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What is the worst year you’ve had, what happened?

55 replies

Daydreamer94 · 12/06/2026 10:13

So I have had a really rough 18 months. It feels
like life just doesn’t want to give me a break. I had a very traumatic birth, nearly died and had to deal with severe PTSD. My baby was then really ill for the first year of their life, getting COVID twice, having a dairy allergy, extreme eczema and multiple hospital visits. I was then made redundant whilst on maternity leave (discrimination), and became very stressed about finding a job and pulling my hair out with anxiety. Finally found a job only for it to turn out to be a toxic mess rife with bullying, high-school drama culture from women you would expect to be professionals. Started to experience very physically symptoms of chest pain, hair loss, sleep issues, stomach pain and decided no job is worth it. Back to being unemployed and we were supposed to buy a property this year! I am just so done. I feel so hopeless and full of anger and the way my life seems to be turning out. Tell me about your worst year/s - did it all work out? Was there a rainbow after the storm. I need some positive stories :(

OP posts:
Dillatente · 12/06/2026 10:20

That sounds like a lot OP. A bit of a cascade. I do hope your little one and you are okay now.

I've had the fall out over a major family dispute and then PIL fell ill. The workplaces dh and I are in are both facing redundancies and my job has a bullying manager above me and ineffective workers working alongside me.

So I'm going to a yoga class just now to regroup having missed 6 weeks. I've found yoga and Rick Hanson's book Resilient both brilliant.

There will be better times. One foot in front of the other.

Dillatente · 12/06/2026 10:22

Sorry - just noticed you've had PTSD. When you've got help for that and you are feeling better Rick Hanson is good for calmness but obviously he's not a sub for in person help.

💐

Dillatente · 12/06/2026 10:26

By the way, anger is often grief really. Don't think that you are an angry person - it's probably grief and grieving the life and peace you thought you'd have is valid.

People do have bad years and good years.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Sesquioxides · 12/06/2026 10:33

My worst was probably the 12 months after DS was born. Covid happened, we came back from our stable jobs abroad for a scheduled holiday and ended up losing our home and our jobs, our employer went under, and I got stuck in an unfamiliar country for 2020 as ours wasn't letting people back in for bloody ages. We weren't eligible for any state support as we weren't in England and DS turned out to have an anaphylactic peanut allergy and a milk allergy. My MH took a serious dive and there was no help at all in that country. We were in an utterly crap rental that was too small for all of us, miles from anything, nothing delivered to us, there was nowhere to walk to and we were just stuck in those four walls for months and months on end. My aunt got a brain tumor that got missed because the NHS wouldn't do proper appointments in her area "due to Covid" and my other aunt died and I couldn't go to the funeral. It was dismal. But we eventually got new jobs, a new house, and are now fairly stable. It took about 2-3 years to sort everything out though.

AmazingGreatAunt · 12/06/2026 10:36

2023 to the present. Sudden deaths, job situations, ripped off by various insurances.

Superscientist · 12/06/2026 10:46

Summer 2020- summer 2021 was pretty bad - pnd and psychosis with hospital admissions. In one month we had 1 grandparent airlifted to a cardiac ICU following their third heart attack, they contracted covid whilst in hospital, baby ended up in paeds due to a reaction to a vaccine, baby had severe reflux and 20 food allergies that took a really long time to identify and treat, an uncle died, an auntie spent a week in ICU with a perforated bowel, a great auntie died and a parent was diagnosed with stage 4 inoperable cancer and went on to develop a nearly fatal blood clot due to chemotherapy.

Summer 2022 - summer 2023 was also pretty bad. In 9 months I lost 3 grandparents and my partner 1, our nursery was shut by OFSTED with 20 minutes notice and my mum broke her back falling down the stairs. Now toddler had a reflux relapse and went back to waking every 20 minutes and only sleeping whilst being held upright

Gettingbysomehow · 12/06/2026 10:48

I'm so sorry OP it's a horrible stressful time and I hope it gets better for you soon.
2019 was one of the roughest years I've had in latter years although I've had some worse ones previously.
My husband of 20 years just walked out and started divorce proceedings, no reason given but I suspect an OW.
My support network and wonderful friends who were also my neighbours then died within 6 months of each other so I was devastated.
I lost my job and had to find a new one, then I lost that job and the one after, so I had to look for another job which was the other side of the country.
This meant I had to sell my beautiful house I renovated from nothing with a gorgeous garden and move lock, stock and barrel to Somerset from the south east.
My house wouldn't sell so I was paying rent and mortgage (astronomical) for 6 months.
The car broke down and could not be repaired so I had to get a lease car which cost loads as my job relies on a car.
Then I finally sold my house, bought a new one which was much inferior to my old house with a tiny garden, moved in and lockdown started the next day, February 2020.
Luckily my job is NHS so I didn't lose that one.
Then my beautiful cat who had come with me fell sick and I spent 4 grand on her treatment but she died anyway a short time later. I was completely grief stricken. She was so precious to me, although she was 21 years old when she went.
Everything is settled now but quite honestly I don't know how I survived it.
I look back and realise I am so much stronger than I think although I need need some counselling for the grief of it all.

Burningbud1981 · 12/06/2026 10:52

2020 My dad almost died of Covid. My mum died suddenly following a short illness. I almost died from an infection. Which the doctors said was probably my body’s way of dealing with grief

nonononoohno · 12/06/2026 11:04

2024/2025 after years of on /off back issues which gradually got worse and nothing working, at the end of 2024 two discs prolapsed. I’ve never had pain like it. It was like someone was holding a red hot poker to my lower back. I spent two weeks in hospital and had to basically start walking/ doing stairs/ pulling myself up, sitting like I was teaching myself again. I spent most of 2025 in significant pain, managing medication/ hospital/ recovery. It was awful.

And to show comparison in the last 5 years I had a year where my mum died slowly and painfully of cancer. And a period of 2 years where we had a serious house fire and had to live in temp accommodation.

But 2025 was still the worst.

DeepestDarkestRiver · 12/06/2026 11:23

This past 15ish months have been my worst. My husband's father was terminally ill so he was planning to fly back to his home country to be with him. This was in February 2025. Then I found out I was being made redundant. I had been at my previous job for 15 years and took a huge risk in taking this new job. I'd been there 2.5 years and then they restructured. I was devastated. The same week I found out, my son, who was in his GCSE year, had a mental health crisis and I was fielding calls from the school, CAMHS, the gp, and other teams. I was so stressed that it felt like I was having a heart attack. I knew I wasn't, but I made an appointment with the gp so someone could confirm that I wasn't. My bp was sky high. He confirmed it was stress and was actually quite kind about it. I was embarrassed but grateful. During this time my husband was away for about 4 weeks. His dad had declined but was still alive.

Fortunately, I managed to find a maternity cover doing the same type of job but at a different company and started that as soon as my previous role finished. My son did his GCSEs (although got very poor marks) and started A-levels. Then my husband's father declined again and he returned to his home country for 5 weeks. This time, his dad very sadly passed away. My husband made it home in time for Christmas, though, and we had a very nice holiday. In February, my dad became ill suddenly and I had to return to my home country for a couple of weeks. He stabilised a bit and I returned to the UK, and in the meantime applied for a very high-level role in the company I was doing my temporary role. There were multiple rounds of interviews, including a panel presentation, and the week before I did that one, my dad died so I had to return home. I pushed back that interview by a couple of days, but had to prepare my slides and practice for it the whole time I was home for the funeral. Again, super stressful.

In the end, I got the position. So I lost my job, dealt with a mental health crisis, and my husband and I both lost our fathers (also had a cervical cancer scare, but fortunately that turned out ok). Now, my son is doing ok-ish at A-levels but is at least more stable mentally, and I have a great job at a level I never thought I'd reach, earning more than I have in my entire career. I don't know what's going to be around the corner, but for now, it feels good to know that I managed to get through all of that. Just remember that nothing stays the same - good times become bad and bad times become good. As I have discovered, life isn't about the destination, it's about how you navigate the journey. 🙂

Tonissister · 12/06/2026 11:24

Definitely the year after DS2 was born. He is autistic (not diagnosed until he was at secondary school) and had severe ARFID to the point of starvation. this was before the internet, before MN and I didn't even know the term ARFID until he was about 10 years old. there was zero medical support. He threw up everything he ate and screamed all night long. He also had a number of complicated physical issues and a minor physical disability. Again almost zero help from medics.

I didn't have more than 45 mins unbroken sleep for the entire year. I hallucinated from sleep deprivation, had severe PND, forgot my own name, couldn't eat. I accidentally gave DS1 some strong adult medication as it looked like his medication when he was running a fever of 42C. DH was useless - we nearly split up. He would go out boozing at lunchtime (in the days when this was a thing) and spend more on wine in one lunchhour than he gave me to look after both children for a week. He earned a lot but we didn;t have a joint account and I was broke.

DS2 was so ill and so difficult - screaming and projectile vomiting all day long, refusing even tiny mouthfuls of milk unless I held him in a particular way. feeding him just 30ml of milk took up t two hours. Meanwhile DS1 was ignored, ignored ignored. No one could look after DS2 except me, so I lost an absolutely brilliant job that would have been the making of my career. I tried to do it and failed badly due to sleep deprivation then had to step down. The person who offered me the job who had been a mentor of mine never spoke to me again. I had no job and when my maternity leave ran out, I relied on child benefit. It felt like a living hell that would never ever end.

Eventually DS2 turned a small corner, DH and I had some very serious heart to hearts and I forced him to become more involved and give me better access to mony (we didn't have a shared account.) I set up my own business working from home -very very small scale at first but by the time DC were school age, it was taking off.

Twenty five years later, that business earns good money and I enjoy it. Still tiny and run from home, but work that I love at better rates of pay than if I was employed to do it by someone else. My screaming, starving baby is an adult with a first class degree from a good uni, a good job, his own flat, a girlfriend, a brilliant semi-pro hobby he loves, lots of friends and is a bit of a foodie, ironically. Way more adventurous than I am. DS1 lives abroad, doing a well-paid job he loves, has a gorgeous partner, loads of interests, visits us often.

DH and I are happy together. If MN and the internet had existed at the time, it would have urged me to LTB and I nearly did. But I had no money and knew trying to earn a living on top of the horrendously exhausting job of keeping DS2 alive was an impossibility. I am glad we struggled through.

SinisterBumFacedCat · 12/06/2026 11:31

2019

My stepdad went missing and was eventually found having taken his own life in the woods.
My Mum who came to stay with me afterwards was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s although completely in denial, which had obviously caused stepdad depression and suicidal thoughts. I was Mums carer from then on until she passed away at Xmas, basically my life was fucked for 7 years. I am only just emerging from the trauma of it all now. Plus on top of that Covid isolated me even more when I was trying to care for Mum. But 2019 was the start of a long period of hell and when I look back at old photos before then I feel bad like warning that person life is about to go downhill rapidly.

xOlive · 12/06/2026 11:34

If I wrote down all of my life you’d assume I must be the most depressed person 😂 I’m probably going to have a breakdown in my 40s, I just don’t have time for one right now.

Last year I think has to be up there with one of the worst.
I was 6 months pregnant when I found my 57 year old Mum dead on the floor at home. Brain haemorrhage. Gone.
I was her next of kin, so I had to plan the funeral, still working full-time, helping my 7 year-old through losing her Nannie, I had 2 weeks to clear out my Mum’s council flat, it felt surreal.
Then both me and baby nearly died in labour, I ended up in hospital for a while trying to get my infection under control.
2025 took my Mum and gave me a daughter.

clearlyy · 12/06/2026 11:48

2023 I lost my home, got dumped, and lost our baby all within 3 months. It was a fucking horrible time.

JadeSeahorse · 12/06/2026 12:10

1999!

I held a very senior role which I loved and in which I was very successful. DH and I had a 5 yr old DD - only child - with SLD and she had been placed on meds which we knew didn't suit her - she became incredibly agitated/aggressive/destructive, didn't sleep and suffered horrendous cluster seizures - but her arse of a consultant wouldn't listen. DH had to give up his job to care for her as my role involved lots of overseas travel.

Mid 1999 my company went through a huge reshuffle and both the MD and his deputy - both of whom were hugely supportive of my career - walked. Various people in the company who hated me - professional jealousy - bullied me relentlessly and eventually I was placed in a position from which I had no choice but to walk.
On top of this DH was made redundant from his small pt lecturing post 3 weeks later. Spent the whole of that summer with no income, a huge mortgage and car payments and our fast dwindling savings.

DH - thank God - had been taking his advanced teaching exams during the years he had been a SAHD and managed to acquire another PT lecturing post which fast became FT and was well paid. I became a SAHM but started a small consultancy business from home whilst DD was at special needs school.

FF 27 years. Both DH and I managed to pay off our mortgage in 2009, I sold my business several years later, DD was at Special Needs boarding school - and was taken off the horrendous meds which we now know she should never have been prescribed for her recently diagnosed unusual gene mutation - and DH and I both took early retirement.

Now DD lives in a beautiful apartment within an excellent, local supported living complex and we see her several times per week. DH and I are financially secure for life and have travelled extensively over the years.

Back in 1999 I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined the lives we all would have today and for which I am eternally grateful.

HopefulYankee · 12/06/2026 12:36

My father used to say life is a phase. You’ll get good times and bad times, life will be a bed of roses and then a pain in the neck. If times are good be grateful and if times are bad hold on till you make it to the other side.

NimbleHiker · 12/06/2026 12:58

2020 to 2023. My granddad almost died of pneumonia and then covid hit. My granddad died suddenly in early 2021. Then my grandma spent 6 weeks in hospital. My grandma died in 2022. To top it off i seriously injured my knee after i slipped in the shower. I had to go private for physio as nhs physio was useless.

Superstorefan123 · 12/06/2026 13:02

4 miscarriages in a year was probably the saddest I ever felt (alongside lots of fall out from that - eg nearly dying from an ectopic, major surgery)

there was a rainbow after the storm :) my perfect little boy

Daydreamer94 · 12/06/2026 13:06

Dillatente · 12/06/2026 10:22

Sorry - just noticed you've had PTSD. When you've got help for that and you are feeling better Rick Hanson is good for calmness but obviously he's not a sub for in person help.

💐

Thank you and sorry to hear about your tough year. Hope your PIL recovers and you are safe from the redundancies! I have just started trauma therapy x

OP posts:
Daydreamer94 · 12/06/2026 13:09

Sesquioxides · 12/06/2026 10:33

My worst was probably the 12 months after DS was born. Covid happened, we came back from our stable jobs abroad for a scheduled holiday and ended up losing our home and our jobs, our employer went under, and I got stuck in an unfamiliar country for 2020 as ours wasn't letting people back in for bloody ages. We weren't eligible for any state support as we weren't in England and DS turned out to have an anaphylactic peanut allergy and a milk allergy. My MH took a serious dive and there was no help at all in that country. We were in an utterly crap rental that was too small for all of us, miles from anything, nothing delivered to us, there was nowhere to walk to and we were just stuck in those four walls for months and months on end. My aunt got a brain tumor that got missed because the NHS wouldn't do proper appointments in her area "due to Covid" and my other aunt died and I couldn't go to the funeral. It was dismal. But we eventually got new jobs, a new house, and are now fairly stable. It took about 2-3 years to sort everything out though.

I am so sorry, that sounds like it was incredibly tough! I hope you are in a better place now which sounds like you are - did anything help you get through that rough time. My MH is struggling, I have started therapy and considering meds but scared of them!

OP posts:
Daydreamer94 · 12/06/2026 13:14

Gettingbysomehow · 12/06/2026 10:48

I'm so sorry OP it's a horrible stressful time and I hope it gets better for you soon.
2019 was one of the roughest years I've had in latter years although I've had some worse ones previously.
My husband of 20 years just walked out and started divorce proceedings, no reason given but I suspect an OW.
My support network and wonderful friends who were also my neighbours then died within 6 months of each other so I was devastated.
I lost my job and had to find a new one, then I lost that job and the one after, so I had to look for another job which was the other side of the country.
This meant I had to sell my beautiful house I renovated from nothing with a gorgeous garden and move lock, stock and barrel to Somerset from the south east.
My house wouldn't sell so I was paying rent and mortgage (astronomical) for 6 months.
The car broke down and could not be repaired so I had to get a lease car which cost loads as my job relies on a car.
Then I finally sold my house, bought a new one which was much inferior to my old house with a tiny garden, moved in and lockdown started the next day, February 2020.
Luckily my job is NHS so I didn't lose that one.
Then my beautiful cat who had come with me fell sick and I spent 4 grand on her treatment but she died anyway a short time later. I was completely grief stricken. She was so precious to me, although she was 21 years old when she went.
Everything is settled now but quite honestly I don't know how I survived it.
I look back and realise I am so much stronger than I think although I need need some counselling for the grief of it all.

Thank you and thank you for sharing. That all sounds so horrible, I am sending you a hug because wow! You sound incredibly strong <3

OP posts:
Daydreamer94 · 12/06/2026 13:16

Superscientist · 12/06/2026 10:46

Summer 2020- summer 2021 was pretty bad - pnd and psychosis with hospital admissions. In one month we had 1 grandparent airlifted to a cardiac ICU following their third heart attack, they contracted covid whilst in hospital, baby ended up in paeds due to a reaction to a vaccine, baby had severe reflux and 20 food allergies that took a really long time to identify and treat, an uncle died, an auntie spent a week in ICU with a perforated bowel, a great auntie died and a parent was diagnosed with stage 4 inoperable cancer and went on to develop a nearly fatal blood clot due to chemotherapy.

Summer 2022 - summer 2023 was also pretty bad. In 9 months I lost 3 grandparents and my partner 1, our nursery was shut by OFSTED with 20 minutes notice and my mum broke her back falling down the stairs. Now toddler had a reflux relapse and went back to waking every 20 minutes and only sleeping whilst being held upright

Gosh! I am so sorry :( Having a poorly little one is really bloody hard - but to couple that with the grief of losing loved ones - I can’t imagine. Thanks for sharing, I hope things a better now xx

OP posts:
Daydreamer94 · 12/06/2026 13:18

HopefulYankee · 12/06/2026 12:36

My father used to say life is a phase. You’ll get good times and bad times, life will be a bed of roses and then a pain in the neck. If times are good be grateful and if times are bad hold on till you make it to the other side.

Wise man! Thank you xx

OP posts:
Daydreamer94 · 12/06/2026 13:21

JadeSeahorse · 12/06/2026 12:10

1999!

I held a very senior role which I loved and in which I was very successful. DH and I had a 5 yr old DD - only child - with SLD and she had been placed on meds which we knew didn't suit her - she became incredibly agitated/aggressive/destructive, didn't sleep and suffered horrendous cluster seizures - but her arse of a consultant wouldn't listen. DH had to give up his job to care for her as my role involved lots of overseas travel.

Mid 1999 my company went through a huge reshuffle and both the MD and his deputy - both of whom were hugely supportive of my career - walked. Various people in the company who hated me - professional jealousy - bullied me relentlessly and eventually I was placed in a position from which I had no choice but to walk.
On top of this DH was made redundant from his small pt lecturing post 3 weeks later. Spent the whole of that summer with no income, a huge mortgage and car payments and our fast dwindling savings.

DH - thank God - had been taking his advanced teaching exams during the years he had been a SAHD and managed to acquire another PT lecturing post which fast became FT and was well paid. I became a SAHM but started a small consultancy business from home whilst DD was at special needs school.

FF 27 years. Both DH and I managed to pay off our mortgage in 2009, I sold my business several years later, DD was at Special Needs boarding school - and was taken off the horrendous meds which we now know she should never have been prescribed for her recently diagnosed unusual gene mutation - and DH and I both took early retirement.

Now DD lives in a beautiful apartment within an excellent, local supported living complex and we see her several times per week. DH and I are financially secure for life and have travelled extensively over the years.

Back in 1999 I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined the lives we all would have today and for which I am eternally grateful.

Wow, what an incredible story! Thank you for sharing that, so glad your daughter has the support and comfort she needs now and that you and your husband have been able to retire early x

OP posts:
Daydreamer94 · 12/06/2026 13:23

xOlive · 12/06/2026 11:34

If I wrote down all of my life you’d assume I must be the most depressed person 😂 I’m probably going to have a breakdown in my 40s, I just don’t have time for one right now.

Last year I think has to be up there with one of the worst.
I was 6 months pregnant when I found my 57 year old Mum dead on the floor at home. Brain haemorrhage. Gone.
I was her next of kin, so I had to plan the funeral, still working full-time, helping my 7 year-old through losing her Nannie, I had 2 weeks to clear out my Mum’s council flat, it felt surreal.
Then both me and baby nearly died in labour, I ended up in hospital for a while trying to get my infection under control.
2025 took my Mum and gave me a daughter.

I am sorry about your Mum. I hope you and your daughters are ok xx

OP posts: