Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay |
Life has really become too much. At least that is what it feels like doesn't it? Every day of the past year and a half has been a struggle for many.
Smiles are difficult to produce when all your face wants to do is shed tears and frown. And that frown ain't turning upside down anytime soon.
This is why it is imperative that we keep mental health and awareness a part of our daily conversations. Life is hard, and with each breath it seems like it's only getting harder.
So let's check in on each other here...
Redditor u/conversepapi wanted to chat about the things in life that turn us all upside down by asking:
Unburden yourself here, what is destroying you right now?
I battle with depression. I've been doing this dance so long that I wouldn't even know what a fully happy life looks like. But I'm going to try. It's the "try" I've been avoiding for quite some time. So if you empathize with me, know you're not alone.
Career Path
"I really like my job but it doesn't pay well and I'm torn between enjoying my work and making more money."
Talk to someone...
"I think about death all the time, I can't stop. It affects every aspect of my life. I can't find the motivation to do anything or the meaning in anything. Fearful of the future. Afraid of death. Nothing can fix this."
"This is a common sign of depression. Not every depressed person gets suicidal ideation, some of us get a preoccupation with death. Talk to someone. It doesn't have to be like this."
Focus on You
"Never feeling like I'm going to live up to my family's expectations for me."
"You're chasing the end of the rainbow, my friend. Take it from someone who has been running longer than Forrest Gump did."
"I feel you man, I have a super loving family and it hurts so much more knowing that their expectations are really high and I don't have the energy to improve myself."
Bye Kitty
"My cat is dying and I lost my job today. I hope he holds on I'm doing everything I freaking can. I literally told my boss I wanted the job because I need to help my dying cat in the interview. It was a self owned pet store. When she let me go she didn't even blink when I begged her to please not do this my cat will die."
"Some people really suck. I considered paying a homeless person to sh*t on her doorstep since they can just wear a mask. But idk. I started applying to jobs as soon as I got home."
First Steps...
"I'm starting to realize how much of an alcoholic I really am."
Nothing
"I'm just lost. I feel like I have nothing to show for. I've been in the worst depression of my life and I just don't know what to do anymore."
The Bad Dream
"Been interviewing for so long. So many places. I'm waiting for this job I really want bad. I have interviewed 4 times and am waiting for the call. If I don't get it I am trying to tell myself it will be ok but I know I will be crushed."
- Mapbot11
"Didn't even want to code again, but slowly you tell yourself if this is really what you want, then go and get it. You'll be okay even if you don't get it, you'll be sad for a little while but you'll pick yourself up, learn from the errors you did (assuming you get a report of where you didn't perform well) and try again with good preparation. :) Best of luck."
Things That Are Normal Where You Live But Crazy Anywhere Else | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
"back in the day"
"I don't have any friends. I have a beautiful wife, a wonderful daughter, a home, a good job, great relationships with nearby family, I can afford stuff, my life is honestly better than it has ever been. But, between moving a few times, becoming a parent, and covid, I don't think I actually have any friends anymore, at least not in the city I live in. Like I find myself wanting to hang out with people, only to realize... who?"
"It's harder because my wife has this incredible close group of friends who have all know each other their entire lives, and I've made friends with some of them, but it's not the same as someone you have history with. I'm realizing I'll never again kick it with someone who knew me "back in the day" and that makes me think that maybe THOSE weren't really friendships either, or else people would have stuck around. Rambling, sorry."
Pain Killers
"I got into a motorcycle wreck 6 months ago. I've been on Hydros for 6 months. I abuse them daily and take twenty 5/325 MG per day. And now I get 770 pills per month."
"bro taking that much tylenol will destroy your liver and cause immense future pain. if you're going to abuse the hydros lookup how to filter out tylenol."
Scarlett
"I miss my daughter, she died last year. March 30 2020. She was only five months old. I feel her absence with every breath. It actively feels like my heart is breaking everyday, all day. Chest pains won't go away. I wish I was on the moon with my sweet Scarlett June. RIP my darling girl, who was my whole world."
Dear Dad
"My dad is dying of pancreatic cancer. There's nothing more his doctors can do to help him. He doesn't have much time left."
Moral of the story? We have some serious self work to do. And the good news is that it's doable. We can overcome. Most of the time... we just have to want to. It's not always going to bright and that is ok. Stay stay calm and move forward.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
I'm all for people wearing their hearts on their sleeves and crying from watching emotional movies.
I was never that person. Maybe for the longest time, I thought crying was a sign of weakness and I didn't give in.
That is until I watched The Color Purple and sobbed after witnessing Nettie and Celie reuniting after 30 years.
Still gets me every time.
Curious to hear from strangers online and of their most vulnerable moments, Redditor CSCW asked:
"What never fails to make you tear up or cry?"

Death
Whether it's a family member or a hospital staff, witnessing a person's last breath is something that can stay with you forever.
The Note
"My late partner passed away from leukemia at 38 years old. He hid a letter for me in our room in case he didn't make it. It's the most beautiful and eloquent thing I've ever read."
"He talks about regretting not being able to see my hair turn Grey, or seeing me accomplish my dreams. He gives me permission to fall in love again, be messy, and move forward. The level of support is so encouraging. It's also a heartbreaking read and I've only read it 3 times. I will read it again on the 2 year date of his passing at the end of this month."
The Son
"Thinking about how poorly I treated my dad when he was still alive. He was always trying to find things in common with me to connect with me. When I found out he liked something I also liked, I just changed my mind and found it uncool. I looked down on the tv shows he liked and didn't realize until later that he had an awesome taste for quality campy television like The Adventures of Brisco County Junior and other classics from that era of 90s syndicated television. If I knew him now he'd be my best friend. I did try to connect with him in the last few years of his life but he had dementia by then and couldn't follow things I knew he would have found interesting before."
"His last words to me were 'It hurts' while I held his hand during catheterization on his last trip to the hospital. I was too embarrassed from seeing his penis to offer any true comfort."
The Patient
"One particular patient I had working in a trauma center. 19 year old girl I'd never seen before, and didn't know at all. She was ejected from a vehicle and then crushed because her boyfriend was trying to show off. I was training new staff, and they were at the end of their training so I was only in the room to provide supervision and step in if necessary and I spent the entire trauma holding her hand (on her request) and trying to comfort her and keep her mind off of the injuries to both of her legs."
"Her last words were spoken directly to me: 'this really hurts. Can I go to sleep?'"
"I cried for days after. I've never had a patient's death hit me as hard before or after."
Pets
Losing a pet can cause as much grief as losing a family member.
Dog's Last Day
"Thinking about my dogs last day. She was 17 years old and her organs were shutting down. Before we took her to get put down she was in the backyard eating her food. She walked slowly to us while wagging her tail and we took her. When we got home to bury her I looked over at her dog bowl and there was still a bit of food in it. Kills me every time I think of it."
Irreplaceable
"When my dog died I thought of taking her to get put down but she was so scared of the vet that I couldn't let her last moments be full of fear. I sat with her all night, she stopped eating, she couldn't move much, she couldn't control her bladder, but I still sat with her. I kissed her on the head and told her I'd be okay and not too lonely, it was ok for her to go when she was ready. A few minutes later she let out a little yelp and that was it. That was 5 years ago and I haven't been able to get another pet since because I don't know if I can go through that again."
Goodbye, Mortimer
"Thinking of that abandoned little kitten I found. I called him Mortimer. Tried to keep him alive. Bottle feeding him. Keeping him warm, skin to skin. Staying awake through most of the night. Calling in sick day after day to stay with kitty. Emergency vet scheduling with them saying he probably won't make it."
"Kitty didn't make it. It's when my oldest cat slowly stalked up to the cat, nudging her nose against Mortimer's head. Mortimer didn't move. Didn't react. I put him in a shoebox with his blanket... So he would not be cold."
"Buried him and left a little pebble for a tombstone."
"That was twenty years ago."
"I'm sorry, Mortimer. I couldn't save you."
Movies And Music
People connect to songs and films because it resonates on a certain level.
"Cant help falling in love - elvis"
"Was supposed to be the song my sister and her fiancee danced to at her wedding. Instead it was played walking into the church, at his funeral, after he took his own life."
"My poor sis was so strong that day, but that song still gets us both."
Moving Monologue
"The ending monologue of movie The Shawshank Redemption. 'I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.'"
Emotional Ending
"The end of Homeward Bound."
"Especially when Shadow says 'Peter! You're ok!'"
"Like, they went through all of that and almost died multiple times and Shadow was just glad to know Peter was ok."
"Get's me every time."
"I Could Have Got More..." – Schindler's List
"As a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, I'm fairly desensitized to the more graphic imagery, but that is absolutely the toughest part to watch. What is the value of a human life? A ring, a watch, a meager everyday object is all that the life of a family member may be worth."
– codisinc
Effects Of Aging
"Strategically placed albums from my youth."
"If I am half drunk and someone begins to play the album 'Four Cornered Night' by Jets to Brazil, I will become uncharacteristically nostalgic, and then openly sob at the idea of how good I was at being 18 years old, vs how sh**ty I am at being 38 years old."
"Getting old is weird."
Reading about pet-owners losing their beloved furry companion is exactly the reason why I have never owned a cat or a dog.
I'm afraid of getting too emotionally attached to them to the point where I suffer a grief comparable to losing family or a close friend.
But then I think about how much I'm missing out on the rewards and constant love that comes with being a pet owner.
Maybe it's worth making a trip to the local shelter.
Tears can mean so many things in the complex human emotional spectrum.
A person may cry because they're overjoyed, or deeply sad, or grieving, Tears may fall over a lost dog, or a found dog, or losing the 90th round of Tetris attack in a row.
Crying happens.
u/nocturnalfetish asked:
Here were some of those answers.
Happy Tears
I heard it second-hand from my mom, but I made my grandfather cry (in a good way).
I had taken him for his monthy doctor appointment in the big city. My cousin just had a baby girl, so he was showing the nurses photos of her exclaiming:
"I'm a great grandfather!"
I turned to him and said
"You were already a great grandfather."
He didn't say anything but later, Mom told me he cried when he got home.
Assuming The Worst
I worked at a dq. As we had a new employee at the time (someone who had gone to the same school as me) I was telling my coworkers who the new employee was. (I said her name out loud.) she had been the lobby, just out of sight, heard her name, and assumed I was talking bad about her. Started bawling and walked out on her shift. She did not last very long after that.
Mean Without Reason
In 3rd Grade someone in my class told me to ignore a friend of mine for a whole week to see how they'd react. I was a baby-back jerk in 3rd grade and normally just did what people asked of me, so I went ahead and ignored my bro in class, recess, and on the bus... it hit him hard to the point that he had a full on breakdown. Actually still friends with the guy to this day, not sure if he remembers this incident back in 3rd grade (like 15 years ago). But I still think about it occasionally, might bring it up next time we hang out and see what he says.
Something Else At Play
I work at a theater. A guest had their cell phone on with max screen brightness and they were sitting in the lower rows so everyone behind them could see it. Naturally, I asked them to turn their phone off or stow it completely. They instantaneously started crying instead. This guest was a woman in her early 20s.
Done Their Best
Casual acquaintance in my friend group in high school cut her own fringe. It was so bad I laughed. I genuinely didn't mean to 'haha' in her face it just slipped out in my shock at how bad she'd botched it. I felt so bad about it I took her to my hair dresser after school and they tried to fix it. There wasn't much they could do...
Misinterpreted
We were doing that thing where you give a gift to someone else, and they do the same, don't remember what it was called. I was gifted one of those stamp collecting "books" (more like a magazine). It was a really cute girl and i really liked the gift so with excitement when i received it i asked "Where did you buy this?!?" Which apparently she thought was me making fun of the gift, so she cried. I just wanted to know where she got it so i could get the stamps to complete the collection. This was before highschool and to this day i cringe when i remember trying to explain myself and no one would listen. I never even found out where to get the damn things so i had to throw it away.
Pride
I graduated high school. That's obviously not special, but the year before I graduated, my brother was involved in a serious accident that left him quite crippled. He put off getting his degree/GED, so now he'll never have it.
My dad cried big time when I walked across the stage.
Sweet As Pie
I was in the vet with my 12-week old kitten and my really stressed out husband because my kitten was peeing blood. There was a bunch of other stuff happening in our lives and everyone was really stressed. We were waiting for the vet to come in and I was freaking out over the kitten (I thought he had urinary crystals like my older cat) and I was holding him and crying and I was talking about how if he had urinary crystals he might die because he was so little and my husband was basically like "nothing is going to happen to him, he's our baby" and started crying. It was actually super sweet because we had just adopted out his mom and sister and he was the last foster (saved his pregnant mom from the street) and that was pretty much when my husband decided we were keeping him.
He was ok, btw. The vet couldn't find any sign of infection or crystals and just kept asking me if I had dropped him. I told her no, but that he threw himself into the ground pretty hard a lot while playing. She was kind of giving me the side-eye and then he tried to get down off the exam table, tripped over himself and fell down. She was basically like, "yeah, clumsy little ahole bruised his bladder, he'll be fine". He was, other than the fact that he's still clumsy over a year later.
Unwitting Feelings
I unknowingly friend-zoned a girl hard in college. I didn't find out until a while later, but she had a bit of a crying freakout during class shortly after and ran out. I only know because my now wife was in her class.
Reasons My Child Is Crying
During my pediatrics rotation in medical school, we spent a day at a day care. I was chaperoning a bunch of preschoolers on the playground and one of them asked me to push her on a swing. While doing so, I decided to make small talk since I had no idea how to interact with children (still don't). I said "So, about to start elementary school huh? Which school are you going to?" She had a look of complete shock, stopped the swing, and screamed "I don't know!!!" then broke down in tears and ran away from me. My instincts kicked in and I immediately walked in the opposite direction nonchalantly so the employees wouldn't suspect me. I didn't go into pediatrics.
Dax Shepard recently went on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to celebrate his birthday.
While he was there, his wife, Kristen Bell, visited and the pair's love is so strong that it made them both cry.
Shepard sat down with Ellen to discuss his show The Ranch.
On the show, he works with his buddy, Ashton Kutcher, which he says is "about as fun as it gets".
He went on to describe the experience as "really sweet" since Kutcher kick-started Dax's career with Punk'd.
Ellen also set Dax up for a round of "Ask Dr. Dax" — a session where guests can ask Shepard relationship questions.
Dr. Dax Shepard Gets a Birthday Scare - EXTENDED youtu.be
After discussing one woman's plight of disliking her husband's favorite sex position, his wife made a surprise appearance to ask him her own question.
Kristen Bell, currently starring on The Good Place, asked him:
"What would you recommend getting someone very special, like a spouse, for their birthday? Or how would you spoil them on their birthday?"
Shepard responded:
"In the bedroom."
After a laugh, Bell cheekily said:
"Let's say I have 'in the bedroom' covered."
She went on to give him a wink and specified she wanted "out of the bedroom" advice.
Dax's response to his wife was the sweetest imaginable.
"I would say please, please, please give that person love and support for 11 years. Give them two beautiful baby girls, and you're good."
As he listed the wonderful things his wife had given him over the years, tears came to his eyes.
Bell wasn't immune to the tears either and she called him out for his emotion saying:
"You're crying, too!
The internet is also overcome with emotion for this amazing couple.
@HuffPost God, I love them both so much.— MJ Copes (@MJ Copes) 1546580544
@TheEllenShow @IMKristenBell @daxshepard ~They are quite cute together. :))— Tanya Reeve (@Tanya Reeve) 1539816300
@TheEllenShow @IMKristenBell @daxshepard They have a great relationship I have ever seen.— Raini (@Raini) 1539817002
@TheEllenShow @IMKristenBell @daxshepard I love them 💖— Athena Plata (@Athena Plata) 1539905474
@TheEllenShow @IMKristenBell @daxshepard everyone loves them😎— alina (@alina) 1539816839
Happy belated birthday, Dax!!
We are happy you found the woman who gave you everything you could have asked for.
You ever read a story that made you look at your screen kind of through the outer corner of your eye? Like you're so taken aback by the dumpster fire you're reading that you almost don't want to look at it directly? But you can't look away either?
This is about to be that story.
The story revolves around four main players, so let's start there.
"Jenny" - The girlfriend
"Jessi" - The girlfriend's twin sister
"Johnny" - The boyfriend
"Mom" - The boyfriend's mom
Got that? Ok, here we go. Jenny and Johnny have been together for a year and things are going great. Jenny hangs out with Johnny's family, including mom, and has talked about her sister, Jessi, from time to time - always referring to her as "my sister". That's important. Pin that. It'll matter in a second.
One night, mom goes out to the movies with her friends and on the way out she runs into Jessi and her boyfriend. Mom flips out thinking that it's Jenny and goes on to scream at, accuse, slap, and attempt to drag Jessi out of the theater! Yep that's verbal and physical assault for those of you keeping score at home. In the process of trying to defend herself and being assaulted, Jessi called the woman a "crazy b!tch" - cause if it walks like a duck and slaps like a duck, ya know?
Mom them calls Johnny to rat out his "cheating" girlfriend only to find Jenny was WITH JOHNNY and obviously couldn't be the girl she had just assaulted in the theater. Mom tried to blame Jenny for never specifying that her sister was her TWIN sister, and not only refused to apologize to Jessi, but is now demanding that Jessi apologize to her for calling her a crazy b!tch.
"Jenny" turned to Reddit for help. Here is her full post:
I have an identical twin sister Jessi and we look very much alike. There are small differences but only those who know both of us can recognize them.
BF and I have been together for a year. Things are good between us.
Last night this happened: my boyfriend's mom went out with her friends to watch a movie and Jessi was there as well with her boyfriend. After the movie one of her friends saw Jessi with her boyfriend. She asked her if that girl is her son's boyfriend (I met this friend at a party a few weeks ago). So she looked at Jessi and thought yes, she is.
She went to her and asked what the f*** is going on. Jessi was confused since she hadn't met her before, and she kept asking her what the f*** is this. At that point she was holding Jessi's arm and she told her to let her go and called her a crazy bitch. Eventually she told Jessi that she's cheating on her son and called her by my name, and Jessi told her that that's her twin sister. She slapped her across the face and told her to stop lying. Her friends then collected her and took her away.
She then called my boyfriend and told him that she's found her girlfriend with another man. I was with my boyfriend at that time. He quickly got it that she must have seen Jessi so he told her and she hung up. She then left. I talked to Jessi, she didn't even apologize to her. After she found out what she's done, she just left.
So my boyfriend talked to her again and an apology is not coming.
She feels like she did nothing wrong and she was justified in whatever she did since I hadn't told her that I had a twin sister, so she's justified in harassing her like that and slapping her across the face. She said that she expects an apology for being called a crazy bitch.
I'm really pissed at her for what she did and the least she can do is apologize to Jessi. We were planning to visit my boyfriend's parents this weekend but now I'm not sure that I want to go. I can't just sit there and tell her how cute it was that she mistook me with my twin. I sure as hell don't think Jessi should go and apologize to her.
Should I let this go? Am I overreacting to consider this a deal breaker?
People did not hold back with their responses, and it was glorious. Here are some of my favorites, edited for content or clarity when needed.
H/T: Reddit