The Redditors below were all in the wrong place at the wrong time, and heard some things about themselves they probably didn’t want to hear. These stories are both heartbreaking and a gentle reminder not to let words get you down. Most of the times, those people talking behind your back were never your friends anyways. Here are 50 of the worst things Redditors ever heard about themselves.
1. New Laugh, Who Dis?
When I was in middle school art class something funny happened and I let out a loud laugh. I then overheard one of my childhood best friends whisper to another person, “God I hate trader2488’s laugh.” I immediately looked at him and said, “What?” and he just looked down at the table like he didn’t hear me. This actually made me change my laugh. It’s completely different from what it used to be.
2. E-Fail
I was copied into an email conversation where about ten messages earlier one of my employees had described me as an idiot and suggested to the recipients that they didn’t get me involved in the situation they were discussing. I’d always thought we got on well and it knocked my confidence down a couple pegs. Feels bad, man.
3. The Bad Twin
I heard my dad saying he expected my twin sister to do great things. That wasn’t so bad until he followed it up with, “I don’t know what we’ll do about [My Name], though.” He still doesn’t know I heard that, and I plan to keep it that way for the rest of my life. The best revenge is a life well-lived, I suppose.
4. Oh Dear, Diary…
Everyone I invited to my first sleepover laughed while reading my diary entries about how my dad had been abusing me (I'd left the room and one had gone snooping). It was worse when they wouldn't stop or give it back when I burst in and pleaded with them to, then everyone laughed even harder. That was the first and last time I wrote anything real like that in a diary.
Shutterstock
5. Good Riddance!
I think this was in the ninth grade. A girl I had a crush on, but hadn't really talked to at all, was moving away to a new town. A few days before she moved, I overheard her saying, "Yeah I'll miss pretty much everyone...But I'll tell you one person I won't miss: [My name]!" That kinda sucked, like, really bad.
6. Not My Friends
Walked up on a bunch of people who I thought were my friends talking smack about me saying I'm a loser and all this other basic garbage. When they saw me, they fell silent and I just walked away. That really hurt but I got over it eventually. It happens I guess. Sometimes your friends just aren’t really your friends.
Shutterstock
7. Need to Escape
I went to school with a black eye and busted nose from my dear old dad. Child services was called to do a home check—I will never forgive my parents for what they said to them. My dad and mom told the worker I'd done it to myself and I was suicidal and that I'd written in my diary that I wanted to end my little brother’s life. I didn't even have a diary and of all the people I was close to, my little brother was #1. It got me a blacker eye and an involuntary stay in a locked ward. I bailed ASAP.
8. The Ruiner
Background: I'm 12 years younger than my older sisters and I was unplanned. At age seven, I overheard my mom crying and saying I was the reason she didn't love my dad anymore/we were poor/why she isn't happy and that she didn't want to be a mom anymore. She said she “didn't know how to love someone who ruined her entire life.”
It was Christmas Eve and she was drunk talking to her best friend on the phone. It broke my heart/spirit and that was only the beginning of my awful childhood. Side note: I'm 29 now and moved out when I was 15 to protect myself. I have no contact with my parents and I'm fully aware it wasn't my fault I was born....but shoot, this memory still screws me up...
9. Straight-A Kids Only
My best friend’s story not mine, but figured it’s worth sharing (we’ll call her Kerri). She was born super premature, but she ended up completely fine (like you would never know unless you saw the pictures of when she was born). Anyways when she was around eight, she was at the top of the stairs, head peeking through the banister.
She was secretly listening to her parents argue downstairs about how her dad was too hard on her brother for his grades. Her mom says, “Well why aren’t you that hard on Kerri? She doesn’t get straight As either!” and her dad responds, “Kerri was born premature, she’s probably disabled.” Yeah, that one had to hurt.
10. Never Enough
Overheard my mom saying to my dad, “Why can’t he [me] be like [my sister] and be smart?” I’ve never really gotten over that one. I have taken pretty much the hardest classes and get straight As and score in the top 1% on almost every standardized test I’ve taken, so I’m not really sure what else they want from me.
11. Motivated Through Sass
Distant relatives visiting during the holidays talking about my siblings and cousins all doing amazing in school etc. and how if I never made it in sports, I'd probably be working minimum wage for the rest of my life. Over 10 years later sports career fizzled in college but I'm the only one out of all those relatives earning in the six-figure range yearly with my own house. Sucked when I heard it but guess I should be thankful for the motivation it gave me that spurred my work ethic as a teen forward.
12. Know-Nothing
Went out to a bar with some friends for a birthday party for my ex-girlfriend. She really messed me up when she left me, like really bad, but I was trying to be nice since she invited me. I figured I’d go out and be there for a drink or two. So, a mutual friend who had been broken up with a few days before was there.
As I made the rounds I talked to her and tried to do whatever I could to let her know it would be okay. I’m no therapist, but I did my best, ya know? I knew what a bad breakup felt like, as I was also going through one, so I tried to help. Anyways, after I left the table I overheard her talking to my ex at the bar about me trying to give her advice.
She said, “Well nobody has ever loved him so what does he know about any of this?” and they started laughing like it was hilarious. I don’t think they know I heard, but I grabbed my coat immediately and took a long walk home. I don’t need people like that in my life, haven’t willingly seen either of them since.
13. Room-Hate
I had just moved into my dorm for my second year of college. My roommate was my best friend since ninth grade. My stuff hadn't arrived yet, and it was my time to register, so I asked him if I could use his computer. He said sure. I sat down, and he had AIM open to a conversation with another good friend of ours.
I didn't scroll up, but from what was just visible on screen, they were talking about how weird I was and how awful it would be rooming with me. I closed it so he wouldn't realize later I'd seen it, registered, and left. We still lived together that year, but we didn't hang out at all. We just cohabited. I never asked him to hang out as friends, he never asked me.
Move-out day that year was the last time we spoke. That was over ten years ago. We chatted every day for six years, then haven't spoken since. I still don't know if I did or said something to flip how he felt about me, or if he never really liked me to begin with. The possibility of the latter really screws up your future friendships. Heck, the former does, too, knowing apparently you're capable of unknowingly saying or doing something to throw away a five-year friendship.
14. Pale But Nice
When I was a preteen, I posted a picture of myself online with a minor celebrity. I later found that it was reposted on a message board...and the majority of the comments talked about how ugly and pale I was. The only person who said anything nice said, "Don't say that, she posts here sometimes and she's really nice."
15. Gotta Fly
My father said he was too busy to come see us on Christmas. I told him my two-year-old had picked presents out for him. I was also going to announce my second pregnancy. I was at my brother’s house when my father called to offer my brother a ride to the airport Christmas morning. The airport is less than 5 minutes from our house.
16. Roach Rent
I was seven and basically poor trailer trash, but I asked my friend if I could stay the night. He called his mom to ask and I overheard her say, “Tell him no, I don’t want roaches and lice.” That really cut me deep. To this day I have extreme anxiety about keeping my house clean. I couldn’t help it I was poor, and our roaches didn’t pay rent you jerk!
17. The Mean Girls Strike Again
I was in middle school and I overheard one of the girls doing one of those paper fortune-telling games with the boys and predicting who they were going to date. She opened up the paper and said, "Ugh, you're going to date Fox," and the guy just said "Gross." Yep found out that I wasn't really considered a catch…
18. Need to Hear, Don’t Want to Hear
While not a mean comment this comment destroyed me. I have epilepsy and I overheard my parents and neurologist talking about some of the effects if my seizures continued. Which were basically becoming dependent for everything, short- and long-term severe memory loss, and my IQ dropping a lot. It really hurt hearing that in a few years I would have gone from honors classes to special ed. Thankfully my seizures have stopped and the only lasting side effect is some memory loss but man that sent me spiraling for a long time.
19. Motherly Hate
I was sick, septic. I was rotting in the ER at the local hospital. I had tubes coming in and out of me, I had IV antibiotics, I didn’t know if I was going to make it through the night. My family was at my house and my niece, who was with me, called the house and put them on speaker. I heard my mother telling them all how she didn't care about me.
Apparently, she never had, she was only there to make sure my nephew was okay. She kept saying that I got dirty diseases from being gay and sleeping with everyone in town. No, it wasn't an STD, and no I didn’t get it from sleeping around. I haven’t bothered with her since. She’s my mother, but she’s no friend of mine anymore.
20. Little Brats
When I was in sixth grade, during homeroom they made us walk around the track sometimes. I felt awkwardly alone and tried to hurry up and catch up with a group of girls from class. Then I heard one girl say, “Oh keep walking or she’ll catch up to us.” I just hung back and felt so lonely and was just sure everyone could see that I had no one to walk with. Kids are mean.
21. Unsweet Vindication
I once overheard my friend's mom telling her son, who was my partner in our canoe trip, that the reason I was complaining about leg pain all day was that I was just wimpy and complain a lot. A few weeks later I found out I had a bone tumor on my leg. So, I was pretty vindicated by that, but then again, I did have cancer. All's well now though!
22. The Beat of Your Own Drum
"He acts like people actually like him! Someone needs to tell him; we only hang out with him because he will do almost anything you tell him to. He's a sad little puppet." This was said by a girl I had a major thing for. Granted, any time someone said something starting with things like, "Wonder what would happen if..." and "$20 says you wouldn't/couldn't do <insert stupid idea>" I would jump on it and do it (attempt it).
23. Snooze or Lose
I saw two girls that I roomed with for a short while in college had been publicly posting on Facebook about how weird, annoying, and disrespectful I was. Their reasoning was that I was taking an 8:30am class and only weirdos do that, and that I made a mega-ton of noise every morning and disrupted their precious sleep.
It hurt because I tried really hard to not be disruptive. I wouldn't let my alarm go off, because I woke up naturally around the time it was scheduled and would just turn it off before it beeped (this was partially out of anxiety). I changed clothes in the bathroom, tiptoed everywhere, and wouldn't even EAT or ZIP MY BACKPACK in the room because I wanted to be quiet.
As far as I knew, neither of them woke up any of those mornings—and they never said anything to me about it.
24. Can We Continue This Bashing In Private?
I went to school for a year for baking and pastry arts. There was a program wide competition, and I was one of the only people in our section who wanted to compete. During an exam, I was waiting for some sugar to boil so I'm standing by the front of the room at a burner, and the other chef in charge of the competition comes in to talk to our chef.
They're whispering to each other for a few seconds, and then I clearly hear our chef say, "Well, it's not that she's bad…" He shoulder checks, sees that I'm staring right at him, and they step out of the room. Looking back at it now, they were probably just surprised I had wanted to compete since I’m definitely not the most outgoing person in the universe, but at the time I was devastated.
25. Dad of the Year
I overheard my dad telling my mom that he didn’t expect my brother and I to get accepted at NDSU. A month ago I flaunted that acceptance packet right in his face. Since then, he’s also told me that I probably won’t amount to much, and I’ll be a failure, as well as his plans for me if such thing were to occur to cause him the least amount of embarrassment.
26. Mother Issues
Overhead my mother telling the rest of my family that my baby passed away because of my negligence. My baby passed of SIDS. I did not have a relationship for with my mother for a year after that was overheard because she later said it to my face after multiple doctors, funeral directors, and therapists explained how SIDS can’t be intentionally caused.
She knew what it was and still choose to believe it was my fault. And that's not even the worst thing she has said to me. This is the woman who told me I deserved to be assaulted when I was 18. So, I wasn’t too in shock. Absolutely disgusted and wanted nothing to do with her at the time. As the years have passed (this was September of 2014) it became painfully obvious that she’s mentally unstable and can’t be trusted to be left to her own devices.
No confirmed drug abuse but many signs. I like to think I’m an understanding and forgiving person and while I haven’t forgiven her for those comments, I do still love her and keep an eye on her. She actually currently lives with me. Not the most fun but I do believe if she did not reside with my husband and I, she’d be homeless and expired.
While she may deserve this for the many awful things she’s done in my childhood, she’s still my mom. I don’t want to be the kind of person she’s become, so I tolerate her. It’s not the best situation, but she doesn’t have that much longer to live. Maybe 3-5 years. I waited five years to heal from my daughters passing before getting pregnant again.
That was an immediate shock, which was sadly followed by a miscarriage. Complete and utter disbelief in the universe. However, I’m currently in my second trimester with my rainbow baby. Husband and I are very excited. Currently establishing strict boundaries for baby and my mother. We don’t want or child exposed to my mothers toxicity.
27. Not a Child No More
Not overheard, but actually read in a file about me. My mother passed suddenly and I received a file from my father that she was meaning to give to me. It was a psychological profile, along with it tests, personality results, and other stuff. This wasn't a surprise to me since I'm autistic and have been in therapy as a child.
There was a part however about my family and their trouble with living with me. Especially my brothers and my dad were having problems coping and learning how my existing pained them was difficult. My parents got divorced basically because of me. My brothers were embarrassed by me. I'm doing better than expected.
I was never supposed to be living in my own. There was talk about assisted living or even an institution, but somehow I managed to leave home as soon as I became 18. I got married, had kids, and even though I struggle a lot, I get by. I even have a good relationship with all my brothers, even though they still have trouble treating me as an adult.
It's like always thinking everybody knows you're disabled except you. And then finding out it's true.
28. The Importance of Equality
My boss mocking me to my entire team. To be fair, I was being a jerk but it wasn't without reason. The product I was working on was not working as intended so I kept getting farther and farther behind overall. When I brought up my concerns with production potentially contaminating my product and causing it to behave incorrectly he told me the product wasn't the problem, I was because I wasn't working fast enough.
I got extremely frustrated because I had zero support on this. There was massive pressure and I needed to get this done so with frustration-tears running down my face I snapped something along the lines of, "Okay, fine, I guess this is just how we do business now. I'll push it through." An hour later I heard him behind the hoods—and what he said made me absolutely furious.
In his most high pitched, condescending, mocking, girl voice to everyone I work closely with (I'm the only female in on my team) he said, "Okay, fine, I guess this is just how we do business now. I'll push it through," while he incorrectly recounted our conversation, making me look really bad. The worst part though?
There really was a problem with production, it was a huge one and he took credit for discovering it. My team does not respect me anymore after that, I'm now just talked down to. It feels so horrible that I let my emotions get the better of me just once and in the matter of five minutes everyone's perception of me changed so drastically that I can't get anyone to take anything I say seriously.
It has gotten so bad that I'm looking for another job and I'm willing to take significantly lower pay just to escape the "emotional female" ghost that now haunts me.
29. Malpractice Mary
I'm probably blocking out the worst cases. I've learned it's pretty much human nature to talk trash about anyone who isn't present, so no reason to take it personally, but when you're a kid it's a miserable experience. The worst case recently: I have a weird neurological problem in my shoulder and arm that no one has ever been able to diagnose.
During an intense flare-up I was referred to a physical therapist by a friend. The therapist saw me once and recommended surgery; I was very reluctant to take this advice, but I didn't say no (I called the surgeon she recommended, turned out he wasn't accepting new cases). The second appointment there was a scheduling error and I arrived 30 minutes too early.
I sat in the front of the office and listened to the therapist making small talk with another patient about how “her next patient” was a psycho trying to fabricate some kind of malpractice case and refusing to comply with her advice. The receptionist was sitting right in front of me, also listening, but she didn't run back to stop it...so it went on for quite a while.
If I had been a psycho trying to manufacture a case against her, she was kind enough to do all of the work for me.
30. Well, That Was Mature
I was in college in the earlier days of Facebook when the feed was a new feature. In my feed, I see that these girls I was friendly with posted a picture album of themselves posing with a hanging mobile that they made as an art project. In the mobile, hanging there from a coat hanger, were photos of really creepy, skeevy guys, and also pictures of guys at our school that were generally known to be a little weird.
I saw a picture of myself hanging from it, too, and was devastated. These were girls I knew who were friends of mine. I wrote them a note confronting them about it, but did it in a nice way telling them I was deeply hurt to see myself on there and apologizing if I ever offended them in any way. They were super embarrassed but also maturely apologetic.
They insisted they would prefer to be my friend. They also rightfully pointed out character traits in me that led them to want to put my picture there in the first place, and it gave me some good introspection to change myself for the better. This was 10 years ago and I still think about it. Still have the message history in Facebook from back then too!
31. It’s Just Gamer Rage, It’s Just Gamer Rage
This probably won't sound that bad to others, but it really hurt at the time. I was really depressed and having a life crisis and urgently needed to talk to my mom, who is the closest person to me in my family. I walked to her room and as I got to the doorway, I saw my brother leaning over my mom's shoulder as she was playing a video game.
He said (about the CPU who just threw a tantrum because they lost to my mom in the game) "Wow. She's such a drama queen. She could rival [my name] for the biggest diva to exist." My mom laughed with him. I felt extremely betrayed and spent several hours afterward crying my freaking eyes out. I’m over it, but it hurt then.
32. A Weighty Dilemma
I was a youth pastor. Overheard a parent of one of my youths talking with one of my coworkers about how overweight I was and how I didn’t care about my life. They talked about how I was setting a terrible example for the youth and how I just disregarded my own health. They said I was going to expire by age 30 (I’m 27).
Then the mom said that the only reason she got onto SPRC (Staff parish relations committee, the committee who does all the hiring at the church) was so she could get me fired because I was overweight. She said she manipulated the pastor to get elected to the committee just to make me sign a contract that if I didn’t lose the weight, I would be fired. Needless to say, I don’t work there anymore because I left on my own.
33. Goodbye, Nurse
“If another nurse had been taking care of him, he’d be alive right now.” I spent the entire night running around trying to stabilize a patient, and my jerk of a coworker sat there talking trash with my other jerk of a coworker loudly talking about how incompetent I was the entire time. Neither of them lifted a finger to help.
When the patient crashed, both of them magically disappeared and it was nurses from the other side of the hallway who came to help with the code. They came after all was said and done and then I overheard one of them say that. Then they proceeded to tell the unit manager I was incompetent and crying at the bedside. Thankfully, neither of them work on the unit anymore.
34. A History of Bad Overhearings
Heard two of my only friends at the time planning to go out later making sure to “ditch the red head.” That’s me. They had been my only friends since I could remember. In another instance, I let my mom know I was dating a girl she knew and really approved of, I heard my mom talking on the phone immediately to a friend of hers that she was disappointed in the girl’s choice, and hoped she would try dating other people.
Once, I heard a group of people I was out with talking about me in a pretty bad way and my best friend at the time joining in. All that was over a decade ago now. In college I really focused on getting better socially and I went to a faraway college where I could get a fresh start where I didn’t know a single person.
Made a great career for myself and moved to a town in a different state with a beautiful girl who I didn’t tell my family about until we were engaged. Now I run a very successful business and am pretty well liked from what I can tell. Coming home for Christmas though is like I’m back in high school again. The way I’m treated here by even my own family is super toxic. It’s no wonder I was so socially awkward as a kid.
35. Ah, Childhood
This seems super small and weird, but my best friend growing up recently found her old hard drive from when we were in like grade 6/7, and we were going through it together. The secrets I discovered should have stayed buried. She was letting me go through whatever because it was all so old (I'm 20 now) so it didn't really seem to matter. I found a lot of old MSN chat logs (throwback) where she and other people from my middle school class were just ripping me to shreds, calling me ugly, annoying, fat, all that good stuff.
36. Revenge: A Dish Best Served Dirty
In sophomore year of high school, I had three girls who teased me mercilessly. I heard a lot of things that hurt my feelings but the worst one was this one day when my dad was helping me carry things into school for a project. We passed by one of the girls with some of her friends who didn’t know me and I heard her go, “Why does she dress like that? She’s so freaking weird she’s literally always freaking happy about every little thing it’s so freaking annoying” really loud.
My dad and I both heard it. He is very socially awkward so he couldn’t bring himself to say anything. He also didn’t want to acknowledge that he heard it because I think he thinks I didn’t want him to bring it up. I just kind of saw his heart break in his eyes. I can imagine his pain. I know I would break down in tears if someone ever said something mean about him whether he was there or not.
We both just kept walking and we stopped talking. It was a long and silent walk. I don’t know why she criticized what I was wearing. I was wearing leggings and a plain T-shirt. I felt better in junior year at one point. The teasing had gotten so bad that they would tweet about me and then throw me down farther if I tried to stand up for myself.
They’d make up names for me and whisper them when I was doing presentations in class to throw me off. One time I found out my grandmother passed while I was in class and one of the girls goes, “OMG SHES CRYING!” Really loud. Thankfully, my teacher didn’t put up with her. They also teased her daughter at points, though I was the main target.
She would tell them off, but it was never enough. One even physically wrecked my school project. Anyway, one day I just couldn’t handle it. During my free period I went to the auditorium and just cried. I didn’t know the tech director was in there with some of my peers. They came up to me and I remember saying, “How do you handle it when someone doesn’t like you?”
And they all knew who I was talking about. I remember these sweet kids (most of them were a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and they knew what it felt like to be teased) told me they were jealous. They told me that I was beautiful and smart and that everyone in the school (it was a tiny school) liked me and they couldn’t handle that.
They also told me they couldn’t handle that I was happy in life. That always stuck with me. It changed my view. The girls were all overweight and rude and mean. They were always complaining, too. It was clear they weren’t happy. Later on, one of them tried to sabotage me in senior year by taking my project I worked for months on and tearing it to shreds.
It was a trifold board and she ripped everything off of it and scribbled on it. The principal knew what I was going through and told me that if I thought it was sabotage they would treat it as such, which is reason to suspend or even expel. I believe in karma so I told them I believed her that it was an accident and she was let go with a detention.
Don't worry—karma finally came knocking, and it was brutal. One of them was detained a few weeks after graduation. Another was dumped by her boyfriend and is randomly suffering from hair loss. The third dropped out of college (or was kicked out which is likely for her). But I did of course get my own little revenge on the girl who wrecked my project before graduation.
We were friends for a few months in freshman year when we were both new. I had a stick of concealer in my backpack that she always borrowed. One day I realized it was what made me break out. I kept it in the bottom of my bag for four years without a cap collecting crumbs and dirt and bacteria. I had completely forgotten about it.
Well, this girl has the nerve to ask me to borrow it one day in senior year after completely wrecking my project. I gently wiped the top of it off so it appeared clean and let her borrow it. She came in later that week with absolutely horrible skin. She had broken out EVERYWHERE. I didn’t even feel bad, it was just plain funny.
37. Taking the Hint
I’ve always struggled with social anxiety and I finally felt like I was getting a good handle on it. I texted one of these girls where we would be meeting as I was on my way to her apartment. Before I could knock, I heard her saying, “Oh my god. She is so annoying, why couldn’t she just get the freaking hint?”
What followed was just a good few minutes of all these people, who said that they will never judge me and that we were family, just smack talking me for absolutely no reason at all. All the progress I had made towards my social anxiety slid all the way back down the hill. I did get satisfaction when she tried to invite me to her wedding and I didn’t bother to return her messages.
38. Everybody Wins
I was at a sleepover with my three best friends and was woken by something in the night. While trying to get back to sleep I heard my name, so I obviously listened in. Two of my “friends” were discussing how to phase me out of the group. It felt like they talked for hours about it, how weird I was, how boring I was, how much of a chore I was...it was gutting.
On the positive side, I found a new group of friends, told them about it all, and my previous friends were pretty much ignored by everyone outside of their little group. So, they got what they wanted and I got what I didn't know I desperately needed. All in all, I would consider that a win-win situation, wouldn’t you?
39. Smut Connoisseur
Christmas at my grandparents when I was like 13. I was in the living room talking to my older cousin and grandpa when I left to go use the bathroom. When I got done, instead of going back the same way I went to the dining room upstairs to play cards with my other cousins. My grandpa is hard of hearing and it’s a pretty small house.
From the other room I hear my cousin ask my grandpa, “Where did [OP] go?” and my grandpa answers back, practically screaming, saying, ”HE’S PROBABLY STILL IN THE BATHROOM LOOKING AT THAT SMUT.” So yeah that was a rough Christmas I had honestly forgotten about til just now. Thanks for bringing that great memory up.
40. Butt-Dial Blues
A number of years ago, my sister's phone was super glitchy and would randomly call people. Once it called me and after I stopped singing and goofing off into the phone trying to get her attention, I just stopped to listen. She was whining to her mother in law about me. I honestly can't remember what exactly she was saying, but just the fact of who she was saying it to! This woman barely knows me!
If it was one of our other siblings who we're close with, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. So, I promptly called her back and chewed her out.
41. Care Not Reciprocated
My mother telling a relative that I was useless, selfish, arrogant, ornery, and stupid for giving up on my education. I was 16. I had just transferred from a private college-prep school 7 miles away so I could go to public school 1 mile away (for both I walked & took public buses). I was my mom's caregiver, housekeeper, bill-payer, shopper, gardener, handyman, security service and courier service 24/7.
I had no social life, and I worked part time. I had been doing this alone for three years, though I was the youngest of seven siblings. I was floored. I felt like I had been sucker-punched. I stood there in my apron and rubber gloves, holding a laundry basket, and bawled my eyes out. It wasn't as much the content, which was bad, but the context.
She was lying, and doing it to ensure that I looked bad enough to everyone that if I reached out for help, none would be forthcoming. Learned a hard life lesson that day.
42. Get Better Looking
It wasn’t something I overheard, but accidentally saw messages popping up on my mother in law’s iPad as she was texting her friend from another room about how I used to be attractive, that I was now fat, and that her son was basically a saint for still being with me. It broke my heart, to be honest. What a nightmare.
43. Heart in the Trash
When I was eight I decided to make my mum a paper mâché crocodile for her birthday. I spent weeks on it, I’d get back from school and work a bit more on it, all in secret so it'd be a surprise when I gave it to her. One day I came home from school, excited to get to the crocodile as her birthday was coming up fast now, ran to the kitchen, and saw my crocodile all screwed up lying in the kitchen bin.
She'd found it and thrown it away. I cried so much.
44. The Hate Club
When I was in the fifth grade, one of my friends accidentally invited me to an online chatroom called the "I hate llCloudIXll" chat room. When someone realized I was in the chat they unloaded on me, pointing out every flaw I had and why no one in school liked me. The rest of the chat room followed suit and said some pretty awful things to me. Some of those horrible things are burned in my brain forever.
They included how I should kill myself and how no one would miss me. A few of my closest friends even chimed in at this point and agreed with everything being said. I started to self-mutilate and pretty much went the rest of middle school and high school without friends, unable to trust people or get close to people. To this day I can pretty much count how many true friends I have on one hand. Kids can be freaking awful.
45. Breaking Oath
My mother and father were both dumb enough to write awful ”letters to the Judge” that presided over my sister’s case. The letters were a sad attempt to make me the bad guy somehow and my sister out to be ”a good person.” My sister was charged with child neglect. I had zero involvement and live in a different state. The letters were dated on my birthday. This was the final straw with their crazy garbage.
46. Head Down
"Deejay? Who would ever love an ugly mutt like that?" said by the guy I was in love with when I was 17, unaware that I had just walked into the room behind him. Went from being sure I was an okay sort who'd surely deserve love someday to never looking people I pass on the street in the eye in order to spare them the sight of my face, all in one day.
47. At Least I Know Karate
I was walking into a karate class I had three times weekly when I was a young teenager. Right as I opened the door to walk in I heard someone say, "Yeah he just kind of looks pale and sickly," and stopped immediately when he saw me. Cue the entire room also turning and going completely quiet as they see me enter.
For context, I was an incredibly frail, pale kid with red hair and an eating disorder, so he was probably right to say those things. But still, ouch, not the nicest thing to walk in on. That happening on top of the normal middle school teasing was a real blow to my self-esteem. I think I’ve managed to recover since, but man…
48. Why Don’t You Write a Book About It?
In high school I had decided that I wanted to be liked for once, not necessarily popular but liked by the cool kids. So I really tried, I hung out with them, learned what they liked, changed how I dressed, etc. It seemed to work for a couple months, then I heard them comment on how dumb I was and saying other hurtful things.
Hurt like heck for a while, but in the end it made me accept the fact that I'm a loner. I'm not weird, I shower regularly, know how to interact with people, etc. I just enjoy doing things by myself, particularly reading sci-fi and fantasy. And now after my Nook collection is at 650 books, and I have another 200 or so physical, although there is some overlap, I've started writing. Too bad I suck at it still.
49. Trading Places
When my oldest sister passed, my older sister was crying to my mother about how she felt alone. My mother was trying to reassure her and said, "You still have vampedvixen, though." But my sister said, "Who cares about her? I want [oldest sister] back." I kinda get it...but this was around the same time my mother told me to my face that it should have been me who passed instead.
Her reasoning was that I don't have a husband or kids like my oldest sister did. It seemed like absolutely no one wanted me in my family and they all wished I could have switched places with the one we lost, which is just about the worst feeling in the world. People wonder why I'm depressed now...jeez, yeah, I really wonder why.
50. The Great Protector
My wife had a falling out with some friends of mine that she met through me. We had known them a long time but I had known them for much longer. I was upset with her one night, because they were always asking why she never came around anymore, but she absolutely refused to see them. I always thought it was because of this little side business project they went into together that didn't work out.
So, I'm driving my wife somewhere, and I just start getting upset with her that she won't make up with them and move past it like they did, and it sucks that she never comes with when I go over there. So, she finally broke and told me the painful truth. Every time she went over there without me, they would talk smack about me, putting down my personality, my humor, and much more.
I guess they thought she would be okay with it, like a joking, "Haha my husband can be such a [insert something], right?" But she wasn't okay with it. She's not a confrontational person, so she never really spoke up, but she was disgusted by the way they spoke about me behind my back, and refused to have anything to do with them.
She had been letting me think it was all her fault and she took it because she knew the truth would hurt my feelings. And it did.
Sources: Reddit,
