January 25, 2023 at 1:02 am

People Admit When They Asked “What Am I Doing With My Life?”

by Matthew Gilligan

We all have those moments when things are bad, we look in the mirror, and we say to ourselves…”what the Hell am I doing with my life?”

And today we’re going to hear from AskReddit users about the times they’ve done this.

Let’s take a look.

1. Oh, boy…

“When my boyfriend at the time was in the kitchen arguing with the woman whom he was currently cheating on me with…

I was literally in between them as they were about to physically attack one another.”

2. Hoarding.

“When I had to move several bags of trash out of my shower so I  could clean myself, only there wasn’t really any space to put them because..more trash bags.

Granted I was living in a really tiny space, but this was the moment I stopped and really had to think for a moment. Started on antidepressants a couple months later.”

3. Complaining.

“When I realized I am the only one complaining about life and regrets to my friends.

I feel that I have been in the same place for a long time and still expect things to be the same way as they were long ago. I think I tricked myself into believing that everything in life will fall into place at the right time whereas nothing even remotely similar to this has ever happened.

I am afraid of being known as the guy who never left his parent’s house. Who always lived in the shadow of other people just to survive.”

4. Is this it?

“Earlier today when I’ve seen my reflection in the window sitting in my office and I thought so this is it?

That’s how my life is going to look like?”

5. Time to quit.

“I cried in an airport because my flight home got cancelled.

Had a traveling job where I was gone at least 1 week a month and it was making me depressed and anxious.

A nice lady gave me a hug and thought a family member d**d or something. Then she told me to quit my job.”

6. Sunday night…

“Working in the kitchen of a seafood restaurant.

It was Sunday night, restaurant had been closed for like an hour, I was still on the clock because cooks & dishwashers have to stay late & clean the whole kitchen every night.

I was soaking wet, hot, sore. My hands were raw because the dish soap we used eats away at your skin like lye, and I’d been scrubbing walls with steel wool. I reeked of raw fish and hushpuppy batter and sweat. And my boss (the owner) decided to yell at me and threaten to fire me over a small mistake I made. And also, my phone bill was due and I didn’t have enough money in the bank to pay it.

I was like “why the F**K am I working for a boss who treats me like s**t, in a job that is physically destroying me, when I’m not even earning enough to cover the ONE BILL I have?”

Quit that night, was planning to literally just tell the boss “f**k you, I’m done” and leave but he asked me to stay on for a week and I agreed mainly because I was too exhausted to argue with him.

Never worked in a restaurant since, and now when people tell me “But you’re such a great cook, why don’t you work in a restaurant?” I laugh and tell them “First of all, because it doesn’t pay enough, and secondly because I already have before and I h**ed it.”

I love to cook but there’s a HUGE difference in the satisfaction you get in making whatever the hell you want with full creative control, vs dropping hushpuppies in a deep fryer and making the same dozen or so dishes hundreds of times a night.”

7. Gone for good.

“About 12 years ago.

My husband (at that time) was outside, d**nk and mouthing off at two police officers, who went on to arrest him for breach of the peace. He had just attacked me for checking my phone while we were watching a movie and I had called the police.

I was sat at my dining room table with 2 more police officers and a specialist officer from the domestic a**se unit. My 3 year old son was asleep upstairs.

They asked me horrid questions like had I been r**ed? Had he a**sed our son? What triggered in me at that moment was a realisation that 1) I had endured months of mental a**se at the hands of someone who was supposed to love me, which was now turning physical, 2) I wasn’t raised by my strong mother to put up with this kind of c**p and 3) I have to get both my son and myself as far away from this man as possible

I left the next day and didn’t look back.”

8. Exhausted.

“I was working nights, going to college days, and socializing and sleeping at… ummm…. huh.

Got so exhausted I was hallucinating while driving. Finally snapped when I realized I had to go to work again and hadn’t slept since the last time I had to go to work and was breaking down physically and mentally.

F**k this, went to bed and slept 2 days. And since 2 no-call no-shows was a fireable offence, I was now blissfully unemployed.”

9. No more pleasure.

“Ordered 2 large pizzas and ate through both while sitting in bed.

Literally no dopamine hit from any bite.

Decided that food no longer gave me pleasure and from there I lost 115lbs.”

10. That’s bad.

“When I pawned my wedding ring to buy more pain pills. That particular incident actually got me to go get help.

Been clean 11 years now and got my ring back a few months later. As sh**ty as that incident was, I needed that and it probably saved my life. Addiction sucks so bad.”

11. On the job hunt.

“A former colleague of mine left the company and is making at least 50% more pay, along with equity and a full WFH situation.

We had both been with the company about the same amount of time at that point, but I have six more years of experience.

I’m looking for a job now.”

12. You can deal with it.

“It’s most days honestly but most recently when looking into buying a house.

The advice was to make sure you are good with being there at least five years before wanting to move or it’s a bad decision and it got me thinking about my job and social situation and all that.

Basically it came down to I don’t even want to be here tomorrow but I’m sort of ok with it and I realized that describes most of my life, I don’t really like it but I can put up with it.”

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