Stop These Seemingly Innocent But Toxic Habits Now
From letting toxic family drama slide because "they're family" to overapologizing, these habits can sneak under the radar and leave us feeling drained, stuck, or just plain unhappy.
Sad Asian Chinese man sitting on bed
According to psychologist Wendy Wood, habits are a learning mechanism that wires our brain in a way of repeat and reward.
Wendy Wood's quote really stood out to me, especially after diving into this recent post in the r/AskReddit sub that asked, "What's a 'harmless' habit that's actually really toxic?" Some of the responses dove into the impact of capitalism that forces us to prioritize our productivity or rest, while others dealt with internalizing their issues to avoid confrontation or friction. Here's what people had to say:
"Letting family get away with being shitty just 'because they're family.' Not really a habit, I guess, but my life is so much better having cut the toxic ones out."
–u/sarotto
"Not standing up to people or letting things slide when they bother you."
–u/Possible-Okra7527
"Today, I stood up for someone after setting a goal for myself that I don't want to be a bystander anymore when abuse happens."
"I was walking up the stairs in my building when I saw a drunk guy screaming at a girl on the stairs, making threats. She was obviously scared. I, a dude myself, first hesitated if it was safe for me to intervene, but decided to do so. I told this guy he had to stop screaming. He started threatening me, so I called the building security, and they took this guy out.This girl was really thankful and offered me a drink. We chatted, and it turns out she's really nice. She does a PhD on Egyptian mummies, and when I said I've always wanted to go to the museum in town that has mummies on show, she offered to guide me around in the museum next week.So, summary of the story: standing up for someone is sometimes scary, but it might give you lots in return. In my case, a new friend and a personal mummy tour."–u/LeLittlePi34
"Not getting enough sleep. Not encouraging others to get enough sleep."
–u/MC1R_OCA2
"Not acknowledging your own feelings as they happen."
"Thinking there is something wrong with asking for help and that you are less for it. This applies to everything from work to personal issues. I'm Gen X, and we got independence shoved down our throats hard. I actually got in trouble for refusing help at work the other day."
–u/Carmelpi
"Avoiding the difficult conversations because you don't 'like confrontation' and villainizing the other person for 'being confrontational.'"
"I'm in the habit of saying sorry even when I'm not at fault. Did you do something wrong to me? Oops! I'm sorry!"
–u/anonymous-dreaming
"Replaying fake arguments in your head so you're 'ready' if they ever happen. Feels harmless, but it keeps you stuck in fight mode with people who aren't even there."
–u/PsychologicalDog0522
"Sweeping problems under the rug to keep the peace."
"People who have an upset tone frequently but won't let their partner know what's up. Talked to my buddy about this recently, and the tone is wildly exhausting if you live with your partner. It stifles the house, makes someone guess why you're upset, and overall, these people seem to lack any EQ. A tone can seem harmless, but when they have a tone for days on end and withdraw themselves, they're miserable partners."
"Being relaxed about all kinds of (lack of) privacy because 'I have nothing to hide'. You open so many doors by giving too much info."
–u/Toiletjuffrouw
"Having a group punching bag, where everyone constantly pokes fun at the same person."
–u/Extension_Winner_130
"Self-deprecating humor. I was told by a therapist when I was going through a period of depression to avoid it because 'you know it's a joke, but you're brain does not.' So it's just adding to the negative self-talk your brain is already dealing with."
"Not washing your hands...I've seen too many guys in and out of the washroom who do not wash."
–u/WonderEasy7727
"I have an 8-month-old, and I only just recently broke the morning scroll habit. It is absolutely embedded in our psyche to be on our phones. I stopped because I used to get up with him so my wife could sleep, make my coffee, and sit down with him. I'd pull out my phone out of habit. He would be sitting there quietly, staring at me with his giant doe eyes and bed head, playing with his fingers and waiting for attention while I wasted precious moments of his babyhood doomscrolling with my coffee. Now I leave my phone in the room when I get up."
"Casual alcoholism."
"When someone says, 'I'm the kind of person that just tells it like it is,' as an excuse to be an obnoxious a-hole."
–u/CrumblinEmpire
"Being a helicopter parent and saying, 'if you've got nothing good to say, don't say anything at all' has given us a generation of young adults who can't think for themselves and can't take criticism."
If you have a habit you'd like to share, drop it in the comments.
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Boston Globe
12 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Trump's EPA has terminated over $15 million in funding for 'forever chemicals' research
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At the same time, the EPA is hampering its ability to research pollutants — the kind of research that made it possible for its own scientists to investigate GenX. As the Trump administration seeks severe reductions in the EPA's budget, the agency has terminated grants for PFAS studies and paralyzed its scientists with spending restrictions. Pointing to 'If anything,' the agency added, 'the Trump administration's historic PFAS plan in 2019 laid the groundwork for the first steps to comprehensively address this contamination across media and we will continue to do so this term.' Advertisement In public appearances, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has pushed back on the suggestion that his agency weakened the drinking water limits on GenX and similar compounds. Future regulations imposed by his agency, he said, could be more or less stringent. 'What we want to do is follow the science, period,' he has said. That sentiment perplexes scientists and environmental advocates, who say there is already persuasive evidence on the dangers of these chemicals that linger in the environment. Scientists and advocates also said it's unclear what it means for the EPA to follow the science while diminishing its own ability to conduct research. 'I don't understand why we would want to hamstring the agency that is designed to make sure we have clean air and clean water,' said Jamie DeWitt, a toxicologist in Oregon who worked with other scientists on Cape Fear River research. 'I don't understand it.' Delays, Confusion Over PFAS Favored for their nonstick and liquid-resistant qualities, synthetic PFAS chemicals are widely used in products like raincoats, cookware and fast food wrappers. Advertisement The chemicals persist in soil and water too, making them complicated and costly to clean up, leading to a yearslong push to get such sites covered by the EPA's Superfund program, which is designed to handle toxic swaths of land. During the first Trump administration, the EPA said it was taking steps toward designating the two legacy compounds, PFOA and PFOS, as 'hazardous substances' under the Superfund program. Its liability provisions would help hold polluters responsible for the cost of cleaning up. Moving forward with this designation process was a priority, according to the PFAS plan from Trump's first term. Zeldin's EPA The designation became official under Biden. But business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and organizations representing the construction, recycling and chemical industries, sued. Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation's playbook for the new administration, also questioned it. Zeldin has said repeatedly that he wants to hold polluters accountable for PFAS, but his EPA requested three delays in the court case challenging the Superfund designation that helps make it possible. The agency said in a recent motion it needed the latest pause because new leadership is still reviewing the issues and evaluating the designation in context of its 'comprehensive strategy to address PFOA and PFOS.' The EPA also Advertisement Businesses were supposed to start reporting this month. But in a May 2 letter, a coalition of chemical companies When the EPA delayed the rule less than two weeks later, it said it needed time to prepare for data collection and to consider changes to aspects of the rule. In an email to ProPublica, the agency said it will address PFAS in many ways. Its approach, the agency said, is to give more time for compliance and to work with water systems to reduce PFAS exposure as quickly as feasible, 'rather than issue violations and collect fees that don't benefit public health.' The court expects an update from the EPA in the Superfund designation case by Wednesday, and in the legal challenges to the drinking water standards by July 21. The EPA could continue defending the rules. It could ask the court for permission to reverse its position or to send the rules back to the agency for reconsideration. Or it could also ask for further pauses. 'It's just a big unanswered question whether this administration and this EPA is going to be serious about enforcing anything,' said Robert Sussman, a former EPA official from the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. As a lawyer, he now represents environmental groups that filed an amicus brief in PFAS cases. 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Community forums about PFAS draw triple-digit crowds, even when they're held on a weeknight, said Emily Donovan, co-founder of the volunteer group Clean Cape Fear, which has intervened in federal litigation. In the fast-growing region, new residents are just learning about the chemicals, she said, and they're angry. 'I feel like we're walking backwards,' Donovan said. Pulling back from the drinking water standards, in particular, is 'disrespectful to this community.' 'It's one thing to say you're going to focus on PFAS,' she added. 'It's another thing to never let it cross the finish line and become any meaningful regulation.' Research Under Fire The EPA of Trump's first term didn't just call for more regulation of PFAS, it also stressed the importance of better understanding the forever chemicals through research and testing. In a Zeldin, too, has boasted about advancing PFAS research in an At about the same time, though, the agency terminated a host of congressionally appropriated grants for PFAS research, including over $15 million for Scientists at Michigan State University, for example, were investigating how PFAS interacts with water, soil, crops, livestock and biosolids, which are used for fertilizer. They timed their latest study to this year's growing season, hired staff and partnered with a farm. Then the EPA canceled two grants. In virtually identical letters, the agency said that each grant 'no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities. The objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.' The contrast between the agency's words and actions raises questions about the process behind its decisions, said Cheryl Murphy, head of Michigan State's Center for PFAS Research and co-lead of one of the projects. 'If you halt it right now,' she said, 'what we're doing is we're undermining our ability to translate the science that we're developing into some policy and guidance to help people minimize their exposure to PFAS.' At least some of the researchers are appealing the terminations. About a month after PFAS grants to research teams in Maine and Virginia were terminated for not being aligned with agency priorities, the agency reinstated them. The EPA told ProPublica that 'there will be more updates on research-related grants in the future.' Even if the Michigan State grants are reinstated, there could be lasting consequences, said Hui Li, the soil scientist who led both projects. 'We will miss the season for this year,' he said in an email, 'and could lose the livestock on the farm for the research.' Federal researchers are also in limbo. Uncertainty, lost capacity and spending restrictions have stunted the work at an EPA lab in Duluth, Minnesota, that investigates PFAS and other potential hazards, according to several sources connected to it. As one source who works at the lab put it, 'We don't know how much longer we will be operating as is.' The EPA told ProPublica that it's 'continuing to invest in research and labs, including Duluth, to advance the mission of protecting human health and the environment.' Meanwhile, the agency is asking Congress to eliminate more than half of its own budget. That includes massive staffing cuts, and it would slash nearly all the money for two major programs that help states fund water and wastewater infrastructure. One dates back to President Ronald Reagan's administration. The other was The EPA lost 727 employees in voluntary separations between Jan. 1 and late June, according to numbers the agency provided to ProPublica. It said it received more than 2,600 applications for the second round of deferred resignations and voluntary early retirements. 'These are really technical, difficult jobs,' said Melanie Benesh, vice president for government affairs at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. 'And the EPA, by encouraging so many employees to leave, is also losing a lot of institutional knowledge and a lot of technical expertise.' The shake-up also worries DeWitt, who was one of the scientists who helped investigate the Cape Fear River contamination and who has served on an EPA science advisory board. Her voice shook as she reflected on the EPA's workforce, 'some of the finest scientists I know,' and what their loss means for public well-being. 'Taking away this talent from our federal sector,' she said, will have 'profound effects on the agency's ability to protect people in the United States from hazardous chemicals in air, in water, in soil and potentially in food.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
People Are Sharing The Habits That Completely Destroyed Their Quality Of Life, And It's A Cautionary Tale
We all make mistakes, but sometimes we pick up a bad habit that is so significant that it digs us deeper into a life hole. On the popular subreddit r/AskReddit, Reddit user u/Unlikely_Bid8892 asked: What's something you did that reduced your quality of life so much that you wish you had never done it? The results were brutally honest and will make you rethink your life choices: 1."Taking on student loans." —u/Beautiful-Signal7249 2."Worked 12-hour days for a job that wasn't worth it." —u/sylphdreamer 3."Neglect my body for years. Almost no movement. Rather poor hygiene. Horrible food. And little to no sleep." —u/Sad_Fee_4104 4."Succumbed to my food After two years of extreme dieting and exercise, I lost a significant amount of weight and achieved the best shape of my life, feeling very good about myself. Once I got down to an ideal weight, I didn't know what to do with myself anymore. I didn't know how to maintain it. I started eating horribly again and am now, just over a year later, at the heaviest point in my entire life. I binge eat to the extreme, and I'm pretty powerless to stop it. It affects pretty much every aspect of my life to some degree, and it's a very depressing feeling." —u/NocturnaPhelps 5."Bulimia for 15 years since I was a teen. All because my mom signed me up for Weight Watchers as a kid, since I was a little chubby. Never felt thin enough. Ruined my teeth and digestive health. 10/10 do not recommend." —u/ghostbustrnutclustr 6."Trying to impress people who don't GAF about you." —u/Brave_Calendar_941 7."Decided to give working in a warehouse a shot. Quality of life went from 90% to below 50%." —u/F3Grunge 8."Isolated myself for years. I'm not sure it could really have been otherwise with the issues I had, but it annihilated my social circle." —u/NuclearSoil 9."Living with a boyfriend who rages." —u/Equivalent_Hair_149 10."Vaped. Been nine months without it, and still cough and get winded easily. Used to sing as well and I can't hit notes for shit these days." —u/Ok-East-8412 11."I was jumping on our kids' trampoline and I hurt my back, and I've suffered sciatica pain all these years since. My life would be so much better if I had not thought jumping on a trampoline would be good exercise." —u/AvailableBreeze_3750 12."Spent years to impress the girl I like, I should have given that attention to my own self instead, improving my life." —u/OkAccess6128 13."Holding out for a management position instead of moving on. He won't retire. The man is mid-70s." —u/Funkyp0tat0chip 14."Trying to please people." —u/OrchidCrushxoxo_ 15."Not wearing earplugs at concerts." —u/organicbooger 16."Moved to a new province (state) thinking I needed a fresh start, but in reality I was just running from my problems!" —u/Smooth_Raspberry_007 17."Running too much in bad shoes. Now I have arthritis in my foot and I can't run anymore." —u/justablueballoon 18."GET INTO DEBT!!!" —u/ImpactSmooth299 19."Overeating." —u/Different_Cat7932 20."Caring for others who do not give a damn about me in return. Wasted far too many sleepless nights on people who wouldn't give a flying monkey if I was in a situation like theirs." —u/Party_Phrase2445 21."The wrong partner will wreck your life. I've been there, done that." —u/Top-Car-808 22."I went rock climbing one day without a helmet on. The first time I didn't have it on was on the day it was needed. A Severe TBI is an injury I wish upon no man, woman, or child." —u/Impressive-Dog-408 23."Smoked." —u/Verlin_Wayne 24."Going to prison at 19 for selling weed. In the end, it worked out. I've since graduated from college and have a nice engineering job and a great life. It was a rough patch in my life for sure. Freezing, stuck in a prison cell in Joliet for 77 days, I went weeks without showers or seeing sunlight. Then, I was shipped off to boot camp for 4.5 months to be further denigrated. In the end, it caused me to grow up and prioritize what I want in life. Worked and paid my way through a 2-year community college, followed by a MIS degree at a 4-year University. Life hasn't been perfect, but I always have perspective on a 'bad day' in that I've had it much worse." —u/leprechanmonkie 25."Putting effort into people who didn't do the same for me. Then getting anxiety over it." —u/MeltyFrog 26."Stayed in my college major even after I knew it wasn't for me. I wasted a lot of time that I can never get back." —u/SororitySue 27."Skipped the mammograms cause I had an 'it'll never happen to me' attitude when I was younger. Now I'm lying on a bed at a breast center waiting to get five biopsies for suspicious spots." —u/Snowfall1201 28."Being understanding when someone treats/talks/screams at you like shit. Don't stand for it." —u/Hangytangy 29."Ever touching nicotine." —u/titsmuhgeee 30."Drinking wine every night." —u/OpheliaJuliette 31."I left Walmart after 15 years to be a store manager at Starbucks —worst mistake of my life. I remember nights when I was there, ten after a closer called off, to have an opener call out, and knowing I'd have to wake up in four hours and work another shift, hoping the same thing wouldn't happen again. It was just awful, and the stories I'd hear from interviewing people made me realize how bad fast food was. People from other companies wanted to work at Starbucks cause those places were even worse." —u/bendystrawboy 32."Social media. It has seriously messed with my attention span. And I can't even remember how to enjoy free time without checking it every five minutes." —u/NeonPinkBag 33."Married young, at 18, now 61 divorced, wish I had planned my life better for my future first before I got married, I just didn't want to be alone." —u/Ok-Dependent4293 finally, "Dwelling on the past." —u/Ball2daW-all The National Eating Disorders Association helpline is 1-800-931-2237; for 24/7 crisis support, text 'NEDA' to 741741. The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy. Is there a bad habit that you feel has derailed your entire life? Comment below on what you are doing to change it!
Buzz Feed
a day ago
- Buzz Feed
18 Times Gut Feelings Were 100% Accurate
It can be hard to ignore our gut feelings, even if the people around us don't quite believe them. And that "I knew it!" moment when we find out our instincts were right all along can be equally as disheartening as it is terrifying. Recently, redditor Unique-Landscape-202 asked the r/AskReddit community to share their own "I knew it" moments when their guts were proven right. Here are their eerie stories. "When my son was 14, he lost 30 pounds within a few months. I wasn't terribly concerned out of the gate because he started on the heavy side and seemed to be working for the weight loss. However, he went to Mexico for a week with his dad and came back 10 pounds lighter, and alarm bells started going off because my brother is a type 1 diabetic." "Kiddo had an awful migraine-like headache, so I decided to take him to his pediatrician to have a blood sugar run. I expressed my concerns, and the doc pooh-poohed me, spending a lot of time congratulating my son on his weight loss. She was resistant to running a blood sugar, but I insisted – sure enough, type 1 diabetes with a dangerous blood sugar of nearly 500. Sometimes, moms just know. Also, fuck that doc."—beatrix0 "About 15 years ago, I was hired to assist with an inventory and appraisal of the wine collection of a guy who lived in the Caribbean and ran a bank there, specializing in selling long-term, high-yield CDs. I went down and spent a week doing that and spending time with him and some of his very few employees, none of whom seemed to do very much work at all. As soon as I got back, I set up Google alerts for the guy's name and Ponzi scheme." "A guy in HR at a company I used to work for always gave me the creeps from the first time I met him. There was something in his body language and his voice that just felt predatory. I dreaded any time I had to speak with him, and I made sure never to be alone with him. One day, the police showed up at the front desk quietly, asking where his office was. They fanned out through the whole building — people saw them on all the floors posted by the stairwells, elevators, and exits." "It was so strange. They brought him out in handcuffs with no audible discussion, and they were gone as quickly as they later, we found out from the news that he owned a few rental properties and was accused of sexually assaulting one of his tenants. He also had cameras set up in the bedrooms and bathrooms of his rentals and filmed his tenants. Apparently, the reason for the response was that he sent messages from his work computer threatening to kill the tenant he assaulted."—SnowMiser26 "A town I lived in had a 'fast fashion' store take-up shop on the far end of the commercial district, which was too far to get any foot traffic. The displays in the windows never changed, and I never saw a single person go in or out. Every time I drove by, I said to my partner, 'That place HAS to be a front for something.' One year later, it was busted for being an illegal grow operation." "We had a couple of private Facebook groups at work for internal communications. Just asking coworkers for help on tasks, stuff like that. I came in one morning to find we were locked out of the Facebook groups. Me: 'This doesn't feel right. Something's happening.' Coworker: 'You're just being paranoid. It's just a computer glitch.' The upper management showed up mid-morning to start handing out layoff notices." —originalchaosinabox "When I was a kid, the day after Christmas, I would always check out the pawn shops near my grandparent's house so I could spend my Christmas money on used video games. There was one where the owner was very chatty but always gave off a creepy vibe. I couldn't quite pinpoint why, but his shop always felt uncomfortable. Eventually, it came out that he had murdered his ex-girlfriend and incinerated her in the basement of the shop. He got away with it for 15 years until his sons testified against him. I fucking knew it!" "I was gaslit by my ex for six years, telling me I was hard of hearing. She would mumble things constantly, making me ask her to speak up. She said I was old, my hearing was going, etc., even though I never had to ask people at work in a busy office to speak up or repeat things. After six years, she fucked up, though. We live in Hawaii, and some of her college girlfriends came out to visit and stay with us." "After two days of walking and talking with her friends, one of her girlfriends finally snaps and yells, 'Why are you talking so quietly? What the hell is wrong with you? No one can hear you!! You never talked under your breath before! What the hell?'She looked at me and knew her ass was busted. So, for years and years, it was just a petty way to put one over on me, I guess. This was a 30-year-old grown-ass woman. I'll never understand it. "—ssshield "Recently, I was planning a sabbatical as I had been with the company for 10 years. In the lead-up to the month, I kept procrastinating on making the arrangements for one reason or another. I couldn't shake this sense of dread for some reason. I even mentioned it to my boss about a couple of weeks before in our 1:1. I told her I hadn't ever been away from work for so long. She reassured me that it would be good." "I always had a certain feeling about a former coworker in the accounting department — just a sneaking shady vibe I couldn't shake. One day, the head of HR accidentally printed a document that showed the salary and raise/bonus/profit sharing structure of every single employee on a shared printer instead of his office printer, and I found it. The shady coworker was getting paid WAY less than I expected her to be making for all the work she was legitimately doing. Despite my suspicion about her, she was actually a seemingly good employee and had worked her way up to a role with significant responsibility." "The moment I saw her pay structure, I knew she was making money off the company in other ways. There was NO WAY she was settling for that salary after being there for so many years and for the work she did. I just knew. Fast-forward a few years, and it turns out she'd been embezzling significant amounts of money from the company. She submitted false expense reports to pay for everything from groceries to gas to food delivery to vacations, and no one caught it because she was the head of the department. It all came to light when a new junior employee saw a suspicious Amazon expense and brought it to the COO. An investigation revealed tens of thousands of dollars in embezzled funds. I quit soon after the discovery, but I hear they're pressing criminal charges against her. Somehow, I just knew!"—kitteh_pants "My ex-wife said she was going to the park to relax. I told her to have fun, but it was out of the blue and felt odd. It might have been an invasion of privacy, but I tracked her phone. She was not at the park. I confronted her, and she came up with the most bizarre, pulled-straight-out-of-her-ass story I have ever heard in my life. I ended up seeing the texts on her phone. She was meeting up with another guy. The funny thing is she would always gaslight me in fear that I would cheat on her, but that never happened. I couldn't even watch movies with attractive women in them. I fucking knew it." "Years back, I was visiting an ex at college. We went to her church, and I met the youth pastor for the first time. He was a cookie-cutter youth pastor: upbeat, only good vibes, always smiling; we've all met that guy. But something was off, and I didn't want to be around him. Just a gut feeling, ya know? I refused to go back to that church because of him. My ex and her family thought I was ridiculous. Some of our friends even said I was wrong. Fast forward a year, we had broken at this point, but I saw that he had been arrested for child solicitation with a kid at the church. Always trust your gut, people." —MammothWrongdoer1242 "Recently, I dated this guy. Right before we broke up, he started acting odd. Distant. Less affectionate. He initially told me he was going through a lot mentally: issues with work, his car, his baby mama. He wanted to change his living situation. He was overwhelmed, but he insisted that he still absolutely adored me and that I was an absolute angel and a constant source of peace in his life. Okay. Fine. He continued pulling back. My gut was telling me something was just absolutely not right. There was something missing." "I was ordering illegal drugs from a lab in China to treat my cat's feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) in December of 2019. (Now legal in the US, and many more cats have been saved!) People started posting in the FIP group about how, suddenly, the labs were taking their money, nothing was being sent, all communication was blocked, etc. Then, in January 2020, labs began 'closing early for Chinese New Year.' I knew something huge was happening." "I figured it was SARS and told my husband he needed to think about ways to teach from home because the shit would hit the fan if/when it made it to the US. He never once doubted my prediction because one of my hobbies is studying past epidemics and pandemics (SARS, Ebola, Marburg, smallpox, influenza).I knew it was going to be bad, whatever it was, but I had no clue just how bad COVID-19 would be. My cat lived, so that's nice."—vengefulbeavergod "I always thought my dad and I looked so different than the rest of his siblings, my aunts, and uncles. We're both really pale with dark hair, versus his siblings, who are tan with light hair and no similar features. My cousin (grandpa's side) sent me a DNA test one day because she bought two, and her husband didn't use one, so she sent it to me as we were both into genealogy. I said, 'Haha, how funny would it be if we weren't related!' We aren't (we would've only been related on my grandpa's side from a previous marriage). My grandma cheated and took the secret to her grave. It turns out my dad's middle name, which is just the letter 'E,' was the first letter of her lover's name." "My sister and I had a big fight, and after it escalated, I told her, 'You're not borrowing my dress (that she needed to wear to a wedding). Find your own.' A day later, I went to my cupboard to get my clothes out for the next day, and my dress was gone. I said to my parents (who I still lived with at the time – she had moved out, I still lived at the family home), 'Has (sister) been over this morning?' My parents said they hadn't seen her. I thought this was weird because that dress was always on its hanger. It couldn't have just disappeared." "I called my sister and asked if she took my dress. She said that the dress was very ugly, she hadn't taken it, and didn't need it anymore since I was a 'bitch,' and she'd bought her own, which was a lot nicer. I said, 'Okie, dokie. Well, where is mine then? The exact one you wanted to borrow is missing now.' She became irate and furious that I was accusing her of stealing. We had another argument, this time about the dress missing. She was adamant that I was extremely rude in accusing her of stealing. I was angry because she had slinked into my parents' house unbeknownst to any of us and taken it. Anyway, she went to the wedding and posted a photo of her outfit, and indeed, it wasn't the dress that was missing. One week later, we sorted out our differences, and she demanded an apology for the accusations of stealing. We sorted things out, and I apologized. I went to her house after work. At this time, I was working in hospitality, so the usual routine was to come over to her to hang out, but I changed into some pants and another of her shirts to be comfortable. It was normal for me to grab something out of her closet. This time, she flew into her room and pushed me out of the way, and it dawned on me: it's my dress. Her then-boyfriend was lying in bed and said, "The gig is up; just give it to her."I pulled her out of the way and flung her cupboard doors open, and there it was: my dress. She really had snuck into the back door of my parent's house and taken it when I was right down the other end of the house, snuck out again, and went home with it. I looked back at her and said, 'I fucking knew it.'"—snagsinbread "I used to see the local big town/small city hockey coach on local TV. He would do interviews in a corner of the locker room surrounded by TV, radio, and newspaper reporters. Something about him I always found off to the point of creepy. Then a few years later, some of his players came forward saying he groomed them into sex acts with him, and he ended up serving (not enough) time." "One guy I knew suddenly got very rich. Post-COVID, he said he left his job and started a new business. Within a year, he bought a Mercedes and a luxury apartment. He said he was doing stock and equity dealings and forex investments. In 2023, he was doing many podcasts and interviews on TV as an emerging entrepreneur. Meanwhile, I told my friends there was no way this guy could earn that much money legally." "My friends thought I was jealous of him, but I knew something wasn't right about his rise in such a short he bought multiple luxury cars and flats, spent millions on parties, and flexed his wealth. No one believed me. This year, he was arrested for running a Ponzi scheme. Now, he is in jail, and all his assets have been seized by authorities. Everyone in my circle was like, 'Holy fuck, you were right.'"—raisingpower "There was someone roughly in my PhD cohort who worked a few labs down the hall from me. They always seemed to get positive results with no protocol troubleshooting, and the results were always the sort of thing that journal editors looked fondly upon. Somehow, this person was twice as productive as even the super smart, 60-plus hour week working, creative grad students in other labs. This person won pretty much every graduate and postdoc award you could get and ended up a professor at a well-regarded university with a huge startup grant." Did you ever have a bad gut feeling about something and ended up being right? Tell us about it in the comments or fill out this anonymous form.
