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Just because you climbed up something doesn’t mean you can climb down.
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HR, Human Resources. I’ll never trust them again.
Do not attach two very active dogs to the handle of a Razor scooter because you want to see if they’d be good sled dogs. .
Research shows that fear and anxiety reduce our likelihood of taking risks. However, the exact strength of this relationship is in question. One meta-analyticreviewfrom 2020 noticed that scientific studies with clinically anxious samples showed greater risk aversion on average. Furthermore, studies using tangible rewards also showed greater effects of fear on risk aversion. Aside from those, fear seems to have a small to moderate average effect on the willingness to take risks.
Driving through standing water. Just because the car in front of you makes it through doesn’t mean you will.
Don’t work full time and go to school full time.I was like meh. I can do whatever I put my mind to. It broke my brain. I repressed my stress but my brain and body didn’t care. Started waking up in middle night with panic attacks thinking I was dying. Got agoraphobia. Places like airports and malls I would get vertigo. Dizzy and lightheaded and feel like I was floating which would trigger what is wrong with me panic attack. Rinse repeat.I went to dr and he was like you are doing way too much. Stop doing that. And he was right.So you actually can do too much. And even if you can brute force it, your brain and body will eventually rebel against you.
Hiking alone in Iceland being a confident hiker. Paraphrasing: the most dangerous hiker is a confident hiker.I got lost, didnt pack enough food and got caught on the side of a mountain. 20 people had to rescue me. Never again.
As with most things in life, there’s a balance to be found when it comes to your personal safety. On the one hand, yoursurvivalis paramount. You want to make sure that you’re as healthy and capable as you can be in order to get the most out of life. In short, you don’t want to be reckless.On the other hand, you don’t want to go overboard with safety concerns to the point that you’re constantly anxious, hiding in your metaphorical comfort zone, scared to take the opportunities that life keeps throwing at you.
As with most things in life, there’s a balance to be found when it comes to your personal safety. On the one hand, yoursurvivalis paramount. You want to make sure that you’re as healthy and capable as you can be in order to get the most out of life. In short, you don’t want to be reckless.
On the other hand, you don’t want to go overboard with safety concerns to the point that you’re constantly anxious, hiding in your metaphorical comfort zone, scared to take the opportunities that life keeps throwing at you.
Regular check ups and screenings. Get the damn colonoscopy on schedule, get the skin check yearly. Get your prostate exam or pap smear. If you smoked or are high risk get scans for lung cancer regularly. Talk to your doctor, find out what you should get and when and follow the schedule. I have lung cancer, one of the 20% of people with lung cancer that never smoked, and the difference between the outcomes from stage 1 to stage 4 is literally life and death. Do not wait for symptoms, do not put off getting that weird mole checked.
Don’t fry bacon when you’re naked.
Many of us know the basics of staying safe and healthy. Look both ways before crossing the street. Know what to do in case of a fire. Don’t eat food that smells like it’s gone off. Don’t interact with random wild animals that might have God only knows what illnesses. Don’t speed when you’re behind the wheel of a car. Exercise, eat well, get plenty of sleep, have an active social life, and avoid nicotine, alcohol, and chronic stress. The list goes on and on.The fact of the matter is that there’s only so much we can do to prevent getting hurt. We can prepare to avoid the most common risks. However, we can’t see the future. We can’t predictrandomaccidents that might end up with us getting hurt. But this shouldn’t be a reason to lock yourself away from the world. If anything, it’s a reminder to take care of yourself while also trying to live life to the fullest. With courage and conviction.
Many of us know the basics of staying safe and healthy. Look both ways before crossing the street. Know what to do in case of a fire. Don’t eat food that smells like it’s gone off. Don’t interact with random wild animals that might have God only knows what illnesses. Don’t speed when you’re behind the wheel of a car. Exercise, eat well, get plenty of sleep, have an active social life, and avoid nicotine, alcohol, and chronic stress. The list goes on and on.
The fact of the matter is that there’s only so much we can do to prevent getting hurt. We can prepare to avoid the most common risks. However, we can’t see the future. We can’t predictrandomaccidents that might end up with us getting hurt. But this shouldn’t be a reason to lock yourself away from the world. If anything, it’s a reminder to take care of yourself while also trying to live life to the fullest. With courage and conviction.
First responder here. Garage door springs. Let a pro fix them.
Not wearing hearing-protection when necessary. Tinnitus sucks.
Alcohol, 22 years drunk, 18 months sober.
What are the hardest life lessons you’ve learned due to sheer bad luck, dear Pandas? What advice would you give everyone to help keep them safe(r) every day?
Considering coworkers true friends lmao…. whenever money or power is involved, human beings are two-faced.
Customs officers. They have no sense of humor, don’t ask me how I know.
Depression, it f***s you hard.
Texting and driving. I was around 27, driving out of my neighborhood around 3pm and remembered I forgot to text a friend about an assignment for grad school. I looked down and within 5-10 seconds, ran up onto the sidewalk. I was so mortified that I could have killed someone, kids, a woman with a stroller, etc. Never did it again.It’s been a few years and I still think about that stupid choice that could have ended horribly.
USE your right to remain silent. Don’t be an idiot and yap.
Private student loans. No Ivy is worth it. Take the spot that offers you the most funding. Undergrad, grad and professional.The interest should be illegal and the terms are insane.For some, even death doesn’t release you from the obligation. Permanent disability? They don’t care.Just don’t do it….
Well, I knew not to f**k around with it, but Covid kicked my as so hard I went from climbing and 6 mile hikes with a kid on my back to walking with a cane. Additionally I have cognitive problems, ended up with a stent for kidney stones for 2(!) months so now I might have some internal scarring, made my asthma SO much worse and because of exercise intolerance I developed type 2 diabetes.Good news is, I’m a mother fracking cockroach so after 3 years I’m slowly kicking it’s as.
In ground yellow jackets.Pay the dude with the bee suit and the right s**t to kill them safely.
It’s a lot easier to get lost in the woods than you think. I wandered away from our campsite a little tipsy because I love looking for mushrooms. I kept going in just a little further until one time when I looked back I couldn’t see my wife and friend back at the site. A few big steps to the left to reorient myself, wait… maybe a few steps over in this direction… Oh st.I yelled for help but the sound doesn’t carry. The sun was just setting when I went in but it gets dark a lot faster in the thick of the forest. I panicked. I ran. I cursed at myself. I yelled for help over and over. I tried to stay calm but also decided to keep moving because it was getting dark and cold and I knew I was in very deep st if I didn’t get out before nightfall. I spent about an hour and a half totally lost, the longest 90 minutes of my life. Finally, I heard a truck rumbling in the distance and sprinted towards it. I almost cried when I saw the clearing and popped out on a gravel road 3 km west of our campsite. Looking at a map after, had I gone any other direction it was just forest with no end in sight. My wife and friend said they went in to the forest yelling my name, of course I was probably too far at that point and heard nothing. I don’t know what would’ve happened if that truck hadn’t been going for a late evening drive along the service road. I thought I was going to die.
If an older man has a “saddle nose deformity” or cauliflower ears, let them be. A saddle nose deformity nose is also called a “boxer’s nose”.An old man with training will f*****g kill you. That’s how they got to be old.
Pitbulls.My family has always had and loved dogs. Thought the breed was fine and just got a bad rep.My dad brought a puppy home, we had her for 6 years. Loved her, house trained, no behavior issues, we thought.Came home one day and she had killed our old boxer, who had been with her everyday that we had her and also was so old she had no teeth, and was chewing on her severed leg like a chicken bone.Never again. And it makes me want to puke when people have their children crawling around with these dogs.
Overwork and exhaustion can be a potential killer.When I was in my late teens I spent a few years working 80-100 hours per week. I found out that at a certain point, your body just… stops.I woke up in a hospital bed and it took me 6 months before I started to feel semi-normal again.
As a child i learned, Geese are the crowned prince of a******s of the bird world .
Shared housing with people you’ve just met. I did it out of necessity for many years, now that I have my own place I finally feel free.
Chainsaws.I don’t even like the sound anymore.I had an accident with one and cut up my leg.
Dehydration and overheating. Being covered in ice in an ambulance and pissing black pee will change your perspective.Edit: one thing I have never really explained to anyone is how big of a personal victory it was for me when I regained the ability to workout hard and push myself. the experience i described below took a huge amount of recovery physically and psychologically and when I got back to a healthy state of going hard, not being afraid of my heart getting up into the cardio zones, etc. was like regrowing a cutoff limb and wining the lottery and coming back from the darkest inner fears and I don’t know if I could ever communicate how big a deal it was for me.
Sleep deprivation.Damn near died in a car accident (round 1), then went mildly psychotic and paranoid (round 2).Just dumb. There are better paths to adrenaline-fueled euphoria.
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Medical concerns.That bump on my testicle I just wanted to ignore? I didn’t. And it was a tumor that I caught early.The terrible pain in my abdomen causing me to throw up even though I didn’t have any food in me? I didn’t wait for it to go away. I went to an urgent care clinic and they sent me to an ER where they found that my appendix was necrotic and ready to burst.Ignoring medical warning signs and waiting for them to pass is not being “tough”. Get yourself checked out.
Taking sleep meds (ambian) and laxatives (myralax) within the same 24hrs. What a nightmare!
Thinking you can skip the bathroom before you leave the restaurant for an hour drive home because “I can hold it” 🥸.
Wasp nest. They’re not chill like bees. They are very aggressive and will attack you and they don’t die when they sting you they just keep stinging, and it feels like getting hit with a red hot spike.
Paying my taxes. Worked for myself through college and didn’t have a penny to spare so I just didn’t file for three years figuring I’d pay it off when I was done and working.Ironically, my first job after graduating was for the state tax and rev dept. They figured it out lickety split and gave me a month to make good. Paid some pretty serious interest and penalties and learned to never do that again.
Oral health. Brush your damn teeth or you’ll sorely regret it laterEdit: brushing is often times not enough, I brushed regularly and still got cavities in between my teeth from not flossing. At least once a day do a full routine of flossing, brushing, tongue scraper, and mouthwash. I usually just brush in the morning and do the full shabang at night. Would’ve saved me thousands of dollars if I had started this earlier.
Women who warn you that they are crazy… She is indeed crazy.
Moose. If they decide they don’t like you, they can f**k you up. Only orcas get to mess with them.
Mental health. Neglect it, and it’ll wreck you faster than anything else. People think they can tough it out or push it aside, but that’s a losing game. Once you’ve seen the damage it can do, you realize it’s not something to take lightly.
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Sunburns will in fact lead to skin cancer.
Cars in snow. You ever seen a video where someone does a 360 in the snow and hits something? I did that and got lucky the thing I hit was a curb.
Being a cheater. Ruined my entire life. Definitely got what I deserved and more.
Flipping the bird at a driver. It’s been 40 years since I tried. On that particular adventure I was on a 4-lane road, 2 in each direction (Rte 29 through Virginia). I was going maybe 5 mph over the speed limit to pass a slow car when a car came up on my tail. The road wasn’t limited access and had a lot of blind driveways. Going more than 55 really wasn’t safe. The highway, named Dixie Highway, has also been referred to as Dixie Die-Way.Anyway, I passed the slow car as quickly as I could safely do so then pulled over to the right as soon as I was safely in front of the slow vehicle. The guy who’d been riding my tail passed me at a high rate of speed and I held up the third finger as he passed. Ooops. The driver obviously saw it as he pulled in front of me the instant he was past me and jammed on his brakes. I was so relieved that I didn’t lose control of the car. Since then I avoid anything that might induce a road rage incident. The satisfaction of displaying your annoyance from the comfort of your car isn’t worth the consequences.
Pain. Basically, just because you can tolerate a lot of pain doesn’t mean you should. Listen to your body; you are feeling pain for a reason, so don’t push yourself just because you “can handle it.”.
Hurricanes. Stayed in New Orleans for Katrina. When they say to leave, leave.
Portuguese Man O' War jellyfish.If you think you see someone’s lost floaty toy out in the ocean, just leave it.
Domt f**k around with a mandolin! Use the guard , you can lose a fingertip …. I didnt… but came close damn its sharp!!
Cults and MLM. Plan and simple. Stay away from them and keep your money and sanity intact.
Repressing emotions. Grief. Anger. Anxiety. Sadness. Because if I don’t process them, they manifest with some sort of physical suffering, illness, injury, etc.
An infection. Killed my mother because the doctor fd around. She was in the hospital and did everything the doctor told her, but he didn’t want to come in during vacation time and he fd around and it killed my mother.I tell people this all of the time, any time you get an infection, please do not mess around with it. Seek care immediately and get it stamped out ASAP.
This question pops up here a lot and “The Wu-Tang Clan” is never the top answer and it makes me question humanity.
Chipmunks.All I was trying to do was feed the little bastard and he took a chunk out of my finger. Little bastards can starve now.
Lithium batteries. I’m a curious fellow who likes to take stuff apart to see how they work. Had a camera battery go dead and thought I’d take a look see on what makes them tick. Go to work on it with a knife…Well what happens is that even “dead” batteries will f*****g explode in your hands, burn said hands, and couch, rug and carpet. I now choose much more carefully as to what I dismantle.
I was taking a bath while my phone was charging. I picked it up to use it. I was promptly electrocuted. I will not do that again.Edit; I have been proctored on my word use- because I am still alive, it seems that I was not “electrocuted”; rather, I was “shocked”. It was, despite the wording, still really intense. When it happened, I tried to drop the phone and it was like, stuck to my hand. It took several attempts of me trying to THROW the phone to break the connection between the circuit and myself.
Heat in the house during winter.Although I still blame the governments “Only heat the rooms you use!” Guidance during the cost of living crisis, I completely took for granted how my house was different from my apartment when it came to keeping it heated during winter. That my house is much older and draughtier compared to the small apartment in the shared building.Resulting in a frozen pipe and - ultimately - a burst pipe.Homeowners - it’s better to just grit your teeth and pay the large gas/heating bills during winter. Water can do a LOT of damage to a property.Edit: while it’s still fresh in my mind: make sure you all know where your stop-c**k valves are in your property!!
Non-medical forms of birth control.
Kidney stones!Woke up from a dead sleep SCREAMING it hurt so bad. Ambulance ride later, best they could do was some dilation meds or something because pain killers did not help.Was super sore and uncomfortable for days… was told based on the tests & scans I had like 10 more. Never cut out so much soda / teas / chocolate so fast and increased water intake like it was my job.Must have worked, almost 10 years later and no issues so far 🤞.
Sugar free gummy bears….
If you’re feeling dizzy, don’t stand up and try to find a comfier spot. Sit down on the ground where you are and wait for it to pass.I didn’t, and I planted my face into the sidewalk from full standing height.Also that was two days ago, on vacation in a foreign country.
Garage door spring. DOn’t even attempt. Just hire a professional.
Steers. One slammed me into the side of the barn once, out of absolutely nowhere, and I was alone. Bovines are not to be trusted.
Mentally unstable women. Or mentally unstable people in general. No, I can not f*****g fix her. If they don‘t do therapy they will drag you down deeper than you can imagine.
Don’t compromise on your values and boundaries—stick to what matters most to you.
Alcohol and credit cards.
Electricity.
Road Rage is real. Beeped at a guy being an ae, riding the wrong lane and cut me off. Not even a middle finger or curse, just a beep. Four dudes hopped out at the next light with guns. Luckily they were just trying to scare me and yell and got back in but I am much more forgiving while driving and generally just get out of an a*s way if I see them being reckless.
Walking home alone late on a Sunday night in a dodgy neighborhood.
Wolves. They’re way smarter than you’d think.
Trained fighters. Cocky youth and alcohol are a bad combination.
The IRS. Oof that was expensive.
Health bro, everything else is either expandable or manageable….
Water. It’ll kill you with no warning, even the strongest swimmers.
Skunks. Paper boy experience.
Park. Had a “friend” slam my car into park while we were cruising down interstate! Terrifying, but thankfully no injuries.
Not checking online if a skin product causes acne. Had to endure 5+ months of horrible acne and then scarring after years of clear skin for using a specific face sunscreen. Too much money/time spent on fixing it. Never again.
Fire.Because I watched the Station Nightclub fire video.
I know a lot of these replies are serious, so I’ll take it one step further: pre-ordering AAA games. Never again. Been clean for seven years now.
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