Some things are difficult to hear or admit even if they’re true. That you’re not meant for some people like some people aren’t meant for you, for instance, or that sometimes love just isn’t enough. These are just a couple examples of pills that are hard to swallow, but people on Reddit showed that there can be plenty more, covering nearly every aspect of life.
The online community discussed the topic in a thread started on the ‘Ask Reddit’ subreddit. They opened up about what they consider the hardest metaphorical pill they’ve ever had to swallow and provided heart-wrenching and thought-provoking answers. Scroll down to find them on the list below.
Bored Panda has reached out to the redditor who started the thread, u/Liteboyy, and they were kind enough to answer a few of our questions. Scroll down to find their thoughts below.
#1
Sometimes I’M the problem. I’M the one who needs to chill out and back away from the situation.
Image source: worldwideweeaboo, Keira Burton
#2
Your spouse does not exist to provide you with free therapy, laundry, food, cleaning, and sex. You have to respect someone’s boundaries even if you don’t benefit from them. You have to be able to look after yourself and pull your own weight. You should be able to help them and pull extra weight if they’re struggling. If you are looking for someone to serve you or complete you, you are not ready for a relationship and you should not be in one.
Image source: swansung
#3
Sometimes your friends don’t consider themselves as close to you as you do to them. The hard pill: This doesn’t make them a bad friend, it just means that everyone has their own social network and you can’t always be at the center of everyone’s.
Image source: Royal_Nobody, Lisa Fotios
#4
No matter how wrong someone is or how painfully obvious a solution to one of their problems is to you, sometimes they have to figure it out on their own and there’s nothing you can do to change that.
Image source: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmno, Athena
#5
Someday, everyone and everything will be dead. It’s not just that you won’t be alive anymore, you won’t even be remembered. Regardless of what you or anyone else does, the end result is the same.
Image source: IHad360K_KarmaDammit, Pixabay
#6
Heard this somewhere else and liked it. People don’t have to like you and no matter how “likeable” you are some people just wont like you. That’s ok.
You can be the most delicious strawberry but some people just don’t like strawberries.
Image source: poprof, Wendy Wei
#7
Sometimes trying my best is not enough.
#8
Don’t throw good money after bad. Don’t fall for the sunk cost fallacy. Just because you’ve invested a lot of time, money, effort, emotion into something or someone, doesn’t mean that you should continue investing in them hoping that things will change. Sometimes its better to cut your losses and accept that while you may have wasted time and energy on something, that it’s better to stop hemmoraging resources when it’s clear that you aren’t getting the outcome you want. It’s still better to have wasted two years on something that didn’t work out than wasting ten years on it because you figure you’ve invested too much to quit.
Image source: counterboud, Elijah O’Donnell
#9
You’re not meant for some people like some people aren’t meant for you.
Image source: therealdavejones, RDNE Stock project
#10
“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.” – Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Image source: itjare, Kindel Media
#11
No one wants to talk to a depressed person and depression actively makes you less desirable company to others.
That one hurts a lot, as someone who suffers constantly, I think I’ve often romanticized the idea that if people see that you’re not doing well, then maybe they’ll take the time to try and talk to you or brighten your day a bit. That’s not how it works though, they just don’t want to know. And it’s hard to blame them because it’s obviously not their problem.
That’s a particularly hard pill to swallow for me. The world doesn’t give a s**t, it will move on without you.
Image source: BlearyLine7, Tusik Only
#12
Just cause you like someone doesn’t make them not a s****y person.
Image source: Spontanemoose, Liza Summer
#13
You do nothing on your own, everything you achieve is a result of other peoples actions helping you be able to be in the position you are today. You stand on the shoulders or giants in every way, this is your inheritance as a human, in the form of infrastructure, society, security, healthcare, technology, vaccination, peace, everything that allows you to have a choice in the course of your life is the result of someone in the past constructing a better world. Take this hard to swallow pill and consider it when you decide what actions to take in your daily life.
Image source: whhe11, Cameron Casey
#14
You aren’t that important in the grand scheme of things. People don’t think about you as much as you think. Relax. Don’t sweat your small mistakes.
Image source: CarlRod
#15
Super simple but…some things aren’t just meant to be. A relationship, job, whatever. It’s not lack of trying or wanting. It’s just how she goes, bubs. The f*****g way she goes.
Image source: AgnosticUnicorn, Randylle Deligero
#16
That it costs money to stay alive.
Image source: a-1yogi, Tim Samuel
#17
I grew up religious, and feared sin and temptation. Anything that could be construed as sin, I would avoid at all costs. It took me forever to realize that temptations are healthy, and often point you towards something you need. It’s taking the temptation too far that is wrong, not the temptation itself. Like, being hungry is ok, but overeating is bad. It’s ok to be attracted to people, but objectifying them is bad. Those kinds of things.
Image source: anon
#18
You’re not responsible for anyone’s happiness
Image source: dailyfield, Teona Swift
#19
When I found out I was born with an abnormally small throat and I would never get to live my dream of being a pharmaceutical tester. That was a tough pill to swallow.
Image source: PMMeUrHopesNDreams
#20
Wanting to help does not mean you aren’t making the situation worse.
Image source: orangemanbad3, RDNE Stock project
#21
you can never escape yourself
Image source: Moral_Gray_Area_, Andrea Piacquadio
#22
That I have been the toxic person and destroyed relationships with people I really cared about. And the kindest thing I can do for them is to stay away from them.
Image source: satanshonda
#23
Just because I would never do something to or hurt someone intentionally doesn’t mean they wouldn’t do it back to me.
Image source: Zeracin, Keira Burton
#24
Sometimes the reason you aren’t a doctor or lawyer or a well paying profession is simply because you were too lazy rather than not having the ability.
Image source: aigroti, Adrian Swancar
#25
That sometimes you have to forgive people for being selfish. And that sometimes you yourself have to be selfish.
Image source: ZCM1084, Gus Moretta
#26
I’m never going to be as important to some people as they are to me, no matter what I do.
Image source: rns_020609
#27
I’m not a millionaire who is down on his luck. I was born poor. I am poor. I will die poor. I will never be very wealthy.
Image source: CalvinSpurge, Aaron Burden
#28
People very close to you will die, and you will find a way to live on.
Image source: Vincent__Vega
#29
Sometimes love just ain’t enough.
Image source: anon, Katie Salerno
#30
The people you love can die, just like that. Suicide, accidents, whatever. And the reasons you’re missing them are, oftentimes, quite selfish. If they [unalived] themselves, then having them back here, right now, would probably just make them miserable.
Image source: kayisbadatstuff, cottonbro studio
#31
That obesity can’t just go away without doing something.
Image source: Woooshed_boi
#32
there is profit in human suffering.
Image source: anon
#33
Everyone is capable of evil. Even myself.
Image source: c0keinmouth
#34
The only constant in my life is me. I can do all I want to keep another person in my life, but we ultimately do not decide whether they stick around or not.
Image source: Chango99, Valeria Ushakova
#35
No matter how much anyone likes you or loves you, they have their own life to live and you have your own life to live. No one else is really going to help you or fix things for you. You are on your own and always will be.
Image source: Kiyae1
#36
Being right doesn’t mean I’ll win, or that anyone will like me or care.
Image source: anon
#37
You can’t help anyone that isn’t helping themselves. There’s nothing you can do for them unless they help themselves too. *Nothing.*
Image source: codered434, https://www.pexels.com/photo/ocean-wave-splashing-on-dock-1683492/
#38
Everyone has things you don’t know about them
Image source: Damonatar
#39
That all good things come to an end at some point. Just got out of a rough spot because of that. Things are really starting to go good, and I really don’t want it to end, but one day it will. Hopefully that day is a long ways away.
Image source: Bnigma, Ricky Esquivel
#40
It’s much easier to give advice than make change in ones own life.
Image source: anon, Alex Green
#41
Your parents are not perfect, and you can’t change them.
Image source: MotherOfPapillon
#42
I was born to sell my labor and die
Image source: anon
#43
Life isn’t segmented (child, teen, adult, parent) it’s just a constant flow with no breaks to settle in
Image source: anon
#44
Some people like being unhappy
Image source: TeaDrinkingUnicorns, whoislimos
#45
That my mother isn’t getting any better and she’s definitely in her last weeks.
Image source: Joe109885
#46
Windfalls usually happens to those who don’t need it.
Like Millionaires winning the lottery
Image source: TechnicolorScience
#47
Nowhere does it say there is anyone who will like you or that you have a special one out there
Image source: cmanonurshirt
#48
no one is entitled to your kindness, friendship, and love
Image source: sad_barrett_
#49
You can’t help everyone
Image source: WhyMEyeHere
#50
Sometimes it’s genetics, and it doesn’t matter how you try to counterbalance it. It sucks and, most likely, not your fault.
Also it’s damned expensive
Image source: brandnamenerd
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