Most people don’t take their health seriously until they’re forced to visit a doctor. Mental and physical wellness are so important and require a lot of care and attention. Even the tiniest positive actions all add up toward fitness, but sometimes folks forget or get off track and may end up doing even unhealthier things.
This list is full of the most destructive things people have done to their bodies. Although most of us might have done milder versions of some of these things, it’s a stark reminder that health is wealth.
More info: Reddit
#1
Saw a guy chase 6 energy drinks with a cigarette and call it breakfast while saying sleep is a scam. I’m convinced his organs have a group chat to plan their escape.
#2
There was a player at the casino who used to come in in his mobility scooter, order redbull and vodka over and over, smoke unfiltered camels, and play three video poker machines at a time for 36-48 hours. he weighed 380 at least, hated the entire world, and ordered food only from the fried chicken place. one day i went to wake him up and he was dead. so i’d go with that.
#3
I was behind a person in a drive-thru once. She was in an SUV and it sagged on the driver’s side. Half-expected the suspension to break.
She ordered a “medium ranch dressing.”
The person taking the order was understandably confused so the lady figured it would help to scream her order. Finally she said “a medium drink cup filled with ranch dressing.”
She pulled over to the side after she got her food. I passed her on my way out, and she was taking a huge bite of her burger and drinking the ranch as a chaser. Like it was actually her beverage.
I have not eaten ranch dressing to this day.
Although we all probably know that smoking can cause cancer or that eating too much junk food can lead to obesity, most of us keep making the same unhealthy choices over and over. According to research, we tend to do this because it activates the parts of our brain responsible for pleasure.
The more we engage in harmful habits that we find fun, the more our brain gets wired to prefer those options. It then becomes harder to stop ourselves or choose a healthier path. Delicious flavors and tantalizing sensations make it difficult for us to quit the bad habits we’ve formed, although it can be done.
#4
Turn off their oxygen tank so they could have a smoke. That’s real dedication.
#5
I have a friend who only eats pepperoni pizza for every meal and drinks Diet Pepsi. Man has not had water in 10 years.
#6
I once watched someone with a food a*******n shoving food into their mouth so fast they hadn’t chewed what was already in there, and some fell out when they opened their mouth to take more bites. They started shoving the food in with their fingers and kind of compacting it so they could chew.
They were also shaking the entire time they were doing it and snorting because they could barely breathe.
It was horrific.
One of the most insidious unhealthy habits that a lot of folks find difficult to quit is the addiction to junk food. Its short-term effect is that it will make you gain weight, but the long-term effect can be observed on people’s sleep cycles, internal health, teeth, and even their ability to concentrate.
Folks often find this harmful behavior harder to quit because it so easily becomes a part of a person’s life. Instead of making healthier eating choices, it’s sometimes more convenient to get fast food or to go out to eat. All of this adds up and can put a huge strain on a person’s physical wellbeing.
#7
I worked at Starbucks in college. We had a morbidly obese woman come through the drivethrough every weekday morning.
Her order-
Venti 6 shot white chocolate mocha with 11 pumps of syrup, whole milk, coat the inside of the cup with caramel sauce, whipped cream.
I believe we calculated it to about 1500 calories.
EDIT: friend found a calorie calculator on Starbucks and this is actually closer to 600 calories. Not sure if the syrup formulas have changed, our original calculations were wrong, or maybe she was coming through a couple times a day and I only saw her in the morning. 1500 calories is still stuck in my head. Still not healthy. I seem to remember her getting patries, too, so maybe that was it. I dunno. I’m old, my memory ain’t what it used to be.
#8
I had a patient once get an infection in a very small surgical wound that started out as 1cm wide.
Well, he knew something was wrong but didn’t get it checked out until he couldn’t lay on his back anymore.
He had a flesh eating bacteria called necrotizing fasciitis that ended up eating his skin from the middle of his thighs all the way up to his middle back.
It was so bad that when he came into the hospital he was given about a 30% chance of surviving. I’ll never forget that smell.
#9
Setting a bag of pork rinds and a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi on the nightstand so her toddler kids wouldn’t wake her up for food in the mornings.
(And lectured me about working, rather than collecting welfare and staying home with my teenaged kids after their dad died.).
Even though it might be tough to quit an unhealthy habit, it’s not impossible. It just takes some time and consistent effort to make happen. The first step is to identify your cues and triggers. For example, some people crave chocolate or salty food when they are feeling stressed or sad. Identifying how the feelings connect to the action is the first step to getting control over it.
Once you figure out what emotions are connected to your unhealthy habits, you can start replacing them. It’s hard to quit something cold turkey, but it’s easier to slowly start doing other things instead of them. Replacing a few unhealthy foods with healthier and equally delicious options can help get you used to them over time.
#10
Clean a contact lens in their mouth and then put it back in their eye.
#11
There is a place in vegas called the heart attack grill, where customers over 350 pounds eat free. They serve burgers up to 64 oz. If you don’t finish you are paddled by a nurse, Then escorted to your car in a wheelchair by your own private nurse
#12
Pour Mountain Dew into a baby bottle and hand it to their toddler.
If you’ve ever tried to break free from an unhealthy behavior, you probably know how difficult it is to make that happen. After a lot of trial and error, you might be able to make it happen, but many people find that it takes too long, and they give up.
Our brains and nervous system are connected, and they send pleasure chemicals associated with different actions. So, since our brains prefer the path of least resistance, we often keep falling back into bad patterns, no matter how destructive they might be. As long as we are aware of the harmful behaviors we have, we can always work toward changing them.
#13
Someone with such unmanaged diabetes that they have had 6+ surgeries removing toe after toe, chunk of foot after chunk of foot. she has stubs for feet now, no toes. and she continues to eat sweets and fast food. she’s basically immobile now unless she has special shoes on and uses a walker, which she usually chooses not to use. she sleeps sitting up on her couch. her adult children provide all of the sweets and food for her because “she is her own person, if she wants it, she can have it.”
eta: she had a quad bypass a year and a half ago, and multiple people brought her cookies and jams in the hospital.
#14
I once worked with a frequent flyer with alcoholism whose teenage son had to drive to the hospital for detox. She would always be bloody from her falls. I heard from a coworker that they found her deceased in a restaurant parking lot on their lunch break, bottle still in hand.
#15
Personally, saw a 70 year old dude fall 43 metres down a cliff while climbing with two people who’d never climbed before.
I had to climb over to him, calm the other two and sit there for 8 hours keeping him conscious and the others safe while rescue crews tried to get to us.
Massive injuries including c*****d open skull.
Remarkably he didn’t die.
Although we know that this list contains some of the most shocking and unhealthy things people have engaged in, we can probably figure out how they ended up at that point. Just because someone is engaging in self-destructive things doesn’t mean they’ll always be that way. There’s always hope for change, and hopefully, these people make it happen.
Have you ever witnessed someone doing something extremely unhealthy to their body? If so, do share your experience in the comments.
#16
As a toddler my grandmother babysat me every day while my parents worked, this was in the 90’s. I wasn’t given juice or milk, just regular pepsi, all day every day. So I of course started having panic attacks at age 4.
#17
Wouldn’t say it’s the worst thing I’ve seen but..
A girl around 22 i worked with for about 2 years said she has only drank coffee and caffeinated drinks for a good 10+years, never drank water because she didn’t like it for some reason.
Complained often about having headaches, stomach pain, joint pain, overweight, eye issues and various other issues.
Kept on her for the duration of me working there and towards the last 6 months of being there, i noticed she had a half gallon water jug and asked her why the sudden change?
Said she went to the doctor the other day and told me all of the things the doctor said to change .. namely quit caffeine and drink/eat healthier.
By the time i left, she lost a good amount of weight and basically never complained about the issues said earlier.
Another one i witnessed was from an ex girlfriend, she had been drinking well over a 12 pack of Mountain Dew with minimal water a day for around 10 years. Doctor told her she was forming a hole in her stomach from the excess soda drinking… Never stopped her though.
#18
I once knew someone who lived on only energy drinks, instant noodles and cigarettes for months. Barley slept, constantly stressed and refused to go to the doctor even when they where clearly crashing. It was like a slow motion train wreck😔.
#19
I have a friend who just like consistently has bug infestations in her apartment, no matter where she lives.
#20
Deep fried stick of butter.
America, you are something.