We all make poor choices from time to time, but have you ever made one decision that has totally ruined your life?
xXRugerManXx thinks it's time for Reddit to confess: What one mistake f*cked up your entire life?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
You had me at "made a baby."
Made a baby with a person who shouldn't be an aunt, let alone a mother.
Predatory lending at its finest.
Taking out a payday loan.
I started getting behind on bills so I took out a small payday loan, I paid it back. Then I started relying on them to continue paying bills. It went for the worse when I needed to take another payday loan for rent and food. Then I needed to take out ANOTHER payday loan just to pay a previous payday loan.
Don't ever take out a Payday loan.
Don't drink then drive.
DUI
I was an apprentice lineman. Lost my whole career because I couldn't drive the big trucks without a CDL. I still make the same 15yrs later. I regret it often. The worse was bumping into my old crew working a storm making $60/HR.
I hope whoever this is knows it's not their fault.
I was 14. My mom was sick in the bathroom, seemed to have a stomach bug because she was throwing up. My dad was busy getting ready to go to work and told me to keep an eye on my mom. I brushed it off, because I had homework and wanted to get on the computer to message my friends. 20 minutes or so later, he was about to head out the door when he asked me if she was doing okay. I said I hadn't checked yet, sighed and made my way to the bathroom. That's where we found her dead on the floor from a heart attack.
I know it's not my fault that she died, but if I had just gone to check on her sooner or sat with her for a while, it's possible the paramedics could have gotten there in time to save her.
My father ended up going kinda nuts after that, became abusive, and I moved in with a foster family – my life was absolutely forever changed by her death.
Probably not the best plan.
First year of college, spent most of my time at a video arcade in the student union instead of doing homework.
It's never too late to see the world.
I bailed on amazing opportunities and life-changing experiences — some of them necessary (university) — to stay with a girl I spent 8 years with.... Who eventually cheated on me.
Ha, remember the guy who got Mitt Romney's campaign logo tattoed on his face?
Face. Tattoo.
Hi welcome to today's economy.
Choosing a science degree (zoology) instead of doing something more practical, like paramedicine, or vision science, or something anatomy based to be a physiotherapist or OT. I can't get into any masters courses. I can't find relevant employment that won't cause me to blow my brains out.
I wanted to be a f*cking zookeeper or animal handler. I hate my decision. I'm being rejected from pet shops.
That'll do it.
Getting married then having her pressure me into a 'baby bandaid' to fix our shitty relationship.
People who beat addiction are tough as nails.
Doing heroin, it really f*cked my life Up. I lost everything and everyone close to me. I've been off heroin for 3 years now and I'm never going back. I feel so grateful to be out of that!
Debt sucks.
Using a credit card in 2012. I'm now over 10k in credit card debt. Still owe 4k on a POS car and a few hundred on personal loans. It's like the past 6+ years in the Marines have been pointless (financially speaking). And I only have about 7 weeks until I get out. I'll get my head straight once I start school though. Wish me luck :-)
Even having a masters doesn't guarantee anything.
Going to grad school straight out of college. Went from one traditional school to another for something I didn't really want but was made to feel it was all I could get. Lots of time and money wasted there.
The joys of for-profit health care.
Took a wrong step while hiking and went over an embankment. In the immediate aftermath I learned that some people will actively ignore you even if crawling along a riverbank with a shattered leg and ankle, trying to hold onto consciousness. I also learned how you'll be treated when uninsured (this was pre-ACA and I was working as a "contractor" at the time). But I also learned that, when everything's gone horribly wrong, there are a few (albeit very few) people who'll step up and fight to keep you alive (botched surgery caused an infection that nearly killed me and kept me hospitalized for five months).
This sounds awful.
Overdosed on MDMA. I am still not the same since then and this was years ago.
I thought I was having a heart attack and I should've called an ambulance but I stuck it out. Words cannot describe the terror I felt and the discomfort I experienced. I was sure I would drop at any second and this lasted for over an hour and I paced around my house telling myself to calm down. It was extremely irresponsible and I could've died. I really should've went to the hospital. (I was alone and preferred doing it by myself) I started having irregular heartbeats and I thought I had ruined my heart so I went and had an ultrasound on my heart and thankfully i was only diagnosed with premature ventricle contractions which is nothing to worry about and otherwise my heart was healthy.
For 5 months my anxiety and depression were on a different level. I had literally burnt out the majority of the serotonin in my brain and therefore I was incapable of feeling happiness. Chemically induced depression is on a different level than the depression I had dealt with previously. I had crippling anxiety and suffered from HPPD meaning hallucination persisting perception disorder which means I was having psychedelic like hallucinations while sober (which I still experience although on a very insignificant level and does not impact my daily life) I also suffered from derealization and I felt like nothing was real and I was just a puppet pulling my own strings and that nothing was significant. I had panic attacks daily and I even went vegan for half a year to try to fix whatever I had broken.
To this day I still feel slower than I was. I feel like my learning capacity, memory and wit is not what it used to be. For months after it happened I felt like an "e-tard" and had seriously damaged my brain.
This occurred 2 years and 7 months ago and the lasting effects are the anxiety, sleep disturbance, mild hppd, My vision changed that night almost like a shift in perspective like I'm seeing something from a different set of eyes(literally the composition of color and depth perception has been altered) a complete intolerance for cannabis(it doesn't feel the same anymore almost like a completely different substance) less learning capacity and memory and the occasional irregular heartbeat.
Luckily for me all my symptoms have seemed to get better with time and I'm confident most of them will cease later in my life.
That whole year was f*cked for me from that one night and I am blessed my symptoms have gotten better because I've read many stories of others who have done the same and they didn't get better with time.