15 People Describe The Fastest Way They've Seen People F*ck Up Their Lives

Donn Saylor
Updated September 12, 2019 573.0K views15 items

This world can be a tough place, and one wrong decision can derail everything, sending our lives into a tailspin. Some choices only speed up that tailspin, and it's mind-boggling how quickly people can so quickly, and so thoroughly, upend their entire existence. Recently, users have been sharing on Reddit stories about ruined lives and how they got to that point.

Obviously, there is no single guaranteed path to f*cking up one's life. A constellation of events must come together to make that possible, though there is often one overriding factor that initiates all the others into action – sort of like an awful domino effect.

Tales abound of the fastest way people have ruined their lives, and for some, it almost feels like a photo-finish to the lowest rock-bottom. Discover more than a dozen stories about people messing up their lives… and be grateful you are not them.

  • Their Friend Ditched Their Meds And Lost Everything

    From thewiremother:

    I have a friend who is bipolar. November of last year he was earning 40k+, taking care of his son, and doing well. He felt so good in fact, that he went off his meds. By January he was living in the streets, jobless, his ex-wife had a restraining order against him, and pretty much all his worldly possessions were stolen when he 'hid' his shopping cart behind a dumpster. Current whereabouts are unknown.

  • A Teacher Slept With Her Student - Who Is Also Her Stepson

    From fourfrenchfries:

    A (former) teacher friend ruined her marriage, her career, and social life by sleeping with a student... a student that she and her husband had legally adopted together a few years before.

  • Illegal Materials Landed A Former VP In Handcuffs

    From Chingparr:

    Former VP of Finance at my current company (a major airline that paid him close to 7 figures annually) brought his laptop computer down to be fixed. Apparently, he was seeing... pop ups and it was slowing his computer down quite a bit.

    Since he was the VP of our company, answering only to the CEO, my IT department had to give him special 'drop everything and fix it' treatment. I got the honor of fixing the laptop.

    When backing up his files, I discovered a hidden folder. Curiosity got the better of me, and I found about 20GB of [explicit] videos and pictures. Some of which featured children.

    VP was taken out of the building in handcuffs, and ended up [taking his life] shortly after.

  • A College Freshmen Fell Victim To Illicit Substances

    From HelloIAmHawt:

    A friend I met during Freshman year of college came in with thousands of dollars saved from refereeing for youth sports, which I guess pays pretty well. He spent all of that money in about a month--he did ecstasy nearly every day and had a 2-week coke binge on top of that... Despite my and others' efforts to get him to get his sh*t together, he was kicked out of the school with a .28 GPA by the end of his first year. From there he was kicked out of family homes for stealing money and prescription meds and ended up living out of a yellow convertible someone sold him for $300. From all this was born some sort of eating disorder, I met up with him and bought him some food… He was so f*cked that his skin was basically purple with a yellowish sheen. It was f*cking awful.

  • A Construction Worker Did Smack And Fell Off A 14' Ladder

    From mochasweetbaby:

    I worked in construction when I was 19. This electrician would do [smack] right before work in the parking lot (he was my ride and he would shoot it up right in front of me as if it was nothing). He was such a pro he would shoot the perfect amount to be… functional. The guy had almost perfected the art of sleeping (really passing out) on top of 14' ladders until one day he falls and destroys his spine. Now he can barely walk, lives [in] shelters, [uses], and his family and life are gone.

  • A Wife Confessed To Adultery And Her Husband Retaliated

    From ArB1T:

    A manager I had was on his way to the top. Had a perfect life: 10 years married to his high school sweetheart, 2 kids. One day his wife says she had been cheating on him with someone, but was really sorry and this and that. Everyone figured he would take a week off, or drink a lot. Nothing like that happened. The day after he got the news, he came to work and did what he had to, talked to customers, sold a little over average. He didn't even flinch when I asked him how he took the news.

    'I have decided to try again. Nothing to worry about.'

    A month later, police storms the office and arrests him. He never flinched in court when he explained in detail how he had [slain] his wife and kids.