During a time of emotional crisis to my credit , based in mental illness , I put my trust in . wait for it . a psychic . Using some clever emotional manipulation , she gradually siphoned away about $ 5000 that I ' d earned over the course of several years . I don ' t even believe in that stuff and am actually an atheist , but I guess it was comforting at the time . My family knew about it , but felt that it needed to be a lesson that I learned for myself . It was a pretty fucking expensive lesson , and I don ' t think I ' ll ever be able to forgive myself for my gullibility . Overall , my mental illness has caused me to waste a lot more money than that fortunately , I ' m doing much better now , but this is the most blatantly , frustratingly idiotic example .