Humans might be good at building things, but we’re also notoriously adept at tearing s*%t down, too.

That applies to cities and civilizations, but also smaller scaffoldings, like the ones holding up on our lives.

These 15 people had front row seats to the implosion of another’s life – and man, some people really went all out.

15. Oh my goodness.

Drunk buddy climbed into bed with his Mother in Law because she thought she was into him…she wasn’t. Ended…poorly.

14. All too common.

A fellow barfly I knew was an MMA fighter. Had won some regional matches as an amatuer, his gym was promoting him, he was in talks with a MMA promotion.

A guy mouths off to him. He replies. The guy takes a swing. He punches him and the guy hits his head on the pavement. Dies. 5 years for manslaughter.

13. Some party.

Some guys I knew were having a party. A few of them decided some backyard wrestling would be fun. Ten minutes later an ambulance is taking one guy to the hospital after his friend tried to break a table with him. Broken neck and spine.

Now spends his life in a wheelchair unable to control his bowels or get a boner ever again. Had to drop out of college, his gf dumped him and his parents have to take care of him for the rest of their lives.

12. Sheer stupidity.

A friend of mine decided to not use protection with a girl he’d just met… for a whole weekend… without asking if she was using any contraception at all… and finishing inside.

I often feel really bad for this poor baby dragged into this world out of sheer stupidity.

11. Such a waste.

My brother. Heroin addiction. He was always an odd kid, but a very talented guitar player, and one of the most thoughtful, caring, funny, and unique people I’ve ever known. He passed away four years ago from a fentanyl overdose.

I miss him everyday, but he brought so much joy to the lives of those around him that the memory of him isn’t a sad one. I laugh way more than I cry when I think about him.

10. That’s…a lot.

19 yr old cousin. Started hanging with gangs, introduced to Meth then back into prostitution (had done it previously when she was homeless) and gained a gambling habit also, faked pregnancy and stole from family and made it look like others were involved which irreparable trust was broken between innocent parties that some have never recovered from.

9. Some people just can’t quit.

My first wife and alcohol. She had lots of people to support her. She was in the hospital for a week to dry out, then a treatment program for a month. It lasted 3 months before she was back on the bottle. Her doctor warned her that she has 1/3 of a liver left, and if she didn’t stop, she’d die.

Which she did, 18 months after she last went back to the bottle. Her ankles swelled up, as did her legs as the kidneys and dying liver couldn’t process the fluids, and when she finally succumbed, she looked like she was 5 months pregnant as the fluids were now accumulating in the lower torso. So, dead at 38, that was back in 1996.

8. Not hot.

A girl I crushed on super hard in high school started doing meth, and began sleeping with her dealer, who was a Juggalo with a rapidly diminishing amount of teeth.

7. Worst timing ever.

Sell their condo that was rented out, and invest all the profit in crypto in December 2021

6. An expensive habit.

I watched a mate lose 2 houses and $500,000 to cocaine in one year.

 People act like it’s an antiquated joke, or that only crack cocaine is the true danger.

I have been offered it twice in my life, once by a true friend (who has his life together and seems to just do it every great once in a while) and once by a geeked-out stranger while in a safe group of friends, no threat . . . I think he just wanted company in his feelings. I was oddly flattered both times.

5. A cautionary tale.

I saw My Dad destroyed his life by not taking care of himself. When I was 2 he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. After my Mom divorced him he went down hill and refused to cooperate with his meds (he’s also a manic depressive bipolar).

Every year since I was 5 he has had some kind of amputation.

I am 22 years old now. He is 49… has no legs below his knees, only has 3 fingers total now since he just got one of his thumbs amputated.

I really need to be careful and watchful that I am not like him

4. It’s all sad.

One of my friends turned to alcohol and all but gave up on life after his mom passed. It eventually caught up with him and he passed away at the age of 32.

The sad part is that there were signs that he wanted to get better and wanted to get life together again. It was just too little too late and he went about it the wrong way.

3. Another bad addiction.

Numerous people, to gambling addiction. Outsiders don’t believe it is as devastating as drug addiction, but it is just as strong. The gambling addict can ruin their entire life in a matter of hours and not even see it happening until everything is gone.

Outsiders are like “why didn’t you just stop?” as though stopping was as simple as not ordering dessert after dinner. So the addict feels stupid and alone instead of seeing it right away as an addiction.

The industry is completely designed toward taking the addict’s money and calls it “gaming” when discussing it in public. When hiring PhD level psychologists to make the “games” as addictive as possible they discuss it in terms such as “exhausting the gambler’s funds”.

They aren’t referring to being sure the gambler ends the session with the casino in possession of their bankroll money, they are talking about exhausting all funds the gambler can access, leaving the human being without anything and thus making room in the chair for the next person to become addicted.

2. Crazy levels of debt.

A guy I used to work with got himself into crazy levels of debt.

A local guy won the lottery. Nothing major, but still life changing. Something like $30,000. We were all on our lunch break, talking about what we would do if we won that much. I would pay off these credit cards, or I would trade in my car for a newer model. This guy says that it wouldn’t make a difference. At 23 he was already over $200,000 in debt between credit cards and personal loans.

He would just get another loan to pay something off, and keep borrowing. A few months later he was complaining about how he was now an additional $50,000 in debt on top of it. This guy was only making around $40,000 a year.

He got the bright idea to file bankruptcy. Lost his car, his house, his job. Last I knew he was staying at friends houses couch surfing, working for a pittance just trying to survive.

1. Seems ill-advised.

I was a pilot for a US regional airline. Smaller, stepping stone airline. Rough schedule, low pay. Anyway one of our pilots was a good guy…wife, lovely kids… but made very little money.

Anyway he got involved with someone that wanted him to smuggle some cocaine into the us by swallowing a few condoms full of the shit then travel back to the us. Well the condoms started breaking in his stomach enroute. He went to the lav and about near died.

They had to have the EMTs haul him out on a stretcher. He went right to the hospital, recovered, then went right to jail.

Through it all away for a bit of money.

I hope all of these people are doing ok now.

Yikes.