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Anyone who works in the office is spending more than half of their life sitting. Day after day, week after week, years and decades go by and we realize we’ve spent most of our life in a position we were never meant to. Hence, poor posture, back problems, you name it.
But it’s far from the only common thing that’s silently and slowly doing more harm than good. “What common everyday things are slowly killing us?” someone posed a question on Ask Reddit, and the eye-opening responses started flooding in.
One by one, people shared things that we all take for granted although they may be destroying us in ways we never think about.
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#2
Hot dogs in packs of 10 and buns in packs of 8. I don't know how much longer I can take it.
#3
Plastic everything. We cook in it, store foods, and even breathe it. Carcinogens? They're in the plastic.
Things around us, from obvious ones like the food we consume to pretty surprising ones, like the thoughts we think, have a tremendous effect on our emotions and mood. Just think of all the negativity that bombards us from TV screens and media, and it will become blatantly obvious why we often feel so down for seemingly no reason.
In the past couple of years, crime series and documentaries have gained a huge popularity among viewers. In fact, in a single week "Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" surpassed "Bridgerton" and became Netflix's second most-watched English language series behind "Stranger Things." If you have not seen the series just yet, let me just tell you that Dahmer was a serial killer that murdered 17 men and boys over more than a decade, mostly gay men of color.
#4
Sitting all day long.
Mohsie Supposie 2 years ago
Definitely my biggest health issue, and the biggest cause of health issues overall. Sit all day in front of a PC at work. Sit in the car commuting. Sit in front of the TV all evening.
#5
Cats. Their scratches may seem small, but eventually, it will build up and they will take over us and become the master race and dogs will have to fight back, but since cats are mischievous and have planned this for millennia, they will prevail over dogs. Then its only due time for them to overthrow the birds, reptiles and all other animals. I dunno, just a hunch
#6
Suffering from any form of anxiety and negative thoughts.
So to find out what watching disturbing material like The Jeffrey Dahmer Story says about us, we spoke with Helen Marlo, a licensed clinical psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst who provides psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and consultation. Helen is also a Professor of Clinical Psychology and the Department Chair at Notre Dame de Namur University.
Marlo said that certainly, this material can amplify negative moods. “We can feel grief, despair, traumatized, anxious, and hopeless, just to name a few,” she explained.“However, viewing others’ material can be a titrated, less direct way of helping us come to terms with our own negative emotional states,” she added.
#7
Remembering embarassing moments from years ago
#8
Ibuprofen - kidneys, Tylenol-liver. If I make it to my 90s without significant damage to these organs, I’ll consider myself superwoman.
#9
bacon is a category one known carcinogen but the meat industry in america works tirelessly to make sure the fda doesnt say anything bad about them.
General Anaesthesia 2 years ago
Red meat and processed meat, not just bacon, according to the WHO.
Marlo argues that “while this material may trigger negative emotions, we may have the experience of being sadder or more anxious, but wiser.” Simultaneously, “engaging with this material can be a way we try to psychologically organize, understand, and make sense of suffering, hard realities of life, existential issues in life, and challenging aspects of our own stories.”
Therefore, viewing this material can help us become more empathic and thoughtful of this dark side of human nature, Marlo explained. She added that “viewing this material can also help us sublimate or channel other feelings of injustice, vengefulness, and aggression in a socially acceptable way that is often lacking in an unjust world.”
And “it can provide us a sense of mastery or a changed outcome including one where good prevails over evil.”
#12
Living. Health is just the slowest possible rate at which you can die.
#13
Using your cellphone at night without night shift on. Blue light suppresses melatonin levels, which causes sleep deprivation (weight gain, depression, anxiety) and increases the risk of cancer. Reddit being the exception, of course.
#15
Everything that is pleasurable, tastes good, makes your life better in any way, or otherwise discourages you from suckstarting a shotgun.
Living a long and healthy life means a life not worth living.
#16
A typical American food diet combined with passive entertainment is the most common thing (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282929.php).
#17
Work. It kills our will to live slowly one day at a time.
#18
White flour, high fructose corn syrup and other sugars, processed food and preservatives.
Bleble BlebleBla 2 years ago (edited)
The word "preservative" in my language means condom. Don't know who adopted it and decided to transform it's meaning...
#20
Our own cells. They're constantly dividing and reproducing, shortening our telomeres if we're lucky, mutating into cancer if we're not.
Looking on the bright side, if they didn't do that, we'd die a lot faster.
#22
My kids.
#23
Cell phone addiction
... oh the irony
#24
Your lack of routine. Regularly staying up past midnight leaves your brain less time that it desperately needs to rest and repair itself, the strain can and will eventually catch up to you. Go to bed you crazies!
Edit: You guys seem curious about this so I'll go a bit more in-depth.
Your body functions like a machine, when it's not being used it performs maintenance. Your body naturally repairs itself while you sleep. Also, your body has certain internal clocks to indicate when the process should start.
One of them is a light indicator. Blue light is one of the most powerful light in the spectrum, and when your eyes absorb this blue light, your brain is able to decide if it is daytime or night time. However, blue light is emitted by other things (SUCH AS COMPUTER SCREENS). If enough blue lights is filtered through your eyes, your brain will think that it is still daytime when it is night you should be getting rest, that's why Apple has the night shift feature on its phones and computers.
The most important part of this isn't always how much you sleep, but you sleeping at the same time everyday. Your brain adapts around when you set a routine. If you have a routine in place, your brain is able to recognize that you are asleep and bring about repairs sooner and faster. If you don't have a routine it regularly will take your brain to realize that you are asleep and repairs slow.
tl;dr- Your body needs routine to be able to recognize when to heal
#25
Too much coffee. Stimulants like caffeine, in excess (more than 3 cups a day) ever so slowly f**k up the heart.
#26
Car exhaust. I very seriously believe that my children will look at me when i tell them we used to have tens-of-thousands of cars in cities, the way I looked at my mom when she explained that smoking around pregnant women were totally normal.
WindySwede 2 years ago
"When I was little I had to take the diesel gobbling bus to school in the snow, uphill.." "yea, sure totaly"
#27
Ozone pollution. recent new studies show living in a city is like smoking a pack or more of cigarettes a day...
Scott Crosby 2 years ago
Let's get rid of the cities... and the unhealthy people that live in them. That should easily cut pollution and energy consumption by 60%, ending all our concerns about climate change.
#28
Cigarettes
Sue Bradley 2 years ago
This won't be popular - here goes!!! I've smoked on & off for many years. I wish I didn't mainly because of the cost. But what about my health I hear you shout?!! I'm nearly 60 I work as a carer, most of my clients have a poor quality of life and most are very unhappy. So if it does shorten my life, that is not a negative, and is not a reason to me to stop smoking
#30
Brain power it takes to figure out what paper towels to buy. How the hell can I choose the best option? 6=8? 8=12? There go more brane sells!
What do you think ?
BoredPandaSucks 2 years ago
Thinking about the abundance of commentary on the skyrocketing cost of living, not being able to get livable wages, the climate is in a Armageddon level downward spiral, etc etc. then why in hell worry about sh*t that shortens your lifespan? what is there to want to live longer for?
Artsy Bookworm 2 years ago
This! The world is not getting any better. I don't give a s**t if I die early, just let me live like I want to! What is the point in living without eating the food that you love, taking time out to be with you loved ones, to go on vacation etc and have this "healthy lifestyle"? A famous actor in my country died of a heart attack when he was not even 50. The man was a complete fitness freak, healthy lifestyle and everything and then what. Forcing yourself to eat what you don't like so as to live longer in a world that is becoming unlivable seems ironic. So I'm going to live as I like thank you very much.
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BoredPandaSucks 2 years ago
Thinking about the abundance of commentary on the skyrocketing cost of living, not being able to get livable wages, the climate is in a Armageddon level downward spiral, etc etc. then why in hell worry about sh*t that shortens your lifespan? what is there to want to live longer for?
Artsy Bookworm 2 years ago
This! The world is not getting any better. I don't give a s**t if I die early, just let me live like I want to! What is the point in living without eating the food that you love, taking time out to be with you loved ones, to go on vacation etc and have this "healthy lifestyle"? A famous actor in my country died of a heart attack when he was not even 50. The man was a complete fitness freak, healthy lifestyle and everything and then what. Forcing yourself to eat what you don't like so as to live longer in a world that is becoming unlivable seems ironic. So I'm going to live as I like thank you very much.
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