People Who Have Been The Target Of An Assassination Attempt Explain How They Survived
Not all plotted murder attempts are political assassinations like I pictured. A lot of normal people out here are the ones on the hit list.
Moral of the story is, we can't really live a life without pissing off the deranged few that might come after us with a gun. We'd have to stay inside all day eating cold cuts and lacking Vitamin D.
Some Redditors unfortunately did find themselves in the cross hairs. But they made it out, usually because of pure luck.
u/Buttery_Avocado asked, "People who have been the target of murderers/assassins, how did you survive, and why did they target you?"
Murder by Traffic (still murder)
I'm not sure if it counts but a few years ago in high school, there was this guy that used to trouble everyone by taking naked photos of them when they were changing after PE class.
I happened to be one of his targets so I reported him to my teacher and eventually he got suspended for about a month and had to attend counselling sessions.
One day I was at the bus stop waiting for my bus when suddenly I felt a push on my back and I fell onto the road. Luckily for me, the bus driver stopped the bus in time and I survived. However, I fell directly on my arm and it was fractured.
Last I heard, he went to the juvenile centre and no one ever had to see this devil again.
Chosen One
They missed. That's about the only reason.
It was a random act of violence. A man ran up behind me, put a gun to my head and shot. He flinched or I did and he missed by an inch. Blew out my left eardrum and burned my hair behind my ear. He ran off immediately after.
Cops said it was probably a gang initiation thing. I have deafening tinnitus now and horrible anxiety in public.
Random Cars Are Your Friend
About a year ago, I was walking my dog at night when I saw this really beat up old Honda Civic pull up on the other side of the road. I noticed that two similar cars positioned themselves on the roads perpendicular to me both behind and in front of me. I was boxed in.
This kid no older than 19 gets out with 2 other people, and the kid reaches for a gun in his wasitband and makes a beeline towards me. A random car passes and they all scatter. Once the car is gone, they come back and try to do the same thing, but another random car passes again, and they take off. I made the quarter mile run home in about 2 minutes.
My guess is I was the victim of a gang initiation, and they ran away when witnesses saw.
Risky Blind Dates
I was almost murdered. If it wasnt for my manager I would have been.
My sister set me up on a date with her friend. I ended up having to work the weekend so I canceled. The date went out with someone else and afterwards invited him to her apartment. Right before they went inside someone killed them both with a gun. It turned out to be a jealous neighbor of the girl who she was also messing with.
That could have been me if i went on the date and she decided to let me in for tea.
When Everybody Knows the Same Hit Man...
My ex boyfriend hired some guy from Chicago to murder me after I broke up with him for selling drugs to my younger sister. Fortunately, my ex & I both had a mutual friend who found out & had more pull with the attempted assassin (both were polish immigrants). Ex calls me up later and demands $2000 from me because he "didn't get what he paid for", as the hired gun wouldn't give a refund.
Shoulda Rode with Clinton
While it seemed strange at the time, I actually didn't find out about the circumstances until 20 years later. I worked at the White House during the Clinton Administration in an IT capacity, and was traveling on a trip to the Philippines and the APEC conference in Jakarta, Indonesia.
We had flown into Manila late, and hopped on the bus to the hotel with the staff motorcade. Everyone was pretty awake, and we were all BSing on the ride to the hotel. About 45 minutes into the ride, I look out the window of the bus and we are on a narrow road lined by corrugated tin shacks. It really seemed strange at the time since why would the road from the airport to the nice hotels in Manila have to go through this neighborhood? We eventually arrived at the hotel, and it was quickly forgotten.
20 years later, I am watching a series on the History Channel about the United States Secret Service. This one episode was about how the Secret Service coordinates with Intelligence agencies, and talked about on a Clinton trip to Manila where they overheard Al Quaeda was talking about a "Wedding Cake" under the bridge. "Wedding Cake" was a known code word for bomb. Clinton was diverted to the alternate route (and undoubtedly got to the hotel a lot quicker than we did.) It turns out there was indeed a bomb under the bridge on the route to the hotel.
I was obviously not the target, but it was crazy, and many of us could have been collateral damage.
Too Familiar
Does a school shooting count?
I was not in the same part of the school, I evacuated with my class and got home safely a few hours later. Had I been in the wrong place at the wrong time I just as easily could have been one of the victims.
He was and is a deluded, violent, angry, lonely demon who couldn't stand a world where the rest of us weren't dragged into his demented hellpit. No way in hell. Life has recovered more or less to what it was, and twenty two months on, Stoneman Douglas is 0% his world and 100% the world I know our 17 fallen want it to be.
But But it's So Hard to Get Rid of a Tattoo
Not sure if this counts as I wasn't the intended target, but my dad ran a chapter of a fairly notorious biker gang (notorious enough to get their own episode of "Gangland"). Once my dad left, a guy who never really liked him all that much took his place and insisted that since he was no longer in the gang, he needed to get rid of his tattoo. My dad told him to go pound sand. Surprisingly, that didn't go over particularly well, and he ordered his SUV bombed. We lived in an apartment complex at the time and they blew up the wrong SUV. Thankfully no one was inside either. As far as I know, that was the only attempt on his life, at least as long as I was I've been alive.
How Not to Deal With Unwanted Neighbors
I lived below an insane person, in a shared house. For the record I lived there first. Insane Person wanted the entire house to rent, tried to force me out many ways, making noise, having people creep around and knock on my windows, call the cops on me for no reason etc.
So one day he lit a smouldering fire in the non-functional fireplace (we were told never to use it) and closed his off, forcing the smoke to fill my apartment. We luckily got out, but the hospital said one more hour in there and we would be dead. Me and my husband spent several hours in the hospital on oxygen.
My dad had replaced our smoke detector literally 2 weeks prior to this incident as we discovered it was broken. Since the laundry was in my part of the house, Insane Person could totally have come in and tampered with it but I have no evidence of this.
The funniest part of the whole thing was when I called 911 and the fire trucks showed up at 3 am, Insane Person cussed me out for calling them.
The second funniest part was work tried to get me to come in that day since nobody could cover my shift.
All that effort to rent out a teardown house in a sketchy neighbourhood.
That's Why Ya Pick Up Your Litter, Kids
Not sure If this one counts but... I was born in Iraq at the very start of the war. My parents tried shielding us from the war and death outside but sometimes things just happened the likes of which they had no control over.
I was about 5 years old (I can't remember my exact age but all I can remember is that I was too young to attend elementary school) my mom was getting my siblings ready for school(brushing my sister's hair) and I was sitting on her tailoring bench with a curtain less window behind me. I remember playing around with some pins she had laying around.
My grandma (alive at the time) was watching over me so I do not fall, thus when a pin dropped from my hand to the floor she was quick to tell me to pick it up so no one would step on it. I bend down to pick up the pin an I hear a pop (simmer to the popping sound of a balloon)
I glance back and the window was gone, and all i hear next is my sister scream and start crying.
My mom quickly yelled for all of us to get against the wall and to get away from the window. As We all look around the room to see what happened we see a bullet (as long as a index finger) in the middle of the room (one of my brothers goes over to pick it up but it was too hot to touch).
The next day we go over to the police and all they can do is tell us that it was a sniper bullet and they can't do anything about it.
I assume that a sniper saw me just sitting there in front of a window and took the shot, but it missed me when I bent down to pick up the pin so it went over my head, grazing my sister's arm before stopping on the floor.
James Bond Ain't Got Nothin
I was a photojournalist in an unnamed Central American country doing humanitarian coverage for a college. Suddenly there were riots against the government and officials started shooting people with cameras. My group was chased so I had to change my appearance (I.E. clothes, hat, satchel) and ditch my camera to an in country contact and acted like a normal student to smuggle my SD cards in little slots I cut in my shoes until I got to the US where I took them out and just had them in my pocket so to not arouse suspicion by TSA. 10/10 would do again
An Antidote to Ghosting?
No way to prove it, but had all the lugnuts on my trucks front passenger rim loosened which caused death-wobble so bad I almost crashed in the fast lane of the freeway. Luckily the rim stayed on. I had ghosted this one guy and part of me suspects he came and loosened my lugnuts in retaliation. My boss discovered it being the nice guy he was.
A Horrifying Boyfriend
One night, he seemed bored and started trying to stick his feet in my face. I pushed them away, disgusted, and he... exploded. It was a whole lot of action. He started by trying to choke me. I freed myself by grabbing a cat brush, the kind with the sharp metal points, and pushing it into his chest. He let me go but pushed me to the ground and lifted his air soft rifle and drove it to my head like he was trying to cave in my skull. At the last moment he hesitated. I ran out of the apartment and called the cops. It didn't occur to me until later when I was with a public defender documenting my injuries that he had really wanted to kill me. I had bruising so deep they were black in color, in places I don't even remember him hitting me. He really would have, if something in him hadn't hesitated.
Singers Can Be Ego-Heavy
Was in a band with a singer who wanted a coke empire. He said if me or the drummer mentioned this to anyone, he would just have to do a little "wet work". I didn't know about his threat until after I distanced myself and very easily could have had my head blown off in my sleep by a paranoid coke head
This Guy's Uncle Must Be a Loose Cannon
Not sure if attempted murder, well probably, guy ran me over while I was on a bike because I was texting with his girlfriend, I didn't even know they had a relationship. Dumb me didn't call the cops and let my uncle handle it, wish I just pressed charges.
An Nasty Divorce
A guy I know was going through a nasty divorce. It was not going well for him. He was set to lose custody and the house. Well I guess his wife wanted it all, because she hired (or asked I'm not sure) her brother to kill him. The brother attacked him with an axe in the lobby of his building. The axe actually connected, but he lived.
A Lethal Swirly
This was in Elementary school, surprisingly. A new student had moved into town, and had attended my elementary school. Let's call him Patrick.
I later asked the teacher is could use the bathroom. There was a policy where two people at a time may use the bathroom, and of course, Patrick decided he would be that second person. I later went into a stall to do my business, while he used a urinal. After cleaning up, I'm opening the urinal doors when he begins to force into the stall doors so he can bust them open. Then with full force, he just props open the door and rushes me with full force, smashing the small toilet to pieces. He begins to proceed to drown me in the toilet water, and cut my face with the leftover shards of the toilet. I manage to wrangle through his grasp and run immediately into my classroom and to inform what Patrick had done. He was later suspended, and was counseled. He wasn't allowed to walk in the hallways alone without an adult.
And there are just as many grievances for which we are not at all sorry.
Curious to hear about people's track record of their questionable behavior, Redditor NanoPKx asked:
"What is something bad you have done with no regrets?"
Is it petty theft or flat out stealing? You decide.
The Parting Gift
"'Forgetting' to bring back a company ipad after they forgot about me having it. Actually they never asked for it back so I still have it and use it."
– Koetjeka
Furry Companion
"I stole a barn kitten while delivering packages for FedEx. He kept climbing my legs and getting into the van, sitting under the wheel when I tried to back out (it was a steep driveway, no way to swing the van around). I called the number on the package, looked the name up on facebook, called the local non-emergency to get contact info, all failed."
"So I took him. Now, if you're not from a rural environment, you might not understand that barn cats like that are 'no-man's-cats.' For all the owners know, he got sick or got got by a coyote. And he would have died, because when we got him to the vet he had a nasty upper resp infection and some other nasties."
"Now, one deformed nasal passage and the cutest snore later, we have a bonkers little orange cat with the heaviest penchant for snuggling I've ever seen (his name is Monty btw)."
"Edit: I forgot to pay my Cat Tax: https://imgur.com/a/HIXS4us"
"Edit Part 2: Monty loves the attention. Thank you for loving him as much as we do :3"
"MmmmMMMMRrrrrrrrrrrAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW" -Montgomerey Valentine, 2022
– SonOfSkinDealer
The Dirty Treat
"A housemate of mine kept eating mine and my girlfriends food and even though I asked him to stop the only thing he would ever say is 'I thought it was mine' then keep eating it."
"Well I bought my girlfriend some ice cream she really enjoys and she put the half she didn’t finish back in the freezer. Well when she want to get the rest it was gone and it made me madder than I think it probably should have."
"The very next time I saw him and somehow keeping a straight apologetic face I told him how he accidentally ate our sex ice cream and that bits of it had been on our parts etc. I told him I felt guilty not to tell him and that I had to apologise for him to eat such a thing."
"I will never forget the face he made when I told him. A face of pure self disgust and shock to which all he had to say was 'I wish you never told me that' and proceeded to move out around a month later."
"Although he didn’t actually eat sex ice cream, like why the f'k would you put it back after use anyway? Sometimes I wonder if I went to far but in that moment I just did not care at all. He still doesn’t know it isn’t true and I’ll probably never see him again."
"F'k you Vitas buy your own food."
– SpicyDolphin74
Vengeance is sweet.
Payback Time
"A drunk driver hit my parked car, left a huge dent in the front driver’s side door, and then drove away. I happened to be looking out the window at the time and saw the whole thing, including his plate number. Cops got there not long after and took my statement. After a couple days and a couple phone calls, I found out nothing was going to come of it because he was the son of the sheriff the next county over."
"Fast forward a couple months, I see his car parked behind a local bar within walking distance of my apartment. I got out my hunting knife and sliced all four of his tires, and made a couple trips around it destroying the paint job. Yellow Pontiac Sunfire, and I still remember the goddamn plate number even after almost 20 years."
– IgnoreMe304
For The People
"I was a GM for a retailer that was going out of business. During the liquidation I let my employees that worked until the end store product they wanted to buy in a closet I claimed I didn't have a key to. Oh the final days I sold them all the items they requested for 95% off. 70" tvs, ipads, gaming laptops whatever they requested."
– Midnights606
Surreptitious Swap
"Years ago I worked for a wealthy dude who was married to someone semi-famous. He would waltz in every morning and talk about the fantastic dinner he had the night before, how he hung out with some other famous person or whatever else."
"He paid me peanuts. I had a hard time making ends meet."
"I was the office assistant and IT guy. So it comes time to get a new computer for one of the designers. I spec something out, and show it to him. It was a ripper of a machine for the time (early 2000s). But it wasn’t expensive enough for bossman."
"So I added a really high end graphics card. Boss was happy then. The card added nothing for the designer: they only did illustrator and photoshop."
"So I came in that weekend and swapped the graphics card for my aging one from home."
"No one ever knew. Or cared. And I got a new graphics card."
– Dudeinairport
When times are tough, people had to do what it took to survive.
T.P. Crisis
"In college I was so poor I would steal toilet paper from the supply closet in our major building."
– Business_Loquat5658
Hungry College Buddy
"I stood watch for a college friend who was going hungry because he’d been disowned and his roommates had made living with him intolerable after he came out."
"I was loosely affiliated with an off campus program with local churches that gave free student dinners on Thursdays. We would go to church to eat, then bring dishes into the kitchen."
"Anyway, he would go in there and steal stuff like peanut butter, literal bread (not an allegory), granola bars etc. while I watched out for the pastor."
"Eventually we both got caught, the pastor for the college students got a bit mad because he was responsible for us while we were there to eat. And I think it was offensive on some level to steal from church. But then he saw what my friend was taking, and asked him if he had enough to eat. My friend shamefacedly said no, not usually."
“'Okay, fine. Put the food back, and come with me.' Took my friend grocery shopping instead, got him connected with the food pantry and community garden at church instead."
– SchnarchendeSchwein
Based on these examples, people didn't twice about their actions in the heat of the moment.
Within reason, we all gotta somehow get by.
But do you think their actions deserve punishment?
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When a person sees someone they care about going through a struggle or crisis, their instinct is to uplift them with positive advice.
But sometimes, the wisdom imparted by friends isn't always helpful or relevant to the situation.
Curious to hear from strangers online who could do without specific knowledge, Redditor Saibotnl1 asked:
"What life advice can just f'k off?"
These Redditors have a problem with how certain people have on outlook on life.
Time To Rest
"Sleep when you’re dead."
"Cool, but you’re going to be dead a lot sooner."
– Tag2graff
Irrelevant Sadness
"People have it so much worse than you so don’t be sad!"
– notrachelmar
"To that I like to say, 'people have it so much better than you so don't be happy!'"
– ___jupiter____
Your Life Path
"Almost anything relating to what age you must be in order to buy a house, have children, marry, have a profession, or do anything else. Seriously, everyone's life is different from everyone else's. Make your life the way you want it to be. If you so desire. Up to you."
– Frn071
On The Contrary
“Cheaters never prosper”
"Yes, they f'king do."
– waqasnaseem07
People can get out of any situation they find displeasing.
But others feel people should just "stick it out."
Ignoring Bullies
"Just ignore bullys or get someone else to handle it for you. I have never seen this work, only makes it worse. The only effective way I've seen to deal with them is by not making yourself an easy target and make them scared to f'k with you again. If going psycho on their a** is the only thing they'll respond to that's their fault. Also want to add in schools they will punish you for self defense but that punishment is only sitting around a few hours in detention or sitting around at home with a suspension. The punishment is temporary boredom, it's absolutely nothing compared to being bullied and when it's over the important message will still stand that you will not tolerate being a victim."
– User Delted
Remain to be Miserable
"Stick it out"
"Whether that's sh**ty jobs, shi**y relationships, shi**y living situations..."
"By all means don't just give up on things when you face challenges, but if something feels wrong or is wrecking your peace then take some control and change it if you can!"
– petitezoey
"Easy for you to say," might be an auto-response to these suggestions for many people.
Invitation For Recklesslessness
"Live like everyday was your last"
Yall know what people do when they learn they have a single day left to live?"
– LimeGrass619
A Possible Consequence
"I did that as a teenager and ended up homeless and addicted to heroin. Didn’t pan out for me too well."
"19 years sober though today."
– Open-Section-7263
A Practical Approach
"If I knew with certainty that I had one day left, I'd double-check all my financials, my will, and my insurance policies, make sure my wife had all of my passwords and knew where all the money was, spend the rest of the day with her and the kids, then call the medical examiner and ask to lie down on the gurney so that when I die they won't strain their back moving my remains out of my house."
– Asteriad
Nose Stuck In A Book
"Work while they sleep. Study while they party"
"That's not a recipe for success, that's a recipe for a lot of white hairs, burnout syndrome and a stroke before your 40s..."
– Khomuna
Doesn't Apply To Everyone
"Do what you love and money will follow"
"I love walking my dogs and grilling food for my friends but That sh*t doesn't pay the bills as well as my engineering degree!"
– Elons_android
While people's intentions are good, they're better off keeping their two cents in their own pockets.
Not everyone likes to hear platitudes.
Sometimes, people just want to know they're not alone with their problems over listening to unlikely solutions that are nothing more than superficial pick-me-ups.
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Kids start going to school from the age of five, and for the most part, they spend more time at school than at home. Because of that, teachers can become very important figures in the lives of their students.
Some students don't have the best home lives. Some keep it to themselves, but others confide in their teachers.
Curious about various situations, Redditor Delicious_Mastodon83 asked:
"teachers of reddit what is the saddest thing you found out about a student?"
In Need of Parents
"Not a teacher but was a school-based therapist. Had a student (7 -8 y/o) I didn’t know knock on my office door and ask if I’d adopt her and “if you have room, my brother too, but if not, that’s ok, we can be split up. We’re split up now. And I don’t take up space. I just need a sleeping bag”. Broke my heart."
– secretkpr
Heartbreaking, But Industrious
"My mom taught at a school in a bad neighborhood in Chicago in the mid 90’s. There was a second grader that would save his milk and ketchup packers from lunch for his mom so she had something to eat when she got home from work."
– PowerstrokeMe
Big-Hearted Mom
"Not a teacher but a parent with a 9 year old son. Every day I pack extra in my sons lunch because he tells me he has a friend that never has anything to eat. It's winter and my son came home and told me his friend was turning up with shorts and shirt and holes in his shoes. So I sent in a jumper and long pants for him to wear and some slightly used but good condition shoes. I have been up to the school recently and the teacher pulled me aside and thanked me profusely for helping this child. Apparently teachers are not allowed to aid kids they teach here in Australia and they have already reported the issue 3 times to child welfare without results so I was the only one helping this child. The teacher told me before I started sending in more food and clothes, this child would steal others food from their lunches and look through the bins because he was so hungry. They doubt he gets fed at home. So now I make sure to always send an extra lunch and some school clothes/supplies when I can. I can only hope child welfare eventually does something but it breaks my heart."
– spetzie55
Amazing Big Sister
"It was right after winter break and before class started I was just talking with some students and asked if they got anything fun for the holidays. One girl said on no, I don’t ever get presents, my mom is a drug addict. But I went out and got some stuff for my little sister so that she can have a real Christmas."
"She just said it so matter-of-fact. She was so used to being the parent to her little sister that she didn’t even care about her own childhood. It totally broke my heart."
– tonydanzascaulk
The Importance Of Human Affection
"Second hand story from my mom, elementary teacher for 30ish years. She had a hug or a handshake out the door policy, just some small contact and a proper goodbye, and had this young boy who always picked the hug. She wondered why he always went for it, most kids would go back and forth depending on their mood that day, so she asked him why he was always so excited for the end of day hug? His answer, "It's the only one I ever get.""
– needsawholecroissant
Coming Out The Other Side
"Two teenage boys (16/14) with learning disabilities were on my caseload, they never missed school but often ditched class. They were homeless mid-year after they went home from school to find the locks changed, their Mom had abandoned them for a new boyfriend. She didn't leave an address for them to find her."
"*Edit: both eventually dropped out, however a couple of years later the younger brother came back to visit. He and his brother were both working construction, and his brother had gotten married, had a child, and was living with his wife’s family."
"The younger had roommates and was saving for a car. He told me it was a shame I didn’t have kids, because I would make a good Dad."
"People often persevere, even with the odds stacked against them."
– Kursch50
True Parentification
"Not me but my daughter is a teacher, she has lots of stories but one that stands out for me is one of her kindergarten kids saying she was tired and her asking why, the little girl explained that she had been up all night with her mums newborn baby. She did this every night, fed her bottles and everything."
– lb47513343
Luckily, He Was Resilient
"This year I had a 17 year old kid enroll at my school. He was sitting in my math class and I could tell he was struggling. After class I took some extra time to go over a concept with him. I asked him to read the question to me, and he sat there silently. He then looked at me and said “I’m not going to lie to you, I cannot read. I have no idea how to say these words""
"Turned out at age 17 he was illiterate and had been kept out of school by his very religious, controlling parents. Over the past few months he has worked very hard! Now he can finally read at an 8th grade level and he is STILL improving!!"
– User Deleted
A Heroic Teacher
"I worked in an inner city charter school. One of my students (`M10) had a sib (M8) in a lower grade. The mom was there every day in the beginning of the year encouraging them, helping them and generally being very supportive... until a CPS agent spoke to me asking about her behavior. After CPS left things went downhill. The boys showed up late to class even though they lived a half block away from school. When in school both boys were tired from sleeping in the car while their mom "went fishing". She also had two very young girls which she dragged around making the boys take care of them. One day the boys didn't show up and their teacher walked over to the house to find the mom had loaded up the fridge, paid the rent for the month and abandoned them. The teacher (a candidate for sainthood btw) took them in, adopted them and grew them up to be great men."
– mopedarmy
This is really heartbreaking stuff! Luckily, teachers aren't just another adult in your life; they can be your saving grace as well.
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TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains sensitive content about depression and mental health.
As the stigma around mental health lessens (however slowly), people are more forthcoming about the problems they are facing. One of the most common mental health issues is depression.
Depression can affect many different types of people. Factors such as gender, race, nationality, and even age have no bearing on whether someone suffers from depression or not.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), globally, "...an estimated 3.8% of the population affected, including 5.0% among adults and 5.7% among adults older than 60 years..."
Depression displays in certain patterns, such as mood changes, physical difficulties, and social isolation. However, depression manifests differently in different people and feels different to different people.
Reddit users divulged what depression felt like to them when Redditor iodineseaspray asked:
"What does depression feel like to you?"
Some of this is sure to sound familiar.
The Worst Kind Of Boredom
"Like being more bored than you could imagine but also not wanting to do anything at all, even breathe. So you want to do something, but you can't imagine anything that you would like to do so you're just sort of stuck."
– BuddhistSlater
"So you then spend literally hours staring at a blank wall hating yourself, your life, and everything around you. Well, as much hate as you can summon in the absolutely mentally numb state you find yourself sat in day after day."
– merryman1
Lack Of Motivation and Energy
"Complete lack of motivation."
"Ignoring people that I love, and who are trying to help."
"Just sh*t"
– HatFromStraw
"I feel it extra at work. Letting things slide until you either get into trouble or trying last minute to prevent it."
"Funny those times when I'm working to save my butt, the depression goes away and i feel super focused and motivated."
"I try to carry that energy over but no, it's rinse and repeat."
– ExtraBitterSpecial
Powerful Insecurity
"Insecure about absolutely everything, no hope for the future, dissociation from society and not knowing how to “act” anymore, feeling like I’m not as good at the things I always thought I was good at or that the “talent is wasted on me”, only food cheers me up and sometimes even that doesn’t work"
– tenamonth
Loss Of Creativity
"This. It's like some numb fuzziness you feel in your brain. It's the worst thing ever for an artist who just wants to create but your brain comes up dry with a dense fog that wants to just lie down for a few hours"
– FinnProtoyeen
A Mental Inability To Breathe
"For me, it feels like I’m in a lake with a ball chain tied to my feet, desperately swimming up for air, the only problem is the chain isn’t long enough. I can only get an inch of my head out of the water to breath, and as soon as a high tide comes, the water just floods over me and I feel like I can’t breath again. I live like this, constantly feeling like I’m struggling to breathe, weighed down by my own mind. It’s a struggle and I can’t really describe it in any other way, I’m jealous of people who don’t worry about depression"
– DrowningInBrokeness
"Like suffocating under a heavy cloak"
– kmartfreak
"Like being crushed. Like if the air was crushing my muscles and bones and I can’t breathe because I’m being crushed…"
"Kinda like that."
– Afreshnewsketckbook
Listlessness
"Scrolling thru your steam library. Thinking you want to play something, either not settling on anything or not wanting to put the effort into the game. Going back to the scrolling."
– Aistadar
"It feels like you're forced to play a game of Monopoly (represents life) and your just rolling the dice to appease everyone but you genuinely don't care about where you go, where you land, what you pick up, what you pay, what you gain."
"You kind of just watch it happen without interest and while people are cheering or oh no-ing for you, you genuinely don't care. Everyone is a piece on this board that hardly matters and you feel like we're all just running in a circle over and over again and it's boring and disinteresting as hell."
"You lose all curiosity for everything and just let everything happen and pass by you. No motivation, hardly any love, hardly any care. Feels like the world is in black and white and your waiting for the game to end became it's so absolutely boring and disinteresting, but it never does."
"You come to resent the game and eventually hate it because it feels like you're being forced to play it and suffer it's consequences when you never asked to play it in the first place."
"That's what depression felt like for me. Since then I've been medicated and recieved therapy. I'm doing a lot better now and I don't feel this way anymore, thankfully."
- KnlghtLlghts
A Relation To Fantasy
"You know that scene in the Lord of the Rings where Bilbo is describing to Galndalf what having the Ring all those years felt like? "I feel thin. Like too much jam spread over too much bread." That's honestly the best way I've seen to describe it."
– Electrical_Age_336
"I always say the closest thing to compare it to is a dementor in harry potter. It sucks every ounce of happiness out of you until there is only darkness left."
"Side note: chocolate always helps"
– sunfacer
Fear Of Lack Of Justification
"Like someone close to you died yesterday. Expect no one has, and nothing has happened to justify how you feel."
– AlterEdward
A Physical Pain
"Physical pain in my heart, will start crying just by attending to the physical sensation in my body."
– sagieday
Help Yourself
"I've always described it as having a shadow fixed to your brain which fuels things like indecision and negativity. You can do things to temporarily help but you can't truly shift it. Previous normality is forgotten. But it's amazing how much you can mask it."
"I found I didn't realise how bad I was until I started to get better"
"For anyone suffering with depression. Please, please speak to someone. Best thing I ever did"
– DavosLostFingers
Depression isn't something you can just deal with or get over. Learning to cope is not easy. However, as Redditor DavosLostFingers pointed out, talking to someone can literally save your life.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression, contact the American Psychological Association by phone at 800.374.2721 or 202.336.5500.
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