Have you ever seen someone blow up their life for no apparent reason? What happened?

I can't really answer the whys or the whats or anything since I haven't spoken to this guy since he made his particularly stupid decision, but I know someone who got nabbed by Chris Hansen on that old To Catch a Predator show back in 2007. I don't know if he was trying that kind of thing before or if it was only one really (REALLY, REALLY, REALLY) dumb decision, but he had always seemed like a stand-up guy and it shook the crap out of our community. Of course, I'd imagine that is partly because none of us were underaged girls. It had already got around town that he had been arrested for that kind of thing but it hadn't been revealed that he was caught by Dateline NBC specifically until his episode aired. Even knowing the guy had been caught for soliciting underage girls, I still somehow didn't expect to see him on the show, I was floored.

I love this topic! I‘ve definitely seen people explode their life in a straw breaking the camels back kind of way. Like, it‘s taking place somewhat gradually, but on the outside, it looks more sudden, like a train wreck.

honestly, my own mother seemed to have an upper middle class life as a stay at home mom. But then the kids grew up and her „job“ so to speak, just didn’t exist anymore. Emotional problems ensue — depression and also driving people away with anger and hatefulness. Weight problems. Then divorce.

then spending all the money from the divorce and losing the house (which was paid off, until she borrowed money against it). Alienating nearly all remaining connections and support network. Hoarding. Alzheimer’s.

i think people can be in a downward spiral that they never recover from in this lifetime. And, in this example, without any sudden tragedies precipitating it.

There was also the curious case of the man who spontaneously combusted while he was preparing a cup of morning coffee. All the medical examiners found was a sad pile of ashes on the kitchen floor.

81.818181/100

Yeh, my brother who suffers from mental and anger issues but won't seek help. He's lost his girlfriend, whom he has a kid with, his apartment, his job, family. Dude is good at shooting himself in the foot.

Yes -someone becoming an anti Covid vaccine misinformation spreader

buzz off rojo……maybe he doesn’t want to name the company to avoid you finding out who his brother is….you are the epitome of online trash

I love this thread and title. It really gets down to the root of the modern life and existentialism.

Personally, I think about blowing up my life on a daily basis. I’m married, have a great kid, two good dogs, a good job and live in a good place and I still constantly think about it. I don’t think I ever will but can completely understand people that do.

Michael Richards

Kevin Spacey

paula Deen

louis ck

Toast ?

He is of with his mistress .

Here’s two I know about, resulting from bad decisions (sort of like the guy that passed on managing the Beatles)

1. I high school in the 70’s I worked at Sambo’s in Illinois. The restaurant manager dreaded his job/life. He had been with the company about 2 years, but his passion was music. He had been in a band up in Michigan, playing bass, but quit thinking they would going nowhere. The band: Bob Seger and the Silverbullet Band.

2. Friend of mine went to Ole Miss. His roommate didn’t like school so decided to start a company. Had raised a little seed capital and needed a lawyer. He asked a female student who was graduating from law school to be the corporate counsel, but for years 1-3 he couldn’t pay her except she would get 10% of the company. She wanted to but her father objected saying he put her through law school not to work for free. So she took a job with a law firm for $85k. The friend’s company took off, and she missed out on 10% ownership. The company is Under Armour.

Americans and their "God". God works in incredible ways when you he makes you think you deserve this while kids get cancer, innocent gets slaughtered at war etc. Damn fine God.

I think this is a very pertinent point.

It's rarely sudden even though it may appear to be. There's often a whole host of preceding events that pile on more and more pressure. I know I've felt, on one certain day, like all of the dominos were collapsing at once (fortunately one of the biggest stressors was removed...) but I did feel like I had at least a small understanding of what might lead people to snap - I walked off and was fine a few hours later but maybe I was lucky wrt to that.

Also thanks to the person who recommended "Influence" as that looks to be an interesting book which could be useful for those in sales jobs.

A lot of people get caught in the regret cycle and basically quit. There's a relatively innocuous trigger - maybe missed opportunities, unfulfilled potential, a mistake here or there - something that could be corrected in a year or two (or even less), but instead they effectively go 'on tilt', making more mistakes and creating more regret. This puts them in a vicious spiral, and makes a progressively deeper hole for them to climb out of.

But the reality is, you can completely change your life in 5 years even from the most dire of circumstances - I've seen people do it in 3. You just need to get out of the cycle.

I know a kid who completely messed up at school (expelled from one, zero qualifications from the other). He got in with the wrong crowd, was on trial looking at a potential custodial sentence. He responded by cutting out all negative influences, threw himself into learning a trade, stopped drinking alcohol, started working out etc. During this process he even lost a close family member to suicide. And yet there he is, 3 years later. Really nice guy, very well spoken, clearly intelligent, in shape, got a girlfriend and new circle of friends, money in his pocket, legal problems over. He has a growing client base, self-esteem derived from purpose, and a concise vision of where he wants to go. Still barely 21.

My former best friend may fall into this category.

We became close while in the army. He had some troubles with marijuana prior to joining. No run ins with the law, just smoked too much and became lazy/unmotivated. He decided to join up to turn his life around.

When we got out we talked about dabbling in smoking weed a little bit. It took a while, but he finally scored some skunk weed. We smoked one night, and it was super fun. I left and went back to my normal life, while he was just embarking on his journey back into that world.

Over the course of 3 years he began to smoke more and more to cope with the stresses of school (we were both in nursing school at the time) and the stresses of the COVID lockdown world. He eventually failed out of nursing school 2 times and was at a dead end of sorts. He worked a job as a security guard in an assisted living facility and spent the rest of his timing lighting up and focusing on his own “grow” operation.

Things took a turn when I mentioned a small research project I did on the effects of psilocybin on depression. He took it upon himself to begin to grow his own shrooms and experiment with their effects on himself. He influenced his then girlfriend to do the same.

So one random night in September 2021, both of them were tripping on shrooms and watching TV. His GF turns to him and says they should move to Hawaii. And that was just what he needed to hear.

In the course of 4 months they ended up having a backyard wedding, selling their home, buying a home on the big island of Hawaii, and using the profit from their house to ship all of their belongings and vehicles to Hawaii in January of 2022. They moved there with no jobs lined up and no real clue of what they would do when they got there. He eventually gets a job in a chocolate factory and begins to slowly but surely break off all communication with everyone he knew back on the mainland.

The last time I spoke to him was September of last year. I have no clue if it’s going amazingly, or if they’ve fallen back into their old habits. But they definitely hit the reset button hard on life and never thought of turning back.

And in case you were wondering, he landed a 100% VA disability pension when he got out of the Army, which has allowed him to financially do all of these crazy things that other people would be unable to do otherwise. I believe he gets $3500 tax free every month, which must be enough when combined with whatever he makes at his factory job and with whatever his wife brings in.

Yep. Been there Done that.. took me years to recover from the burnout

Come on Malmo. You and Rojo need to lighten up and quit haranguing this guy. He lost his brother for goodness sakes.

Something doesn't add up. Kevin Plank, the founder of Under Armour, is from Maryland and went to high school and college there (University of Maryland, College Park), not Ole Miss. His roommate in college was Darren Drozdov. Is there another founder I'm unaware of?

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