People Reveal The One Experience They Never Want To Go Through Again

Divorce, heartbreak, chickenpox—there are some things in life that you can only handle going through once. If you haven't had a bad experience yet, congratulations! You're one of the few. Keep reading to find out what things people have gone through that they definitely wouldn't wish upon anyone else, or would want to do themselves again.

Don’t forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!

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#1 An Earthquake

A 5.5+ magnitude earthquake like the Loma Prieta one in 1989 where I was watching Bert and Ernie and the TV exploded in my face because the bookshelf fell on it.

#2 A Terrible Man

When I was 38, I married my boyfriend of 2 years. When we got back from our honeymoon, it became quite obvious that he didn’t like me one bit. I endured a year of hell. Neglect. Gaslighting. I felt so deceived and trapped. On our first anniversary, I told him we were either getting therapy and making major changes or getting divorced. Four days later, he sustained a spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from the nipples down. Forever.

He also died and was resuscitated multiple times, had several strokes, had trans-thoracic surgery, was in multiple organ failure; etc. I stayed by his side for seven weeks in ICU and then eight weeks in out of state rehab. While we were gone, my family renovated my home to accommodate his wheelchair. I spent my time at the rehab facility taking classes and passing tests to be his full-time caregiver.

Once we got home from rehab, I spent 10 months building a life around him. Every minute of my life was for and about him. After I got him established with transportation, the first thing he did was get on Craigslist to meet women. I filed for divorce the next day, but it took me six weeks to get him to move out of my house. During those six weeks, I still provided his daily nursing care. Until the last three days, when he tried several times to break my fingers with his wheelchair.

He also responded to another ad wherein a father offered up his 14-year-old daughter for “family fun.” Turns out “daddy” was a cop. My now-ex faces three felonies. His trial starts next month. I could do without all of that.

#3 A Bad Husband

Finding out that my ex had a thing for underaged kids when the police put my front door in at 6 a.m. Logically I know there's no way I could have known and it had nothing to do with me, but you feel so tainted and disgusting just having shared oxygen with someone like that. Then he stalked me for two years. I regret the time I lost to him.

#4 Whooping Cough

Whooping cough. There was a sudden outbreak while I was in high school and I was one of the first to catch it (and honestly I may very well have been the cause of the outbreak). My mother thought it was just a cold and kept telling me I was attention-seeking and made me continue going to school. I got so, so sick that I developed bronchial spasms and couldn't eat without puking.

For a week I would be sent to school, go to class, get sent out by the teacher within 20 minutes, then go to the nurse who'd call my mom to come get me. Eventually, the nurse got so fed up that one day she came down to my mom's car with me and yelled at her to take me to the goddamn doctor. That night I threw up in my sleep. Finally the next day we went to the clinic where I was diagnosed with whooping cough! At that point, I'd probably had it over a week already. Up until that point in my life I was generally healthy. I have never ever been so sick.

#5 The CPA Exam

The CPA exam. Fortunately, my username is now inaccurate.

#6 Online Harassment

#7 Going to the Bathroom

#8 Being Chased by an Elephant

Being chased by an elephant. I was on safari in Kenya a few years back and we drove around a corner right into a huge herd of elephants trying to cross the road. There was a bull standing guard making sure each one had passed safely and we were seen as a threat just as a calf was crossing. The bull opened his ears, lifted his trunk, made the loudest angry toot I’ve ever heard and finally charged at us while we reversed the van. I was looking at it in the face running toward me while we were moving backwards. My heart was in my throat.

#9 Food Poisoning

#10 Unemployment

Unemployment. I've had two stints of unemployment in my career, one for 11 months and one for nine. It was utterly destructive to my sense of self-worth. Every day I would wake up and with a crushing realization remember that yes, this was my real life. It felt like my life and my fate was a prison I couldn't escape from. I've held onto the job I got after the second stint of unemployment for dear life over five years while other colleagues have moved on to new things just because I'm now so risk-averse. I basically turned into a company man because this is the company that rescued me and put me to use.

#11 Heartbreak on a Long Plane Ride

#12 Bilateral Trimming of the Turbinates

Bilateral trimming of the turbinates to help me breathe through my nose when I was a kid. They didn't cauterize it properly and I felt awful all day, finally felt ill enough to throw up and it was basically all coagulated blood clots and stomach juice. Rushed in for another op, and woke up with 6-foot lengths of bandages rammed up each nostril. Much fun was had changing them...

#13 The Return of Cancer

Serious: Having my little brother's cancer come back.

Not serious: Going on Green Lantern at Magic Mountain.

#14 Depression

Depression. I spent the past four years or so slowly sinking further and further into self-hate and depression, but still outwardly functioning. It was only when I completely crashed and burned in the first semester this year that I started getting help. I still deal with pretty bad anxiety, particularly around social situations (I don’t really have any friends). I still have some self-esteem issues to work through. But I can see the progress I’m making.

I’ve started exercising regularly and I’ve applied for some jobs. I’m not falling into those really heavy stretches of depression and self-hating thoughts. I still have a long way to go, but I can see a positive future for myself. I have some hope now. I really hope I never go back to where I was at the start of this year.

#15 Being Robbed

Being robbed. I still dream of that situation.

#16 Losing Children

#17 Heartbreak

#18 Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse. After my ex broke up with me in 2015, I let him stick around as a “friend” for three years after. Through that time he gaslighted me, lied, manipulated me, put me down to have his way, etc. Luckily I put my foot down in August. My current boyfriend is a major improvement and has been a lot of help with erasing the past.

#19 Losing a Parent

#20 High School

High school. The amount of ruthlessness in high school was insane. I was the most bullied kid in high school for trying to be a YouTuber. Of course, every 14-year-old kid had cringey dreams and aspirations at one point but when you have 90 students mocking you for doing something you once loved, when I look back. It’s almost torture. I’m in college/pre-University now so I’m in a better place and I’m still pursuing my dream but in a different light.

#21 Losing a Wallet

#22 House Fire

Living through a house fire was pretty grim (and scary, too). Some time ago I mentioned that we had bought a 1920s house that had a screw-in fuse box in the upstairs hallway (in addition to the breaker box in the basement). Unknown to us, someone had inserted a copper penny instead of a fuse. Thus, a fire broke out from overheated wires in the wall when there was no fuse in the circuit to stop it.

#23 Being Broke

#24 Miscarriages

Going into my fourth ultrasound for my 16 week appreciate after three completely healthy ultrasounds before and being told there is no heartbeat. Followed by having to tell my husband that I lost the baby and then telling my mom that I lost the baby. I can still hear their cries to this day. But I did get to go through that experience two more times. We were finally successful with our fourth pregnancy and I’m currently feeding my 7-week old daughter.

#25 Kidney Stones

#26 Dengue Fever

Dengue fever. Like, please no. That disease comes back with a vengeance if you're ever unlucky to catch it a second time. Caught mine when I was about 17 years old. Lost me the whole summer holiday. The doctors can't do anything for the first few days because they need to know for sure that it isn't just a common cold so you have to ride out three days suffering at home.

#27 Growing Up

Honestly....just growing up. Not that I have everything figured out, but man, did it suck learning stuff the hard way.

#28 Living with an Addict

#29 Presentations

#30 Parents' House Fire

My parents’ house caught on fire one time, due to one of the California wildfires. It caught in the middle of the night when I was asleep, so I didn’t find out about it until the morning. There was no cell service in their town during the fires, so I couldn’t get hold of them. Because I couldn’t get hold of them, neither could our family in New York. So they called me. I was taking calls from relatives all day, unable to provide information because I didn’t know what the hell was going on.

It was a nightmare. I lived 300 miles away from them and all I could do for any further information was watch the news. At one point, newscasters literally said the name of my parents’ street and said that basically every home had burned to the ground. I didn’t know if they were alive or not. I didn’t know what happened to our cat. And I couldn’t do anything but wait.

#31 Being Sick

#32 Pepper Spray

Pepper spray. It reactivates in the car on the ride home. It burns your eyes with a seemingly unending fury. You'll never see again. Life, as you know it, is over. It subsides after an agonizingly long time. You think you're good. You take a shower before bed, and find out that it has again come back to haunt you, activated by the hot water. Your wails of pain can be heard through the entire building.

#33 Being Trapped

#34 Muscle Massage

#35 Going Through the Legal System

#36 Falling Out of Love

I've been falling out of love with my girlfriend for the past six months. I think I'm going to break up with her when I get home. I feel like I've died by tiny little pieces. Believe me, I've tried everything. We are in couples therapy, but half the time she just doesn't bother showing up or will cancel appointments without telling me. When we actually have a session, it's pretty much our therapist telling her that everything I've said is correct and I've been handling our difficult situations with emotional maturity. This is after hearing her point of view.

#37 Kidney Stones

#38 Crohn's Disease

Crohn's.  Imagine not knowing when you have to poop. It sounds like a silly scene from a comedy where there's a montage of someone repeatedly sprinting to the restroom, right? Wrong. The reality is that any time means any time. You no longer have control. Middle of the night? Better hope you don't poo the bed. Driving on the highway? Try not to crash as an uncontrollable bit of the Hershey squirts tried to come. Oh, did I forget to mention that you exclusively have diarrhea now?

Combine that with a lack of sleep (due to waking up in the middle of the night) and food passing through you in an astonishingly short amount of time, you lose a ton of weight and constantly feel exhausted. In the first month and a half, I had Crohn's I lost 35 lbs. And honestly, the worst feeling is just the loss of simple control over your bodily functions. You do not expect something like that to suddenly occur in your early-mid 20s for seemingly no reason. I'm on meds now so I'm much, much better, but I would not wish that experience on anyone.

#39 A Panic Attack

#40 Being in Debt

#41 Flying Cockroaches

#42 Getting Evicted

Getting evicted. Turns out the landlord hadn't been paying the mortgage. The first we knew was when the court bailiffs showed up to throw us out. Now, we did manage to 'stall' the process, long enough to get an emergency move done. But moving house is pretty horrible, moving to 'whatever is available' in November is pretty miserable. And with short timescales and an ill partner, it was an awfully hard and stressful process.

#43 Sleep Paralysis

#44 Unrequited Love

#45 Cancer Diagnosis

My wife's cancer diagnosis, surgery, and follow-up chemo. Sucked the entire time. Thankfully, two years later and she's doing very well.