Category: askreddit

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People Share the Childhood Mysteries That They Solved Years Later

Do you remember a childhood mystery that stuck with you…

Maybe it had something to do with a weird relative or a secretive neighbor or something that was never to be spoken of in the house.

I think most of us had something in our lives like this, right?

Folks on AskReddit talked about childhood mysteries that they ended up solving later in life. Let’s see what they came up with.

1. You were lied to!

“That the brown part of bread doesn’t contain the nutrients.

It’s just the more cooked outer layer.

My brother lied to me to get me to eat crust when I was a kid.”

2. The truth comes out.

“My dad used to occasionally burst out with this one line of a song:

“…said Barnacle Bill the Sailor…”

Only ever that line. When I was 6 or so I asked him why and he said it was an old drinking song that was absolutely filthy and I was too young to hear the rest of it. This continued once or twice a year until I was 18.

I told him I was an adult now and he could tell me the rest of the song. I distinctly remember him looking up from the newspaper, sighing and folding it then going “The truth is I can never remember the rest of the song.”

And then went right back to reading the newspaper…”

3. Makes sense now.

“The weird smell that I referred to as a “stinky cheese smell” were probably a symptom of seizures.

I would happen maybe twice a year, it’s not really like cheese, it’s like a smell that isn’t a smell. Idk how to even describe it. It was so minor parents disregarded it. I can remember it starting in 2nd grade.

I suddenly started having it a lot more as an adult when I hit 28 and got diagnosed two years later after symptoms became way more extreme. Makes so much sense now!”

4. The secret recipe.

“Growing up I always insisted I liked the mashed potatoes at my grandma’s house better than the ones my mom made at home. My grandma once told me it’s because she uses a special recipe.

I found out last year that my mom hand mashes her potatoes. My grandma just gets the Betty Crocker boxed sh*t. Her special recipe I was gonna get what she dies is Betty Crocker.”

5. Name that tune.

“I remember being about 8, and in the car with my dad. I was in the front seat and we were driving somewhere, and this song came on the radio.

He cranked it and said something about it being the best guitar playing ever. He really jammed out, which was really uncharacteristic because he was usually so stoic. It was the only time I heard the song, and he died before I could ever ask him what song it was. When I asked around, no one knew wtf I was talking about or what song I was thinking of.

So I had this melody in my head for years, but how do you look up a song that has no lyrics? So for years and years, this song stayed on the back burner in my brain. I was afraid to forget it. Somehow this story pops up when I’m like 26 or so, chatting with my husband and we searched YouTube for “best guitar songs”.

After about 15 minutes, we find it. Cliffs of Dover was the song that I’d burned into my brain on repeat for 16 years. Now I jam out to it with my kids.”

6. I knew it!

“When I was in elementary school, I always wondered what the teachers staff room was like. It seemed so mysterious – and I remember trying to get a peek anytime I walked by and the door would open.

Later became a teacher and can fully confirm they’re dull, often toxic spaces full of cranky teachers complaining about students.”

7. You did this!

“When I was younger, like 4 or 5, my family had a pet turtle.

One day the turtle went missing and my parents told me it climbed the wall in our backyard and went to the creek behind our house. I, being a naive toddler child, did not question this logic.

Fast forward to when I was 17 and driving with my mom in the car. We saw a tortoise crossing the street and I was suddenly thrown back to my memory of us having a pet turtle. I pulled over to save the tortoise and was all “OMG MOM TURTLES CAN’T CLIMB WALLS! WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR TURTLE?!”

Came to find out it had burrowed a hole in our lawn and my dad didn’t notice it until after he ran it over with a lawn mower 😢 obviously it was easier to pick up the pieces and tell your kid it climbed the wall than admit you murdered it with a lawn mower.”

8. Doing time.

“I visited my dad when I was 7-years-old at the place where he worked, or so I was told.

I remember people laughing at me because I said it looked like a prison.

The people laughing were the guards and I was indeed visiting my dad at Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution where he was
an inmate.”

9. Don’t drink that!

“Once when I was about 7 or 8, my family was having a pool party and my twentysomething aunt was sitting by the pool with a glass of clear liquid.

I was hot and thirsty, so I reached for her drink, and she said, “Don’t drink that, it’s pool water!” I wondered why in the heck she’d have a glass of pool water, but left it alone.

Years later, as my family’s alcohol consumption habits became clearer to me, I realized that she was probably drinking vodka.”

10. Nice and wholesome.

“We grew up poor and at the age of 10 my friends were all having these crazy birthday parties with petting zoos, bounce houses, clowns, etc. so my mother who is very resourceful decided I would have a sleepover for my 11th birthday.

It was great and we were gonna make ice cream cones! So we got all the stuff out with my mom, and my mother opened up the box of cones, and they were all smashed up. She said that we weren’t having regular ice cream, we were having “magic castle sundaes” (because the broken ice cream cones resembles the sections of a castle).

We all thought this was great and we had them. When my friends went home, they asked their parents to make magic castle sundaes. Two days ago I found out that my mother was getting the past sell by foods behind the grocery store (they were not expired, just past sell by date).

She had no idea that the cones were brown up until she opened them with us. She thought of the magic castle idea quickly, and we all loved it. Just goes to show how stupid kids are.”

11. Stretching the dollar.

“Growing up, I could never figure out what my dad’s obsession was with ham hocks and beans. I mean, once a month, my mom would make a huge batch of ham hocks and beans, and we would feast on it for days. Days.

It wasn’t until I turned 17-18 that I figured out the reason: times got tight towards the end of every month and this was my parents way of stretching the almighty dollar.

My dad told me one night before he died – – we were reminiscing – – “I actually hated ham hocks and beans…”

12. Ghosts!

“I live and grew up in the Deep South.

As a child from earliest memories until about 8, we would take a winter trip up to Stowe, Vermont to see the grandparents. I would have scary nights hearing ghosts wailing outside the windows. it was terrifying! GPs moved south and we stopped going.

When I was in my 30’s I took another trip up to Vermont. first-night stay, I heard the ghosts!!! Turns out the winter winds up north are waaay different than the winds of southern nights.

Suddenly my general fear of the dark disappeared as I realized fully what the source of the sound was.”

13. The big punch.

“The reason my aunt punched her husband at the pool during a huge family vacation.

It was because she found out that the long distance charges to the hotel room they shared had a ton of calls to a woman he was known to…think were swell…”

14. Kleptomaniac.

“When I was 10 my godfather gave me 20 dollars as a christmas gift.

At the end of the dinner the money had disappeared. For years my parents blamed me for being irresponsible with my money.

Years later we figured out, after she was caught stealing stuff from my aunt’s house, that my cousin’s fiancée at the time is a kleptomaniac. Turns out she was the one that stole the money.”

Now it’s your turn!

In the comments, tell us your own childhood mysteries that you solved when you were older.

We’d love to hear from you!

The post People Share the Childhood Mysteries That They Solved Years Later appeared first on UberFacts.

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Is It Wrong for Young Men to Opt Out of Society and Focus on Video Games? Here’s How People Responded.

I’m not personally into gaming, but I have some friends who definitely are, and I will admit that the ones who do it spend A TON OF TIME playing video games.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I guess it depends on the person. To me, it doesn’t sound very appealing, but I guess it’s a lot better than some of the other things men could be doing in their spare time…

So, is it bad for men to focus on video games and hobbies instead of “traditional” things like relationships, marriage, and families?

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say about this.

1. Opting out.

“There are a lot of whiny articles recently about how men don’t go to university at the same rate as young women, don’t work as many hours as they used to, and in general participate less in society and rather play video games or something.

This naturally comes at the expense of traditional life attainments such as working yourself to death, having an insanely expensive wedding, and being the sole provider for a family that will eventually kick you out.

If you read through these articles, you will find that the theme is men bad because they refuse to play the social role written for them. It’s mostly from the perspective of how this creates problems for women in the long run, but still that’s the core of it.

Contrary to what these journalists would have you believe, I think these young men are acting completely rationally when opting out of this life script. There just aren’t enough incentives to play this role, it is too risky and too exhausting, and I can personally see how one would derive way more satisfaction from hanging out with ones mates, playing video games, or being in a band. Young men don’t owe society anything.

We should just live and let live, and let people enjoy their lives in the way they want to, instead of judging them.”

2. Not worth the effort.

“As a young white man who did want all those neat lil’ things like marriage, family, house and all that jazz, I’ve found the reward not worth the effort.

The cost of living is just too damn high. If I did get the family and the house, I’d never see them since I’d be working all the time to ‘provide’…

What’s the point in taking on all that responsibility just work myself to death and not even be around?

I never see my brothers or friends with families anymore… and their families dont see them either.”

3. An interesting POV.

“It was practically always like this for men, only before the modern age men didn’t have a choice.

There was nothing else besides the only possible life plan of starting to work hard while you were still a kid and keep doing it until you died, spending more time on work than on your loved ones – spending more time on work FOR your loved ones. (Feminists call this “privilege” and think women were oppressed by them not being forced into this role.)

If you think about it men sacrificed their dreams, aspirations, their health and their lives for their families, and all they got in return was …their families, and some respect.

Modern ideologies demolished that all and when they still expect men to work like oxen they offer literally nothing in return, just shame and ridicule and hostility.”

4. From a divorced guy.

“I’m Gen X, divorced with kid, ok 9-5 job, rent small apartment in a big city and I’m perfectly content playing video games nights and weekends.

I don’t desire to do anything (or anyone…) else. I’m also happier now with no responsibilities to be a husband and help maintain a household. Plus, my kid is now old enough to play video games with me.

We have a lot of fun together that way. Life is good, no complaints.”

5. It’s up to you.

“Whether you’ve been married or not, if you work a steady job and support yourself, you’re entitled to do whatever you like. If that means chilling out at home in your own free time playing video games, then so be it.

I have a steady partner, no kids (just 2 cats). We both work and split everything 50/50. In our free time, we’re chilling, playing games, doing whatever we fancy.

As far as I’m concerned we’ve got it good. Neither of us wants kids either.”

6. In a weird place.

“Also Gen X. Also a gamer. Single & never married. No kids.

I’m making pretty good money now but I’m in this weird place. The responsible thing is to never spend money and prepare for retirement. I don’t really like working nor do I feel any sense of accomplishment from it. Sometimes I’ve had a community/tribe from work that was valuable to me but I haven’t had that in a decade.

I have two options; I can retire now and live as frugally as I have up to this point for the rest of my life or I can stay on this treadmill for another 20 years and retire to umm… no clue what. I’ve defined my life by living frugally and I’m not sure I’d know what to do with ‘all that money’.

I don’t like old people in general and all the opportunities to settle down and have a family are now long gone. I squandered my youth under same jaded theory that bettering myself would be some magic bullet to avoid dying alone. Now I’ve bettered myself and I have money.

I spent my whole life trying to avoid being a stereotype and now I’m a creepy old man stereotype. Maybe I’ll be part of the coming ‘Creepy Old Gamer’ stereotype in a year or two.”

7. Stop policing me!

“It’s strange how everyone is obsessed with policing what men do on their spare time.

I want to stay in (especially in winter), play some games, and save money (because bills and mortgage).

Other people stay in and watch their Netflix, reality tv, gossip tv, news, sports… but somehow my gaming is an issue?”

8. Breaking norms.

“It’s so strange how some of the same media outlets that encourage women to “break social norms” and to go against society to be who they want to be, are now criticizing men for doing just that.

I’m not going to take either side here on whether social norms are good to follow or not, but at least be consistent with whichever viewpoint you take.”

9. Not a good thing.

“Well, Japan has a lot of this going on and they are practically losing an entire generation of self-imposed monks.

This isn’t boding well for Japan as a whole.”

10. Content with myself.

“The last girl I went on a date with explained to me that she’s been on 55 first dates in six months!!

Here’s the thing… I am financially, emotionally, and otherwise stable. I have everything a woman would want in a life partner. I am in shape, I work hard and make a lot of money, I have hobbies that I’ve turned into effective side hustles, I travel and socialize, I would say I’m at least an 8 to 9 in attractiveness, and so on.

She wasn’t having it though… Like what does this woman expect in men that she can’t find a partner in 56 opportunities? I think this is a big issue, because it shows to me that woman’s expectations are getting absolutely bat sh*t crazy.

As a business man, I look at the value proposition and the risk/reward in committing to these expectations and it has turned me into a player, that runs through women like they are candy. If I live on never married but have the opportunity to have s*x with who I please, I would be completely content with myself.”

11. More power to you.

“Yeah i live that way because of a series of crippling mental problems but i know a load of people from college both men and women who do it completely by choice since they just don’t see the value in running the rat race like their parents did.

If you can live a happy life doing the bare minimum you need to do to keep yourself fed, sheltered, and happy then more power to you.”

12. A female perspective.

“30 year old chick here, my life is work, gaming, gym and motorsport. I’ve had my tubes tied and can’t ever see myself getting married because screw that level of stress and responsibility.

Most of my friends are single guys basically living the same lifestyle and I can totally see why it’s so appealing. A few of them would love to settle down and have kids but chicks aren’t interested because of their lifestyles, which makes me laugh as most of these chicks don’t want to be stay at home mums and give up their careers.

You’d think a chill guy that would be happy taking care of the house and kids would be perfect for them.”

13. Here’s a hot take for ya.

“It’s interesting that when men start to uphold some self-respect and not compromise their standards we’re called commitment-phobic.

I see this a lot with my female friends in that 28-35 age range who continuously complain about men not wanting to “stick it out” with them or are “intimidated” by their confidence but in reality they still expect the men they date to tolerate behaviors and attitudes that men would tolerate when they were in their early to mid 20s.

They’ve made little to no evolution in their character and still subscribe to an immature doctrine of how men should just tolerate and condone their behaviors just because “that’s what men do” and fail to realize the hypocrisy in such a misandrist take.

Add to the fact that men are becoming more accustomed to having our grievances ignored and unsupported by the opposite s*x and society as a whole, we’ve been able to find peace and happiness in our solitude and in things that provide us the happiness we don’t receive and get from the opposite s*x.

Recently a woman who I had been sleeping with for a couple months asked me to date her and I told her I prefer we stay friends. She insisted I tell her why, why I would turn down such an opportunity – “I mean I’d date me” were her words.

I finally caved and told her I’m turned off by the fact she sh*ts on men on a weekly basis on her IG story and having such a bias and negative attitude toward my gender is not the type of thing I want to endorse in a potential partner.

I even asked if she would ever be interested in dating a man who spoke negatively about women on a weekly basis and she said, I sh*t you not, “No but that’s different cause what I say about guys is true”.

And this woman isn’t an outlier to the issue, these type of women are rampant in the dating pool and they are very good at grabbing the attention of men because they can present themselves initially as interesting, intelligent, and open-minded but they turn out to be one-dimensional, ignorant, and arrogant. I blame Amber Rose.”

Okay, now we want to hear from you.

What do you think of this issue?

Sound off in the comments and tell us what you think. Thank you!

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People Debate if Nuclear Energy Is the Best Option for the Good of the Environment

Whenever the word “nuclear” is mentioned, some people seem to get nervous because of the negative connotation it has.

But maybe nuclear energy is the ideal component we need moving forward when it comes to concerns about the environment?

I really don’t know much of anything about this subject, so I’m gonna leave it to the folks on AskReddit to debate this one for me.

Let’s take a look at what they had to say about it.

1. Here’s a hot take.

“The amount of long term waste with solar and wind is undeniably higher than with nuclear energy. Nuclear power plants in America that are not on fault lines are safe and are designed to be impossible to melt down (really).

A decentralized power system will always be more expensive than a centralized one, and we have the ability to make our grid carbon neutral in a matter of years. What are the downsides?

Why are politicians ignoring this obvious option. I’m not even talking fusion, just fission.”

2. Fear mongering.

“Of course people don’t talk about it, they hear the word nuclear and they think of Hiroshima, Chernobyl, Nagasaki.

The idea of nuclear energy has been pushed to be something feared.”

3. Fired up.

“This gets me f*cking mad.

Chernobyl was an incredibly outdated reactor already at the time it exploded, there was a human and structural mistake and were talking about a time when you were allowed to smoke inside f*cking hospitals, let’s be honest it would never happen again.

And Fukushima just makes me laugh cause it was literally caused by a freaking tsunami.”

4. Perceived as dangerous.

“You can compare it with air traffic: Aeroplanes are statistically the safest method of traveling, but when something goes wrong there are hundreds of dead people, so we perceive it as dangerous, altough it is actually the safest way of travelling.

The same goes for nuclear energy: It is the safest and most efficient way to produce energy, even when you include (very rare) terrible cases such as Chernobyl and Fukushima.”

5. The best option.

“It’s all about energy capacity per acre of land. I heard a Ted Talk and the scientist was saying that to have the UK use only solar, it would require about 1/3 of the land to be covered in solar cells.

Plus, the solar system installed in the Mojave Desert which impact the Desert Tortoise habitat. Wind farms actually ensnare bats, birds, etc. Both however, only work on small portions of land (where the sun shines or the wind blows), but even these power sources are subject to mother nature.

Nuclear on the other hand is incredibly energy dense per acre. If we had invested in nuclear years ago, we would be on generation 250. Also, nuclear energy only produces steam. And finally, we have the land use available to store nuclear energy should we finally get a national plan on how to deal with it.

Again, it’s what options do you have today to solve climate change – warts and all?

Nuclear is the best.”

6. Fission and fusion.

“People are too afraid that a nuclear bomb will go off or something, which can’t possibly happen at a power plant.

Fission and fusion are the only renewables energy types we should even bother pursuing.”

7. Those politicians…

“The 1980s scared people away, once the majority of people who remember those times are dead, nuclear will be easier to push.

Nuclear being bad was the truth for them, people don’t like when you questions something they’ve fundamentally believed for decades, they will just push the discussion away.

Politicians ain’t discussing nuclear because they know this.”

8. Some good info.

“Nuclear plants in their traditional forms have numerous technical issues that can end up prematurely shuttering the plant. Graphic cracking for example.

There’s no denying that nuclear energy is great for base load generation normally provided by thermal fossil fuel generators but the cost of building nukes in their most updated and safe hi-tech forms is enormous compared to adding renewable capacity and using hydro storage or battery with renewables!

Obviously not every energy system is the same but in modern economies by the time FF thermal generation shifts off we could engineer completely renewable systems!”

9. Stigmatized.

“Chernobyl kinda put a stick in it. However it was because of faulty construction.

Nuclear energy provides constant, clean and efficient energy. If you want green energy, go Nuclear.

Today’s process is much safer with more knowledge and understanding in past mistakes. It is the best way to go forward. It’s because of either misinformation, fear and the general media/public view on it.”

10. We need new options.

“Yes nuclear has it’s benefits and fission is simple enough that I understood it when I was 10. And safety management is done very well, using the same principles as with aviation.

But the downsides to the rare but certain f*ck ups are so serious that they change nations and the planet. And we still don’t know the long term effects of all the strontium and other fall out chemicals we all carry around in us, along with every other mammal.

Are you are aware that our governments lied their rectums off about this, ruining lives and careers? And still are? That doesn’t necessarily negate the possibility but reasonable people hesitate in the face of interest-groups-fueled government f*ckery.

Your statement about centralized vs decentralized power systems is bold.

And the long term waste – what are you talking about? And the energy involved in the entirety of each cycle (and hence, the total cost) … are you are aware of how they compare?

Ultimately we need new and better nuclear power options in general and the ultimate aim is to get to a position of having endless energy available that is cheaper than water. Development depends on it. And the trick will be creating power cycles that remove the additional carbon and other compounds from the system over time.”

11. Not the way forward.

“The future of the energy industry is not nuclear.

I’ve spent my career so far building and running electricity companies, and there are a few simple facts that have become apparent:

In modern, deregulated electricity industries, off-grid low voltage generation (think household solar panels) is rapidly reaching cost/performance parity with on-grid power. Investment in storage-based supply in batteries (as opposed to peak generation such as fossil fuel) is f*cking massive – renewables and batteries are projected to take 80% of the $15.1 trillion forecast investment in new power generation.

We will reach a tipping point in about 2035 where transporting electricity (colossal steel pylons and cables across countries) is more expensive than generating it and storing it close to the consumer What this means: Tomorrow’s electricity grids are distributed, made of many small nodes of generation and consumption, and not made of giant power plants with long inefficient transmission lines.

Today’s solar and wind plants can be spun up to utility scale in under a year. A nuclear plant has historically taken over 8 years to build and cost massive up-front capital. Nuclear plants are also designed to have operating lifetimes of 60+ years. Investing in nuclear is not only making a bet that nuclear will stay at the top of the price/kWh curve, but also that it will be there in a decade’s time and then stay there for half a century.

What this means: Nuclear is not only a losing bet based on current economic forecasts, but it’s an absolutely colossal bet that ties you down for 70 years whether you win or lose.

Pro-nuclear research is tainted by pro-nuclear lobbies and governments. Schrader-Frechette found that the majority of research that has pro-nuclear conclusions is funded by parties with conflicts of interest.

Fossil fuels are dying anyway (never fast enough, sadly), so the true question is not if we go renewable but which renewable to take, and it seems we can’t take for granted that pro-nuclear attitudes are based in unbiased critical thought. What this means: It may not even be true that nuclear energy is a good option – nevermind the best option – if we cannot trust the research.

Now, this sucks for me. I’m a huge physics fanboy, and thorium reactors and fission are absolutely my favourite ideas for future energy production. I’m attracted to space-age nuclear ideals at a very emotional level – I know how it feels – but the facts just aren’t panning out that way.

In the end, it’s not true that politicians are ignoring the “obvious” nuclear option. This is a very serious issue that very, very many of the worlds smartest are working on, and the sensible option is already the one we’re taking.

Turns out scientists are largely pretty good at what they do. Who’d have thought?”

12. Fearful of nuclear.

“The fossil feul industry obviously has a vested interest to keep people fearful of nuclear. They’ll spend lots of money on add campaigns covered with nuclear bomb explosions and zero facts.

I read recently that nuclear deaths per year is even less than some other green energies, wind iirc and that has to be a wake up call for those that are fearful. As for fossil fuel, its a no contest in comparison.

Fossil fuel has powerful lobbies, powerful corps and the republican party receives about 90% of their donations or something.”

What do you think about this?

Is nuclear energy the way to go for the good of our environment?

Talk to us in the comments and share your thoughts. Thanks!

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People Share the Strange Things They Believed as Kids

Think back to when you were just a little kid…

If you can remember, you probably recall that you thought about AND believed all kinds of weird stuff. Don’t try to deny it!

What strange things do you believe when you were a kid?

Let’s see what people had to say about this.

1. Don’t touch those!

Or else…

2. I’m getting bigger!

I would be a giant by now.

3. What do you mean I don’t need them?!?!

That is bad news…

4. Eat the crust.

Never skip it!

5. You’re in for a big surprise.

It could go any way!

6. That’s why it’s called a “restroom”.

Now I want one of these.

7. That’s a racist song!

Oh, wait…never mind.

8. Not for everyone…

I don’t think I could pull that off.

9. Looking up to the sky.

That’s a big boat.

10. That’s one huge conveyor belt.

Kids sure do think funny, huh?

11. The woman in the toaster.

Well, isn’t that adorable?!?!

12. Worried about the “holey” priests.

What’s gonna happen to them?!?!

13. Three big things.

I really like the one about the sting rays.

Now we want to hear from you.

Yeah, you!

In the comments, tell us about the strange things that you believed when you were a kid. Thanks in advance!

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What Scares You as an Adult That Didn’t Bother You as a Youngster? Here’s What People Said.

It’s pretty interesting how our fears and worries change as we get older.

When you’re young and you think you’re invincible, all the scary stuff out there just seems to roll off your back. And then you get a little bit older and you get a little more worried about, well…everything.

Does this sound familiar to you?

Folks on AskReddit talked about the things that scare them as adults that didn’t bother them much when they were young. Let’s take a look.

1. Not as much fun anymore.

“Signs of aging.

When you’re a kid, getting older means new and exciting changes.

When you’re in your 30s and older, it means far less fun things.”

2. Life is hard.

“Needing help or advice. I’m a grown adult now, 34, and my mom and dad have since passed on.

When I run into a problem with an appliance or a home repair or need help with a recipe, it always takes me a minute to remember they aren’t here anymore.

Really sucks having no one to lean on when things get hard. My mom used to just give me $100 without question when I’d be hard up for money. No more bank-of-mom. if I run out of money now I’m just f*cked until payday.”

3. Slow down!

“Traveling in a car, especially if I’m not the one driving.

7 year old me: Man it’s amazing how many adults are smart enough to run hundreds of cars around the city going super fast and not hit each other!

Adult me: uhhhhhhh….”

4. Be careful.

“Jumping down from a height greater than a few feet.

As a kid I could jump off a roof and roll with it, nowadays if I land funny I fear I’ll be paralyzed for life.”

5. Oh God, no!

“A tooth falling out. As a kid it was gross, funny and painful all at once. As an adult, horrifying.

My dentist said that a couple of my teeth are “a little mobile.” Then he said it’s nothing to really worry about, as if hearing “teeth” and “mobile” in the same sentence is ever good.”

6. A fact of life.

“When you are a child, you see for parents mortality as something so far away and that eventually you will be prepared

But it’s never the case, recently my grandmother died after a long disease and what it strike me the most was the reaction from my mom, she said “no somos nada”, “we are nothing”, she was devastated and then it comes to my mind, one day I would be the one on her shoes and she will be on the coffin.

The hard part is that, that is the best result, that you bury your parents not the other way around.”

7. Protect your noggin.

“Head injuries.

As a kid, I thought broken bones were the big thing to worry about, because I could visualize what that was; I had no sense for the severity of brain injuries.

As an adult, protecting my noggin is my number one injury concern, because the human machine don’t work with a damaged processor.”

8. Time is precious.

“Lack of time.

As a kid, felt like I had all the time in the world.

As an adult, I feel like I have no time to do anything other than work.”

9. EVERYTHING.

“I bought a house a couple years ago. Literally everything scares me now.

It’s raining? Probably gonna flood the basement.

Windy? Tree’s gonna fall on the house.

Weird smell? Probably an electrical fire.

Leave the house for literally 5 minutes? Obviously going to explode due to a gas leak.”

10. Not a thrillseeker anymore.

“Roller coasters.

I used to ride them all summer long because I had a six flags summer pass. I went a few years ago with my younger sister. It wasn’t fun anymore. I just kept feeling like I was going to die.

I ended up holding purses, and keeping my feet on the ground. I never understood why my mom would just wait for me, but I get it now.”

11. Yeah, pretty scary.

“I had no fear of U-Hauls until I rented a U-Haul.

I filled out all of my information online and they gave me the keys to a 27 foot box truck. No training. No anything. They’ll just let anyone take these massive vehicles and drive them off the lot.

Give them a wide berth.”

12. Aging.

“Honestly, just getting older. I’m only 36 but I just don’t want to be an “old person.” I fear my daughter is already starting to see me that way, but I do everything I can to fight it.

One disc in my back is permanently injured from a car wreck 12 years ago, one knee is bad from playing with a nephew 14 years ago.

I want to be the strong hero my daughter needs as she grows up but I fear these will really catch up to me in the coming years.”

13. Under the knife.

“Anesthesia.

As a kid, I was led to believe that it was something magical that happened to you when you got your tonsils out, and then afterwards, you could eat all the ice cream you wanted!

Now that I’ve had it as an adult and know that there’s always a possibility it could go horribly wrong, I get really antsy and scared just thinking about it.”

14. Avoid it if possible.

“Anything related to going to the hospital.

When I was a kid, I was always in the emergency room with a deep cut or broken bone. Now that I realize it isn’t as “free” as I thought it was when I was a kid, I’ll make any excuse to not go to the hospital.

Case in point, my wife (before we were married) went to the ER with severe abdominal pains and found out she had an infection in her gallbladder. So they removed it.

Her hospital bill, because she went “out of network” and had an ER visit, was over $80,000. Meanwhile, I probably would have just died because I would have crunched down a hundred Immodium before visiting the hospital.”

Now it’s your turn.

In the comments, tell us what scares you as an adult that didn’t scare you as a youngster.

We can’t wait to hear your stories. Thanks!

The post What Scares You as an Adult That Didn’t Bother You as a Youngster? Here’s What People Said. appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Offer Advice About Things That Teenagers Should Try To Avoid

I have a 14-year-old niece who I’m constantly trying to give life advice to

Of course, she usually rolls her eyes at me and only half-listens, but I still try to do my part because I want her to stay out of trouble…

And we all know that teenagers can get into TONS of trouble.

So I guess the only thing we can do is still try to impart our infinite wisdom to them and hope they’ll take a moment to look up from their phones and listen up.

AskReddit users shared what things they think teens should avoid. Here’s what they had to say.

1. My ears!

“Really loud music.

The kind at a concert front row loud, because tinnitus really sucks.

And not only tinnitus. I damaged my ability to hear certain frequencies when I was a teenager by going to loud punk gigs. It makes it really hard to hear people speaking over background noise. Doesn’t sound too major, but it makes socialising in a pub or club or public place that bit more challenging. I guess I lost the frequency range that distinguishes speech from general noise.

When you’re a young adult, you do a lot of your socialising in such environments, so don’t add an extra challenge to your social life.”

2. Pick a direction.

“Avoid waiting for life to begin.

It already has.

Go in some positive direction, even if you’re not sure it’s the exact right one.”

3. That’s smart.

“Work on your credit skills (and subsequently self-discipline) immediately.

My advice is to get approved for any credit card you can with any limit, doesn’t matter. Then, use that card on ONE thing. Groceries? Fuel?

Something small and exclusive so you’re definitely able to pay it off in full every single month. A good credit score at a young age does wonders, especially considering your peers.”

4. Nothing is forever.

“My mom found her dream job in her thirties and my current stepdad in her fifties. Don’t be too concerned with whether the things you’re doing now is gonna be forever.

Do what you can to open doors for yourself but don’t feel forced to think you need to know with who or what you should spend the rest of your life with at this point. Time gives you time to discover more things.

Discover more things, and eventually you’ll find your way, even if you didn’t realize it. Stop thinking in today and forever. You got all the time to figure it out. Just get yourself a solid foundation and explore.

Except for drugs. Don’t explore things that you could get addicted to for the rest of your life.”

5. Be yourself.

“Stop trying to tailor your personality to appeal to each new person you meet. You’re not required to be everyone’s best friend. It took me so long to figure this out.

It wasn’t until my early 20s that I figured out how I like to dress, what I like to do, or what music I enjoy because I used to change according to other people’s tastes.”

6. Get ‘er done!

“Procrastination.

Not as big as the other ones but my God, procrastination can get so bad and affect you so horribly if you let it get out of hand.”

7. Find the good ones.

“Fake friends.

It’s honestly better to have no friends than people who gossip about you and make snide remarks to you.

I know everyone says this but you will find your people.”

8. Take care of those choppers.

“Avoid skipping the dentist.

Even if money is tight professional cleanings and preventive maintenance will pay dividends later in life.”

9. Don’t smart.

“Nicotine.

I’ve been smoking for 10 years (ever since I was 14) and nicotine is absolutely the worst drug and the hardest to cut out.

There’s no satisfying “high” to it, just cravings and dizziness. Any other drug would give you more bang for your buck.”

10. It’s good for you.

“Lack of sleep. It doesn’t make you cool.

Go to bed early and enjoy full 9 hour night.”

11. They can hurt you.

“Avoid taking out large loans.

Any loans if at possible, though thats difficult if you go to college. Buying a brand new car at a young age is a bad idea.

The majority of your small paycheck will be going toward that loan and the insurance.”

12. Let it all out.

“Suppressing emotions.

It’s okay to feel sad, angry, anxious, etc. don’t be made to feel bad for feeling this range of emotions through your teenage years.”

13. Avoid at all costs.

“Adults trying to be to friendly/date you.

You’re not mature for your age, people their age don’t want to be with them or around them for a reason.”

14. Not worth it.

“It’s cliche as hell to say, i know, but drugs. Absolutely avoid drugs. Drinking too.

It is easy for a full grown adult to use a drug and get addicted before they are even aware there’s a problem, so it’s stupidly easy for a teen to get form a runaway addiction that can last years if it doesn’t out and out kill you from an accidental overdose. But even if you eventually were able to break the addiction, the changes it made to your brain chemistry could he permanent.

That’s exactly what happened to my brother. He got hit by a car at the age of twelve and his dumb *ss doctor put him on percocet and that was all she wrote.

From then on it was an ever sinking sh*t fest of one OD after another with more and more delusional behavior and psychological damage to the point now that at 28 he literally has the mind of a 14 year old cause the drugs never let him grow up properly.”

How about you?

What do you think is some good advice that all teenagers need to listen to?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

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People Talk About the Unrealistic Things in Movies That Really Annoy Them

As someone who loves movies, I’m well aware that there are TONS of things that happen in films that are just…well…ridiculous…

And sometimes those things can really get on our nerves!

AskReddit users went on the record and shared the unrealistic things in movies that drive them crazy. Let’s take a look!

1. Unrealistic.

“Unrealistic wealth.

Typical family with one working parent has a four bedroom house with in-ground pool; college graduates living in some swanky penthouse on a babysitter salary.

Twenty-four year old doctors.”

2. Nerd alert!

“Playing video games.

Randomly mashing all buttons at the same time and pressing R1/L1 and R2/L2 for no reason…”

3. Don’t you have somewhere to be?

“High school scenes where there are lounges in the hallway and students are free to be wherever they want to be around the building(s) no matter the time of day without consequence.”

4. He’s somewhere…in Europe…

“Omniscient bad guys.

I know you have to have the plot move forward, but dude is trying to hide in Europe and somehow the villain is always where the hero wants to go before they get there.

I mean… Europe is pretty big, and I can’t imagine getting totally lost there would be all that difficult.”

5. What’s the rent here?

“People living in these gigantic NY or LA apartments while working jobs that realistically could never pay for such a nice place.”

6. Not realistic.

“People doing CPR. Then the person who just got CPR wakes up like 10 minutes later and eats lunch.

Also movies are really bad at maintaining sterile fields in operating rooms.”

7. Gotta go!

“When the mom prepares a feast for breakfast and everyone only takes a bite or two before rushing off.

My mom would have scolded me for wasting food. Also, she wouldn’t prepare a huge meal for breakfast.”

8. Guns.

“Gun silencers being that quiet. In reality they’re like the sound of someone clapping.

For that matter just about any gun being fired inside. The noise is deafening. Even in the movies you see people wearing hearing protection at a range, but then when action scenes occur that aspect is completely thrown out.”

9. Time to walk away.

“Casually strolling away from a massive explosion.

They have eardrums of steel and shrapnel proof skin.

It’s legit, I Googled it!”

10. Both of these things.

“Stalker-ish behavior being portrayed as “romantic”.

The man in a relationship being portrayed as a near-braindead doofus.”

11. Knocked out.

“People getting knocked out cold for an hour, then waking up and going about their day like nothing’s happened.

I once got knocked out for like two minutes and ended up sick for a month.”

12. Computing powers.

“My son in law is a video game programmer and it drives him crazy when in cop shows/movies they use a computer to search for a match to fingerprints or a face and the screen scrolls with the images flashing on the screen.

He’s like do you know how much computing power it takes to render all those images the computer doesn’t need to flash them on the screen !!”

13. You again?!?!

“Mostly in romcoms: people randomly running into each other out in public.

Like, how small is your town that you bumped into the same person 3 days in a row at a restaurant/bar/shop?”

14. No sparks at all.

“When two characters do something simple like glancing at each other and then the romance has started.

If a man and a woman bump into each other and some music plays that’s enough to ensure the romance has begun.

I bump into guys all the time, where’s my boyfriend??

15. Nailed it.

“Pretty much any police detective show…

Female detective constantly wearing high heels (which would be uncomfortable alone and very challenging during the inevitable foot chase scene).

Immediately upon discovering evidence at a crime scene they will pick it up using a loosely held glove or the tip of a pencil.. in real life evidence needs to be documented/photographed before handled and how lazy are you that you can’t properly slip on a glove.

Just about everything else forensics wise. I everyone with loose hair, rarely wearing gloves, every fingerprint or other peice of evidence is relevant to the crime.

The crime scene line is like 10 feet from the body so the public has a great view of everything and of course any nearby evidence is destroyed.

Every time the cop says that you have to tell me X or I am going to arrest you for obstruction.”

What do you think?

What unrealistic things in movies really drive you up the wall?

Talk to us in the comments. Thanks!

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People Admit What Didn’t Bother Them as Kids but Scares Them as Adults

When you’re young, you really don’t think a whole lot about your safety and things that might potentially harm you.

And I have a pretty embarrassing example of something that I’m super cautious about now that I wouldn’t have given a second thought to when I was younger: driving at night.

I used to not even consider what could be around the next bend in the road when I was 18 or so, but now that I’m older, I find myself driving like a 90-year-old when I have to venture out after dusk. What happened to me?!?!

AskReddit users admitted what scares them as adults that didn’t bother them when they were young.

1. Old bones.

“I miss feeling like a human rubber band when I do active things.

I’m still pretty athletic and I stay in good shape, but after one or two sports knee injuries in high school I could no longer fall on my body any way I wanted.”

2. What’s gonna go wrong today?

“Owning a home.

I am only slightly exaggerating when I say that I wake up every day fully expecting some new and expensive catastrophe to unfold.”

3. The deep.

“Deep water.

I learnt to swim in it by essentially jumping into a pool on holiday as all the other kids were in the pool and didn’t want to be left out.

Now for some reason, if I’m in water and it reaches my chest I’m struck by an absolute rising sense of dread, my breathing gets shallow and I feel so uneasy and upset I have to get into shallower water to be calm again.”

4. Time flies by.

“The reality of how fleeting life is.

And I don’t mean in the cliché “live life to the fullest!”

I mean in the way that life really does pass quickly. I’m 3 years into college and I still feel like I graduated high school last year. Every now and then someone will mention the new class graduating and I have no idea who they are. Or when people I graduated with come into my work and it hits me: I haven’t seen them in three years.

When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to grow up, to live on my own, travel, see the world, have a bunch of friends, have a real job.

Now life is real. And it’s passing quick. And realities are starting to set in that in order to do all the things I want to do while I’m young, I better have an excellent paying job. Because time is passing and it isn’t waiting for me.”

5. Very true.

“The older I get the more I realize that very few people have a clue of how to actually do their job, raise a family, or simply being a good member of society.

I’m in my mid twenties, almost done with medical school, and I don’t think I will be mentally or finanically ready to raise kids until I’m in my thirties. My parents had us when they just turned 20. Like wtf, they had no idea how to raise kids, they probably just winged that sh*t and I’m just thankful they didn’t irreversibly f*ck me up.

Or the George Carlin quote about thinking how stupid the average person is. And then realizing that half of the population is even dumber than that. How it’s baffling that our unemployment rate is <5% and that somehow almost all of those people have jobs and that someone somewhere thought “yeah, I’ll hire this person, they seem like they’re more qualified than everyone else.”

The implication being that more than half of the workforce isn’t as good at their job as they could be, and that a huge portion of the world is ran by complete idiots.

Not to mention how uneducated the average person is when it comes to civic duties like voting. Compared to the average joe, I think I probably read way more news articles, history books, and discuss things with my best friend who is a US politics professor; and I still feel like I’m uneducated when it comes to voting for the right candidate.”

6. Frayed nerves.

“Performance anxiety!

I was in theatre as a kid/teen, was in sports tournaments, enjoyed class presentations, and even did some public speaking, and never had any issue getting up in front of people. Even when I would mess up occasionally in front of an audience it didn’t bother me.

Then in college a switch flipped. I did a handful of variety shows in college, and used to perform the national anthem in college at our university sports games. I still remember the first time I ever experienced performance anxiety–I was about 21, and going to perform the national anthem at a volleyball game and I felt it, but it didn’t impact my performance.

Later that year, I was singing a solo tune in a variety show and my music cut out and it flipped me out so bad that I had to stop the performance, which was a gamechanger–I’d never had an issue adhering to “the show must go on” even when things go wrong.

And for the first time in my life, my final presentation of university racked my nerves so bad that it impacted my ability to speak and concentrate so bad that I thought I’d fail the presentation, especially because that professor had seen successful presentations from me before.

Nowadays I get flipped out even giving casual presentations in front of my (small) company. I’d do variety show performance again though!”

7. Bad drivers everywhere.

“Driving.

Each time I go out onto the road I get more and more scared to go back. I’m only 19. How is 90% of this species so reckless that they can manage to scare a 19 year old off the road?

The reason I pay so much extra for insurance is because I’m supposed to be the one doing that, but all middle aged-senior citizens that think they own every inch of the road are beating me to it.”

8. Losing it.

“Losing my mind.

My grandfather had dementia and my grandmother had Alzheimers, they both went through their respective illnesses at the exact same time and to watch them slowly lose themselves was so depressing.

I’m not too worried about what happens to my body, I just dont want to lose my mind, I dont want to forget.”

9. Way up high.

“Heights.

When I was a kid I could run along the edges of tall wharfs and the sides of cliffs without a second thought. Even when I was in my early twenties my friends and I used to hang out on the roof of a 30 story building and pretend push each other off for laughs.

Now even thinking about it gives me anxiety. Even worse thinking that my kid might do the same.”

10. Twisters.

“Tornadoes.

I got stuck driving in a tornadic storm in 1996 (I think it was later determined to be a… down draft maybe it’s called?) in New Hampshire of all places.

Started a thunderstorm phobia that was getting better until I was 22 and ran into (in a car again) what was called the Worst Thunderstorm in New Brunswick History. 2 am outside a closed gas station on an open highway, in a small ford escort which rumbled and shook as lightning was striking right beside us.”

11. A scary thought.

“Home invasions.

It’s my worst nightmare… as a Brit I respect all you Americans who don’t f*ck about when it comes to protecting your families if anyone dares step foot in your house.”

12. No more bills!

“Mail.

As a kid it was always pleasant, a comic, a letter from grandma, you get the idea.

Now everything in the mail is either a bill or taxes.”

13. You’re not alone on that one.

“Clowns.

They’re my absolute worst fear and I didn’t used to be scared of them, but when I got to be a teenager suddenly I was TERRIFIED of them.

It’s so bad sometimes that I physically cannot go places if I know a clown will be there.”

14. Beware of the deep.

“The ocean!

I LOVED swimming in the beach, jumping off big boats into the unknown and just water overall but now that I know what could be lurking in the water I’m terrified!”

How about you?

What are you scared of now that didn’t bother you when you were a kid?

Talk to us in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!

The post People Admit What Didn’t Bother Them as Kids but Scares Them as Adults appeared first on UberFacts.

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What’s Your Favorite Paradox? Here’s What People Said.

It’s a funny thing how often paradoxes seem to pop up in our lives, don’t you think?

The universe works in very mysterious ways, my friends…and we’re about to see a bunch of examples of exactly what I’m talking about.

AskReddit users talked about their favorite paradoxes.

Let’s dig into their responses!

1. A good one.

“Actually, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better.”

Tom Robbins”

2. Caught by surprise.

“The surprise hanging – a prisoner was sentenced to death by hanging, but as an additional punishment he was told he’d be hung sometime in the next week, but he’d not be told until the morning of.

He reasons that it can’t be friday, because that’s the last possible day, and so it wouldn’t be a surprise, which means it also can’t be thursday, because it can’t be friday and so if he’s alive by thursday then he needs to hang that day, apply same reasoning to the other days of the week…

He died wednesday, caught by surprise.”

3. Open your mind.

“The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.

Every time you gain a greater understanding about something, it creates even more questions than it answers.”

4. Fun with numbers.

“Statistical paradoxes are cool. For example, Simpson’s Paradox where a statistical trend is reversed when the population is partitioned into groups:

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was supported by 61% of Democrats and 80% of Republicans. However, both Southern and Northern Democrats were more likely to support the Act than their Republican colleagues.

White murderers in Florida are more likely to receive the death penalty than African-Americans. However, African-Americans whose victims were white are more likely to be executed than whites, as are African-Americans whose victims were black.

Median wages in the US rose by 1% between 2000 and 2013, yet wages of every educational subgroup (school dropouts, school graduates, college graduates and higher degrees) fell during the same period.

The overall survival rates for third class passengers on the Titanic were higher than those for the crew, yet those for both men and women were lower.

The batting averages of baseball player David Justice were higher than those of Derek Jeter in both 1995 and 1996, but not in the two years combined.”

5. I’m still holding out hope.

“If time travel was invented in the future, we would have it now.”

6. Ponder this.

“Pilots can get out of combat duty if they are psychologically unfit, but anyone who tries to get out of combat duty proves he is sane.”

7. So true.

“The paradox of being a parent: the days & nights are long & hard, yet the years fly by.”

8. You’ve heard this before.

“I don’t like that place.

No one goes there anymore because it’s always too crowded.”

9. Sad, but true.

“You need job experience to get a job, but to have the experience you must get a job.”

10. Motion.

“Zeno’s paradox of motion.

If you shoot an arrow at a target, at some point it’s halfway there, then halfway of the remaining half, etc.

Since no remaining distance cut in half can ever equal zero, the arrow never reaches the target.”

11. The wormhole.

“Polchinski’s Paradox.

Polchinski raised a potentially paradoxical situation involving a billiard ball sent through a wormhole which sends it back in time.

In this scenario, the ball is fired into a wormhole at an angle such that, if it continues along that path, it will exit the wormhole in the past at just the right angle to collide with its earlier self, thereby knocking it off course and preventing it from entering the wormhole in the first place.”

12. We’re living in one.

“The one we are currently living in; where the ‘Information Age’ has somehow ushered in the ‘Age of Morons’

If you would have told me 25 years ago that giving people near limitless access to almost any data from almost anywhere on the planet in the palm of their hands would make people dumber than they already were I would have called bullsh*t till I was blue in the face.”

13. The poison well.

“The poison well paradox

A town is worried that their well is poisoned by chemical X, so they hire three scientists to test it. They ask each scientist two questions “is chemical X above level Y in our water?” and “if chemical X is above level Y, should we stop using our water supply”, the answers were as follows:

Scientist 1 answered yes to both questions.

Scientist 2 answered yes to the first and no to the second

Scientist 3 answered no to the first and yes to the second

The paradox: If you take each scientist’s final conclusion, you’ll have a majority of scientists saying that you don’t need to close the well; but if you combine all the scientists responses to individual questions, you’ll have a majority of responses telling you to close the well.”

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, now we want to hear from you.

In the comments, tell us about YOUR favorite paradox.

Please and thank you!

The post What’s Your Favorite Paradox? Here’s What People Said. appeared first on UberFacts.

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When Did You See a Person’s Sanity Slowly Deteriorate? People Shared Sad Stories.

It’s always terribly sad when you hear about a person suffering from any form of mental illness that impacts their life in a major way.

And it’s even worse when it actually happens to someone you are close to.

But, unfortunately, sometimes these things happen to our loved ones…and it can even be the people we thought were the most put-together and on top of things.

Here are some interesting stories from AskReddit users who witnessed people slowly losing their grip on sanity.

1. Dementia.

“I’m a CNA at a nursing facility.

One of my residents used to crochet little pot holders and give them out to the workers. She really loved her crocheting, it was her outlet. I was a unit aide when I was starting out there at 17 and I would sit and talk to her while she crocheted.

She’s genuinely one of the the sweetest and most kind hearted women I’ve ever met in my life. Over the next few years, she became like a grandmother to me.

As her dementia progressed, her little pot holders started to get messy looking and crooked. After that, the time she used to spend crocheting was replaced by her fumbling with the yarn for hours. She didn’t want help with it, it kept her busy.

Eventually, she stopped asking us to go fetch her yarn and crocheting supplies all together. Her speech became fragmented and illegible. Her heart and her love for everybody is still incredibly strong- that’s just who she is, but she’s very confused and doesn’t know where she is or what is going on. Currently, she has covid and is fighting for her life like most of my other residents.”

2. My sister.

“My sister passed away earlier this year and she was sick for a long time.

During the last few months you could tell that it was becoming harder for her to think and respond. Paradoxically it actually made her a lot nicer to me. We had never had a great relationship and I always believed she hated me but during those last few months she said very few unkind things to me.

It was hard to know that the only time we ever really got along was right before she passed away.”

3. New reality.

“A long-time friend of mine started talking to me about some metaphysical theories he had.

We used to smoke weed and talk about philosophy when we were younger, so it wasn’t a shock to me. Then he wrote a paper that was dozens of pages long on his new theory of reality

He sent it to me and when I said it gave me a headache to try and read it, he assumed that meant I was understanding it. Every time I saw him after that his behavior was more and more manic. I don’t know if everyone gets these feelings, but one can tell when talking to some people that they’re just slightly… off?

Anyhow, he was apparently harassing some of his old flames and acting strangely enough that his family had him taken to the hospital, where he had visited a few times in the past few weeks. The hospital held him overnight and released him because he wasn’t a threat.

A few days later he started acting out in his mother’s house and broke a window. She called the cops, and they arrested him. The window was worth more than the amount required to make it a felony and he went to jail for six months. Two days inside jail and he’s back to normal. Why?!

Well, he has a degenerative disease that puts him in CONSTANT pain. He couldn’t afford his pain meds and when he went to the hospital, they refused to give him any because they assumed he was a junkie. (He had prior drug issues, if you can imagine.)

He had lost his job, was living in a cold, damp apartment without electricity and couldn’t get the meds he needed; so he descended over the course of a month into someone that LITERALLY thought Neil Degrasse Tyson was talking to him personally through the internet.

Once he had his meds again (again, pain meds not anti-psychotics) he leveled out and spent 6 mos trying to piece together what the f*ck had happened to him.

Super nice guy. He’s been fine for a couple years. Had to make some very elaborate apologies.

It was… uncomfortable to watch.”

4. Started getting odd.

“I was friends with a guy in middle school and from seventh and eighth grade, he was pretty cool. Very much a sports bro and a goofball, but functional.

In high school he started getting a little odd. Like he was there physically but always kind of lagging behind in the moment. He’d get distracted or trail off of a conversation and just go quiet. There were times when he’d get aggressive toward his family but never toward me.

After high school I moved away for college but returned home after my first year and he’d gotten worse. I was in contact with him pretty regularly until I showed up to his house one day and it was like he didn’t remember who I was.

I saw him every now and then after that until about five years later. I was in a Walmart parking lot when he pulled up beside me and got out of his car and started talking to me like nothing had changed.

We exchanged information and he texted me a few times and sent me some weird emails about his religion but I haven’t seen or heard from him in going on four years…”

5. My brother…

“My brother has schizophrenia as well as bipolar and aspergers. He was always a bit aggressive in his teenage years, but he calmed down for a bit in his adult years.

He has problems with relationships and money, but he always made ends meet for the most part, and he wasn’t homeless. But it all went downhill in the summer when he had a schizophrenic break, and was sent to a hospital. He called my mom saying things that were far from the truth.

He said that he didn’t see me for years and that my parents abused him and my grandpa was in the Mafia. Ruined the rest of the vacation. Our grandma and his bunny died later and hes had more than 10 episodes, with 4-5 violent ones that resulted in him going back to the hospital. He went from a person who was generally a good person, to someone who we could barely recognize.

He always loved dieting and being tip-top health, but now he gave that up and chain smokes. It’s sad because I don’t think he will ever be normal again, or at least back to his old self. One of his biggest episodes was ony birthday at 3 A.M he barged into my parents room accusing them of not letting him sleep, saying that he was going to kill them.

We had a katana that he bought years before and he tried to get that, but my dad stopped it. He took a kitchen knife and went up to his room and that’s when cops eventually detained him. I got to stay home on my birthday though. He just switched though.

He was always a healthy person and I saw him slowly decline physically and mentally from all of his disorders. It’s really sad and I hope it dossnt end in death.”

6. A terrible disease.

“My best friend was diagnosed with schizophrenia when we were 23. He was in the top 10 of our high school class, got his bachelor’s with honors in chemistry, and was in grad school.

The degree to which he outshined me was stunning until the day he pulled me aside and told me that a foreign government was going to come get him for his “expertise”.

It was hard. All of his social skills went out the window, he would call his friends up to buy him smokes or go on drives at weird hours until I was the only one who will even pick up the phone.

He reverted to behaving like we were 15 again, trying to get me to do sleepovers and spend my Saturdays killing nazi zombies. Even the way he eats changed. There were a lot of dark nights spent talking through anxiety attacks and reasoning through delusions, and it’s still not over.

I understand why everyone else has removed themselves from the picture, I’ve come pretty close myself. I guess I just choose to believe the old guy is still in there somewhere. It’s such a terrible disease.”

7. Alzheimer’s.

“Watched my grandfather slowly sink into Alzheimer’s. By the end he didn’t know my name or his own. He was sad and angry and confused. I watched every week as he forgot a little more.

Got a little more belligerent. A little more lost. Until one day I walked in and he started screaming that someone was there to rob him. It was the saddest f*cking thing I’ve ever seen.

I have such vivid memories of watching him and my uncles have such animated debates about politics and movies and sports. They used to play Risk until the sun came up listening to Sinatra. He would sit and explain every single play in a baseball game to me as a kid.

He was sharp and the saddest and hardest part was watching the struggle on his face to remember. The frustration he felt. Like he was letting us down. I miss him a lot.”

8. Obsession.

“I was in high school and my best friend went from a normal guy who we would smoke weed occasionally, listen to music and have fun. It went to this obsession with a girl that clearly has no interest in him.

He would literally stalk her, try to win her over. At the same time, he wasn’t keeping up with hygiene and went from a decent student to a poor performer.

One day, he mentioned that he wanted to commit suicide so I told my parents everything that was going on. His parents were extremely well educated but weren’t doing anything about his behaviors.

My parents talked to his and they took it serious after hearing about the thoughts of suicide. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Nearly 40 years later, he still doesn’t look the same. Really sad situation. I still miss him.”

9. Very sad.

“I watched my ex wife slowly spiral down and I didn’t even realize it. She was never really “stable” and had a family history of mental illness.

Apparently she started cheating on me and never had the strength to tell me or get a divorce and the constant lying and being on edge that I would find out at any minute really got to her(this was over the course of a year). Towards the end she would “rock” every time she sat and bit her nails till they bled.

Currently she is maxed out on a host of meds and it takes everything she has to got to work as a janitor and come home. Her father is her “guardian” and helps her pay bills and stuff. She often denies past events or alters them if they were unpleasant(she is very adamant that they are real).

Her father broke down and told me this a month ago and actually recommend that I not encourage our kids to visit her(I would never prevent them from seeing their mother).

So in the course of a of 5 years she went from a fit dental hygienist with a promising career and host of friends to an overweight janitor with no friends who can’t even pay her own rent or buy groceries. I do admire her for going to work every day and trying.”

10. They need help.

“My (ex) best friend over the course of this past year has gone from a normal – well adjusted woman who held down a full time job and a VERY nice apartment to constantly being online and talking about how humans are just slaves to an alien race that lives on mars and how reality doesn’t exist and If she died none of it would matter because reality doesn’t exist…

I don’t talk to her anymore because if I said anything in opposition, she would lose her sh*t on me… very different from the kind, compassionate woman I was best friends with for 4 years. I miss her every day.

Disclaimer: I know she’s doing well, she has a great familial support system and other friends that agree with her beliefs, I just couldn’t be one of them anymore.

We can’t force someone into help if they don’t want to be helped.”

11. Conspiracy theories.

“My mom started going to online blogs and web-radio shows about ghosts, aliens, conspiracies and took it all at face value. I saw my normal mom turn into a complete, gullible ignoramus in a matter of months.

Nobody could talk to her without her bringing up FEMA death camps, potential economic collapse, aliens, antivax or Obama signing more executive orders than any president in history. Her friends thought she might have a brain tumor. she didn’t. She did have cancer she was hiding/ignoring that ended up killing her bc she thought cancer wasn’t real.

This is what happens to lonely people that are looking for a connection…they’ll believe anything just to feel that they are a part of something. It was very sad that she was so unbearable the last couple years of her life.”

12. Sad.

“My grandmother was brilliant and so dedicated to educating herself. She had a library of probably a thousand books, but regularly circulated and bought new ones, and sold ones she didn’t need any more.

She read the paper every day, and when a topic interested her, she would cut out the article and summarize what caught her attention. Then she would file it in one of her enormous filing cabinets with other articles about it, and make notes of how the new article related to what was already there.

She lived in a college town for decades and was friends with many of the professors. They would often come to discuss things of interest to her or them. Including music, art and history professors.

Every month she would create a mini-museum exhibition on her dining room table. “Wood Carvings from around the world” or “Different things made from Lead” with little catalog cards for every item.

I have a 3 page discussion she researched and wrote about the proper times to used “baptised” and “baptized”.

The first sign was that we were watching a documentary about Apollo 13 and she didn’t remember it happening. She didn’t know that it happened at all. There is zero chance that she didn’t follow it as it was happening in her life, (not only was she well informed, but had a collection of LIFE magazines about the space program) and zero chance that she didn’t hear about it afterward. She just didn’t remember it at all.

A little later, she was trying to play with Lego Duplo blocks with my daughter and couldn’t figure out how they worked. She tried putting the same colors together, the same sizes, sliding the smooth sides against each other, putting the pegs against each other. She was so methodical in her trial and error and just couldn’t get it.

In her later years, she just sat in bed, measuring her sheets with her arms, trying to decide if there was enough fabric to make a dress, or an apron.

At the end she remembered that reading was a good thing, even though she couldn’t, and didn’t have the attention to listen.

And she hated my dad, (her son-in-law) she never forgot that. Forgot my mom, but not how much she hated my dad.”

Have you ever seen someone close to you go through something like this?

If so, please share your stories with us in the comments.

Thanks in advance.

The post When Did You See a Person’s Sanity Slowly Deteriorate? People Shared Sad Stories. appeared first on UberFacts.