Healthcare shouldn't be this complicated.
You feel sick? Go to the hospital. Have someone take care of you. Add on the complexities of insurance, the lack of good-faith instilled in doctors on hour 40 of their shift, and suddenly you have a stay that turns into a nightmare you can't escape from.
They only get worse from here.
Reddit user, emeraldthemnstr, wanted to hear your healing horror stories when they asked:
What's the worst hospital experience you've ever had?
A visit to the ER shouldn't be like rolling the dice to decide how you're going to be, but sometimes it's like placing your health in the hands of fate.
Except fate is a jerk.
You Never Know How Your Body Is Going To React
"The day after I graduated from college I began having intense stomach pains that kept me awake for almost three days straight. Went to my doctor and they sent me over the ER to get a CT scan immediately. Found out I had a pretty significant intestinal blockage."
"Anyway my first night in the hospital I was finally able to get kind of comfortable but the nurses were insistent that I take Ambien to sleep. I told them that I hadn't slept in 3 days and that I was going to pass out any minute. Well they kept pushing, and like an idiot, I took the pill. Fast forward to the next morning where I wake up with dried blood all over my arm and I generally hurt all over. It turns out I got really messed up on the Ambien. I stripped naked, ripped out all my IVs, and ran down to the nurse station while babbling nonsense."
"To this day I've never seen my mom as mad as she was when she found out what happened."
Tcraw487
One Diagnosis Is Not Like The Other
"I fell over on a night out, not drunk, and hit my head. Only 6 months before I'd had brain surgery for a tumour."
"Scooped up by an ambulance, dumped in A&E, treated like a drunk student. My friends kept telling them that I wasn't drunk, I'd had surgery etc. but they left me in a corridor and ignored me."
"After 3 or 4 hours on a bed in a corridor with no attention, I decided I was fine and checked myself out. It was ridiculous. I felt a bit woozy but recovered fully the next day."
"They should have taken me a bit more seriously, not treated me like a drunk, just because it happened on a Saturday night."
shinyhappycat
There's nothing worse than telling a doctor what you know for sure in your heart is wrong and they don't listen to you.
Makes You Wonder Who's A Professional And Who Isn't
"I was 16 and I had horrible stomach pains for about a week and just chalked it up to the flu going around school but it didnt go away it continued for another week and I lost about 12 pounds and started throwing up after almost every meal my dad was sufficiently freaked and took me to the ER and the doctor was convinced I was pregnant."
"She kept badgering me about even though I repeatedly said there was absolutely no way I could be pregnant unless I was the second coming of the virgin mary, I was on the verge of tears when she went so far as to tell my dad to leave the room so I could "admit the truth" she finally made me pee in a cup and SURPRISE! no baby."
"Then after just pushing really hard on my stomach and asking me if it hurt she said it must be my kidneys and wanted to start me on meds but warned that if it wasnt actually my kidneys that the medication could cause serious damage."
"It was at this point my usually very calm and reasonable dad completely lost his mind and asked the woman if she had actually gone to med school and pulled me out of there."
"We went to another hospital where I found out I needed an appendectomy immediately. Screw that dumb doctor not every teen girl with stomach pains is pregnant."
Cactusjacks22
It Is What We Thought It Was
"I got a call from my mother that my sister had been taken out of her apartment in an ambulance because she was in so much pain she couldn't walk- I lived about 40 minutes away but I was the closest so I went running."
"She's in crazy pain but they're basically ignoring her. Not appendicitis based on the initial exam, but in that general area. They're giving her the good drugs and asking her constantly if she's on her period or pregnant but do nothing else to actually check on her. Eventually (hours later) we're taken into an exam room (that fully isn't cleaned, they put a puppy pad over some blood on the step up to the chair) and they do an internal sonogram on her and say "Honey you need to pee, there's something in the way" she does and they still say "well something is in the way but it's so big that we know it couldn't be torsion which is what we're worried about- take some drugs and go home it's probably just cramps or a cyst that burst. Nothing to do."
"She goes to her gyno in the morning and is then rushed into surgery at a different (better) hospital. She had a grapefruit sized dermoid on her ovary, that did in fact cause ovarian torsion, and she lost her ovary as a result."
curlsandcollege
Strap Yourselves In, People
"I was in a car accident, and T-boned by someone going 65 MPH. My hand was caught in-between the collapsing car and the steering wheel."
"When I popped my hand out, I felt the bone break and it hurt like hell."
"Amazingly enough, I had no other injuries. But the EMT's were taking no chances, and thinking I was in shock, they strapped me onto a backboard and hauled me off to the ER. While in the ER, I was asked several times if I was injured anywhere, and I repeatedly said "My hand is broken, it hurts real bad. BTW - this backboard is hurting the hell out of the back of my head, can I get off of it, please? Also, can you please call my mother?" (FYI - I was 19)"
"2 hours later, I was still on the backboard, and I had lost count of how many people had asked me where my injuries were and me repeating "my left hand is broken...." but that was when I was finally taken down to the X-ray dept. There, they X-ray'd every bone in my body..... but my left hand."
"I am wheeled back to the ER, still on that goddamn backboard. By this time, I have a horrendous headache from where my head is resting on that 2x4, and I sit for another couple of hours. During that time I was able to talk a nurse into bringing me a bedpan so I could relieve myself, and that is when the cop came in, opened the curtains so everyone could see me, and give me a ticket."
"Finally, after having been in the ER for 6 hours, I've FINALLY talked someone into calling my mother to come pick me up, the doctor had FINALLY said I could get off of the backboard and when my mom got there (I'm not sure how many traffic laws she broke to get there as fast as she did), he let me know I had no injuries."
"Yes, I do. My hand is broken."
"Young lady, I'm the doctor, I tell you when your hand is broken."
"That was when I grabbed my ring finger on my left hand and pulled it out, and the break became visible through the skin."
"My hand is f-cking broken."
"Mom, being an attorney, just looked at the doctor and said "Does the word 'malpractice' mean anything to you?""
"Back down to the X-ray dept I went, and lo & behold, my damn hand was broken, but the Doctor was all how it was well hidden and that's why they missed it the first time (no, you missed it the first time because NO ONE X-RAY'D IT)."
"A couple of days later when I went to an ortho doctor to get my hand rebroken and the bone set (OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW) I pulled out the X-ray to take a look to see the break and how "hidden" it really was."
"Goddamn if you couldn't see that break right there in the middle of the bone plain as day."
"It's 20+ years later, the bone never did set correctly, and I'm starting to get arthritis in it. I can tell you when the weather is going to change based on how badly my hand is hurting."
bored-now
Both of my stories are with the same doctors, at the same hospital, having two different c sections. Fool me once and all that right?
For my first son, I was enduced and in labor for over 24 hours. My epidural had worn off. All of a sudden 4 doctors and 2 nurses rush into the room. 3 of the doctors just stick their hands in me at the same time and are frantic. One nurse is by the monitor. Finally she tells me that I'm having a 6 minute contraction and my son isn't breathing.
She gives me a shot to stop the contraction and my son starts breathing again. I am having a panic attack, and she tells me to calm down, and it's a side effect of the shot. Never mind that I'm freaking out because I'm worried about my son.
Good Lord...
"They say I need an emergency c section, though they don't take me back for another hour. My doctor was eating dinner. So even though it was an emergency, we had to wait."
"Also, the nurse never told my doctor that my son had swallowed his poop, so he was never properly cleaned out when he was born. He ended up having to stay a week because he got a lung infection from it."
"For my second son, I had a scheduled c section."
"The anesthesiologist had an intern with him, and said she will be putting in the epidural (I believe that's still what it is when you have a c section)."
"Those of you who don't know, they have to put this needle in your spine, and God help you if you move too much or they make a mistake."
"This girl put the needle in, and was moving it around. She couldn't find the right spot. It was beyond painful, and so hard to keep still. I could still feel my upper abdomen, which I don't think is normal, but since they were cutting my lower abdomen, I didn't say much."
"The doctor had 2 nurses lay their full body weight on both of my ribs to try to push the baby down. I told my anesthesiologist that they are hurting me and to make them stop. After a few minutes they did and my son was out."
"As soon as he was out, I felt EVERYTHING. I was breathing heavily, trying not to scream. The anesthesiologist gave me about 5 more doses over about 7 minutes before he told me he couldn't do any more. It didn't work. I could feel things ripping inside of me."
"It sounded and felt kind of like when you are ripping the guts out of a pumpkin with your bear hands."
"The doctor asked why I was breathing so heavily. The anesthesiologist told her I was in pain and could feel what she was doing. Her exact words: "well tell her to stop, I need to get her uterus back in."
"She didn't care how much pain I was in, and she acted like I couldn't hear her."
"Afterwards, the anesthesiologist was very apologetic. He said they have to go by certain guidelines. I was more understanding because the medicine finally kicked in, I was holding my son, and just happy it was over."
"I ended up opening my scar during my stay because the next 2 days, I felt absolutely no pain. My son was choking on throw up and the nurse left him at the foot of my bed, so I jumped across my bed to help him."
"I'm glad I no longer go to that doctor.'
jennyv753
Maybe just sleep it off the next time you're feeling under the weather?
Serious Bad Luck
"I went in to a minor surgery to remove a lip cyst and woke up 8 days later with my right leg amputated above the knee. Bad reaction to anesthesia caused heart failure. I was 23 at the time and 24 now. I’m one of those people with chronic bad luck."
F-ckmerit
It's Just A Spinal Tap
"More the doctor's office that screwed up than the hospital, but the resulting hospital visit wasn't fun."
"Went to college health center with classic mono symptoms (didn't find out it was mono until 8 months of symptoms later). They had me take a nap, then woke me up suddenly, in a dark room, half an hour after they closed, to inform me that I was being quarantined for meningitis and had to go to the hospital. I didn't want to take a $1000 ambulance ride, but they refused to let me drive myself or have a friend drive, so my options were "either take an ambulance or stay here all night."
"After three hours in the ER, the doc showed up and got all ready with his gloves, mask, etc. since I was "contagious." Then he took one look, ripped the mask off, and said "you look way too healthy to have meningitis, but since they brought it up I have to do a spinal tap anyway." Then he proceeded to stick a needle in my spinal cord while muttering angrily about how foolish of a diagnosis it was."
"tldr - paid a lot of money and got a needle in my spine because college docs insisted i had meningitis instead of mono"
jmacey72
Never forget, if you don't feel safe, just leave. No law saying you have to stay and receive treatment from people who you feel don't have your own interests at heart.
- People Who Had A Near Death Experience Share Their Stories ... ›
- Doctors Share Their 'This Just Got Really Serious' Patient Experiences ›
- People Break Down Their Worst Online Dating Experiences ... ›
People Who Were Forced To Choose Between Their Pet And Their Partner Explain What Happened
Our pets are part of the family.
Any person who doesn't get that is not someone I can know.
They are there through it all.
They help with the good, the bad and the ugly.
So when it comes to choosing between a pet and a person... the answer can make things awkward.
Redditor sugar-soad wanted to know how everyone would choose between a lover and a fur baby, so they asked:
"People who were made to choose between your pet or your partner, how did your ex react when you chose your pet?"
One of my exes wanted me to return my dog to the pound.
Notice I said... EX?
The love
cat dog GIFGiphy"It really baffles me how some people don't understand how much a pet can mean to someone, I remember one of my dogs dying overnight before a school day at secondary school and my teacher mouthed off to the class about me taking a day off for a pet's death."
ff-at-15
The Kicker
"This was a long time ago but I just started dating this person and I was told they hated my dog, it was a bit of a shock but I was like no biggie just get to know my dog and you will fall in love with him."
"So the next time, we had a doggie date and HE TRIED TO KICK MY DOG. I literally grabbed my dog and turned around and walked away. And that was that!!!"
clarkyto
Screw This
"This is my favorite story from when I worked in a shelter. A guy came in to surrender his cat, with the reason that his girlfriend didn't like her. He starts filling out the paperwork, but partway through he just stops and says, 'Screw this. I'm just going to break up with her instead.' He picks up the cat and walks out the door, presumably to leave his GF. I hope he stuck to it and he and his cat got a happy ending."
hoomphree
Happy Ending
"Not directly relevant, but we once took in a dog, whose human was asked to make this choice. Beautiful weimaraner. The guy brought the dog out to our house (on a hill in the woods with acres to roam - dogs absolutely love it out here - and we spent some time walking around letting the dog get used to the place and meet our other furry residents."
"We could tell it was really hard on both of them when he left."
"The next day he kicked the woman out, and came back for the dog. Happy ending all around, I'd say."
Wildcatb
Momentos
Dog What GIF by Best Friends Animal SocietyGiphy"Not my story but my friend. His GF forced him to choose between her or dog but that dog was remaining memento from his deceased mother and of course he instantly dumped his GF. His GF went from facefull with expectations to beet red full of shame and anger and smashed his house windows when she left his house."
Manfroo1
Never asked for someone to make choice between a person and a pet.
Living Longer
Cats Reaction GIF by TikTok MENAGiphy"I remember him saying my diabetic cat needed to go so he could get a dog. We weren't even living together. I looked him dead in the eyes and said. 'My cat will outlive this relationship' considering she was really sick at the time he said it was unlikely and stormed off. We broke up 6 years ago and my cat is still going strong."
buffalosansbuffalo
The Elderly
"I have an elderly rat (going on four years, which is quite the feat for a rat). I’ve raised him since he was a baby with his brother, who passed away two winters ago. When we moved in with my in-laws over the summer, they didn’t want me to bring my rat. I straight up told my partner that I’ll live somewhere else for awhile (we’d been living together for almost three years at that point) because my rat is my responsibility."
"He’s very old, and that I was going to see him through to the end. They were a little upset and accused me of choosing the rat over them, but I explained that he’s an animal that relies on us. It worked out, I convinced my in-laws to let me bring him, and we’re all still kickin. He’s on his last days and I’m glad I’m here with him. He’ll be buried with his brother when it’s time."
queerqunari
Meow First
"She acted like she'd never even considered I'd choose the cat over her. I don't think that thought had ever entered her mind. Then she went into a big spiel about how I'm a loser, I'm missing out, there's only one of her, etc etc. Yeah, I knew all that when I put my foot down over her idiotic jealousy of the cat liking me more than her."
"The cat is now 16 and still with me, happy in her senior years. There's been other women since her, ones that treated me a lot better than she did. It was a total win for both the cat and myself."
Fancy_Cassowary
“Dirty fleabag”
"Not me but my sister choose our cat over her boyfriend of 4 months. He was furious when she dumped him and called her an idiot for picking a 'dirty fleabag' over him. Cat was not a dirty fleabag, he just hated pets and wanted to try to control my sister. I was relieved when she dumped him. I never got good vibes from him."
Aurora_Jones
BYE
White Dog GIFGiphy"My ex asked me if she thought my dog liked me or her more and I said me. She got genuinely mad and told me I am supposed to just lie to her, didn't last long."
wumbology34
Pets will always win.
Have you ever had to make a similar choice? Let us know in the comments below.
As adults, whenever you see teenagers being boisterous or rough-housing others, we tend to roll our eyes and move, chalking it up to youth.
I don't know about you, but when I was younger, in high school, I felt invincible and acted accordingly with my classmates without a care in the world.
But there is such a thing as going too far, and even teens who know better, generally know when they've overstepped a boundary.
Curious to hear of those instances, Redditor Silent-Zebra asked strangers online to reflect back on their youth.
They asked:
"What's something that a friend/classmate did in high school that was seen as funny at the time, but you now realise was actually not ok?"
The cruelty of these students showed no bounds.
Why An Elevator Was Installed
"Had a kid in my year who'd had a surgery that left a nerve bundle in his neck exposed. If pressed it would paralyse him. From memory it was for spina bifida and for some ungodly reason he told everyone."
"Certain boys took great pleasure in going down stairs behind him and pressing it which completely paralysed him for a few seconds and he'd fall like a brick. Usually onto whoever was in front of him."
"So dangerous. There were a fair few teeth knocked out because of this, his and other people's."
"It happened so much that in his 3rd year the school installed an elevator and you had to have a special key to use it. He got the only permanent issue key at that time."
"Kids are a**holes."
– notalotasleep
Teachers Are People Too
"In the 6th grade, I had a friend who was a troublemaker and a class-clown. I’ve always hated going to my math class because my teacher was a cranky old lady who’d yell at you for the smallest things. Me being an 11-year old, I actually had the worst anxiety just knowing I could be the next person yelled at in front of the class. The one thing that helped get through the year was that friend cause I knew he’d always make jokes and have me almost in tears cause they were that funny."
"One day, when my teacher walked out to use the bathroom, that friend went over to her desk, picked up the mug she was drinking out of, and spat out the biggest loogie into it. We all saw it and just waited for her to come back. 10 mins later, as she was just normally teaching, she picks up her mug and chugs it down. Everybody just starts laughing and giggling, including me, but nobody said anything when she questioned it. It was horrible but I wasn’t about to be the kid who snitched."
"Later on during the school year, I guess we had a day where it didn’t start at the normal 7:30am but instead 10:30am, but I didn’t know so I showed up really early. A bunch of kids didn’t get the memo so we were all just placed in the cafeteria until school actually started. Around 9ish, my math teacher noticed I was sitting out in the cold and invited me to her class where it was warm. When I got there, she let me work on my missed homework and even let me eat breakfast in her class. She asked me about home life, school life, if I had any friends, etc. she made me feel welcome. She then told me about her life, about her only son, about her husband who passed away from cancer 20 years back. She was very sweet."
"This was like back in 2008, and I think she was like 70 years old. I don’t even know if she’s still alive after all these years. But I wish I could go back and stop my 'friend' from doing what he did. :("
– byJSN
Imprisoning The Teacher
"Our religion teacher went into the cupboard for supplies, she was quite strict and not liked but now I’m an adult I realise it doesn’t excuse what happened next. The class clown snuck up and locked her in the cupboard. We all thought it was hilarious at the time and we all left the class. She was in there for the rest of the class until another teacher found her in there crying an hour later. She took 2 weeks off after that"
– usernamegenerator98
Adults later realized the severity of some bad behavior back in the day.
Revenge
"Few messed up kids in my primary school lit a teachers car on fire, just because she gave one of them failing grade on midterm. It wasn't one of the mean teachers, she was mostly nice to students. Cops got involved but don't think they got punished accordingly, i know one of them was in and out of juvie already, and were all around 13- 14yr old, one was even in nazi sh*t. I know later on those kids got all tangled in dealing and robberies, probably all went to jail at some point."
– spooch001
Changing Nickname
"In our school there was a teacher who had a mole, so of course the kids decided her nickname would now be 'mole.' She must have felt really hurt, as she eventually had the mole removed, leaving a little dent where it used to be. Did everyone then stop calling her names? Nope. They started calling her 'hole' instead."
– bemmu
Free Bike
"this was in elementary: my dad bought a brand new bike for me and i rode it to the park and these older kids came up to me and asked if one of them could take it for a test drive. i said ok and about 10 seconds in, i see the guy riding my bike being pushed off and my bike being stolen right in front of me. the older kids 'helped' me look for my stolen bike but growing up I realized that they plotted this whole thing and yeah i basically gave my brand new bike away."
– SingaporeanSlaw
Nobody got hurt, but it doesn't mean certain actions don't sting.
Future Indication Of Trouble
"Living in the Netherlands. Classmate was showing on his phone a whole online shop he claimed to have with all kinds of drugs and weapons. We thought it was funny because we didn't take it too serious. He dropped out of school early and turned out to be a big drug dealer. Well we could have known I guess."
– Environmental-Cold24
The Drama Department Wasn't Involved
"A kid faked her own kidnapping. It was all fun and games until the police started chasing her 'kidnappers' van."
– AvocaDotty
Old Hijiniks
"Pantsing somebody in front of everybody. Is that even allowed anymore? That was soooo commonplace as a kid.- Wearing a mirror on your shoes to look up skirts. Even teachers thought it was funny that students occasionally did that."
– Negafox
It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
But by the time the pain has been inflicted, it's too late as some emotional scars can take years to heal.
As someone who has been both a bully as well as a victim, I can tell you, I still live with regret and trauma from past actions in grade school.
Just gonna leave this here: Monitor your kids, folks.
Aside from picking up a family member who is finally going home or going to experience the birth of a child, most trips to the hospital aren't usually ones to look forward to.
When you're a patient being admitted, chances are, an accident or a bad decision has led you there.
With medical professionals witnessing a garden variety of cases, there must be some cases that surely stuck out in their minds.
"What is the strangest reason you ended up in a hospital?"
There were things you just don't see coming.
Must've Been Quite The Cough
"I coughed and broke 2 ribs."
– BearJewKnowsBest
Bad Plumbing
"Noticed at some point in my early 20s that fluid leaked out of my belly button."
"Thought it might be a pimple or a small cyst and waited it out, but it was still leaking like two weeks after."
"Went to my GP and he examined it, stuck a q tip in my belly button, smelled it and was like 'in my XY year long career I've maybe seen two or three cases of this in adults... Usually this is diagnosed in infants and it gets fixed then....'"
"What he diagnosed was a 'urachal fistula' a tract between belly button and the... yep, bladder..."
"I had pee dripping out of my belly button... nice."
"He called one of the chief surgeons he knew and is befriended with and got me an exam at the hospital the next day."
"The chief surgeon and multiple residents examed me - they were unsure because this usually doesn't occur in adults. In the end we agreed on surgery, because whatever it is, it needs to be fixed."
"And in the end, it indeed was a urachal fistula..."
"Not a life threatening condition in and of itself, but a risk to nasty infections and a higher risk of cancer long term - also pee dripping out of your belly button, duuhh.."
"Had to have surgery a few years later again, because the fistula reformed (known risk) but since then I haven't had any problems. :)"
– 6800ultra
Gutted
"I dropped a ceramic chef’s knife and it bounced off the counter and stabbed me in the stomach. It took longer to convince the medical staff and social worker (I am a disabled veteran) that my SO didn’t stab me, than it took to close the wound."
– LordInventus
Things happen, but these could've been preventable.
Expensive Ride
"I got the tip of a Q-Tip stuck in my ear and my roommate at the time went to pull it out with a pair of tweezers and hit a nerve or messed with my equilibrium or something and I passed out. She freaked out and called 911 and I woke up in the ER. Was absolutely fine until a couple weeks later when I got a $2k bill for an ambulance ride that was literally down the block."
– Equivalent-War-2378
Toy Cut
"Lacerated scrotum after getting it stuck in a PEZ dispenser."
– BurlHead
Playing Stupid Games
"Was chasing chickens for no apparent reason and caught my shoulder on a piece of sheet metal. 38 stitches."
– cabllc
Kitchen Hazard
"Cut my wrist on the cutter thing on a box of Saran Wrap. They had a counselor come and make sure I wasn’t suicidal. 'No. I was wrapping ham.'”
– Sasquadtch
The body works in mysterious ways.
When The Body Fails
"Had a ct scan… 1 hour later the guy called and told me to go the hospital now. Rock up to the ER with a swelling in my neck, pushing on my jugular vein, vomiting, headaches, severe pain in collar bone neck area. After days of blood test and blood cultures I got a diagnosis of some rare as f'k severe illness called 'Lemierre’s syndrome caused by the anaerobic bacterium, fusobacterium necrophorum' and I also had necrotizing fasciitis in my neck from the really bad case of tonsillitis I had 2 weeks prior that spread beyond the infected site. Got straight into the ER, practically no wait in the ER .I ended up with septic shock, Blood pressure was super low. 70/60. never felt a thirst like it. Got 5L of fluids within the first couple hours( mind you I’m only 47kg) I couldn’t pass urine, ended up with a catheter. Stayed in hospital for 5 days and left with a PICC line in my arm. Had 4 weeks of intravenous antibiotics 24 hours a day, had to carry and sleep with a little bag to hold my antibiotics. Had a nurse visit me every day for 4 weeks. Worst part about it is I didn’t even want to go to the hospital and I thought I’d be fine to just sleep it off. If you feel so sick you feel like you’re slowly dying you probably are."
– Low-Promise1628
Intense Cinema
"Saw Mel Gibson's Apocalypto in the theatre. Movie stressed me out soon much i fainted or had a seizure. The date I was with apperently freaked out and she started screaming that Im not breathing. Two solid guys carried me out. Ambulance was called... my date was a doctor lol"
– eduwhat
No wonder why medical dramas on TV have no shortage of ideas when it comes to featuring bizarre cases involving patients.
They're most likely inspired by real-life hospital situations.
Kudos to all the medical staff who've seen it all and still manage not to pass out like yours truly, who gets very light-headed at the sight of blood from a pricked finger.
Yes, I had blood drawn from finger when I was a kid and I passed out.
I eventually woke up in a hospital bed with a bandage wrapped around my head after I apparently fell off the chair and landed on my forehead.
That's one way I was kind of admitted to the hospital. Not a strange reason at all. Just a a really embarrassing one.
People Reveal The Advice They'd Give To Someone Who's Dating Their Ex
The dating scene can be really tough, and obviously one of the most difficult elements is going to be the breaking up period.
For this reason, some Redditors shared the advice they would give to someone who had only just begun to date one of their ex partners.
Redditor drifterdodger asked:
"What advice would you give the person dating your ex?"
Last But Certainly Not Least
"Which one? For most, I would just say I hope it works out better for you than it did me, but for one of them, I'd tell you to treat her like a princess because she deserves the best."
- Rogukast1177
Mistakes Were Made
"Treat him well because he will treat you better than you have ever known. Make him laugh because he’ll make you laugh like you’ve never known."
"Let him hold the door open for you, he really wants to. Hold him back when he holds you and don’t let go."
"Don’t make the mistakes I did."
- abastreusmonzuzu
Be Communicative
“She’s wonderful, you’re the luckiest man alive. Treat her with all the love and respect she deserves. Make her feel safe, secure, loved, and desired."
"Take it from me, don’t project. Work on yourself if necessary so that you don’t pass that on to her and hurt her in any way. And if you do hurt her, talk to her, communicate, talk about it, and don’t keep it all in."
"Just be kind and loving, put yourself out there, and fight alongside her, not with her."
- iceman_x2
Fun in the Kitchen
"She’s a great cook, so if you’re a foodie, then inquire about all sorts of exotic stuff you want to try. She’ll probably make it for you."
- Whowhatwhynguyen
Underlying Insecurity
"Understand that when she says she hopes you have fun hanging out with your friends, she is actually furious that you decided to be with them instead of her, no matter how many consecutive nights you’ve spent together."
"This will then lead to her imagining several ridiculous and unrealistic scenarios of what you are 'actually doing,' which will then likely lead to her having a panic attack, and you will then need to leave whatever you are doing that night to go to her house and try to calm her down."
"So yeah, aside from that minor issue, she’s great."
- Godsfavorite_sinner
Rating: Zero Stars
"Flee. Get away, far away. Change your number, name, appearance, possibly gender."
- Expensive_Rhubarb_87
Would Not Recommend
"Just, don't."
- steppinonp**sclams
Secret's Out
"Check her phone once in a while. She’s cheated on you with pretty much every guy she’s ever met, and with every one of her exes, regularly."
- theronsharma
Textbook Ex Material
"As narcissists will, she will make you feel important. Once you are hooked, then she will manipulate you to bend your will. You will never live up to her expectations, so you will be seen as not a priority."
"Lastly, the sex is meh and I always thought she felt dirty by doing it, so that’s why we stopped."
- Fanabala3
Healing Time May Vary
"She needs to fix herself. She never gave herself time to heal and looks for healing in others instead of working on herself."
"She’s kind and good-hearted, but needs healing."
- EveSixxx
They're Just Hangry
"You can end arguments with food."
- heinous_nutsack
Sudden Heartbreak
"She loves steak but is scared of steak knives."
"She dislikes pork despite growing up in a region famous for its cuisine. Bacon is okay."
"If she falls asleep during the movie, let her lean onto your shoulder. She likes that."
"She can be quite funny with Facebook messenger text stickers but prepare for a shy and sweet person in real life."
"She loves to share her culture (mainland Chinese) and wants to learn about American culture so be well educated in Western sciences, arts, and history to answer her questions and equally eager to learn about hers."
"Take small steps literally. She was only 5'-0" with shoes and does not like a brisk pace."
"If it doesn't work out in person or things happen to where she had to go back to her homeland, don't expect a long-distance relationship. One day the messages do stop coming and your heart will break."
- playingwithechoes
Nostalgia Hurts
"If she's angry, buy her some chicken nuggets and milk tea."
"If she's sad, go to her house and make some instant noodles for her."
"If she's happy, well... good job, my friend."
"Make sure she drinks lots of water because she usually forgets to, make sure you play with her hair, and make sure to hold her hand whilst you're driving."
"Make sure to always say good morning to her, make sure that you prioritize her, make sure you give her lots of attention, and make sure you love her more than I did."
"I'm not crying, you are."
- fattyboomba123
Depends on the Ex
"Usually, I'd say run, but since it's the a**hat they cheated on me with (knowingly), I'd say: you deserve each other so go to h**l holding hands; I wouldn't want you to get lost on the way."
"To the other ex's partner: You are privileged to be loved by such an amazing and kind-hearted person, so hold on to and nourish this relationship to the best of your abilities, and hopefully it will make you both happy to the end of your days."
- gaylordtheblue
Call Anytime
"Take care of him. And if you ever decide to leave him, call me, I'll be there to pick him up."
- dreamingbabes
Usually when people think of talking about exes, the horror stories are usually the first to come to mind.
Fortunately for these Redditors, there were easily as many sweet and nostalgic stories as there were problematic ones.