When you’re young (and a little naive), it’s common to feel invincible when it comes to your physical side. Staying up late, partying too much, exercising the wrong way – you may not be feeling some of these now, but boy, will they catch up with you. While these examples may seem obvious, people in this Reddit thread are sharing things that seemed trivial at the time but ended up having a lasting impact on their bodies. Here are what some people have shared:
NOTE: Some of these responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
1. “I’m a college athlete. We’re taught that pain is temporary, but pride is forever. I’ve had three orthopedic surgeries, one of which was unsuccessful and left me septic. I was diagnosed with arthritis before I was 20. I was shot in the knee. I have more cracks, pops, and stiffness than people 10+ years older than me. It turns out the pain is forever, and it compounds with interest.”
Philo/Getty Images
—OptmstcExstntlst
2. “Acne. I thought it was something that went away after you hit your teens, but ten years later it’s still ruining my face and doesn’t seem to be doing anything. It’s most likely hereditary because other women in my family still have acne. Even with treatment, I still have permanent scarring because dark skin scars more easily than lighter skin.”
——Butterfly Queen
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3. “Wearing headphones when you’re young and listening to music too loudly. This can definitely lead to hearing loss and hearing aids.”
Eugenio Marongiu/Getty Images
——plytime18
4. “Obstructive sleep apnea. When you already know you have some mental problem, you think that explains your sleepiness and low mood, instead of looking for more problems. Not only does it harm your cardiovascular system; it can slowly ruin your life. If you snore at night and/or feel sleepy throughout the day, see your doctor.”
—cyb_30
5. “Decades later, I had my breast implants removed. It left a slightly sunken space because over time the ribs would have deformed from the pressure of the implants.”
—SnooFloofs9030
6. “Lack of sleep.”
Oleg Breslavtsev/Getty Images
—84 Orc Asshole
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7. “Poor posture, rounded shoulders have reduced the size of my chest, and now I have neck pain, shoulder pain, and low back pain, ugh.”
— Enough Berries 827
8. “Pregnant. I had twins. My belly was huge. I gave birth and it left me with this belly that wouldn’t go away. Fast forward; the twins are 8 years old. I had my diastasis recti corrected 7 weeks post-op. You know the centerline of my abs? My abs were ripped. There was a 6 to 8 inch gap in the middle. It was always punishing my belly. Myself, the baby fat that I couldn’t lose? Those were my digestive organs that were protruding.”
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——Lucidian Quayle
9. “I’ve had my eyebrows waxed to the same thin shape for 20 years.”
—LV4Q
10. “Drink occasionally. I’m 7 months pregnant and surprisingly I’ve lost a lot of weight and my face looks a lot different in photos. I won’t drink again after giving birth.”
– Delicious cheese rolls
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11. “Wearing tight shoes every day gave me bunions, but I didn’t realize the cause until years later.”
Predrag Popovsky/Getty Images
—Poor Baking 5470
12. “A few years of CrossFit left me with permanent knee and shoulder pain. Heavy lifting should not be done temporarily; your shape will inevitably deteriorate, and you’ll expose yourself to joint damage.”
—Mr. Lemberg
13. “I stayed out of the sun 100 percent as a kid. I also didn’t take vitamin D supplements, so my bones were very fragile and could break easily, and my tooth enamel was so fragile that if my teeth closed too tightly, they would get cut off. My body never absorbed calcium properly as a child, and there’s nothing I can do about it as an adult. My mom thought she was protecting me from skin cancer, but she really doomed me to a lifetime of broken bones and bad teeth.”
—kyreannightblood
14. “Ever since I was five or six, my parents had the kids do a lot of manual labor. It wasn’t just helping out in the yard, but doing actual landscaping work. My brother and I once had to drag rocks in 10-pound buckets from the dumpster to an egress window 300 yards away. We were too young to know posture, lifting things with our legs, etc. We both had chronic back, shoulder, knee, and neck pain and had early symptoms of arthritis. We are now only 21 and 26, respectively. “Years old, I hurt myself at such a young age, doing things that adults should do.”
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— blackberry pastry
15. “Burnout. I was so afraid of losing everything that I pushed myself to the point of collapse. Five years later, I can still feel the damage done to my brain during that period of my life, but I still lost everything and had to start over. If I could give some advice to people out there — if you’re burned out and can’t see any signs of relief, do yourself a favor and know when to cut your losses so you can use your time and energy to re-strategize.”
—AlpharoTheUnlimited
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16. “Have been smoking for almost ten years. Obviously, I know smoking won’t do anything except damage my lungs. But I’ve been smoking for almost two years and my lung capacity is still terrible. Another is that I didn’t develop healthy exercise habits when I was younger. I wish my parents had let me do exercise, even though I hated it. I think that’s another part of why I get out of breath and fatigue easily when exercising now. I have a hard time breathing and concentrating at the same time. For example, when I do planks or stretches, I subconsciously hold my breath.”
——thenissancube
17. “Working at night changes the internal sleep cycle. If your body is used to it, even if you have a regular sleep pattern, you will get a passive energy boost at night and the opposite during the day.”
——Lindemann Alliance
18. “Psychiatric drugs. The scary thing is that these drugs are so easy to prescribe and doctors don’t explain the side effects.”
Trevor Williams/Getty Images
— Kalmar91
Is there anything else you could add to this list? If so, please share it with me in the comments below!
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