to feel depressed every time someone says they have 'no regrets'

[SlightlyJaded]

And I don't just mean celeb interviews - for whom this seems to be standard response, but friends and family too.

I have loads of regrets. Mostly things I didn't do as opposed to bad/stupid things I did, and I can find myself feeling really low and wishing i could go back and do things differently quite often.

I ususally comfort myself that this is the same for most people and then some other smiley bastard spouts of that they have 'no regrets', and I feel miserable again.

Do most people have regrets or am I a maudlin cow?

I regret the fact that I wasn't more outgoing as a teen and that I missed opportunities, but it all came with time and if I had grasped them and done more exciting things I may well have not ended up where I am now- so I don't think it matters. Today is the first day of the rest of your life-start afresh!

I just wish someone had shaken me and said you only have one life, so get on with it.

you wouldn't have listened, back then

with age, comes experience and humility and that most important thing to come to terms with.... you don't know best (all the time)

je ne regrette rien :)

yes, there are things i could have done differently and chances i might have missed but ultimtely i am very happy with my life. had i taken a different route, then life would be very different. better? maybe. worse? perhaps.

those with regrets, are you not happy with your lives at the moment. i fully expect that if i were not happy then i might have regrets but at the moment the past is the past and the future is the bit i'm interested in.

you only have one life, so go and live it

thus endeth the sermon my children

I have no regrets about any of the decisions I have made in my life but obviously there are regrets about things that were completely out of my control, but that happened to me, well not so much regrets as "if onlys".

For example, I wish DH hadn't missed 6 months of DD's life when she was a baby and he was sent off to war and I wish my mother hadn't been killed when I was 5 years old.

Agree with MayorNaze.

I'm inclined to think you only have regrets if you're unhappy with life at the moment. If you're happy with life (as luckily I am) I think everything, good and bad, has lead you to where you are so why would you regret any of it?

Missing out on things, losing people, being hurt etc. are just as important in making you what you are today as all the good stuff.

AF you are right of course. I actually thought I was very clever and 'wild'. When actually I was being a twat teenager.

Penelope Yes, I see that's the way forward now - have the regrets (if you must) but don't linger on them. This is what I need to focus on

And Malificence You have just put some of my regrets into perspective, thank you.

Everything that's happened in my life has happened for a reason - the shitty abusive relationship that led to me leaving my hometown led me into the arms of my wonderful hubby by the coincidence snowball it set into effect. Even the crappest things I've done have led on to good things in distant consequences, so no, I don't regret them. I might do them differently if I end up in the situation again - but I don't regret anything because it's the sum total of all your decisions and actions that makes you the person you turned out to be - and I'm not going into the apologising for the person I am routine!

If I'd chosen differently - I wouldn't be the me that I am today.

I agree with everything mayornaze and malfience said.

Whilst there are some minor things that I might have done differently I wouldn't actually care to change them. Life is good and who knows what my alternative could have been.

There are things that I wish hadn't happened - losing my son, the fact that DH has to work overseas but they are beyone my control so I "accept" them as things over which I have no control and for which regret would be wasted.

I have so many regrets I don't even know where to start.
Its the fact that my own decisions got me where I am today that depress me so much because I have no-one to blame but myself for hating my life.
It makes me doubt my own ability to make good decisions as I've made so many poor ones in the past.

Yes, I'm having therapy, but I feel the damage to my life is done :(

If you have regrets it means you've hopefully learned from your mistakes. What's wrong with that?

Daddy

yes son?

What does regret mean?

Well son, a funny thing about regret is, that it is better to regret something that you have done. Than to regret something you haven't done.

And by the way, if you see your mom this weekend be sure to tell her...

SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN

I regret that I allowed the money and career to take over so much in my late twenties and early thirties.

To much time chasing the dime