When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
Money Burn GIF by nog
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
south park wedding GIF
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
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The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.
People Confess The Most Soul-Crushing Thing Someone's Ever Told Them
Communication isn't always easy. Sometimes, you say something you didn't mean to say, whether it's because a joke you made fell flat, or someone overheard something they weren't supposed to hear. And some people are just plain careless.
However, mean comments they make can be explained away and are usually followed by an apology.
Of course, some people are just plain nasty and want to deliver an insult that will shake you to your very core. The things people say to you can be mean, hurtful, and sometimes even soul-crushing.
Redditor Embarrassed-Host-949 was curious about the most soul-crushing thing Reddit users have ever heard someone say, and asked:
One Daughter Over Another
"My dad and step mom adopted a baby girl, and my step sister overheard my dad talking about how excited he is to adopt a girl because he’s never had a daughter"
"Absolutely crushed my step sister, she thought of my dad like her own father. He’s been all she’s known."
– DieselSwapEverything
Poor Kid
"My husband and I took our teenage son and his friend (I’ll call him Alex) to an amusement park recently."
"My husband is a really funny guy and was making both boys laugh on the car ride home."
"Alex told my husband, “You’re really funny, Mr. D! You remind me of my Dad, except your jokes aren’t hurtful.”"
"My heart"
– NancyDrew1932
Abandonned
""My family just gave up on me.""
"-A 10-year-old that just got the news they had been unadopted by their family of the last 5 years."
– internetpointswoot
Amnesia
""How can she be my wife? I have no idea who she is. " said my husband of 8 years after a bad car wreck and 4 weeks in a coma. He lost about 12 years of memories. Including our whole relationship. We got divorced 2 years after as his memory never returned."
– jenmrsx
Maybe This Mother Shouldn't Have Been A Mother
"My mum once told me “You wouldn’t be a very good mother, your sister would be much better”. I always loved and worked with children, my sister is more of an animal person. It crushed me because I always dreamed of being a mother and I still think about that comment made years ago when my boyfriend brings up the children topic."
– Everything-is_good
All Work And No Play
"I saw a documentary.... I don't even recall what it was about, but they were focusing on this family in a rural part of eastern Europe or southern Asia. There was a little girl in this family and all she did was work. She couldn't go to school, and she just assisted her mother in doing all the necessary drudgery around the house."
"One of the film makers asked the girl what her secret dream was."
"She said, "To play.""
– Adddicus
The Wrong Response To A Loss
"My (now ex) wife and I had just lost our unborn daughter at 22 weeks and my (now ex) best-friend offered her thoughts: “You wouldn’t want a baby that obviously had issues to begin with. God doesn’t make mistakes.”"
"I’ll leave it at that."
– van_ebasion
Conditional Love
"When my grandpa told me I wasn’t good enough. I was always never a girly girl but not quite a tomboy. I was really close to him but he was old school. As I grew up he started to realize that I wasn’t changing in the right way. He kept telling me to use my lady voice, to sit ladylike, eat lady like, and do ladylike things. He had enough when he saw me with my animals being not gentle when they were stubborn and getting dirty and liking it. He got mad and yelled at me after when no one was around. It hurt because always thought he would love me no matter what then I found out that there were conditions to his love."
– Indianagirl25
Love All Your Kids Equally
""Mom and Dad have been telling people they only have two kids" from my sister. They have three kids. All because I didn't go to the religious college they wanted me to go to"
– Zeophyle
"My dad is a pastor and he's always treated me differently. He used to say from the pulpit while preaching, "I have 2 kids I'm proud of...""
"He has 3 children, but he wasn't lying."
– roundaboutrich
Shattered At Prom
"Pretty tame here, but I had been invited to two proms for my senior year. I went dressed in the same outfit for both of them because I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare. I went with my girlfriend to both of them and spent the better half of an hour putting makeup on (which is insane because I’ve never had the confidence to do so) and getting all nice for her because I couldn’t believe she was mine. I’ve been bullied my whole life and due to that I lack confidence and self esteem but those two nights I genuinely (and finally) felt pretty and good in my own skin. Fast forward a couple weeks and she tells me that my makeup was ugly and she should’ve done it for me. She said the colors and style was ugly and a bad choice overall."
"I broke. I cried for days and it still makes my eyes sting just thinking about it. I played it off though and told her it just looked weird because I can only use certain products since I have really sensitive skin. It may sound dramatic, but I honestly don’t ever think I’ll be able to fully recover from that and I always worry she’ll call me ugly again whenever she looks at me. She’s very sweet and kind, but it made my chest implode when she confessed that to me."
– ArticleElectronic341
Pretty Sure SHE Was At Fault!
"That my ex was letting a guy put hickeys on her thighs a month before our anniversary,then she had the audacity to break up with ME because I was upset about it!"
– Whyeverme
The Drink Shouldn't Be An Excuse
"i’m late but my mom came into my room really drunk at 2am when i was 15, and started crying and saying how she feels she failed as a mother when she looks at me, and that i’m a horrible sister to my siblings. i just stared at her, im used to her saying this type of stuff when she’s drunk, but hearing that really crushed me for some reason."
– elegantfraud
Forever Friendzoned
"I liked (and still like) this girl that I am in high school with (let’s call her Amy). I have multiple classes with her and we hang out a bit. Mainly through badminton practice. I was developing a crush on her, I loved her voice, she’s smart, athletic, amazing personality. Then I saw her face and it was the icing on the cake. I naturally told some friends about this girl that I had a crush on. And them being high school friends, they told her. I was given a chuckle followed by a flat out no."
"We are just friends now, and I am highly convinced that is all it will ever be."
– takoyaki_depressants
Teacher's Pet...Or Not
""I don't like you so stop trying to suck up to me" for context the person who said this was my 3rd grade teacher, I had a very bubbly personality back then and he clearly didn't like that, or me for that matter.it completely crushed my ego and never got to fully recover from everything he put me through. I was only 3rd Grade."
– Let_Me_Use_This_App
The Loss Will Never Be Okay
"I came home from training to find one of my friends had gone missing. I spent hours over my home hoping news would come in about them. Eventually I decided to go for a shower to distract myself slightly. As I was getting out I had 3 missed calls from my best friend. "He's just been found dead.""
– Ok-Main-7362
Life Is Too Short
"For me it was the vet saying "There's nothing else to do". My beloved dog had suffered with epilepsy the last 4 years, and despite all the medicin and operations, she still lost the battle. Broke me down completely."
– Lost-Psychology
What Is The Truth?
"I remember when I was really young, probably about 7, I overheard my mom on the phone with my aunt. They were talking about money and how having a family got expensive really quickly. My mom then told my aunt that if she had the money, she would’ve divorced my dad years ago."
"My parents were fairly good parents, they never really seemed to have any serious fights, they never really argued and they appeared to love each other."
"It’s been years since then and whenever I see my parents (who are still married) I always find myself dissecting their behaviours and trying to see something I might have missed as a kid. I just wonder if it was something my mom meant of if it was just some weird way of reassuring my aunt (who is now split from her husband)."
– 23_emma_13
This Breaks My Heart
"Someone told me once that any bad thing you can possibly imagine someone doing to an animal, is being done somewhere in the world."
"Broke my fucking spirit right then and there."
"Hate this species."
– shilmista_
Not A True Friend
"When I was ten years old, one of my friends at School, told me If I died he wouldn't go to my funeral. That still hurts 20 years later."
– Suspicious-Roll2908
People can be cruel, and sometimes you will have to hear the worst of insults. The important thing is how you react.
Remember that few people are evil enough to bluntly say the negative thoughts that roam around in their head, and people who are that cruel don't deserve the time of day.