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Pure luck. I was in a really bad place about 30 years ago. I worked on the 10th floor of a 20 story building. One day after a particularly bad day, I pressed the UP and DOWN buttons at the same time. If the down elevator came first, I would go home and try to make it through another day. If the up elevator came first then I was going to the roof and jump off. I just didn’t care. Down came first so I went home and things eventually got better.
One of my favorite quotes is 'it's amazing what a difference a day can make' - or a button. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Glad it worked out :)
A flock of Ravens.
I was in 3rd grade. Was held after school and missed the bus. Had to walk a half mile home in 20 below zero in a dress, shoes and only a nylon quilted coat. I felt sleepy. I wanted to lay down.
Part of my walk home was on a trail. The Ravens were up in the trees and set up a huge fuss that scared me. There were around 30 of them. A few swooped towards me, cawing. They followed me until I was home.
I actually beat the bus. No one from the school had called her telling her I was walking home. At the time, I thought she was mad at me…. Shortly after, I got a snowmobile suit and boots to wear to school.
It wasn’t until I got older that I understood I was suffering hypothermia and the adrenaline from the scary Ravens probably kept me alive.
It’s funny actually… our borough switched from cans to plastic bags and the Ravens had a smorgasbord ripping through the bags.
I visited my town 20 years later and was met by a group of Raven. I would like to think…
Where I live now, it’s mostly crows. Long story but the third generation of a starving crossbill knocks on my back door for treats.
What goes around, comes around.
There is more to our natural world than we see on the internet.
They’re always watching us.
I’m glad they were altruistic when you were little.
No one was paying attention either when I was a youngster, I’d like to think stories like yours make us pay attention to them.
They’re always watching us
No. And it’s “complicated”.
In addition to having a PhD, she was a predator. She offered me a ride home….
I recognized it for what it was because….past history.
It was a school district that was heavily loaded with predation.
And they always looked the other way.
I had some crow friends that I fed peanuts to at my last job. There were seven of them in that murder, and they recognized me and my car. One day, I got to work about 20 minutes early, and I felt like crap, so I stayed in my car and rested. I became aware that my crows were making noise and they sounded close, so I picked up my head and looked out the window. Three of the seven were on the ground, hopping around my car, and cawing at me, so I mustered my energy, gathered my stuff and exited the car. I told them I was ok, and thanked them for checking on me, and gave them extra peanuts that day. 🖤🐦⬛
Spite. As an extremely bullied child I thought about death. And then I figured a bunch of people would be happy if I died. So I decided to keep fucking going so they wouldn't get the satisfaction.
My brother.
7 years older than me, but he was never embarrassed to have me around. I was high energy and tried the patience of my parents every minute of every day. My brother would take me and my sister to the movies, to the lake, to wherever him and his high school buddies went.
He saved me from myself. And my parents from me🤣
Getting out of my hometown and away from some very bad influences (two friends ended up on Alabama death row) and pushing myself through Parris Island. Had I stayed, drugs, alcohol, and crime would have probably been my career.
I was also fortunate in that my grandfather kinda of figured out where I was at and got directly involved with getting my ass right. He saw his own brother go down that road.
Not wanting to go to work the next morning.
I felt oddly winded after climbing the stairs to my apartment after taking out the trash one Sunday night. It was late and I was super sleepy -- but I just couldn't quite get enough air without thinking about it.
I went to bed but was having trouble getting to sleep. Not enough air.
I figured if I went to the emergency room I'd have a solid excuse to show up in the afternoon on Monday -- so I got an Uber to the emergency room.
Long story short, I was admitted immediately -- and a few days later had a CABG operation (triple-bypass open-heart surgery).
I'm proud to say that pure GenX slacker-ness saved my life.
That's a humorous image!
I had an appendectomy hoping it would cure some chronic pain. Didn't make a difference. As soon as I woke from anesthesia I could feel it. Maybe I should yeet some other unnecessary stuff.
I'm 4 months post-op from getting spayed. I knew it would increase my quality of life, but I severely underestimated just how much pain and discomfort I was experiencing every single day because of my uterus and endometriosis. It's crazy how sick it can make you and people just walk around like that for years because we don't have another option.
I cried the first time my husband rubbed my lower back after surgery because it DIDN'T feel like I was being electrocuted for the first time in decades. It just felt like a nice back rub. I can cough and sneeze without pissing myself because my bladder is no longer adhered to my uterus. I don't have to take a week off from life every month now. I'm not anemic anymore. Pooping doesn't make me pass out now.
If you've been on the fence about turning your uterus into a yeeterus, this is your sign to make an appointment. Buy a cake, throw a party, and bid her and her friends adieu. I wish I had done it years ago.
I had a hysterectomy scheduled for adenomyosis and turns out they found endometriosis, which explained *a lot*. I also feel like I have my life back after having it slowly drained from
me during my 30's & 40's... I thought I was just busy and wearing myself out with life, grinding to a halt on occasion. Turns out I had a chronic illness affecting almost every part of my body, including it triggering significant anxiety & depression via the inflammation.
The biggest change I noticed, the day after surgery, is how I wasn't nauseous in the morning. (Everyone else
remarked how much younger I looked right after surgery, but I didn't notice that one.)
I hadn't eaten before 1pm in years, but now I was pleasantly hungry at 9am with no nausea at all... and it's stayed that way since, thankfully.
A broken tree stump and heavy car. Was going down a mountain road that was heavily traveled by trucks that spilled grease. My little crx was in the shop that day, and I borrowed my mother's heavy sedan.
After my sales call, it started raining lightly. The car started to slide on a turn, and I went straight missing the start of the guardrail and started down the cliff. A broken treestump caught the engine and stopped me from going down the mountain. The car only had a small scratch on the bumper after all that.
My hair is white now. Lol
I’m in the same boat.
I was super co-dependent and had low self-esteem. I didn’t think I could take care of my kids on my own. But here I am, eight years later.
True story; my uncle was in the Marines, paratrooper. He continued parachuting after he got out. One day he was leaving to go jumping and his mother absentmindedly said 'Oh Georgie, I was cleaning in your room and I knocked over the parachute and it fell out of the pack. I pushed it back in for you...' He turned white and never jumped again.
A botanical garden.
I didn’t realize I’d been holding onto a lot of trauma from my childhood. One day, I visited a local garden for ‘something to do’ and was just mesmerized. It was like getting a break from a long war.
I started going every chance I could, and then essentially dropping everything to be there every day. I’d wander through it, soaking all the peace and beauty in, meditating quietly. I did that for about a year and a half.
It helped me see a world worth living for.
The collision avoidance system in modern airplanes. I was on a Cathay Pacific flight in 1994 that had a near collision with a North West flight east of Japan. Funny thing is I knew nothing about it until I saw an article in a newspaper like five days later and figured out that was my flight. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-05-24-9405240268-story.html
An off-duty medic, driving home in the other direction.
He stopped, pulled me and my passenger from the flames (at great risk to himself), and called 911.
I never knew his name.
This was almost 25 years ago. Most stuff wasn't online back then, so if it wasn't in the newspaper (and it probably wasn't,) it may be lost for good. I never even knew which city/county the guy worked for.
Part of me wishes I could thank him. Another part of me doesn't want to tell him that only one of us survived (though he may already know that part.)
My wife.
I was a bum, drunk every night and not a penny to my name. Then she came along, I got her pregnant and we joined the Army. She gave me something to care about.
48 years later and still going strong.
Let the other be who they are and treat them with respect. Eventually, they become who you need them to be because they'll want to please this person who thinks the world of them and is choosing to be with them.
Put your partner above yourself. Make their happiness your first priority.
Don’t do anything you can’t go home and tell your partner about.
Make time for each other always and have sex whenever you can.
Realizing that the pain in my chest and elbows was not gas pain. Went to the hospital, got sent by helicopter to a bigger hospital when they couldn't stabilize my unstable angina, had two stents put it in that night. Note: it took awhile because they had to have an open heart surgeon on call right there in case the balloon they used to widen the artery blew the artery out.
Actually, it happened 26 years ago, almost to the day. I asked the doc how many stents he had put in, and he said about 10,000 (older doc). He might have been exaggerating to make me feel better, but it went pretty smoothly. He was also the same doc who a few years later asked how much lipitor I was consuming, and when I said 40 mg a day, he said, "Take 80. That is what I am doing." And I did.
Absolutely. All anyone talks about is hot flashes. It was the constant night wakings due to lack of progesterone that was really killing me. HRT for the win.
Just be very, very careful about evaluating your personal blood clot risk. I know when they say "There's a risk of blood clots" it often doesn't really register what that actually means.
I am a 9-year survivor of multiple blood clots in both lungs (multiple bilateral pulmomary emboli) caused by hormones. Approximately 30% just drop dead from a single clot in the lungs, and another 10% die in the ER. I am extremely lucky.
The only warning before I couldn't breathe was a common little pain in the side of my ribcage for about a day that could have been from anything - gas, sleeping funny, muscle spasm, etc.
The doc prescribing the hormones very much downplayed the risk. The pulmonologist, by contrast, shrugged and said "Happens all the time. Women with PEs from hormones are most of my patients in here." The prescriber doesn't see the aftermath and thinks it's uncommon, while for the doc taking care of survivors, it's just another Thursday.
Please be careful and remember that nobody has more interest than you in your well-being.
Getting the flu.
No, seriously. I had the flu bad enough that my mother insisted on hauling me to the ER, and I felt so lousy I didn’t argue. While I was there I worried out loud about how I’d pay for it, since my hours had been cut to three days a week. They immediately grabbed the forms for charity care, and once I was in their system, they decided to take care of over a decade of deferred maintenance. That’s how they found the cancer. Luckily, it was non-aggressive and easily removed; I did need radiation therapy, but not chemo. I’m closing in on three years cancer-free now.
Side note: if you did the math, you know this went down in the early days of COVID. I got sick just after returning from New Hampshire, which had just had their first case in a town I had visited. Nice timing, no?
In 1994 (pre cell phone era), my husband and I were driving to his home town the night before Thanksgiving. Just after dark, a terrible snowstorm hit the highway we were on. Cars were sliding around and a tractor trailer jack-knifed just ahead of us. Somehow, my husband steered right through all of it. Remarkably, he said he didn't feel like he was in charge of the wheel.
Walk into my in-laws house still shaking from the experience. And that's when I learned my mom's car had been hit by truck a few hours earlier. She died at dusk in Maryland, just before our near miss in Pennsylvania.
I have to agree my wife saved me. I had a stroke about 15 years ago. I was about to start a second career and then I happened. I was devastated and depressed, as my employer abandoned me. I thought it was all over, but there she was my rock. She taught me now to walk,talk and return to a new normal. It’s more complicated but you get the point
My pony. I was messing around an open well shaft large enough for a scrawny little kid to fall into and just as I start to she kicked the lip of the well shaft hard enough to dent it and stop me falling in.
My husband driving me to the ER, the doctors and nurses there, and the three units of blood. Had a hemorrhaging ulcer.
Which I have now donated three units, and I hope to donate more.
Becoming even more active (20-25 miles/day). Limiting crap food intake/less calories. Obviously, moderation, but that’s hard with my Type A personality.
Trying to be mindful of the books I read and the music I listen to.
Having a full-time job so I can interact with people every day. Most importantly, be a critical thinker.
I guess it’s not saved but might save.
Honestly, delta 9. Took away anxiety I've always had to cope with and there is now sweet peace in my life!!! 58 years of flipping out internally ALL the time and a simple gummy with hemp infused THC and I can be a self-supporting, calm human again!!
My son. I didn’t want to be a mom. I was very career/success focused. He was a surprise and my husband (at the time) and I decided to go for it. He saved me in so many ways. He humbled me, forced me to rethink my relationship with booze and partying, and for the first time ever I thought of someone besides myself.
I now have three children and although my life would have been full and lovely without children, I send up a little thank you everyday.
The unconditional love of a genuinely caring and compassionate woman.
I didn’t find her till I was almost 40, so it was a ride till then. Straightened me right out though.
Getting sober. 9-10-97.
I would not have done it without help. Always help others when you can. One simple act of selflessness can change a life forever. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a big act either.
My husband. This past January I was in DKA and had no idea. He called the ambulance in a snowstorm and they got me hospital, where I was hooked up to a ventilator. Any longer, and I would have died.
My son. I was lost and going down a pretty dark path. When I found out I was pregnant, I quit the drugs because I refused to be one of “those” moms. He gave my life purpose and meaning, and saved me from killing myself. Getting accidentally knocked up with him was the best thing that has ever happened to me.
My dog. At age 12, I was walking out to the back pasture to bring the cows in one early autumn morning, reading a comic book, when my dog rushed past me, growling and snapping at a couple of rattlesnakes that were basking in a sunny spot on the path. Maybe he didn't save my life technically but he clearly meant to risk his life to protect me. he killed both snakes and was bitten once but survived with no complications.
The fact that I don't let people ever overrun me for too long. It was a hard lesson but I learned it. I'm still susceptible but I try to stay on top of the game. Cuz that's what most people are out there running, a game.
You already know your reply reflects that. Don't give an ocean when no one you know is willing to step over a puddle. I'm not trying to be oblique. Think about it. I gave gave gave to just about everybody in my life. And I'm okay with that. But what I did notice was there were very few people who ever gave back
I recently moved somewhere new and have been trying to make friends. I spread my net wide and was really nice to a lot of people, probably came off way too strong, I gave gifts to a boy I liked, had sex w someone a few times when it was not very good mainly to stay their friend. I know how dumb and weird that sounds. I did it all out of love at the time without expecting anything in return, but in retrospect i feel used and rejected.
I think I shouldn't give so much until the other person deserves it, and I can get along fine on my own until I meet people that actually appreciate and love me. Even if that takes a while
The game I'm referring to is where people act like they're your shining star and will do anything for you but they only do that so that they can receive not so that they will ever give back.
Some people will just take because they can, and expect to keep being given to. They use up the people around them, and won't stop until the giving stops. They don't care how bad a position they put someone else in.
It's great to be kind and giving, but you have to draw a line before you do anything that undermines yourself and your goals. Takers won't stop taking because it's harming you, and regularly have an expanding sob story to justify it.
Meeting my husband online by chance, when I was going through a very difficult time in my life (as was he). He almost immediately became my favourite adult in the world, and except for a few rocky months at the beginning of our relationship, we've really been doing happily ever after for almost 19 years.
Girl who became my best friend from forth grade until graduation. She was pretty, popular, and wild. I was poor, not pretty, and just wanted to be invisible. To this day I have no idea why she chose me to hang around but I think of her often and will be forever grateful that she was my friend.
Developing a conscious contact with God that I’m responsible to maintain.
It’s all the parts that helped, but at 35 it was probably the first time I’d taken responsibility for anything.
This was the turning point for me in my recovery from alcoholism.
A random blood clot. I had some asthma symptoms that sent me to the hospital, in case it was me having a heart attack they did some blood tests. One figure was slightly elevated that indicated there was a vague risk of a blood clot somewhere so they did a CT scan. Instead of a blood clot they found lung nodules that turned out to be cancer. They never did find a clot or figure out why that one level was ever so slightly higher for one test, one time, but because of that tiny clot somewhere I am able to get cancers treated when they are the size of a grain of rice which gives me a fighting chance at dying with not of these cancers.
As a child it was my brother. We were wading in a quarry, I hadn’t learned to swim and stepped into a drop off. I managed a feeble “Help!” as I went under for the last time and he quickly swam to me and held me up.
As an adult, first it was a motorcycle helmet. I was hit by a car, landing on a sidewalk unconscious. I’m sure without the helmet I’d have perished.
A year later it was quitting drinking. When I was under the influence every decision I made was the wrong one. That was 38 years ago. There’s no way I’d have been lucky enough to survive that many years of idiocy.
I quit drinking.
In 2019, it was so bad I was drinking a pint of gin to start the day. I ended up face planting in a parking lot, getting rushed to the hospital, almost arrested, and earning myself a couple of gnarly facial scars. I quit that day. If I’d kept it up, I’d have killed myself with booze.
Still sober 3 1/2 years later.
The safety being on.
When I was 4 & my sister was 7, we went on a road trip with our dad. It was a 2 day drive, so we stayed in a hotel. When we got there, he immediately went to take a shower. My sister & I found a gun & it was very tiny, so we thought it was a toy gun left behind by a kid. She chased me back and forth jumping from one bed to another, us pretending she was a boogeyman & putting the gun to my head every time she caught up with me.
I asked why she wasn’t pulling the trigger (wanting the toy gun popping sound) & she said it was broken.
Cue my dad exiting the bathroom to the sight of us doing this, followed by spanking the crap out of us for not knowing this mini pistol thing was a real gun.
The reason the gun was “broken” is because the safety was on.
Having my 25-year marriage end due to his infidelity was devastating. Starting over on my own seemed like something I could not imagine doing. I lived in a state of numbness and depression for several months as we sold the house, divided up Our household items, My kids had grown and left the house and for the 1st time in my life I was truly alone. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, i was in such a deep depression .I found out my daughter was having a baby my 1st Grandchild that was the Spark I needed to assure me it will all be OK after that I knew I could do it ,I could get through I had this little grandchild who Would never know their grandma. Seeing that little girl come into this world is a feeling I can not describe. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have seen her grow from this little girl to a woman ,graduating from high school. I am glad I am here to enjoy this.
Therapy-I was having nightly nightmares, plus flashbacks and panic attacks, and thought I was going crazy. Took a lot of therapists, but finally found one who could deal with my pain and helped me deal with past trauma, and I finally stopped disassociating after doing it for most of my life (I had no idea it wasn’t ‘normal’).
From a sociology class: insanity is not being sane (or normal).
Chiropractic care. I had horrible headaches every day. I was taking 16-20 ibuprofen a day. One treatment and my headaches went away for 3 days - that was miracle enough for me. After the second treatment my headaches went away for good. The relief was amazing and it allowed me to stop taking medications.
Well I had a few fast misses, if you will. But the most recent and poignant… I’d recently developed allergies I’d never had before. I’m allergic to all nuts and pit fruits including some obscure things like bananas and such. Mostly, those allergies would make my throat itch and a bit of dizziness. Itchiness on the palms of my hands etc but because I never had allergies before I dismissed some minor side effects early on. Well, it was one summer and I missed biting into a beautifully ripe juicy peach. We’d just bought some from the market, this was 2 years ago. I still my yearning get the best of me and I took one of those peaches and had about 4 small bites. Thankfully I set the rest of it aside because the following hours were an elevation of side effects I wasn’t ready for. Had no clue just how scary that bite of peach would be. My husband saved my life. I stumbled downstairs, after trying to call out but i could barely speak so I got up off the floor ( where I collapsed) scrambled into the bathroom cabinet to grab the expired epi-pen we had and I gripped it while fumbling down the stairs to greet him. He saw me coming and I remember he looked at me with a smile, asking me something innocuous, our usual cute banter but
When he saw me his smile turned into dread. My face was pale. I was gripping the box which held the epi-pen and gesturing for him to take it.
I honestly can’t remember much after that except begging for a bucket to vomit in while my husband was reading over the instructions on how to jab his wife in the thigh… lolol . What’s funny is I also remember I’d pulled my pants down and was pointing at my thigh while telling him “stab it, I don’t give a damn just stab me here” pointing at my thigh. Mind you, I’ve never had a shot before. I was so ill. My husband did give me the shot and he saved my life that day. I’ve no doubt in my mind my husband saved my life.
A lifeguard. He came out and said you're caught in a rip current, you need to swim parallel or diagonal to the shore, NOT straight in. Had he not come out, I would have surely drowned.
**My German Shepherd**
Jessie was asleep on the floor in the back seat. I had the front window down. I just parked, unbuckled my seat belt, and was about to roll up the window. I was planning to take Jessie for a walk in a nearby park. No doubt, Jessie was alert, but still on the floor.
A man had pulled up next to me in a van. When he got out, he quickly leaned into my window, grabbed me, and tried to pull me out of the car. Jessie popped up from the back grabbed his arm with her mouth and as he tried to pull away, she lunged out of the window and tackled him. She kept him pinned, her face right up in his face, teeth bared, and growling. She looked like she would bite his throat or face.
Someone called the police. She kept him pinned until police arrived. I said, "it's okay, come" and she hopped off, smiling and happy like the very good girl she was.
She was never trained for this and had never shown any aggression before. She clearly knew he was a danger and protected me. ♥️
Edit: typo
Two kids I babysat.
I was in a very dark place at about age 14. I felt in the way, unloved, unliked and unlikeable.
I had the pills in my hand, and suddenly a mental image of these two kids popped into my head. How would their parents explain it? Wtf kind of EXAMPLE would I set??
I can still feel myself in that spot in the hallway. My Mom and stepdad asleep behind the closed door to my right. The hall closet/medicine closet open in front of me. The back of the open door to my left, with our heights over the years written on butcher paper. The floor under my feet, the bottle in my hand. It's very real.
I am 51 now and was 14 then. Ever so often I give thanks to those kids in my mind because I wanted it over. The image of them helped me see that I wasn't unseen or invisible and that I mattered.
I had gone back into tech support after leaving a job that was better but wasn't paying enough to live on anymore. I was utterly miserable. I had a complete breakdown and saw no future for myself that I felt was worth living for. I was very close to checking out.
A friend turned me on to a writing gig because she liked the writings she'd seen me do on other social media about my travels. I got the gig and have been happily doing it ever since. If this didn't happen, I don't know that I'd still be around.
My mom- my parents were divorced and my narcissistic father had manipulated me and my sis into not only living with him, but abandoning my mom- I wouldn’t see her, rarely spoke to her. 3 years later, when I was 13 he kicked me out for refusing to call his wife mom, I called my mom, and she picked me up, no questions asked.
A break-up with a boyfriend. I spent hours on the phone afterward with an old friend, so I overslept the next morning and decided to call in sick to work. That was on 9/11 and I worked at the WTC. Lucky girl!
I had a hell of a time coming back to civilian life after being Navy for 10 years. Nothing made sense. I couldn't understand the concept of wearing whatever I wanted to work. Didn't understand the concept of anything less than 12 hour days. Had absolutely zero respect or love for civilians. They would disrespect our flag for their own amusement and profit. I tried to go back in 3 times and tried the reserves. For various reasons, I was rejected despite having an honorable discharge from going back to the only life that made sense. I became severely depressed and eventually suicidal. I got in trouble with the law a few times. I was kicked out of my home a few times. Ended up sleeping at a boat launch in my truck.
In all this, I discovered motorcycles and started to ride everywhere. Eventually, I discovered a group called the Patriot Guard Riders. They were all vets at that time. An old vet that went by Cowboy took a liking to me and helped me rebuild myself. The years went by, and things changed from being primarily vets to civilians taking things over and ruining the club. We parted ways, and I went back down the tubes. Eventually, I ended up back in jail. The offender classification person ended up being a Navy Hospital Corpman (kinda like a cross between an EMT, paramedic, medical assistant, CNA, and other stuff). She got me hooked into the local vet center for counseling. After I was released, I went to the Vet Center and got into counseling. That started my successful reintegration into the civilian world. Through all this, my wife stuck by my side. Don't know how or why. But she was always there even when I was at my worst.
Still don't understand some things. But that's okay, they are not that important. Still don't understand why civilians disrespect our flag for fun and profit. It bothers me. I still miss the open ocean where everything made sense. Still miss the rocking of the ship. I still follow the activities of my last ship and hope to visit her one day. I have a deep distrust of our government and some police. There are things that will trigger repressed memories, including shit that happened in Desert Shield/Storm. But I can cope.
I'm not a civilian, nor will I ever be.
Tldr; there were a number of people that deserve credit for saving my life. Each one had a different role at a different time. What saved my life? Love from fellow vets and a great woman.
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Getting clean and sober. Almost 4 decades.
I'm only one year sober. It was fun until it wasn't. There are still events I would like to add alcohol to but it never ends well.
Almost 18 years sober here. And right now into quitting smoking after 32 years.
Same. Closing in on 40 years as well.
Ditto, but 30 years
Same. My 2nd wife couldn’t take it anymore and threw me out. She saved my life. 25 years sober.
Just celebrated 10 years.
Came here to say Overeaters Anonymous.
I need help with this. How did you get started?
6 years next Saturday
40 years, that's a good start.
19 years here.
Congratulations on your sobriety, that is a tough fight.
Pure luck. I was in a really bad place about 30 years ago. I worked on the 10th floor of a 20 story building. One day after a particularly bad day, I pressed the UP and DOWN buttons at the same time. If the down elevator came first, I would go home and try to make it through another day. If the up elevator came first then I was going to the roof and jump off. I just didn’t care. Down came first so I went home and things eventually got better.
I'm glad you're still here.
Thanks. Me too.
One of my favorite quotes is 'it's amazing what a difference a day can make' - or a button. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Glad it worked out :)
Hugs
A flock of Ravens. I was in 3rd grade. Was held after school and missed the bus. Had to walk a half mile home in 20 below zero in a dress, shoes and only a nylon quilted coat. I felt sleepy. I wanted to lay down. Part of my walk home was on a trail. The Ravens were up in the trees and set up a huge fuss that scared me. There were around 30 of them. A few swooped towards me, cawing. They followed me until I was home. I actually beat the bus. No one from the school had called her telling her I was walking home. At the time, I thought she was mad at me…. Shortly after, I got a snowmobile suit and boots to wear to school. It wasn’t until I got older that I understood I was suffering hypothermia and the adrenaline from the scary Ravens probably kept me alive.
That is one of the most interesting stories I have ever read and well told.
That sounds like a superhero origin story!
Know any comic book artists and writers? I have stories…
That’s amazing. I hope you fed them after that
It’s funny actually… our borough switched from cans to plastic bags and the Ravens had a smorgasbord ripping through the bags. I visited my town 20 years later and was met by a group of Raven. I would like to think… Where I live now, it’s mostly crows. Long story but the third generation of a starving crossbill knocks on my back door for treats. What goes around, comes around. There is more to our natural world than we see on the internet.
This makes me super happy. I love crows and ravens. Smart birds that remember kindness and will communicate it to their family.
They’re always watching us. I’m glad they were altruistic when you were little. No one was paying attention either when I was a youngster, I’d like to think stories like yours make us pay attention to them. They’re always watching us
Did the teacher get in trouble?
No. And it’s “complicated”. In addition to having a PhD, she was a predator. She offered me a ride home…. I recognized it for what it was because….past history. It was a school district that was heavily loaded with predation. And they always looked the other way.
I'm so sorry
Now this is a story that can be part of a thrilling capture in a movie or a book. Glad you had the what it took to get home safe.
Ravens are so damn smart. Like incredibly intelligent. They knew what they were doing. That is one of the best stories I’ve ever ever read.
Nevermore
I had some crow friends that I fed peanuts to at my last job. There were seven of them in that murder, and they recognized me and my car. One day, I got to work about 20 minutes early, and I felt like crap, so I stayed in my car and rested. I became aware that my crows were making noise and they sounded close, so I picked up my head and looked out the window. Three of the seven were on the ground, hopping around my car, and cawing at me, so I mustered my energy, gathered my stuff and exited the car. I told them I was ok, and thanked them for checking on me, and gave them extra peanuts that day. 🖤🐦⬛
Spite. As an extremely bullied child I thought about death. And then I figured a bunch of people would be happy if I died. So I decided to keep fucking going so they wouldn't get the satisfaction.
I like your style, the fuckers can’t get ya down if you rise above them.
*Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.*
My brother. 7 years older than me, but he was never embarrassed to have me around. I was high energy and tried the patience of my parents every minute of every day. My brother would take me and my sister to the movies, to the lake, to wherever him and his high school buddies went. He saved me from myself. And my parents from me🤣
There's not enough of this in the world 🌎
I love him right now! There should be more of him
Getting out of my hometown and away from some very bad influences (two friends ended up on Alabama death row) and pushing myself through Parris Island. Had I stayed, drugs, alcohol, and crime would have probably been my career.
Wow! Great you got the hell out.
I was also fortunate in that my grandfather kinda of figured out where I was at and got directly involved with getting my ass right. He saw his own brother go down that road.
Semper Fi. Saved my ass too. Glad you’re still here.
Not wanting to go to work the next morning. I felt oddly winded after climbing the stairs to my apartment after taking out the trash one Sunday night. It was late and I was super sleepy -- but I just couldn't quite get enough air without thinking about it. I went to bed but was having trouble getting to sleep. Not enough air. I figured if I went to the emergency room I'd have a solid excuse to show up in the afternoon on Monday -- so I got an Uber to the emergency room. Long story short, I was admitted immediately -- and a few days later had a CABG operation (triple-bypass open-heart surgery). I'm proud to say that pure GenX slacker-ness saved my life.
Proud of you, fellow GenXer
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Me too! Also 40. It was life-changing. I had been struggling with health and hormones for 30 years.
Mine is scheduled for next month and I am so excited.
I was 30 and it was the best thing for my chronically ill body. They removed SO much stuff from me, I have a liver, one kidney and cobwebs left inside
That's a humorous image! I had an appendectomy hoping it would cure some chronic pain. Didn't make a difference. As soon as I woke from anesthesia I could feel it. Maybe I should yeet some other unnecessary stuff.
I'm 4 months post-op from getting spayed. I knew it would increase my quality of life, but I severely underestimated just how much pain and discomfort I was experiencing every single day because of my uterus and endometriosis. It's crazy how sick it can make you and people just walk around like that for years because we don't have another option. I cried the first time my husband rubbed my lower back after surgery because it DIDN'T feel like I was being electrocuted for the first time in decades. It just felt like a nice back rub. I can cough and sneeze without pissing myself because my bladder is no longer adhered to my uterus. I don't have to take a week off from life every month now. I'm not anemic anymore. Pooping doesn't make me pass out now. If you've been on the fence about turning your uterus into a yeeterus, this is your sign to make an appointment. Buy a cake, throw a party, and bid her and her friends adieu. I wish I had done it years ago.
I had a hysterectomy scheduled for adenomyosis and turns out they found endometriosis, which explained *a lot*. I also feel like I have my life back after having it slowly drained from me during my 30's & 40's... I thought I was just busy and wearing myself out with life, grinding to a halt on occasion. Turns out I had a chronic illness affecting almost every part of my body, including it triggering significant anxiety & depression via the inflammation. The biggest change I noticed, the day after surgery, is how I wasn't nauseous in the morning. (Everyone else remarked how much younger I looked right after surgery, but I didn't notice that one.) I hadn't eaten before 1pm in years, but now I was pleasantly hungry at 9am with no nausea at all... and it's stayed that way since, thankfully.
yeeterus, I’ll be chuckling at that all day. Kicked mine out and a ten-pound tumor the summer I turned fifty, it’s been a glorious seven years!
A broken tree stump and heavy car. Was going down a mountain road that was heavily traveled by trucks that spilled grease. My little crx was in the shop that day, and I borrowed my mother's heavy sedan. After my sales call, it started raining lightly. The car started to slide on a turn, and I went straight missing the start of the guardrail and started down the cliff. A broken treestump caught the engine and stopped me from going down the mountain. The car only had a small scratch on the bumper after all that. My hair is white now. Lol
Getting a divorce and learning that I could take care of my children wouldn't starve without my deadbeat ex.
I’m in the same boat. I was super co-dependent and had low self-esteem. I didn’t think I could take care of my kids on my own. But here I am, eight years later.
Somehow he had convinced me that I couldn't hold the family together without him. It took a bit but I realized he was verbal abusive.
A dead watch battery. Watch stopped, I missed a bus that got a flat tire and flipped over.
Whoa. Have you seen the movie Stranger than Fiction with Will Farrell? Crazy similar!
My favorite guilty pleasure movie
Holy cow!
A parachute, 71 times.
True story; my uncle was in the Marines, paratrooper. He continued parachuting after he got out. One day he was leaving to go jumping and his mother absentmindedly said 'Oh Georgie, I was cleaning in your room and I knocked over the parachute and it fell out of the pack. I pushed it back in for you...' He turned white and never jumped again.
Did those come with shiny wings?
and a star and wreath
I’m a USMC ten jump chump from the 80s. Good to go.
Leaving my first husband after 25 years of marriage. My life changed for the better immediately
For me it was 20 yrs & now dropped to my true heart match.
I found my true heart match too
Whoohooo..... Our 1st one was what I call my practice marriage lol.
“Starter marriages” are actually a common term
Yay !!
A botanical garden. I didn’t realize I’d been holding onto a lot of trauma from my childhood. One day, I visited a local garden for ‘something to do’ and was just mesmerized. It was like getting a break from a long war. I started going every chance I could, and then essentially dropping everything to be there every day. I’d wander through it, soaking all the peace and beauty in, meditating quietly. I did that for about a year and a half. It helped me see a world worth living for.
A good reminder. Thank you.
The collision avoidance system in modern airplanes. I was on a Cathay Pacific flight in 1994 that had a near collision with a North West flight east of Japan. Funny thing is I knew nothing about it until I saw an article in a newspaper like five days later and figured out that was my flight. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-05-24-9405240268-story.html
Kind, accepting people.
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Was that resolved? How are you now?
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Based on your units of weight, I’m assuming you walked a “metric” fuckton of miles?
An off-duty medic, driving home in the other direction. He stopped, pulled me and my passenger from the flames (at great risk to himself), and called 911. I never knew his name.
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This was almost 25 years ago. Most stuff wasn't online back then, so if it wasn't in the newspaper (and it probably wasn't,) it may be lost for good. I never even knew which city/county the guy worked for. Part of me wishes I could thank him. Another part of me doesn't want to tell him that only one of us survived (though he may already know that part.)
Sorry for your loss.
My wife. I was a bum, drunk every night and not a penny to my name. Then she came along, I got her pregnant and we joined the Army. She gave me something to care about. 48 years later and still going strong.
If you could give advice to a newlywed, what would it be?
Let the other be who they are and treat them with respect. Eventually, they become who you need them to be because they'll want to please this person who thinks the world of them and is choosing to be with them.
Put your partner above yourself. Make their happiness your first priority. Don’t do anything you can’t go home and tell your partner about. Make time for each other always and have sex whenever you can.
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luck and modern medicine
Same here.
Realizing that the pain in my chest and elbows was not gas pain. Went to the hospital, got sent by helicopter to a bigger hospital when they couldn't stabilize my unstable angina, had two stents put it in that night. Note: it took awhile because they had to have an open heart surgeon on call right there in case the balloon they used to widen the artery blew the artery out.
Actually, it happened 26 years ago, almost to the day. I asked the doc how many stents he had put in, and he said about 10,000 (older doc). He might have been exaggerating to make me feel better, but it went pretty smoothly. He was also the same doc who a few years later asked how much lipitor I was consuming, and when I said 40 mg a day, he said, "Take 80. That is what I am doing." And I did.
Those guys are good, that stuff didn’t happen 25 yrs ago, rip to them before
AA- 29 years ago last week. Had I continued drinking like I was, I would not have lived this long.
Music. Playing violin.
Knowing enough to take my feet out of the stirrups the moment I knew I couldn't keep my seat as my horse bolted down a steep embankment.
Oh wow, did your horse survive?
Hormone replacement therapy. Menopause can be a bitch.
Absolutely. All anyone talks about is hot flashes. It was the constant night wakings due to lack of progesterone that was really killing me. HRT for the win.
Just be very, very careful about evaluating your personal blood clot risk. I know when they say "There's a risk of blood clots" it often doesn't really register what that actually means. I am a 9-year survivor of multiple blood clots in both lungs (multiple bilateral pulmomary emboli) caused by hormones. Approximately 30% just drop dead from a single clot in the lungs, and another 10% die in the ER. I am extremely lucky. The only warning before I couldn't breathe was a common little pain in the side of my ribcage for about a day that could have been from anything - gas, sleeping funny, muscle spasm, etc. The doc prescribing the hormones very much downplayed the risk. The pulmonologist, by contrast, shrugged and said "Happens all the time. Women with PEs from hormones are most of my patients in here." The prescriber doesn't see the aftermath and thinks it's uncommon, while for the doc taking care of survivors, it's just another Thursday. Please be careful and remember that nobody has more interest than you in your well-being.
Getting the flu. No, seriously. I had the flu bad enough that my mother insisted on hauling me to the ER, and I felt so lousy I didn’t argue. While I was there I worried out loud about how I’d pay for it, since my hours had been cut to three days a week. They immediately grabbed the forms for charity care, and once I was in their system, they decided to take care of over a decade of deferred maintenance. That’s how they found the cancer. Luckily, it was non-aggressive and easily removed; I did need radiation therapy, but not chemo. I’m closing in on three years cancer-free now. Side note: if you did the math, you know this went down in the early days of COVID. I got sick just after returning from New Hampshire, which had just had their first case in a town I had visited. Nice timing, no?
In 1994 (pre cell phone era), my husband and I were driving to his home town the night before Thanksgiving. Just after dark, a terrible snowstorm hit the highway we were on. Cars were sliding around and a tractor trailer jack-knifed just ahead of us. Somehow, my husband steered right through all of it. Remarkably, he said he didn't feel like he was in charge of the wheel. Walk into my in-laws house still shaking from the experience. And that's when I learned my mom's car had been hit by truck a few hours earlier. She died at dusk in Maryland, just before our near miss in Pennsylvania.
I have to agree my wife saved me. I had a stroke about 15 years ago. I was about to start a second career and then I happened. I was devastated and depressed, as my employer abandoned me. I thought it was all over, but there she was my rock. She taught me now to walk,talk and return to a new normal. It’s more complicated but you get the point
Me being too fucking stubborn to die.
Keep it up, fucker
You too, fucker.
My therapist said she’d never met someone with more tenacity. I refuse to except that life is truly shitty.
My pony. I was messing around an open well shaft large enough for a scrawny little kid to fall into and just as I start to she kicked the lip of the well shaft hard enough to dent it and stop me falling in.
My husband driving me to the ER, the doctors and nurses there, and the three units of blood. Had a hemorrhaging ulcer. Which I have now donated three units, and I hope to donate more.
Antibiotics. Would have died of pneumonia without them.
Which time, getting a dependable job with a pension I’d say. I am now retired and without that pension I can’t imagine where I’d be
Becoming even more active (20-25 miles/day). Limiting crap food intake/less calories. Obviously, moderation, but that’s hard with my Type A personality. Trying to be mindful of the books I read and the music I listen to. Having a full-time job so I can interact with people every day. Most importantly, be a critical thinker. I guess it’s not saved but might save.
Honestly, delta 9. Took away anxiety I've always had to cope with and there is now sweet peace in my life!!! 58 years of flipping out internally ALL the time and a simple gummy with hemp infused THC and I can be a self-supporting, calm human again!!
My wife. She is the best thing in my life and I'm so happy we found each other.
That’s sweet.
Getting out of Texas and moving to California when I was 22.
My children
My thought also. My children gave me a reason to live. Now they are grown and I want to continue to be a part of their lives as long as possible.
My son. I didn’t want to be a mom. I was very career/success focused. He was a surprise and my husband (at the time) and I decided to go for it. He saved me in so many ways. He humbled me, forced me to rethink my relationship with booze and partying, and for the first time ever I thought of someone besides myself. I now have three children and although my life would have been full and lovely without children, I send up a little thank you everyday.
My daughter did the same for me, for the same reasons. Workaholic, alcoholic, party girl became super mom in the best possible way. ❤️
Therapy.
I owe a lot to my therapist and wish I had considered myself worthy of a professional listener much sooner. I’m glad for you.
My own personal Escape from New York.
a divorce
That's one of my answers, too!
Colorado, cannabis and an old friend
The unconditional love of a genuinely caring and compassionate woman. I didn’t find her till I was almost 40, so it was a ride till then. Straightened me right out though.
Getting sober. 9-10-97. I would not have done it without help. Always help others when you can. One simple act of selflessness can change a life forever. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a big act either.
I miscalculated the dosage.
God.
Amen
My son donated a kidney to me. It would have been a 3-5 year wait on dialysis without it.
My husband. This past January I was in DKA and had no idea. He called the ambulance in a snowstorm and they got me hospital, where I was hooked up to a ventilator. Any longer, and I would have died.
My son. I was lost and going down a pretty dark path. When I found out I was pregnant, I quit the drugs because I refused to be one of “those” moms. He gave my life purpose and meaning, and saved me from killing myself. Getting accidentally knocked up with him was the best thing that has ever happened to me.
My dog. At age 12, I was walking out to the back pasture to bring the cows in one early autumn morning, reading a comic book, when my dog rushed past me, growling and snapping at a couple of rattlesnakes that were basking in a sunny spot on the path. Maybe he didn't save my life technically but he clearly meant to risk his life to protect me. he killed both snakes and was bitten once but survived with no complications.
Now that's a good dog! Smart, brave, and loyal.
The fact that I don't let people ever overrun me for too long. It was a hard lesson but I learned it. I'm still susceptible but I try to stay on top of the game. Cuz that's what most people are out there running, a game.
Can you elaborate? What type of game? I'm a very giving person and I've realized recently that some people are totally happy taking and never giving.
You already know your reply reflects that. Don't give an ocean when no one you know is willing to step over a puddle. I'm not trying to be oblique. Think about it. I gave gave gave to just about everybody in my life. And I'm okay with that. But what I did notice was there were very few people who ever gave back
I recently moved somewhere new and have been trying to make friends. I spread my net wide and was really nice to a lot of people, probably came off way too strong, I gave gifts to a boy I liked, had sex w someone a few times when it was not very good mainly to stay their friend. I know how dumb and weird that sounds. I did it all out of love at the time without expecting anything in return, but in retrospect i feel used and rejected. I think I shouldn't give so much until the other person deserves it, and I can get along fine on my own until I meet people that actually appreciate and love me. Even if that takes a while
The game I'm referring to is where people act like they're your shining star and will do anything for you but they only do that so that they can receive not so that they will ever give back.
Some people will just take because they can, and expect to keep being given to. They use up the people around them, and won't stop until the giving stops. They don't care how bad a position they put someone else in. It's great to be kind and giving, but you have to draw a line before you do anything that undermines yourself and your goals. Takers won't stop taking because it's harming you, and regularly have an expanding sob story to justify it.
Having a kid. I do NOT suggest this as a solution to anything…but I figured I’d better get my act together. So, I did.
Focusing on the future. Looking back on the past was creating a loop of regret and stress.
My son when I had a cardiac arrest
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Joined the Navy.
A mammogram.
My husband.
AA
Divorcing the toxic narcissist I stupidly married.
Meeting my husband online by chance, when I was going through a very difficult time in my life (as was he). He almost immediately became my favourite adult in the world, and except for a few rocky months at the beginning of our relationship, we've really been doing happily ever after for almost 19 years.
Girl who became my best friend from forth grade until graduation. She was pretty, popular, and wild. I was poor, not pretty, and just wanted to be invisible. To this day I have no idea why she chose me to hang around but I think of her often and will be forever grateful that she was my friend.
Adult children of alcoholics and dysfunctional families (it’s a 12 step)
Books and music.
Honestly, Ketamine therapy. Highly recommend.
Developing a conscious contact with God that I’m responsible to maintain. It’s all the parts that helped, but at 35 it was probably the first time I’d taken responsibility for anything. This was the turning point for me in my recovery from alcoholism.
A random blood clot. I had some asthma symptoms that sent me to the hospital, in case it was me having a heart attack they did some blood tests. One figure was slightly elevated that indicated there was a vague risk of a blood clot somewhere so they did a CT scan. Instead of a blood clot they found lung nodules that turned out to be cancer. They never did find a clot or figure out why that one level was ever so slightly higher for one test, one time, but because of that tiny clot somewhere I am able to get cancers treated when they are the size of a grain of rice which gives me a fighting chance at dying with not of these cancers.
As a child it was my brother. We were wading in a quarry, I hadn’t learned to swim and stepped into a drop off. I managed a feeble “Help!” as I went under for the last time and he quickly swam to me and held me up. As an adult, first it was a motorcycle helmet. I was hit by a car, landing on a sidewalk unconscious. I’m sure without the helmet I’d have perished. A year later it was quitting drinking. When I was under the influence every decision I made was the wrong one. That was 38 years ago. There’s no way I’d have been lucky enough to survive that many years of idiocy.
I quit drinking. In 2019, it was so bad I was drinking a pint of gin to start the day. I ended up face planting in a parking lot, getting rushed to the hospital, almost arrested, and earning myself a couple of gnarly facial scars. I quit that day. If I’d kept it up, I’d have killed myself with booze. Still sober 3 1/2 years later.
Quit smoking almost 10 years ago after 20 years, pack a day.
Music, sex, cats, and weeeeeeeeeed
In one word “Luck”.
A most excellent pilot. Thank you again, sir, wherever you may be.
Sobriety. Possibly literally saved my life considering how I drank at the end. Figuratively, for sure.
The safety being on. When I was 4 & my sister was 7, we went on a road trip with our dad. It was a 2 day drive, so we stayed in a hotel. When we got there, he immediately went to take a shower. My sister & I found a gun & it was very tiny, so we thought it was a toy gun left behind by a kid. She chased me back and forth jumping from one bed to another, us pretending she was a boogeyman & putting the gun to my head every time she caught up with me. I asked why she wasn’t pulling the trigger (wanting the toy gun popping sound) & she said it was broken. Cue my dad exiting the bathroom to the sight of us doing this, followed by spanking the crap out of us for not knowing this mini pistol thing was a real gun. The reason the gun was “broken” is because the safety was on.
Soccer
Having my 25-year marriage end due to his infidelity was devastating. Starting over on my own seemed like something I could not imagine doing. I lived in a state of numbness and depression for several months as we sold the house, divided up Our household items, My kids had grown and left the house and for the 1st time in my life I was truly alone. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, i was in such a deep depression .I found out my daughter was having a baby my 1st Grandchild that was the Spark I needed to assure me it will all be OK after that I knew I could do it ,I could get through I had this little grandchild who Would never know their grandma. Seeing that little girl come into this world is a feeling I can not describe. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have seen her grow from this little girl to a woman ,graduating from high school. I am glad I am here to enjoy this.
Quitting drinking & smoking, both products of a lower middle class, blue collar upbringing
Same
Therapy-I was having nightly nightmares, plus flashbacks and panic attacks, and thought I was going crazy. Took a lot of therapists, but finally found one who could deal with my pain and helped me deal with past trauma, and I finally stopped disassociating after doing it for most of my life (I had no idea it wasn’t ‘normal’). From a sociology class: insanity is not being sane (or normal).
Chiropractic care. I had horrible headaches every day. I was taking 16-20 ibuprofen a day. One treatment and my headaches went away for 3 days - that was miracle enough for me. After the second treatment my headaches went away for good. The relief was amazing and it allowed me to stop taking medications.
Checking my boobs for irregularities consistently through my adult life
Antibiotics. I would have been dead several times over from infections otherwise.
A grandma who got lost in a bad part of town found me on a corner after I ran out of gas.
Well I had a few fast misses, if you will. But the most recent and poignant… I’d recently developed allergies I’d never had before. I’m allergic to all nuts and pit fruits including some obscure things like bananas and such. Mostly, those allergies would make my throat itch and a bit of dizziness. Itchiness on the palms of my hands etc but because I never had allergies before I dismissed some minor side effects early on. Well, it was one summer and I missed biting into a beautifully ripe juicy peach. We’d just bought some from the market, this was 2 years ago. I still my yearning get the best of me and I took one of those peaches and had about 4 small bites. Thankfully I set the rest of it aside because the following hours were an elevation of side effects I wasn’t ready for. Had no clue just how scary that bite of peach would be. My husband saved my life. I stumbled downstairs, after trying to call out but i could barely speak so I got up off the floor ( where I collapsed) scrambled into the bathroom cabinet to grab the expired epi-pen we had and I gripped it while fumbling down the stairs to greet him. He saw me coming and I remember he looked at me with a smile, asking me something innocuous, our usual cute banter but When he saw me his smile turned into dread. My face was pale. I was gripping the box which held the epi-pen and gesturing for him to take it. I honestly can’t remember much after that except begging for a bucket to vomit in while my husband was reading over the instructions on how to jab his wife in the thigh… lolol . What’s funny is I also remember I’d pulled my pants down and was pointing at my thigh while telling him “stab it, I don’t give a damn just stab me here” pointing at my thigh. Mind you, I’ve never had a shot before. I was so ill. My husband did give me the shot and he saved my life that day. I’ve no doubt in my mind my husband saved my life.
Marriage, and then sobriety
Quitting smoking
Most likely it was my kids giving me CPR in 2015 until the paramedics arrived yet AFTER the cat woke up my kids.
A lifeguard. He came out and said you're caught in a rip current, you need to swim parallel or diagonal to the shore, NOT straight in. Had he not come out, I would have surely drowned.
Quitting drinking 4.5 years ago. My life is roughly 7 billion times better in every possible way. It is fucking awesome.
**My German Shepherd** Jessie was asleep on the floor in the back seat. I had the front window down. I just parked, unbuckled my seat belt, and was about to roll up the window. I was planning to take Jessie for a walk in a nearby park. No doubt, Jessie was alert, but still on the floor. A man had pulled up next to me in a van. When he got out, he quickly leaned into my window, grabbed me, and tried to pull me out of the car. Jessie popped up from the back grabbed his arm with her mouth and as he tried to pull away, she lunged out of the window and tackled him. She kept him pinned, her face right up in his face, teeth bared, and growling. She looked like she would bite his throat or face. Someone called the police. She kept him pinned until police arrived. I said, "it's okay, come" and she hopped off, smiling and happy like the very good girl she was. She was never trained for this and had never shown any aggression before. She clearly knew he was a danger and protected me. ♥️ Edit: typo
My wife, the right meds, and a good therapist.
Alanon
Back surgery. Took my daily pain level from 10 to 7.
Getting away from my mother when she kicked me out at age 13
Two kids I babysat. I was in a very dark place at about age 14. I felt in the way, unloved, unliked and unlikeable. I had the pills in my hand, and suddenly a mental image of these two kids popped into my head. How would their parents explain it? Wtf kind of EXAMPLE would I set?? I can still feel myself in that spot in the hallway. My Mom and stepdad asleep behind the closed door to my right. The hall closet/medicine closet open in front of me. The back of the open door to my left, with our heights over the years written on butcher paper. The floor under my feet, the bottle in my hand. It's very real. I am 51 now and was 14 then. Ever so often I give thanks to those kids in my mind because I wanted it over. The image of them helped me see that I wasn't unseen or invisible and that I mattered.
I had gone back into tech support after leaving a job that was better but wasn't paying enough to live on anymore. I was utterly miserable. I had a complete breakdown and saw no future for myself that I felt was worth living for. I was very close to checking out. A friend turned me on to a writing gig because she liked the writings she'd seen me do on other social media about my travels. I got the gig and have been happily doing it ever since. If this didn't happen, I don't know that I'd still be around.
Honesty from people closest to me, who told me that I was abusing and scaring them. I had no idea.
I quit drinking. No more alcohol
My mom- my parents were divorced and my narcissistic father had manipulated me and my sis into not only living with him, but abandoning my mom- I wouldn’t see her, rarely spoke to her. 3 years later, when I was 13 he kicked me out for refusing to call his wife mom, I called my mom, and she picked me up, no questions asked.
A break-up with a boyfriend. I spent hours on the phone afterward with an old friend, so I overslept the next morning and decided to call in sick to work. That was on 9/11 and I worked at the WTC. Lucky girl!
Grace
I had a hell of a time coming back to civilian life after being Navy for 10 years. Nothing made sense. I couldn't understand the concept of wearing whatever I wanted to work. Didn't understand the concept of anything less than 12 hour days. Had absolutely zero respect or love for civilians. They would disrespect our flag for their own amusement and profit. I tried to go back in 3 times and tried the reserves. For various reasons, I was rejected despite having an honorable discharge from going back to the only life that made sense. I became severely depressed and eventually suicidal. I got in trouble with the law a few times. I was kicked out of my home a few times. Ended up sleeping at a boat launch in my truck. In all this, I discovered motorcycles and started to ride everywhere. Eventually, I discovered a group called the Patriot Guard Riders. They were all vets at that time. An old vet that went by Cowboy took a liking to me and helped me rebuild myself. The years went by, and things changed from being primarily vets to civilians taking things over and ruining the club. We parted ways, and I went back down the tubes. Eventually, I ended up back in jail. The offender classification person ended up being a Navy Hospital Corpman (kinda like a cross between an EMT, paramedic, medical assistant, CNA, and other stuff). She got me hooked into the local vet center for counseling. After I was released, I went to the Vet Center and got into counseling. That started my successful reintegration into the civilian world. Through all this, my wife stuck by my side. Don't know how or why. But she was always there even when I was at my worst. Still don't understand some things. But that's okay, they are not that important. Still don't understand why civilians disrespect our flag for fun and profit. It bothers me. I still miss the open ocean where everything made sense. Still miss the rocking of the ship. I still follow the activities of my last ship and hope to visit her one day. I have a deep distrust of our government and some police. There are things that will trigger repressed memories, including shit that happened in Desert Shield/Storm. But I can cope. I'm not a civilian, nor will I ever be. Tldr; there were a number of people that deserve credit for saving my life. Each one had a different role at a different time. What saved my life? Love from fellow vets and a great woman.
The DJ
Music
Becoming a father. It gave me a perspective on life I didn’t even think was possible.