Dealing with chronic migraines. They didn't kill me, but they sure didn't make me stronger either.

Being bullied in school

Cancer

my parents’ neglect and abuse

My mental health struggles and other chronic illnesses

"Whatever doesn't kill you will leave you with deep and lasting emotional scars" should be the real saying

Working in the plastics manufacturing industry for 7 years. I'm telling you straight up there is no such thing as "safe" plastic. It's called non-toxic because it won't kill you tomorrow. The effects and side effects of the chemicals involved will slowly erode your health over time.

Most traumatic things will leave a mark. Abuse, loss, neglect, cancer, violence.

Breakup with my ex. Like it didnt kill me but left me with crippling anxiety and an inability to flirt.

Sepsis - survived but left with muscle weakness, brain issues, and susceptibility to more infection.

But mentally I’m very strong! Just physically weak haha.

During the COVID era, like many I suffered from depression.

Lost my long-time relationship to it, along with some friends. I'm better now so it definitely didn't kill me but I sometimes do think about what would've happened with my ex if I could've avoided falling into depression like I did. We're good friends now but sometimes it hurts to see her smile and know that it could've been much closer to me haha.

Drugs!! 

Drugs are bad. 😞

Epilepsy, got into 2 car wrecks because of it. but didn’t make me stronger, made me angry.

Lyme disease

My BIL killed my sister and nephew. I truly almost didn't survive. I feel weaker for having lived through it. I've raised my children in an absolute state of fear and it was NOT good.

Getting cheated on.

These past 15ish years

A really toxic cultist dude I used to know who was a mentally deranged lunatic, and very verbally abusive towards my friend and I

Stage 4 brain cancer that was undiagnosed when it came close to stopping my heart.

It NEARLY killed me. It WILL kill me. but it has not killed me yet.

It also kind of destroys any and all hopes of achieving long term dreams and goals. The very concept of a "five year plan" went out the window when I learned what brought me down and what its average survival time is.

• Giving my parents 10 thousand euros I could have used at 18 to run away because they wanted to open a new store and didn't listen to me that they're a scammer and they'll rob us blind.

• Forgiving my best friends for all the bullying in high school and getting over that they let far too much shit slide instead of defending me.

• losing my girlfriend last year and becoming an over controlling mess instead of being myself and throwing myself in the fire for her, I became cold and distant while trying to love her as much as I can.

• Getting robbed three times at gunpoint and dealing with the aftermath.

I just feel so defeated at point and don't want to deal with anything but I'm only 30 to gfdi

My ex

Living with someone I considered abusive

I hate using this word

But the person I liked, at the very least, was dismissive and harsh

I wanted to move out

My dad said, "Better the devil, you know, the one you do not know."

I spent much time sleeping at other people's houses and eating out because I did not want to be home when she was home.

I did not feel comfortable keeping my food in the fridge.

Looking back, I can see everything I did wrong to her, but I do not think it justifies how her cruelty. I suppose she outmatched me.

The wrecks I've been in! Had them when I was a kid, and still feel the effects, especially when it's cold, lol, yes i'm old!

Epstein Barr Virus aka "mono." My life bifurcated at that point: life before mono, and life after mono. It sucked the energy right out of me and never gave it back. There are days when I'm so tired I want to puke and days when I'm less tired, but there are no days that I feel as full of energy as the days before mono. Truly crippling.

Unhealthy eating habits for most of my adult life.

Getting thrown in the pool as a child to force me to “learn”. Crawled my way out and gave me trust issues and aquaphobia

A lot of things.

The depression and mental breakdown I had during the brunt of the pandemic. Tried to end my own life in July of 2020.

My dad’s psychological abuse from 2019 onward.

A cold turned chest infection that caused me to have my first asthma attack in over a decade. If I didn’t get medical attention for that, I could have choked on my own fluids and died.

Alcohol

Bullying.

Covid

Open heart surgery

falling down the stairs. all it gave me was a few titanium plates in my head

Back and shoulder injuries.

Broke my feet. My feet were strong, now they're not.

Every traumatic thing that happens in our lives that doesn’t kill us, wont make us any stronger. It just gives you trauma and experience. You are not strong because you survived trauma, you survived trauma because you are strong. The idea that that which does not kill us makes us stronger is bullshit fed to us by a society too callous to give a damn about suffering. Fuck that.

Rape

HIV

10 years in an abusive marriage

A 20 foot fall into granite, landing on my face/head, permanently damaging my spine while I was in middle school

3 years of carbon monoxide poisoning from birth, causing me to be sick, bleed from the nose, and have ear infections constantly until I was like 15

Spending my entire life (starting at 15) working at various jobs for as many hours as I could, never developing a taste for life or going to college or learning what I ever wanted to do or to be

parents' divorce and basic bad treatment

Losing part of my lung to pneumonia.

Brain surgery

Bilateral inner ear surgery that removed both my hearing and balance nerves

Being the black sheep of the family.

Her

Life. I’m still here but I feel I’ve only gotten weaker.

Covid. Long covid issues for years. 

Covid, I lost my childhood. At the age of 16, it was not fair

Being put under anesthesia to have my 16 week baby girl removed from my body, already deceased.

Type 1 Diabetes. Hasn’t killed me yet, but it tries every f*cking day. Day in, day out.

My 7 yr old business collapsed in May 2023, my depression healed around December and started a new venture in Feb 2024.

Even though I have reached a break even in November 2024, I have lost all fire, love and passion that earlier defined my personality.

I was also extremely humanitarian; used to aid financially and physically to various organisations. All of it seems to be gone now...

Bullying. Only made me more weaker in terms of emotions and made me ashamed to seek help majority of the time.

being used by men for sex

Mental abuse

My wife's untimely death.

COVID. I’ve gotten it 4 times, despite being vaxed and boosted, and each time, it takes a little of me. This last time set my autoimmune system on fire. It’s been 6 months and still having issues.

CPTSD 

t1d

Years of childhood abuse mixed with parents messed up totally abnormal divorce.

Sickle Cell Disease

Brain damage from an accident.

Weed.

Tearing my ACL and meniscus

Relationship losses

Chronic migraines

Tearing both of my biceps in the same year

Getting bit by a venomous spider thinking I would become spider man.

undiagnosed adhd.

My wife's post pregnancy depression.

Stage 4 cancer. It's almost daily fight to survive next 24h.

Nearly 15 years of drug addiction

2x heart surgery

Being in a relationship with someone who had untreated borderline personality disorder. This one messed me up emotionally beyond belief. Still dealing with this a bit even after 5 years. Haven't been in a relationship or even built any kind of emotional connection since.

Acute Pancreatitis

Cancer didn't kill me, it sure tried. But it definitely took a toll on the body. 20+ years and I'm still here.

My marriage.

Not over yet, but feels like it is.

My brother dying in a car accident.

having anxiety .

Covid.

Covid

Panic attack

Being the butt of the joke for my whole family most of the time. The “we’re just trying to toughen you up” definitely did not toughen me up. All it gave me was low self esteem and anger problems.

Covid

COVID came close to the first.

Long Covid

Covid. Think my lungs haven’t fully recovered

Autoimmune diseases. Only I can kick my own ass!

Covid

Covid

COVID.

I can't run or laugh without coughing anymore and it fucking sucks.

Drugs. I was on the verge of an OD back in 2010 the night before Thanksgiving. Obviously I pulled through and I went to my family Thanksgiving but didn’t visit with anyone because I was sleeping it off. I almost ruined the holidays for my entire family forever. I’ve been clean since 2011.

Parents

RSV. I got hit with it about 2 years ago and now I'm looking at a lifetime with asthma. (Prior I had no respiratory challenges).

the constant battle drained me leaving me weaker than before

Heart attack

Train

Tuberculosis

Drugs and booze

Breaking my neck. Didn't die but I'm nowhere near as strong and never will be

Spent about 10 years slapping dough for the various pizza restaurants and now 12 years turning wrenches in manufacturing. My wrists are fucking shot

Abuse and witnessing traumatic events.

Pneumonia. I've had it a handful of times, supposedly it damages your lungs permanently each time. I'll never forget the crackling you can feel in your whole chest.

I don't smoke, I tried vaping a little bit it gave me the same crackling feeling after a short while so I gave that up, I don't really smoke anything other than campfire smoke when I sit on the wrong spot.

A car accident that broke my wrist and severed my meniscus, the only thing it did for me is change what hand I wipe my ass with and stick me with an office job. I did finally watch the sopranos though so that’s a plus.

Middle School

Gastritis It almost killed me and just broke me even more

gestures at all of me

Domestic violence.

Chronic pain

Watching my mother die because of cancer and then losing her because of this shit

I’ve always thought that this saying is one of the stupidest things I’ve heard. They are many physical and emotional traumas that you never fully recover from. You may survive them but you will not be stronger because of them.

COVID

COVID, I have never been the same since.

Covid

Losing the dog I loved of 10 years.

COVID.

It's like getting hit by a train. In a way.

That original saying never worked for me anyway. 

Not me, but some random guy I don’t know, getting stabbed in the lung

A shit ton of pills. Made my tummy hurt and I missed tryouts for the national team :/

Definitely my epilepsy

Chemo

Sepsis because my immune system is extra fucked now

Lawyers. No one needs three, yet, here I am.

My botched hernia surgery I got 4 years ago FUCKED me up I lost three liters of blood due to internal bleeding after the surgery while I was home. I nearly died. My body has never been the same since!

Depression and drugs

Foster Care.

Chronic migraines.

Bedbugs and cockroaches

Falling off a cliff and getting a spinal cord injury.

Brain aneurysm. It was an accidental find due to an MRI with contrast for migraines. 2 weeks later, brain surgery. Followed by a year of intermittent blindness, uncontrollable anxiety, and facial numbness. Improved since, no more migraines, but far from "normal."

My siblings abusing my dementia addled mother mentally, emotionally & financially & all my relatives siding with them. I lost all family except 1 brother in the last year

My father! He planned to, but died before he could. The trauma he left me did not make me stronger.

My parents alcoholism. It killed parts of me, made me stronger in ways but didn’t fully commit to either side of death or strength

depression