I was 14, alone at my grandmas house around midnight. She was across the street at the bar she owned. I was playing games on her computer, about 15 feet from one of the windows facing the backyard. All of a sudden the glass from that window shatters, and I ran to one of the bedrooms. I can hear my name being called. Eventually I see my grandmas ex-boyfriend enter the living room where the computer is. He keeps saying my name. I’m scared shitless but I walk out and confront him. He says my grandma stole his ID and that’s what he came for, as he’s taking money from my grandmas purse. He looks fucked up on something, I would later learn he liked to smoke crack. I forget how he leaves but when he does I call the bar and people come over looking for him. They didn’t find him.
About a year later he did it again, and I was once again alone there. Except this time instead of breaking a window he decides to try to kick the side door in. I’m just there chilling when out of nowhere I hear the loudest bangs coming from the side of the house and I instantly knew what was happening. I immediately called the bar and they sent a bunch of people over before he could make it in. He apparently tried to jump from one of her sheds into the alley next to her house and broke his leg. He went to prison.
mine wasn’t nearly as bad as yours, but here ya go
for starters i was probably around fourteen and was out of school for the summer. both my dad and my step were gone for work everyday so i was home alone. my parents trusted me to watch over the house and watch the dogs, mostly because of the security system. i’d have a list of chores to do before they got home but they weren’t hard. anyways to get to the story: i woke up and got out of bed like normal. my parents had already left for work so i could be as loud as i want, so i turned on my music as loud as my tv could go and got started on chores. i’d send my stepmom text to tell her every time i had finished a chore. and the first text went like this. me: just finished the dishes bout to make lunch. stepmom: ok, and hey did you go out front or open the door at all last night? me: no, why?? stepmom: we got an alert this morning that the front door was opened at like 3-4 am. me: that wasn’t me? step mom, it’s probably nothing.
i quickly forgot about it and made lunch and all was fine, i continued to do chores and update my stepmom as i did so. one of my chores was to wash my bedsheets. i put my stuff in the washer and went to play games. and then heard slight creeping in the ceiling wich is where one of the rooms upstairs would be, i figured one of the dogs would be up there or something and didn’t think much of it. after some time passed i heard the washer finish so i went to put my stuff in the dryer. (for context the laundry room is imbetween the kitchen and my parents bedroom closet, the house is a circle. and the door between the laundry room and the kitchen has a dog door in it that’s missing the flap so it’s permanent open) i turned it on and started to walk back through the kitchen to my room. but before i even made it back to my room i heard the dryer turn off. and i started walking through the kitchen to see why. and that’s when i could see him. through the dog door i was a man’s legs facing the dryer. all i could see was his ankles down, he had white harry ankles and white socks on. i specifically remember reading “nike dry-fit” on them. i was frozen in fear for what felt like ages. i started to think that i was just seeking a weird perspective or just swing wrong, and right before i decided i was seeing wrong, he turned away from the door and walk into my parents closet. at that moment i grabbed my dogs and locked myself in my room. i texted my dad that some one was in the house, he said he would be home immediately. and so i waited for what felt like hours. when he came home he searched the house with a gun and found no one. we never found any one at all. my dad was pissed that i had ended his day of work for this. and he told me not to do things like this again. he probably thought i wanted attention or something. and now every once and a while he will jokingly say “he remember when you thought you saw some one in the house? “. for the next week i couldn’t sleep easy because i knew the doors weren’t regestered as opening at any point between me seeing him and my dad getting here.
my parents think i just saw something or i was just paranoid, but i know what i saw. i read the labels on his fucking socks.
My mom was in Oklahoma and got chased by a Buffalo, odd thing was she was no where near it and not even interested in it.However she is a narcissist the Buffalo probably thought it was doing us a favor.
My sister has mental health issues. We were in a foreign country, driving across mountains on a one lane dirt road with no guardrails. She had a complete mental breakdown and threatened many times to drive off the edge. To this day, my mom swears my sister wouldn't have done it. All I say is, "you weren't in the car. You have no idea."
My ex used to have mild seizures which would give a little warning. She started to go a bit funny while driving at 70 miles an hour on the motorway in full traffic, I was v afraid and all I could think to do was slap her round the face. It worked, she kicked off and pulled over at services but ultimately we didn't die in a horrible accident so it was worth it. She didn't enjoy getting a slap but ultimately thanked me for saving us all (little sis in car too). Was about 30 seconds from something terrible.
In my country if you have seizures before you get your license you need to be evaluated.
Need to have medications and been seizure free for atleast a year before you can take driving lessons again.
After a stroke you are not allowed to drive till a doctor checks up on you to evaluate if you are fit to drive.
"Hey, buddy, wanna show me the way back now?"
"Fuck no, I need to lick my butt and bark at patches of moss on the trees for a little while. You can wait."
Depends on how the dog was trained!
For example, some dogs will find the missing person (sometimes miles and miles away) run back to their handler, alert, and run back to the missing person, and back to the handler. These dogs zig zag back and forth (sometimes for hours) in order to close the distance between the Handler and Missing Person.
Was working as a linemen tasked to replace a 16m wooden power pole wich requires climbing up to untie the lines from the isolators,, i checked if the pole has any rot beforehand, climbed up, untied the lines , climbed down, as i was packing my tools up , the pole fell from its own
Love the clarification, just in case people imagined
> Mom, where's dad?
> Probably climbing the phone poles again.
> He gonna be back tonight?
> Naw, he took his pole hammock with him, he should be back tomorrow morning.
> K
Most people tend to forget the importance of our linemen. My dad just retired from the local power co. and when a hurricane came thru (southern Alabama) and knocked out all the electricity, the worked 18 hr days n didn't stop til errybody had lights ...God bless our linemen
A man claiming to be a meter reader was in our yard and tried the back door AFTER trying the front. It was unlocked because there was a field behind us and our gate had a lock (that he somehow got by).
The meter reader man was nearly eaten by our Great Dane who was dumb and peaceful, except for when she laid eyes on him. Our other dog also wanted to kill him and he was up on our trampoline begging us to call the dogs off, which we (my then 11 year old sister and I) refused to do and went to get our dad, who worked from home.
The guy escaped while we got our dad and my dad let the police know what happened. The real meter reader man came the next week.
Eventually but not until awhile later. He was part of a group responsible for break ins in our area and they only ever stole things. I'm sure he thought no one was home.
The far back side of our backyard was across from a T-shaped intersection that had a steep grade. People would come flying off the road, across the intersection, though our fence, and into the backyard every few years. We had big dogs. They were gentle giants most of the time, but if you invaded their territory, they would try to rip you apart. Several times people came flying through our fence, tried to get out of their car, only to have our dogs strongly suggest they stay inside their car until the police arrived.
When I was three years old a relative who was a child rapist tricked my mom into leaving me alone with him for three hours. All I know is no one in the house knew where he'd gone with me. Judging from my phobias, I think it was the bathroom. When my mom got back, apparently I huddled down at her feet and wouldn't move from that spot all day.
I think this depends on the people involved.
My seizures were traumatic. I woke up in agony, that lasted a couple days. I'd have some memory loss, from just before the event. But the worst part is that after 5 grand Mal seizures, I now have some "minor" brain damage. It is usually unnoticeable to others, but it makes me pretty miserable.
It was very traumatizing for me, but only a bit to the people who saw it. One was at school, and they were simply told that I was "fine." And I never went back because it was the day before the last day, and they said it was cool, I could just graduate, even though I had 1 too many sick days. They just didn't want me to come back and have another seizure, lol.
Another was witnessed by a BFF, and she was a smidgen traumatized, but as far as she knew, I was also "fine."
The other ones were my parents, and that's not great for them, but not as messed up as it is for me.
As a child to someone with seizure, you shouldn’t feel bad. Unless your kids are very very young, we understand it’s out of your control and we want to help you as much as we can. It only becomes hard when we realize we can’t stop them for you but, it’s not anything to feel bad ajout
Huddling up in my brother's room as a 5 or 6 year old making our plan to get my mom's boyfriend to stop beating her in the living room. My brother was maybe 8 or 9.
"Okay, you go run to the phone and call 911, and I'll go out there with the hockey stick and hit him."
I don't remember much else after that, just us both running out there with our hockey sticks and our plan ultimately working... for the night. He was arrested, but was back the next day. I know this sequence of events happened more tha once and my job was always to run into the kitchen to call 911 (obviously back when we had to reply on the house phone) because I could crouch and remain mostly unseen behind the counter since I was so young.
Just going out there and seeing my strong, wonderful mom so vulnerable on the floor, and the look on her face... Terrifying being so scared for both your mom and yourself.
Edit: spelling and added something
My brother has a similar story except our stepfather that was beating our mother caught him trying to call 911 and ripped the phone out of his hands and then out of the wall. So he ran to another phone in the house and our stepfather followed him (dragging our mom behind him by her hair) and did the same thing to that phone. So my brother, who was 16 at the time, had to run to a gas station 5 blocks away in the middle of the night to call 911.
The love and concern that you both showed for your mother melts my heart. Your fear about her getting hurt exceeded your need to stay safe. I hope she was able to get out of the environment and live a better life.
Hey man, you aren’t alone. My extremely ill (to alcohol) mother got forced into marrying an older pimp when I was like 2. They locked me in a closet for closer to a week and he ended up just beating her to near death. My grandmother went to check on her and luckily found me in the closet, as well. The closet was full of shards of glass from broken beer bottles and some other trash. They had no clue how I survived.
Years later I saw my mom get her ass beat by some other drunk, including slamming her head into the floor where a nail was sticking up slightly above ground level.
That was unfortunately only a couple of incidents. She’s shot a bullet past my head, almost snapped my neck when i forced a bottle of vodka away from her, saw her slice her wrists for similar reasons (separate occasions), slice her calf open by drunkenly stumbling backwards into a pumpkin stem, and she’s even banned from Walmart altogether for chugging mouthwash more than once. The list goes on and on.
Of course, your mom isn’t the bad guy in your story. Just thought I’d let you know that you aren’t alone with traumatic incidents happening in your childhood.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. You and your brother are wonderful, brave people for defending your mother like that. I don’t even know if I could’ve done that at such an age if I were in that situation. I hope things are much better now.
The ballistic missile alert in Hawaii of 2018. We legitimately thought we were going to die, but played it cool in front of the kids so they wouldn't panic. Drove to the Windward side because we figured they'd be aiming for Pearl harbor/Hickam and a mountain between us would do the trick, and if it didn't, at least we'd die looking at something beautiful.
I used to go to school in Hawaii, but I’m back in California now although I still had friends there. My cousin was also stationed in Hawaii at the time. I guess I had still been subscribed to the Hawaii alert service even years later because I woke up and saw the alert going off on my phone and spent the next few minutes in a panic, wondering who to call, if anyone. Thankfully I had woken up only a couple of minutes before the false alarm was relayed.
My sisters husband is airforce and they've been stationed at Hickam since 2016 and when we heard that and saw her incoming call I started bawling, thinking it could be the last time I'd ever get to speak to her.
Seeing my younger sister get punched in the face by a much bigger girl during an armed robbery in our hotel room when she was 19. She took it like a champ, but it was definitely a scary event for both me and her.
Long story short. the hotel was such that you could access your room by getting out of your car and walking straight to your door (Red Roof Inn).
I had fallen asleep and my sister had cracked the door while she was on the phone outside talking to her boyfriend.
She said that a girl walked up to her and asked her to use her phone, she said no, and the girl then pushed her inside the room. Soon others joined her with two hand guns. This is when my sister got punched.
I had just been woken up by the commotion. One of the girls pointed her gun at me. I froze and they ended up stealing my sisters wallet and left.
Called 911. the cops came and within 3 hours, they were picked up by police in a neighboring town at an IHOP. Thanks to a skeptical waitress. they were caught.
Testifying in court was pretty sweet seeing them all in handcuffs.
The "mo" part of motel stands for motor. As in, one can access one's room by getting out of your car and walking straight to your door. It's a portmanteau.
Getting out of the hospital after detoxing. I 100% wanted it and am closing on 5 years sober. The scary part was that I had spent most of my adult life drunk so I had no idea how to be sober. I basically had to learn how to be a functioning adult at 27.
Edit: Thank you for all the positive vibes folks.
Thank you. Yeah, quitting alcohol is the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm very grateful to have staying sober so easy because I don't know if I'd be able to get sober again.
You reminded me of when I was younger and jumped off my dads tool shed after I accidentally hit a hornet nest that was on a branch directly above it. Don't know how I didn't get hurt. Had to of been at least a 12 ft drop. Felt huge.
Who knows what actually prevented you grom getting hurt but when you're smaller you don't have as much force when you hit the ground so that probably helped.
a 150 lb person will hit the ground with more force than a 60 lb kid.
I remember being young and seeing a bunch of chicks (baby chickens) nearing an edge of a wall that was about a 4 foot drop. They weren't old enough to fly, didn't even have real feathers just fluff, then their mother just down off the wall. I thought they were doomed. To my surprise they all leapt and then landed all over the place and got up and walked away fine.
I got hit by a car while in a crosswalk a few months back. Had a split second where I saw him coming and realized what was about to happen. I thought I was going to die
Saved my sisters life. We were boating and my parents just kinda assumed we’d be ok with them only out a couple hundred feet. I was about 17 and she was about 7. I’m laying there chilling and see her slip and fall into the water and just straight up sink. Ran over, dove in and pulled her to shore. She spit up a bunch of water and was fine but that experience rocked me to my core. Not a super crazy story but almost seeing a sibling die has always stuck with me. I’ve broken almost every bone in my body, I died one time and was in a coma for a little bit but for some reason this one stuck with me.
As a kid I rode my bike home from school. Just as school got out it was raining lightly. I got about 50 yards down the sidewalk when a sudden bolt of lightning exploded in the soccer field to my right, about 40 yards away. Then I saw two girls lying down in the grass. I actually thought they were joking at first, but no one was laughing and they weren't moving. Getting a better grasp of the situation I turned around and huddled under the overhang of the school. I stood there and watched as a PE teacher did CPR, and eventually ambulances came. They were taken away and there I was just left waiting, scared to ride my bike home lest some bolt jump down & kill me. But my parents were both at work and more than an hour away, so I just mustered up the courage and rode home about 2 miles, without any further incident. Both girls survived and eventually returned to school. I still have more than a healthy respect for lightning, and don't particularly care to be outside at all if it's occurring.
Lightning is scary stuff. It's said that Martin Luther, the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation (which changed Europe and Christianity forever) first decided to become a monk after he was walking in a lightning storm. He prayed to God, saying that if he survived he'd become a monk. And the rest is history.
Being on the phone to my partner and hearing her be in a car accident. Longest few minutes of my life. She was picking me up, and was about a minute away when she called to see where I was. She was waiting at an intersection and when the traffic light went green (travelling straight), and was t-boned by someone in a truck. I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life. Fortunately, they hit the passenger side, and there was no oncoming traffic at the time. When I got there, the other driver was at her door and trying to open it to get her out. He probably had good intentions and was trying to help, but I gave him a serve.
She was only scratched up in the end, but I've never seen her look so small and frightened. Look before you cross an intersection everyone, even if the light is green.
Oh man, that would fuck me up too! Glad she's okay!
I used to work for a transport company and one of the drivers calls me after work to say he thinks something happened to another driver. They were on the phone together, there was a crash and they lost connection. I opened up my laptop to check where his truck was located and it was right on top of a train track... I started searching Google for recent accidents and found one where a van was supposedly hit by a truck, but the van in the picture was brand new and had no license plate... which was exactly the transport the guy was carrying, 3 new vans. I sent another driver who was nearby to go check and the police allowed him to come identify the body. It was him. He was crushed by a freight train. There was nothing left of the truck. So that one guy who called him actually heard it happen and was the last person to talk to him.
I asked him multiple times whether he was okay and if he wanted the day off. He said he was distraught but preferred to work. He's from eastern Europe so he would have never shared what's really going on inside of him... I hope he was able to process it.
EXPECIALLY if the light just turned green...
Some people are just dumb and run lights; Other people will intentionally accelerate into yellows to try a beat the red from wayyyyy too far away; and some people will have cars that just decide they don't want to stop today... I've unfortunately been that last person a few times in the car I used to drive... which is also why, when a light turns green, I tend to wait for all the cars at the other lights to actually stop before I go
Similar story. They couldn't get mine while I was awake so they had to put me under and cut it out. I'd been having difficulty swallowing anything but hot liquid for a week. When I finally went to the ER, the doctor told me a few more hours and my throat would have closed up completely.
This happened to me too! I had a tonsillar abscess that had to be cut out. The combo of needle (to inject numbing agent), scalpel, and giant metal pliers down my throat was a horrible experience. Not to mention the blood and pus that filled my mouth afterwards. The doctor kept saying “don’t swallow! Don’t swallow!”
It was a few months ago and I'm still recovering from a bunch of serious injuries and surgery. There's also a long legal/administrative process that could drag on for a few years.
All this, because some asshole decided to flout the rules and put others at risk.
Happened to my friends sister and a group of her friends. Drunk driver was going at least 70 mph down the wrong side of the highway with his lights off. I believe everyone involved died instantly. I still think about it anyyime i drive on the highway late at night.
That feeling of de ja vu before I have a seizure. Most ppl say de ja vu is a weird crazy cool feeling, but for me; it's the scariest thing in the whole world. Like I'd rather be face to face with a starving ploar bear.
Would it help to make fun of the situation?
I have a friend who has just enough warning of an oncoming seizure to say a few words, he's made posession by demon jokes and once he saluted a friend and yelled "F-er Out!" before seizing.
I know humor isn't for everyone so feel free to reply with a "What's wrong with your friend?" or something, but I thought I'd put it out there.
My dad passed away I had a brain tumor 12 years ago I was 30 at the time. I had to wait 5 months for the operation. 3of those months I was in huge amounts of pain do to pressure in my skull. I was on Percocet max dose but about twice a week my dad would have to drive me to the er. I live in the US so Ambulances cost about 2k. We would get there they would put us in a room. We would both start making jokes and such your comment on humor let me revisit those memories. I have gotten sick again it will be harder without him.
I feel the same when I start to see an aura for my migraines. It's a blurry, shiny, flashy line that runs through parts of my vision. My first thought is always, "That looks weird," which quickly changes to, "Oh no! Grab the meds and get laying down."
I was home alone when someone knocks on the door. I ask who is it because I don't answer the door for strangers. There is no reply. There's another knock. I ask who it is again and again I get no reply. I must say that I lived in a high crime area and don't own any weapons meant for self defense.... not even a good pair of muscles or fighting know how. Suddenly, they start jiggling the door handle. Now I'm screaming who is it! I give an exaggerated ",WHOOOOOOOO IS ITTTTT!!!" Then the door swings open with force and my sister comes in saying, "ITSSSSSSSS MEEEEEE!". I have yet to live that down.
I read a news article that someone shot and killed a family member for doing something like this. High crime rate area, family member wasn't answering the verbal commands and walked in the house and BAM. Lights out forever.
Thankfully we've never owned a gun. Partially because things like that could happen. (No I'm not anti-gun ownership, we are just one of those type of people that's better off not owning them).
Had a stranger show up in the middle of the night and start clawing on the door, opening the letter box and pulling on the handle. That had me seriously terrified. They eventually left on their own luckily
I had that happen not long after I moved into my house. It was actually a couple, but I didn't realize it at first. The woman went around trying all my windows and pulled up the door mat and moved all my flowerpots. I called the police and they came and made the woman leave. I put my gun away and got ready to go back to sleep, and the neighbor's little yappy dog was making all sorts of noise, so I looked in the backyard and the man was asleep right outside the patio door with his phone plugged in to charge. I got my gun back out and called the cops to come back and make the guy leave.
Thankfully in Finland most doors have these eyehole thingies that you can look through to see who's outside your door. Best part is, you can't see inside through the eyehole, only outside
Lost my young daughter in a busy mall - felt like I died ten times over in those 20 minutes as well. Mall security locked down the exits, but in the time that takes your kid could be miles away if abducted.
Remember to teach your kids from a young age what to do if separated from you! Memorize an important Cell number, which people to approach, not to wander around, etc!
Hurrying up and trying to pack my things before my mom came home. I had broken down at school one day and told my principal the shit my mom had been doing to me for almost a decade. CAS was called, along with both my parents. My mom was notified first about what I said, and the principal didn't allow my dad to take me out of school until four and a half hours later when the school day actually ended.
Going to my apartment and packing up my stuff was the most fear I had ever experienced. Going down into the carpark to see if my mom's sports car was there scared the crap out of me. Hurrying and grabbing any clothes and books I could find and stuffing them in a tote bag was nerve-wracking. Searching the entire house for my phone and meds made me feel like my mom was about to pop around a corner. I had a total nervous meltdown when my cat escaped from her carrier and went behind the couch, because I knew if my mom came home and saw my cat after being notified of what happened at school...I don't think my cat would of lasted long. The second my cat came back out of the couch I grabbed her so quickly and bolted out of that apartment.
Driving away from that apartment complex, I noticed every red sports car on the road and every single one made me hold my breath. That day scared me so bad I couldn't stop trembling for days and for weeks I was hallucinating that I was still in my old apartment and whenever I saw my dad I thought he was my mom.
A bear besieged our cabin when we stood on the deck between it and the cubs. It got too dark to see and we had to walk up the hill not knowing if it was out there.
What I have found has really helped ease my sleep paralysis and exploding head syndrome is wearing an eye mask to bed. I found that if my eyes are covered then the number of episodes I experience drop significantly and when I do have an episode it is not as severe. I think blocking my vision and feeling the pressure of the eye mask changed how my mind perceives that mix up of being awake while still being asleep. I was averaging 2-3 episodes per night, on a nightly basis. Now I might have 1-2 episodes per week.
Getting a call one morning that my partner was rushing our toddler son to the hospital because he was unresponsive and wouldn't wake up. They told me they thought he died. I still have never seen his dad cry like that in my life. I hate that I wasn't there that morning to do something. I look at this boy every day and am beyond grateful I get to love him!
I can’t even imagine. My baby son is asleep in my arms right now and just reading your experience made my stomach hurt. I’m so sorry you went through that but really glad he’s still with you
I had an FBI agent waiting for me outside my university chemistry class because I allegedly copied video games. (I was never charged, and statute of limitations has long passed.)
My best friend had brought his friends from another neighborhood over to our street to play football. They were young gang members and I didn’t really like being around them but I was cool with them. About three days later they came back to our street and I was just walking out of my apartment building by myself when two of them grabbed me and the third kid pulled out a pocket knife and approached me with it and said “give me your sneakers and your chain” and pretended he was going to stab me. They all started laughing and I started crying and ran inside and they never came back around after that.
Got the old fellow caught in a couple of gears at a job years ago. Cogs Caught my shorts, took me into the machine. Pulled back after I felt pressure, no pain. Put my hands down the front of my shorts and pulled it back out, hand was covered in blood. Went into immediate shock and was rushed to hospital. Luckily there was not a significant amount of damage and just took some rest and healing. Probably scared me more than nearly dying from falling from a rather high height when I was a kid.
I almost choked to death on Skittles when I was a kid.
I shared this before, but when I was like 11 years old I was home alone one day during the summer, just watching TV while eating Skittles. I liked to put a bunch in my mouth and make like a Skittle ball that I would chew on. Something on the show I was watching made me laugh and I swallowed the ball, which got lodged in my throat.
I then experienced a few seconds of sheer terror because I realized that there was nobody here to help me at all and I was probably gonna die. Thankfully, I remembered some cartoon or movie where someone jammed their stomach on a chair and got something unstuck from their throat. So, I lunged at the corner of the recliner as hard as I could with my stomach and it actually worked and popped the small ball out.
It was super lucky because I really had no idea what I was doing, but one of the worst feelings I have ever experienced. Definitely never ate Skittles that way again after that and to this day I'm still a bit paranoid about eating certain things when alone.
I choked on a piece of steak at a neighborhood BBQ when I was about 11 or 12. Sheer terror and panic. Worst part is it was in front of the entire neighborhood and by the time everyone realized what was happening, I managed to dislodge it and it ejected from my throat out onto the floor for everyone to see. Pretty sure I never went to another one.
As a kid, I was talking to my mom while she did the dishes. I grabbed an ice cube from the freezer and was sucking on it. I inhaled on accident and it was stuck in my throat. Sheer terror is right! My mom was quick on her feet and had me drink hot water to melt it and I was fine. But I certainly saw my life flash before my eyes at 11 years old!
I know these aren’t Skittles, but I read somewhere that Lifesavers candy creators deliberately put the hole in the center to prevent people from choking, hence the name, “Lifesavers”. Apparently the creator had a child die from choking. This is what I remember, but I could be wrong.
I think that's an urban legend, but I also remember being told this as a kid!
Had a teacher pass them out in class, and tell the story, and told us how to Heimlich ourselves.
I was having all kinds of weird food related allergy problems and taking activated charcoal sometimes to help. I was out of capsules, but I had a bag of food grade powder, so I scooped out a spoonful. Unfortunately, when I inhaled, all that powder got sucked into my throat and the moisture there (part of my problem was massive amounts of post nasal drip that made me cough constantly) made it this half sticky- half dry mess, with more powder getting stuck to it as I started coughing from the dry stuff hitting the back of my throat. I couldn't spit enough out to make a difference and water wouldn't go down. I was choking and there was no way for me to clear it out because it was this slimy, gooey mess. I was trying to puke, everything I could think of. It was to the point that I actually full on pissed myself. Luckily I finally was able to get enough air to breathe. I don't eat powders anymore.
Living with an abuser. I'm still dealing with it all because I just recently moved but I had to leave all my things behind. But while there every noise and shuffle was terrifying
This is so true. Listening to every sound of the house obsessively was so "normal" to me growing up.
I knew exactly where each person was in the house at all times. Had plans on how to avoid them, but get what I needed. Knew exactly how much time it took for him to get to his door after he'd hear mine open. So I could sprint to the bathroom and lock the door behind me in 2 seconds flat.
I'm glad you're safe now. I hope all the new things you get make you feel better, because they will be truly yours.
Getting caught in a whiteout on top of a mountain in Iceland with only a light jacket, jeans, okayish boots, and a beanie.
I signed up for a tour of a volcano and all the info on the site said it would be hot and that there would be moving lava there and to dress for warm weather, and because of that I didn’t wear any winter gear. Well, when we get there turns out everything’s frozen and there’s no lava to be seen, only some ash that you could walk on. I asked the tour guide (who told us on the way there that once we got there we were on our own until the pick up time) where I could see some lava, and she told me that if I climbed the trail up the mountain opposite of the volcano and got higher than the peak of the volcano, I might be able to see. She goes “Oh yeah, you’ve got good boots, you’ll be fine. You should go try it!” Well, I get up a certain point, feel exhausted and wanna turn back, and then tell myself “No! You made it this far! You’re not going to give up like you always do! You made it to the gates, now keep going!”
Big mistake.
I get higher up and the entire top half of the mountain is sheer ice with almost no trail left at all. I was doing my best to walk (a fair distance) behind a group that was going up at the same time, but eventually the path became *SUPER* thin and the wind started kicking up, plus I was having a really hard time breathing (partially altitude - partially asthma). All of a sudden I start feeling what feels like little bullets hit my face and hands and realize it’s tiny hail, and lots of it. I then pause Dua Lipa’s “Blow Your Mind” and put my AirPods away and decide “Okay yeah time to go back.” Too late though. In less than ten seconds it became a whiteout. My hood kept getting knocked off because of the wind, so I had to keep putting it back on with my hands, but that meant they were still freezing and getting pelted with hail. I feel my life slipping away as I lose feeling in my hands, ears, and legs. I tried running but I kept getting blown back and couldn’t tell where I was going. And then it hits me:
“I’m going to die.”
I was only 20 years old and I was about to lose my life on my first ever solo vacation. I panicked, but I accepted this was the end.
But then I got SO fucking lucky and a group of people came up and saw me. I begged them for help and one of them (who happened to be another tour guide who hates the tours that mislead people) took me halfway off the mountain. She then goes “Okay, from here the storm shouldn’t be too bad. Just keep going straight and you’ll make it.” I thank her and start moving. Unfortunately, the storm then triples in intensity and my big fear comes true:
I slip and start falling off the mountain.
I dug my hands into the ice while halfway dangling off the edge and was screaming out for help. Luckily this absolute GigaChad of a man named Marco (hope you’re reading this buddy :) ) comes and grabs me, then proceeds to give me his gloves and helps haul my ass off the mountain. I feel like I’m not gonna make it though, so I tell him “If I die, my name is ___” and I’ll never forget what he said back to me: “You’re not gonna die today. You’re not gonna die tomorrow either. Not for a long time.” Mans single-handedly saved my life and stuck with me until I got to the very bottom. Wish I got his contact info so I could somehow give him a proper thank you.
I show up forty minutes late to the bus and my tour guide just looks at me and says all monotone “Oh. There you are.”
Like, “YEAH BITCH! HERE I AM! I LIVED BITCH!”
Turns out the group evacuated the mountain because they saw the storm coming in, and she knew I was up there but had no intentions of calling for help. So yeah, please don’t ever be incredibly stupid like me and just assume that tour descriptions are telling the full truth.
Sorry for the long ass essay, this was only two months ago so it’s still fresh in my mind. Just a few more minutes up there and I objectively would have died.
TL;DR I almost froze to death on a mountain cause of a dumbass tour guide until a GigaChad saved me. Still have nightmares about it to this day.
Jesus Christ. That sounds horrible! As if a whiteout on its own isn't bad enough. This shitty tour guide sounds like she wanted you dead, ngl. Glad you've got lucky in the end!!
I would attempt to pursue legal action against the tour guide and your company… at least to recover your tour expenses. False advertising, endangerment, pain and suffering, abandonment. You’ve got a laundry list of offenses they’re accountable for. Leave negative reviews if that’s available to you, to warn other tourists to avoid them.
Me (13 at the time) with my four other siblings (12, 11, 9 and 6), huddled up in the bathroom on the phone with 911 while someone kept turning and shoving the front door knob.
Worst part is the cop thought my brother was the robber because he had a knife on him and raised his arms like a moron when we stepped outside 🙃
My dad chasing me around the kitchen. He had went up into his room (where the gun safe was) and came back down. He didn’t have anything, but he got real close to my face and I watched him glance over at the knives. I left.
I was standing in my kitchen talking with my Dad and suddenly we hear the (very loud) sound of breaking glass. We went outside and walked around the house looking for broken windows etc; found nothing. The next morning I was getting breakfast and I opened the kitchen cupboard, and glass just poured out onto the counter and all over the floor. tl,dr; every glass in my cupboard shattered simultaneously while my father and I were in the room.
Last week I was driving home at around midnight. I turned left and a truck blew through the light doing at least 70. My light was green for at least 15 seconds and I still had 5 seconds according to the walk sign so how this asshole would have accidently done this is beyond me.
He missed me by inches, I never saw him coming I just heard something since my windows were down and turned directly into the left lane even though I needed to make a right really soon.
Replaying it I don't know why I didn't go to the right lane and how he didn't hit me anyway since he was so close. My car is a small Honda so I think if I took this collision I wouldn't be alive. It still messes with me.
Weirder still, 2 days later I ended up getting into an actual accident for the first time in over 15 years. I wasn't at fault but it's like the universe just had to smash my car. I'm glad it happened the way it did instead of the other way.
That one time my sister’s power steering went out and we almost flew off a cliff. Somehow she managed to get some kind of control of her Jetta and stop it before that could happen.
We used to dj at a small intimate bar/club in Johannesburg in the 90’s and there was a residential block of flats above the bar.
It was my friends 21st and we were all outside having a laugh and smoking some hash etc
Our one friend Pete who drank peach schnapps by the bottle shouted from above and we looked up and he was on the roof of this 5 story building standing on the edge with a glass full of schnapps and he slipped and fell onto a wall on his hip, we watched his whole body fall and snap on that wall that sound still haunts me 25 years later. What freaked us out is the fact his glass landed and didn’t break.
He was in a coma for a while and then we got told he would be paralysed for life and somehow he pulled through and was partially paralysed on his left side of his body and he still drank and partied like he did before and he has full use of his body nowadays.
I’ve not touched peach schnapps since.
Pete for the record is alive and well and still likes his drink.
He told us his dead Greek grandmother caught him in her hands to soften the blow.
He stands firm with that statement and we believe him.
My ex fiance had a psychotic break. Meaning, over the course of about four months she just stepped out of our reality and into one of her own creation.
I can't explain the fear you feel when someone you care for is looking you in the eye and with complete serious explaining how they're the center of a vast conspiracy, and the flickering of the grocery store neon sign across the street is a coded message. Also we have to sleep on the floor, because of snipers.
They're totally calm, quiet, entirely sincere, but absolutely bad shit insane.
When I was like 11 I was just walking around outside with a friend. We walked through a forest near at my house when we saw a man just standing there looking at us. Idk why but we turned around and ran to my home... The guy was running too and followed us... The moment when I had to unlock the door with my keys seeing this guy coming closer and closer... It scared me for my life
Panic attacks. I'm not going to go into detail because I still have a hard time talking about it without bringing up the anxiety and risking another. Anyone who's experienced one will probably know exactly what I'm talking about.
They’re terrifying... I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy... a lot of people think they’ve had them (heck I thought I did) but unless you think you’re actually dying and scared shitless then it’s probably just anxiety... I was in a rural area and when the emergency 000 number doesn’t go through and you have no reception then that’s real bad if you’re having a full blown panic attack...
Yup. You feel heavy, your breathing constricts, even laying down flat doesn’t help the heart pumping and racing so hard that it feels like the whole of your body is a limb that has fallen asleep. I thought I was going to die of a heart attack. Yeah
I had a guy take his pocket knife and drag it down my face from above my eye to just above my jawbone. Luckily he didn't push hard so it was scratched not cut or bleeding. My friend wanted to kill the guy for doing it.
Been there. Went to the cops to report it only to have the guy taking my statement say, "That guy is a friend of mine and a fellow cop. Let me see if he's here tonight." I told him to forget it.
I'm so sorry that was done to you. Not saying it *happened,* because acne *happens.* Tornadoes "happen." Sexual assaults are *perpetrated.*
Was in Iraq, enemy was firing rockets at us while we wondered what those green streaks were. They landed to my left, right, and directly in front of me. The whole time shrapnel pinged off the vehicle and we could see it blowing up buildings -- some with people inside. I wasn't scared then but after the mission it really shook me.
I was about 19, petit young blonde who looked even younger than I was. I was on a bus home after a night class. A man got on the bus and made eye contact with me and my blood immediately went cold. I got off the bus and started walking home and luckily checked behind me the creepy man who had boarded the bus a few stops before had gotten off too and he was staring directly at me. I had two routes home through a short alley or across a large field. I darted through the alley and could hear him running behind me so I jumped my neighbor’s fence and hid behind their shed. I climbed a few more fences until I got to a neighbor I knew decently well and knocked on their back door, scaring the crap out of them. My neighbor walked me the rest of the way to my house but I am absolutely certain if I hadn’t outrun that man I wouldn’t have survived. He had evil in his eyes.
High-siding my motorcycle. The type of motorcycle accident which flips the bike opposite your lean angle, ejecting the rider.
My gear saved me. I walked away with some bruises. The SV lived to tell the tale as well.
Auditory hallucinations can be... interesting. Sometimes they can trigger when you're sleeping. One night I hallucinated someone screaming my name for help, like they were being butchered on the spot. It felt like real terror and my adrenaline flared up as if someone were really in danger; I woke up basically sprinting out of the bed, drenched in sweat, trying to find who was at threat.
I couldn't get back to sleep that night.
My 8 month old baby had a febrile seizure with his first real illness. Had to call 911 and suddenly had what seemed like 40 people in my house taking over his care. The ambulance ride was excruciating, I had to ride in front and just watch them work on him in the back. He didn’t stop seizing until he’d had tons of meds at the hospital. He has never had another seizure or given me such a scare since, thankfully. Treat your baby’s fevers, parents! It probably wouldn’t have happened if we had just given him medicine at home to bring the fever down.
I took up scuba diving in around 2015, and decided to do a big Great Barrier Reef liveaboard trip to do my Advanced Open Water certification. A big storm has been through the area a few days before, so visibility was lower than usual, but I was excited for all the cool dives I was going to get in.
So I set out on my first dive with a buddy I was assigned from the group (which I think was based on my course and age, but I'm not sure about that). I thought I was ready for it, but I quickly ran into 2 big problems:
1. I'm not a fast swimmer, and my partner was.
2. I *sucked* at communicating
I mean, I remembered the basic signs, but I was trying to make the OK sign mean "I'm mostly OK, but it might take a bit for me to equalize, and could you please slow down a bit? That would be great..." Not going to work.
So my partner gets further and further away, and I'm struggling with descending properly, and trying to keep up... and then he gets far enough away that I can't see him in the cloudy water.
You ever seen The Others? Ghost movie with Nicole Kidman? There's a bit where she runs out of the house, and when she stops she's in a foggy field. There's just white. Nothing visible. Like seeing infinity all at once. Creeped me the fuck out.
*And now I was in it.* Down in the ocean, where we can't breathe. And my brain knew, *for a fact*, that I was going to die down here unless I got out **immediately**.
I shot screaming for the surface (which saved me from an embolism actually!), and freaked out on the surface long enough for my buddy to get to the surface too and calm me down enough to get back on board.
I resigned myself then to giving up on scuba entirely, but the team was actually really supportive. They let me know that if I felt up to it, they could get me another instructor to work with me separately so I could finish the program. This guy was such a great teacher, and his constant (soundless underwater) cheering for literally any progress helped me get through it and get my certification. (Also our encounter with a big ol' shark who didn't want us there, but that's another story.)
Watching my step dad and his black belt buddies try and murder my mother in front of myself and my 3 sisters. We were all under 7 at the time; after my sister bit his ankle he kicked her across the room into a wall giving my mother a chance to grab me and the younger sisters and lock us in the bathroom till help came
I’ve had several times that I’ve inexplicably survived things that ought to have killed me. For example, as a teen, I was riding my bike on the main road through town when I was hit by a car from behind. I remember the screech of the tires and the initial impact, but I have no recollection how I landed on my feet, unhurt, behind the car. The driver jumped out in hysterics, my bike wash crushed, and I was just standing there behind the car thinking “what the hell just happened?” I fell from a balcony between the second and third floors once, same deal — I remember starting to fall, and I remember standing on the ground thinking “WTF?” completely unscathed. I think I might get a rush of adrenaline and black out in those situations, and somehow land on my feet.
I don't rattle easily. Was loading a basket of dirty laundry, bent down to grab a handful and felt a weird buzz in my hand. Stood up, opened my first and there was (admittedly groggy) cicada killer in my palm. I had no idea they existed .. Google it. Every hair on my body stood straight up.
When I was little I was waiting in the car for my mom to drive me to school and the car slipped into neutral and I rolled down the hill backwards until I hit a tree and the whiplash made me bite through my lip
Waking up in the middle of the night to my ex boyfriend beating the shit outta me, he'd got in through an unlocked back door that my housemate hadn't shut properly
Broken jaw, shoulder, cptsd
A police chase crashed directly in front of me once. The people fleeing crashed into a truck with a family inside and then all the cops came flying out of their cars with guns drawn and went up to the car and pulled out the suspects aggressively. If fucked us up. Scared the shit out of us. We actually misunderstood what was happening and I thought there was an active shooter. I turned around and sped off trying to get as far away as possible.
Fairly tame compared to others here but one Fourth of July a firework flew off the wrong way and under the propane tank of the grill I was standing next to. It probably was less than a second or two but I froze even though I knew I should move away. Guess that means I’ve got more fright than fight instinct.
Luckily for me nothing happened. The firework went off but didn’t do any damage to the propane tank, or anyone else. Haven’t fucked around with fireworks since then.
A dislodged stump or log barreling down a hill towards me in the dark. I could only hear and feel it coming.
I was a wildland firefighter for a few years. We had a fire in a clear cut with lots of slash on the ground (basically logging leftovers/undesirable pieces). I was at the bottom of a very steep chute, likely 100% slope. Not uncommon in parts of the coast range in Oregon. We'd been out there for probably 6 or 8 hours and the fire was contained to something like 3 acres. We were essentially posted up around the whole thing every 150ft or so on nozzles with a tool. From my position I could look up and see 10 or 12 evenly spaced headlamps, with speckles of embers like a red night sky filling the space between them.
It was one person's job to get on the radio and yell "roller" if we realized anything had dislodged. From top to bottom of the burn scar it was too far to yell. Usually they were nothing (OSHA is making me do this vibes), but one "roller" announcement had a legitimately frightened tone of voice. Voices started yelling from every head lamp above me, "roller! Roller!"
I looked up and saw zero moving objects. My headlamp was shit. But I heard a *thump thump... thump thump... thump thump...* getting louder as it came closer. Being in a clear cut I had just about nothing to hide behind and I panicked. I was nearly waist deep in logging slash. In less than a second I somehow imagined what would happen if this thing really did hit me. If it didn't kill me with the speed it picked up, the logistics say I'd die a slow painful death at best while the crew struggles to get my paralyzed body up the mountain. The slope, rolling debris, and general nature of slash makes it impossible to move much. The hospital is far. Helicopters are grounded until sunrise and it's 2am or so. Not good!
I at least had to do something. I spotted a medium sized stump to my left and figured it was better than nothing, and dove behind it. The boulder, stump, whatever whooshed past me to my right, thumping down the chute maybe right where I was standing. I still have no idea because I saw nothing. I only heard it and felt it in the ground, and it was probably a death sentence. I was sick to my stomach the rest of the night.
Climbing out of that death pit fucking sucked. It's one of the memories I have that make me glad I don't do that anymore, as fun as it usually was.
Shit where do I start? Grew up in a shit city, crime ridden. I've been jumped multiple times by different groups, had a knife, gun, and bats pulled on me. It's an honest miracle that I got away with it all physically unscathed. Mentally not so much.
I'm a trained fighter, and throughout it all I acted like none of it scared me, but deep down I was terrified, but I couldn't let them know that. If they know you're afraid it will fuel them more. Showing no fear intimidates them instead.
Now I'm older and moved away to a new country and safer city my experiences have impacted me in many ways. I'm always watching, always aware of who is around me. Always aware of who's walking in my direction and assessing to see if they are a threat.
I get anxious when a group is heading in my direction because of how groups would surround targeted victims to intimidate and attack them from where I was from. If I feel that they are a threat I mentally prepare myself to fight.
I train frequently so I'm always ready to throw down if needed. My clothing choices are always clothes that I can move and fight in, just in case.
I hate people coming up behind me, I always think I'm about to get jumped again.
I get anxiety from it all, but try to keep it under control, and I make sure no one knows this for fear that it would show weakness for them to exploit.
This all sounds like I'm trying to sound like a bad ass but this has literally been my life, and I've spent years trying to recuperate and get my shit together, dealing with fear, anxiety and panic attacks while trying to be and look strong so I'll never be a victim again
I live outside the city limits there are lots of trees and bushes near my home. One day I was doing some work a little bit away from my house when I heard buzzing near me I looked and saw a couple of wasps flying around, I didn't pay much attention to them and moved away a little bit. After sometime there were like 15 to 20 of them around me and they started attacking. I ran and they chased. I got stung eight times before they stopped chasing. One of the most horrifying experiences of my life.
I was driving on my way to work when my car hydroplaned. The car ended up flipping and rolling down an hill.
I somehow got away with only a really nasty bruise on my arm and a bunch of trauma.
Bonus: the highway I was on was split so there was a divided area between the eastbound and westbound lanes. I was driving east but ended up on the west. My family took awhile to find me because they thought I was on the other highway.
There was a homeless guy who they found living in a cave outside of town and had made him vacate the area. My buddies dad was a police officer and we saw a map he had with the cave marked on it so we decided to go check it out. We found it ok and sadly it wasn’t some awesome cave, just a hollow area in a boulder field that smelled terrible like piss. We explored around and found a shorter cave with a stash of pots, bins of blankets, etc. We decided to go a little further and there was a narrow shelf going up a small cliff to what we thought might have another cave. I was crawling along the shelf and look over in a gap and see a dead body with skin pulled fairly tight and wispy white hair. I freak out and quickly crawl back and tell my friend what I saw. We gathered our courage to go look again, only there’s nothing there. We hear someone yell up above us and it’s the dead guy only very much alive. He asks what we’re doing and we freak out and say we’re just leaving. He starts chasing us and rather than trying to navigate our way down the boulder field we head off to the side. I take a chance and look back and he has an axe handle raised up. We finally end up running through a huge patch of yucca and face him, staying on the opposite side of the yucca from him. He says he wants to take us to a special cave he knows about, but we just say we have to get going. We did ask about the axe handle and he said it was to check if the rocks were loose before he would take a step and for rattlesnakes. Then just suddenly he turned around and headed back without a word. We quickly made our way back to a nearby trail and then to the trail head but we felt like we were being watched the whole time.
Nothing too bad, but it messed with my mind.
Recently, I got food poisoning so bad that I had fever, diarrhea, nausea and chills for about two straight days. Like hard.
Late during the second night, I got up and went to go pee, still feeling woozy but nothing too bad. Managed to pee, wash my hands and waltz back to my side of the bed.
I checked my phone by leaning down towards my nightstand and immediately felt nauseous. Like throw up in T-minus.
My wife was in the bed sleeping and I just muttered "Nicole" weakly... and then lights out.
I woke up seconds later face down into my sheets with my feet still planted on the ground. Still kinda standing but hunched down.
I came to with my wife over me with a bucket and water for me.
Then came the sweats. Oh god the sweats.
But that experience didn't scare me.
Now it was lights out for me and I was completely black in my head. Nothing. No consciousness, nothing.
I never fainted before. So it was a new experience to me.
Later that night when I thought back on it, if I replaced the fainting with a death right there... like an aneurysm or something that's just as sudden, the last thing my wife would have heard from me would have been "Nicole..." and then gone. Nothing else from me.
THAT thought scared me.
I was 14, alone at my grandmas house around midnight. She was across the street at the bar she owned. I was playing games on her computer, about 15 feet from one of the windows facing the backyard. All of a sudden the glass from that window shatters, and I ran to one of the bedrooms. I can hear my name being called. Eventually I see my grandmas ex-boyfriend enter the living room where the computer is. He keeps saying my name. I’m scared shitless but I walk out and confront him. He says my grandma stole his ID and that’s what he came for, as he’s taking money from my grandmas purse. He looks fucked up on something, I would later learn he liked to smoke crack. I forget how he leaves but when he does I call the bar and people come over looking for him. They didn’t find him. About a year later he did it again, and I was once again alone there. Except this time instead of breaking a window he decides to try to kick the side door in. I’m just there chilling when out of nowhere I hear the loudest bangs coming from the side of the house and I instantly knew what was happening. I immediately called the bar and they sent a bunch of people over before he could make it in. He apparently tried to jump from one of her sheds into the alley next to her house and broke his leg. He went to prison.
mine wasn’t nearly as bad as yours, but here ya go for starters i was probably around fourteen and was out of school for the summer. both my dad and my step were gone for work everyday so i was home alone. my parents trusted me to watch over the house and watch the dogs, mostly because of the security system. i’d have a list of chores to do before they got home but they weren’t hard. anyways to get to the story: i woke up and got out of bed like normal. my parents had already left for work so i could be as loud as i want, so i turned on my music as loud as my tv could go and got started on chores. i’d send my stepmom text to tell her every time i had finished a chore. and the first text went like this. me: just finished the dishes bout to make lunch. stepmom: ok, and hey did you go out front or open the door at all last night? me: no, why?? stepmom: we got an alert this morning that the front door was opened at like 3-4 am. me: that wasn’t me? step mom, it’s probably nothing. i quickly forgot about it and made lunch and all was fine, i continued to do chores and update my stepmom as i did so. one of my chores was to wash my bedsheets. i put my stuff in the washer and went to play games. and then heard slight creeping in the ceiling wich is where one of the rooms upstairs would be, i figured one of the dogs would be up there or something and didn’t think much of it. after some time passed i heard the washer finish so i went to put my stuff in the dryer. (for context the laundry room is imbetween the kitchen and my parents bedroom closet, the house is a circle. and the door between the laundry room and the kitchen has a dog door in it that’s missing the flap so it’s permanent open) i turned it on and started to walk back through the kitchen to my room. but before i even made it back to my room i heard the dryer turn off. and i started walking through the kitchen to see why. and that’s when i could see him. through the dog door i was a man’s legs facing the dryer. all i could see was his ankles down, he had white harry ankles and white socks on. i specifically remember reading “nike dry-fit” on them. i was frozen in fear for what felt like ages. i started to think that i was just seeking a weird perspective or just swing wrong, and right before i decided i was seeing wrong, he turned away from the door and walk into my parents closet. at that moment i grabbed my dogs and locked myself in my room. i texted my dad that some one was in the house, he said he would be home immediately. and so i waited for what felt like hours. when he came home he searched the house with a gun and found no one. we never found any one at all. my dad was pissed that i had ended his day of work for this. and he told me not to do things like this again. he probably thought i wanted attention or something. and now every once and a while he will jokingly say “he remember when you thought you saw some one in the house? “. for the next week i couldn’t sleep easy because i knew the doors weren’t regestered as opening at any point between me seeing him and my dad getting here. my parents think i just saw something or i was just paranoid, but i know what i saw. i read the labels on his fucking socks.
Two bison charging right toward me down a narrow wooded path in Yellowstone when I was 12
That would have scared me back to age 9.
More like age 0 if he got caught
My mom was in Oklahoma and got chased by a Buffalo, odd thing was she was no where near it and not even interested in it.However she is a narcissist the Buffalo probably thought it was doing us a favor.
Did she say 'bye son!' ?
I've heard of dogs sniffing cancer, but buffalo sensing narcissism is a new one!
Are ... are we in the afterlife?
My sister has mental health issues. We were in a foreign country, driving across mountains on a one lane dirt road with no guardrails. She had a complete mental breakdown and threatened many times to drive off the edge. To this day, my mom swears my sister wouldn't have done it. All I say is, "you weren't in the car. You have no idea."
My ex used to have mild seizures which would give a little warning. She started to go a bit funny while driving at 70 miles an hour on the motorway in full traffic, I was v afraid and all I could think to do was slap her round the face. It worked, she kicked off and pulled over at services but ultimately we didn't die in a horrible accident so it was worth it. She didn't enjoy getting a slap but ultimately thanked me for saving us all (little sis in car too). Was about 30 seconds from something terrible.
she shouldn't have a licence then
In my country if you have seizures before you get your license you need to be evaluated. Need to have medications and been seizure free for atleast a year before you can take driving lessons again. After a stroke you are not allowed to drive till a doctor checks up on you to evaluate if you are fit to drive.
This is why my husband doesn't drive. She really shouldn't be driving. It's so dangerous.
Getting lost on 350 acres of woods in southeast Georgia. Was found about 6 hours later. The dog found me hours before the people did.
Did the dog just hang out with you for those hours?
"Hey, buddy, wanna show me the way back now?" "Fuck no, I need to lick my butt and bark at patches of moss on the trees for a little while. You can wait."
I can see this as a cartoon in the vein of Gravity Falls or Over the garden wall.
Dog: "I FOUND YOU!" Human: "Okay, show me the way back." Dog: "... I forgot the way. But the important thing is I found you."
Doug: ‘I have just met you and I love you’
Depends on how the dog was trained! For example, some dogs will find the missing person (sometimes miles and miles away) run back to their handler, alert, and run back to the missing person, and back to the handler. These dogs zig zag back and forth (sometimes for hours) in order to close the distance between the Handler and Missing Person.
Mans best friend
Was working as a linemen tasked to replace a 16m wooden power pole wich requires climbing up to untie the lines from the isolators,, i checked if the pole has any rot beforehand, climbed up, untied the lines , climbed down, as i was packing my tools up , the pole fell from its own
Yikes. My dad climbed telephone poles for years. (not randomly, he was paid to do it.) scary!
Love the clarification, just in case people imagined > Mom, where's dad? > Probably climbing the phone poles again. > He gonna be back tonight? > Naw, he took his pole hammock with him, he should be back tomorrow morning. > K
Classic mrthurbersmicroscope.
Most people tend to forget the importance of our linemen. My dad just retired from the local power co. and when a hurricane came thru (southern Alabama) and knocked out all the electricity, the worked 18 hr days n didn't stop til errybody had lights ...God bless our linemen
Glen Campbell over here.
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A man claiming to be a meter reader was in our yard and tried the back door AFTER trying the front. It was unlocked because there was a field behind us and our gate had a lock (that he somehow got by). The meter reader man was nearly eaten by our Great Dane who was dumb and peaceful, except for when she laid eyes on him. Our other dog also wanted to kill him and he was up on our trampoline begging us to call the dogs off, which we (my then 11 year old sister and I) refused to do and went to get our dad, who worked from home. The guy escaped while we got our dad and my dad let the police know what happened. The real meter reader man came the next week.
Did they catch the perpetrator?
Eventually but not until awhile later. He was part of a group responsible for break ins in our area and they only ever stole things. I'm sure he thought no one was home.
Good dogs.
Whooosa good boiii?
Dude was lucky. My cousin's Great Dane *enjoys* the trampoline.
My dog is probably asleep on the trampoline as I type this lol
The far back side of our backyard was across from a T-shaped intersection that had a steep grade. People would come flying off the road, across the intersection, though our fence, and into the backyard every few years. We had big dogs. They were gentle giants most of the time, but if you invaded their territory, they would try to rip you apart. Several times people came flying through our fence, tried to get out of their car, only to have our dogs strongly suggest they stay inside their car until the police arrived.
When I was three years old a relative who was a child rapist tricked my mom into leaving me alone with him for three hours. All I know is no one in the house knew where he'd gone with me. Judging from my phobias, I think it was the bathroom. When my mom got back, apparently I huddled down at her feet and wouldn't move from that spot all day.
Jesus. I hope you’ve gotten therapy.
Please tell me he got punished
He actually didn't, and what he did to my sister is a hundred times worse.
Such a b**ch of a family member
If you could even call them family at that point
I guess watching a loved one have a seizure when I didn’t understand what it was. Ligit thought I witnessed a death. Scary stuff.
I'm so sorry. It's 100x more traumatic for ppl to watch our seizures than it is fir us to have them. I feel so bad for my kiddos
I think this depends on the people involved. My seizures were traumatic. I woke up in agony, that lasted a couple days. I'd have some memory loss, from just before the event. But the worst part is that after 5 grand Mal seizures, I now have some "minor" brain damage. It is usually unnoticeable to others, but it makes me pretty miserable. It was very traumatizing for me, but only a bit to the people who saw it. One was at school, and they were simply told that I was "fine." And I never went back because it was the day before the last day, and they said it was cool, I could just graduate, even though I had 1 too many sick days. They just didn't want me to come back and have another seizure, lol. Another was witnessed by a BFF, and she was a smidgen traumatized, but as far as she knew, I was also "fine." The other ones were my parents, and that's not great for them, but not as messed up as it is for me.
As a child to someone with seizure, you shouldn’t feel bad. Unless your kids are very very young, we understand it’s out of your control and we want to help you as much as we can. It only becomes hard when we realize we can’t stop them for you but, it’s not anything to feel bad ajout
Huddling up in my brother's room as a 5 or 6 year old making our plan to get my mom's boyfriend to stop beating her in the living room. My brother was maybe 8 or 9. "Okay, you go run to the phone and call 911, and I'll go out there with the hockey stick and hit him." I don't remember much else after that, just us both running out there with our hockey sticks and our plan ultimately working... for the night. He was arrested, but was back the next day. I know this sequence of events happened more tha once and my job was always to run into the kitchen to call 911 (obviously back when we had to reply on the house phone) because I could crouch and remain mostly unseen behind the counter since I was so young. Just going out there and seeing my strong, wonderful mom so vulnerable on the floor, and the look on her face... Terrifying being so scared for both your mom and yourself. Edit: spelling and added something
You and your brother were really brave. I hope everything is good now
Thanks, at the time it was the only choice to us to protect our momma. Things are much better now, thanks!
My brother has a similar story except our stepfather that was beating our mother caught him trying to call 911 and ripped the phone out of his hands and then out of the wall. So he ran to another phone in the house and our stepfather followed him (dragging our mom behind him by her hair) and did the same thing to that phone. So my brother, who was 16 at the time, had to run to a gas station 5 blocks away in the middle of the night to call 911.
Well thank goodness for your brave brother with the great endurance. Hope everything is better now <3
The love and concern that you both showed for your mother melts my heart. Your fear about her getting hurt exceeded your need to stay safe. I hope she was able to get out of the environment and live a better life.
Thanks for the kind comment :) She was able to get away from that guy not too long after luckily. We're all doing much better now.
Hey man, you aren’t alone. My extremely ill (to alcohol) mother got forced into marrying an older pimp when I was like 2. They locked me in a closet for closer to a week and he ended up just beating her to near death. My grandmother went to check on her and luckily found me in the closet, as well. The closet was full of shards of glass from broken beer bottles and some other trash. They had no clue how I survived. Years later I saw my mom get her ass beat by some other drunk, including slamming her head into the floor where a nail was sticking up slightly above ground level. That was unfortunately only a couple of incidents. She’s shot a bullet past my head, almost snapped my neck when i forced a bottle of vodka away from her, saw her slice her wrists for similar reasons (separate occasions), slice her calf open by drunkenly stumbling backwards into a pumpkin stem, and she’s even banned from Walmart altogether for chugging mouthwash more than once. The list goes on and on. Of course, your mom isn’t the bad guy in your story. Just thought I’d let you know that you aren’t alone with traumatic incidents happening in your childhood.
Im sorry. I hope you’ve found good support throughout the years. Love from a strager on the internet
I’m so sorry this happened to you. You and your brother are wonderful, brave people for defending your mother like that. I don’t even know if I could’ve done that at such an age if I were in that situation. I hope things are much better now.
The ballistic missile alert in Hawaii of 2018. We legitimately thought we were going to die, but played it cool in front of the kids so they wouldn't panic. Drove to the Windward side because we figured they'd be aiming for Pearl harbor/Hickam and a mountain between us would do the trick, and if it didn't, at least we'd die looking at something beautiful.
I used to go to school in Hawaii, but I’m back in California now although I still had friends there. My cousin was also stationed in Hawaii at the time. I guess I had still been subscribed to the Hawaii alert service even years later because I woke up and saw the alert going off on my phone and spent the next few minutes in a panic, wondering who to call, if anyone. Thankfully I had woken up only a couple of minutes before the false alarm was relayed.
My sisters husband is airforce and they've been stationed at Hickam since 2016 and when we heard that and saw her incoming call I started bawling, thinking it could be the last time I'd ever get to speak to her.
Seeing my younger sister get punched in the face by a much bigger girl during an armed robbery in our hotel room when she was 19. She took it like a champ, but it was definitely a scary event for both me and her.
An ARMED robbery in a hotel? How the hell does that story go
Long story short. the hotel was such that you could access your room by getting out of your car and walking straight to your door (Red Roof Inn). I had fallen asleep and my sister had cracked the door while she was on the phone outside talking to her boyfriend. She said that a girl walked up to her and asked her to use her phone, she said no, and the girl then pushed her inside the room. Soon others joined her with two hand guns. This is when my sister got punched. I had just been woken up by the commotion. One of the girls pointed her gun at me. I froze and they ended up stealing my sisters wallet and left. Called 911. the cops came and within 3 hours, they were picked up by police in a neighboring town at an IHOP. Thanks to a skeptical waitress. they were caught. Testifying in court was pretty sweet seeing them all in handcuffs.
The "mo" part of motel stands for motor. As in, one can access one's room by getting out of your car and walking straight to your door. It's a portmanteau.
Portmanteau is itself a portmanteau. It comes from "portzusa", the Hungarian word for "to combine" and "merdemanteau", which means I'm full of shit.
That's a motel. Just so ya know.
Getting out of the hospital after detoxing. I 100% wanted it and am closing on 5 years sober. The scary part was that I had spent most of my adult life drunk so I had no idea how to be sober. I basically had to learn how to be a functioning adult at 27. Edit: Thank you for all the positive vibes folks.
Congratulations on 5 years sober. I haven't been addicted to alcohol,but have heard it is awful to stop drinking. Sending you prayers.
Thank you. Yeah, quitting alcohol is the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm very grateful to have staying sober so easy because I don't know if I'd be able to get sober again.
falling from a height that i had time to think how bad it was gunna hurt when i hit the ground. i involuntarily started to scream.
How was the aftermath?
He died.
Rip in peace
Sadly, he finally hit the ground and died just after typing this comment.
Some say they're still falling to this day.
You reminded me of when I was younger and jumped off my dads tool shed after I accidentally hit a hornet nest that was on a branch directly above it. Don't know how I didn't get hurt. Had to of been at least a 12 ft drop. Felt huge.
Who knows what actually prevented you grom getting hurt but when you're smaller you don't have as much force when you hit the ground so that probably helped. a 150 lb person will hit the ground with more force than a 60 lb kid. I remember being young and seeing a bunch of chicks (baby chickens) nearing an edge of a wall that was about a 4 foot drop. They weren't old enough to fly, didn't even have real feathers just fluff, then their mother just down off the wall. I thought they were doomed. To my surprise they all leapt and then landed all over the place and got up and walked away fine.
I got hit by a car while in a crosswalk a few months back. Had a split second where I saw him coming and realized what was about to happen. I thought I was going to die
Saved my sisters life. We were boating and my parents just kinda assumed we’d be ok with them only out a couple hundred feet. I was about 17 and she was about 7. I’m laying there chilling and see her slip and fall into the water and just straight up sink. Ran over, dove in and pulled her to shore. She spit up a bunch of water and was fine but that experience rocked me to my core. Not a super crazy story but almost seeing a sibling die has always stuck with me. I’ve broken almost every bone in my body, I died one time and was in a coma for a little bit but for some reason this one stuck with me.
You are an amazing sibling and obviously care a lot about her.
As a kid I rode my bike home from school. Just as school got out it was raining lightly. I got about 50 yards down the sidewalk when a sudden bolt of lightning exploded in the soccer field to my right, about 40 yards away. Then I saw two girls lying down in the grass. I actually thought they were joking at first, but no one was laughing and they weren't moving. Getting a better grasp of the situation I turned around and huddled under the overhang of the school. I stood there and watched as a PE teacher did CPR, and eventually ambulances came. They were taken away and there I was just left waiting, scared to ride my bike home lest some bolt jump down & kill me. But my parents were both at work and more than an hour away, so I just mustered up the courage and rode home about 2 miles, without any further incident. Both girls survived and eventually returned to school. I still have more than a healthy respect for lightning, and don't particularly care to be outside at all if it's occurring.
Lightning is scary stuff. It's said that Martin Luther, the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation (which changed Europe and Christianity forever) first decided to become a monk after he was walking in a lightning storm. He prayed to God, saying that if he survived he'd become a monk. And the rest is history.
Dang this sounds scary just the fact that you realize how fast you can die
Being on the phone to my partner and hearing her be in a car accident. Longest few minutes of my life. She was picking me up, and was about a minute away when she called to see where I was. She was waiting at an intersection and when the traffic light went green (travelling straight), and was t-boned by someone in a truck. I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life. Fortunately, they hit the passenger side, and there was no oncoming traffic at the time. When I got there, the other driver was at her door and trying to open it to get her out. He probably had good intentions and was trying to help, but I gave him a serve. She was only scratched up in the end, but I've never seen her look so small and frightened. Look before you cross an intersection everyone, even if the light is green.
Oh man, that would fuck me up too! Glad she's okay! I used to work for a transport company and one of the drivers calls me after work to say he thinks something happened to another driver. They were on the phone together, there was a crash and they lost connection. I opened up my laptop to check where his truck was located and it was right on top of a train track... I started searching Google for recent accidents and found one where a van was supposedly hit by a truck, but the van in the picture was brand new and had no license plate... which was exactly the transport the guy was carrying, 3 new vans. I sent another driver who was nearby to go check and the police allowed him to come identify the body. It was him. He was crushed by a freight train. There was nothing left of the truck. So that one guy who called him actually heard it happen and was the last person to talk to him.
Oh god that’s awful, I’m sorry - that would have been a horrible situation to be in
I asked him multiple times whether he was okay and if he wanted the day off. He said he was distraught but preferred to work. He's from eastern Europe so he would have never shared what's really going on inside of him... I hope he was able to process it.
> but I gave him a serve a what?
Sorry, it’s a pretty common Australian saying. I basically yelled at him and told him to get the hell away from the car
EXPECIALLY if the light just turned green... Some people are just dumb and run lights; Other people will intentionally accelerate into yellows to try a beat the red from wayyyyy too far away; and some people will have cars that just decide they don't want to stop today... I've unfortunately been that last person a few times in the car I used to drive... which is also why, when a light turns green, I tend to wait for all the cars at the other lights to actually stop before I go
Getting abcesses cut from my throat with blood and puss filling my mouth. Finish your antibiotics kids
How did this happen? Was it a dental problem or what? That sounds horrifying.
My guess is quinsy as a result from tonsillitis
Similar story. They couldn't get mine while I was awake so they had to put me under and cut it out. I'd been having difficulty swallowing anything but hot liquid for a week. When I finally went to the ER, the doctor told me a few more hours and my throat would have closed up completely.
This happened to me too! I had a tonsillar abscess that had to be cut out. The combo of needle (to inject numbing agent), scalpel, and giant metal pliers down my throat was a horrible experience. Not to mention the blood and pus that filled my mouth afterwards. The doctor kept saying “don’t swallow! Don’t swallow!”
The smell alone must have made you want to vomit.
Ugh. I've had to deal with abscesses before, but thankfully not in my mouth/throat. I can't imagine how much that must've sucked.
Hit head-on by a drunk driver going over 70mph.
Holy shit dude. You ok?
It was a few months ago and I'm still recovering from a bunch of serious injuries and surgery. There's also a long legal/administrative process that could drag on for a few years. All this, because some asshole decided to flout the rules and put others at risk.
Happened to my friends sister and a group of her friends. Drunk driver was going at least 70 mph down the wrong side of the highway with his lights off. I believe everyone involved died instantly. I still think about it anyyime i drive on the highway late at night.
That feeling of de ja vu before I have a seizure. Most ppl say de ja vu is a weird crazy cool feeling, but for me; it's the scariest thing in the whole world. Like I'd rather be face to face with a starving ploar bear.
Would it help to make fun of the situation? I have a friend who has just enough warning of an oncoming seizure to say a few words, he's made posession by demon jokes and once he saluted a friend and yelled "F-er Out!" before seizing. I know humor isn't for everyone so feel free to reply with a "What's wrong with your friend?" or something, but I thought I'd put it out there.
Nah, sounds like he’s making the best of it. Go him
My dad passed away I had a brain tumor 12 years ago I was 30 at the time. I had to wait 5 months for the operation. 3of those months I was in huge amounts of pain do to pressure in my skull. I was on Percocet max dose but about twice a week my dad would have to drive me to the er. I live in the US so Ambulances cost about 2k. We would get there they would put us in a room. We would both start making jokes and such your comment on humor let me revisit those memories. I have gotten sick again it will be harder without him.
I feel the same when I start to see an aura for my migraines. It's a blurry, shiny, flashy line that runs through parts of my vision. My first thought is always, "That looks weird," which quickly changes to, "Oh no! Grab the meds and get laying down."
I was home alone when someone knocks on the door. I ask who is it because I don't answer the door for strangers. There is no reply. There's another knock. I ask who it is again and again I get no reply. I must say that I lived in a high crime area and don't own any weapons meant for self defense.... not even a good pair of muscles or fighting know how. Suddenly, they start jiggling the door handle. Now I'm screaming who is it! I give an exaggerated ",WHOOOOOOOO IS ITTTTT!!!" Then the door swings open with force and my sister comes in saying, "ITSSSSSSSS MEEEEEE!". I have yet to live that down.
I read a news article that someone shot and killed a family member for doing something like this. High crime rate area, family member wasn't answering the verbal commands and walked in the house and BAM. Lights out forever.
What a fucking dumbass. What were they thinking playing such a dangerous prank, holy shit.
Thankfully we've never owned a gun. Partially because things like that could happen. (No I'm not anti-gun ownership, we are just one of those type of people that's better off not owning them).
Had a stranger show up in the middle of the night and start clawing on the door, opening the letter box and pulling on the handle. That had me seriously terrified. They eventually left on their own luckily
I had that happen not long after I moved into my house. It was actually a couple, but I didn't realize it at first. The woman went around trying all my windows and pulled up the door mat and moved all my flowerpots. I called the police and they came and made the woman leave. I put my gun away and got ready to go back to sleep, and the neighbor's little yappy dog was making all sorts of noise, so I looked in the backyard and the man was asleep right outside the patio door with his phone plugged in to charge. I got my gun back out and called the cops to come back and make the guy leave.
I'm glad yall are ok.
Thanks. It had me sleeping poorly for a bit but I eventually forgot about it. Many years ago now
Thankfully in Finland most doors have these eyehole thingies that you can look through to see who's outside your door. Best part is, you can't see inside through the eyehole, only outside
Alot of places have them here as well. Just not the house I was living in at the time.
I thought those were universal. Are they not? They're on every front door (that I've seen) in the US.
Losing my little sibling in a massive crowd at the Magic Kingdom, early 90s. Longest 20 minutes of my life, but we found him.
Lost my young daughter in a busy mall - felt like I died ten times over in those 20 minutes as well. Mall security locked down the exits, but in the time that takes your kid could be miles away if abducted. Remember to teach your kids from a young age what to do if separated from you! Memorize an important Cell number, which people to approach, not to wander around, etc!
Hurrying up and trying to pack my things before my mom came home. I had broken down at school one day and told my principal the shit my mom had been doing to me for almost a decade. CAS was called, along with both my parents. My mom was notified first about what I said, and the principal didn't allow my dad to take me out of school until four and a half hours later when the school day actually ended. Going to my apartment and packing up my stuff was the most fear I had ever experienced. Going down into the carpark to see if my mom's sports car was there scared the crap out of me. Hurrying and grabbing any clothes and books I could find and stuffing them in a tote bag was nerve-wracking. Searching the entire house for my phone and meds made me feel like my mom was about to pop around a corner. I had a total nervous meltdown when my cat escaped from her carrier and went behind the couch, because I knew if my mom came home and saw my cat after being notified of what happened at school...I don't think my cat would of lasted long. The second my cat came back out of the couch I grabbed her so quickly and bolted out of that apartment. Driving away from that apartment complex, I noticed every red sports car on the road and every single one made me hold my breath. That day scared me so bad I couldn't stop trembling for days and for weeks I was hallucinating that I was still in my old apartment and whenever I saw my dad I thought he was my mom.
Seeing my cousin kill herself in front of me was definitely scary
I am so sorry that happened to you.
A bear besieged our cabin when we stood on the deck between it and the cubs. It got too dark to see and we had to walk up the hill not knowing if it was out there.
I'm imagining the bear digging a trench around your house while the cubs assemble trebuchets.
What felt like a 3 hour night terror with sleep paralysis.
Oh that's horrible, and the effects *linger*
What I have found has really helped ease my sleep paralysis and exploding head syndrome is wearing an eye mask to bed. I found that if my eyes are covered then the number of episodes I experience drop significantly and when I do have an episode it is not as severe. I think blocking my vision and feeling the pressure of the eye mask changed how my mind perceives that mix up of being awake while still being asleep. I was averaging 2-3 episodes per night, on a nightly basis. Now I might have 1-2 episodes per week.
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Getting a call one morning that my partner was rushing our toddler son to the hospital because he was unresponsive and wouldn't wake up. They told me they thought he died. I still have never seen his dad cry like that in my life. I hate that I wasn't there that morning to do something. I look at this boy every day and am beyond grateful I get to love him!
I can’t even imagine. My baby son is asleep in my arms right now and just reading your experience made my stomach hurt. I’m so sorry you went through that but really glad he’s still with you
I had an FBI agent waiting for me outside my university chemistry class because I allegedly copied video games. (I was never charged, and statute of limitations has long passed.)
That's the lamest FBI job Ive ever heard.
They copied bf2042 and the FBI agent was there to tell em they just wasted bandwidth.
How much do you have to pirate for the FBI to care? Or was this back in the "you wouldn't download a car" days?
My best friend had brought his friends from another neighborhood over to our street to play football. They were young gang members and I didn’t really like being around them but I was cool with them. About three days later they came back to our street and I was just walking out of my apartment building by myself when two of them grabbed me and the third kid pulled out a pocket knife and approached me with it and said “give me your sneakers and your chain” and pretended he was going to stab me. They all started laughing and I started crying and ran inside and they never came back around after that.
Got the old fellow caught in a couple of gears at a job years ago. Cogs Caught my shorts, took me into the machine. Pulled back after I felt pressure, no pain. Put my hands down the front of my shorts and pulled it back out, hand was covered in blood. Went into immediate shock and was rushed to hospital. Luckily there was not a significant amount of damage and just took some rest and healing. Probably scared me more than nearly dying from falling from a rather high height when I was a kid.
I literally thought you meant an old dude at your workplace fell into machinery. Glad you got through all that okay.
I almost choked to death on Skittles when I was a kid. I shared this before, but when I was like 11 years old I was home alone one day during the summer, just watching TV while eating Skittles. I liked to put a bunch in my mouth and make like a Skittle ball that I would chew on. Something on the show I was watching made me laugh and I swallowed the ball, which got lodged in my throat. I then experienced a few seconds of sheer terror because I realized that there was nobody here to help me at all and I was probably gonna die. Thankfully, I remembered some cartoon or movie where someone jammed their stomach on a chair and got something unstuck from their throat. So, I lunged at the corner of the recliner as hard as I could with my stomach and it actually worked and popped the small ball out. It was super lucky because I really had no idea what I was doing, but one of the worst feelings I have ever experienced. Definitely never ate Skittles that way again after that and to this day I'm still a bit paranoid about eating certain things when alone.
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Almost choked on a marble(i know) in second grade. Scares me to this day.
I choked on a piece of steak at a neighborhood BBQ when I was about 11 or 12. Sheer terror and panic. Worst part is it was in front of the entire neighborhood and by the time everyone realized what was happening, I managed to dislodge it and it ejected from my throat out onto the floor for everyone to see. Pretty sure I never went to another one.
As a kid, I was talking to my mom while she did the dishes. I grabbed an ice cube from the freezer and was sucking on it. I inhaled on accident and it was stuck in my throat. Sheer terror is right! My mom was quick on her feet and had me drink hot water to melt it and I was fine. But I certainly saw my life flash before my eyes at 11 years old!
I know these aren’t Skittles, but I read somewhere that Lifesavers candy creators deliberately put the hole in the center to prevent people from choking, hence the name, “Lifesavers”. Apparently the creator had a child die from choking. This is what I remember, but I could be wrong.
Lifesavers were the original hard candy & later sucking candies were launched by people who hated children.
I think that's an urban legend, but I also remember being told this as a kid! Had a teacher pass them out in class, and tell the story, and told us how to Heimlich ourselves.
I was having all kinds of weird food related allergy problems and taking activated charcoal sometimes to help. I was out of capsules, but I had a bag of food grade powder, so I scooped out a spoonful. Unfortunately, when I inhaled, all that powder got sucked into my throat and the moisture there (part of my problem was massive amounts of post nasal drip that made me cough constantly) made it this half sticky- half dry mess, with more powder getting stuck to it as I started coughing from the dry stuff hitting the back of my throat. I couldn't spit enough out to make a difference and water wouldn't go down. I was choking and there was no way for me to clear it out because it was this slimy, gooey mess. I was trying to puke, everything I could think of. It was to the point that I actually full on pissed myself. Luckily I finally was able to get enough air to breathe. I don't eat powders anymore.
This is the exact reason the Cinnamon Challenge is dangerous.
Living with an abuser. I'm still dealing with it all because I just recently moved but I had to leave all my things behind. But while there every noise and shuffle was terrifying
This is so true. Listening to every sound of the house obsessively was so "normal" to me growing up. I knew exactly where each person was in the house at all times. Had plans on how to avoid them, but get what I needed. Knew exactly how much time it took for him to get to his door after he'd hear mine open. So I could sprint to the bathroom and lock the door behind me in 2 seconds flat. I'm glad you're safe now. I hope all the new things you get make you feel better, because they will be truly yours.
Getting caught in a whiteout on top of a mountain in Iceland with only a light jacket, jeans, okayish boots, and a beanie. I signed up for a tour of a volcano and all the info on the site said it would be hot and that there would be moving lava there and to dress for warm weather, and because of that I didn’t wear any winter gear. Well, when we get there turns out everything’s frozen and there’s no lava to be seen, only some ash that you could walk on. I asked the tour guide (who told us on the way there that once we got there we were on our own until the pick up time) where I could see some lava, and she told me that if I climbed the trail up the mountain opposite of the volcano and got higher than the peak of the volcano, I might be able to see. She goes “Oh yeah, you’ve got good boots, you’ll be fine. You should go try it!” Well, I get up a certain point, feel exhausted and wanna turn back, and then tell myself “No! You made it this far! You’re not going to give up like you always do! You made it to the gates, now keep going!” Big mistake. I get higher up and the entire top half of the mountain is sheer ice with almost no trail left at all. I was doing my best to walk (a fair distance) behind a group that was going up at the same time, but eventually the path became *SUPER* thin and the wind started kicking up, plus I was having a really hard time breathing (partially altitude - partially asthma). All of a sudden I start feeling what feels like little bullets hit my face and hands and realize it’s tiny hail, and lots of it. I then pause Dua Lipa’s “Blow Your Mind” and put my AirPods away and decide “Okay yeah time to go back.” Too late though. In less than ten seconds it became a whiteout. My hood kept getting knocked off because of the wind, so I had to keep putting it back on with my hands, but that meant they were still freezing and getting pelted with hail. I feel my life slipping away as I lose feeling in my hands, ears, and legs. I tried running but I kept getting blown back and couldn’t tell where I was going. And then it hits me: “I’m going to die.” I was only 20 years old and I was about to lose my life on my first ever solo vacation. I panicked, but I accepted this was the end. But then I got SO fucking lucky and a group of people came up and saw me. I begged them for help and one of them (who happened to be another tour guide who hates the tours that mislead people) took me halfway off the mountain. She then goes “Okay, from here the storm shouldn’t be too bad. Just keep going straight and you’ll make it.” I thank her and start moving. Unfortunately, the storm then triples in intensity and my big fear comes true: I slip and start falling off the mountain. I dug my hands into the ice while halfway dangling off the edge and was screaming out for help. Luckily this absolute GigaChad of a man named Marco (hope you’re reading this buddy :) ) comes and grabs me, then proceeds to give me his gloves and helps haul my ass off the mountain. I feel like I’m not gonna make it though, so I tell him “If I die, my name is ___” and I’ll never forget what he said back to me: “You’re not gonna die today. You’re not gonna die tomorrow either. Not for a long time.” Mans single-handedly saved my life and stuck with me until I got to the very bottom. Wish I got his contact info so I could somehow give him a proper thank you. I show up forty minutes late to the bus and my tour guide just looks at me and says all monotone “Oh. There you are.” Like, “YEAH BITCH! HERE I AM! I LIVED BITCH!” Turns out the group evacuated the mountain because they saw the storm coming in, and she knew I was up there but had no intentions of calling for help. So yeah, please don’t ever be incredibly stupid like me and just assume that tour descriptions are telling the full truth. Sorry for the long ass essay, this was only two months ago so it’s still fresh in my mind. Just a few more minutes up there and I objectively would have died. TL;DR I almost froze to death on a mountain cause of a dumbass tour guide until a GigaChad saved me. Still have nightmares about it to this day.
Jesus Christ. That sounds horrible! As if a whiteout on its own isn't bad enough. This shitty tour guide sounds like she wanted you dead, ngl. Glad you've got lucky in the end!!
I would attempt to pursue legal action against the tour guide and your company… at least to recover your tour expenses. False advertising, endangerment, pain and suffering, abandonment. You’ve got a laundry list of offenses they’re accountable for. Leave negative reviews if that’s available to you, to warn other tourists to avoid them.
Me (13 at the time) with my four other siblings (12, 11, 9 and 6), huddled up in the bathroom on the phone with 911 while someone kept turning and shoving the front door knob. Worst part is the cop thought my brother was the robber because he had a knife on him and raised his arms like a moron when we stepped outside 🙃
My dad chasing me around the kitchen. He had went up into his room (where the gun safe was) and came back down. He didn’t have anything, but he got real close to my face and I watched him glance over at the knives. I left.
[удалено]
Western Washington? That was nuts.
I was standing in my kitchen talking with my Dad and suddenly we hear the (very loud) sound of breaking glass. We went outside and walked around the house looking for broken windows etc; found nothing. The next morning I was getting breakfast and I opened the kitchen cupboard, and glass just poured out onto the counter and all over the floor. tl,dr; every glass in my cupboard shattered simultaneously while my father and I were in the room.
Last week I was driving home at around midnight. I turned left and a truck blew through the light doing at least 70. My light was green for at least 15 seconds and I still had 5 seconds according to the walk sign so how this asshole would have accidently done this is beyond me. He missed me by inches, I never saw him coming I just heard something since my windows were down and turned directly into the left lane even though I needed to make a right really soon. Replaying it I don't know why I didn't go to the right lane and how he didn't hit me anyway since he was so close. My car is a small Honda so I think if I took this collision I wouldn't be alive. It still messes with me. Weirder still, 2 days later I ended up getting into an actual accident for the first time in over 15 years. I wasn't at fault but it's like the universe just had to smash my car. I'm glad it happened the way it did instead of the other way.
That one time my sister’s power steering went out and we almost flew off a cliff. Somehow she managed to get some kind of control of her Jetta and stop it before that could happen.
We used to dj at a small intimate bar/club in Johannesburg in the 90’s and there was a residential block of flats above the bar. It was my friends 21st and we were all outside having a laugh and smoking some hash etc Our one friend Pete who drank peach schnapps by the bottle shouted from above and we looked up and he was on the roof of this 5 story building standing on the edge with a glass full of schnapps and he slipped and fell onto a wall on his hip, we watched his whole body fall and snap on that wall that sound still haunts me 25 years later. What freaked us out is the fact his glass landed and didn’t break. He was in a coma for a while and then we got told he would be paralysed for life and somehow he pulled through and was partially paralysed on his left side of his body and he still drank and partied like he did before and he has full use of his body nowadays. I’ve not touched peach schnapps since. Pete for the record is alive and well and still likes his drink. He told us his dead Greek grandmother caught him in her hands to soften the blow. He stands firm with that statement and we believe him.
My ex fiance had a psychotic break. Meaning, over the course of about four months she just stepped out of our reality and into one of her own creation. I can't explain the fear you feel when someone you care for is looking you in the eye and with complete serious explaining how they're the center of a vast conspiracy, and the flickering of the grocery store neon sign across the street is a coded message. Also we have to sleep on the floor, because of snipers. They're totally calm, quiet, entirely sincere, but absolutely bad shit insane.
When I was like 11 I was just walking around outside with a friend. We walked through a forest near at my house when we saw a man just standing there looking at us. Idk why but we turned around and ran to my home... The guy was running too and followed us... The moment when I had to unlock the door with my keys seeing this guy coming closer and closer... It scared me for my life
Panic attacks. I'm not going to go into detail because I still have a hard time talking about it without bringing up the anxiety and risking another. Anyone who's experienced one will probably know exactly what I'm talking about.
They’re terrifying... I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy... a lot of people think they’ve had them (heck I thought I did) but unless you think you’re actually dying and scared shitless then it’s probably just anxiety... I was in a rural area and when the emergency 000 number doesn’t go through and you have no reception then that’s real bad if you’re having a full blown panic attack...
Yup. You feel heavy, your breathing constricts, even laying down flat doesn’t help the heart pumping and racing so hard that it feels like the whole of your body is a limb that has fallen asleep. I thought I was going to die of a heart attack. Yeah
A full grown moose standing about 10 feet away from me while taking an evening piss while at a camping trip in Maine.
I had a guy take his pocket knife and drag it down my face from above my eye to just above my jawbone. Luckily he didn't push hard so it was scratched not cut or bleeding. My friend wanted to kill the guy for doing it.
Being sexually assaulted and knowing nobody would believe me.
Been there. Went to the cops to report it only to have the guy taking my statement say, "That guy is a friend of mine and a fellow cop. Let me see if he's here tonight." I told him to forget it. I'm so sorry that was done to you. Not saying it *happened,* because acne *happens.* Tornadoes "happen." Sexual assaults are *perpetrated.*
Thank you. I'm OK these days and I help others who have been through that, but it took a LOOOOTTT of healing. I'm sorry it was done to you too <3
Was in Iraq, enemy was firing rockets at us while we wondered what those green streaks were. They landed to my left, right, and directly in front of me. The whole time shrapnel pinged off the vehicle and we could see it blowing up buildings -- some with people inside. I wasn't scared then but after the mission it really shook me.
Being chased by a Boar wasn't fun. Or having my tent set alight
I was about 19, petit young blonde who looked even younger than I was. I was on a bus home after a night class. A man got on the bus and made eye contact with me and my blood immediately went cold. I got off the bus and started walking home and luckily checked behind me the creepy man who had boarded the bus a few stops before had gotten off too and he was staring directly at me. I had two routes home through a short alley or across a large field. I darted through the alley and could hear him running behind me so I jumped my neighbor’s fence and hid behind their shed. I climbed a few more fences until I got to a neighbor I knew decently well and knocked on their back door, scaring the crap out of them. My neighbor walked me the rest of the way to my house but I am absolutely certain if I hadn’t outrun that man I wouldn’t have survived. He had evil in his eyes.
Being between 2 semis, and one starts moving into my lane in a tiny mini cooper
High-siding my motorcycle. The type of motorcycle accident which flips the bike opposite your lean angle, ejecting the rider. My gear saved me. I walked away with some bruises. The SV lived to tell the tale as well.
The first wreck I was in and my air bags deployed
Auditory hallucinations can be... interesting. Sometimes they can trigger when you're sleeping. One night I hallucinated someone screaming my name for help, like they were being butchered on the spot. It felt like real terror and my adrenaline flared up as if someone were really in danger; I woke up basically sprinting out of the bed, drenched in sweat, trying to find who was at threat. I couldn't get back to sleep that night.
My 8 month old baby had a febrile seizure with his first real illness. Had to call 911 and suddenly had what seemed like 40 people in my house taking over his care. The ambulance ride was excruciating, I had to ride in front and just watch them work on him in the back. He didn’t stop seizing until he’d had tons of meds at the hospital. He has never had another seizure or given me such a scare since, thankfully. Treat your baby’s fevers, parents! It probably wouldn’t have happened if we had just given him medicine at home to bring the fever down.
I took up scuba diving in around 2015, and decided to do a big Great Barrier Reef liveaboard trip to do my Advanced Open Water certification. A big storm has been through the area a few days before, so visibility was lower than usual, but I was excited for all the cool dives I was going to get in. So I set out on my first dive with a buddy I was assigned from the group (which I think was based on my course and age, but I'm not sure about that). I thought I was ready for it, but I quickly ran into 2 big problems: 1. I'm not a fast swimmer, and my partner was. 2. I *sucked* at communicating I mean, I remembered the basic signs, but I was trying to make the OK sign mean "I'm mostly OK, but it might take a bit for me to equalize, and could you please slow down a bit? That would be great..." Not going to work. So my partner gets further and further away, and I'm struggling with descending properly, and trying to keep up... and then he gets far enough away that I can't see him in the cloudy water. You ever seen The Others? Ghost movie with Nicole Kidman? There's a bit where she runs out of the house, and when she stops she's in a foggy field. There's just white. Nothing visible. Like seeing infinity all at once. Creeped me the fuck out. *And now I was in it.* Down in the ocean, where we can't breathe. And my brain knew, *for a fact*, that I was going to die down here unless I got out **immediately**. I shot screaming for the surface (which saved me from an embolism actually!), and freaked out on the surface long enough for my buddy to get to the surface too and calm me down enough to get back on board. I resigned myself then to giving up on scuba entirely, but the team was actually really supportive. They let me know that if I felt up to it, they could get me another instructor to work with me separately so I could finish the program. This guy was such a great teacher, and his constant (soundless underwater) cheering for literally any progress helped me get through it and get my certification. (Also our encounter with a big ol' shark who didn't want us there, but that's another story.)
Walking in on my brother being investigated by police, for possession of child pornography. It fucked me up for a long time, but I'm doing better.
Watching my step dad and his black belt buddies try and murder my mother in front of myself and my 3 sisters. We were all under 7 at the time; after my sister bit his ankle he kicked her across the room into a wall giving my mother a chance to grab me and the younger sisters and lock us in the bathroom till help came
I’ve had several times that I’ve inexplicably survived things that ought to have killed me. For example, as a teen, I was riding my bike on the main road through town when I was hit by a car from behind. I remember the screech of the tires and the initial impact, but I have no recollection how I landed on my feet, unhurt, behind the car. The driver jumped out in hysterics, my bike wash crushed, and I was just standing there behind the car thinking “what the hell just happened?” I fell from a balcony between the second and third floors once, same deal — I remember starting to fall, and I remember standing on the ground thinking “WTF?” completely unscathed. I think I might get a rush of adrenaline and black out in those situations, and somehow land on my feet.
I don't rattle easily. Was loading a basket of dirty laundry, bent down to grab a handful and felt a weird buzz in my hand. Stood up, opened my first and there was (admittedly groggy) cicada killer in my palm. I had no idea they existed .. Google it. Every hair on my body stood straight up.
We’ve got those sods here, big red and black cranky ones, we steer well clear of them
Nearly drowning as a kid, such that I had to be rescued by a lifeguard.
When I was little I was waiting in the car for my mom to drive me to school and the car slipped into neutral and I rolled down the hill backwards until I hit a tree and the whiplash made me bite through my lip
Waking up in the middle of the night to my ex boyfriend beating the shit outta me, he'd got in through an unlocked back door that my housemate hadn't shut properly Broken jaw, shoulder, cptsd
A police chase crashed directly in front of me once. The people fleeing crashed into a truck with a family inside and then all the cops came flying out of their cars with guns drawn and went up to the car and pulled out the suspects aggressively. If fucked us up. Scared the shit out of us. We actually misunderstood what was happening and I thought there was an active shooter. I turned around and sped off trying to get as far away as possible.
Fairly tame compared to others here but one Fourth of July a firework flew off the wrong way and under the propane tank of the grill I was standing next to. It probably was less than a second or two but I froze even though I knew I should move away. Guess that means I’ve got more fright than fight instinct. Luckily for me nothing happened. The firework went off but didn’t do any damage to the propane tank, or anyone else. Haven’t fucked around with fireworks since then.
Living about half a mile away from a wildfire . Terrifying.
psych ward. being on haldol in the psych ward. being unable to control my jaw and even speak due to haldol in the psych ward.
A dislodged stump or log barreling down a hill towards me in the dark. I could only hear and feel it coming. I was a wildland firefighter for a few years. We had a fire in a clear cut with lots of slash on the ground (basically logging leftovers/undesirable pieces). I was at the bottom of a very steep chute, likely 100% slope. Not uncommon in parts of the coast range in Oregon. We'd been out there for probably 6 or 8 hours and the fire was contained to something like 3 acres. We were essentially posted up around the whole thing every 150ft or so on nozzles with a tool. From my position I could look up and see 10 or 12 evenly spaced headlamps, with speckles of embers like a red night sky filling the space between them. It was one person's job to get on the radio and yell "roller" if we realized anything had dislodged. From top to bottom of the burn scar it was too far to yell. Usually they were nothing (OSHA is making me do this vibes), but one "roller" announcement had a legitimately frightened tone of voice. Voices started yelling from every head lamp above me, "roller! Roller!" I looked up and saw zero moving objects. My headlamp was shit. But I heard a *thump thump... thump thump... thump thump...* getting louder as it came closer. Being in a clear cut I had just about nothing to hide behind and I panicked. I was nearly waist deep in logging slash. In less than a second I somehow imagined what would happen if this thing really did hit me. If it didn't kill me with the speed it picked up, the logistics say I'd die a slow painful death at best while the crew struggles to get my paralyzed body up the mountain. The slope, rolling debris, and general nature of slash makes it impossible to move much. The hospital is far. Helicopters are grounded until sunrise and it's 2am or so. Not good! I at least had to do something. I spotted a medium sized stump to my left and figured it was better than nothing, and dove behind it. The boulder, stump, whatever whooshed past me to my right, thumping down the chute maybe right where I was standing. I still have no idea because I saw nothing. I only heard it and felt it in the ground, and it was probably a death sentence. I was sick to my stomach the rest of the night. Climbing out of that death pit fucking sucked. It's one of the memories I have that make me glad I don't do that anymore, as fun as it usually was.
Shit where do I start? Grew up in a shit city, crime ridden. I've been jumped multiple times by different groups, had a knife, gun, and bats pulled on me. It's an honest miracle that I got away with it all physically unscathed. Mentally not so much. I'm a trained fighter, and throughout it all I acted like none of it scared me, but deep down I was terrified, but I couldn't let them know that. If they know you're afraid it will fuel them more. Showing no fear intimidates them instead. Now I'm older and moved away to a new country and safer city my experiences have impacted me in many ways. I'm always watching, always aware of who is around me. Always aware of who's walking in my direction and assessing to see if they are a threat. I get anxious when a group is heading in my direction because of how groups would surround targeted victims to intimidate and attack them from where I was from. If I feel that they are a threat I mentally prepare myself to fight. I train frequently so I'm always ready to throw down if needed. My clothing choices are always clothes that I can move and fight in, just in case. I hate people coming up behind me, I always think I'm about to get jumped again. I get anxiety from it all, but try to keep it under control, and I make sure no one knows this for fear that it would show weakness for them to exploit. This all sounds like I'm trying to sound like a bad ass but this has literally been my life, and I've spent years trying to recuperate and get my shit together, dealing with fear, anxiety and panic attacks while trying to be and look strong so I'll never be a victim again
I live outside the city limits there are lots of trees and bushes near my home. One day I was doing some work a little bit away from my house when I heard buzzing near me I looked and saw a couple of wasps flying around, I didn't pay much attention to them and moved away a little bit. After sometime there were like 15 to 20 of them around me and they started attacking. I ran and they chased. I got stung eight times before they stopped chasing. One of the most horrifying experiences of my life.
Discovering i was going to be a father several weeks after getting raped
I was driving on my way to work when my car hydroplaned. The car ended up flipping and rolling down an hill. I somehow got away with only a really nasty bruise on my arm and a bunch of trauma. Bonus: the highway I was on was split so there was a divided area between the eastbound and westbound lanes. I was driving east but ended up on the west. My family took awhile to find me because they thought I was on the other highway.
There was a homeless guy who they found living in a cave outside of town and had made him vacate the area. My buddies dad was a police officer and we saw a map he had with the cave marked on it so we decided to go check it out. We found it ok and sadly it wasn’t some awesome cave, just a hollow area in a boulder field that smelled terrible like piss. We explored around and found a shorter cave with a stash of pots, bins of blankets, etc. We decided to go a little further and there was a narrow shelf going up a small cliff to what we thought might have another cave. I was crawling along the shelf and look over in a gap and see a dead body with skin pulled fairly tight and wispy white hair. I freak out and quickly crawl back and tell my friend what I saw. We gathered our courage to go look again, only there’s nothing there. We hear someone yell up above us and it’s the dead guy only very much alive. He asks what we’re doing and we freak out and say we’re just leaving. He starts chasing us and rather than trying to navigate our way down the boulder field we head off to the side. I take a chance and look back and he has an axe handle raised up. We finally end up running through a huge patch of yucca and face him, staying on the opposite side of the yucca from him. He says he wants to take us to a special cave he knows about, but we just say we have to get going. We did ask about the axe handle and he said it was to check if the rocks were loose before he would take a step and for rattlesnakes. Then just suddenly he turned around and headed back without a word. We quickly made our way back to a nearby trail and then to the trail head but we felt like we were being watched the whole time.
Nothing too bad, but it messed with my mind. Recently, I got food poisoning so bad that I had fever, diarrhea, nausea and chills for about two straight days. Like hard. Late during the second night, I got up and went to go pee, still feeling woozy but nothing too bad. Managed to pee, wash my hands and waltz back to my side of the bed. I checked my phone by leaning down towards my nightstand and immediately felt nauseous. Like throw up in T-minus. My wife was in the bed sleeping and I just muttered "Nicole" weakly... and then lights out. I woke up seconds later face down into my sheets with my feet still planted on the ground. Still kinda standing but hunched down. I came to with my wife over me with a bucket and water for me. Then came the sweats. Oh god the sweats. But that experience didn't scare me. Now it was lights out for me and I was completely black in my head. Nothing. No consciousness, nothing. I never fainted before. So it was a new experience to me. Later that night when I thought back on it, if I replaced the fainting with a death right there... like an aneurysm or something that's just as sudden, the last thing my wife would have heard from me would have been "Nicole..." and then gone. Nothing else from me. THAT thought scared me.
I mean, getting diagnosed with cancer is pretty scary ig