People Share The Wildest Thing Someone Said To Them When They Were In A Bad Place Emotionally

Content Warning: Depression, Grief, Miscarriage, Late Loved Ones, Child Abuse, Medical Negligence

Life is full of ups and downs, and sometimes, we'll be in very dark places, mentally or emotionally, and the last thing we need is to have someone figuratively rub salt in the wound.

But when people stoop that low, the comments they make have a lasting and terrible impact when we're already in a dark place.

Curious, Redditor ThrowRAbbeusnwtshdb asked:

"What is the wildest thing someone has said to you while you were going through a hard time?"

Terribly Teaching Moment

"A Math teacher demanding to know why I failed a test so badly in front of all the students when I hadn’t been at the school to learn that particular subject in the test because my dad had died, having been off two weeks prior."

"And what's worse, he knew that. Boy, did he get it from my mum and the Headmaster!"

- jlelvidge

Man's Best Friend

"I told my friend I was sleeping in my car for the past month, and he then proceeded to tell me how good his Thanksgiving was going to be."

"I had my dog at that time, and I remember going to buy food, driving to a park, and sitting there for two hours, eating a Thanksgiving meal with my dog."

- Sad_Okra2030

"First, if a friend tells me they've been sleeping in their car for the last month AND I didn't already know, I'm not as good a friend as I thought I was."

"Second, if a friend tells me they've been sleeping in their car for the last month and I don't immediately offer something, anything to help, I'm not as good a friend as I thought I was."

"I hope you and Rascal had a good meal together."

- Symtrees

Inconsiderate Of Grieving

"You still have to take care of us and cook for us. My late mom said that after I lost a baby at 14 weeks in July of 2006."

- Ok_Garden571

"Barbara Kingsolver wrote, 'A miscarriage is a natural and common event. All told, probably more women have lost a child from this world than haven't. Most don't mention it, and they go on from day to day as if it hadn't happened, so people imagine a woman in this situation never really knew or loved what she had. But ask her sometime: how old would your child be now? And she'll know.'"

- helr4zier

"My grandma showed up at my apartment to literally throw a fistful of old mail at me and basically berated me for being distant from the family."

"I'm not going to say I'm the best at keeping up communication. I love my family, but they're a lot and my dad and I don't see eye to eye on some things I feel are very important. But at the time, we were two weeks past my partner coming home from the hospital due to an ectopic pregnancy."

"I'd told my family and closest friends. I was grieving in ways I didn't know how to. There were things going on inside me that I didn't have the faculties to be fully aware of."

"I'd told her. She said she didn't know, but I'd told her. It was like being kicked while you're not just down, but out for the count."

- Bismothe-the-Shade

Not Faithful Enough

"When my mom was battling her cancer, her best friend's husband (a pastor) kept coming over to pray with her."

"He kept telling her her faith would save her, and all she had to do was believe."

"When it became obvious she was getting worse, not better, he started berating her and blaming her for not loving Christ enough."

"She died f**king terrified that she was going to h*ll. F**k religion."

- Eugoongally420

"That reminds me, when my 18-month-old daughter got her cancer diagnosis, nurses told me it was god putting me through a test since my faith had faded. All I needed was prayer."

"I also had a health nurse who had 30 years of experience working on the children's cancer ward, who asked if maybe I stopped breastfeeding too early and caused my daughter's cancer. Bewildering!"

- greenmammy

Far Beyond Spring Cleaning

"The walls of my former apartment were so water-damaged and contaminated with mold that I ended up in the hospital with respiratory issues and MCAS that have caused permanent damage. My cats got scary sick too, and one of them nearly died."

"I had to find a new apartment, throw out nearly everything I owned (furniture, family heirlooms, notes from now-gone loved ones, etc.,) and thoroughly clean every inch of what I could clean and take with me, or they would bring the mold spores with them. What I couldn't bear to throw out but couldn't clean, I have locked up in air-tight storage containers in the basement."

"It took weeks of back-breaking work while I was still extremely ill, work I had to do mostly alone to not get anyone else sick, and it wiped out my savings. I lost over 30 pounds because I would cough until I vomited."

"While this was going on, I was told I might lose my (very niche) job due to budget cuts, found out I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (I had to figure it out myself while sick because my doctors weren't listening, and I got it confirmed in April by a specialist), got dumped by my boyfriend, and nearly lost one of my best friends."

"When I tried to express how stressful those months were, a colleague responded with, 'Yeah, but didn't you feel so much better, throwing out all that unwanted junk?'"

"I couldn't seem to make her understand that it wasn't a 'spring cleaning.'"

"In case anyone wants to know how things turned out: I've been in the new place for a few months now, and my cats are healthier, I'm slowly recovering, my job is safe for at least one more year, and my friend is doing well. I also finally snapped out of denial that my ex-boyfriend was abusive... so him dumping me turned out to be the kindest thing he could have done, and I'm happier and less anxious without him."

"I'm also pursuing legal action against my former landlord and writing a book about it all."

- Electrical-Still-558

A Testimony That Stands Out

"When I was about 15 and still going to my parents' evangelical church, my peers at youth group came to know of my extensive CSA history."

"Two girls were blindingly jealous. They told me they wished they had such a beautiful testimony to share when they got baptised, that Jesus had made it all better, and now I got to get attention for having such a dramatic past, and they didn't."

"I don't really blame them, because baptism was the only real time teenage girls had a voice at church. You got a minute on the mic before you got dunked, and if you're raised like that, it's the most romantic, dramatic moment of your life. But wow, did it hurt to hear at that point."

- megaglalie

The Most Abusive Families Olympics

"I have a family that was both physically and emotionally abusive when I was a child and now just sticks with the latter, because they’re frankly too old to do anything too physical."

"One example would be when my father began slapping me in the ER because he was convinced I was faking my symptoms to humiliate him. Turns out I had a stomach ulcer at the age of seven."

"I had a friend who was always very dismissive of this and told me repeatedly that I was likely perceiving it to be far, far worse than it really was because I’m too Westernized."

"Until one night, this friend overheard a discussion with my mother over the phone and told me they finally believed me, but, in their defense, they 'wanted to be the one with the worst family.'"

"So you were dismissing my pain for years because you were playing oppression Olympics with my experiences? The worst was that I was always readily available whenever they needed a sympathetic ear, and I never dismissed anything."

"And the discussion with my mom really wasn’t that bad; I wouldn’t even put it in the top 40 percent of worst discussions."

- puntpunt2000

Not A Monetary Matter

"My cat of 16 years was dying. I took him to the vet in the middle of the night and they essentially gave me the option to euthanize him then or take him home with other pain killers. I decided to take him home because he was my mom's cat too, and I thought it insensitive to make that decision without her."

"When we got home, she berated me for not doing it then and there, that I only care about her money and mooching off her, so she pays for the vet bill, told me I don't give a f**k about him or anyone besides myself, and that she's sick of me."

"I miss him every day. I had him since he was a baby, and for the better part of his life, he slept at the foot of my bed. I still sleep with my legs tucked out of habit."

- dry-alt

"I think the reason we love our pets so much is because (even though we might not think it), they are the first experience we have with unconditional love."

"They don't care how much money we have, don't care what we look like, who we hang out with, how we dress. They don't make us feel shame, have an agenda, or expect us to jump through hoops to please them."

"All they want is love."

- MorgainofAvalon

Invisible Illnesses Are Valid, Too

"I have multiple mental health issues, and they're so severe, I'm disabled."

"Someone told me they wished I had cancer so I'd have something serious to ACTUALLY complain about for a while, and then hopefully the cancer would shut me up forever."

- RheasFantasy

"Oh my GOD, that is so cruel! I’m so sorry they said that. I hope you’re doing better and are surrounded by kind people now. Just because your fight is in the mind and not the body does not make it any less of a battle."

- puntpunt2000

Dig A Little Deeper

"This tops my list easily. Sitting on a waiting list for about a year after having a small-scale heart attack, I go to a doctor to talk about why my chest and heart still hurt, and that I constantly feel like I worked an 18-hour shift no matter how much I rest."

"Then he's got nerve to tell me, 'You've just got to try a little bit harder, okay?'"

- Polarity1999

"I would have asked them to put that in my notes. 'Patient came in post-heart attack, complaining of exhaustion and chest pain. Doctor recommended trying a little harder to get over it."

- thesounddefense

She's Not Invited To The Funeral

"Not me, but my grandmother this past week. My grandad passed suddenly, and they’ve been married for over 50 years. The night before the funeral the family gathered at her house to bring food and comfort."

"One of her friends is watching us carry trays of food and drinks in and loudly asks, 'Well, why the hell do people keep coming in here bringing food and crowding the house?'"

"Before I could say anything, my grandmother looks at her and says, 'My husband JUST died. The funeral is tomorrow.'"

"This lady looks her dead in the eye, giggles, and says, 'WHAAAAAAAAT?!!! SHUT UPPPPP! Girl, I was just about to ask you where he was!' as if she just told her the f**king McRib is back or some s**t."

"So I tell her that’s no way to respond to your friend who just lost her husband of 50 years."

"And she had the nerve to say, Well, I didn’t know. Your grandma acts like she doesn’t know my number. She don’t call me.'"

"Yeah, because the first phone call was supposed to be to someone like YOU when she found out. I was livid, and luckily for her, my grandma put me out cause she knew I was about to flip out of her chair."

- Inner_Collection5463

Not Mysterious, Just Tragic

"My brother and his gf got pregnant when they were 16. Although everyone was shocked by the noise, our family moved her in with us and supported them 100%. I was 10 and the youngest, so I was very excited to have a little baby around."

"When the girlfriend was seven months pregnant, someone ran a red light and t-boned her. She was physically okay, but the impact hurt my nephew in the womb. He was alive for an hour after he was born. Thankfully, my brother and his girlfriend were able to hold him before he passed."

"It was devastating for our family. I remember the funeral and seeing my dad holding my brother up while he was crying so hard he was almost collapsing on the smallest coffin I've ever seen."

"You know what I kept hearing from people? 'God works in mysterious ways.' and 'This was God's plan.' and 'This happened for a reason.'"

"Imagine a 10-year-old hearing all this? This was when my doubt in religion started. My dad was already an atheist so he understood my doubt. I remember asking him why God would want a baby to die? He told me not to listen to those people."

"I know it would've been hard for my brother and girlfriend to take care of a baby, but my side of the family was there for them 100% and we would've made sure that baby had everything he needed. It's been 24 years, and it still hurts to think about."

"Thankfully, they went on to have two more boys, but unfortunately, my brother had a lot of mental health issues and got into drugs really badly and died in 2019."

- BigFatChimichonka

Emotional Absence

"Sometimes it's not what they say but how deafening the silence is when they don't even notice that I'm struggling."

- swingsandwhatnot87

"I know what you're talking about! Telling people that you're not okay, and they just look at you and say nothing."

"One of the most compassionate people, who I never told what I was going through, would always look me in the eye after I told him I was doing alright (I was lying) and told me every time he saw me, 'It will get better.'"

"I appreciate him seeing through me, nodding to the fact that he knew, and acknowledging what I was going through without making me talk about it."

- Herekittykitty1234

Fellow Redditors were shocked by some of these stories and deeply saddened that anyone had to endure such hardships, only to be treated this way when they were already at their lowest.

How people treat us when we're at our most vulnerable says a lot about them. Hopefully, we can all start to take a hint and let them go so they don't have a chance to treat us like that again in the future.