Here are some of the most eye-opening responses:
1.
“Moving in with two friends plus my boyfriend.
I thought it would be so different, but I was obviously wrong.
“I couldn’t believe I got addicted to vaping.
But over time, I found myself just craving the nicotine.
Stefanie, 32, Idaho
3.
“I had an affair.
I’ll regret that for the rest of my life, and I still hate myself for it.”
“I am somebody who has always been extremely careful when it comes to relationships.
Things went well, so we moved in together.
I felt so betrayed and humiliated.”
Anonymous
5.
“Letting an optometrist perform surgery for my cataracts instead of an ophthalmologist.
My left eye got a staph infection, and now I constantly have double vision.”
“I made the mistake of attempting polyamory with my husband of 17 years.
We married young, so I never got to explore my bisexuality.
Also, my husband traveled a lot for work, and having young kids, I was super lonely.
We only tried for four months, but it was so traumatic for both of us.
I ended up in an outpatient mental health program and was diagnosed with severe depression andCPTSD.
I just wish we could’ve gotten to this point in less traumatic ways.”
“Allowing loneliness to cause me to become engaged to a narcissistic woman who had massive debt.
Thank god I realized my mistake before our actual wedding date.
“I’m 75 and a former lawyer.
I got involved with drug use, got arrested, and did my time.
Out of my four children, I haven’t been able to fix my relationship with my daughter.
I am now a Christian and have been blessed with a new spouse.
silkyzombie44
9.
“Being a stay-at-home mom.
My marriage is practically dead, and I’m so unhappy.
It feels like my options are work until I die or stay in an unhappy relationship.”
“Trusting and helping infantile people who rarely did anything to help themselves.
“I made the mistake of going back to school.
I honestly should have planned it better before going back on a whim.”
“I married because of emotional blackmail.
The year he turned 30, I divorced him.”
Ginny Jensen
13.
“My husband and I mixed business with friendship.
Long story short: Our real estate broker/banker and supposed friend took our home.
My husband was a self-employed contractor who was building homes in his ‘friend’s’ new subdivision.
We didn’t cover ourselves with a proper contract; we should have gotten everything in writing.
Apparently, we were on the hook for a lot of compound interest.
We lost 20 years of hard work and savings that had been invested into building our family home.
All just gone.”
“Fully believing that my career took priority over other things like getting married and becoming a parent.
Meg
15.
“I got involved with a married coworker after he pursued me for a year.
Even so, my coworker would still tell me that I was the one he really loved.
She harassed me daily, but I never entertained her wild antics.
This went on for three years.
It was a hard lesson to learn in my late 50s.”
He admitted then that he never actually had a new job lined up!
I gave him some money and respectfully told him to move out.
We don’t talk anymore.”
That’s one of my biggest mistakes.
Of course, there were speed bumps in our marriage, but that’s just life.
Now that my wife is gone, I miss her terribly.
It’s too bad it took too long for me to learn this.”
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
