I’m not one to sound paranoid very often, but it’s a scary world out there.
And you never know what kind of danger is around the corner…
What’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
Here’s what AskReddit users had to say.
1. Road accident.
“Day after Christmas, 1998. I was 9.
In the car with my mom, who was 36, and my cousin, who was almost 14. We were traveling out of state (about 10 hours) to visit my mothers parents and siblings, including my cousins mother (his mom and dad were divorced and lived near us with his dad at the time).
I got tired, told my mom I was going to take a nap, said ‘I love you’ to both and immediately fell asleep. Some undetermined amount of time later, I woke up and heard just noise. People. Vehicles. Sirens. Looking around I couldn’t tell what had happened. I was covered in blood, that wasn’t mine.
I began to panic, and someone in white, it’s all I can remember and I assume it was a paramedic, came to me and told me to stay calm I would be ok. I was life flighted out shortly after.
We’d hit a tractor trailer parked on the side of the road, he had no signals out, it was kinda foggy. I was told he had thc in his system too. By the time my mom must’ve realized he was there it was too late and the brakes gave out (6 months later there was a recall on that car for that exact thing).
I won’t go into gory details, but suffice it to say my mother had a closed casket. My cousin died of internal bleeding. I almost di**, but the doctor said the only thing that saved me was I was asleep, so I was relaxed enough when we hit and while the internal damage I suffered was life threatening—but was close enough to medical help that I survived.
I can’t think of a time I was more scared than in the back of that Lincoln town car. Somehow my young mind ‘shielded’ me from the horror of what had happened to my mother. Because I should have seen her.
Doctors believe it’s a trauma response and I’ve blocked it. I have zero interest in unblocking that. Whoever that paramedic was, thank you. You were there to calm me down when all I knew was terror. I think you’re a big reason I’m still here today. I’m sure what you witnessed haunts you, but that little girl you calmed down is beyond grateful.”
2. Scared straight.
“Started coughing up blood after having a ci**rette a while back. A lot of blood. I’ve s**ked for 20 years. I was in denial for a day and refused to see a doctor. Finally went to the ER and got a scan done.
I was already starting to think how to get my affairs in order. It turned out to be pneumonia. I quit s**king on the spot scared straight.”
3. On your own.
“When I realized I was on my own completely. My family sued me after my grandmother passed and left me the bulk of her will.
I was across the country for college and I was in a bad motorcycle accident and couldn’t walk. I had no support system , was only 21 and alone for multiple surgeries. I was still in the law suit with the family, then in a lawsuit for the accident and trying to graduate college.
It felt like diving into an abyss without a parachute, but it was a tunnel of never ending darkness because it was the rest of my (sudden) adulthood without the help of people I thought I could count on.”
4. Terrifying.
“Carbon monoxide poisoning while house-sitting for a friend.
I thought I was just coming down with something, headache, very tired and weak. Until I passed out in the kitchen, and my (then) boyfriend decided to look up my symptoms. Apparently he also wasn’t feeling well.
Long story short, we called the gas company to come out and check. I don’t remember the exact reading but the guy tells us the level it’s at, he shouldn’t even be going into the house. He then urged us to go to the hospital.
It took over a year for me to feel normal again.”
5. Yikes.
“It was ‘Snowpocalypse 2010’ in DC, which dumped 17.8 inches of snow on a city that wasn’t equipped to handle it.
We didn’t have to work so I had gone out for the night (was in my early 20s) with friends. I was walking home, slightly inebriated, and went to cross the street (I had the right of way). …And then, boom, I woke up on the ground/sidewalk with a bunch of people hovering over me.
I started freaking out, thinking I’d drunkenly fell, and insisted on getting up and leaving the situation. The bystanders refused to let me get up and informed me that I’d slipped on a patch of ice and gotten “clipped” by a station wagon as I crossed the street.
Although I felt no pain, I instantly thought that I was gonna d** and called my parents hysterical as we waited for the ambulance to arrive. I ended up in Georgetown Hospital for 3 days and suffered a fractured nose, two chipped teeth, a broken arm and my face looked like I’d been literally mauled.
They never found the station wagon/driver who hit me. Thankful to the bystanders who stayed with me that night. It was just before Valentine’s Day, and one even brought me balloons in the hospital one day.”
6. Cancer.
“Cancer. I had it when I was 13 and some night I would be afraid to go to sleep because I wasn’t sure whether or not I would wake up again, it was so awful.
Also the doctor’s appointments afterwards, knowing that I have to go back to the hospital and this fear of my cancer coming back is just so terrifying.
I barely ate anything the week before because my body was just overwhelmed with fear. Nowadays I only need to go to the hospital once a year but it’s still scary as hell.”
7. Followed.
“Got followed by a man when I was around 10 years old. Kept gaining on me down an alleyway. Luckily it had an opening half way down onto a street and I ran to the nearest house I could.
I remember him staring at me. Just cold and emotionless. Still gives me the chills.
Turns out he was caught trying to abduct kids in my town. I could’ve been the one that he got. I was on my own, no one else around me.”
8. Brain injury.
“Was in a car accident (was not driving) and suffered a traumatic brain injury. I was wearing a seatbelt.
Basically the whiplash of the force from the cars caused my brain to hit my skull which caused my brain to start bleeding. I was in a medically induced coma for like 3 days and had to learn how to talk, walk again.
Doctor said I couldn’t be an engineer. I’m 28 now, and am a design engineer at a high end lighting firm and studying to be an aerodynamics engineer. Don’t let anything stop you.”
9. Don’t accept drinks from strangers.
“Getting roofied.
If somebody hadn’t called me a cab, god knows what could’ve happened. I remember falling down at hitting my head on the pavement at least 3 times, Ive never had such little control of my body. I woke up 14 hours later in my room with a bloodied face- scratches on my forehead.
I had been out alone and given a glass of champagne by a stranger. It was like being teleported from 3AM to 5PM. I am a male- anyone can be roofied- never accept drinks from strangers.”
10. Happening now.
“What’s happening to me now.
I am sitting in the hospital with the love of my life having stage 4 metastatic colon cancer. I’m not a praying person but right now that’s all I do because otherwise I can’t do anything else.
I love him so much and we’ve only been together for such a short time, I can’t lose him now. I won’t.”
11. Shooter.
“My first year at a small but well known college for the arts. Think of the movie FAME.
There’s always someone singing or playing music, laughing, talking, etc. I walk out of the bathroom and no one is in the hallway. Not a single sound on the entire, floor. I walk around the hallway for a bit and can’t find anyone. Cell phone service is shit inside the building and I have no signal.
Eventually I take a look at our electronic notice board to see a bright red screen with big black letters: ACTIVE SHOOTER IN BUILDING.
I froze. I had never done an active shooter drill before and didn’t know what to do. A lot of the doors automatically lock and I wasn’t able to enter any of the rooms to hide. I wasn’t sure if I could make it to the stairwell to escape the building and I wasn’t sure where anyone was including this shooter. I ended up stuffing myself in an open locker and held my breath for what felt like hours.
It turns out the security team at school made a big mistake and shared the active shooter warning by accident. There was no shooter and it wasn’t even a drill, just a complete mistake. Thinking about it now makes me worry what I would do in a similar situation as mass shootings happen often in the US. I’m just grateful it was a mistake and not real.”
12. Turbulent.
“Sitting through severe turbulence during a commercial flight. This was roughly 15-20 years ago.
I was on a commercial flight to Los Angeles and midway through the flight, my plane shook v**lently for what felt like an eternity. At one point, it felt like the plane was in freefall, but in all likelihood my panicked brain was catastrophizing. Plane eventually regained control but the folks sitting around me panicking didn’t really help matters.
And yes, I’m aware that statistically, you’re more likely to be injured or k**led on the way to the airport (driving) than by plane crash, but that feeling of not being in control can be terrifying. Not nearly as afraid of flying as I once was, but the thought of something going wrong occurs to me every now and then.”
13. Scary.
“My oldest daughter didn’t come home from school one day. She was supposed to take the bus home to her dad’s house, he called me frantic around 6 pm asking if she was with me.
I was at work, and the panic began. Police were called, they began looking all the while my younger daughter was searching online comments for clues. And she found her sister. After several hours and what police had gathered, they weren’t looking for a living 15 yr old.
When my younger daughter (13 at the time) realized where her sister was, ems was sent and cops busted into the home, terrifying a set of unsuspecting parents. I wasn’t kept updated, it was chaos and I didn’t know my daughter was found.
What they found was my daughter and another classmate overdosed in the bedroom. Both were rushed to hospital. They were found after my younger daughter followed a trail of comments online that indicated the two were planning to end their lives.
My daughter coded once and the friend was comatose for a few days. Both were committed to different psychiatric facilities once they were cleared medically.
It was horrible and I can’t begin to describe the terror of those days and those first hours or I will spiral into full blown panic. It has been years, but there has never been anything in my life to even touch the physical illness inducing terror of first, not knowing where she was or what had happened, then the months of never letting her out of my sight.
Therapy and meds and support happened, but it has been a very long road. She is better now, but that worry is always there.”
What’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
Tell us your story in the comments.
Thanks a lot!
