Have you ever lost lots of photos which are precious to you? How did you come to terms with it?

[funinthesun19]

I’m sorry if this is in the wrong topic. But as someone who was already suffering beforehand, this has really made my mental health suffer even more.

A week ago I realised I have lost all of ds3’s baby photos that were on my old phone. Ever since then I have not been coping well at all, and I worry that this is going to torment me forever. I don’t know what to do and how to come to terms with this at all.

Really I was posting on here to see if this has happened to anyone else and if coping with it gets any easier? I’ve not been eating or sleeping, anxiety has become unbearable all day every day. I have loads of pictures of my other children in comparison to ds3, so at the moment looking at my photos is so bittersweet.

I’m also getting lots of feelings of guilt for ds3. Because I’ve always loved him so much. But when he was a baby I remember feeling like I didn’t appreciate him enough because I did have PND. I did take lots of photos though, but I feel like my punishment now is not having them. I wish so much that I could go back in time and give myself a shake.

Hi I have bipolar and schizophrenia for about 1yeaf to 18months I was to unwell to care for my dc I left my husband who was abusive my mum looked after my kids and I got involved with a seriously abusive boyfriend because I did something wrong he deleted every picture I had now I only have those on fb. It broke me but when I got better I asked around for everyone to send me whatever pictures they had and started taking new pictures regularly now I have a collection of pictures I feel better and I know that they remember and I remember and that's what's important it will get easier I promise.

Hi thank you for your reply.
I know this all sounds trivial to people but it matters to me and does have a huge affect on me when I’m already in a dark place as it is. It takes one thing to cause someone to have a major setback and for me this is it.
I’m so sorry about what happened to you. What a horrible disgusting man to do something like that.

I have not experienced it but it is a major fear of mine so I totally empathise and am so sorry.

I upload a lot of photos to Facebook but put them in a folder that is set so it is only visible to me so if something happens to my phone etc and I lose my photos they are stored online somewhere. Maybe you could do something similar moving forwards, I know advice like that in hindsight can be more annoying than helpful though, so sorry it makes you feel that way.

Yes - I moved country and some of my possessions just never made it to the new place. Boxes were stolen, including one that had all my photo albums in it. I was devastated as it included all my photos of my recently deceased DH.

I stopped taking photos for years. I found I couldn't even think about what I had lost - it was like another bereavement. A complete over-reaction, I'm sure, but it came on top of losing DH and I felt like I had lost him and parts of my life all over again.

All I can say is remember that DS3 is physically with you now, and that's what matters. You can look any time you want at his little face. On a practical note, ask any and all friends and relatives for any photos they might have of him.

And yes, eventually you do stop feeling so upset but you have to work at it - by deliberately not thinking about it other than constructively "they're gone, I wonder if so and so has a photo".

I was devastated when school lost my son's learning journey scrap book which contained lots of photos from his very first days in nursery school. like you I had trouble eating and sleep and extreme anxiety as i was so upset. school never found his book. a few years have passed now and in time it does get easier.
I worry so much about loosing more photos. I am wary of relying on online sites such as fb to keep my precious photos safe what if something goes wrong and all my photos are wiped? I do use Google photos though which is free and prefer to use a mobile phone such as a samsung which can have a removable sd memory card then photos will always be on the sd rather than the device. and can be transferred to an external hard drive etc for a back up copy.

I have barely any of my dc when infants. It just wasn’t a thing! The couple each of each child spark vivid memories though.
Talking to them now about their babyhood makes it more vivid. They were looking through their red books yesterday and I was remembering even more!

also is there any chance the photos could have automatically backed up to an online cloud storage without you realizing? samsung,I cloud or Google photos? worth a check.

Similar situation, I was in hospital with DS for a while after he was born, I took lots of pictures on my phone. Later I upgraded the phone and sent the old one off for cashback. Totally forgot about the pictures until the phone was gone. I was disappointed but I just focused on the fact that I still had DS, which was lucky considering what we had been through. I still think about the pictures but I have my memories. Now I upload lots of pictures to social media as a back up.

I once deleted every single photo on my phone. I couldn't restore them and I cried all night. Completely understand OP. Hope you feel better soon.