As much as we’d like to be cozy, comfortable, and content all the time, that’s really not how the world works. Life is full of sadness—it’s an inseparable part of the human condition and we need to learn to embrace the less-than-savory parts of life alongside the pleasant ones. You can’t have happiness without sadness and each gives the other meaning.
Redditor Graham_craker invited their fellow internet users to share some of the saddest facts that they know in a viral thread. And, we’ve got to say, these hit hard. Really, really hard. For instance, the recording of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird singing its mating call and not getting a response because it was the last of its kind, hit me in the feels so hard, I just want to curl under a warm blanket and eat ice cream all week long.
You might end up feeling blue just like us and Eeyore the Donkey. Remember to upvote the facts that made you appreciate life and how fragile it is even more as you scroll down. Just remember to grab a pack of tissues because you might end up tearing up. (PS—here’s a wholesome post to pick up your mood afterward.)
Of course, constantly living just with negative emotions and nothing else isn’t good for your mental health. Bored Panda spoke about depression, how to recognize it, and how it doesn’t always look like sadness with Emma Morton from the University of British Columbia. You’ll find her insights below, so be sure to read on, dear Pandas.
#22
Whales that sing in the wrong key get lost and are alone in the ocean.
181points
#23
One day, sometime far far far in the future, someone is going to speak your name for the very last time and then you’ll be completely forgotten about.
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176points
#25
That sex trafficking children is real, actively ongoing, and adults will be professionally doing it all across the world at any given point
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174points
#26
There is a remote island in the south Pacific that had a lighthouse built on it in the 1700s. The keeper kept a cat to keep him company. Everyday the cat would bring the keeper a dead bird. The keeper had never seen birds of this type before, so he kept the tiny carcasses to show scientists who'd be on exploration ships. The scientists determined that they were flightless songbirds - the only known species of flightless songbird ever discovered, then and now. One day the cat just stopped bringing the birds to the keeper. One cat caused the extinction of an entire unique species. No one ever saw a living specimen and no one ever heard their song.
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168points
#27
There's more people in slavery now than in the 17-1800's. Pretty sad
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165points
#28
785 million people do not have access to safe water. (Access includes having having water within a 30 minute round trip for collecting it and carrying it home).
160points
#29
Life can be heartbreakingly unfair. A friend‘s sister suddenly passed away because of a heart attack last summer at age 40, leaving behind a bright, young, then orphaned son. My friend and his wife immediately took him in, gave him a home, and cared so much for him. They were very careful, loving, and considerate. They found a preschool for him, went to therapy with him and participated in it in order to support him getting through the trauma of losing your only parent. In December my friend passed away because of a heart attack.
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154points
#30
Many people go through the last years of their life sad and chronically lonely
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154points
#31
A guy in my area had just retired on a Friday. The following Wednesday he was out fishing and a thunderstorm came up. He pulled his boat out of the lake and while standing next to his car on the boat ramp lightning took him out. 5 blessed days of retirement.
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149points
#32
I'm madly in love with my wife of 35 years. We are each others best friends and we are together 24/7. We do massages on each other every morning and snuggle/spoon together all night. We haven't spent a night apart in 3 decades. We are older now and I know one of us is going to die alone.
144points
#33
The Ukranian Famine (Holodomor) killed at least 3.5mil people back in 1932-1933. Stalin's insane plans to optimize state crops while starving out the farmers themselves is some of the most horrific sh*t I've ever heard of. Death by starvation has got to be one of the worst possible ways to go.
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144points
#34
Rwanda genocide School children massacred with machetes It could have been prevented And this is why I hate the expression “everything happens for a reason)
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142points
#35
You can do everything in your power and work as hard as you possibly can, sometimes [stuff] just doesn't work out. You very well won't ever accomplish your dream, despite all your efforts.
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138points
#36
Stephen Hawking died a little over a year before the first photograph of a black hole
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128points
#37
Researchers accidentally killed the oldest animal in 2006
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122points
#38
There is a plastic bag at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
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118points
#39
A majority of people, when asked, would rather die at home than at the hospital. A majority of people, when recorded, die at the hospital rather than at home.
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117points
#40
It hit me like a brick. Was thinking about my dad who died at 73. Thinking about my age (44) I realized my life was likely more than halfway over.
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107points
