35 People Who Tore Their Own Lives Apart With Bad Choices, Not Substances

I had more credit card debt than I could reasonably pay back. One of the credit card companies sued me.

I was able to file a consumer proposal, which caused the lawsuit to be withdrawn. For five years, I paid back an agreed amount every month. I successfully completed the consumer proposal and all debts were discharged.

The only credit card I have has a $50 credit limit, I use it to pay for parking on machines that don't accept debit, etc. I can't dig myself into another hole with such a small limit.

I don't have any overdrafts on my bank accounts because I don't want to be tempted to use them. I am determined to do better.

My Dad. Trusted someone who was brilliant and corrupt to the core. He but up the money to start a business and lost everything-including the house because he wouldn’t declare bankruptcy bc he thought it was dishonorable. He started from scratch at 53 and rebuilt his career but never attained the same level of material success. He was a positive force for good no matter his circumstances and I miss him everyday.

Me- having anorexia for 12 years from 16 to 26 years old. My early 20s were hospital visits for passing out and psychotic episodes. Parents and friends didn’t know what to do with me anymore because at 85 pounds, I didn’t want to be seen outside.
Ruined my social life, diminished any opportunities I had, completely broke my sense of self and it felt like waking up from a coma ever since I started recovery. Idk what it didn’t take away from me, it took everything away except my life but sometimes that feels more pathetic than claiming I survived. 4 years into recovery while my mind is clearer and better than it’s ever been, wasting my youth to an illness is something I’m still mourning for and experiencing the consequences of to this day.

My dad refused to get a colonoscopy and is now dying of colon cancer. Colon cancer is one of the most preventable cancers via colonoscopy.

Friend of mine stole and sold a Japanese Katana his father brought home from WW2 to buy an Atari 2600. his father found out and forced him to get it back. The person would not give it back because the kid refused to give the money back so his father filed a police report on his son. Left him with a record at 18 and messed with his attempts to join the military.

I had a lawyer blatantly slander me during a civil case that didn’t really involve me (my husbands ex sued him, she has mental health issues. Long story.) He had never met me or even seen me in person. The judge allowed it but the State Attorney Generals office caught wind of it and now pretty much everything he and that judge have been involved in is being brought into question.

My brother. He was adopted from foster care as a baby and the beloved only boy in our family. We lived in a small town where he was treated like a little king. I'm not exaggerating, all the little old ladies on our street would keep his favorite snacks on hand for when he rode up on his bike to say hello. He was so empathetic and sweet as a kid but the moment he hit puberty, he changed.

Between the ages of 12-22 he, in chronological order:

-shoved our baby sister into a fire ant mound

-started using the N word (we are a white Hispanic household)

-stole lunch money and field trip fees from little sister, resulting in her not eating lunch regularly and missing field trips (she had to sit alone in the library while the rest of her class went to a theme park once).

-got accepted into a prestigious boarding school for gifted kids only to get kicked out for smoking and stealing several of the parents credit cards, racking up bill ordering food, and then blaming the one black student in his dorm.

-dropped out of school to become a professional video game player (that didn't last long).

-got a girl pregnant and once he realized the family would only provide childcare if he treated us with basic human decency, he stopped trying to have any relationship with husband kid.

-called my Asian American husband slurs and said he wasn't a real man bc he doesn't work with his hands (my husband is a vet but whatever).

He's ruined his own life. He's now a lonely, radicalized young man who isn't invited to the family Thanksgiving a half hour away from his apartment.

My friend got pregnant at 13. She kept the baby, but lost most of her friends, couldn’t do after school activities or hang out on weekends. Teenager, top of her school, now a mom who is lucky to get a minimum wage job.

A dude in my neighborhood was a big name in my town. He was on our HOA board, was a coach of his kids soccer team and was active in the PTA.

When COVID happened and everything was on lockdown the guy got exposed.

Turned out he had another whole family in another state.

I have no idea how the guy found the time to juggle all of that.

Yup, guy with his dream job, but refused to get a COVID vaccine. Lost his job, doing something well beneath his skills, mad and drinking.

I've seen plenty women ruin their life over some guy they love. Or some people that have children too early and get stuck in poverty.

Apprentice baker at the restaurant I worked at managed to get a copy of the office key. Went in one day, took a bunch of paychecks out, laid them out on her prep table, and proceeded to mobile deposit about a dozen checks in her bank account. All on camera.

To this day I have no idea what she was thinking doing that, how she thought she wouldn't get caught. Pretty open and shut case. Got nailed with felony embezzlement and a litany of other charges. She was 19 and in college.

Ended up getting kicked out of college and went to prison for a bit. No idea what happened to her after that (it was a while ago, I assume she's out now) but darn was that stupid. Torched her entire life and career in a few minutes.

When I was in uni, I worked at a largish grocery store as a cashier and then a night packer.

The front-of-store day supervisor, who'd worked there for a decade, got caught stealing over $100k from the various cash registers. All the cashiers used to have to count their float to make sure it balanced at the end of their shift, and then she'd recount it to make sure they were correct. What she used to do was palm small bills so the tills were slightly out, but it didn't get noticed.

If the cashier particularly annoyed her, she'd take larger notes until the cashier got fired. They were all teenagers so it just got put down to them making mistakes when giving change.

The reason she got caught was she got into a long running fight with the front-of-store night supervisor and tried to pinch part of their float to get her accused of stealing and fired. The problem was the night supervisor suspected this was happening and kept meticulous records and clued in the store owner who later caught the day supervisor with cash in her locker.

To make things worse, it turned out that the store manager not only knew about all this, but was having an affair with the day supervisor.

They both got fired and divorced, the day supervisor got charged and I think she got some jail time.

Had a family member spend her and her husband's entire savings and retirement on cancer treatment...she didn't put it through insurance because she didn't want her husband to find out that she had cancer and worry about her. He ended up developing his own health issues and not being able to work anymore, so they're now financially completely dependent upon their adult children.

Full ride scholarship to college. Tanked their GPA their first year due to just not trying at all in class. Lost the scholarship. Dropped out to start working manual labor and got his girlfriend of a couple months pregnant.

I worked for a guy who was very entrepenureal but very stubborn. At one point he realized he had about 2 million is assets if he factored in his house and all, and I said hey, you should retire, you're already 55 so enjoy it. Nope. Dude sunk all of his money into a new venture instead.

It was an arcade. The city he built it in didn't allow arcades. He dug in his heels and decided to fight "the man."

Lost the building, his investment, his house to creditors, and last I heard had to move in with his girlfriend and her mom. Hope he bounced back, buuut I doubt it.

I know someone who got in very deep with an MLM. She completely bought into the false positivity, the fake it til you make it and portrayed a completely false account of what was going on. She earned trips, claimed to be making thousands every month, living the dream, going to retire her husband someday soon. Eventually it all unraveled, she was deeply in debt that she had been keeping from her husband. She had been ordering tons and tons of product to keep her status and rank and had rented a storage unit to keep the product in. She had also gotten into her children’s savings accounts. Ended up divorced, destitute, and somehow her husband ended up with all her product in the divorce. I have no idea what he did with it.

My father hurt his family including me, he terrorized us because of his own unprocessed trauma. Now he’s in his 80s and is going to die estranged and alone.

A guy I know was in charge of a city department. He spent his days gambling his daughters college money away. It all came out when people started complaining that the city truck that he was driving was parked at the VFW all day long. He got fired from his easy job and had to tell his wife what he had done. She divorced him. I never heard if his daughter ever forgave him.

Had three buddies fresh out of high school decide to build home made bombs and blow up ports-potties. All of them were very smart and college bound. ATF found them after the third or fourth explosion. One buddy turned on the other two and got to lead a good life. The other two went to prison for a couple years. Absolute waste of what they could have done.