Question inspired by a Charley horse that hit in the middle of the night.
Heartbreak
Maybe one day I’ll get there too, but not today
You will I promise :) I’ve had my heart broken badly 3 times in my life so far.
The first one I needed antidepressants to kick me out of the slump, the other two were hard as well but with time and distractions and new hobbies and interests, the pain fades. Just be patient and talk to yourself like you are your own little brother/sister. Treat yourself like another person and take care of that person. Give them the love they need to get through the heartbreak.
Whenever I used to go out anywhere or do anything social, I’d always be constantly, quietly hoping that someone would come along and fall into my life. That I’d pass by someone that looked like they could relate to me, or that would try to talk to me, or be attracted to me. Anyone that would change my life for the better. It was lonely as fuck to constantly want something unrealistic every single day that never happened, for years and years.
Then I met my future wife, and I nearly forgot that pain ever existed.
College exams. Life after graduation has its own stresses but nothing was more stressful to me than having 6-7 exams coming up and having to spend so much time and effort preparing for stuff I don’t care about that much.
At some point it got so bad I’d wake up a few times at night drenched in sweat a day before exams. Yeesh. I guess it was partly my fault for taking it too seriously but I couldn’t switch that off.
School in general. It was so much work. Homework is torture, at least now once my day is finished I don’t have to worry about it until the next morning.
So few responsibilities while in school, though. I think about this often. I don’t know how anyone stays on top of everything that needs doing as an adult. Work, bills, laundry, dishes, cleaning/tidying, cooking, meal planning, shopping, trash, recycling, healthy sleep,… It’s endless.
Now that you say it, actually highschool was pretty chill. I was living on my own in college, so it was your whole list, plus classes, plus homework, and that was the real hell.
I went into the doctor one time explaining all these strange symptoms I was experiencing. Rapidly developing OCD, heart palpitations, it felt like I needed to pee all the time, etc. I thought maybe I was dying. College exams. It was stress. I was having my heart rate spike up to the point where my smartwatch was warning me several times a day. I haven’t had it happen once since the day I graduated about 7 years ago.
It’s unbelievable that going through that much stress is normalized.
One time I took a solo 1.5 hour flight and on the descent I suddenly felt a tingling on the top of my head and down my face, which quickly turned into a feeling like someone chopped an axe into the top of my head. I felt an excruciating pain on the top center of my head , behind my eyes and down my face and was trying not to react in front of all the other passengers. The pain was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. By the time we landed and I got off the plane the sharpness of the pain subsided but I had a bad headache for 2 days after. I thought I might die honestly and it spun me into such a bad anxiety attack. I did some searching and only found one post ever of something similar happening to someone else and it was from sinus pressure. I wasn’t sick at all or stuffed up so it was surprising. So now when I fly I pop Sudafed and blow my nose frequently and basically have a panic attack on the descent because of my fear of it happening again.
I’ve had it a few times, the first time was the worst because I had no idea what was going on. Didn’t have it again for about 10 years and at the time I was flying regularly so I’d take a nasal spray for the descent and also try to breathe out my ears (hold nose and mouth and blow). Only a couple of occassions since that there’s been a little, but I do get anxious at times.
Stop holding your nose and blowing, to clear your ears. You can burst your eardrum this way. I have a perforated eardrum, myself (though not from this), and getting a subsequent inner ear infection in that ear is the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Worse than the burst appendix or broken ribs.
Instead, try holding your nose and closing your mouth and swallowing a few times. With a big gulp of water might help. Should eventually give you enough pressure to clear the blockage, without risking your health.
Definitely natural childbirth. Did that twice, I did.
Unnatural childbirth it is, then
When I was little I got stung 6 times between the legs by a velvet ant that managed to get stuck in my bathing suit. It’s not as bad as some exaggerated videos on the internet may have lead you to believe, but I did cry for about 30 seconds before I went back to what I was doing.
Not years ago, but a year ago I got covid and for reasons nobody can explain it made a nerve in my lower back malfunction and just start sending out the maximum pain signal it could. That’s probably the most painful thing I’ve experienced. Tied for it at least.
Ingrown toenails… had that shot all the time as a teen… hurt like a mf, and hurt even more to let the doctors ripp my nails off…
I haven’t crashed my bike for a long time now. But then I don’t ride as much as I used to and know that roads are very slippery when the first rain in weeks falls.
Getting shocked.
I used to help my father-in-law on the farm and he had an electric fencer for the barnyard that was way too powerful for the length of fence it was hooked up to. I knew that; what i didn’t know was that it was grounding out on a piece of flashing on the barn. It put me on my ass.
He also has this electric fencing that’s made out of rope with small metal strands woven into it. That shit hurts too but in a different way. Maybe because there are more points of contact.
I got shocked doing some wiring last week and it was nothing compared to the electric fence.
My father told a story about stopping to pee at the side of the road. His buddy peed on the electric fence and “almost blew his balls off”.
Didn’t Mythbusters debunk this one?
I think you’re joking but feel free to verify it yourself.
Interesting. I have a mild (probably healthy) phobia of getting shocked when I’m doing wiring around the house. And I was “acquainted” with electric fences on farms as a kid. I’ve been imagining house wiring would feel similar.
I was shocked from doing wiring once, it was uncomfortable but not painful. I had just wired up a replacement light switch for a family friend and I had my hand in there moving it to center it for the faceplate when they turned the breaker back on.
My mom has a similar experience, light switch and all, and it was much more violent.
The feeling of 120V is not great, but not terrible. You’ve got to remember that the electric fence is made for pain, though.
I accidentally touched mains power when I was 10 while trying to plug in my gameboy charger. It’s been 18 years since, but that was definitely something I never want to experience again. I remember I could feel it in my muscles for more than a week afterwards
Haven’t touched a windows machine in 25 years.
neither has Norman Fell
Living the good life.
Active addiction and the hopelessness of hunger, legal trouble, and flexing my principles in order to function.
What do you mean by “flexing my principles”?
Flexing doesn’t quite work in that context but I get what he was going for. Probably bending or relaxing his principles sounds better, i.e. lowering himself to scummy behaviors that would normally violate his principles.
Loneliness, it got replaced by headache and sleep deprivation. Fair trade tho.
edit: got also financial problems too
Ayyy, sleep deprivation buddy! I’ve been up since 5 AM and feel like absolute death. :)
Kidney Stones! Seemed every couple of years I went through it. Well, now that I’m typing this I realize it’s been a couple of years so maybe I’m due soon.
Kidney stones for me too! Mine are calcium oxalate based, so I take a supplement of magnesium citrate to help me break them down, but also drinking more water regularly. I should also lay off the salt, but that’s a hard one because it’s everywhere.
Getting hit in the balls.
