25 True Stories Of People Taking Their Life's Worst Decisions

In the vast digital expanse of Reddit, threads often emerge as virtual arenas for sharing anecdotes, seeking advice, and unraveling the mysteries of the human experience. Recently, a thought-provoking question surfaced, igniting a discourse that delved into the realm of self-sabotage and its profound implications on happiness and life itself. The query? "What's the best example you have witnessed of someone destroying their own happiness/life?" From heart-wrenching tales to cautionary narratives, the responses painted a vivid tableau of the complexities inherent in the human condition. Scroll below to read some of them.

#1

Image source: its0matt, cottonbro studio My best friend and hetro-lifemate. Early 30s w/ wife. kids. great job and lots of friends. He was always looking for inventive ways to party. He figured out that you could order dried poppy pods online, grind them up and make poppy tea. This stuff is STRONG. 4/6 ounces will have you floating on a cloud for 24 hrs. Dosages kept going up over the next 10 yrs. until he couldn't physically drink enough fluid to maintain his habit. Lost his wife, kids and then his 3rd generation family business job. Then he switch to h****n. Living in a half million dollar home with no power or water. Junkies everywhere. When he OD'ed, they stuffed his body in a closet for 3 days so they could burn through his credit and debit cards before reporting it to the police. Now his family is fighting squatters who have destroyed his home. I miss him everyday/.

#2

Image source: Old-Pin-7839, Ernest Ojeh I have a friend, I’ll call him Jay, smart as heck but maybe a little on the spectrum so clueless as to social things. But he made great money in tech. One day he’s at a friends house and the friend said something to the effect of “nobody could bug my house without me knowing”, so Jay thought it would be funny to put a spare webcam he happened to have in his backpack in his friend’s entertainment center, plugged into his Xbox, just to see how long it took him to notice. Well the friend didn’t notice, but his friend’s girlfriend did, and thought the friend had been recording them having sex, so she called the cops. The cops arrested the friend. Jay hears about it and goes in to explain. He didn’t think he needed a lawyer, he figured the cops would be able to see it was just a dumb misunderstanding. Thing is, in my state, placing a recording device in someone’s home without their consent is voyeurism, which is a sex crime. And Jay just admitted, to the cops, on the record, that he had done so. Also in my state, it’s a law that all sex crimes MUST be prosecuted, so even tho Jay’s friend and his friends girlfriend didn’t want to press charges, Jay still got prosecuted. The prosecutor and judge were as gentle as they could be but he was still convicted. Now as a registered sex offender (for life) he has trouble finding and keeping work, gets harassed by neighbors, can’t go to most of his kids sports events, etc. All over one seemingly harmless prank.

#3

Image source: _hootyowlscissors, cottonbro studio **My younger brother broke up with a girl he liked...because she farted in her sleep**. He was telling my older brother and I that he was in the midst of a miserable dry spell. And how he'd been seeing a girl he liked but then she farted in her sleep and he was so grossed out because "there are some things you don’t need to see your SO doing. It just felt like the mystery was gone.” My older bro was like “yeah, cause that’s what the mystery was about, farting.” I called younger bro a “f*****g moron” and older bro was like “you’re half right.” **EDIT:** When he said "you're half right" he meant my younger brother may be a moron, but he ain't f*****g.

#4

Image source: nicekona, Orkhan Farmanli Meeeee! I was so f*****g in love with this man, but I have a drinking problem (I don’t get sloppy, or mean, most people can’t even tell, but it affects my health) He told me if he found another hidden bottle squirreled away, we were done. But… we were going up to visit his family for a month. I REALLY wanted his family to love me, and I’m MUCH more bubbly and personable when I drink. So…. Naturally, he found a hidden bottle, while we were on the trip. Promptly dumped me. I wanted his family to love me SO BAD, because I wanted to be part of that family forever…. And instead, I lost it all. Alcohol is the devil, kids.

#5

Image source: Scotsburd, RDNE Stock project My husbands friend. Had a beautiful wife, gorgeous house, 2 lovely boys, a job he loved and lots of great friends who loved him. Then he decided at the age of 35 to get into hard d***s. He has been in and out of prison for violent crimes, transportation of large volumes of h****n, attempted m****r, burglary and stalking... He is homeless again as he burned down his flat on purpose to get a move. No one will ever talk to him again. He's now 55 and has nothing, his wife divorced him after giving him far too many chances, his sons hate him, his real friends gone for ever. All for nothing.

#6

Image source: Dazzling-Panda8082, Mikita Yo I used to work at a wedding reception place One wedding the groom and a bridesmaid (I think it was the bride's cousin) got "drunk" and snuck out the back for a quickie. I didn't realise they'd done this and (as I did) threw a bag of rubbish off the upstairs kitchen balcony into the bin - which scared the s**t out of them enough that the bridesmaid has bitten down on the grooms d**k . Lots of blood. Then when the ambulance has shown up the guys tried to start a fight with one of the ambulance drivers for some reason and we ended up having to call the cops as well and the guys gotten arrested. Guys boss (fairly high paying lawyer job by the sounds of it) was at the wedding and was definitely planning on sacking the guy after what happened So the d******d lost both his fiancé/wife and job on his wedding day. And I never found out just how bad the injury to his d**k was but it didn't look good.

#7

Image source: JahnnDraegos, RDNE Stock project I had a very close friend whose wife, out of the blue, suddenly asked to open the marriage. This friend hated the idea but said yes anyway. Result: divorce, messy and angry and messing up all three of their kids. The point of contention was that he wound up finding a very compatible side-partner himself and his wife apparently was shocked to discover he was swinging just as happily as she was. Apparently her expectation was that he'd never be able to find a girlfriend so she (the wife) would have her side-piece *and* her husband all to herself. Wife was jealous, and angry, and eventually demanded they un-open the marriage because she didn't like him being with other partners while she was with other partners. Thankfully at this point he finally saw things for what they are and they divorced. Wrecked his life for years, though. Moral of the story: polygamy is complicated and not something to rush into just because you've hit your midlife crisis. Also don't agree to open your damn marriage if you don't really want that.

#8

One of my former friends from college worked as an analyst for a pretty big investment bank. He did NOT handle covid and isolation well and got really into conspiracy theories and became a straight up racist. When he returned to office he refused to work with anyone with dark skin, muslims or women he deemed inferior to his intellect. This did not go well with his boss who was a second generation somali immigrant, and a muslim, and a woman….. he was fired and he still doesnt have found another job in the same League. Image source: Panzerpython

#9

Image source: MaximusSydney, Phil Nguyen I know plenty of guys who had kids with the wrong person. I don't think people quite realise the negative impact on your life this can have.

#10

Friend who got married because he didn’t want to break it off and thought he would just be better off, he’s dying a slow death. Image source: Addictiveprinces

#11

Image source: Icy-Establishment850, Timur Weber My brother was offered a really well-paying job doing something he's excellent at. He thought it would be too easy, so he chose a much more challenging job in a less appealing environment with a boss who is a real jerk. He hoped to impress him. Now, he's really unhappy. I just don't understand why he puts himself through this kind of thing.

#12

A former classmate of mine pursued medicine even though she didn't want it, her parents was a big factor of this decision. She was into music and I'd have to say she was great & really passionate doing it, her parents wasn't just supportive. During college she failed almost every subjects and then eventually dropped out. The last time I heard she left home and is living with her bf now. Its just unfortunate she wasn't able to take the path that she loves. F**k the parents honestly for pressuring her. I think she would've been happier if she pushed through music. I don't blame her though maybe she didn' t have a choice. Sometimes we have to disappoint our parents a little bit to be happy. Image source: airdbelivet

#13

Image source: ScobAgape, Alex Green One of my buddies actually ditched a six-figure job because he didn't trust his girlfriend not to cheat on him while he was at work. He's a good guy, but when it comes to women, he can be a real dummy sometimes. **It's pretty crazy, right?**.

#14

Image source: thisgirlsforreal, charlesdeluvio I girl I know/used to work with decided to jump on the only fans bandwagon. Went all in doing all sort of things on camera. Well the truth is, only the top 1% of OF creators make alot of money and the average one makes $200 a month. If you don’t start with a big social following it’s an uphill battle. Anyway some people in her town (not super tiny population 120k) saw the account, someone posted the pics of her on Facebook and basically everyone found out. Including her parents. So after not making much money and photos that will forever be on the internet, she packed it all in to go back to kindergarten teaching. But being in a country town no one would give her a job and people would stare at her wherever she went. She had to move to the city, and she has a job now. I just hope her new employer doesn’t google image search her ? But yeah she really regrets it, could have made more money doing Uber eats on the weekend.

#15

Image source: aspbergerinparadise, Tim Samuel Friend of a friend got caught in one of those "to catch a predator" style stings. Was messaging with what he thought was a 14 year old and tried to meet up to have sex. Lost his wife, all his friends, his apprenticeship, and spent the next several years in prison.

#16

Image source: Elgin-Franklin Some guy at work was caught red handed stealing airpods from the locker room. When he was sent to pick up his own kit before being sent home he excused himself to go to the toilet, and took a s**t on the floor. The kicker is that we work on an oil rig. It's impossible to get away with theft, and he was a senior technician making really good money. He didn't need the airpods he was just stealing for the fun of it. He's now "not required back", and all the companies talk to each other. He sh*t away his career over a pair of airpods.

#17

Image source: MangoSalsa89, Tatiana Syrikova My neighbor across the street had 4 kids in 6 years with a boyfriend in an attempt to get him to stick around/pay attention to her. Now she’s single and living with her mom and grandma is raising the kids alone while she goes out and tries to find a new boyfriend. Is having a boyfriend really worth ruining your life?

#18

Image source: badgersprite, Karolina Grabowska Recent example, guy was a doctor and now cannot work because he hit his wife while they were getting divorced I don’t know the specifics of it but the domestic violence offence on his record is prohibiting him from working in medicine.

#19

Image source: MareShoop63, Jonathan Cooper Co-worker was addicted to Starbucks cold coffee drinks that you buy at a convenience store. She drank 4 per day, everyday. Smoked , too. Would spend $250.00 on up for store products, and that’s with a 50% discount ( crystal shop) Got herself dug into a hole and couldn’t make her house payment. I actually watched her deliberate on whether to buy something at work ( retail therapy she called it) or make her house payment. I added up the cost of Starbucks alone was $500.00 per month - I was trying to help her. Her house was foreclosed on in December all because she wouldn’t stop the Starbucks and the “retail therapy “ spending. Now she homeless.

#20

Image source: DistractedHouseWitch, RDNE Stock project This is relatively mild, but it's still pretty sad. My mom is pretty isolated socially. She lives near me and for years her main source of interaction with other humans was me and my kids. She was emotionally abusive when I was a kid and was doing better for a few years, but then was ramping up the abuse again. I went no contact for several months, then had a sit down with her and discussed what abusive behaviors needed to stop for us to continue our relationship. She agreed. It lasted two years. She started ramping up the abuse again and then she put my kids and my immunocompromised niece at risk during the pandemic. My husband and I told her that she needed to adjust her behavior and acknowledge that her behavior wasn't okay. She used her usual manipulation tactics (a fake "medical emergency" that my husband took her to the hospital for) and when we didn't immediately forget everything that happened, she called the police for a welfare check on my kids. We haven't spoken to her in nearly three years and they have been the happiest years of my life. She now has no one locally. My brother had already distanced himself (he lives several hours away) and she's not even getting attention when she goes to the hospital, because my SIL is now helping her manage everything and will only talk to the doctors about her health issues, not my mom. I hope being abusive and selfish was worth her loneliness now.

#21

Image source: Big_Yogurtcloset6443, Abstral Official It’s really sad but my cousin had a stillborn when she was young and got into hard d***s to cope. Now she has 6 kids that she has no custody over, has been imprisoned multiple times, has fines she can’t pay, and can’t get a job above minimum wage. I’m the only one in the family who doesn’t blame her for relapsing time and time again because I can’t imagine the horror of sobering up and realizing you threw your entire life away before 35 and had no chance of ever getting it back. The rest of the family doesn’t understand that being an adult and working two full time jobs at minimum wage to barely make ends meet isn’t a life worth living sober, especially knowing all your kids are out there in someone else’s care and seeing them in bad situations too. Idk which would hurt worse tbh, knowing that most of them hate you, or knowing that some of them look up to you even though you’ve royally f****d up both your own life and all the kids.

#22

Image source: BeyondXpression, MART PRODUCTION This kid I went to college with was in the Army Reserves making really good grades, and his parents were really well off. The kid's life was set. Got an allowance every month from his parents, had a nice brand new car for school, lived in a nice apartment right off campus and he had so much going for him. He didn't even have to work, just do his monthly reserve days which were like 3 days a month. So set for life. To shorten the story a bit, he got caught at a random UA (d**g test) for c*****e. He got lucky and the Army gave him a second chance. Not even 5 months later he got caught AGAIN for c*****e and weed. He somehow got lucky, again, and they just kicked him out in an "Other than Honorable" discharge. Parents pulled his funding and he had to get a minimum wage job at a sandwich shop. Never saw him again until he randomly popped up on my Facebook about a year later. I hit him up to see how he was. Up and moved halfway across the U.S. with this girl he got pregnant and they were both working at Walmart barely affording rent. He sold his BMW to pocket the move up there. He also looked....rough, to say the least in a lot of his pictures.

#23

Image source: CraptasticDruid369, Nataliya Vaitkevich Watching someone you love not take care of their diabetes. It’s torture.

#24

Image source: StrykerXion, Brett Sayles My buddy Steve was the poster child for 'has it all.' Good career, amazing wife, cute house. Then, the model trains happened. Not little setups...this guy took over the whole basement, then the garage. His wife went from amused to livid. Arguments turned into screaming matches. She eventually left, and Steve, in his model train bliss, barely noticed. The twist? He inherited a ton of money…and spent it all on antique train sets. Eventually though, he noticed....and no model could cure the blues of losing his incredible wife.

#25

Image source: Klown1327, ArtHouse Studio I worked on a school bus as a monitor/aid. There was one driver (we'll call him Ed). Ed was always complaining about something, every single day there was some new issue, some problem. He was a bit of a pain. He got into an argument with one of our supervisors over the radio one day and earned himself a 3 day suspension. His first morning back from his suspension. First route of the day, he gets on the radio and starts back complaining. Dispatch asks him a few simple questions, he responds with hostility and some really unprofessional comments. The director of transportation (our big boss) gets on the radio and asks Ed to meet him in his office after morning routes. Ed responds, "I'll be there if I have time" boss says, "I need you to understand, this is not optional" Ed comes back, "I need YOU to understand, I'll be there if I have time!" Mind you, this is on the radio as we are picking up high school kids, everyone can hear what's happening this entire time. Another dispatcher calls in and tells Ed "when you finish your high school route, park your bus there at the school. We are bringing someone to take your route over, and to bring you back to the lot". Ed did not like this and responded by saying, "Negative. I am finishing my route. Me. If you want someone to drive my route, you get (our boss's boss) and have her come drive this route. Otherwise, I am finishing my route." Dispatch asked for an ETA to the high school, he responded "whenever (our boss's boss) is gonna be there. Otherwise, I get there when I get there". Somewhere around this time he starts talking like, they were targeting him and picking on him and that "it ends today". Again, at this point he has a bus full of high school kids. Now, I did not see what happened at the high school, but I heard from several other drivers. Apparently the police were waiting for him once he got there and they removed him from his bus. To quote one driver "he acted a fool the entire time". I'm not sure exactly what he was charged with, maybe kidnapping since he acted like he wasn't gonna bring the kids to school unless he got what he wanted? Theft for not bringing the bus back? No clue. But I do know he was arrested and fired. A few days later we get the news that he had a heart attack and died. Most likely from all the stress.