Heartbroken People Reveal The Moment They Knew Their Relationships Were Over
Losing love is hard. Getting divorced is even harder, as in your mind, that individual was going to be the one you spent the rest of your life with. It's difficult to put yourself back out there, but many divorcees are able to find the strength to move on and find someone else that makes them feel whole.
However, people on the other side of that relationship sometimes notice there might have been a real reason they were divorced in the first place, one they didn't share with you up front. That might have been the thinking Reddit user, r/psxpetey, had, who asked:
People of reddit who married divorcees, at what point did you realize there might be a reason the other person divorced them?
50. Save yourself!
When he grabbed me by my hair and nearly ripped it off my head. He was mad because I had told him I was worried about him hanging out too much by himself and not leaving his room anymore. After I left his apartment I texted him letting him know it was over. mermaidhairdontcare
49. Did y'all 'play' safe?
When a fellow fraternity brother informed me my then girlfriend had slept with fourteen guys in a span of two weeks, all of them were told that we had broken up and were unaware of the others. I was across the country at my grandmother's funeral/spring break. thelostcanuck
48. Calm down Ben...
Looking back, I think I had the first inkling when I was reading Gone Girl and found myself relating to it a little too much.
To clarify, the crumbling marriage fake diary entries. Not the sociopathic mind games. imhereforthemeta
47. Cheers!
When I kept hoping he'd slip up and start drinking again so I'd have an 'excuse' to leave. :(
46. Hands Off!
The time I picked up her laptop to keep it from falling off the bed and she screamed and grabbed it from me and said "That's my personal property, you have no right to touch that!" robots_and_cancer
45. Um... That's not Creepy....
She had a mannequin. Not just any mannequin though, it was wearing a sweatshirt she took from me, and one of my hats. It was also in her closet. When I asked her about it, she told me it was "In case I missed you too much, I could still hold you." I broke it off the next day. Algorn120
44. Drowning...
When my alcohol spending overtook my food spending. dragon_bacon
43. Ice Queen....
Where I felt like I was the only one showing affection and the only one trying. Where I felt lonely even in the presence of her. Pretty sad feeling to invest your all into someone and receive nothing but a cold look back. REDDIT
42. Breaking up is the gift!
He didn't give me a birthday present. Not a card or a cake or anything. That's when I realized he didn't care about me. Currently in the process of breaking up (we live together). jell_bell
41. Numb to You!
He would always say the meanest possible things when he was angry... Like, insecurities and secrets that I would share with him during close moments he would later use against me whenever he was mad. I realized it was over when his insults didn't hurt me anymore... I had no feelings left to give. Not even sad ones, let alone ones of happiness or love. TitzMcGhee
40. European Break Up!
When, shortly after taking me on a romantic trip to Europe, he came downstairs one morning and calmly told me to grab my things so that he could drop me off at my folk's place. He mailed the rest of my stuff to my mother. area--woman
39. Out of Excuses...
It was pretty simple. I just found myself making more excuses not to be with her because i found I enjoyed time without her more than with her. Jrspike
38. Change in thought...
When I realized that I don't miss her anymore and started to look at other girls
Also I started to think more about her bad things, only things I dislike, no more "hey, I love her because of that," more like "I hate this at her."
Having a long distance relationship makes things different. I rarely looked at other girls, but suddenly started to think "wow this one is cute and that one is hot" => change of mindset. scorer433
37. Border Jump!
When he left to another state without telling me. I had absolutely no clue before that. GimmeMuchosMangos
36. Take A Bow...
When she admitted she didn't even bother asking off work to come see me in my play. It was her learned helplessness, her inability to try. At some point, she had stopped moving her life forward so that our life together could get started.
Almost 5 years later, I'm engaged to someone else. She's my best friend and we've got our stuff together. Break ups suck, but they happen because they're supposed to happen. Fenris447
35. Make 'Them' Sob!
When I realized I was doing all the work in the relationship. I'd make a date, and he just won't show up. The worst was on my birthday. I sat on the park bench for 2 hours waiting and he didn't even have the decency to call me. I must have looked pathetic sobbing alone on a park bench but I was really distraught. VicieuxRose
34. Damn That Pokemon!
We stopped having sex. Everything irritated me and other men started to seem attractive again. I wanted to explore new things, travel, do something different then the day before. He wanted to sit inside, watch football, and play pokemon. An entire year went by and this was still our routine football, pokemon, eat, sleep. I needed more. weare_stardust
33. Blackmail?! WTF!
When he blackmailed me with personal photos if I tried to leave. You really can't look at someone the same once that happens. It lingers in the back of your mind. glitchinthedark
32. No Air.
When it feels like you're trapped when you're around them. Similar to being claustrophobic. dripberg
31. You were in Shock!
When I was dying in the hospital, and our daughter was stillborn, he said he couldn't come to the hospital because he didn't want to miss classes. It should have ended there, but I was young, stupid, and honestly thought he was the best I deserved. It lasted 2 years until I packed a suitcase and ran. Lost everything except what I could carry. Glocksnkittens
30. Two Wrongs!
When I realized that we might never have a sexual relationship and that I would put him under a lot of pressure to do things he didn't want to do if I stayed. It was a mutual but very painful decision. xyxthris
29. Bored Now.
When I wasn't angry anymore. He was still cheating and lying but I just ran out of angry. I was tired. biglebowski55
28. Sex is a MUST!
Biggest red flag was that I didn't want to have sex with him anymore.
That has happened more than once... I think I'm just terrible at recognizing when a relationship has run its course. My body has to pretty much shut down sexually before I realize. pastacountess
27. Girl BYE!
Two days ago. He snapped at me on the ride home after my abortion. I was ashamed and exhausted. He was annoyed the appointment had finished early and interrupted his nap. catland
26. Just Shut Up!
The point at which he said he didn't know that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Also the part right after that, where he said he was in love with my best friend.
Luckily, best friend is awesome and never felt the same way towards him, so I was confident things would never happen, but still... pretty crappy to hear that out of your boyfriend's mouth. jaiex
25. Ah, See, It's The Claws.
I had my wife cheat on me... ended up meeting someone who was "perfect" and just thought I had hit the karma jackpot. She liked literally all the same things as me.
When I asked about her past, I'd hear stories of what sounded like abuse - but it was always implied (like "I was so scared, I thought he was going to hit me"). Then one night she went mental on me - started getting mad about me wanting to visit my daughter who was in the hospital- she wanted to go on a date instead... started throwing glass at me and it was like rain... I pushed her away and just got out.
She called and started threatening me; since I had "hit her" (in falling on her) my options were come back to the house or she would call the cops and report me... I hung up on her and called the cops instead.
By the time the cops showed up, she had bruises on her neck; she self inflicted them to claim I had done it - just hadn't called the cops yet - my hands showed no signs of aggressive force - plus the back of my neck earned her a trip to prison.
It was at that point I realized how duped I was - I KNEW she was the reason for her previous divorce.
I think this question implies any divorced person is flawed - that isn't fair - if you ever dated and broke up with someone, you are in the same exact boat - divorce just often gets messy because there is legal follow up.
24. Always Listen To The Best Friends
I briefly dated a divorcee. Till a common friend told me he was still married and often used that as a sympathy card to get women.
I'll clarify- This guy is 26. He got married very young to a woman 7 years older than him and apparently instantly regretted it. He had been building up the marital troubles story for a while now and recently started telling everyone at work he got a divorce.
I work with him and had no reason to doubt it. Unfortunately for him, I am good friends with someone in his university circle who knows his wife very well. When I found out, I confronted him and he started claiming he was in love with me and hadn't had the courage to ask his wife for a divorce yet but would do it soon. Pretty much the exact same line he had used on another girl a few weeks ago.
23. You're Not As Clever As You Think
I realized at the very beginning when he started arguments for no reason and slept away from home within the 1st month of the marriage.
22. Fun Times, Indeed
Sounds like an ex from years ago. He'd pick a fight with me out of nowhere. One time he backed me in a corner demanding to know why I never took the bus. (What???)
Next thing you know, there's a knock on the door and it's one of our friends coming to pick him up. Usually they were going to a movie or something, but I was never told he had made plans ahead of time. I also was told I couldn't go with them because they were going to go to a bar afterward and I was only 20. Not sure why I still couldn't go to the movie. One time a friend who was even younger than I was went with them.
Every time this happened, he'd pick up a girl at the bar and bring her home. Not even go to her place, but bring her back to our place. And I wasn't allowed to be mad because he'd say he thought we were broken up over that fake argument he dragged me into before he left. Fun times.
21. Ghosts of The Past
I dated a divorcee for a hot sec. She was actually a really wonderful lady, but she obviously had some lingering feelings about how things had gone with her ex. The first time this came up was: one night we were at a bar and I ended up in a fairly intense, fun conversation about music with the (male) bartender.
She got weirdly upset about this and started dropping lines like 'well maybe you just want to go home with him' and 'it's obvious you guys are into it'. A bit later, when she found out my brother is gay, she got weirdly passive aggressive and started saying enough offensive things that I eventually broke up with her.
Turns out her ex-husband left her for a man.
20. Stalkers On The Rise
Well I didn't marry him, but my ex boyfriend was divorced, and he made it seem like his ex wife was evil. He said that he gave everything to her, even quit his job to move to Georgia with her (they both previously lived in Minnesota). He said he had paid for all of her bills and makeup and clothes and even paid for couples trips and she took a different guy with her on a lot of them, leaving her husband behind. The marriage ended when she went on a trip to New Orleans with her friends and didn't come back.
About a couple weeks into our relationship, he began to get EXTREMELY possessive over me. I figured it was because he had been through so much with his last relationship, so I tried to overlook some of it, but it got so intense that he printed out a list of rules that I was to obey, which I obviously refused to accept. I wasn't allowed to go anywhere without telling him, he had to have visual evidence of my work schedule. It was ridiculous. So, logically, I broke up with him. But he was relentless. He kept showing up at my house and work and it was just embarrassing. Finally I threatened to get a restraining order and he left me alone.
A few months later, I get a Facebook message from this random woman who is asking me if I'm okay. I'm like, yeah why?? Like, who are you, ya know? It turns out that she was the "crazy ex wife," except that they were never really married. They were dating for a bit, and when she refused to let him pay her rent, he BOUGHT THE HOUSE FROM THE OWNER and would not accept her rent money. He bought a lot of trip tickets and used his key to go into her/his house to put them on her coffee table. She never went on any of the trips.
She moved, but he found her apartment and would leave love letters in her mailbox. He threatened her friends on Facebook, forbidding them from "stealing her" from him. Finally she got her OWN restraining order and moved far away.
So yeah, this still creeps me out because sometimes I get a feeling that he's stalking me, but I know it's probably just paranoia.
19. It's Always About The Other Person
Didn't actually marry the divorcee I dated, but came close. Fortunately, I realized beforehand that she was completely selfish. Everything was always about what she wanted and she found subtle ways to de-value anything I wanted or that was good for me.
She also had been hiding a bad temper from me (which came out finally toward the end). After the breakup, she tried spreading lies about me to all our mutual friends to make herself look better. Fortunately most of them were aware enough to realize what she was doing. Definitely dodged a bullet.
18. Sometimes, It's Obvious
When I woke up at 3am to pee and she was in the living room texting some dude. Kinda went downhill from there. t1me4change
17. Who's To Blame?
It took me a year and 8 months to leave him. He was emotionally and verbally abusive. He became angry easily. He would make hurtful "jokes" and then say I was being too sensitive and that he's just a blunt person so deal with it.
16. Four's A Crowd
Probably the first weekend when she had a threesome I wasn't a part of...
15. Red Flags
My parents are divorced and both got remarried. My mom found it beneficial to attend a "divorce care" group at her church. She ended up going out with the guy who ran the group and seemed like a great dude. When I asked her about him, she told me he had been divorced himself 2 separate times himself already which was a pretty huge red flag to me, but apparently not to her.
Fast forward 12 years and he's been unbelievably emotionally abusive to her. There was also a point when my brother and I were teenagers where we literally weren't allowed to live with them anymore (because he felt threatened he wasn't the man of the house). She says she's happy still which is truly all I want for her, but it's pretty frustrating when a 13 year old can see the red flags my 40+ year old mother couldn't.
[deleted]
14. Netflix and Chill Out
When we both stopped caring about date night, each other and fighting over who should wash the dishes. The house was a mess and we were both eating delivery food every single night since everything was dirty.
[deleted]
13. All The Little Things Added Up
My ex of about 2 years was in the process of a divorce when we met. His wife was crazy and the reason for everything wrong in his life (this should have been my first clue to run but I was young . . . eh, ya live and learn). He had kids, and I would go to sporting events for them and his ex-wife would be there the vast majority of the time, too.
We started to get along and he HATED that. I didn't get that - wouldn't it be easier for the kids if her and I had a good relationship?? Oh no - we would compare notes on HIM and it would ruin OUR relationship! (We quite literally never talked about him). My eyes started to open here.
I was using his computer once and his google calendar opened - and there was an event on Valentine's Day the next week - which he had told me we were not doing anything for due to money (which of course was his ex's fault . . . ). So I opened it (OK, shouldn't have been snooping) and the event was "Day ExGirlfriend Broke My Heart" - now this ex of his was prior to his 20 year relationship with his now ex wife. So I figured out that he never let anything go. Apparently Ever.
A couple months later our relationship was staring to decline on its own (he went over to a friends house without me, in the middle of a planned date night - and I didn't care that he left. I was mad he took the dog though), we got in a fight and he told me I was starting to sound like his exwife.
To which I responded "If we are saying the same exact things, and are such different people - dont you think the issue is YOU?!" I realized at that exact moment that he was a narcissist who was never going to change or grow up. I moved out a week later. I still miss the dog.
TLDR - a million little things finally connected in my mind and I realized he was narcissistic and manipulative. 7 years later and I would still love to sit down with his ex wife and hear her side of the story.
12. Finally Free
Short and to the point; I got full custody of my kids, she got probation and a 3 year no-contact order, that is a very long story. My girls are absolutely thriving and happy, she's moved somewhere we don't know where but we don't care. We never have to see her or hear from her, the girls went through a mountain of fear and the granddaddy of all emotional roller coasters on the way to being freed from her and excited about what's next forever. I met the most amazing woman alive and I wake up daily with a smile.
So the ex convinced the dude she was cheating on me with she had a hysterectomy, which she didn't, and ended up pregnant. The reasoning behind that I'll never know. Funny thing about that is I had a vasectomy, so she had some explaining to do, but I already knew deep down, I just didn't want to go into the life sucking process of divorce. I ended up broke and living with my folks, but now things are great. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
My kids still pseudo stalk her on social media, and I guess she's got one baby now and is pregnant again. Good for her. Hope she's happy, we are.
11. Bad Dog
My husband had an engagement that ended before we met, and the reasons always seemed weird to me - something about her trying to get rid of their dog and getting into a huge fight with his mom when she made a snarky comment about the dog thing, and then getting her mom and sister to call and harass his mom about the fight. Big, ridiculous argument that ended with them deciding they weren't going to work out. They'd been together for like four years.
Now I completely get it. Well, not the part with her mom and sister, but the rest of it. The dog was awful - peed everywhere, was very dominant and aggressive (like biting/drawing blood aggressive at times), and old enough that he was very difficult to train since they hadn't done it when he was a puppy. The dog now lives with my mother-in-law because it's not safe to have him in a home with babies. And my mother-in-law is anightmare, but my husband and his ex saw her multiple times a week whereas we see her once every couple of months.
10. Any Way To Get The News
I dated a divorcee for quite some time. She never told me she was divorced, which really wouldn't have bothered me. I ended up finding out about her past from one of the several people she was cheating on me with.
9. Bye Now
That sort of happened with me. I got to the home of a date, and a dude my age answered the door. He introduced himself as her ex-husband. I figured he was just there to pick up the kids or babysit or something, but turns out he lived there because they couldn't afford two households plus kids.
Shortest dinner date ever.
[username deleted]
8. Didn't Want It To Be Anyone Else, For That Matter
I'm a divorcee who dated a divorcee. He got drunk on his bday and told me, "I see why your husband left you" right after I'd given him a $250 watch he'd been wanting
I eventually left because a.) I realized he was a rebound that had lasted waaaaay too long, and b.) he was going to eventually hurt someone with his drinking and driving and I REALLY didn't want it to be me.
7. Working Day And Night
When we had a kid. My husband has always been a workoholic. It didn't cause too many problems when it was just us, but was a lot harder to manage once we became parents. It's easy to feel like you are doing all of the work and I started resenting my husband.
My husband and his ex-wife had two kids close in age. She was essentially a single parent to them throughout the day. He did cut back his hours slightly when our relationship started to suffer and even that was a lot. I understood why the divorce happened. I considered it at points during the relationship.
6. But Isn't 3rd Time A Charm?
It took me years. I was husband number 3. I should have known that someone who gets married 3 times by age 35 probably has a few areas for improvement.
5. Pretty Wacky?
I recently dated a girl that had just come off a marriage with a man. She wanted to try women and we went out a couple times and started dating. In bed she was very aggressive. I told her to stop and she kept on.
I eventually broke her off of me and locked myself in the bathroom, calling the cops and waiting till they arrived. Apparently she had a criminal record and her husband had divorced her for attacking him when he would come home from work.
[username deleted]
4. Past Actions Speak For Themselves
Probably the part before she was divorced and came on to me and hooked up with me. Should be no surprise that we are now divorced as she also cheated on me.
Yeah I should have known better.
3. Brian Broke A Brain
About a year after I signed the divorce papers (divorced my ex-wife for cheating on me), I met the guy she'd cheated on me with. I actually didn't know him by sight, but apparently he'd seen a few pictures of me- like the ones in my bedroom.
He walked up to me, introduced himself, and then started apologizing for being the one to break up my marriage. I was pretty much over it by then, but I was still pissed off enough to say something like "yeah, well, man it wasn't like you were the ONLY guy she was cheating on me with. I'm pretty sure she was with a dude named Brian the whole time she was with you."
He got real quiet, apologized again, and then left. A few weeks later, someone told me that he had moved out and was in the process of divorcing her. I'll never know for sure if it was my telling him about the other-other man that was the tipping point for him, but I like to think it was.
EDIT: Yes, there was a Brian (not his real name, although it hardly matters). I knew about Brian from a friend, and plus she'd admitted that there had been others besides the guy I confronted her about. Why he felt the need to apologize, I have no idea. Seemed like a nice enough guy aside from the sleeping with another man's wife thing. Did I do it for revenge? Not really. It was just a spur of the moment thing, mostly an knee-jerk response to an emotional situation. Sometimes you get to say the perfect cutting remark.
Sometimes you think of it in the parking lot after the opportunity is lost. I got lucky and didn't say something like "ah that's OK man" and regret it for the rest of my life. I used to feel sorry about it because it might have broken up a marriage, but if that marriage wasn't built on trust to begin with then chances are the infidelity was going to happen anyway (or again, if you look at it that way).
2. Rotation
Wow, sounds like my ex-wife. Marry a guy, cheat on him... I was #3 and learned my lesson. #4 threw her for a loop though, he cheated on her before she got a chance and that messed her up. It was so satisfying to watch her completely lose it because she had never been on that side of the table. Every other time she had a guy lined up and now she's single and has no idea how to function by herself.
1. It's Over
Woo, okay. Story time. So my mom just got divorced from my dad my senior year of high school. She has always been the kind of person to be in a relationship, so she started immediately dating around (since my dad cheated on my mom multiple times). She met this guy on PoF, who we're going to call Tom.
Tom was a successful marketing guy with no kids, a steady income, and was divorced because "his wife cheated on him". Early in the relationship, my mom gets a message from Tom's ex girlfriend current boyfriend. She says that she needs to tell her some things about Tom, but my mom ignores her.
A year goes by and Tom seems normal. She moves in with him and so do we since he has two spare bedrooms. He's a cool guy who seems chill and really nice. He'll sometimes go through my mom's phone (she told me), but she thought that all the good things outweighed the bad.
Cut to Election Day, where things aren't going so well for my mom and Tom since they're both liberal. They drink and Tom throws a remote at the window. He calls the police on himself. My mom forgives him.
This is where things start to get weird. Tom starts acting crazier towards my mom, mostly via text message. On Christmas Day, she decides that we don't want to go to his sister's house because she's drunk. We open the trunk to his car to get the presents out and he drives away, with stuff flying out the back. He apologizes. My mom is suuuper weary at this point.
Cut to New Years where Tom is out of town. She texts him that she wants to break up with him because he's saying that it's my autistic brother's fault that the carpet on the stairs is falling apart. He says "get your kids out of my house." So the next day, we have eight people come over to move the furniture that's my mom's while he threatens us over the phone. That was in January.
Over the next few months, and still to this day, he sends crazy threatening messages to my mom. He also found out where we live so he could "take the shared BMW that they owned jointly and sell it," even though my mom has been begging him to take it.
She finally gets in contact with the lady's boyfriend at the beginning of the story. They share stories and she apologizes for not listening sooner.
Tl;dr: my mom dated a normal divorcee who turned out to be a complete psychopath.
[username deleted]
Y'all know that one Hannah Montana song? “Everybody makes mistakes! Everybody has those days!" That's the song I sing to myself every time I accidentally burn myself while making ramen. It comforts me to know, however, that there are a lot of worse mistakes out there than some spilled ramen. Who knew?
In fact, some mistakes are so astronomical that they're remembered for decades afterwards, leaving the one who made the mistake a legacy of being a dumba**. Here are a few of them!!!
U/ronjans24 asked: What was the biggest mistake in human history?
Some may argue that the existence of the Universe was a mistake. I disagree. It was clearly Zayn leaving One Direction. But these next few were pretty bad too.
If you do the math, this is also the reason why Hentai exists.
I'll say the wrong turn Franz Ferdinand's driver made that went right in front of Gavrilo Princip.
EDIT: yes I'm aware war may still have broken out even if Franz Ferdinand wasn't assassinated
Imagine you're Gavrilo Princip. The assassination plot you and your friends had been cooking up for about the last year or so has been a complete and total disaster, just a monumental f*ck-up of the highest degree. You're staked out at this deli thinking maybe, just maybe the car will pass by, and by some stroke of sheer luck, it does.
If you're Princip, this is nothing short of serendipity.
Petition to return to the ocean.
"Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans."
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move." - Douglas Adams
This was, in fact, a monumental mistake.
Sears not beating Amazon to the punch.
Blockbuster not buying Netflix.
You thought THOSE were bad? Well gear up for their next few, because they are 100% accurate. Except the one about Cats, that movie slaps.
I don’t know sports, but sure.
Seahawks not running it.
I used to wear a Seahawks jersey whenever I took a test because I knew I would pass when I shouldn't.
CATS is great, y'all are just boring.
The Emoji Movie.
That live action movie about Cats is also up there.
Very fair point.
Social Media.
Humans are not wired to have that many social interactions and maintain that many relationships. Plus the echochambers it allows people to create for themselves, no matter how conspiratorial or vile their beliefs, means that stupid/evil people are no longer shunned into changing their mind.
Not sure it was worth being able to see what a celebrity had for lunch or what new "dance" your younger cousin and her tween friends are doing.
But in all seriousness, some horrible things may now have happened if the right thing was halted at the right time.
Washington called it.
Voting for people based on what side of the political spectrum they're on. George Washington himself advised against political parties because he thought they would cause too much division in this country. Unfortunately for everyone, he was right.
Big oops on that one.
Barack Obama mocking Donald Trump at the Correspondents Dinner might have led directly to his 2016 run....
"Now, I know that he's taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald," Obama said. "And that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter — like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?"
Then he turned serious: "But all kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. For example — no, seriously, just recently, in an episode of 'Celebrity Apprentice' — at the steakhouse, the men's cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately, you didn't blame Lil Jon or Meatloaf. You fired Gary Busey. And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir. Well handled."
This is the best Star Wars and no one can change my mind.
I'll take 'Star Wars Christmas Special' for $100.
That atrocious pile of manure gave us Boba Fett, so without the Christmas Special there won't be The Mandalorian.
Wow, in this article, I openly admitted my love for Cats AND The Star Wars Holiday Special. So maybe my existence was the biggest mistake of all.
ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you all feel a little bit better about yourself. Because when push comes to shove, at least you didn't accidentally start World War I
People Dispel Common Myths That Have Actually Been Debunked That Far Too Many People Still Believe
Image by Daniel Perrig from Pixabay |
When I was younger, it seemed every adult believed that you couldn't swim for several hours after eating. Why did they all believe this? I fought them on this all the time, by the way. I shouldn't have had to, just because I'd eaten some barbecue during a pool party. Guess what, though? That belief is unfounded.
After Redditor MelonInACat asked the online community, "What is a common myth that has been debunked that too many people believe?" people told us about the myths that are still around despite credible evidence.
"Do you know how many wellness checks..."
You must wait 24 hours before reporting a missing person.
Some questions:
- 24 hours from when? The time you realized they were missing? The time you estimate they went missing? The time of the initial report to police?
- Who is the legal timekeeper? If this is a law, it must have a designated timekeeper for official records. City police? County sheriff? Do I hire a private attorney to file a time-keeping motion in court?
- If the most likely time to find a missing person is the first 24 hours, why would you wait 24 hours?
- If the person dies or is severely injured because the county/state refused to initiate a search, doesn't that put some liability on their office? It seems like that would've been tested in court by now.
There's no law governing how long you have to wait before notifying the police of a missing person. It's nonsense. File a report as soon as you suspect the person is missing or in danger.
Do you know how many wellness checks officers go on in a day? Call it in, man...
CALL IT IN!
Why would you wait so long? It's absurd and wastes valuable time. And in the event something has happened, you could very well be saving someone's life.
"Popping your knuckles..."
Popping your knuckles is actually harmless and the "study" that claimed it caused arthritis was heavily flawed. Studies now show that it has nothing to do with causing arthritis.
I heard this one all the time.
I didn't crack my knuckles anyway because I didn't understand the appeal. Why were all the first-graders so fascinated by this?
"That if you get too close..."
That if you get too close to a baby bird, the mother will smell human on the baby and abandon the nest.
You probably should still avoid touching baby birds for other reasons like disease or risking injury to the animal though.
"That waking a sleepwalker..."
That waking a sleepwalker is dangerous for them. They might wake up confused, but they'll be fine unless you scream at them or something.
"That your hair and fingernails..."
That your hair and fingernails still grow after you die. It's mainly an optical illusion. Your skin decays and shrinks, causing hair and fingernails to look like they've grown.
I grew up hearing this.
There are entire generations of people who believe this.
"We all know the story."
The War of The Worlds broadcast in 1938. We all know the story: Orson Welle's broadcast War of The Worlds over the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). But people only tuned in partway through and heard the radio announcing that machines were landing in the country and were advancing and attacking. People panicked in the streets and thought aliens really were invading. There was hysteria on the streets, people were looting and traffic jams backed up as people tried to escape.
But it turns out, that isn't really true. It turns out barely anyone actually listened to the broadcast, and the few that were listening knew it was Orson Welles and knew it was just a broadcast of War of the Worlds. If there was anyone that did tune in and mishear it and panicked, it was nowhere near the hundreds and thousands that have been reported in this myth.
This one is definitely a popular urban myth by this point.
Cool story, but nowhere near as exciting as you might have heard. If anything, that mythos probably helped Welles get full artistic control of the projects, like Ciitizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, that made him a star.
"You don't have to wait..."
You don't have to wait 3 hours after eating to swim. Every summer I have to fight my in-laws about it.
"Do you really think..."
That not turning your airplane mode on (smartphone) can interfere/jam communications.
Do you really think if a smartphone might endanger a whole plane with passengers they would let it fly?
"No amount of reasoning..."
That cats kill babies.
I've run into this so many times since having kids. And it's not the older grandmas making these statements. I've had 20-year-olds tell me that you can't have cats if you plan to have babies because "they'll steal their breath" or some other variation. No amount of reasoning or rationale will dissuade them of this belief.
"Maybe it's just one of those things..."
YOUR. BLOOD. IS. NOT. BLUE! Seriously tho, I was told that everyone's blood was blue on the inside when I was younger, and I honestly don't know why my Mom thought that. Maybe it's just one of those things that you only believe because your family has been saying it since your Grandma's Grandpa's Grandma's Grandma's Grandpa or something like that.
Here's some valuable advice, guys:
Google is your friend. It's very easy to debunk this stuff. I remember being taught that the tongue had taste zones––we even had to fill out a worksheet labeling the tongue's different zones. That's totally wrong, in case you haven't figured it out.
Have some myths you've heard you'd like more people to know have already been debunked? Feel free to tell us about them in the comments section below!
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As much as we're not supposed to feel satisfaction upon observing the struggles of other people, it can be hard to resist a silent, internal fist pump when some blunder occurs immediately after we tried to help the person prevent it.
It is all a result of stubbornness.
The person we're trying to help is stubborn. They think they know the best way to do something, or the exact information required for a given moment.
And, on top of that, they think we're being stubborn when we try to intervene.
So all of our attempts to help fall on deaf ears. And the results can be as calamitous as they are satisfying.
TenaciousBrit asked, "What's your 'I told you so' moment?"
Many people chose to talk about the times their friends or family ended up producing some truly entertaining physical comedy.
And the laughter was only enhanced with the knowledge that they'd just predicted the whole thing.
ZAP
"Was picking beans with my sister and mom. To this day I still don't know why the fence was electric but it was. I touched it and I got zapped. It wasn't too bad but it hurt. I jumped away and my sister saw me, I said that it was an electric fence."
"Of course she just thought I was pranking her. I was trying to tell her the whole time we picked beans but she didn't believe me. Right at the end she touched the fence and she didn't see it coming at all... Her face was just like, 'Oh shi-' "
"Loved the car ride home, 'I told you... Idiot.' "
No Babies, Two Hurt Backs
"My sister and I were out sledding when we were kids at this place with a really steep hill. I had unknowingly gone down a sled path that had a jump in it, and when I landed it really hurt my back."
"So when I got back up to the top of the hill I told my sister 'don't go that way, the jump really hurts.' She called me a baby and didn't believe me that it really hurt so she decided she would go down that path on her sled."
"Well, she hit the jump and didn't get back up, turns out she fell so hard she had broken her leg. When we finally got her back up the hill and to the car, I got to tell her 'I told you so.' "
Drenched.
"This dumb a**hole woman wouldn't leave the llamas at our petting zoo alone, even after I warned her."
"Eventually they had enough and spit alllll over her. Green goopy spit from head to torso."
"She threw up a bunch and I laughed. Until I smelled it and then I was retching too."
-- craxiom0
Others recalled the times they trusted their instincts, only to be gaslighted by medical professionals.
But they did, eventually, get the help they needed. And the mixture of pride and frustration toward the other doctor was palpable.
Non-MD Spouse
"Had a weirdly dark freckle. The color of chocolate. I showed spouse and he called me a hypochondriac and if I go to a doctor, I'd be wasting their time."
"I went to the dermatologist. It was melanoma."
-- weaponizedpastry
Years of Itchy Apples
"Since I was 14, my throat got itchy when I ate apples. I told my mom but she thought I just didn't want to eat apples and forced me to eat them."
"Went to the doctor's office and got a test for allergies."
"Turns out, I'm allergic to apples, peaches, and many other fruits."
-- CayonSalad
This Was a Baby We're Talking About Here!
"My newborn baby was projectile vomiting after every feeding. I took her to the doctor several times, always ended up being sent away with suggestions to try a different formula. I tried like 4 different ones, no change."
"The 4th or 5th visit, they sent me away again with the same recommendation even though I pleaded with them to figure out what was wrong with my baby. I left the office and drove to the ER instead. She ended up having emergency surgery that day."
"The surgeon said she would have starved to death (or maybe dehydrated?) had she gone much longer without the surgery. I gave the doctors in that office a piece of my mind."
Dirt: Not Always the Answer
"Went to the doctor on and off for breathing problems to no avail. A lot of 'rub some dirt on it' mentality. Wound up in the ER as a result of an asthma attack. Kept the bracelet on and everything when I went back the next week to see him."
"Not as satisfying as I would've hoped."
And some people discussed the times they knew or predicted a piece of information, but couldn't seem to persuade someone else through dialogue or conversation.
But, of course, the truth always comes out.
Chose the Wrong Partner
"Lawyer here. Fired a partner who I found some real irregularities in their spending habits vs. what they were making after he couldn't provide a good answer to where it came from. Other partner left and started a new firm with them because they disagreed with my decision and refused to look at the evidence."
"Turns out he stole 500k of a clients money, got disbarred, and is now facing prison time. I told her to look at the evidence and she didn't listen. 🤷🏼♂️"
Sweet Victory
"Someone started talking about a bottle of Newman's Own salad dressing while at dinner with my family and I said something like 'I'm pretty sure that was started by the Actor/Race car driver Paul Newman.' to which one of my siblings replied 'No it was someone else.' "
"I grabbed the bottle and turned it around and started reading the label out loud. The first sentence was 'Paul Newman's career was acting, but his passion was auto racing.' I stopped reading after that."
He Knew Immediately
"Bed frame wasn't properly lashed down while moving, partner insisted the weight of the frame would keep it in place."
"Flew into the middle of a major intersection on a left turn. We dodged four lanes of oncoming traffic to collect the pieces."
"I fixed my partner with a look that could peel paint, and he said 'I know, I know, you told me so and you're right. I'm sorry.' "
"I still give him sh** for it every time we move something. It's funny now, but god damn was I pissed at the time."
We can draw a couple of lessons from this list.
First, know that, at the end of the day, you can only do your best to share your opinion. You need to accept that they're going to do what they're going to do.
Second, when someone tries to give you advice, maybe take a moment to listen.
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One of the most upsetting aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic––which is saying a lot, frankly––is the number of people who have been so affected by misinformation and disinformation. You know the ones to which I refer: These are the people who are convinced the virus is a hoax despite the lives it's claimed and the devastation it has wrought on society at large. Disinformation kills––there are stories of people who remained convinced that Covid-19 is a hoax even while intubated in the ICU, even up to their last breath.
After Redditor asked the online community, "Doctors of Reddit, what happened when you diagnosed a Covid-19 denier with Covid-19?" doctors and other medical professionals shared these rather unsettling stories.
"The one that sticks out in my mind..."
I'm a doctor working in acute internal medicine. I've seen lots of COVID over the last 12 months, probably 300+ cases. The one that sticks out in my mind the most was a 70-year-old lady with COPD. She refused to have a vaccine because she didn't trust it despite the fact she was eligible for one for weeks beforehand (in the UK). Subsequently caught COVID and was admitted to hospital. She repeatedly doubted this was the diagnosis. She refused to go to our COVID High Dependency Unit despite quite significant respiratory failure. Of course, she deteriorated over a number of days to the point where she was on maximal oxygen on the ward and at that point finally accepted treatment in HDU with high flow oxygen, although continued to doubt she had COVID. Died within 24 hours of her HDU admission having refused to go to ICU.
And of course, what did her family say? They were convinced she never had COVID and even went as far as accusing us of withholding life-saving treatment from her. Unfortunately, there's no treatment for stupidity.
Indeed there isn't.
A completely avoidable tragedy.
"My worst experience..."
My worst experience was when a 2-year-old kid got diagnosed with COVID. His mother had brought him with c/o fever and diarrhea. The child was severely dehydrated and so we had to do a mandatory swab test since we planned to admit him. It came positive and the mother refused to admit it. We were ready to perform a repeat test and we even advised the parents to get tested. Her defense was "The child never left the house. It's just me and the father who go to work daily. The grandmother babysits while we are away. How can he even get COVID without leaving the house." She had called her husband, he came with 10-15 relatives in a car, they broke a few chairs and then left with the baby. We just informed about the case to the COVID control centre.
"Only one patient ever accused me..."
Infectious disease doctor here. Seen about 450-500 COVID patients in the hospital since it all started. Only one patient ever accused me of using the nasal swab to give him COVID (along with a microchip). A handful have ranted nonstop about China. Everyone else has been sick enough to accept it, but lots still refuse the idea of vaccination even after being in the ICU.
"I had a lady who was maxed out..."
I had a lady who was maxed out on high flow (the next step is breathing tube) who still refused to believe she had Covid and was holding a negative test in her hand that she had taken a week prior.
The denial is so strong here.
It would be sad if it wasn't so horrifying.
"I'm an attending physician..."
I'm an attending physician at our Triage Unit. On a Friday, an older gentleman (60 + years) came in with his entire family (wife, sister, BIL, 2 nephews, and 3 children), none of them with a face mask. All had mild COVID symptoms except him, he was saturating 80% with evident shortness of breath. We insisted on doing PCR and a chest CAT scan looking for COVID but he and his wife refused, saying that COVID wasn't real and it was just a bacterial infection. The more we talked with him the more agitated he got to the point that his face was red. We suggested hospitalizing him to stabilize him and start treatment, but they accused us of exaggerating his symptoms and that we only wanted to hospitalize him so we could steal the liquid in his knees (a stupid rumor that was going around when this whole thing started).
They both cursed at us and said they were going to a better hospital to get antibiotics. Fast forward 24 hours later on Saturday, I get a call from the hospital next county over telling us that they intubated one of our patients because he went into respiratory failure when he arrived and they had to transfer him here because they don't have the appropriate equipment. We transfer the patient on Sunday only to find out on the CAT scan he had 90% of lung damage. He passed away on Monday morning.
Just before the family took the body away, I gave the widow the death certificate (that I filled out) and before walking away, she turns around and waves the certificate yelling "See! I told you it wasn't COVID! It says here: "Death due to pulmonary pneumonia due to SARS-CoV-2! I knew it was a bacteria!" I told her: "SARS-CoV-2 is COVID-19, ma'am."
The lengths people are willing to go to stay in denial astound me.
Basic critical thinking appears to have gone out the window here.
"Unfortunately..."
I'm a family doc who mostly does outpatient.
I live in a pretty conservative area with a good proportion of COVID deniers, so I've been seeing COVID deniers since this mess became politicized (I've lost a few patients over the mask mandate).
Anyway, I'm pretty pleased to say that several of my COVID denying patients have completely turned their attitude around when they (or a close family member) contracted COVID. Even if their case wasn't severe, the sudden terror that they could wind up on a ventilator overnight really puts the fear of God into people.
Unfortunately, I still have some patients who are still pretty obnoxious despite their covid diagnosis. They mostly dig deeper into paranoia. If not about the virus itself, then about the circumstances surrounding them contracting it.
"If Fauci had done his job from the beginning, it never would've hit this town."
"It's the entire fault of Obamacare that I can't get the experimental immunoglobulin treatment!" (It's not, your eligibility for the infusion is dependent on a list of risk factors).
And, probably my favorite...
"So I have COVID and it's completely your responsibility to fix it. I need you to send Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc, Vit D, Lisinopril, and azithromycin to the pharmacy..." Then they proceed to get pissed at me when I don't.
"During our peak time..."
I'm an emergency department physician in the US. I work in an area that had the highest death rate for a solid couple of weeks in the country.
During our peak time when we had national news crews here covering how we were a s***show, saw numerous people screaming their Covid disease wasn't real despite being hypoxic and on large amounts of oxygen due to Covid. That was an unpleasant time as this was still early (May/June) and it was extremely political like people apparently plotting to kidnap our state governor due to lockdowns.
Saw a lot of people refusing Covid testing who needed admission for non-covid purposes because the swabs would give them covid or put some sort of tracking device. They weren't pleased when they then had to be admitted to our full-blown Covid floors. Our Covid floors resembled a warzone because they were understaffed and relative s***hole conditions as we basically converted hallways into covid floors.
Also saw a lot of people young people who weren't exactly deniers but thought you basically couldn't sick if you were young. Lots of people with their lungs permanently scarred or at a minimum a couple of weeks of misery and/or spread it to their loved ones who got extremely ill.
"The willful cognitive dissonance..."
Physician here. The willful cognitive dissonance is real. It never ceases to amaze me how many patients will refuse assistance from me to register to get vaccinated, make claims that vaccines are harmful, but then accept my medical care on anything else that suits their whim. Patients absolutely have the autonomy to refuse care, but why would you continue to see a physician and accept their medical advice and care if you think they would simultaneously recommend something to you that would be harmful?
I've posed this question to patients who are vaccine-hesitant: "Why would you let me manage your diabetes and hypertension if you think I would harm you by recommending vaccinations?" You cannot get any kind of thoughtful response aside from, "I just don't want to be vaccinated."
"Some denier patients lived..."
RN here with most of 2020 spent in COVID land. I never had anyone refuse treatment when things got serious. I know some of the MDs I worked with got yelled at, like the rest of us...but honestly, that happens frequently anyway.
Some denier patients lived, many of which had accepted reality by the end of their stay after seeing what we all were going through to treat them.
Some died telling me I was a sheep or an idiot or a liar between gasps of air.
COVID didn't care.
This comment is strangely poetic.
Covid definitely doesn't care. The virus lays waste to people and... that's it. Good luck with your games of Russian roulette.
"People are crazy."
I work on a COVID unit and I ran into a patient like this. They'd tell me over and over again about how they weren't really sick and about how I didn't need to be gowned up in PPE. They even tried to take my face shield off. If you test positive for COVID two times then you have COVID! People are crazy.
Covid disinformation is a very serious problem and it's costing people their lives.
What can be done about it?
News literacy matters: It's important to get information from verifiable sources. Scientists and medical professionals are trustworthy. Those with backgrounds in public health know what they're talking about. Some conspiracy theory you received from your distant cousin on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger is not worth your time or consideration.
Have some of your own Covid denial stories to share? Feel free to tell us about them in the comments below!
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