People Are Sharing The Things They Did To Their Body They’d Give Anything To Reverse, And It Just Shows How Delicate Our Health Can Be

We live our whole lives hearing about how our body is a temple, a wonderland, a sacred vessel… but sometimes, things happen, and whether by choice or not, over the course of an entire lifetime, our bodies can really take on a lot of trauma.

So when Reddit user u/FlyHighNow77777 asked the question, “What is something regrettable that you did to your body that you would give your life savings to reverse?” In r/AskReddit, I knew it would be full of heart-wrenching stories:

1.“Wearing high heels (four+ inches) every day for work in my 20s. It did a number on my knees in my 30s — they would hurt when I did activities I enjoyed, like hiking. Now in my 40s, the knee pain got better after switching to zero-drop, minimal footwear, but would still hurt at times. I’m hoping it doesn’t get too bad when I get older…”

—SertraLynne

2.“I’m covered in tattoos, which I started getting at 18 because I was a part of that scene. Now I’m a very humble, outdoorsy person that doesn’t care about being perceived as cool. I don’t regret them all but wish I wasn’t so heavily tattooed now.”

—u/Dry_Shirt_2772

3.“Tanning beds… WTF was I thinking? I just liked the warmth and solitude. It was my me time. I was so dumb and oblivious. I had never been in a sauna. That could’ve done the same for me without the melanoma and skin aging.”

—u/mgmom421020

4.“Skin picking. I started at nine years old after a traumatic event and never stopped. My upper body is so scarred a doctor once asked me if I have neurofibromatosis. And the skin on my arms is basically numb by now.”

—u/thane_of_midnight

5.“When I was nine, I got water stuck in my ear from a beach trip. None of the usual tricks to get it out were working, so I plugged my nose and blew as hard as I could. I completely decimated my eardrum, which has resulted in countless infections and hearing loss. Don’t do it!”

—u/AltruisticHighway6

6.“I got surgery to improve my vision but developed a post-surgical infection and ultimately lost my vision in the eye I was trying to fix.”

—u/writeyourwayout

7.“‘Powder brows,’ which are just face tattoos that they lie and say are semi-permanent. They turned black/gray after a few days (never faded at all), and I’m pale and blonde. I waited years to remove them because I was too scared to ruin my face even more.”

“I just had my fifth laser removal session. They are orange now because removal takes forever, and the ink slowly fades from black to red to orange to yellow. Then, you may not be able to get rid of yellow. Powder brows are such a scam.”

—u/SoManyDreamsToday

8.“It’s not what I did but what I didn’t do… Take care of my teeth. I should have gotten dental work done as soon as I started working. I am 65+, and I have crooked teeth and cavities and cannot afford dental because Medicare does not cover it. Fixed income and old age suck. TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEETH!”

—u/Nena902

9.“Not enough breaks while gaming. At the ripe old age of 23, I’m showing serious symptoms of carpal tunnel. Stretch your hands, move them around, and do not keep them in the WASD pose for literal hours without breaks.”

—u/txt-png

10.“Not taking care of my skin. Sunscreen was crap when I was a kid, but by my 20s, it had gotten better. I wish I would have used an SPF moisturizer. Now I have large freckles (I have lots of freckles all over) and a few wrinkles. Not horrible or anything, but I could have looked younger instead of my age. My daughter, who is also a redhead, has almost no freckles because we always taught her to put sunscreen on.”

—u/sisterfunkhaus

11.“Working 10-13 hour shifts in the cheapest guideline-appropriate shoes I could find. They were $7 at Citi Trends, but my back and shoulders will never be the same. Working two jobs while in school is not for the faint of heart. I’m never working that hard again.”

—u/OtherwisePianist224

12.“Joined the US Military. I do not recommend it unless you’re prepared to destroy your back and knees (at minimum) and potentially deal with a lifetime of PTSD. The US military is so good at traumatizing people that they don’t even have to deploy you to do it!”

—u/CaffeinatedHBIC

13.“Started vaping. I had never struggled with addictions before, and I liked the social/sharing aspect. Four years later, I have issues with circulation to my fingers and toes, a constant dry and itchy nasal system, and random shooting lung pain. I quit cold turkey 13 days ago after the lung pain got really bad and scared me, but I can’t believe that despite that, I am still craving it whenever something goes slightly wrong or I have a drink with friends. I hear it gets easier, though.”

—u/Proper-Breath1825

14.“Pushed through the pain. I thought intense pain was just part of intense exercise. Turns out, I had an undiagnosed connective tissue disease and am now a wheelchair user at 50. Pain is your body telling you something, and that message should never be ignored.”

—u/jenleepeace

15.“I had Botox injections in Bangkok, in a clinic that was located in a shopping mall (MBK Center). I have no idea what they injected me with. It gave me horrible allergies and constant 24/7 itching. At first, it was located only in the injection region. I literally had to press my fingernails there and slightly scratch; otherwise, it drove me insane, as it never stopped.”

“After a few weeks, these itching particles started to travel to other places in my body, like 24/7 itchy stardust. So now it wasn’t just my wrinkles above my nose that I felt the need to press my fingernails into; it was my full body. Being completely allergy-free for the first 35 years of my life turned into Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) in less than a week, and I was taking three to four antihistamines daily. I’ve taken them ever since; otherwise, the itching in my body becomes unbearable. All it took was one injection session, and everything was completely wrecked. And it wasn’t even doing anything to my muscle nerves, so it’s a mystery what they actually injected.”

—u/Capable-Anything269

And finally, here’s someone’s story that will leave you with a very important message:

16.“I didn’t love and enjoy my body. All I could think was, ‘I’m too fat,’ ‘I’m too ugly,’ and ‘I’m not good enough.’ Now I’m much, much bigger. I was hit by a drunk driver, so I’m also disabled, and when I look back, I can’t believe I thought that about my body at that time.”

—u/sohnsohn

Do you find yourself relating to any of this and want to tell your own story? Feel free to share in the comments. Or you can leave an anonymous response on the form below!

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.