Watching the original 1986 cartoon Transformers movie where they KILLED Optimus Prime. Literally main character and hero killed off, was brutal when I watched it about 7 years old lol
Watching “Where the Red Fern Grows” in 6th grade English class while everyone else goofs off and you’re trying to hide your buckets of tears cause you’re the only one who actually watched the movie.
Having a family member who is an alcoholic. I’m talking severe alcoholic, can’t hold down a job, adult child at 37. I have no clue what I’m going to do with her when my parents pass.
An idea, has the power to fundamentally alter our perception of reality, dismantle our core beliefs, and/or force us to confront uncomfortable/inconvenient truths in ways which can leave a scar behind which may never fade.
And even worse, an unconstrained idea becomes an idea that is no longer bound to just us. It can infiltrate and infect entire societies or cultures in insidious ways.
An individual which can wield an idea holds a weapon of possibility.
Unexpected job loss. Psychologically, many people don’t realize how much of their identity and social network is connected to work. People are aware of the financial impact, but if you haven’t experienced it, it is difficult to grasp the profound impact that someone is going through and the lingering fear, years after, that it will happen again.
Domestic Violence. It’s not the fact you’re getting beat that’s traumatizing, it’s who is beating you. When someone you love and trust does that, it screws up what your brain considers a safe environment. It destroys your trust and makes you a paranoid person.
“Spanking”. Flying off the handle at the most minor thing. Grabbing your kid by the hair and shoving their nose in whatever it was you sent them for that they couldn’t find while yelling that them “IT’S THERE! RIGHT FUCKING THERE!! YOU SEE IT NOW!?!?“, and just generally making their lives a living hell to the point they hope you’re dead and disappointed when you’re misdiagnosed with a terminal illness.
Gettig a dUI. Yeah, you’re an idiot and deserve it, but the intensity of the guilt and shame that you could have hurt someone and looking at your addictions, on top of being arrested and spending the night in cells, ontop of your career and life being significantly impacted. It’s all sorts of trauma
A broken knee. Seriously, we underestimate how painful and mentally challenging an injury to the legs or back can be… or any injury that affects your ability to walk. Especially being young and losing like a year of your life to your couch. No one can truly get it until it happens to them, so the isolation, physical pain, and financial stress is something you mostly have to deal with alone. This is what made me realize the importance of a good support system and the irony in the current “i don’t need anyone” mentality a lot of younger people have today. Because just wait until you can’t walk or do any basic chores for months without anyone to help you but your tired dad. So please check in with your injured friends. Help them with chores, bring them some beer or good food and go watch a movie with them. Ask them about physio, fake it if you have to, but show interest in the thing that is consuming their life and will be for months. You don’t realize how important that could be for their recovery.
I think seeing people faint or have a seizure. Obviously it’s worse for the person going through it but whenever I’ve witnessed it, it made me feel sick I guess because it’s not common see. It kind makes you feel like the person is dropping dead subconsciously so your body freaks out like it’s seen someone die. It’s just uneasy.
Having a shitty step-parent as a child and the other birth parent defending them.
My step-father was a womanizing alcoholic. My mom would often make me clean-up after him when he puked on the floor or make me serve him his food.
If I made money doing a part time job, he would steal my money. He would come home after a night of drinking and eat my school lunches I made the night before.
Truly a horrible human being and my mom “loved him”
Karma won out. He’s in jail for the rest of his miserable life for killing a cop in an armed robbery.
People who will say anything to get their way. If you’re honest and willing to look at yourself when people criticize you to see if you’re being a problem, it drowns out all the legitimate criticism and makes you see everything as an attack. Best case you just become deaf to when you are the problem.
“Oh, great, someone else trying to trip me up just to get me out of the way. Fuck you.”
There are a lot of things that can go wrong, and it is seems rare that someone makes it through their entire pregnancy and delivery without some sort of scare or trauma. I almost lost my son when he was born, and almost lost my wife when our daughter was born. Easily the two most traumatic events of my life, so far.
Unexpectedly losing a dog. It’s happened like 3 times in my life and each one was more traumatizing than the next. I want an another dog but my heart still hurts from loosing my baby and it’s been over 2 years.
Financial instability in childhood. People joke about ‘being poor builds character,’ but constantly stressing about food, rent, or utilities as a kid wires your brain for survival mode.
Having a major surgery. I had a spinal fusion when I was 23 and was completely unprepared mentally. Ended up with some complications and stayed in the hospital for a week. Such a miserable week and a painstakingly long recovery process. My pain scale changed, didn’t know anything could hurt that badly.
Growing up in a house where emotions weren’t allowed.
You don’t realize how much that messes with you until you’re older — struggling to express how you feel, thinking you’re “too sensitive” for having needs, or feeling guilty anytime you open up.
It doesn’t leave scars people can see, but it shapes the way you show up in every relationship.
Psych wards. As much as they saved my life and I’m so glad they existed, it was also traumatic to feel like a trapped animal with no idea what’s going on, given a diagnosis nobody explains, put on pills nobody explained the side effects of, and be surrounded by people who were either the kindest but most traumatized people you’ve ever met who overshared or people who genuinely might beat your ass if you say the wrong thing or look at them incorrectly is kinda traumatizing.
Like it’s weird going from years of everyone ignoring how mentally ill you are and now you’re in group therapy with schizophrenics and people who have ptsd from being tortured and they’re acting like they pity you.
Realizing something really is very wrong with you is scary and you can’t go back from it, and realizing that while you’re surrounded by strangers far from home is a little traumatizing tbh.
Homelessness. I was homeless for 4 years and can tell you that going so long without security or privacy really takes a toll on you. There is no respite from it all either. Everything and everyone around you reminds you that you don’t belong and aren’t wanted anywhere.
Homelessness. I was homeless for 4 years and can tell you that going so long without security or privacy really takes a toll on you. There is no respite from it all either. Everything and everyone around you reminds you that you don’t belong and aren’t wanted anywhere.
Comments
Being a “husky” child/teen, particularly if you’re a boy who develops “man boobs” during puberty.
A movie about rabbits……
If you know, you know.
Forcing your kids to follow your religious views
Being ghosted. Especially by people you felt a connection with, trusted, or knew a long time.
Being in toxic company which makes its own job successfully anyway and working overwhelmed with desire which invisible for anyone else
Netflix or Amazon getting the rights to ‘adapt’ a favourite book or game of yours.
The fact that people can have diseases like anal fistula out of nowhere
I’ve been waiting 15 years for a good Halo game to come out
Watching the original 1986 cartoon Transformers movie where they KILLED Optimus Prime. Literally main character and hero killed off, was brutal when I watched it about 7 years old lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7sjXkYHOg0
Growing up in a broken home…and to parent(s) who think you should be grateful for being born 😂
Working at a job you hate.
Especially bad if you already have mental health issues.
Morning alarms
Expecting young people to learn dating by trial and error.
The Matrix
If you see it, you know
Being bullied. It has lifelong effects on your mental health.
The silent treatment from parents when you’re a child, still recovering
A broken heel. Injured ribs that take years to heal.
One sided love
Financial trauma
Having a mentally, emotionally, physically and financially abusive father.
Watching “Where the Red Fern Grows” in 6th grade English class while everyone else goofs off and you’re trying to hide your buckets of tears cause you’re the only one who actually watched the movie.
Going through the process of being disillusioned of a certain belief you held…it’s much worse when it’s related to your religious beliefs
Culture
Performing First Aid on someone experiencing a medical emergency. I don’t wish anyone to have to perform CPR on someone else.
Self sabotage
Being cheated on and betrayed.
Can mess you up for life
Having a family member who is an alcoholic. I’m talking severe alcoholic, can’t hold down a job, adult child at 37. I have no clue what I’m going to do with her when my parents pass.
Losing a beloved pet.
Losing a sibling or parent!
An idea.
An idea, has the power to fundamentally alter our perception of reality, dismantle our core beliefs, and/or force us to confront uncomfortable/inconvenient truths in ways which can leave a scar behind which may never fade.
And even worse, an unconstrained idea becomes an idea that is no longer bound to just us. It can infiltrate and infect entire societies or cultures in insidious ways.
An individual which can wield an idea holds a weapon of possibility.
Unexpected job loss. Psychologically, many people don’t realize how much of their identity and social network is connected to work. People are aware of the financial impact, but if you haven’t experienced it, it is difficult to grasp the profound impact that someone is going through and the lingering fear, years after, that it will happen again.
Christianity.
i didn’t realize just how difficult losing a pet is. literally the same amount of difficulty as losing a human, sometimes moreso
Domestic Violence. It’s not the fact you’re getting beat that’s traumatizing, it’s who is beating you. When someone you love and trust does that, it screws up what your brain considers a safe environment. It destroys your trust and makes you a paranoid person.
Growing up poor in a culture that puts so much emphasis on wealth, with a society that overvalues material possessions.
Jobs.
Specifically, how important they are to have socially and financially and yet how precarious they all are.
You’re in the expense column and they have every logical reason to get rid of you as soon as possible
And that doesn’t even touch on things like harassment, customer service nastiness, burn out, low pay, overwork, etc.
Finding the sa password hardcoded into an application.
Witnessing death. In real time.
Undergo an endoscopy.
I have a vomitting phobia and had to take one because of a health issue and it traumatized me real bad
Sexual abuse.
People who didn’t experience it cannot understand how profoundly impacting it is, especially when it’s not a one-off event.
Finding out that your parents are into BDSM by walking in on them.
How your parents react to your choices growing up
A major break up or divorce.
It changes a man in ways that can’t be understood by anyone who’s not experienced it
Having to parent your parents as a kid. People don’t realize how much that messes with your sense of safety and identity
“Spanking”. Flying off the handle at the most minor thing. Grabbing your kid by the hair and shoving their nose in whatever it was you sent them for that they couldn’t find while yelling that them “IT’S THERE! RIGHT FUCKING THERE!! YOU SEE IT NOW!?!?“, and just generally making their lives a living hell to the point they hope you’re dead and disappointed when you’re misdiagnosed with a terminal illness.
Gettig a dUI. Yeah, you’re an idiot and deserve it, but the intensity of the guilt and shame that you could have hurt someone and looking at your addictions, on top of being arrested and spending the night in cells, ontop of your career and life being significantly impacted. It’s all sorts of trauma
Having your heart broken by a narcissist
Capitalism
A broken knee. Seriously, we underestimate how painful and mentally challenging an injury to the legs or back can be… or any injury that affects your ability to walk. Especially being young and losing like a year of your life to your couch. No one can truly get it until it happens to them, so the isolation, physical pain, and financial stress is something you mostly have to deal with alone. This is what made me realize the importance of a good support system and the irony in the current “i don’t need anyone” mentality a lot of younger people have today. Because just wait until you can’t walk or do any basic chores for months without anyone to help you but your tired dad. So please check in with your injured friends. Help them with chores, bring them some beer or good food and go watch a movie with them. Ask them about physio, fake it if you have to, but show interest in the thing that is consuming their life and will be for months. You don’t realize how important that could be for their recovery.
Bring ghosted.
It is the single, most difficult thing I have ever dealt with in my life.
Seeing people overuse the word “trauma.”
the loss of a beloved pet
If you own pets, you understand you will deal with death
But each of us who has owned pets probably has one who’s death absolutely wrecked them and left life long lasting trauma and loss
A close partner developing cancer and going through the treatment and watching them slowly wither away.
Your own family dismissing or invalidating your feelings.
I think seeing people faint or have a seizure. Obviously it’s worse for the person going through it but whenever I’ve witnessed it, it made me feel sick I guess because it’s not common see. It kind makes you feel like the person is dropping dead subconsciously so your body freaks out like it’s seen someone die. It’s just uneasy.
Having a shitty step-parent as a child and the other birth parent defending them.
My step-father was a womanizing alcoholic. My mom would often make me clean-up after him when he puked on the floor or make me serve him his food.
If I made money doing a part time job, he would steal my money. He would come home after a night of drinking and eat my school lunches I made the night before.
Truly a horrible human being and my mom “loved him”
Karma won out. He’s in jail for the rest of his miserable life for killing a cop in an armed robbery.
Heartbreak
People who will say anything to get their way. If you’re honest and willing to look at yourself when people criticize you to see if you’re being a problem, it drowns out all the legitimate criticism and makes you see everything as an attack. Best case you just become deaf to when you are the problem.
“Oh, great, someone else trying to trip me up just to get me out of the way. Fuck you.”
Having abusive parents
Military personnel who’ve served in an active theater.
Being ignored.
It’s people literally doing nothing, but can be extremely hurtful.
Getting laid off
Animal slaughter house
Being cheated on by someone you trusted with your everything,followed by mountains of lies
Grad school, especially with a thesis.
Being a paramedic or fire fighter
Living somewhere you don’t want to live
A shitty workplace.
Birth of a child.
There are a lot of things that can go wrong, and it is seems rare that someone makes it through their entire pregnancy and delivery without some sort of scare or trauma. I almost lost my son when he was born, and almost lost my wife when our daughter was born. Easily the two most traumatic events of my life, so far.
When people/”friends” only reach out to you because of your resourcefulness
Unexpectedly losing a dog. It’s happened like 3 times in my life and each one was more traumatizing than the next. I want an another dog but my heart still hurts from loosing my baby and it’s been over 2 years.
Financial instability in childhood. People joke about ‘being poor builds character,’ but constantly stressing about food, rent, or utilities as a kid wires your brain for survival mode.
Being poor really stuck with you.
Being highly gifted. Feels like your an alien in this world.
Being pulled over my an unmarked car to then be bullied by the worst cop ever! PTSD everytime I see a blue Impala 😭
Having a major surgery. I had a spinal fusion when I was 23 and was completely unprepared mentally. Ended up with some complications and stayed in the hospital for a week. Such a miserable week and a painstakingly long recovery process. My pain scale changed, didn’t know anything could hurt that badly.
Dating and being broke
When your parents force you to look/dress a certain way and then they and your entire family mocks you for it.
It leaves a mark. If you have children, NEVER do that to them.
Not setting healthy boundaries with people.
When you’re wired up to a heart monitor prior to surgery, only to hear your heartbeat stop and then hear the doctor shout for the crash team.
Being forced to attend church and/or having Christianity shoved down your throat.
Constant attacks on insecurities
Growing up in a house where emotions weren’t allowed.
You don’t realize how much that messes with you until you’re older — struggling to express how you feel, thinking you’re “too sensitive” for having needs, or feeling guilty anytime you open up.
It doesn’t leave scars people can see, but it shapes the way you show up in every relationship.
Having to be the “normal” one in a friend group where everyone is dealing with their own fucked up situations.
Turns out I’m not mentally stable, just really good at ignoring my own issues.
Psych wards. As much as they saved my life and I’m so glad they existed, it was also traumatic to feel like a trapped animal with no idea what’s going on, given a diagnosis nobody explains, put on pills nobody explained the side effects of, and be surrounded by people who were either the kindest but most traumatized people you’ve ever met who overshared or people who genuinely might beat your ass if you say the wrong thing or look at them incorrectly is kinda traumatizing.
Like it’s weird going from years of everyone ignoring how mentally ill you are and now you’re in group therapy with schizophrenics and people who have ptsd from being tortured and they’re acting like they pity you.
Realizing something really is very wrong with you is scary and you can’t go back from it, and realizing that while you’re surrounded by strangers far from home is a little traumatizing tbh.
Homelessness. I was homeless for 4 years and can tell you that going so long without security or privacy really takes a toll on you. There is no respite from it all either. Everything and everyone around you reminds you that you don’t belong and aren’t wanted anywhere.
Reading the fine print on paid health insurance (fyi, its useless).
Reading the fine print on paid health insurance (fyi, its useless).
Homelessness. I was homeless for 4 years and can tell you that going so long without security or privacy really takes a toll on you. There is no respite from it all either. Everything and everyone around you reminds you that you don’t belong and aren’t wanted anywhere.