Everything can change in an instant in life.
You can have it all, be perfectly content, and one little slip-up, moment of weakness, or accident can totally ruin everything.
It’s sad, but true…
AskReddit users shared their stories about people who ruined their life in an instant.
1. Downward spiral.
“I had a friend, my old and first best friend in middle school. We were closer than my actual brother, and same for him. He was without a doubt my rock and I was his. He was a very very good and talented marching drummer/drummer in general.
The dude was learning college licks and rudiments top tier in literal hours. It was fucking insane. He got to play with UCLA and USCs drumline at 14 and didn’t miss a beat with them.
His mom unfortunately passed away when he was 15. He turned to heavy drugs, insane amount of drinking and fucking anything that walked. I recently saw him in the beginning of March and I won’t lie, I didn’t even recognize him. It took me a solid 30 seconds to realize who it was that was calling my name. Extremely skinny, bags under eyes, greasy hair and dirty teeth.
I felt fucking terrible I couldn’t do anything. But what could I do? He ran away from home, dropped out of school, wasn’t on any social media, had no contact with family and honestly, had no family at all besides his dad, aunt, 2 extremely distant cousins and a brother in the marines.
I havent seen or heard from him since. He could have passed away and I wouldn’t have known.”
2. Ugh. Terrible.
“Friend head dived off a fraternity balcony while drunk into a parking lot.
He now has 1/2 a brain and is wheel chair bound.”
3. Bad things happen with alcohol.
“High school acquaintances were partying underage and some other kids with drama were buzzing the party in some stupid loud car.
Drunk guy thinks the best way to handle this is to throw a huge paving stone at the car on one of its passes. Stone goes through window, hits passenger (mid-body/lap, not head), driver panics and refuses to take passenger to hospital (apparently EVERYbody was under the influence). She bled out of internal injuries in the hours that followed.
Guy who threw the stone is still in prison for manslaughter.”
4. Ummmm…
“I had a friend years back, always kind of an odd guy, but he had a good heart. Anyway, one day, I was hanging out with him and a few other friends and he told us he was going to get a tattoo tomorrow and had this super cool idea, but he wouldn’t tell us what it was because he wanted it to be a surprise.
We saw him about a week later. He had tattooed 3/4s of his face green. Like, no design or anything, just solid dark forest green. Basically, he just left the top right quarter of his face normal and the rest was all green. He had been immediately fired from his job the day after getting the tattoo. I kind of lost touch with him shortly after that, since he moved to another city. I’d heard he wound up living in his car.
No idea why he did what he did. He’d had a very good job in IT at a pretty big company and was making decent money. No clue why he thought permanently turning 3/4 of his face green would be super awesome.”
5. Vegas, baby!
“When I lived in Vegas I saw all these people come in and “bet it all on black”, then lose.
Then the stare of disbelief as they realize their mortgage is gone and they have to explain that to whomever they had left at home.”
6. That was quick.
“New guy at a factory celebrated finally finding a job by doing a shot at the bar next door during lunch.
Got fired after 4 hours of work for it.”
7. Oh, boy…
“Couple of guys I knew in college were Division 1 athletes, but for a niche sport nobody really followed.
One night they got drunk and decided it would be a great idea to bleach their initials into the astroturf on the football field. Really bad idea, but it got SO MUCH WORSE.
Turns out bleach and astroturf create a chemical reaction: fire. They burned down the entire field of a Division 1 football stadium.
Caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. Made national news. It was baaaad. Everybody thought they did it on purpose, like some kind of terrorist act. Their only defense was, “No, we’re not terrorists, we’re just idiots!”
Saddest part was, they got expelled from college in their senior years, didn’t graduate, and kind of descended into loserdome almost immediately. Typing this is bumming me out.”
8. Awful.
“About 50 years ago when my great uncle was in his early 20s he drove home so drunk that he ran over and killed 2 college students and didn’t even realize it.
After his initial incarceration he didn’t know how to function as a free citizen so he keeps getting himself sent back to jail. For example, he got out of jail around a year ago and couldn’t make his first months rent.
His solution was to walk to the convenience store, steal a beer, and sit on the curb waiting for the cops to arrive.”
9. Don’t ever start.
“I was there when my older brother tried heroin for the first time. Fast forward 15 years and he is constantly going to the hospital for abscesses that appear on his arms and legs and is almost completely cut off from the rest of the family because he’s robbed our parents more than once.
Every few years he swears he is going to kick the habit. The first few times we collectively ponied up cash to send him to rehab and tried to be as supportive as we could.
After the 10th relapse or so we’re too exhausted to even pretend to be hopeful about his newest attempt to get clean.”
10. One stupid act.
“Went to school with a kid who threw a rock off an overpass and killed a dude.
Whole life down the drain at that point. Made international news
Flint, Michigan.”
11. That is really stupid.
“My stupid ex girlfriend, in an effort to pay back a loan shark, maced the opening manager of a blockbuster and stole the bank deposit bags.
Then, she went and picked up her niece and nephews, all under age 8, and causally drove around with them. She got felony stopped on a major roadway. Her photo was on the “top stories at ten” lead in to that evenings newa. This happened during the NBA Finals that year, I think it was during game 6 or 7, so huge viewing audience.
Oh, she was easily recognized and apprehended because her best friend was store manager of that blockbuster and she was there all the time. And she had dropped off an application the day before.
She spent the next three years in a women’s prison.”
12. That’s just bizarre.
“Dropped out of a very good college with a full scholarship, that his family could never have afforded otherwise, after three years due to World of Warcraft addiction.
No, this wasn’t me. I managed my addiction responsibly.”
13. Very sad.
“When I was in college in the early 2000s, a sophomore drove his car into a bunch of kids out partying on a Saturday a block and a half from where I was living.
He was going 60-70mph, swiping cars parked on the side of the road before he hit the crowd. I think 4 people died. He got out screaming nonsense before being tackled. Was on a handful of drugs.
Last I heard he was in a mental facility.”
Okay, now it’s your turn!
In the comments, tell us about a time when you’ve seen someone totally ruin their life.
Please and thank you!
