I was at the sea once in my life. I was swimming there and I dived maybe 2-3 meters deep. So that was my lowest point in my life.

I also got terrible sunburn there. My pale skin doesn’t mate with sun very well.

But apart from this silly response? IDK, I was apparently pretty fortunate in my life so far. Sure there were ups and downs, some minor, some major. The lowest I can think of was probably before my college final exams. I wasn’t the best student and these major exams were pretty damn difficult. Trying to squeeze everything in my head was very, very stressful to the point I felt I was going a bit crazy.

ha. i’ve been in a rut since covid for various reasons and everybody surrounding me rn are basically snakes. let’s see how i will wriggle my way out of this one and i’ll tell you the story.

I feel like there has always been a new lowest point for me in life lol.

Maybe this seems mild to some, but I worked my way into getting a well paid career after going through hell in grad school. I never ever had friends growing up or after…seemed to develop severe social anxiety that never went away.

At my job, I thought I finally found an irl deep friendship in my coworker. I had never had that kind of a relationship before. Maybe surface level stuff with others, but nothing like that. We seemed to always have each other’s back. I thought I had a best friend.

Well through the years, my supervisor seemed to get worse and worse with nitpicking my every move. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt at first for many years…assuming things were a misunderstanding or something. But it kept getting worse and worse.

My coworker and I actually bonded over having mutual difficulties with my supervisor’s poor and unreadable attitude.

Well I got to a breaking point when my supervisor admitted to pushing me one day and I ended up eventually complaining to HR about her. I basically asked for a shift change because of all of the issues.

My friend/coworker was initially somewhat supportive of my struggles because she also knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of my supervisor.

Unfortunately, HR turned it into a multiple months long debacle and clearly was on the side of my supervisor. HR decided to involve all of my coworkers in the mess. My coworkers slowly lost support of me in this and I became more and more erratic as all of this was happening.

During all of this, I had tried to get mental health support as well. I was in therapy which I didn’t find overly helpful and was trying out various forms of medication.

But it was all too much…HR pulled me aside one day to talk to me about my distressed behavior a month prior. Instead of compassion, the woman outright called me selfish and then subsequently threatened termination in a written document that I had to sign the following day. The following day, a debacle also happened with my friend where she said that she wasn’t sure if she could be my friend anymore. None of my coworkers would speak to me.

It felt like my world ended. Everything from my daily life…my job and my friendships…I felt threatened and abandoned by all of that. I felt so hopeless and simply beyond destraught.

For two days in a row, I tried to go into work, but I would immediately go home “sick”. I could not perform my job. I contacted my mental health provider and they were able to put me on an emergency FMLA leave for around 1.5 weeks. So luckily my employer could not fire me right in that moment and I could have time to recover from being inconsolable.

In that time off, I volunteered near daily at the food pantry. I visited relatives and friends I didn’t realize I had. I got my first tattoo. I started wearing wristbands daily with positive messages on the inside. I told myself I would not touch a drink of alcohol outside of social situations. I applied to and interviewed at a different job as well during that time (tho I didn’t end up getting it).

The food pantry stuff helped me a lot. Something about trying to do something good while I was at my lowest instead of giving up on life helped. I’d recommend it. It helped distract me from being constantly consumed by my thoughts.

I have never done well with one on one therapy. My therapist did help me in a very important way, but overall I generally find it rather limiting. I started an intensive group therapy program several months later which I find was more helpful to me than most standard one on one therapy. My only regret is not starting it earlier. It was using the therapy modality called DBT which I highly highly recommend. But maybe I wouldn’t have been as receptive to it then I suppose. I’m also on a different medication now.

Been nearly a year since those few earth shattering days with the HR lady and my friend. I’m still employed at the same company and it’s been a long road with my friend, but we are friends again. My supervisor doesn’t treat people that way anymore. It’s been a long fucking road and I still struggle from that experience, but I’m still here and doing much better.

Sorry for the wall. What is your situation, OP?

The summer I spend homeless after mooching off my roommate and (now former, due to this) best friend until they couldn’t support me any more. I didn’t know how to adult, basically, how to earn enough money to pay my bills and keep my bills low enough to match my income.

I got back up with some hard work, a lot of help (other friends who found me work, places to live, helped me move and store my most precious possessions while I was homeless), and a huge amount of luck.

After graduating with a Msc I became homeless due to the housing crisis and only min-wage lab work being available. It was about a year of living out of my car until I got lucky and hired for a job that paid fairly.

1. Highschool

2. The internet

In a dentist waiting room I read an article on the best non-proprietary replacement bags for the Henry hoover.

I feel pretty fortunate that my lowest point wasn’t that bad in the grand scheme of things.

I was stuck in a dead end job that paid peanuts and was in a somewhat codependent relationship with someone who was not good for me. I also couldn’t afford to move out of my parents basement due to the crappy job.

Ultimately, I realized I had to make drastic changes due to being pretty miserable with my life. I quit my job and went back to uni for a more marketable degree. I worked my ass off to get good internships and ended up at one that turned into a full-time job that I’ve now been at for over a decade. My ex did me the favor of dumping me. I ended up meeting my now spouse at my career job. We bought a house, got a dog, have traveled to numerous countries, and saved enough money that work is becoming increasingly optional.

Overall, I just had to recognize that the status quo was making me miserable and starting to incrementally making changes to my life that would get me closer to where I wanted to be. Past me never could have imagined what was to come for present me, but by just taking one step at a time to improve things, I’ve found incredible happiness.