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People Describe The Dumbest Reason They Ever Seriously Injured Themselves

People Describe The Dumbest Reason They Ever Seriously Injured Themselves
Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

Back in sixth grade, I was trying to impress my friends. Actually, they weren't my friends but classmates whom I wanted to like me.


We've all been there.

So I tried to make them laugh by performing a little stunt where I pretended to walk into the classroom with a door that had been shut.

I kicked the door and meant to mimic my face bouncing off from the impact. Excpet my estimation between the door and my face was way off.

Basically, I knocked two of my front teeth, causing them to dangle from my gums and swing like western saloon doors. I got the laugh I wanted, I guess.

Curious to hear something more dramatic from strangers on the internet, Redditor _elliot_frost_ asked:

"People of Reddit, what is the most serious injury you got for the dumbest reason?":

Over Confident

Usually, whenever someone says, "I've got this," they don't.

Screwed

"Drilled half an inch into my arm because I thought .... and I quote 'I got this, ain't no way its gonna slip.'"

NotSoNobleRon

Wasn't A One-Man-Job

"Tried to move one of those old, massive tv sets by myself and dropped it on my foot. Shattered all my toe bones and broke a few in my foot. Super stupid."

prodigy1189

Touching Concrete

"My little brother and I were helping my mom move. There was some furniture that was easier to unload from the bedroom balcony then carry down the thin stairs with a turn, so my brother passed those to me while on the balcony and I on the ground. Once finished he decided to jump from the balcony rather than take the stairs because...I have no idea. He broke his foot on the concrete path under the balcony."

dring157

This Is How Not To Ride A Bike

"I was teaching my now-husband to ride a bicycle, as he didn't know even as we were 22. We were practicing in an empty high school courtyard. He tried for a few meters and fell. I suddenly take the bike and speed around the yard, getting cocky and showing off, so I don't see the soccer goal post coming towards me. I hit my head, hands and knees and scraped a good chunk off my shoulder. I may have had a concussion too, as I was dizzy and disoriented for some hours after. I still have a 2 inch diameter circular scar on my shoulder. I was a dummy."

elenifan

Overshooting

"When I was in 11th grade I was a teachers assistant for an 8th grade gym class. One day we were told to set up and run handball games and being the competitive older kid I was I decided to play. I talked to my team and came up with a plan to score a point in a flashy way (as we were already crushing the other team). I decided I would jump and grab the rim of the basketball hoop above the other teams net and have my teamate bank the ball off me and into the goal. Well turns out I didn't have great grip strength and my fingers slipped, ended up landing on my hand wrong and tore a ligament in my right ring finger. To this day, I cannot move that finger from the middle knuckle down."

NotCzeko

Reddit Users Share Their Best 'It's A Small World After All' Experience

Play Time

You know what they say: "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt."

Getting A Mouthfull

"I cant really remember if I was actually legitamtely injured, but i remember my mom taking me to the hospital. When i was like 7 years old, my parents bought my brothers and I some toy lightsabers. They were the types that lit up when you pressed a button and could be extended a bit. It was summer and my mother took us to her sister's bbq where we played outside with our cousins and the adults could all go and chat together. My oldest brother and I took our lightsabers so we could show everyone and fight with them. Our parents had wanted to see us so they kept glancing back every few minutes to check that nobody got hurt. My older brother and I started to duel with our lightsabers, and then it got interesting. We both backed away and charged at eachother, ready to stab the other with our toy saber. For some weird f'king reason, I opened my mouth and let out a sort of battle cry. Then my brother's lightsaber went in my mouth and a little bit into my throat (I assume accidently.) My mom was mortified and rushed me to the hospital because she said she didnt want to take any chances. And that is the story of how I accidently deepthroated a lightsaber."

Hey_I_Got_Memes

Sticking That Landing

"Steak knife through the ankle, while backflipping onto a couch."

"I was 14, or so. Aristocrats was on at the Everybody Wants to Be a Cat bit. It was my jam, so I was dancing. Halfway through the song, I flipped on the couch. I had forgotten about a steak knife I had left from lunch. Shock set in and I started screaming. Mom came in, and had to drive me to the ER."

shigogaboo

Reminder To Tie Your Shoelaces

"When I was a kid I broke my arm in three places while playing hide & seek. I was running to the home base while being chased by my friend. I was looking back & full-on sprinting foward. I tripped on my shoelaces & landed on my arm with my wrist on the asphalt & my elbow on my chest."

CharlieMWY

The Tickling Incident

"I was tickling my boyfriend when we were together for like two weeks. He panicked and headbutted me. I had a concussion and a broken nose. He had nothing."

MayBeStillTurningOut

Got Paint?

"I was playing paintball And our teams plan was the charge when the whistle blew, So the whistle blows and we all start running and randomly this kid got scared from the paint ball fire And as we are all running he stops dead and gets into a fetal position, And me running full tilt had no way of stopping and ended up rolling my ankle when I tryd to stop, I ended up rolling over him kinda sideways, I made sure the kid was OK and kept playing but something felt off, the next day I could barely walk I went to see the doctor they told me it's was A level two sprained ankle so fast forward 4 years later after 2 rounds of physiotherapy I still have to rock an ankle brace every day Or else my ankle will start to hurt to the point where I can't walk I have come to hate that kid haha."

creekupwood

When The Ball Dropped

"I was riding my bike, then I suddenly hit something and I'm launched forward and fall down, I was bleeding a bit but it was ok."

"10 minutes later I noticed that my right testicle skin was sliced and it was bleeding, had to go to the hospital."

Kakyslamiste

During A Task

These Redditors wound up hurting themselves while trying to achieve a goal.

Spoiler alert: they did not reach their intended goals, straightaway.

When Bracing Failed

"Was squatting down to grab something at work, stepped on an air hose which made my foot slip, and I fell a total of maybe five inches. I put my arm out to catch myself, ended up tearing my shoulder, and I strained a muscle in my lower back."

"I fell about as hard as the Life Alert grandma from the commercial, and was put out of the gym for 6 months."

pineappledaddy

Reach For Protection

"Jumped out of bed to grab a condom, my toe got stuck and snapped, I broke the toe and ligaments in my foot got damaged. I started walking crooked to compensate Even though my lower back started hurting. and that went on while i fell pregnant a month later. Continued to walk crooked whilst carrying a baby and now 7 years later my lower back right above the tailbone still hurts one 1 side."

Budget_Island1484

Concerned Dad

"Took my daughter to a roller skate bday party."

"She was scared to skate, so I got a pair and skated around with her. I slowed down and got up on the carpet, stopped, and waited for her to catch up."

"Took one slide forward, skate got caught and I went down. Broke my elbow catching myself on the floor."

"Turns out I sustained a break that mostly only children get from falls. It was so unusual I kept getting questioned if it really was a skating injury and not something the guy I was dating at the time inflicted on me."

"Nope. I'm just that awesome to take one step on carpet, in roller skates, and end up in a cast for 6 weeks."

greenbanky

Bye Bye Fingernail

"I was carrying cinder blocks and slipped on the ice, didn't quite escape my hand and broke my index finger as well as popped the fingernail out from a couple cm past what is visible. It's perma f'ked."

anamewithnonumbers

Blood Fountain

"Chopped my foot open with an axe. Was trimming the tree in the front yard, the big branches that I cut off had to be made smaller, and the hand saw wasn't doing it too well, so I started using the axe, it worked great, then I misjudged a branch, thought it would be two swings, nope! Only one! Went straight through the branch and into my foot. I looked down and the blood started squirting moderately. Fun times!"

BenwastakenIII

No, injuries are not fun, but we all have at one point put ourselves in harm's way for very foolish reasons.

Clearly some of the injuries mentioned above were far more serious than the "injury" I suffered as a result of my grade school shenanigans.

The upside to all of this is, we get to live long enough after the fact to talk about it.

We're not dumb. We is survivors!

Michael Richards Ok GIF Giphy

Old Wives' Tales People Still Believe For Some Reason

"Reddit user the_spring_goddess asked: 'What is an old wives tale that people still believe?'"

Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

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Therapist talking during session
Photo by Mark Williams on Unsplash

Some people stand firmly stand behind their beliefs that everyone would benefit from therapy and that therapy is life-changing.

It's because of the totally life-changing truth bombs their therapist had dropped during their sessions.

Curious, Redditor anonymiss0018 asked:

"What is a little bombshell your therapist dropped in one of your sessions that completely changed your outlook?"

Communication Issues

"'If you don’t have these problems with any other person in your life, why do you think you’re the problematic person in this one?'"

- maggiebear

"I love this. I have a 'friend' who I always seem to run into misunderstandings with. Every time we had a conversation, it somehow turned into a debate even if it was me talking about my day. The conversations were never easy."

"I always evaluate myself first and take into consideration his critiques. He was very good at convincing me that I was contradicting myself or wasn't good at communicating my thoughts."

"I NEVER had this issue with ANYONE else in my life. I kept trying to figure out where the miscommunication was coming from. In the end, I just minimized contact and now I don't run into this issue."

- chobani_yo

"I read this quote somewhere once (and probably have it a bit wrong): 'It's a waste of time arguing with someone who is determined to misunderstand you.'"

- Reddit

Emotional Regulation

"'You can’t control your emotions, but you can control what you do with them.'"

"At the time, I was a young adult who had learned zero healthy emotional regulation skills (only suppression and shaming) growing up, so this blew my mind."

- lil_mermaid

Tough Relationships

"'It sounds to me like you are trying to convince yourself to stay with your girlfriend. I'm not so sure it should be so difficult.'"

"At the time he said this, I remember it was like he said, 'The earth is flat.' I thought he was crazy when he suggested relationships don't need to be difficult. But eventually, I started to realize I was trying to change myself to stay with this person rather than just being who I am."

"It took me three more months to finally break up with her but from that day on, I vowed to never again abandon myself just to be with someone I had convinced myself was better than me."

- metric88

High-Stress Situation

"I was at a high-stress time, and I asked her how people live like this."

"She replied, 'Oftentimes they have cardiac events.' She said it as an urging to care for myself as much as possible."

- KittenGr8r

The End of Alcohol

"I was struggling with my alcoholism, and we were discussing how I had been cutting back."

"She asked what I would consider success, with regard to my drinking."

"I said I wanted to get to a point where it wasn't interfering with my daily life. I wanted to just be able to have a glass of wine at holiday dinners or family gatherings."

"She simply asked me why. Why was it important for me to drink at those times?"

"It was as if she'd turned on a light. Alcohol had always been a key ingredient in every family function, for my entire life. When I smell bourbon, I think of my uncle. When I smell vermouth, I think of my dad. Alcohol ran through almost every happy childhood memory."

"But, even more than that, I was very afraid of the explanation I'd have to give when family and friends asked why I wasn't having a drink. I had tried to quit before but failed. What if I admitted my problem, only to fall off the wagon?"

"When she asked why I didn't want to completely quit, it was the first time I saw that last part of the big picture. I'd be willing to drink myself to death in order to avoid being scrutinized, or judged for possible future failures."

"That was the day I quit. I've been sober since May 6th, 2017. 2,407 days."

- sophies_wish

Acceptance vs. Enjoyment

"'Accepting something doesn’t mean you have to like it.'"

"That took away a lot of my inner conflicts about situations because I could accept a situation without expending energy internally fighting against the injustice of it."

- alibelloc

Emotionally Immature Parents

"You are not responsible for your parents' emotional wellbeing. They are independent adults who have been on this earth for many more years than you."

- SmokedPears

Not So Lazy

"'Why do you think you're lazy?' Then she listed off all the things she knows I'm doing for my family, my job, and my life."

"It kind of blew my mind when I struggled to come up with an example."

"She also described family dysfunction as water. Some families are messed up in a way that everyone can see the huge waves across the surface. Others are better at hiding it, but there's still a riptide that you can't see unless you're also in the water."

"It made me realize that trying to keep the surface from ever rippling doesn't erase what is happening underneath."

- flybyknight665

The Harm in People-Pleasing

"'Why do you make people more comfortable when you are uncomfortable?' when talking about people pleasing and fawning."

- ERsandwich

Agree to Disagree

"'Stop trying to get everyone to agree. When you need everyone to agree, the least agreeable person has all the power.'"

This really changed my outlook on planning family events."

- freef

Grieve and Start Anew

"For context, I had a major TBI (traumatic brain injury), seizures, strokes, and all around not a fun brain time when I was 28."

"They said, 'You have to grieve the loss of yourself.'"

"Most people wanted me to go back to how I was. The f**ked up truth is that part of my brain is dead. The person everyone (including myself) knew died. I needed to grieve the loss of myself."

- squeaktoy_la

Multifaceted Identity

"They told me that my job and career is just a way to make money; it's not my life or identity. That took a lot of pressure off me."

- unfairpegasus

Breaking the Cycle

"They validated me."

"'You always talk about not wanting to do to your daughters what your mom did to you. You worry about it so much in every interaction you have ever had with them."

"But your children are 19 and 21 now. They are happy and healthy and they trust you because you’ve never abused them in any way. So I just want to validate for you that you really have broken that cycle of violence."

"You did that. And you should be proud of it. I’m proud of you for it.'"

- puppsmcgee74

The Grieving Process

"I was constantly bringing up how I felt like a completely different person after my mom died... like there was a marked difference between before and after her death."

"But once, she was asking about my hobbies, I got really into describing all the things I loved to do or at least used to do before I got into a deep depression."

"She was like, 'Wow, you seem very passionate.'"

"And I just sat there like, 'Well, I mean, I can't change what I like to do, they're still fun to do.'"

"And it's like she knew when to take a step back, because it was like, wow, I may be super depressed about my mom passing, but I'm still me. I'm still my passions and those don't go away."

"I don't know, maybe it only makes sense to be, but it really started getting me back on track."

- Hannibal680

Sharing the Load

"I've never really had friends. I've had colleagues and classmates and housemates and people who have hung out with me, but I never really felt close to any of them."

"And I did that thing you see on here sometimes; I stopped reaching out to see if I would be reached out to, and I wasn't, which I took as confirmation that they didn't really want me around, or at the very least, that they wouldn't mind my absence."

"I was talking to my therapist about people I'd been close to in college, and she told me to pick one and talk about him. So I did. After I shared some basic stuff like his name and his major etc., and a couple of anecdotes, she asked me what else I knew about him."

"And I couldn't answer. It wasn't really a broadly applicable bombshell, but she said, 'What else?' and I started crying because I realized that for as simple as the question was, my inability to answer spoke volumes."

"I've never had good friends because I've never been a good friend. I'm withdrawn and reserved and I always made others do the work to drag me out, without ever extending my own friendship in a meaningful way in return. If I wanted to have meaningful relationships with other people, I would have to build them."

"I'm still working on this, but I'm trying to make more offers and extend more friendliness to others in my daily life."

- Backupusername

The discoveries in this thread were incredibly touching and profound; it's no wonder these were lasting concepts for these Redditors.

It's important to keep ourselves open to inspiration and insights from others, as we have no idea how their experiences could help us, or how we could help them.

Aerial view of a church in a small town
Sander Weeteling/Unsplash

There's something comforting about living in a small town.

It's characterized by close communities where neighbors know each other by name and there is an abundance of kindness extended to others.

Gift-giving is a commonality, as is the sharing of recipes, and people going out of their way to help each other in a time of need.

The pace of living in small towns is also a striking contradiction to city life, where crowds of people go about their busy lives without much interaction.

Curious to hear more examples of what small town living is like, Redditor official_biz asked:

"What's the most 'small town' thing you've witnessed?"

These are positive examples of a tight-knit community.

Live Updates

"We have a village Facebook page. Every time the ice cream man drives into the village, the entire page goes ballistic. People send live updates of where the van is and which direction he's heading. The ice cream man has started accepting DMs so he knows which streets to go down."

– PyrrhuraMolinae

Brush With The Law

"I’m from a town of less than 2,000 people. When I worked at the grocery store there people would often drop off stuff for my family members because they didn’t want to drive all the way down to our house. I no longer live there but recently got a call from my daughter. She had been stopped for speeding and handed over her license and insurance which happens to be in my mother’s name. The officer goes 'Hey, you’re Donnie’s granddaughter! I ain’t gonna write you a ticket but I’m telling Donnie when I see him tomorrow cause we’re going fishing.' She replied 'I think I’d rather have the ticket.'”

- Reddit

Roadside Catchup

"The traffic on the 'main street' of my town is so sparse, two drivers going opposite directions can stop and talk to each other for a few minutes without causing any problem."

– anon

When things go wrong, people take notice without incident.

Bank Robbery

"A guy robbed a bank and everyone knew immediately who he was and the teller got mad at him."

– AlexRyang

"A local bank was robbed and one of the tellers told the police to bring her a yearbook from about ten years earlier and she would be able to point the robber out. He had been in the grade before hers in school."

– Strict_Condition_632

Wise Woman

"When I worked at the bank in town there was an older lady that had worked there through 5 mergers."

"She knew everyone, there was a young guy yelling at me one day. She walked out of the back and he immediately quieted. She went off about telling his grandmother that he was treating young women like sh*t. She also said that if he didn’t straighten up not one girl in town would ever marry him she would make sure of it."

– ilurvekittens

Intoxicated Local

"Town drunk was paralyzed and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. I was driving home one Saturday night and said town drunk was passed out in his wheelchair doing circles almost directly in the town square. Had to call his brother who came and picked him up on a rollback truck. Strapped him down and drove off into the cold dark night."

– DoodooExplosion

Grazing Over To The Bar

"In my former small town, there was an older guy who'd lost his license after getting a few DUIs. Every day, he would ride his John Deere lawnmower to the corner bar around 3PM and sit around watching TV and sipping his beer well into the night. Then he'd head the couple miles back home on his mower. He even had a little canvass shell he put on when it rained or got too cold."

– brown_pleated_slacks

It's not surprising how small town people behave differently than those who are from metropolitan areas.

Welcoming Committee

"I lived in a small town. When I moved there, people would ask, 'Whose house did you buy?'"

–MoonieNine

"Move to a small town. 30 years later, you are still the new guy."

– impiousdrifter

"I lived in a small town for most of my childhood but I wasn't "from there" because my grandparents weren't from there."

– raisinghellwithtrees

"Worked with an older guy, relative of the owner of the business, he was 73. I asked him if he was a local, he said 'no his parents moved here when he was two.'"

– realneil

A Busy Day

"Lived in a town of about 5,000: A woman walked into the DMV on a Friday, saw that there were 3 people ahead of her and left to come back another time when they weren't so busy."

– KenmoreToast

Who Let The Dogs Out?

"My dogs got out while i was working. the police called my niece's elementary school (she was a 5th grader) to get her to round them up and take them back home."

– mediocrelpn

"There was a small kennel behind the police station for runaways. They called us saying they had our dog, and moments later our dog showed up home. He broke out of jail."

– Worried_Place_917

While life in a small town sounds appealing, I don't know if I can ever live in one.

I'm so used to life in big cities, I think it would be quite unnerving to adjust in a neighborhood where everyone literally knows your business.

I would be paranoid.

And I'm sure the same could be said of life in the big city.

Would you consider making the switch to life in a different setting?