People Reveal How They Genuinely Ruined Their Lives

At one point or another, we've all declared that our life was "ruined," be it owing to ourselves or someone else.

Of course, we were most likely being dramatic, as whatever the circumstances, we could eventually bounce back from them with the passage of time.

This doesn't mean that some people's lives have not been genuinely, sometimes irrevocably, ruined.

Sometimes owing to a seemingly minute, but in the end, cataclysmic decision.

Redditor ThaddeusXVIII was curious to hear stories of how people managed to genuinely ruin their lives, leading them to ask:

"People who have genuinely ruined their life, what is your story?"

Time Is Precious, And Easily Wasted

"Addiction to alcohol ruined my late 30s to mid-50s - the most important years of my life in terms of career and my children’s childhood."

"Now sober and in damage control, but those years are gone."

"I try not to be consumed with regret, shame, and sadness about it - because resentment, sadness and latterly shame are in large part what led me there in the first place and kept me there for years."- wtf_amirite

Friends Show Up In The Most Unexpected Of Places

"I was drinking a great deal, my wife was cheating on me."

"I left my wife, which meant leaving the apartment."

"I went to go check into a motel, but she had cleaned out the bank account and maxed the credit cards."

"I slept in the office."

"The next day she shows up to work, because we worked together."

"It quickly becomes obvious that we can't continue working together and that the people at work are taking her side, so I quit my job."

"I have no car and almost nothing."

"I go down to the homeless encampment and introduce myself."

"They think I am a police informant and so I spend the night terrified that they will kill me if I fall asleep."

"I start sleeping in the library during the day and scrounging food."

"I just stay awake all night long."

"I steal all the ketchup and saltines from a Wendy's so I can eat one weekend."

"I sold my plasma for cash."

"I got 3 days of emergency food stamps, but I had earned too much money to qualify for more than that."

"After six weeks, I completely lost my mind and could not tell reality from dream."

"A person I barely knew heard I was homeless and let me sleep on his recliner in his living room and share his food."

"I started recovering."

"Four months later I got a job, moved out of town, and started the long road back to having a life."

"Now I am married for almost 30 years with 4 kids and approaching retirement in a comfortable house and plenty to eat."- willworkforjokes

It's Not Only Your Life That's Affected

"Sister got hooked on pills in the Midwest in the early 2000s."

"Lived a life of an addict and just passed away this last Thursday."

"She's gone, but the addiction is too."

"Silver linings and all."

"She had six kids."

"Custody of none."

"Left them with a lot of questions."

"But once again."

"This is the final pain she will cause the family."

" Weird feelings of your sibling passing."

"She was 1 year younger than myself (39)."

"My little sister is gone."

"I'm currently back in my hometown trying to explain things to her younger kids."

"It's a mess."

"Don't do drugs harder than you."- Yahtzee8604

Out Of Everyone's Control

"It's nothing I did."

"I was working out and had a vertebral artery dissection."

"Which lead to a stroke at age 27."

"I lost my personality and basically lost my husband too."

"He shut down on me, and we've never recovered."

"It's been 7 years."- prettysouthernchick

Your Health Is Never Worth Gambling On

"Not me, but a family relative."

"Was a high flyer in the London financial district, jet setting life style, model girlfriend, penthouse apartment in Mayfair, drove a sports car that cost more than most people’s houses."

"Had it all."

"Developed a severe cocaine addiction and over did it, had a debilitating stroke at age 45."

"A decade later... living alone in a small 1 bed run down rented place."

"As soon as he lost the money and the lifestyle, the girlfriend left him."

"He lost everything."

"Look after your health above all else."- trollofzog

The Worst Choices Are Often Made Impulsively

"My neighbor across the street."

"She was married and had a daughter."

"She decided to cheat on her husband and abandon their daughter at a water park."

"Her ex-husband filed for divorce, got full custody, got to keep the house and all his assets."

"She got nothing."

"Absolutely nothing."

"Their daughter has refused to see her because yes, her mom abandoned her multiple times but the last straw was at the water park on the daughter’s birthday."

"She looks like she aged 20 years even though she’s around 35."

"Their daughter is now 12."

"The mom works at a Menards and I think a restaurant."

"Her parents made her get a job rather than sit at home."

"They made it clear, she’s earning her stay with them."

"No free ride."- billyrko1987

Everything Gone In The Flash Of An Eye

"Was an alcoholic for all of my adulthood, went through divorce, lost my house, finally quit drinking and lost my biggest supporter and had to move back in with my father."

"Don't have a single thing to show for 20 + years."

"I regret ever taking my first sip and never working on my own mental health and being there for the people that were there for me."

"That pretty much sums it up."- bDips412

Life Ruined Through No Fault Of Her Own

"I got stage 4 breast cancer at 29."

"Lost my husband, lost most of my friends, lost my home, and now I’m at risk of losing my job because the chemotherapy that’s keeping me alive is also messing with my cognitive abilities."

"It will be 8 years since my diagnosis this July and frankly, I don’t know what I’m still doing here."

"I’m 'able bodied' but I’m a mess of a person."- CatGotNoTail

Bad Decisions Are Not Exclusive To Bad People

"Watched my best friend ruin his life and ultimately die as a consequence of his actions."

"In our early 20s, my friend group and I all loved to get high and party."

"In the beginning, it was fine; we all lived w/ our parents, went to local universities or junior colleges, and held down part- or full-time jobs."

"Over time, weed and the party drugs gave way to opioids; this was between 2007-2010, when they were still easy to get and weren’t cut with fentanyl (Percocet, morphine, OxyContin)."

"During this phase, My best friend of my whole life sought out and landed a ‘dirty doctor’ - ie, he found a doctor willing to prescribe him just about whatever he asked for in unlimited quantities for off-record payments during office visits."

"For maybe a year, it was a blast - we all had benzos and stimulants and opioids of crazy purity for super cheap."

"For me, the fun stopped when I got real serious about getting into a master’s program and started spending more time on campus doing research and less time chilling out after school."

"My friend who found the doctor and had the pills never really stepped up his game; rather than push to transfer from junior college to university, he slowly dropped out of school (full-time to part-time to not going back) and cut back his hours working, choosing instead to stay home all day, high as a kite, and sell pills to an ever-growing list of randoms and junkies."

"A few years went by like this, and while I still enjoyed getting loaded from time to time, my tolerance decreased, and the negative effects started to outweigh the positives of being high, and I just kinda stopped taking the sh*t."

"My friend, on the other hand, developed a full-blown addiction to pills, to the point that his whole life revolved around getting them, taking them, and selling them."

"I ultimately decided to go further in school and moved away to do a PhD after my master’s."

"I barely had contact with my friend anymore, except for the occasional phone call, despite the fact that I loved the dude."

"A couple years after I’d moved away, he reached out to tell me his mom was terminally ill and had less than a few months to live."

"In a telling sign of how far-gone he was, he went from telling me about his mom’s condition to freaking out about the fact that he was going to lose his medical insurance (she was a business owner and somehow managed to keep him covered by her medical insurance l) and wouldn’t be able to get his meds anymore."

"A few months later, after his mom’s funeral and a few unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with my friend, he called me from some weird phone number one day."

"We talked for about an hour, and he explained to me that his family had ‘forged his mom’s signature on her deathbed to prevent him from inheriting her house’."

"Apparently, his family knew about his drug habit (it was obvious) and had sold his mom’s house - which he was supposed to inherit - to recoup losses on his mom’s medical bills, and they’d kicked him out on the street."

"Without medical insurance or a home, and with a raging opioid addiction that had been cut off at the source, my friend ended up on the streets."

"When he told me all this, the first thing I did was try to get him help; I wasn’t able to do anything for him financially, because I was on grad school, but I got him all the info he needed to check into an in-patient program, complete with medical detox so he wouldn’t have to go through withdrawals, at zero cost."

"He thanked me for the info and said he’d consider it, but that he wasn’t ready to quit yet."

"Our conversation ended with me asking him to keep in touch and to let me know what I could do for him, if anything."

"That was the last conversation we had; I found out 4 months later that he was found dead outside of a convenience store from drug-related complications (not an acute OD, but complications from organ failure as a result of years of drug abuse and negligence of his health)."

"It’s a super sh*tty outcome for a guy who wasn’t a bad person at all; he just lost his way and was too stubborn to admit he was in over his head, until it was too late."- TheSublimeNeuroG

Don't Rub It In... Literally!

"Rubbed my eyes excessively from a very young age due to seasonal allergies."

"Around 2012, I noticed my vision deteriorating rapidly, and I was only 13 at the time."

"Didn’t go to the optician, because I didn’t want to wear glasses and I was scared my dumba** wouldn’t look cool."

"Sigh."

"A few years down the line, my vision is so bad I can barely recognize familiar faces from a particular distance, and I finally decide to go and see a specialist in 2016."

"Long story- short, I got diagnosed with Keratoconus in 2016 and did surgery in 2017 (CXL for those familiar), but this procedure only stops the progression, it does not cure the disease or improve vision."

"Eyes are so bad that glasses don’t help and I can only wear RGP and Scleral lenses and even then vision is still not 20/20, although very close, which I am very thankful for!"

" My right eye is -5 and left eye is -10 and I haven’t rubbed my eyes not even once for almost 10 years now."

"Life is great though, could have been worse."

"Don’t rub your eyes people or you will see 20 moons at night."- Lamron_77

Not Worth The Risk

"Gambling."

"It's my own fault but it's ruined my life."- Unlucky-Part4218

It's A Different World

"Didn't learn any kind of skill or finish college."

"Thought I could have the life my grandfather did if I just stayed at these low-end jobs, and it would work out."

"That didn't happen."

"So here I am at 41, making 22.50/hr while my friends' kid makes 37/hr with a promising career and pension at 24."

"My grandfather was a department head at a Raleys grocery store for a number of years."

"Supported a family of four and retired in his mid-60s with a pension.....from a grocery store."- Sharpshooter188

Support Can't Only Be Given. It Also Must Be Accepted

"Not me but a former friend."

"C got divorced, and because she was a stay-at-home wife, her ex-husband gave her a lot in the divorce."

"As in 80% of the home sale to the tune of $250,000 with no debt plus an overpayment of alimony of $2000 a month."

"Within a year, she has no money, is deeply in debt, and blows her alimony almost immediately when she gets paid."

"How did this happen?"

"Going on retreats, refusing to take her bipolar meds and 'investing' in quick fix 'cures', buying new furniture, new clothes, and getting botox and fillers."

"She had access to bipolar meds, but CHOSE not to take them."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"She's given me multiple reasons, which all don't make sense, but her ex said that during their marriage, this was a regular occurrence."

"Additionally, the only reason I found out that she not only CHOSE to stop taking her meds and stop seeing her therapist is because she admitted she had been lying to me about it for months, and she admitted to this because she was backed in a corner."

"She went to stenography school and lived with her friend, who was a TA at that school during that time."

"C said that for no reason, her friend wanted her out of her place in 3 months."

"I later found out that C would trash the place, d*ck off during school, and no matter how nicely you confronted her about it, she'd throw a tantrum."

"It came to a boiling point when C acted like she was going to hit her friend/the TA at the school."

"During this time, she also dropped out of school, refused to get an education, and started an online business."

"This was a glorified excuse to start hoarding crystals, masquerading gallivanting trips as business trips, and all while getting botox and fillers."

"When I asked if how she was paying for all this, she said her business was doing very well. It was not."

"I asked her to come live in my apartment building because it's relatively cheap."

"She said it was ghetto and without doxxing myself, it is not."

"I can see the Hollywood sign from my house."

"She chose to live in a luxury apartment, and I asked her how she could afford it."

"She LIED and said she got some deal subletting from someone."

"The apartment was $2000 a month, which was all of her alimony money."

"She was half-a**ing selling crystals, tarot cards, and meditation classes, but of course, this didn't pay the bills."

"I begged her to start applying for jobs because she had taken to harassing her ex-husband and his new girlfriend, saying that he owes her money; he does not."

"She said she signed up for job training and was going to get set up for a job within a month."

"This was also a LIE."

"She dwindled her $250,000 to $13,000 within 9 months, and then she got scammed."

"She says it was one of tax scams."

"I can empathize because no one wants to go to jail, but if you guessed that this was also a lie, then winner, winner, chicken dinner."

"She actually pissed the last $13,000 through a shopping addiction, and some get rich quick scheme investment, which was actually a scam instead of, you know, applying for a job like I asked."

"Whenever I would press for details because I felt she wasn't being truthful or she'd blow up yet another relationship, she would go into screaming fits and when I would tell her that her behavior is embarrassing for our respective ages."

"You see, we're not a bunch of messy kids in our 20s."

"I'm pushing 40, and she's in her mid-50s."

"She would then turn on the waterworks and say she was going through a lot."

"I might be more inclined to be her emotional punching bag (and sometimes physical punching bag because she did try and c*ck her fist at me until I said I'd wipe the floor with her), except I was going through cancer."

"That's right. I'm dealing with this lying-a** nutcase while battling cancer."

"Eventually, she moved in with her ex-husband because he felt sorry for her."

"She has a therapist because her ex said he wouldn't let her stay there unless she went to therapy and stuck to her meds."

"Her therapist tried to take some accountability, but she started crying and said that all of this was her ex's fault (even though they were no contact during this time)."

"She has a social worker who she won't listen to."

"I know some people commented 'she needs support' because they didn't see the whole story (again, I didn't write it all at first because I thought this would be buried)."

"People don't owe you a relationship nor support for any reason, but especially so if you've been a habitual liar and abuser."

"C has been given every opportunity by multiple different people throughout the 50+ years she's had on this earth to not be where she's at but here we are."- the_ms_shiva

It's Not Just A Heart That Breaks

"I had a significant amount of money saved and a good career."

"I got very depressed after a long term relationship ended. I quit the job, lived off my savings, and coped in negative ways."

"My life isn't ruined ruined."

"But I was in a good position and threw it all away."

"I also distanced myself from all my friends."

"Now I'm starting over, or trying to."- No_Koala4526

Yoked

"Steroids."

"Absolutely ruined my body. I am 38 and look 70. I can not stand for very long and can sit on few surfaces."

"Extreme muscular atrophy."

"No collagen in my face."

"Do not f*cking do them.they are addictive. They will get you in trouble. They will change you." -smart_619

When You Won't Even Try For The Sake Of Your Child

"This isn't me, but I watched it happen."

"I lived in the 3rd floor flat of a converted house."

"My neighbors below me were Karla and Jake, and when I moved in they had just had a daughter."

"Jake was shift manager of a well-known fast food chain, and also did fencing with his dad."

"They weren't wealthy, but he was earning good money."

"He had a secure home, a good landlord, a reasonable job, a kind and attractive partner, a daughter that depended on him, and a decent social life."

"Jake started drinking a lot, and I would hear arguments late at night."

"Their daughter would be crying at 2am while they have a raging argument."

"Often he would come home drunk, he may have been out for several days at a time; so Karla would lock up at night."

"He would come home late after being out for days, start banging on the door, waking their daughter and dogs up, then try and climb into bed with her."

"In the end he lost his manager job because he didn't turn up to work; but he didn't tell Karla or his parents, and instead pretended to go out to work, when really he would sit drinking all day with the local street community."

"Soon enough, he stopped working with his Dad, had 0 income, and was relying on Karla to cover all parenting duties, as well as paying for everything."

"I understand that he tried to sign up for benefits, but kept missing appointments because he would go out drinking before them."

"The final straw for Karla was when he drunkenly cheated on her.... with one of Karla's mum's friends."

"The friend didn't know who he is - I understand that she showed Karla's mum a picture of this younger guy that she hooked up with."

"Karla threw Jake out for good... except, he didn't get the hint."

"As Jakes's mum used to do child care for them when their daughter was young, she had keys to their flat."

" So Jake kept getting keys cut."

"At first, he would just sleep in the common hallway of the flat. He begged Karla to let him stay there in winter as he had nowhere else to go."

"His daughter would leave for school in the morning and have to step over her father drunk and passed out on the floor outside their flat."

"Karla met a new romantic interest, and he started coming round."

"She told Jake that he was no longer welcome here, but he still kept coming."

"He would get onto the balcony outside of Karlas bedroom and watch her in bed with other men."

"On some occasions, he even tried to chase them off."

"I used to get phone calls from him at 2, 3, 4, 5 am with him begging me to let him in the building."

"He would wait outside the front door when he knew I would be getting home from work and try and get me to let him in the building."

"Karla changed the locks on her front door, but unknown to her, he still had keys to the back entry to their flat."

"She woke several times with him standing over her in her bedroom, watching her sleep."

"The police were called, and he was arrested."

"He was released on bail, and he was told not to come to the road we live on and not to speak with Karla."

" But he kept turning up at the building and trying to get in."

"He damaged the new lock that had been put on the front door of the building."

"Jake is now a homeless alcoholic, with a police investigation for stalking, breaking & entry, criminal damage, harassment and repeated violation of bail conditions."

"He has no job, no education, and no skills."

"He has no access to his daughter, he makes no effort to see her."

"People have tried to help him, but he has no desire to do anything more than get drunk and leach off of whoever will pity him."

"He is a complete narcissist who is only interested in what will serve him."

"He will lie to your face to try and get you to feel sorry for him and then try to exploit your empathy."

" I fell for it the first few times."- 0nce-Was-N0t

Ruining one's life is easier than we think.

All it can take is one seemingly inconsequential decision.

But even the tiniest mistakes can have detrimental consequences.