It feels bad, but to reach the end, we have to start.

It Only Goes Downhill From Here

"My first thought was wet socks, but the answers here are way worse."

triton2toro

Unable To Find That Connection

"Trying hard to make friends but failing , honestly nothing worse than talking to yourself in a group of people ."

living_sunshine

"this hit me harder than most other things here, I've spent my entire life just trying to find someone or some people to hang out with but I'm just the awkward outcast all the time. I have no one to be with physically."

Fluffyturtle225

When It's Actually 0/100

"I know relationships are never 50/50 but loving someone more than they love you after spending years with them. Finding out from your friends that your significant other is sleeping around hurts bad when its 100% unexpected. The heart sinks straight down to your feet and the mind goes down a rabbit hole of thoughts and emotions on why you weren't good enough."

whosyodaddy328

Is the pain within you? Or is the pain happening to someone else and you're unable to do anything to stop it? Is that pain equal?

Good-Bye To Family

"A few years ago I euthanized an elderly woman’s elderly cat. She’d lost her only daughter to cancer and her husband the month before."

"I asked if there was anything I could do for her. She looked down at her cat in her arms, started to cry, and between sobs said “I just want my family back.”"

"If you find something worse than sitting there powerless as an old woman’s heart breaks over the sudden and permanent loss of all of her loved ones, you have my profound sympathy. Because that was awful."

TankVet

Can't Quite Kick The Habit

"Watching someone you care about mess up their life. All you can do is watch"

just-existing-here

"I tried so hard to help my younger brother with his alcoholism and I couldn’t. It was a feeling of dread, desperation, hope (he was good at saying the right thing). It’s hard to watch."

longwalktoday

How Would You Turn It Around?

"Losing hope. Specifically the hope that things will get better."

brushpickerjoe

Some People Don't Deserve To Have Kids

"How about a parent telling you they don't love you?"

"When I was 12 my father got another woman pregnant, so decided to divorce my mother for other woman. On his last day coming by the house ever, he came into my room to say goodbye and as he was leaving he told me, in pretty much these exact words, "I want you to know that I don't love you anymore and I am going to start a new family now. You probably won't ever see me again." He then walked out of my room. I ran out of my room screaming and crying holding on to my dad's leg begging him not to leave as he dragged me down the hall, my mother screaming/crying, to have him basically shake me off, curse, and bolt out the door. Next time I saw him I was 17."

"It was a pretty messed up thing and it REALLY hurt me as a kid."

GeneticsGuy

Nothing Can Compare

"The grief from the death of a loved. Lost the love of my life after her 5 year battle with Ovarian cancer. We were happily married 31 years. It was like someone had cut open my chest and ripped my heart out."

renewed_artist

"Semi-related: seeing the decline of a loved one. In my case, it would be my parents."

"I can't speak for anyone else but for me this is the single most depressing thing in life."

"Your parents are never old until they suddenly are. They fall down and get injured. They don't have the energy to go up the stairs in their own home. They can't cook your favorite dish on your birthday."

"Suddenly it hits you; they're elderly and you've been treating them like they're still the dark-haired workhorses from your childhood. You finally take a moment to think back and you see the signs of their deteriorating health. A stumble here. A fainting spell there. A cut or bruise that takes forever to heal. But it was no big deal because your parents have always been strong. They've never slowed down for anything."

"You look across the table at the suddenly frail woman sitting in front of you, squinting at her crossword puzzle and realize that you don't know how much more time you'll have together. It's then that you truly gain an appreciation for all your parents have done for you and what they will continue to do for you."

"You resolve to return the favor in what little time remains, not knowing that just by breathing you'd paid that debt long ago."

Denster1

A Feeling Without Compare

"Watching your own child die in your arms."

Bout3Fidy

"This is unfortunately the correct answer. I hope, and I mean this in the nicest way, that all the parents out there die before their children. Nobody should have to bury their child."

BingusBeerus

"There is literally a separate classification of grief that is mainly experienced by parents who watched their own children die, it’s classified as “complex grief.” I watched my 10 year old sister pass from a brainstem tumor with each parent holding a hand. It is still the most unbearable grief I’ve ever known, which makes the realization that my grief will never hold a candle to my parents’ almost impossible to wrap my head around."

"If you watched one of your children pass before your eyes, know that you have countless people’s condolences and respect in equal measure."

Ellislsland

Maybe now is the time to send that text or return that call? Could be worth it.