Honest People Open Up About The Greatest Loss They've Overcome In Their Lives
Going through loss is a hill we all have to climb. No one wants to, and some handle it better than others, but just like death, taxes, and a crazed Trump tweet, loss in some form is an inevitability. Somehow, though, knowing that others have gone through the exact same tragedy as you can make it all easier. So, Reddit user, r/adinarose000, set out to find those people when they asked:
Whats Your Biggest Loss in Life?
Splash Damage
My marriage, I guess. Not so much the falling apart of the marriage - it was inevitable, but the fallout of it. Loss of friends, loss of stability and comfort. I was not prepared for the fallout from ending a very serious, long-term relationship and I definitely was not prepared for how long the feeling of loss/failure would last.
Loss Of Chosen Family
My best friend died when he was 18, that was 20 years ago. I still think about him. He was a huge part of my life. My wife and I even named our youngest son after him.
Aware Of The Loss
My mental health. I took too many drugs and went off the deep end.
Psychosis, hallucinations, anxiety.
I'm playing insanity bingo.
A Loss, And A Gain
My pancreas.
At age 15 my first week if high school it failed and I was taken to the emergency room and diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
Losing The Right
Optic nerve damage after a seizure, so my full field of vision on my right side
Laughing At The Past
My mom. She's been gone 10 years yesterday.
When I asked my mom one day why she never had another kid she told me, "I didn't think it'd be fair because I knew I could ever love another child as much as I love you."
As I sit here sobbing my eyes out because I know I will never feel that kind of love again, I started to laugh because I remember her saying right before she died, "Play REALLY sad songs at my funeral because I want every person in there crying their eyes out over me. Not a dry eye in the house, Jenn."
Every year on this day I seem to get a wonderful gift from her and I got my gift already today and I couldn't be happier.
There will never be a cooler, funnier, loving mother than mine and I'm so lucky I had her for 36 years.
A Kitty Like No Other
My cat. But I think the worst part is that I'm over the loss and have been for quite some time since getting a new cat. Still I do remember the pain of losing it.
So while I'm now more prepared in life for eventually losing someone close to me but I also know that this time I won't be able to replace them.
Loss Of Status
I've been a writer for about five years now, and I've been doing pretty well at it. I've never really had a major flop on a long release, but earlier this month I launched a novel under a new pen name, and it bombed.
On the one hand, I know rationally that these things happen and it was probably a problem with the blurb and the cover; the reviews were solid, and people who read it seemed to enjoy it. On the other, I watched 90,000 words and months of work effectively go down the toilet, and that wasn't fun. I know it's not on the same level as a lot of people's losses, but it was that moment of fear that my childhood dream of being a novelist was just dying in front of me, and that all my future books would go the same way (even though my past books have done OK). It was like a mother bird throwing her baby out of the nest and watching it crash onto the pavement below.
There's 'loss' as in 'absence', but this was definitely 'loss' as in 'as far from a win as you can get'.
The "Missing" Never Goes Away
My best friend drowned himself 9 years ago. I don't think I'll ever stop missing him...
Confidence Sundered
My lack of confidence. Couldn't ask a girl out even at gunpoint.
Have you always lacked confidence and feel like you're missing out on things because you don't go for it or is it something that has evolved over time?
No, I think started losing confidence around starting highschool. I had a lot of toxic "friends", that would put me down whenever I tried to stand out, ask someone out, tried to better my life etc. I cut my friendships with them after HS, but the problem was, they were the only friends I had. Whenever I had a chance to "go for" something, I just didn't take the chance, ever. Got very anti-social, if I wasn't working, I was just sitting home. This snowballed and became the norm, I would feel better to sit at home rather than go to a social event. I have trained myself to never take risks and never to go for anything I wan't, besides the basics like food, shelter, a job to keep myself afloat etc. I'm 26 now, and the longer I go like this, the deeper I will sink in this limbo.
Siblings Gone
Lost my brother when we were teenagers. We shared rooms til I was 17 and he was 16. We moved frequently when we were young so we had each other when we didn't have any friends at all. It's been 8 years, but I still mourn him. I often think of all the milestones we never got to share together.
When The Last Person Who Gets You
My folks. Yes, for the entire history of history, people have buried their parents. It's still a deeply lonely and soul changing experience. Now my sister is ill, and I've realized she's the last person who remembers me as a child.
That's a very lonely feeling.
They Keep Stacking Up
The biggest losses I've gone through are: my grandpa who was my male role model and who died when I was 10, my dog who kept me alive through my nightmarishly difficult teens, who had to be put down when I was about 26, and my closest friend who I'd been living with for several years, after I had a period of being suicidal to the point of acting on it in my mid 20s.
When The Only Person Left...
My best friend I lived next door to her for 6 years.
Nobody has touched my life and been there for me like she has. It's been close to two years since she passed. I still cry ???? when I think about her.
When What You Choose Isn't What You Want
My beauty.
I thought i had a big nose and had plastic surgery, but the operation was incredibly botched and I am visibly deformed now.
I miss my symmetry. I cut off my nose to spite my face.
A Gain, And A Loss
My penis
what how it possible you lost your penis ? Strange
I'm a trans woman.
