Overheard

If you&#39;ve ever accidentally heard or seen something cruel someone said about you, you know it&#39;s one of the most painful experiences known to humanity. It feels like how I imagine being kicked in the balls would feel&mdash;very painful, with a side of humiliation. But at least the internet exists to remind people who&#39;ve been through terrible experiences that they&#39;re not alone.<h2>People on Reddit who&#39;ve accidentally overheard someone talking sh*t about them are <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/a9bx21/whats_the_most_hurtful_thing_youve_overheard/" target="_blank">sharing</a> their excruciating stories and ouch. Here are 22 of the best of the worst that&#39;ll make you want to dole out hugs, and maybe a few punches.</h2>Let these serve as a reminder, fellow sh*t talkers, to always double-check before you let loose on someone you don&#39;t think is listening. Also: BEWARE OF THE ACCIDENTAL REPLY-ALL. It&#39;s a killer.1.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/killcon13/" style="font-size: 1.1rem; letter-spacing: -0.01em;">killcon13</a>:<blockquote> At a family reunion my mother stated &quot;she was sooo happy when I moved out&quot;. It was my house and I was letting her live there for free after her divorce. </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>2.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/barelyawake447/">barelyawake447</a>:<blockquote> &lsquo;if another nurse had been taking care of him, he&rsquo;d be alive right now&rsquo; spent the enitre night running around trying to stabilize a patient, and my bitch of a coworker sat there talking shit with my other bitch of a coworker loudly talking about how incomptent i was the entire time. niether of them lifted a finger to help. when the patient crashed, both of them magically disappeared and it was nurses from the other side of the hallway who came to help with the code. they came after all was said and done and then i overheard one of them say that. then they proceeded to tell the unit manager i was incompetent and crying at the bedside. Thankfully niether of them work on the unit anymore </blockquote>3.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Omnicrit/">Omnicrit</a>:<div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> I was 7 and basically poor trailer trash, but I asked my friend if I could stay the night. He called his mom to ask and I over heard her say &ldquo;tell him no, I don&rsquo;t want roaches and lice&rdquo; Really cut me deep. To this day I have extreme anxiety about keeping my house clean. I couldn&rsquo;t help it I was poor, and our roaches didn&rsquo;t pay rent you bitch! </blockquote>4.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/lujainosaurus/">lujainosaurus</a>:<blockquote> Overheard one of my aunts telling my mother that my arms and legs looked disgusting because of my body hair and she should do something about it. I was 11 and really self-conscious about being a hairy girl. </blockquote>5.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/drewdani/" style="font-size: 1.1rem; letter-spacing: -0.01em;">drewdani</a>:<blockquote> When I was in 7th grade I lived in a shitty po-dunk town in East Texas. I was weird and an ugly duckling. In order to fit in, I decided to become a cheerleader since all of them were popular and well liked at my school. I made the team, and considered all of them friends, even though they were mean to literally everyone who they didn&rsquo;t consider &ldquo;cool&rdquo;. One day, during a practice, the bases of my stunt (the people who hold you up) dropped me and I fell flat on my ass, which bruised my tailbone really badly. At our first game, we were on the sidelines and during a break I overheard our team captain laughing about how funny it was when her and the other base dropped me on purpose and that they had hoped I would be hurt enough to not be able to participate at the game. As a 13 year old, it destroyed me but in order to still seem like I was liked at school I didn&rsquo;t tell anyone about it. </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>6.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/keepswitchingnames/">keepswitchingnames</a>:<blockquote> When I was a preteen, I posted a picture of myself online with a minor celebrity. I later found that it was reposted on a message board...and the majority of the comments talked about how ugly and pale I was. The only person who said anything nice said &quot;don&#39;t say that, she posts here sometimes and she&#39;s really nice.&quot; -_- </blockquote>7.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/newthingso/">newthingso</a>:<blockquote> I saw two girls that I roomed with for a short while in college had been publicly posting on Facebook about how weird, annoying, and disrespectful I was. Their reasoning was that I was taking an 8:30am class and only weirdos do that, and that I made a shit-ton of noise every morning and disrupted their sleep. It hurt because I tried really hard to not be disruptive. I wouldn&#39;t let my alarm go off, because I woke up naturally around the time it was scheduled and would just turn it off before it beeped (this was partially out of anxiety). I changed clothes in the bathroom, tiptoed everywhere, and wouldn&#39;t even EAT or ZIP MY BACKPACK in the room because I wanted to be quiet. As far as I knew, neither of them woke up any of those mornings - and they never said anything to me about it. :( </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>8.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ginger-ghost/">ginger-ghost</a>:<blockquote> I was copied into an email conversation where about ten messages earlier one of my employees had described me as an idiot and suggested to the recipients that they didn&rsquo;t get me involved in the situation they were discussing. I&rsquo;d always thought we got on well and it knocked my confidence. </blockquote>9.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/notyourvader/">notyourvader</a>:<blockquote> Not overheard, but actually read in a file about me. My mother passed away suddenly and I received a file from my father that she was meaning to give to me. It was a psychological profile, along with it tests, personality tests and other stuff. This wasn&#39;t a surprise to me since I&#39;m autistic and have been in therapy as a child. There was a part however about my family and their trouble with living with me. Especially my brothers and my dad were having problems coping and learning how my existing pained them was difficult. My parents got divorced basically because of me. My brothers were embarrassed by me. I&#39;m doing better than expected. I was never supposed to be living in my own, there was talk about assisted living or even an institution, but somehow I managed to leave home as soon as I got 18. I got married, had kids and even though I struggle a lot, I get by. I even have a good relationship with all my brothers, even though they still have trouble treating me as an adult. It&#39;s like always thinking everybody knows you&#39;re retarded except you. And then finding out it&#39;s true. </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>10.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/PeligrosaPistola/">PeligrosaPistola</a>:<blockquote> At my first internship, I overheard one of my supervisors ask the others if I was genuinely mentally handicapped. That hurt. Edit: Yes, she 100% meant what she said, but not in a compassionate way. She not only insulted me, but insulted the undergrad program I came from for sending her someone so &quot;incompetent.&quot; Nothing I did or didn&#39;t do justified her behavior. For example, she&#39;d ask my opinion, then laugh in my face when I gave it. Or tell me a meeting was in one room, when it was in another, and snap at me for not being in the right place. That was 10 years ago. Now I have a few degrees and am happily employed in the same field at a company that values me. </blockquote>11.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/lazarus870/">lazarus870</a>:<div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> I phoned my friend and asked him if he wanted to hang out (I was maybe 10). He said he had to ask his mom. I heard him say, &quot;lazarus870 wants to do something. But I don&#39;t want to see him.&quot; I guess he either thought he muted the phone or did a shitty job at muffling it or something. Then he came back to the phone, &quot;Sorry my mom said i can&#39;t.&quot; He was a terrible friend over the years. </blockquote>12.) From [deleted]:<blockquote> In 8th grade, I had the highest GPA in my class, so I got to recite the pledge of allegiance at graduation. At our rehearsal, as I was walking up to the mic, I overheard a classmate whisper to his friend, &quot;Out of the whole grade, they had to pick the kid with the most annoying voice.&quot; It&#39;s a decade later, and I still shrink into insecurity when I remember it. </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>13.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/lynxminx/">lynxminx</a>:<blockquote> I&#39;m probably blocking out the worst cases. I&#39;ve learned it&#39;s pretty much human nature to talk trash about anyone who isn&#39;t present, so no reason to take it personally, but when you&#39;re a kid it&#39;s a miserable experience. The worst case recently: I have a weird neurological problem in my shoulder and arm that no one has ever been able to diagnose- during an intense flare-up I was referred to a physical therapist by a friend. The therapist saw me once and recommended surgery; I was very reluctant to take this advice, but I didn&#39;t say no (I called the surgeon she recommended- turned out he wasn&#39;t accepting new cases). The second appointment there was a scheduling error and I arrived 30 minutes too early....I sat in the front of the office and listened to the therapist making small talk with another patient about how &#39;her next patient&#39; was a psycho trying to fabricate some kind of malpractice case and refusing to comply with her advice. The receptionist was sitting right in front of me, also listening, but she didn&#39;t run back to stop it...so it went on for quite a while. If I had been a psycho trying to manufacture a legal case against her, she was kind enough to do all of the work for me. </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>14.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MinerOfStarDust/" style="font-size: 1.1rem; letter-spacing: -0.01em;">MinerOfStarDust</a>:<blockquote> &quot;He acts like people Actually like him! Someone needs to tell him, we only hang out with him because he will do almost anything you tell him to. He&#39;s a sad little puppet.&quot; -Girl I had a thing for- Granted, anytime someone said somthing starting with things like &quot;Wonder what would happen if...&quot; and &quot;$20 says you wouldn&#39;t/couldn&#39;t do &lt;insert stupid idea&gt;&quot; I would jump on it and do it (attempt it). </blockquote>15.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/EllPeas/">EllPeas</a>:<blockquote> A number of years ago, my sister&#39;s phone was super glitchy and would randomly call people. Once it called me and after I stopped singing and goofing off into the phone trying to get her attention, I just stopped to listen. She was bitching to her mother in law about me. I honestly can&#39;t remember what exactly she was saying, but just the fact of who she was saying it to! This woman barely knows me! If it was one of our other siblings who we&#39;re close with, it wouldn&#39;t be that big of a deal. So I promptly called her back and chewed her a new asshole. </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>16.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/_Than0s/" style="font-size: 1.1rem; letter-spacing: -0.01em;">_Than0s</a>:<blockquote> HA. Just five minutes ago: My coworker told me my other coworker told her she&rsquo;d &ldquo;quit immediately&rdquo; if I got hired onto the position they&rsquo;re currently at. Up until this point, I thought this girl and I were best friends. I even shared my Netflix password with her. That bitch... </blockquote>17.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Twittle86/">Twittle86</a>:<blockquote> My project lead said to a mutual friend, &quot;I can&#39;t fuckin stand that guy!&ldquo; That one hurt emotionally AND my career... </blockquote>18.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Moltrire/">Moltrire</a>:<blockquote> I had just moved into my dorm for my second year of college. My roommate was my best friend since 9th grade. My stuff hadn&#39;t arrived yet, and it was my time to register, so I asked him if I could use his computer. He said sure. I sat down, and he had AIM open to a conversation with another friend of ours. I didn&#39;t scroll up, but from what was just visible on screen, they were talking about how weird I was and how awful it would be rooming with me. I closed it so he wouldn&#39;t realize later I&#39;d seen it, registered, and left. We still lived together that year, but we didn&#39;t hang out at all. We just cohabited. I never asked him to hang out as friends, he never asked me. Move-out day that year was the last time we spoke. That was over ten years ago. We chatted every day for six years, then haven&#39;t spoken since. I still don&#39;t know if I did or said something to flip how he felt about me, or if he never really liked me to begin with. The possibility of the latter really fucks up your future friendships. Hell, the former does too, knowing apparently you&#39;re capable of unknowingly saying or doing something to throw away a five year friendship. </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div> 19.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/khal-elise-i/">khal-elise-i</a>:<blockquote> Heard my mom complain about the Christmas gift I gave her a few years back. Seems small but idk it just hurt. </blockquote> 20.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/trader2488/">trader2488</a>:<blockquote> When I was in middle school art class something funny happened and I let out a loud laugh. I then overheard one of my childhood best friends whisper to another person &ldquo;god I hate trader2488&rsquo;s laugh&rdquo;. I immediately looked at him and said &ldquo;What?&rdquo; And he just looked down at the table like he didn&rsquo;t hear me. This actually made me change my laugh. It&rsquo;s completely different from what it used to be. </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>21.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Vandechoz/">Vandechoz</a>:<blockquote> absolutely nothing which just makes me more paranoid </blockquote>Trust no one.<div className="ad-splitter"></div>

People are sharing the worst things they overheard someone saying about them behind their back.

If you&#39;ve ever accidentally heard or seen something cruel someone said about you, you know it&#39;s one of the most painful experiences known to humanity. It feels like how I imagine being kicked in the balls would feel&mdash;very painful, with a side of humiliation. But at least the internet exists to remind people who&#39;ve been through terrible experiences that they&#39;re not alone.People on Reddit who&#39;ve accidentally overheard someone talking sh*t about them are sharing their excruciating stories and ouch. Here are 22 of the best of the worst that&#39;ll make you want to dole out hugs, and maybe a few punches.Let these serve as a reminder, fellow sh*t talkers, to always double-check before you let loose on someone you don&#39;t think is listening. Also: BEWARE OF THE ACCIDENTAL REPLY-ALL. It&#39;s a killer.1.) From killcon13: At a family reunion my mother stated &quot;she was sooo happy when I moved out&quot;. It was my house and I was letting her live there for free after her divorce. 2.) From barelyawake447: &lsquo;if another nurse had been taking care of him, he&rsquo;d be alive right now&rsquo; spent the enitre night running around trying to stabilize a patient, and my bitch of a coworker sat there talking shit with my other bitch of a coworker loudly talking about how incomptent i was the entire time. niether of them lifted a finger to help. when the patient crashed, both of them magically disappeared and it was nurses from the other side of the hallway who came to help with the code. they came after all was said and done and then i overheard one of them say that. then they proceeded to tell the unit manager i was incompetent and crying at the bedside. Thankfully niether of them work on the unit anymore 3.) From Omnicrit: I was 7 and basically poor trailer trash, but I asked my friend if I could stay the night. He called his mom to ask and I over heard her say &ldquo;tell him no, I don&rsquo;t want roaches and lice&rdquo; Really cut me deep. To this day I have extreme anxiety about keeping my house clean. I couldn&rsquo;t help it I was poor, and our roaches didn&rsquo;t pay rent you bitch! 4.) From lujainosaurus: Overheard one of my aunts telling my mother that my arms and legs looked disgusting because of my body hair and she should do something about it. I was 11 and really self-conscious about being a hairy girl. 5.) From drewdani: When I was in 7th grade I lived in a shitty po-dunk town in East Texas. I was weird and an ugly duckling. In order to fit in, I decided to become a cheerleader since all of them were popular and well liked at my school. I made the team, and considered all of them friends, even though they were mean to literally everyone who they didn&rsquo;t consider &ldquo;cool&rdquo;. One day, during a practice, the bases of my stunt (the people who hold you up) dropped me and I fell flat on my ass, which bruised my tailbone really badly. At our first game, we were on the sidelines and during a break I overheard our team captain laughing about how funny it was when her and the other base dropped me on purpose and that they had hoped I would be hurt enough to not be able to participate at the game. As a 13 year old, it destroyed me but in order to still seem like I was liked at school I didn&rsquo;t tell anyone about it. 6.) From keepswitchingnames: When I was a preteen, I posted a picture of myself online with a minor celebrity. I later found that it was reposted on a message board...and the majority of the comments talked about how ugly and pale I was. The only person who said anything nice said &quot;don&#39;t say that, she posts here sometimes and she&#39;s really nice.&quot; -_- 7.) From newthingso: I saw two girls that I roomed with for a short while in college had been publicly posting on Facebook about how weird, annoying, and disrespectful I was. Their reasoning was that I was taking an 8:30am class and only weirdos do that, and that I made a shit-ton of noise every morning and disrupted their sleep. It hurt because I tried really hard to not be disruptive. I wouldn&#39;t let my alarm go off, because I woke up naturally around the time it was scheduled and would just turn it off before it beeped (this was partially out of anxiety). I changed clothes in the bathroom, tiptoed everywhere, and wouldn&#39;t even EAT or ZIP MY BACKPACK in the room because I wanted to be quiet. As far as I knew, neither of them woke up any of those mornings - and they never said anything to me about it. :( 8.) From ginger-ghost: I was copied into an email conversation where about ten messages earlier one of my employees had described me as an idiot and suggested to the recipients that they didn&rsquo;t get me involved in the situation they were discussing. I&rsquo;d always thought we got on well and it knocked my confidence. 9.) From notyourvader: Not overheard, but actually read in a file about me. My mother passed away suddenly and I received a file from my father that she was meaning to give to me. It was a psychological profile, along with it tests, personality tests and other stuff. This wasn&#39;t a surprise to me since I&#39;m autistic and have been in therapy as a child. There was a part however about my family and their trouble with living with me. Especially my brothers and my dad were having problems coping and learning how my existing pained them was difficult. My parents got divorced basically because of me. My brothers were embarrassed by me. I&#39;m doing better than expected. I was never supposed to be living in my own, there was talk about assisted living or even an institution, but somehow I managed to leave home as soon as I got 18. I got married, had kids and even though I struggle a lot, I get by. I even have a good relationship with all my brothers, even though they still have trouble treating me as an adult. It&#39;s like always thinking everybody knows you&#39;re retarded except you. And then finding out it&#39;s true. 10.) From PeligrosaPistola: At my first internship, I overheard one of my supervisors ask the others if I was genuinely mentally handicapped. That hurt. Edit: Yes, she 100% meant what she said, but not in a compassionate way. She not only insulted me, but insulted the undergrad program I came from for sending her someone so &quot;incompetent.&quot; Nothing I did or didn&#39;t do justified her behavior. For example, she&#39;d ask my opinion, then laugh in my face when I gave it. Or tell me a meeting was in one room, when it was in another, and snap at me for not being in the right place. That was 10 years ago. Now I have a few degrees and am happily employed in the same field at a company that values me. 11.) From lazarus870: I phoned my friend and asked him if he wanted to hang out (I was maybe 10). He said he had to ask his mom. I heard him say, &quot;lazarus870 wants to do something. But I don&#39;t want to see him.&quot; I guess he either thought he muted the phone or did a shitty job at muffling it or something. Then he came back to the phone, &quot;Sorry my mom said i can&#39;t.&quot; He was a terrible friend over the years. 12.) From [deleted]: In 8th grade, I had the highest GPA in my class, so I got to recite the pledge of allegiance at graduation. At our rehearsal, as I was walking up to the mic, I overheard a classmate whisper to his friend, &quot;Out of the whole grade, they had to pick the kid with the most annoying voice.&quot; It&#39;s a decade later, and I still shrink into insecurity when I remember it. 13.) From lynxminx: I&#39;m probably blocking out the worst cases. I&#39;ve learned it&#39;s pretty much human nature to talk trash about anyone who isn&#39;t present, so no reason to take it personally, but when you&#39;re a kid it&#39;s a miserable experience. The worst case recently: I have a weird neurological problem in my shoulder and arm that no one has ever been able to diagnose- during an intense flare-up I was referred to a physical therapist by a friend. The therapist saw me once and recommended surgery; I was very reluctant to take this advice, but I didn&#39;t say no (I called the surgeon she recommended- turned out he wasn&#39;t accepting new cases). The second appointment there was a scheduling error and I arrived 30 minutes too early....I sat in the front of the office and listened to the therapist making small talk with another patient about how &#39;her next patient&#39; was a psycho trying to fabricate some kind of malpractice case and refusing to comply with her advice. The receptionist was sitting right in front of me, also listening, but she didn&#39;t run back to stop it...so it went on for quite a while. If I had been a psycho trying to manufacture a legal case against her, she was kind enough to do all of the work for me. 14.) From MinerOfStarDust: &quot;He acts like people Actually like him! Someone needs to tell him, we only hang out with him because he will do almost anything you tell him to. He&#39;s a sad little puppet.&quot; -Girl I had a thing for- Granted, anytime someone said somthing starting with things like &quot;Wonder what would happen if...&quot; and &quot;$20 says you wouldn&#39;t/couldn&#39;t do &lt;insert stupid idea&gt;&quot; I would jump on it and do it (attempt it). 15.) From EllPeas: A number of years ago, my sister&#39;s phone was super glitchy and would randomly call people. Once it called me and after I stopped singing and goofing off into the phone trying to get her attention, I just stopped to listen. She was bitching to her mother in law about me. I honestly can&#39;t remember what exactly she was saying, but just the fact of who she was saying it to! This woman barely knows me! If it was one of our other siblings who we&#39;re close with, it wouldn&#39;t be that big of a deal. So I promptly called her back and chewed her a new asshole. 16.) From _Than0s: HA. Just five minutes ago: My coworker told me my other coworker told her she&rsquo;d &ldquo;quit immediately&rdquo; if I got hired onto the position they&rsquo;re currently at. Up until this point, I thought this girl and I were best friends. I even shared my Netflix password with her. That bitch... 17.) From Twittle86: My project lead said to a mutual friend, &quot;I can&#39;t fuckin stand that guy!&ldquo; That one hurt emotionally AND my career... 18.) From Moltrire: I had just moved into my dorm for my second year of college. My roommate was my best friend since 9th grade. My stuff hadn&#39;t arrived yet, and it was my time to register, so I asked him if I could use his computer. He said sure. I sat down, and he had AIM open to a conversation with another friend of ours. I didn&#39;t scroll up, but from what was just visible on screen, they were talking about how weird I was and how awful it would be rooming with me. I closed it so he wouldn&#39;t realize later I&#39;d seen it, registered, and left. We still lived together that year, but we didn&#39;t hang out at all. We just cohabited. I never asked him to hang out as friends, he never asked me. Move-out day that year was the last time we spoke. That was over ten years ago. We chatted every day for six years, then haven&#39;t spoken since. I still don&#39;t know if I did or said something to flip how he felt about me, or if he never really liked me to begin with. The possibility of the latter really fucks up your future friendships. Hell, the former does too, knowing apparently you&#39;re capable of unknowingly saying or doing something to throw away a five year friendship.  19.) From khal-elise-i: Heard my mom complain about the Christmas gift I gave her a few years back. Seems small but idk it just hurt.  20.) From trader2488: When I was in middle school art class something funny happened and I let out a loud laugh. I then overheard one of my childhood best friends whisper to another person &ldquo;god I hate trader2488&rsquo;s laugh&rdquo;. I immediately looked at him and said &ldquo;What?&rdquo; And he just looked down at the table like he didn&rsquo;t hear me. This actually made me change my laugh. It&rsquo;s completely different from what it used to be. 21.) From Vandechoz: absolutely nothing which just makes me more paranoid Trust no one.

If you&#39;ve ever accidentally heard or seen something cruel someone said about you, you know it&#39;s one of the most painful experiences known to humanity. It feels like how I imagine being kicked in the balls would feel&mdash;very...