What's The Terible Horrible, Not So Good Bad Year You Ever Had?

[Guitar_Raph]

With apologies to Alexander for the title.

My answer; 1983! I had a kitchen fire in my old Houston house. Hurricane Alicia attacked Houston, the (then) Houston Oilers had a near winless season & I couldn't stand a certain game show.

This thread is also a pun because it's my 1,983rd post.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

I'd say this past year and a half was. First my hubby got severe neuropathy in his feet due to his diabetes, which eventually caused him to have to quit his job, then one foot got infected with MRSA from a blister that popped, and ended up having to have half of it amputated. We have been relying on my income ever since; meanwhile he is STILL trying to get on disability after they denied him (saying his problem would not affect him for more than a year- REALLY??!!) and now he is starting to have high blood pressure and chest pains (possibly heart-related). I was forced to change jobs in order to be closer to our house and reduce the stress I've been having over the situation- both at work and with his health. During the switch-over, we almost lost electricity because the timing on my new job's first check was bad. We can't catch a break....

[Cure]

2011. Bed ridden in a home or hospital for the last four months of it because my hips pretty much turned to dust and I had to get them completely replaced.

[CyberCubed]

A whole year has never been bad for me, but in the blizzard of 2010 I got stranded coming home from my job and got caught in the blizzard and then had to sleep overnight in a train station. My feet were so cold.

[Netkeeper]

Why is your signature so huge and why hasn't anybody gotten onto you for using such huge text? If you have trouble seeing the default font size, use your browser's zoom-in function, don't subject us to your attention-grabbing crap.

On topic, the last months of 2011 and the first months of 2012. This is really long and I don't expect anyone to read it, but it's nice to get it out.

Spoiler:

I don't claim to have it the worst. I used to suffer from severe self-destructive suicidal depression and Adult Separation Anxiety. These two problems did not tango well together. Or perhaps they did. Perhaps they tangoed a little too well. For months, my life was nothing but a cycle of becoming deathly afraid, experiencing a panic attack, getting angry, hating myself for experiencing a panic attack, wanting to kill myself, then slowly recovering until something triggered another attack. This happened just about daily.

I lacked the motivation to do anything. I never left the house. I only left my room, which was constantly dark and cold, to eat [and I would often stash food in my room so I wouldn't have to leave as much] and use the bathroom. I only showered about once a month, once I noticed my skin starting to change colour. I only used the bathroom around once a day. I had several UTIs due to bad hygeine and holding it for so long. I also gained weight from lack of exercise as well as my habit of eating as a form of comfort. I was normally only awake at night because being awake during the day subjected me to the fights in my house and verbal abuse by the hands of my aunt and uncle. My parents didn't know how to handle the panic attacks.

I used to confide in my aunt because she had me convinced that my parents would disown me and that she was the only one that was willing to listen to me or help me. My uncle was extremely condescending, constantly insulting and mocking me. One morning after my dad dropped the coffee table on the ground instead of hitting my uncle during an arguement, he insulted me particularly badly, talking about how I'm just like my father, and called me a circus freak playing dress-up.

Always being in my room was awful. My paranoia spiked. We often had rats in the walls, and they would scratch around during all hours. On the upper wall [not the ceiling] of my downstairs room right above my bed was a trap door. No idea where it led, didn't care. I was convinced the sounds of the rats scratching around inside the walls was them scurrying around with tiny clipboards, filled with reports on me. That they were constantly studying me and judging me.

One afternoon in January 2012 after my mother had moved to Texas on her own to get help, I had a particularly bad panic attack. I was so scared I continually screamed at the top of my lungs. There were only two people in the house. My dad was outside shoveling snow. I heard a threat from upstairs -- "if you don't shut the **** up I'm going to hit you" -- this only made me more terrified and made me scream more, louder.

Sure enough, I was hit. I was hit so hard I fell to the floor, my glasses fell off, and I couldn't see anything but red. I was convinced I'd lost my right eye and that I was bleeding profusely from the eyesocket. That was when Dad came inside.

I didn't lose my eye, obviously. My glasses shielded it. The frames cut into the skin right below my eye, and I needed to get stitches. During any other time of the year, I probably would have. You see, we lived in rural Washington, on top of a steep hill, and we were snowed in. The roads were covered in ice. Trying to drive down that hill would be suicide. [And, of course, I honestly wanted my dad to attempt it at the time. I desperately wanted to see a doctor, not because of the bleeding from my ****ing face, but because I wanted to be fixed.] So we had to keep me at home. I was told not to cry because it would wet the bandages, but could you expect me not to? I was a disaster.

Next month, we moved to a temporary home in Las Vegas [my home town] while my mother was still in Texas, and for a little while things were a lot better. My aunt and uncle were in another state. I lived with less people.

This continued until around May 2012. My anxiety and depression flared back up in full force. I always kept my door open so it seemed like I was never alone. This got me into lots of trouble when I had panic attacks -- one time my dad chased me all around the house threatening to call the cops so I'd be put in an asylum [when he picked up the phone he ended up calling my mother instead]. Sometimes someone would come into my room while I slept and would unplug my computer because my music was playing. This would naturally wake me up, as I have stated before that I cannot handle silence, and this ruined any degree of trust I had. I no longer felt safe. My panic attacks worsened.

Then a few days before our move to Texas was scheduled to happen, I was left to be completely by myself. For two days. I became so depressed and sick that I puked multiple times. It might be comparable to a withdrawal, since I had Separation Anxiety, though I'm not sure since I don't know what a withdrawal is like. After those two days the best friend that I now call my brother came to visit me. For three days we marathoned ATLA. Then the last day was moving day. My brother had to stay behind. He couldn't come with us. I still remember watching him run after our Uhaul truck for as long as he could keep up with it, making sure I could still see him for as long as possible.

I cried the whole way to Texas, and I started crying again when we arrived and I saw my mother again for the first time in months. As soon as she saw me she told me it was going to be alright.

During the first two weeks of our move into the new house, I forced myself to stay in my room by myself. I forced myself to stand being in the silence. After that, I forced myself to stay out of my room as much as possible and I went outside. I exposed myself to everything I could think of that scared me.

And while I still miss my brother more than anything in the world, Mom was right, everything was alright.

[Katie]

2003. My fiancé died in a motorcycle wreck and I felt like I died too. Then I lost a lot of friends because they didn't know how to deal with what I was dealing with.

Sucks to go through something like that with no one to help you through.

[Discogod]

2009. A week in, one of my best friends dropped dead. Week after that, had to have my beloved cat put to sleep. All in all, lost 13 friends/family members that year (the last being another close friend, who was killed 2 days before Xmas). Halfway through the year, I split with my fiancee due to the stress of everything, which in turn cost me my job (she was a manager there and made things very difficult for me). Due to a lack of any income, I ended up losing my house and had to move back in with my parents. Oh yeah, I was also trying to kick a fairly serious drug addiction.

It was a rather bad year indeed, but I somehow got through, and managed to stay sober to boot.

[CyberCubed]

Jesus, after reading through this thread I'm glad I've been pretty well off throughout my life.

[Davetello]

2006. My aunt took ill in late 2005 and died on 6 January. She was only 32 and a month younger than I am now. I developed an eating disorder and dropped from about 11 stone (70kg approx) to 6 stone (38 kg approx, I have converted from stones to kilograms for North Americans) within five months. For all of my early twenties I had been quite athletic in terms of body, and all of a sudden I was scrawny and ill as fvck. It was also the one year in my life where I lived alone for its entirety, and I spent many dark nights lugging home masses of shopping bags (mostly tomato soup because I wouldn't eat solid food due to said eating problems) on buses as I wasn't driving. I was looking forward to the World Cup that summer but I remember breaking down in tears on the first day of the tournament after I had an argument with someone. Then at the end of the year I fell out with someone over the newly released Wii console and had to get a winter weather payment as I refused to accept money from family.

Just an awful year all round, but things got slightly better in 2007.

[Candy Kappa]

Last year was pretty ******. My pet turtle who I've had for almost 14 years drowned, while I was out shopping. I'm still certain had I've been home I could have save him.

A close childhood friend died in a vehicle accident.

I lost both my aunt and my grandfather to cancer. My aunt was neglected by the medical team, had a lousy obnoxious and loud nurse and the doctor made her depressed throughout the end of her life. My grandfather managed to stay at home to the very end as he used every strength he had to just clean himself to prove he didn't need to stay in the hospital, he even trid to escape the hospital the first time he was there, as the nurses found him crawling out of his room.

Another close childhood friend of mine have been missing since since September, left his newborn and family without any notice. Knowing him, he's either soemwhere partying back the "lost time" or stabbed and left in a ditch.

[Icebot]

For me, it was 2001. It was a year of me being bullied and criticized just for being different. Plus the terrorist attacks from Sept. 11 added misery for me.

[Powder]

2012 & 2013 split. Lost our health insurance, pops walked out, nearly had to put my dog down, my girl was cheating by straight up having 2 other relationships & none of us knew about one another, my best friend died in a car accident, I developed psoriasis, got a kidney stone that cost me $15,000+ in medical bills, got alcohol poisoning which briefly caused my heart to stop beating, fell in with a new chick who literally pulled the same sh*t as the last one, after 3 years of work my group's album got pushed back to the point that virtually all (fan) interest in it was gone, had a toilet explode on me moments before getting to meet my idol, Kevin Eastman, dealt with an internet stalker, & all kinds of other smaller unpleasant things.

[blindturtle02]

Originally Posted by Icebot

For me, it was 2001. It was a year of me being bullied and criticized just for being different. Plus the terrorist attacks from Sept. 11 added misery for me.

I hear ya bout the bullying bit, Icebot. Not very much fun. Yeah, I didn't much like 2001 either. 2011 also sucked because that's when my fiancée's(then girlfriend's) mom's cancer came back and we lost her around March of 2012. I suppose 2012 wasn't so good either, come to think of it. You think you're going to have this awesome future mother-in-law and then she's just gone. She was like all the coolest people I ever met roled into one. Some of her family members wouldn't come to see her either. They said they preferred to remember her the way she was before the bone cancer started taking hold. Thing is, she was awake and aware up until the last three and a half weeks or so. She wasn't one of those patients who lashed out at others. Her nurses and doctors said she'd be the one improving their days rather than the other way around. Very vivacious and in such high spirits until the end. I think they'd said she wouldn't last through Thanksgiving of 2011 but she kept fighting until March of 2012. They'd taken her off all the machines but she lasted another five or so days before passing away that March. Definitely one of the strongest women I've ever met. My mom had breast cancer that same year, but thanks to her dog, she caught it very early and ended up beating it. No kidding. He kept pawing at her and whining, and she noticed pain. She went in the next day and they ran tests and diagnosed her a week or so later. So 2012 was a pretty crazy year.

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Netkeeper

Why is your signature so huge and why hasn't anybody gotten onto you for using such huge text? If you have trouble seeing the default font size, use your browser's zoom-in function, don't subject us to your attention-grabbing crap.

F*ck you, kid. Guitar_Raph is a local hero and you're a nobody. Don't talk down to people so revered in this community.

[Guitar_Raph]

Originally Posted by Netkeeper

Why is your signature so huge and why hasn't anybody gotten onto you for using such huge text? If you have trouble seeing the default font size, use your browser's zoom-in function, don't subject us to your attention-grabbing crap.

First off, Franklin Gothic's my favorite font. And I have Mr. Magoo eyes. I only use size 7 for milestones & size 5 so it's easy for me to read. Been doing that for 6 years.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Yeah, 2000-2002 was pretty bad for me, too. Quit my job literally right after New Years Day 2000, and my hubby(whom I was still just engaged to then) quit his a few days later. We couldn't find another job where we were, so he called his grandparents in PA, and we trekked all the way there in a moving van to stay with them and get back on our feet after being evicted, only to be told AFTER we got there that they couldn't(wouldn't) help us out. Used the last of my money from Savings Bonds to get there. So we drove ALL the way back, on funds from local churches, police department emergency aid funds, and Salvation Army on the way.

When we got back to Texas, I called MY grandmother, who was good enough to take us in, even though she already had one of my uncles, his ex-wife, and their four kids living with her- in a two bedroom house with a garage converted into a third bedroom. Then my OTHER uncle and his three kids came to live as well, making the house VERY crowded. Neither of my uncles had jobs (one was manufacturing meth in her barn!) nor did the ex. The only ones working were my soon-to-be hubby, my grandmother, and me, after we both found jobs there.

Meanwhile, the uncle and his ex living there kept getting arrested and were in and out of jail, and the kids were moved in and out between there and their other grandmother's, and a house their mom stayed in with one of her OTHER exes. During all this, I lost my new job. (They claimed it was attitude, but I suspect it was discrimination once it became known I was Wiccan. I've NEVER had a similar complaint at any other job- and it was Hobby Lobby, which is known for its "Christian principles and ethics"..... ) So I ended up acting as "mom" to four kids, then three after the youngest went to live with his father. (He was not my uncle's, and neither was the oldest.) My other uncle and his three finally moved out, but with both parents in county jail, my grandmother ended up taking custody of the three older kids, and so it was me, her, and my hubby- we got married in May 2000, because she wouldn't allow us to share a room until we were legally wed- taking care of three kids, with only two paychecks and my grandmother's SSI.

It was a nightmare for over three years, and right in the middle of all that, 9-11 happened. I remember it very well, as my hubby had gone with my (jail-bird) uncle to visit one of the unc's friends and since the unc had a horrible habit of saying away for DAYS at times, they didn't return until VERY late that night. I was sick at the time, and worried about them since we had no idea where they were, so I ended up sleeping on the sofa. When he came home, I told him I didn't feel well, and wanted to be close to the bathroom, so I stayed there, and when he got up to check on me the next morning, he turned on the TV- and the news was on. The first tower had just been hit less than ten minutes earlier, and we watched in horror, at first not even knowing what we were seeing. I remember my hubby asking what movie was on when he turned it on and saw the smoking tower. And I was still half asleep, sick, and exhausted from waiting up, but sat up FAST when we realized it was real.

[Netkeeper]

Originally Posted by Guitar_Raph

First off, Franklin Gothic's my favorite font. And I have Mr. Magoo eyes. I only use size 7 for milestones & size 5 so it's easy for me to read. Been doing that for 6 years.

I don't care too much about using a different font. What I don't like is the huge size. If you have trouble reading, please, just use your browser's zoom in function. It makes everyone's text bigger and I have to use it on several sites myself, since I too have awful eyes. And we don't have to see it. There's absolutely no downside to you doing this.

[Cure]

Originally Posted by Netkeeper

There's absolutely no downside to you doing this.

Yes there is. It's part of who he is so it wouldn't be the same. Let him be.

[Katie]

Originally Posted by Netkeeper

I don't care too much about using a different font. What I don't like is the huge size. If you have trouble reading, please, just use your browser's zoom in function. It makes everyone's text bigger and I have to use it on several sites myself, since I too have awful eyes. And we don't have to see it. There's absolutely no downside to you doing this.

I look at the forums on my phone and his font/size/signature literally do nothing to distort my browser layout. And I don't view in mobile. Some people do distort it, but he's not one.

Guitar Raph is alright by me. 😄

[Netkeeper]

I look on a computer and when he makes longer posts it's a lot to scroll past. Perhaps on phones, the browser doesn't allow text sizes to go past a certain variable, to make things more easily viewable on the smaller screen [just a thought, I have no way of testing that]. But his signature is really tall.