I was recently made to feel that it’s my mental health that’s the problem and not the system.
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Someone said that I had a laugh like Jimmy Carr.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 September 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 122 →
Maggie O'Farrell
Irish-British novelist
“You’ll never walk again.” This was when I was eight or nine and recovering from viral encephalitis.
They tend to say it behind my back.
Racial and homophobic slurs – the F- and N-words. When I moved to London, people screamed the F-word from their cars, and that stings.
More from Alex Lawther
View profile →My partner was doing a play in Hong Kong last year and I went to visit him, and I bought him a beautiful teacup. But I didn’t look at the price tag before I took it to the till and it was £100, the most expensive teacup imaginable.
Ponderous, over thinking.
Mistaking shyness for not having anything to say.
I spent about five years living in Paris thinking I would become Kristin Scott Thomas, and it didn’t happen.
Not getting to the point.
My failed driving test a few months ago. I got three majors and by the end of it the examiner couldn’t wait to get out of the car.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Maya Jama, Dervla Kirwan, Rita Wilson, David Hasselhoff, Romesh Ranganathan, Paul McKenna
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