What is an experience you never want to experience again in your lifetime?

[sooo4455]

The most stressful time in my life started about 7 years ago and went on for 2 years and my mental health took an absolute battering and im still not over it. And now im super paranoid about it happening again.

I had bedbugs and a rat problem under the bath at the same time and pest control were useless.
i had a toddler at the time and their was 7 of us and I was advise to put everything we owned (twice) in the garden while they tried to get the bedbugs under control. I had to wash every soft furnishing and beds, draws, wardrobes had to be emptied and placed outside in bags in the sun. Only thing that was allowed in the house was furniture. I had postnatal depression at the time and I just remember sitting in the garden with everything we owned (twice). With the rats they were running around under the bath and were huge. My bathroom is downstairs and they’d chewed from the outside in, the smell was not normal and the noise all day from them scurrying around 🤮
It finally got resolved after 2 years but at that point I was shot to bits. I don’t think people realise how traumatic it is the live with a bedbugs. I’m so paranoid about getting them again I try and stay away from public transport and hotels or I will research the shit out of them before booking and even then I’m hyper vigilant and can’t sleep.

What is something you never want to go though again?

A Turkish bath.

Mine is so small compared to many answers. I went through an ill-health dismissal. It was an awful experience and embarrassing experience. It was made even worse by the subsequent gossip and speculation by my former colleagues.

Parasailing 😱

And I can’t ever experience this one precisely again, but having my DM in tears on the phone because the GP had just told her my father was dying.

I was bullied at work. My lovely boss left for a position at another organisation, and she was replaced by a total psychopath, who made it her mission to make my life as miserable as possible. The experience very nearly drove me over the edge. It was that bad.

Working on a COVID ward during the pandemic.

It was truly horrific and we were so overwhelmed, plus had less PPE than a dinner lady. Finding people dead constantly was really traumatic.

Oh thats so hard. Its like a knock on effect for you. Sounds like its still very hard but in a different way.

I know it sounds stupid but I got alot if judgement from here and I was made to feel it was it fault. And that I should just accept it because he was a child. I know its just the Internet but it was absolutely awful at the time and had a big effect on my mental health it was awful.

Me and my son get on well now. He jokes around has his dry humour. He comes home kovd if regular stays over sometimes. Message/calls most days often 2+ hours in video call.

Ds has never admitted any of the violence. But hes has completely changed towards me. Hes kind . He makes jokes. His tone is normal. He happier. His change tells me he knows it wasn't right.

I hope things change for you and your ds. Theres always time. 💐

Stillbirth or miscarriage

No, it just showed how different life was. Lockdown was amazing for me. Furloughed on 95% salary for 6 weeks with DS, no apologies for enjoying it.

Obs anaesthetist. Patients aren't made to go through it? They can have csections if they wish. the vast majority choose not too as then don't have surgical wound as well and most IUD deliveries are quicker than living births

So sorry for all everyone has been through. Myself. Covid (icu dr)

A bit trauma dump-y, but it’d be my mum taking her own life in quite a horrific way exactly a week before my daughter was born when she was meant to be one of my birthing partners. And then being made redundant from my job of 13 years 3 months later, especially because I was the main earner. The whole of 2025 was just awful for me and I’d like to never experience another year like it.

Clearing an elders house. Did my DM’s, not too bad. For PIL it took took four of us every Saturday for almost six months. I will not do that to my children.

Watching my mum die from Ovarian Cancer within six weeks of her diagnosis. I'd only just had my DD and I was(and still am)completely numb. It's been 18 years but I still can't grieve.

Graduating into the 2010s austerity years. A significant period of unemployment, poor mental health, lost friendships, and a delayed start to white-collar employment. I think I’m always going to grieve not having a “normal” early 20s.
The best comparison I can give is try starting an Amazon Prime series at season 5. There is a backstory you are not aware of. By the time I was well again life had moved on. My twenties social circle had splinted.

Thank you, my heart is broken, but I had to block them because they were being manipulative asking for lifts all the time, even said they had worked hard for the child trust fund they got from me with extra contributions from me. I am glad your son has come around but yes got parent blamed, accused of neglect by a sw when she was making allegations of me having no food despite police who I had to call when the violence got bad and a support worker seeing how much food we had in the house, just couldn't keep buying dominoes everyday which were the demands. I got an apology from social services who could see I was doing everything just had no control on outside influences. I am still a very jumpy nervous person today, not great at the dentist when I am supposed to be staying still. I completely get what you have been through. Hate is a horrible emotion.

Plane turbulence so bad that during meal time everyone’s trays and food/drinks were flying around the cabin. A grown man at the side of me was crying. People were praying. I was a bit in shock and was more angry that my cheese and crackers had flown down the aisle.

Obviously we all made it out alive 🤣

When my dad was a heavy drinker I was always worried I was going to come down stairs from school and find him dead. He’s been sober now for years but I do still worry. Probably would still be me (or my step mum) who found him since we go round on Sundays. I always get out the car first and peek through the window before the kids. Pretty irrational fear now but still there.

That sounds terrible, I have never even heard of that! I can only imagine the headaches, well I can't actually .

Hope you have a wonderful picnic.

A little over 10 years of domestic abuse

SA (+the STI testing afterwards)

Experiencing my mum having a mental breakdown when i was a teenager, twice, and nearly dying both times

Being shouted at

Being stranded in the countryside in the pouring rain with no shelter waiting for a bus that ran once an hour, that didnt show up

High school, bullying

My dad's company

Spiders falling on me / Being in my bed (happened twice 😩)

Being in a car crash

A relationship

The list is endless tbh wish I had something funny to say

bedbugs

scabies

losing a brother and a sister to covid just a year apart

My husband nearly dying of encephalitis

miscarriages

Status epilepticus in a bathtub and the PTSD it left my husband with, my memory has never come back since.

Marriage. Still trying to divorce him and he won’t move out. Doing everything in his power to delay it all. It’s taken me 8 years to get some semblance of myself back after his abuse. Never again.

So sorry for all those who’ve gone through horrific times 💐

Are you aware people can have different experience and different opinions?

The depressive period I had in my final year of university. It is fair to say the suicidal thoughts tipped over into suicidal ideation. I was scared of heights for years afterwards, as I didn't fully trust myself not to jump. My actual plan would have worked within minutes, as the chemistry lab had fairly lax supervision.

I am thankfully not the same person anymore and have learnt that I have value beyond my achievements.