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Ate and drank too much without enough exercise when I was younger.
Had a tattoo which although not a name, represents the name of former controlling partner. When I can afford it it's getting a cover up. Luckily it's on my chest and I'm not a Geordie so people don't see it. Otherwise it'd be gone now.
DIY strongman competition at university: farmers walk through a sand volleyball court. Dropped the weight, picked it up in one of those twisting motions your lumbar spine really likes because of shifting sand and tore a disc. I've now got low disk height, arthritis, and bone degeneration in that area with some pretty constant sciatica. I did it when I was 22.
Oops.
I struggled with depression a lot when I was growing up. And to deal with it, I ate my feelings, and gained a ton of weight. Even though I've lost most of the weight, (down from 350lbs to 200lbs) my body is never going to look good due to the stretch marks and loose skin.
Destroyed my back 15 years ago working retail. It never healed right and still bothers me daily.
In what way did working retail mess up your back?
Pulled a cart full of product wrong, it tore all my back muscles up.
Addicted to nicotine for about 33 years. I've been vaping only for a year now but I have no way of stopping and, unlike a cigarette, they never go out, so the addiction is only getting worse. I quit smoking for 3 months a few years ago and wore patches but I cried for minimum 6 hours a day the entire time. Once I forgot to put on my patch and cried through a whole shift at work, couldn't stop. I didn't even bother asking someone for a smoke on break because I knew that unending despair was my entire future so temporary relief was pointless. I have no health problems yet but by the time I stopped smoking it was costing me more than rent.
I struggled with this for a long time too. Nicotine is an absolute bitch. You can retire that habit though, you just need to actually convince yourself you are done, and then throw all that shit away, and just be frustrated for a week or two, and then never buy it again. There will be a few months where your brain will frequently nag you, but just tell it to fuck off and you are in charge, that feeling does become less and less overtime. The first week is a bit rough, but if you know that, it's much easier.
You cannot use the patch, or anything else with nicotine, as a crutch. Rip the band-aid off, you will be ok, and you can fucking do it, I know because I did. I've done some pretty hard shit in my life, and this was up there, but it is absolutely surmountable. Just make the decision, let the people in your life know and ask them to give you some grace for a few weeks, thank them for the support, and just fucking do it. Cold turkey is the only way, and it's very possible, you just need to decide.
Sat at a desk all day.
Manual labour all day
Both
Pushed it too hard for too long.
Considering that one branch of my family runs towards joint and spinal issues, it might not have been the best of ideas to power lift, or pick a job that involved picking people up in awkward conditions. Or a martial art that involves hitting the ground hard and repeatedly.
Yeah. So, while I would have had the same issues eventually, I likely would have had another ten to fifteen years before it got bad with different choices.
Don't really regret much of it though.
Poured all of the alcohol into it
All of the alcohol
Let me guess -- your friends, with whom you didn't share, break your knees and now they constantly hurt?
No, just dealing with the alcoholism
Trump: Beautiful deal!
Not looking after my teeth. I'm paying dearly and endlessly for it now. Doesn't matter what good habits I develop now or what I do, my teeth are still fucked. This is actually one of the main things that makes me think I've got lifelong undiagnosed something. Because I just never developed the clockwork habit of looking after my teeth and even today it's a constant struggle that needs reminders in my phone and shit.
Kinda messed up both of my knees being an idiot that couldn't ride motorbikes properly or carefully enough. I can walk with them fine but they feel.. uncomfortable is the best word I can think of to describe it. And every now and then I'll turn wrong or do something wrong and the pain is unbearable, sometimes into the next day with a bit of swelling. Tried going to a doctor about them and he was an asshole that barely turned away from his computer to look at me. And kinda scoffed and acted like I was an idiot when I tried to explain the issue. Ended up telling me it was normal wear and tear. I'm so fed up with the public healthcare system here.
Overexerted and overtrained when exercising a few years ago, fucked up my knee. Endless issues since then.
I injured my knee in a hiking accident and left it alone for 12 years, despite it occasionally suddenly flaring up with intense pain and frequently "just not feeling right" (most notably: wouldn't lock properly). It turns out I tore my meniscus and every so often a flap of it would flip back under the kneecap (that's the intense pain thing) or it would flex a little in the wrong direction (wouldn't lock properly).
Oh, and over the 12 years it carved another channel in my thigh bone so that the bone instead of having two lobes at the end looked like it had three.
I finally got surgery on it and it was a miracle! After two weeks' recovery and six more weeks of "light duty" my leg has never felt better outside from a mildly disturbing ability to flex in a direction it shouldn't be able to.
Rode a bus that, to avoid an accident, stomped the brakes hard. (How hard? The bus was packed. After the braking, it was only about 3/4 full...) In the process got my back twisted to a bad angle and then crushed by the weight of the compressed crowd. I felt a little electric jolt in my lower spine that within two days had my hips on down to my toes feel like I was being roasted alive nonstop with a blow torch. I'd blown a disc and the liquid kind of bulged against my spinal cord.
Oh blimey you've been through it! What was the recovery like after surgery?
The knee? It was orthoscopic surgery. (I clutched a video tape into the theatre and pleaded with the doctor to record it for me so I could see what my knee looks like from the inside. 🤣) So basically my knee felt like fire for about a week and was super-tender for another week. After that it was six weeks of being careful and then I was fine.
The back ... was a different story. I was wheeled into the hospital, unable to walk. I was given six of the largest damned needles I'd ever seen in my life and the subsequent injections made the pain of the injury seem mild by comparison. Like I screamed until I fainted levels of pain.
But the second round of needles a week later I walked into the appointment.
And the third.
I've recently had a bone graft on my knee the pain has been excruciating. I've looked into it it's a long slow heal nothing I can do, just do my physio and plod along