sneak out naked.
Don't ask...
A Late Run
"Asked if he could drive my car to the gas station to buy cigarettes and when he came back he told me he left my keys in the car and it was running."
TopOcelot13
Beefed
"An old friend invited me over for her famous beef stew. I got there, we fool around, had sex, then right after she handed me a tupperware of the stew and said 'you got sex and stew, now please leave.' Still not sure if that's the worst way I was kicked out or the best."
TheRockMan31
"Most of the people here didn’t get stew. You did okay!"
livesarah
'is it that obvious'
"Went home with a girl from the bar. After we had sex, she said something like 'soooo... think you can get an Uber now? If not, I GUESS you can sleep on the couch for a few hours.' Here I was, sitting on some random girl's couch trying to find an Uber at 4 AM. Mercifully I did find one and when the guy picked me up he said 'so, your hookup kick you out?' I said 'is it that obvious' and he replied 'you weren't the first one I drove back to their car tonight and you probably won't be the last.'"
apocalypticradish
Yummy
"Go grab some Taco Bell. You can eat it on your way home. Honestly it was better than the sex. And I don't even like Taco Bell that much."
Nobody_Wins_13
I hate Taco Bell. And since reading this... I hate people.
Mrs. Robinson?
"She lit a cigarette, then looked at me for like 20 seconds, and said 'Well, bye.' I just got dressed and left. Never saw her again."
Rhalellan
And you are?
"While dozing off, he gently tapped my shoulder, and said: 'Maribel, you can’t stay here.'"
"My name is not Maribel."
tikkichik21
"See this is what happens when you don’t let people talk about Bruno."
Brendanlendan
Go
"He got off me and started looking at pictures of other women on Instagram, and commenting on how much more attractive they were than me and told me 'oh yeah you can go now.' We were best friends for like two years up until that moment."
Caramel_Cappucino
"I’m open minded but this is exactly why I often don’t trust male friendships. You could even be a lesbian and one moment of vulnerability they may take advantage of that. I know it’s unrelated but your experience made me upset and I’m sorry you had to go through that."
L8NiGHTFLiGHT
second time...
"He rolled over, grabbed his phone, and without even looking at me said 'find your clothes, you know where the door is' and just laid there on his phone ignoring me while I gathered my clothes and left. He tried texting me a few days later because he was drunk and horny so I told him 'you know where your hand is' and blocked him."
olivinemultichrome
Gross
"We were good friends for a few years before hooking up after a night of drinking."
"Halfway through sex he told me he can't actually do this because he wanted to get back with his ex and can't mess it up because she's the hottest girl he'll ever be with. He lived in the middle of nowhere and I couldn't leave until the morning so he made me sleep on the couch."
barontayto
Wow. Some people are truly disgusting. How do you treat other humans this way?
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Most couples are inseparable and enjoy doing everything together, thanks in part to shared mutual interests.
But on occasion, some people in relationships go off in pursuit of one-sided pleasures in secret for various reasons.
These can range from going out to a vegan restaurant when the other person is a carnivore to seeing a Netflix show that is too violent for a squeamish significant other.
Because not every significant other may not share the same passion, Redditors TheTinRam asked:
"What’s a guilty pleasure you hide from your significant other?"

These Redditors needed some "me time."
Dad Time
"Everytime I go on a late night grocery run (once or twice a month) because I work nights, and my wife forgot to grab whatever, I add a $0.70 Mexican soda to the cart. It is just for me. It is something my dad used to get me on especially long days when I was a kid 'helping' him on jobsites. It is my tiny reminder of him."
– thecountnotthesaint
Story For No One
"I write stories for years now, some of the times she thinks I'm working on the computer but I'm actually writing a story. There is nothing to hide but I just keep it to myself, none of my family members know I write stories. Till today I have written 56 stories (most of them are short)."
– SuvenPan
In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
"Staying up late for peace and quiet."
– Blue_OG_46
Chatting For One
"I talk to myself all the time, I was actually wondering last night if it was a really weird thing to do lol"
– hottytoddy_sko
Naked And Sacred
"I will cruise the house butt naked and just do whatever the hell I want. About once a month. I won’t be able to this summer because the kids will be back in school, but come August, I’ll be naked and free again!"
– batchofbetterbutter
Some people need to get out of the house.
Self Therapy
"Sometimes I take the long way home and talk to myself in the car about my 'problems' - like Self Therapy. I put one earbud in so ppl think I could be on the phone."
"I get quite animated. It helps to get a stressful day out of my system before I get home and switch gears."
– Humble-Plankton2217
Solo Slice
"My husband has gluten sensitivity. If he eats regular pizza, his stomach hurts for a couple of days after."
"Well, I don't, so sometimes I say I'm going for a run, and I do run.... to the pizza store, eat a slice, and run back."
– sohumsahm
Catching Up With The Boys
"Covid has messed it up for a bit now. But every 3 or so months the boys and I all get up like we are going to work at our respective jobs but instead all call in sick and meet for breakfast, then go back to our one buddies place for the day to hangout. Around 4 or 5 one by one we all head home for our normal arrival time."
"It's literally the only way for us all to get together reliably. Most of us have known each other for the better part of 30 years now, going way back to junior kindergarten for some."
"Twice I have let her know my plan for the day and twice I have gotten phone calls to come home early for what ever not some emergency. So now we do it secretly."
– foh242
Some of the things people do behind their SO's backs is for endearing reasons.
Smooch Ploy
"I don’t know if this is a guilty pleasure necessarily but I pretend to be asleep when he comes home from work because he always kisses me on the forehead."
– str8outofabook
Catching Zzzs
"I love when she snores."
"She complains (only lightly) about my snoring all the time, and I always feel awful that I make it tricky for her to get a good night's sleep. When she's snoring, I know she's actually going to rest well, and it makes me happy."
– ricdesi
Scent Of A Man
"Smelling his clothes. Not creepily, like his boxers. But when he lets me borrow a shirt or a sweater I’ll put it on and just revel in the smell of him on his clothes. If I recall correctly, it definitely wasn’t like this when we first started dating. It’s been over two years now and I only remember doing this around the 7 month mark. He smells really, really good."
– he-whoeatsbugs
The Forever Admirer
"I have a whole album of 'unflattering' pictures of her. Not really something I hide, but they make me happy. She’s so silly yet so beautiful."
– Dewahll
They say that a couple that plays together, stays together.
That's all well and good. However, a significant other having some alone time should never be stigmatized.
My husband and I usually watch every TV show together, but I watch Netflix's Ozark by myself because I enjoy intense dramas, immensely.
It's not a secret. And he's glad I watch the shows that I want to watch on my own time–just like I encourage him to watch all those UFO documentaries that he's obsessed with, by himself.
No really, watch them without me.
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