Content Warning: Drugs, Drug Use, Drug Addiction
Those of us who are uncomfortable going to a doctor's appointment can attest to how hard it can be to talk to and get vulnerable with someone you don't inherently trust.
But some people lie or withhold information from doctors with very different reasons, largely because they're doing something they know they shouldn't be doing and are in front of a doctor, still hoping they won't get caught.
Redditor theedriplomat asked:
"Doctors on Reddit, what is the most obvious lie a patient has ever told you?"
"Nurse here, but I had a patient who claimed he had seizures. When he was having a 'seizure,' I went, 'I don’t know what to give him to stop it,' and the patient replied, 'Fentanyl,' while shaking."
- ManlyCannibalOG
"I have also witnessed a 'seizing patient' verbally reply as we were conferring around his obvious performance: 'Not enough Ativan, more, more.'"
"That is when the attending calmly took off his glasses, put his hand on the patient’s shoulder, and said, 'You don’t speak while seizing, absolutely not, never, go to rehab.'"
"The look on that patient’s face was… I can’t describe. Two hours later, the bed was empty, as the patient had eloped."
- GsGirlNYC
"He said, 'I didn't drink.'"
"Sir, your blood alcohol level would kill a normal man, and I can smell you from across the department. Also, you fell over twice while trying to stand up."
- LegitimateLagomorph
"So, funny story, I took my husband to the ER because he was late picking me up. Had a coworker drop me off at his work. He was passed out in his car covered in vomit. He had all the symptoms of heat exhaustion."
"We’re in the ER for a while, he gets all the tests. He said he had the two taste tests at his work (he proofs and mixes alcohol) and the pint of beer for lunch. That was hours previously."
"We get an answer, and his BAC level is really high. He didn’t smell like alcohol, either; it was strange."
"Then my stepdad pointed out that my husband was proofing that afternoon. When that happens, he has to heat the alcohol up. It vaporized, and he was too close to it for too long. It was also 100% humidity that day in a not well-ventilated space (my husband should have had the fan on)."
"He literally got drunk by accident by breathing in alcohol vapor for a few hours… it was wild. I’m sure the ER still thinks he’s an alcoholic, lol!!"
- DemiGoddess001
"Worked for a drug research clinic."
"We told the guys that a blood test would be done, and if they had any illegal drugs in their systems, they would show up. We told them not to waste their time or ours; if they'd used drugs, they should just come back in a week and be clean. No penalty, no judgment, you just need to be clear of drugs for a week."
"A full 75% swore 'no drugs,' yet the test results showed that was a lie."
- Redsquirreltree
"The pharmacology unit I did my graduate work in ran bioequivalence trials for new generics, and we used students from the university as healthy volunteers."
"Same story, we'd tell them when they phoned, 'We can't use anyone who has taken any drugs. Don't waste our time; we are the unit that screens for drugs for the prison services, for police forensics, and for suspected overdoses here at the hospital trauma unit, so if you have taken anything, we WILL find it. Likewise, it's for non-smokers, and we will find out from your piss test if you are a smoker.'"
"The amount of positives we would still get when recruiting for a study was insane."
"We had a long list of time-wasters and those who were blacklisted. As soon as they phoned up to volunteer for a study, we'd ask for name, student ID, and government ID number and check if they were on our 'Absolutely Not' list."
"Over the years, we also had to break the unexpected news to a handful of unsuspecting female students that they, in fact, were expecting."
- flyboy_za
"I was at the pub having lunch, and next to me was a guy five or six pints deep. I vouched for a sour ale he seemed unsure about. He ordered it. Still drinking it when I shook his hand and left."
"That afternoon, I walked into my exam room and that guy was sitting there."
"Me: 'Oh, hey chief, I met you at [X pub] earlier!'"
"Pt: 'Wasn't me.'"
"Me:'I told you [X drink] was great. You ordered it?'"
"Pt: 'Wasn't me.'"
"I found it odd but skimmed the chart a bit (we don't get to do it beforehand sometimes) and figured out quickly why he was lying: referred to our hepatologist for evaluation and management of his alcoholic cirrhosis. The office scheduled him with me accidentally."
"He had indicated to the rooming nurse that he was sober for six months. I apologized for the scheduling mix-up, but warned him it was a bit pointless to lie about his alcohol intake. He still lied at his rescheduled appointment with the correct provider. Oh well, it's his liver, not mine."
- PartyCyclone
"'I've been following my diabetes treatment plan.'"
"Sir, your toes are falling off and your A1C is 14."
- Sometime_after_dark
"I'm a wound care specialist. I can tell you haven't been changing this dressing properly. Because of the way it is."
"Also, despite all the nursing flows saying the dressing was completed, the dressing on that leg has my date and initials from last week."
"'Nothing seems to be working; they just can't heal.'"
"Mhm. Sure."
- Bearacolypse
"Not sure if this counts, but while taking a new patient’s history back in 2011, he told me he was in a band."
"I told him I was a musician, as well. He got all excited and started to talk more about the others in his band. They were none other than The Beatles. He spoke of all of them in the present tense, too."
"It was a sobering moment. I never would have known he was Schizophrenic if I hadn’t asked him about his hobbies. Not up until that point, anyway."
- PostScrollRepeat
"Not my case, but my mother's (we work together, we're both dentists). She starts extracting a tooth of an elderly lady after thoroughly going through what medication she takes, any chronic conditions, etc."
"She asks her if she takes any anti-coagulants (blood won't stop if taken). Nope. She doesn't take any. Any Aspirin? Nope, no Aspirin."
"So my mum extracts the tooth, and now the wound won't stop bleeding. My mum asks again about anti-coagulants, specifically. Nope."
"After 30 more minutes of this and an X-Ray to check if there were any root fragments left in the socket, the patient, now distressed that she still won't stop bleeding, says something along the lines of, 'Maybe I shouldn't have taken (insert anti-coagulant brand name here) this morning.'"
- ivanguliashki
"I had a guy who had a lymphoma, came in not feeling well. His liver enzymes were trash, he looked like death, he was tachycardic, and his blood pressure levels were very borderline."
"He kept telling me he felt fine and would be fine going home. We spent all day on the phone back and forth with oncology and infectious disease, and the worry was that his lymphoma had transformed to a more aggressive type."
"Overnight, his blood pressure tanked, and he went to the ICU (for my medical people, his overnight lactate was 12). He wouldn't let the overnight resident call his family because 'he was fine.' He died the next day. Very, very sad case."
"If a doctor asks to call your loved ones because they're worried about how sick you are, believe them!"
- WoodsyAspen
"I'm not a doctor, but a medical assistant, and they said to me, 'My blood pressure isn’t normally that high!'"
"My patient is panicking after seeing the numbers and swears up and down that the high BP is wildly abnormal and incredibly worrying."
"I don’t see any filled BP med prescriptions on their chart. I run the machine again, I get a manual BP, I get the nurse involved, we start checking in-depth for symptoms of a hypertensive crisis, we involve the doctor in case the patient needs to be admitted, and fifteen minutes later the patient comes out with, 'Well, I guess I haven’t taken my blood pressure medication at all in the past week. Could that be affecting it?'"
"They were under the impression that being prescribed the medication would immediately change their blood pressure, even before they actually started taking the medication."
"I’ve started asking about meds right away to head off the panicking when the BP comes back high, as it almost always does in our clinic."
- strangeest-crochet-17
"The doctors I work with will ask if patients are taking their medication, they say yes, and once they’re under anesthesia, the doctor says, 'They never filled the prescription.'"
- Maleficent-Orange438
"I am a Medical Laboratory Scientist. I am the guy who plays with all the stuff your mother told you never to touch."
"One day, a Labor and Delivery patient drops in and decides to have her baby. She had no prenatal care. The nurse draws her blood and sends it to the lab. I do a type and screen (Blood type and Rh). We do this on all patients because lab people are paranoid."
"Patient tests as A Positive; in the computer her history shows B Positive. I send the Phlebotomist to draw her blood because lab people are paranoid. Still A Positive. I dive into the history and, yep, two years previously, I was the one who typed her as B Positive."
"This time, I draw her blood (because lab people are paranoid) and let the nurses know there is a blood bank discrepancy, and call the physician. We can't give her type-specific blood if she needs it, but we will have to give her O Negative and start an investigation. (Blood types don't change except for very rare circumstances.)"
"As I am retyping her for the third time, (still A Positive), the nurse calls me, laughing. Our mama-to-be was admitted under her sister's name. She had stolen her sister's Medicaid card instead of getting one of her own. She didn't want her folks to know she was pregnant."
- MLSGeek
"Ugh, I had a guy adamantly denying that he smoked pot. He kept coming in every few days for what was clearly hyperemesis syndrome from pot. He REEKED of marijuana."
"I told him I do not care if you use it. I medically just need to know. He refused to admit that he was using it and had to go through a whole GI referral and a scope and all this unnecessary stuff."
"The way I caught him was I just said one day, I’m just going to state I know you said you don’t use pot. My concerns are that you have this textbook syndrome."
"Whether you are or aren’t using it, I don’t care, but if you are using it and stop, you will get all better."
"I saw him a couple months later. No longer smelled of pot. He told me that he just got all better and he didn’t know why."
- saturatedscruffy
"Not a doctor, but I imagine any doctor who works in a clinic that treats STDs has had a lot of married men claim to have gotten an STD from a public restroom toilet seat."
- PapaEchoLincolhn
"I’ve started saying, 'You got xx, I don't care how you got it, but you gotta take these meds and your partners need to be tested and be on the same.' Just straight up cut them off and spare them the stuttering."
- BuscopanV
"I asked a five-year-old how a bead got in his ear. He claimed he didn’t know."
- efox02
"As a preschool teacher, I could believe it. I could see another child sneaking one in or a child putting one in and forgetting about it."
- misslostinlife
"When I was five, my nose hurt inside. I told my teacher. She asked if I had put anything up there, like a bean. I asked her why on earth would I have put a bean in my nose. She said sometimes people do that."
"I decided she was an id**t, and I judged her relentlessly the rest of the year. I just couldn't fathom anyone would do that, not even a child, so I thought she was just a moron who put beans in her nose."
- sylvanwhisper
"'Your skin is really dry today; I’m worried that’s what’s contributing to your itchy skin. What lotion do you use?'"
"'Oh, I use this brand. I just didn’t put it on today' (as I try not to breathe in the snow of dry skin flaking off my patient's legs)."
"Seriously y'all. Regular lotion use will save your skin. I can’t tell you how many patients I see daily for an itchy rash on the legs due to dry skin."
- atelectaisdude
"Pharmacist here. Lotion contains 80% water, which is as helpful for dry skin as a hot shower with lots of soap, which is not at all. It will make the skin look more hydrated for half an hour, and that's not the effect you're looking for."
"You need a fatter/oilier product. I recommend baby oil with only one or two ingredients (check the label!) and a damp washcloth to spread it with. You can use a squirt of the oil on the washcloth, wipe your leg, then squirt for the other leg, etc. It should be fast to cover your whole body. Apply it after a (short and not too hot) shower, and you'll see much better results in a few days."
- Apotak
It can be hard to open up to a doctor and trust that they're there to help us, but explicitly lying to them, especially when it's pretty obvious that we're lying, is a whole other level of ridiculousness.
Things got very, very weird between far-right influencers Candace Owens and Dinesh D'Souza after the two sparred over conspiracies around the killing of far-right activist Charlie Kirk and D'Souza somehow managed to derail the argument with a bonkers comparison to "a farmer having sex with a sheep."
Owens broke with other MAGA conservatives after sharing what she claimed were text messages from Kirk, allegedly written two days before his death, in which he said he planned to “leave the pro-Israel cause.” Andrew Kolvet, the spokesperson for Kirk’s Turning Point USA, confirmed that the messages were "authentic."
In the exchange, Kirk expressed frustration that his organization had “lost another huge Jewish donor,” potentially costing the group “$2 million a year,” after he invited far-right personality Tucker Carlson, who has also been critical of U.S.-Israel relations, to a Turning Point event.
The messages appeared to bolster Owens earlier claims that Kirk had become disillusioned with the U.S.' support of Israel in his final weeks. Owens also suggested, without offering proof, that Israel may have been involved in Kirk’s death, a claim Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly called “insane."
D'Souza—best known for promoting widely debunked election conspiracy theories—had this to say about Owens... and it's weird:
"I can’t comment on Candace because it’s quite obviously a freak show. It’s like driving on the highway and seeing a farmer having sex with a sheep. You don’t want to look, but you can’t look away either. The problems begin when you try to analyze it. It is what it is."
You can see his post below.
Wait, what?
Owens, for all her faults, was pretty taken aback by this, replying to his post with the following:
"Who openly admits that they wouldn’t look away if they watched a person having sex with a farm animal? Why is everyone in politics so sexually perverse?"
You can see her post below.
D'Souza later said he was "trying" to be "humorous."
Owens fired back:
"Humor is typically landed upon with relatability. I don’t know what’s on your laptop but most people cannot relate to feeling fascinated by farmers having sex with their sheep. Hope this helps."
D'Souza seemed to get the hint somewhat, replying:
"Surprise is a key element of humor. But I get the point and will 'wash my mouth.'”
You can see their exchange below.
Many agreed D'Souza's post was utterly bizarre.
And others pointed out the whole exchange between the two is weird any way you slice it.
The right is not all right.
Concerts are a long-standing pastime for music lovers and those looking for a wonderful time to share with their loved ones.
That said, in 2025, concerts are more expensive than ever, so it's important to be selective about which concerts to attend to save money and time for the most top-notch concerts. But sometimes, the ones we attend aren't worth the wait.
Curious, Redditor pinheadbrigade asked:
"What's the worst concert you've ever been to?"
"James Brown was the headliner one night at a festival in the early 2000s."
"He was wasted. He kept singing the same lines over and over. He introduced the band at least five times."
"He just laid down on the stage and didn’t sing for a while."
"Terrible concert, funny memories."
- zack_bauer123
"You forgot that it's your responsibility when James Brown lays down on the stage, you have to yell at him, 'GET UP OFFA THAT THING.'"
- callmeneow
"When I saw Ugly Kid Joe, the lead singer was completely wasted. He couldn't even stand up."
"At one point, he just lay across the steps between the main stage and the riser where the drum set was for three songs."
"The crazy part was that he never stopped singing. And his singing was on point. He just wasn't physically capable of moving."
- 12altoids34
"I went to see Lightning Hopkins out in the field on a flatbed trailer outside of Fort Worth in 1971."
"He was so drunk, he played three songs, and two of them were the same song."
- LayneLowe
"Honestly? Worth it."
- Friskfrisktopherson
"Sir Mix A Lot. The opening act warned us it was going to be terrible, and they were right."
- Easy_Square_3717
"Your opening act dissing you is hilarious."
- beartheminus
"I have never heard an opener say a disparaging thing about who they are opening for. That's hilarious."
- YourMatt
"I’ve worked in a concert venue for the past 20-ish years and have seen almost everyone at least once. Black Eyed Peas were atrocious, like the truck with their auto-tune got lost on the way. Tone deaf."
- SousVideAndSmoke
"So they’re always bad. GF dragged me to see them at The Staples Center, and acoustic, they are horrible. I thought it was just The Staples Center."
- Ok-Wasabi2873
"I saw them open for No Doubt on the 'Return of Saturn Tour,' shortly before they got really famous. They were so awful that the entire sold-out crowd at a large amphitheater was dead silent and sitting down the entire time."
"When they finished, they got a golf clap out of pity from like 20 people. My high school orchestra was more in tune and played with more energy and charisma than those a**holes."
"I was absolutely gobsmacked later after they hit it big."
- communityneedle
"Aging myself, but sometime in the early 90s, I was a huge Guns N' Roses fan and they were touring with Metallica. I ditched a prom to go in full glam with my date there instead, and GNR was very late to set."
"When they came out, Axel threw a fit, and it ended very quickly."
"Metallica, on the other hand, KILLED it, probably to make it up to fans. I had been indifferent to Metallica before, but I became a huge fan afterward. I still can't believe the adult temper tantrum that thousands of fans witnessed that night by a musician they paid a lot of money for."
- Content_Mountain5579
"The Brian Jonestown Massacre… holy s**t, what a f**king epic disaster that was. It was like the worst train wreck you’ve ever been able to look away from."
"At one point, his whole band left the stage, and he started playing all their instruments and saying he could play better than any of them."
"He ended up rolling a joint on stage, going up to the bar, and getting liquor to make his own drink on stage, too."
"It was three hours of WHAT THE F**K AM I DOING HERE… oh, and it was a Monday night!"
- Flandersar
"I went to a festival concert put on by our rock station in the late 90s. Most of the concert was great, with many of the acts being awesome (Collective Soul and Lenny Kravitz were awesome)."
"One of the acts that day was Smash Mouth. Holy crap, they were terrible. I think the audience was generally in shock at how awful they sounded live vs their albums."
- Supermac34
"I was also going to say Smash Mouth. I wasn't a huge fan or anything, but I got free tickets to one of their shows. Holy s**t, it was painfully bad."
- garbagegoat
"Rihanna. I loved her up until the concert. I wish I never went! She lip synched the whole entire time. We were so upset that we went to an entire pre-recorded concert."
- Bamboozle_330
"I saw her at Sziget festival in Budapest in 2016 or so. Yeah, she just wore a hoodie, and looked like she'd just woken up. The music sounded exactly the same when the mic was away from her face. Phoned it the f**k in."
"I'm not a fan, but I enjoy watching hard-working pop acts. She barely lifted a finger."
- boxofrabbits
"Bob Dylan in 2014. I love him, but unfortunately, he sounded like Cookie Monster. Can’t imagine it’s improved."
- gogo7891011
"Saw Bob Dylan 10 years later. If you heard the Cookie Monster, I heard the corpse of the Cookie Monster reanimated."
- penilebr3ath
"I love Bob Dylan, I have always loved Bob Dylan. I love live music and I see a lot of it. Just saw Casey Abrams tonight. I saw Bob Dylan in 1982. I have never, ever wanted to see Bob Dylan again."
- Fiendish_Jetsanna
"They weren’t the headliner, but 30 Seconds to Mars was awful to the point where they were nearly booed off the stage."
"They were the act leading up to Linkin Park, and all I remember was their singer kept yapping on and on instead of playing a song."
"At one point, he wanted the crowd to cheer louder before they started their next song, and he was either ignored or booed. Not sure what happened, if he was drunk or on drugs or something, but this was the only bad performance I’ve been seen by a professional band."
- maceman100006
"Lauryn Hill on the night of Trump’s first election win. Miseducation was/is one of my top five favourite albums of all time, and the way she sang every song was so different from the album. It was awful."
"And she kept gesturing angrily to someone off stage… audio tech? I don’t know, but it was super uncomfortable. Top that with the audience constantly checking their phones for election results, it was a pretty s**tty night."
- louiemay99
"Alien Ant Farm. They played Smooth Criminal about four times, and the entire show was just awful."
- dtrain85
"That's exactly how I imagine their concerts, given I don't know any other song."
- Schmarsten1306
"Kanye in the early 2000s. He was booked for a local festival here in NC (given this is when he was blowing up after college dropout and booked the gig before it dropped)."
"But he showed up almost two hours late, and then once on stage, he stopped the show several times to yell at the lighting guy. I left after the second time he stopped the show. It was the worst concert experience by far I’ve ever endured."
"A close second: Lil Wayne was supposed to do a small show in our same town, and he sold a bunch of tickets, came in his bus, sat backstage, had a bunch of small-time rappers perform as well as anti-drug speakers, and he never came out. He just took everyone’s money and left. That also sucked."
"F**k both of them."
- Ncgarrett3
"The worst act I've seen live is Buckcherry. Their radio-length songs were what I enjoyed, but their live version of songs just ran on to the point of 'this song should have ended five minutes ago.'"
"Every other artist that I've seen live has been good to great."
- sasksasquatch
Concerts are already expensive enough to attend, and most people have very little time to dedicate to them outside of work. Attending a concert that's a terrible time and a waste of money is such an insult, especially when concerts used to be such an affordable and accessible pastime.
Big Little Lies star Nicole Kidman unveiled her new look at Chanel's Paris Fashion Week 2026 amidst her divorce from her partner of two decades, Keith Urban.
Kidman voiced concern about appearing at Paris Fashion Week so soon after their divorce was publicly confirmed, but not only did she hold her own at the show, Nicole Kidman created a "revenge look" that fans loved.
Kidman's recent looks have featured somewhat darker brown hair that was styled straight and smooth. When she appeared at Paris Fashion Week, her hair was brighter and blonder, with fresh layers and wispy bangs that framed her face, which featured a simple and dark smoky eye.
Finally, Kidman was wearing wide-leg jeans and an oversized white button-down shirt, worn loose. Her hair was left down, giving her a very casual look.
You can check out her Paris Fashion Week look here:
Kidman stepped out with her two daughters, 14-year-old Faith Margaret and 17-year-old Sunday Rose, both also wearing denim accents, one with wide-leg jeans and the other with an oversized denim jacket.
You can see the trio here:
Fans were floored by Kidman's look, referring to her as "Godman," "unbothered," and "chic." Some said she was rocking an incredible "revenge look" and that divorce looked good on her.
Though Kidman and Urban have not shared much publicly, they cited "irreconcilable differences" and said that Kidman's household will be the primary home for their two teenage daughters.
Rumor also has it that Kidman wanted to "save the marriage," and that while people in her circle supported her, people in Urban's circle felt the marriage was "doomed to fail."
Despite allegedly being the more "invested" one in the marriage, it seems Kidman is doing well so far, presenting herself as unbothered, chic, and independent after two decades of being half of a famous couple.
Styles from the '90s may be back in fashion, but not everything from that era needs to be repeated.
Actor Minnie Driver recently spoke up about the terrible '90s coverage of actors—especially women—by tabloids, which had impossible beauty standards and were quick to make scathing assessments.
Driver, best known at the time for her roles in 1995's Circle of Friends and 1997's Good Will Hunting, was a frequent target of these tabloid smears. She was often mocked in the press for having curly hair, among other ridiculous criticisms.
She recently took to Instagram, posting one such tabloid article, titled "Minnie Driver: From Drab...to Fab!" in which the unnamed periodical compared her "drab" picture sporting a full head of curls, to the later "Fab" one, clearly taken at a formal occasion and with Driver's hair straightened.
Driver added a video after the picture of the old article, recalling how difficult it was to be an actress in the '90s in that kind of spotlight, especially before social media leveled the playing field a bit and allowed actors ways to speak directly to the public.
She said:
"There was absolutely no recourse pre- social media, no way of adding your voice to those who described you with such authority."
She also emphasized how difficult it was to have that criticism placed upon you for the tiniest deviation from the norm.
She pointed out how that narrative can easily lead to terrible self-image in women.
"And we wonder why the labels that are stuck on women become internally weaponised and pinball around our heads doing their worst."
People in the comment section were with her on this sentiment.
@harimiller/Instagram
People made it clear that she is—and has always been—beautiful, and never drab.
@lustig75/Instagram
@thekarayoung/Instagram
@asha_malikmasters/Instagram
@isaacboots/Instagram
Driver's discussion of '90s media coverage of women rang true for many people, including former '90s supermodel Jodie Kidd.
@jodiekiddoffical/Instagram
@shraaampstagram/Instagram
@mother_of_pearls_/Instagram
Some commenters explored the idea of having "drab" and "fab" styles.
@addiepray/Instagram
@lexpeck1/Instagram
Driver's curly haired fans shared their sentiments about how Hollywood has historically, and still does to some extent, handle natural curls on actors.
@ollyolyoxenfreak/Instagram
@lowrihafcooke/Instagram
Finally, someone updated the headline.
Driver suggested a pathway forward in her video, proposing we say "...and back to drab," but hopefully this sort of article is much rarer in today's press.
