Recently, Reddit user u/citizen_of_leshp asked the people of r/AskReddit, "What is a subtle sign that someone's life sucks?". We thought we'd share the best responses:
1. "They don't get excited to go home after work, or find reasons to stay at work longer."
"Oh, man. I had a friend FaceTime me the night before Thanksgiving at around 10 PM from her office. She was 'repotting plants'. She’d been through a messy divorce with custody issues and I guess being with her own children was not an option. I felt awful for her then and even more so now."
2. "I worked in a large office environment for 30+ years and over time I observed that the people who had hard lives were often the ones who were super into things like office Christmas or birthday parties."
"I think it was often the only celebration they got to be part of."
3. "Also, people who spend a lot of money on Halloween, Christmas, and birthdays."
"I think it’s part the instant gratification and part wanting to give their kids one gloriously happy day in a pool of shitty other ones."
4. "When they look for happiness in other people, and their whole day can be ruined if a certain person says or does something that they don't like."
5. "They have advice — good advice — for people who've just experienced trauma. Or for how to handle oddly specific and fucked up situations."
6. "They're very interested in what you've got going on, but don't really share about themselves."
7. "If you ask them what their life would look like in a perfect world, they can’t even come up with an answer."
"They’re too lost to even think about it."
8. "Disproportionate reactions."
"Their reactions to most things are normal or even low-key, but occasionally they have a huge response to something minor. A key sign of trauma."
9. "They look tired every time you see them."
10. "This might be a weird one, but people who are constantly unfazed."
"Bad things will happen, like the kind of bad things that make everyone freak out, and they just coast like it’s just another normal day."
11. "Super independent, because they learned not to rely on anybody."
12. "They always politely decline any kind of offer."
"For example, say you know they are low on money and you don't want to go out to eat alone, so you offer to pay for a meal for them to come with you. They may decline not because they aren't hungry or don't want to hang out with you but because they feel they don't deserve to have their meal paid for."
13. "Misappropriated anger."
14. "They wince if anyone around them moves quickly."
15. "They apologise a lot."
16. "They become less responsive and hard to get a hold of."
17. "When they seem less excited or stop doing things they used to love."
18. "They nonchalantly talk about traumatising things like it’s no big deal when everyone else is horrified."
19. "For me, the cleaning and house duties start slacking."
"Dishes stay in the sink overnight. I haven’t swept for a while. But my faux face is on. Bright and happy."
20. "When they seem to live vicariously through movies, TV, or TikTok."
"They don't talk about what's happening to themselves, they talk about what they SAW someone else do, real or fictional."
21. And finally, "They read posts like this one to see if they are there."
Shout out to u/citizen_of_leshp and r/AskReddit for having this discussion.
Can you think of any other examples? Let us know in the comments below!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.