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Nobody deserves being rejected. First off, the world is cruel enough. And second, there’s a fair share of karma involved in it. If you ever reject someone, the chances are the same thing will come to you as a boomerang when you least expect it. In a parallel reality, everyone would have a reciprocal “It’s a match!”

But being told ‘sorry’ by your love interest is surely much more complex than that. And the best way to take a glimpse into humanity’s hurt souls is to look at what people have to say themselves.

So when Twitter user Eden Dranger posed the question “What was your harshest rejection?” it resonated with many, amassing 4,173 retweets and 67.6K likes.

So let’s get ready for a brutal, yet sometimes funny, other times plain odd, roller coaster ride featuring the stories of rejection as told by the ones who know what they’re saying.

#2

Emberrassing-Rejection-Stories

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Alison
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow 😳 that was a close call. Sorry to hear about the wife though being beat up. Awful to think about what happens behind closed doors

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To find out more about dealing with harsh rejection, Bored Panda reached out to Kate Mansfield, an acclaimed dating and relationship coach based in London, UK. Kate told that the way rejection psychologically affects us vary from person to person. “Rejection can have a profound or a mild effect, depending on the psychological state, the past trauma, and the personality of the person,” she explained.

“At its worst, it can cause extreme feelings of worthlessness and even depression. It can cause the person to withdraw from relationships and to stay alone. Or, to feel not good enough and low self-esteem.”

Meanwhile, people with healthy self-esteem and confidence, are usually mildly affected. This is “because they have a solid sense of self-worth already,” Kate explained.

#3

Emberrassing-Rejection-Stories

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Dave P
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

very evil and abusive, it this was my child I would do anything in my power to make the life of this creature a living hell till she could not show her face in public

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Joonscrab
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh my gosh. That would've hurt me so bad as a kid. I'm so sorry you had to even be with them

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Hans
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This one is off limits. all the other entries are friom adults dealing with adults, but this is an adult dealing with a child. In front of other children. Doing that is as wrong as something can be wrong.

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Foxxy (The Original)
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a best friend all through primary school and whilst we were still best friends in high school, we didn’t get to see each other as much as we went to different schools. Anyway one day we were chatting on the phone and I asked about her plans for her 13th birthday. She told me she wasn’t allowed to have a party. Well on a Monday morning at school a mutual friend of ours came up to me and asked if I was sick on the weekend. Turns out my supposed best friend of almost 9 years did have a party. I just wasn’t invited. That hurt like hell and ruined our friendship. We have reconnected numerous times since but something always happens and we stop being fiends. Now if we see each other we may have a little chat but there are no exchanging of numbers or scheduling a catch up. I think we both know that our friendship just wasn’t meant to be.

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Iggy
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What a horrible thing to do to you. No wonder you never reconnected.

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AzKhaleesi
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh let me tell you about the wrath I'd bring down on that bitch if I were your mom. Case in point, when my son was young he had horrible eczema. Nothing I did helped him. He was out playing and a mother told her kid to not play with my son because he looked contagious. He came home crying, let's just say when I was done with her, she was crying in front of HER kid. (no I did not lay a hand on her)

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Konpat
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's beyond me how an adult can behave in such a cruel way. Completely unacceptabel.

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Jumilicious
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My brother had a best friend from age 4 to 11. His mother sabotaged their friendship, as she somehow thought my brother was a bad influence on her son (who wasn't allowed to do anything e.g. eat cereal or wear sports jerseys whilst playing basketball because it supposedly made him look "too wild and not very intelligent"). She actually convinced her son to lie to my brother about not wanting to see him anymore and managed to drive a wedge between them. My brother, who was still a kid after all, didn't understand any of it and it broke his heart. He's 34 now and still has trouble talking about it, since it made him feel completely worthless and as if something was wrong with him.

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Iggy
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What an awful woman! Definitely people to avoid.

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Full of Giggles
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You have to be a special kind of fk’d up to do that to a kid.

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Becky Moore
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hope you stopped being friends with the child! How awful! I'm sorry you had to deal with such a shitty adult!

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Cookie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Totally toxic control freak. Pity the child who has to live under her thumb.

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DetongLhamo
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That is just beyond cruel. It sounds like something my mother would have done except I wasn’t allowed to have friends over.

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AVR
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Don't know the whole story...maybe there was a reason the mother did this...

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Phoenix
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

These are less of rejections and more of outright bullying or something. Rejection just doesn’t sound strong enough

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Yeah, you heard
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This only seems cruel from one side. If a mom has repeatedly told their child they don't want X in the house, because X is a bad influence and bad etc, then the child invites X over for a slumber party. The mom tried to spare the feelings of X, but nonetheless get rid of X without upsetting her. Maybe the friends should have kept their mouths shut, rather than rub X's nose in it

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Louise B
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What could a child possibly do to deserve cruelty like that? And at 13! Such a difficult age. My heart goes out to this person.

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Walter
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh the same thing happened to me at a birthday party when I was a child. The hosts parent told me it was over and I should go home. Only months later I learned it continued after my departure. It's not that I misbehaved but the parent really hated me for some reason.

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catherine todd
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh My God. Why in the world would a mother do that to any child? It's just unbelievable. So sorry this happened to you. What a horrible woman and a mother to boot. Think of how she eventually must have treated her own daughter!

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Emily Lynch
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What a horrible mother and obviously passed on to her brat. Their loss.

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Estelle Winwoode
Community Member
3 years ago

I need to know the rest of the story before I understand this. The question I want answered is WHY? There must be a reason. My nephew was a terrible bully to my son. My son was injured, bleeding, humiliated in front of the nephew's friends. My son wasn't the only one he picked on. His parents would always take his side. Because of his behaviour, sometimes he wasn't invited to parties. His mother told me once how she called the home where a party was happening which he hadn't been invited to. She said to the mother "my son has been talking about Joe's party all week but he didn't bring an invitation home. May I bring him over?" She was totally unaware of how her child behaved and blind to the possibility that he was at fault. It happens. If a child like that came to my child's party, I'd want to take him home again. Of course, the mother could just have been a crazy mean woman. But I want to know why.

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Ms LaDonna
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is probably your parents fault and not yours! My parents were a nightmare and no one wanted to deal with them. I knew this early because I didn't want to deal with them either.

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Kimberly Anne
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What an evil miserable Mother. God actually spared you from those kids and Mom. They were not true friends.

zet_1 avatar
Zet
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

maybe the "friend" didn't know how to tell holly that she didn't want her around and asked the mother for help.. still incredibly cruel tho

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Piper McLean
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My grandpa would never let my mom or aunt go to sleepovers. My grandma would sometimes help them sneak out the windows and cover for them. My grandpa isn’t bad he just didn’t trust their friends

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Rachel Green
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So you ALL had to pack up your stuff, shove it in the van, made sure it allllllll fit, get you all in said van just to drop yoU off first only to go back!?!! That's a lot of excessive work.... You sound better without them!! Toooooooo much drama *insert rolly eyes*

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Jonathan
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was the only kid that lived on a council estate and I wasn't invited anywhere- you're lucky you even made it to a sleepover pre-screening!

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Hi!
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why send the invite in the first place? This is so cruel and disheartening, I am SO sorry it happened.

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ning ding
Community Member
3 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

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Babi Lacerda
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was at my neighbors house she was a colleague from school, with another friend. They said they had to go somewhere. So we left, but when I got home which was really close, I called her house and she answered. So maybe I want a good company.

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Agnes B
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"unpopular opinion" what if the other girls didn't want her there and the mum instead of sending her home pretended that there is no party? Save her from the embarrassment? I think she wanted to be kind it just backfired.

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Konpat
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's possible, but still handled badly. She could have tried to communicate and mitigate. Sometimes we must compromise, the kids could have learned this.

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KT
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow.....brutal. Atleast she tried to protect your feelings by making it look like the whole thing was cancelled.

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CatWoman312
Community Member
3 years ago

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Wow I’m assuming there was racist undertones to this story

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When asked about the ways to deal with being rejected, Kate suggested working on your self-esteem and understanding that it’s nothing to do with you, and usually, it’s not personal.

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“Try to feel grateful, because the one thing worse than being rejected is to stay in a relationship with someone who doesn't really love you. That is rejection on a daily basis, and causes extreme loneliness.”

#7

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WilvanderHeijden
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Let's just hope that they are able to put him behind bars for his part in the siege of the capitol.

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#8

Emberrassing-Rejection-Stories

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Joonscrab
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You just dodged a bullet lolll if he can't handle a person having an extra few pounds, then that's on him.

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#10

Emberrassing-Rejection-Stories

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Catherine
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Haha this one made me laugh! Luckily, you were overqualified and clearly meant for bigger things in life

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Whatever people say, rejection hurts. Bottom line. It doesn’t matter which point of a relationship you’re at—being told "I am sorry, but" is something none of us want to hear. Emotional responses by anyone who’s experienced it are confirmed by researchers, and they range from feeling jealous to anxious and lonely.

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But since rejection has a lot to do with self-worth and self-image, oftentimes the pain of it is directly linked to how you validate yourself. Often people look for external and not internal forces to feel validated, which makes them vulnerable to setbacks. What if we simply haven't learned to love ourselves enough?

#14

Emberrassing-Rejection-Stories

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Being rejected by someone you love can really turn even the strongest of us into emotional train wrecks. But in many cases, we tend to idealize both the person and the relationship, as we only remember good times and emotions.

Such behavior is usually unconscious, but it nevertheless doesn’t show the full picture of what you really feel hurt about.

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Interestingly, friendship rejections can often be even more painful than romantic ones. Beverly Flaxington, a life and career coach, says to remember that while a friendship’s end can be painful, it’s also normal for friends to come and go.

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On the other hand, if you still feel like you're missing that person and that friendship in your life, Lexington suggests “reaching out to see if the person wants to get together.” In fact, timing may be crucial as it gives a whole new perspective of the friendship and the people we surround ourselves with.

After some time has passed and if you find yourself missing that person and that friendship, Flaxington suggests reaching out to see if the person wants to get together. Timing is key here. Time can allow people to approach a friendship with a new perspective, she notes

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#21

Emberrassing-Rejection-Stories

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Sum Guy
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sometimes you need people to be tough on you because family and friends might lie to you about how good you are

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#22

Emberrassing-Rejection-Stories

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Dan Buczynski
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow. Well f**k Kavanaugh and f**k your ex husband. I hope you've since found someone who appreciates a bad@$$ like you.

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#25

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Lili
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I really don't understand people who pay for their not-even-spouse's education, house, cars, etc... Like, are you out of your mind?

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According to Lori Gottlieb, M.F.T., psychotherapist, "When somebody rejects us, there's a very primal piece to it, which is that it goes against everything we feel like we need for survival."

But beyond the evolutionary standpoint, our responses to rejection vary greatly as they really depend on the models in which we develop our relationships with people. Those with insecure attachment styles in contrast to secure ones are likely to experience much greater pain from rejection.

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#27

Emberrassing-Rejection-Stories

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Vic
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's not a rejection, that's cheating! He was not your boyfriend, and she definitely was not your best friend.

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#29

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Pungent Sauce
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Stripping is sex work, and a lot of guys have difficulty separating the fantasy woman from the actual human being. Not excusing this jackass in any way, but as in most any job it’s best to not date the customers/clientele.

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#30

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