We protect ourselves from many things. Even truths, when they’re too painful for us to accept. While in the short term denial can be beneficial and, for example, give us time to organize ourselves after a traumatic event, it can also have a darker side and become unhealthy.

Suppressed feelings can slowly take over and push us towards withdrawal, bullying, self-harm, or substance abuse.

Reddit user Inferno2808 recently made a post on the platform, asking others to share “the clearest cases of ‘living in denial'” they’ve seen, and the replies they’ve received serve as a poignant reminder that if left unchecked, destructive thoughts and behavior can really take a toll on us.

#1

My sister wears flannel shirts and has really short hair and drives a Subaru and wears a battleaxe necklace and has a pile of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Editions and a lesbian pride flag in her room and my mom still hasn’t figured out she’s gay

Image credits: TheThalmorEmbassy

#2

Buddy keeps complaining that ‘normal’ guys won’t respond to him on dating apps and keeps getting hit on by ‘creepy old dudes.’ Uh, you’re nearly 60, and those are age-appropriate matches. ?

Image credits: broccoli_octopus

#3

My brother is married for the fourth time, my mother blames all his ex-wives. I keep pointing out her son is the common link to all the divorces.

Image credits: abby_normally

#4

Me, thinking I’ll get in better shape and lose some weight while doing literally nothing to make it happen ?

Image credits: gkfreefly

#5

“nobody wants to work” when rent has doubled in ten years but wages have barely risen

#6

Any 40+ year old man getting upset with his 18/19/20 ish year old girlfriend for being “immature”.

#7

I am a teacher- I have so many parents in denial about their children’s grades or behavior. I once had a kid headbutt me and break my nose bc he couldn’t go to recess right then and there, “but he’s an angel at home!” (Where he’s only ever playing on a tablet)
I also have one parent in particular who has 4 children, and ALL of them have behavior problems, to the point of multiple suspensions or being made to move schools or teachers. and I have to wonder: after 4 children with issues…is it not possible YOU might be part of the problem??

Image credits: Random-bookworm

#8

My step-dad’s coworker got three different vasectomies. His wife kept getting pregnant each time, and he insisted the doctor had somehow botched the procedure. After the third vasectomy, she turned up pregnant again, and the doctor told him, “There’s nothing left of your vas deferens. Have you considered she may be cheating on you?”

Image credits: tir67dtfu

#9

Ex’s mom: moved to Vegas from Europe. Went broke gambling over 10 or so years, practically homeless… then she got injured on a casino escalator and was compensated more than fairly with a life changing amount of money… guess who went broke again, pretty much exclusively at the same casino…?

Image credits: AIShalmanezer

#10

My mom – “There are no gay people in India”

Her wondering why one of her friend’s son is not interested in meeting any girls and me explaining that he’s gay.

Image credits: Ron0hh

#11

My loving, yet abusive and alcoholic father telling me that he has no problems to fix and that whatever trauma I think happened in my childhood is a product of my “sick and twisted mind” because he was “nothing but good to me”.

Image credits: sea-bagel

#12

Got a friend.  He’s in his fifties, makes next to minimum wage.  Drinks and eats too much. He and his gf (late sixties) live with a mutual friend.

They’re “discussing” adopting a child. 

Image credits: SnooMemesjellies7469

#13

My Dad has PSP/dementia. My Mom refused to acknowledge that it was a developing problem, because it was an “inconvenience to their lifestyle”. I confronted her, because he needed to have his drivers license taken away, because he was a danger on the road.

My Dad impulsively went out one day, bought a BMW without her present, and later drove it underneath a semi truck. And shocker- that was when she realized he was unwell. I also had to find out through extended family about his accident, because she didn’t want give us “the satisfaction” of being right all along.

Image credits: FlannerysPeacock

#14

My elderly friend who has fallen 4 times already breaking 2 ribs once, a wrist once, and bruised up the other times. He still refuses to use a cane out of some male pride thing. He can’t understand that we all age, and if he keeps falling he will end up with a broken hip and bedridden and miserable.

Image credits: SeaworthinessOne5840

#15

Friend diagnosed with diabetes 10 years ago, has needle phobia so afraid of pricking his fingers to monitor his blood sugar so doesn’t, and just “eats healthy”. Due to blood sugar fluctuations, gradually goes blind and kidney fails, 3.5 years on dialysis, then finally gets a kidney transplant. Home again with new kidney, is still afraid of pricking his fingers and decides he will manage his diabetes by “eating healthy” just like he did for the past 10 years :_-(

Image credits: Burner_Account_2002

#16

My mom has been a smoker for 40 years. She was diagnosed with COPD. Goods news is she can spend $400 a month on an inhaler that makes her feel better. No need to give up smoking, clearly.

Image credits: kayladon20

#17

Close friend with an opiate addiction and her husband who thought she needed morphine infusions for a variety of magically appearing painful ailments.

Image credits: Maison1984

#18

My mother (now deceased) refused to wear glasses because she hated how they looked on her. Instead, she insisted her eyesight was “not that bad” and the fact we had to read menus to her at restaurants was just a cute quirk.

Image credits: starglitter

#19

I know a guy who tested positive for HIV about 11 years ago. He pretended it didn’t happen and did nothing about it. Today he is dying of AIDS. He’s not even 40. So sad.

Image credits: WeasersMom14

#20

My dad doesn’t want a hearing aid because he thinks it will make him look old. I tried to tell him that what makes him look really old is mishearing things all the time, but he didn’t hear me.

#21

My family when my mom was diagnosed with a hereditary, incurable, no survival rate over 4 years cancer. We all thought she’d be the one to beat it, she was gone within a year at 55yo. No amount of good diet, exercise, education can beat bad genes and life’s unfairness. The facts were there, it was still like a freight train hit us.

Image credits: nowitnessforthis

#22

So my sister gets married, he husbands family are pretty heavy drinkers, and it’s the full range of drinks; beers whenever, mixed drinks, straight hard liquor like vodka, whatever is on hand, and plenty of it; seven days a week, and all day on weekends, holidays, etc.

So her husband’s brother, late 20’s, hits it a lot harder than even the other people in his family; a full handle of vodka after work every day kind of hard. Four or five over a weekend, all by himself.

So he gets sick, not felling well, tired, etc. but just puts it down to getting older and maybe not handling his liquor like he used to, but doesn’t cut back at all.

Once he starts turning yellow, he gets to the doctor, who tells him his liver is shot; full cirrhosis, there’s nothing left of it, whatever. He tells the doc he doesn’t know why, he doesn’t drink any more than the people he knows, it’s a mystery, but he’ll stop entirely to get put on a list for a new liver.

He obviously doesn’t stop drinking, doesn’t even cut back. Everyone knows it’s the drinking and cirrhosis, but he and his family start calling it “cancer”- it’s cancer, so the drinking has nothing to do with it.

So he eventually ends up in the hospital full time because there’s no liver for him yet, and his family starts sneaking vodka into the hospital so he can keep drinking.

He left the hospital on a slab, and the family starts asking people for money for cancer walks, stuff like that, and not a one of them cut back the drinking at all.

Image credits: gallaj0

#23

That’d be my “father”. My “mother” was manic-depressive, as it was called back then. She had several major breakdowns during my childhood. Every time, he’d act like nothing was wrong. She’d be screaming & throwing things, and he’d just try to placate her. It never worked.

A couple times, I pointed out that she needed to be committed. He always responded that a person couldn’t be committed unless they’re a danger to themselves or others. True, but she obviously was. I was terrified of her. Even apart from the breakdowns, she threw rage attacks at the drop of a hat.

Long story short, in my 20s I found out that A) they’d had two kids before me, and B) she’d drowned them in a bathtub during a psychotic episode. What I never found out was how she gor released or why she was able to conceive me less than a year later.

A friend was with me when I found out about B). He told me later that he’d always thought I was exaggerating when I said I’d feared for my life as a kid. I couldn’t blame him, it does sound outlandish.

After that, it was even more baffling that my father thought we were safe living with her.

Image credits: 2PlasticLobsters

#24

Denial is incredibly useful. So the clearest case I’ve seen is me and my husband all of 2022. Melanoma went to stage four. Somehow, he had no pain and felt fine until the last week of his life. We had a great time together. He didn’t want anyone to know he was sick until he felt sick and he didn’t feel sick until his last week of life so nobody knew. He went back up north that summer for a few weeks to hang out with his brother and his friends and go see his mom and had truly a great time. We did a trip to Mexico, and two months later he was dead. But my goal that year was to feed him everything he liked as much as possible, and make him laugh. It was successful. Thank you, denial, for making his last year special.

#25

Hilaria Baldwin’s commitment to her fake Spanish accent, even after she was outed as having been born and raised in Boston with zero Spanish heritage.

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#26

Had a friend planning weekends away and activities when they were 9 months pregnant and about to drop. Think they were just scared and trying not to think about it

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#27

Nurse who thought the lump in her breast was nothing important and the open sore appearing was also nothing important and once it started draining thought it was nothing important despite dressing it daily. Was confronted by coworkers after the smell became so rank it lingered where she went. Stage IV cancer with mets to bones and brain. Died soon after.

She was the manager of the oncology unit.

*Editing to add – because I must not have been clear and a lot of people see this as an autonomous choice:*

*This was a case of ‘living in denial’. Once confronted about her odor she admitted to the sore but still thought it was nothing. Agreed to go to the ED with colleague/friend but only to reassure them. Oncologist consulted in the ED and she lost it when cancer mentioned. Insisted on everything done to treat despite no hope. Died within the month. Never left hospital from time confronted about odor.*

Image credits: Pistalrose

#28

Me, when I thought I could help my mom and that it was my job to make her happier. She screwed up her life and made every choice that got her where she is today, and continues to make poor choices all the time. It took years and years for me to realize there’s nothing I can do except call her occasionally and say I love you, and it’s not my fault she lives the way she does. 

#29

My older sister (39), having 4 kids, living in my parents house without paying rent since she got pregnant the first time with 17, her oldest was practically raised by my parents. Recieving much financial and emotional support through the years by our parents.
She is saying she never recieves any help by our parents, that she doesn’t feel welcome at home anymore and that our younger sister and I are favored.

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#30

A girl I went to school with, we where on friendly terms many years after school, never got a job and still lives on govermental pay. She first got one child, moved from place to place because she got evicted due to lack of rent. Blew of all her money on c**p the moment she got them. CPS placed the child in permanent foster care. And she repeated the same with two other children. She is now 40, none of her 3 children have any relationship to her, she still get evicted all the time, still blows her money on c**p. And still thinks she is fine, she is a good mother and all her issues is everyone elses fault. All in all very sad.

Image credits: Fenrisulfr1984

#31

My dismissive avoidant mom was a master of denial. The worst was when she got an abscess in her pelvic area. She was in 10/10 pain, couldn’t sit up, was literally white knuckling a body pillow while laying on the couch unable to move for A WEEK and when I (age 10) would suggest she go to a doctor it was all “Oh no no I’m totally fine! I don’t need to see a doctor.”

This woman literally scheduled an appointment with a specialist and WAITED THE 10ish DAYS for the appointment instead of going to urgent care. She drove herself there in 10/10 pain. The doctor took one look at her and told her to put on a gown and meet her downstairs for immediate surgery. They drained so much yuck from her and she had to have the gauze packing to heal the crater left behind etc. It’s a miracle she didn’t get sepsis.

Bonus story: she suddenly became allergic to ibuprofen in her 40s and turned beet red after taking some. Instead of going to the doctor she went to her hair appointment like normal. Hairdresser refused to cut her hair and made her to go the doctor. My mom just went home instead and laid on the couch huffing and puffing until the reaction went away. She told me this story like it was a totally sane and normal thing to do.

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#32

My mother and father divorced 26 years ago. It was a toxic marriage and probably for the best that they part ways.

Since then she has been remarried and is happy with her new husband. We all get along and my parents get along for the sake of visits and being around grandkids.

To this day my father wants to get back together with my mother. I don’t blame him there if he still loves her but the denial part is he thinks he did nothing wrong in the marriage. He is under the impression that he was the perfect husband and he is doing her a “favor” by taking her back if she did come back. The reality is he did not treat her well, she left and is now with someone who makes her happy.

Image credits: ZenoSalts

#33

I have a cousin (still a kid) that is obviously gay. Everyone knows it. Nobody cares…except his Grandma. She’s the super religious type. She keeps trying to find him girlfriends. This poor kid is like 12 years old. Her ignorance is going to cause him issues in a couple years and she won’t listen to reason. She thinks everyone is wrong but her.

#34

my dad having married a man and then turning around to beat my a*s because i said i was bi.

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#35

Friends mom constantly let’s her 15 year old son chug massive amounts of soda, stay up until 3am on school nights playing video games, and shrug off homework assignments. He’s getting straight D’s and is overweight for his age but the mom refuses to do anything about it because she’s a “good mother” in her words and her older child(my friend) is ungrateful. My friend got out when he was 17 because of his mothers massive narcissism and control freak tendencies towards every aspect of his life.

#36

My aunt who despises anything government but is on social security. Had the audacity to tell me that government shouldn’t not gets itself involved with social security because they will end up f**king things up.

#37

Someone who has severe hearing loss but insists the reason he has to say “What?” all the time is because everyone (EVERYONE) mumbles.

#38

Broadly speaking, parents who think their kids are “so smart” bc they can use an iPad. Like wow he can click the next video, great. But he’s almost 5 and can’t count and doesn’t know his letters, and you kept him out of preschool because “he’s not ready yet.” Maybe reevaluate what’s important.

#39

Idk but immediately above this on my feed was a screenshot from Grinder where someone said “honestly have no interest in men. Sex is just sex to me.”

#40

probably my bf’s mother. they live in squalor, have totally ruined their house by neglecting all responsibilities for 20+ years, won’t allow anyone into it because it’s so dirty. the property is full of junked cars, poison ivy and stray trash

she brags about their great house, how much money they have (so then pay your personal property taxes which are overdue 5 years?) which won’t happen because they eat out for every meal since the kitchen is out of order. she’s an alcoholic and completely dependent on weed

Image credits: ewing666

#41

All the nonprofits that ive worked for that are supposed to help low income people and most of the people working there are also low income people

#42

Had a friend who never held a job, their parents paid for their cars, for 6 years of college plus an apartment in a very expensive city for 3 of those years They also built a artist studio for them. They were convinced that their family wasn’t wealthy.

Image credits: NaiNaiGuy

#43

My sister’s daughter is 18, has a very strick diet of “yellow or brown foods” her words. She doesn’t eat vegetables, or fruit. Only chicken nuggets, hamburgers, or fries. She never talks to people, goes ape s**t if someone talks too loud, gets overwhelmed easy, and cries if anything changes in her home is totally not autistic. Sister refuses to believe she’s autistic in the slightest.

Edit: when I say she doesn’t eat vegetables or fruit I mean that. She has never once in her life eaten anything green. We went out to dinner with her and my sister once. The restaurant had a bucket of peanuts as an appetizer while you wait for your food. She ate a peanut and my sister was in total disbelief because she never tries new food. My sister has tried to get her to try other foods but she breaks down screaming and crying. My sister is an amazing cook and a professional baker, any food she makes is amazing. She always has to make dinner and a separate meal for her daughter. Everyone else can eat steak, grilled asparagus, and mashed potatoes while her daughter comes out of her room to get some box macaroni and cheese and goes to eat in her room alone because if anyone talks too loud during dinner she gets upset.

#44

My alcoholic best friend.

Dude was an intelligent top tier athlete who picked up drinking due to not want to deal with things he needed to deal with.

He’s in rehab currently, hoping for the best.

#45

My mom refusing to say the word “cancer” when I have stage 4 cancer and am in a clinical trial at Sloan Kettering. “You didn’t have cancer!” Aint more cancer than that.

#46

Im in a medical stats program.

This statistic for a population in mississipi was depressing.

85% of target group lives on a household income $35,000 or less per year.

85% of same target group thinks that medical funding for the poor doesnt do any good and shouldnt be wasted on helping the poor.

This is absolute insanity. Like they dont even seem to realize they ARE the poor being offered help. They somehow use the cult thinking of system justification to somehow exclude themselves from thinking they are the poor.

#47

One of my colleagues constantly shouts and roars at her class, to the extent that I worry she’s a competency hearing waiting to happen. I’ve witnessed it and I’m talking properly aggressive, red-in-the-face bellowing, often for things that most of us probably wouldn’t even raise our voices over. She doesn’t see this as an issue though because she claims she’s a “naturally loud person”. Uh…huh

#48

A former friend of mine comes to mind. She lives with her husband, 3 kids and mother. The total household income is only 2 grand a month. Rent is 1500. They are 3 months behind on rent. She says it’s ok they won’t get evicted….oh and the reason for being so far behind is they bought a second car even though they absolutely cannot afford and definitely don’t need it. Glamor photos at 600 a pop for her. Getting nails and hair dyed at the salon once a month. She has no idea how screwed they all are. I feel so bad for the kids

#49

I went to visit my mom at the hospital (minor surgery), and heard her “roommate” who had stage 5 lung cancer complaining about the doctor pestering her for her smoking

“I know someone who has the same disease as me, she never smoked in her life. Just proves smoking has nothing to do with it, it’s just bad luck, really”

#50

My sister wanting to dress up as a backwoods hillbilly for Halloween. Her costume idea was a fake pregnant belly, can of bud light, cigarette hanging from her mouth, and a black eye.

It would have been a funny (albeit slightly offensive) costume had it not been for the fact that she had just finished her pregnancy that she smoked and drank through in its entirety while also on Suboxone.

Thank god her baby was born without any major complications, other than going through withdrawals from the Suboxone.

#51

My father is totally against universal health care. Part of his reason is the potential “wait times” to get procedures done. He needs to get cortisone shots in his neck. Even with insurance he can’t afford the shots regularly. So he has to wait like six months at a time to save up money for his shots.

#52

My mom is now 63 years old and has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis since she was in her early 30’s. Had 4 children after 30 and declined every pregnancy. She denied she had any diagnosis and went to every chiropractor, Chinese healer, therapist and naturopath in the area. Even tried acupuncture and magnets. She spent over 100,000$ trying to cure her chronic pain that Healthcare in my country would have done for free.

She spent the last 4 years after I moved out at 18 basically only going from her chair to the bathroom, didn’t even sleep in her bedroom anymore because she was in too much pain. Her feet were swollen and fingers are all crooked due to the arthritis, eventually developed bed sores due to not moving from her chair, we had to basically carry her to the bathroom, when she stood up she bled so bad from her wounds it sounded like a dam rushing free. I’ll never forget stooping my little brother from cleaning her blood up off the floor and telling him to go to his room seeing the despair in his face.

But she absolutely refused to admit anything was wrong, she was convinced she just had to find that magic cure. She eventually got so bad I was convinced she was going to die any day now so my brothers and I convinced her to go to the hospital, she accepted and said she’d go the end of the week. She declined so badly that day I had to call an ambulance because she couldn’t get off the toilet and was bleeding so bad. I’ll never forget cleaning the blood up and helping her change her clothes into her favourite dress because she didn’t want to look bad in front of the paramedics.

The hospital diagnosed her once again with arthritis, but also severe iron deficiency, 2 wounds that were 10cm deep, ptsd, and a bacterial infection that could have killed her. She would have died within a week if she hadn’t gone. She spent 6 months in the hospital, 4 of them couldn’t feed herself so I would go everyday to give her dinner, she was moved to a care home and is still unable to walk but can feed herself now. She still won’t admit out loud that she has arthritis, but is much happier and loves living where she is.

#53

My friend has been “talking to” this man for 4 and a half years. They’ve hung out maybe 5 times and they usually just hookup and he leaves. He only texts her at certain hours of the day “because of his work schedule”. He never plans dates for them or when she does try to plan dates HE bails. I constantly ask her why she keeps talking to him and if she really believes they could be something more than once in a while (if even that) fuvk buddies and she said she just really likes him and wants to be with him. I wholeheartedly believe he has a whole wife and kids.

#54

The husband in the “There’s something wrong with aunt Diane” documentary

#55

Two kinds. There are the hoarders whose home is completely messy, and decrepit, stocked and ransacked with absolutely unnecessary and disgusting stuff. Then you got the other kind, the people living in unaddressed massive debt that keep spending money they dont have and using or getting new credit cards when they max out. Im not better than that in fact i broke free of both those situations the end of last year but it was truly eye opening, mental illness can rot your life from the inside out without any mercy if left unchecked and untreated. yikes!!!!!

#56

Eddie Van Halen getting mouth cancer and refusing to quit smoking, because “the cigarettes aren’t what caused the cancer”

#57

Someone I knew had their dog die of some disease. She successfully convinced herself that her dog was taken to some farm to frolic in the grass or some s**t. She was the type of person that couldn’t take bad news, everything had to be good and bad things just didn’t exist to her. But if she was aware of bad things happening, she would take it out on everyone for making her feel horrible while she just rotted. Clear delusion.

#58

Unfortunately my grandfather. Both 96, grandmother has severe dementia, can’t get out of a wheelchair, in constant agony and barely knows who anyone is. Just sits there occasionally coming out with a memory from her life irrelevant to current conversation but at least she’s not angry or that type of cognitive decline. Grandpa is nearly blind, legs barely work, but his mind is sharp as a tack. He was an army man, and he CANNOT accept reality or the situation at hand. He refuses help beyond a carer coming in a couple times a week.

My grandma will wet herself because he can’t help her the toilet, he almost burned the house down the other day if it weren’t for my mom happening by to see them and rescue the house from the flames from his attempt at cooking. He can’t even think of his poor wife because he himself is bad enough, it’s almost abuse by neglect. We don’t know what to do. We want him to get a live in carer, but he goes off on one and cries and manipulates his children into getting his way. He would die before going into a home, and at this rate he’s going to kill them both accidentally but really what can you do when someone is so stubborn. It’s got to be hell to experience, but his sheer refusal to look reality in the face is heartbreaking to watch. I feel like the grandparents I loved died long ago, I’m just watching the echo of their lives playing out in tragedy.

If I ever get like that just take me outside, face me at the sunrise and put a bullet in the back of my head, nobody deserves to die with such little dignity.
Source: boredpanda.com