“Genuinely Wondered If This Was The End”: 77 People Share The Scariest Experiences Of Their Lives

When life is boring, we wish it could be more like a movie. But hardly anyone ever wishes their life was more like a horror movie. We often want to put our horrible experiences behind us. Still, sometimes, sharing them with other people can help us get things off our chest and maybe bring awareness to things people wouldn’t normally pay attention to.

So when a person asked, “What is the scariest experience you have gone through?“, thousands of people rushed to share their stories and show support for people who were brave enough to tell theirs. If you feel inspired to share your own life-changing scary story, feel free to do so in the comments, dear Pandas!

#1

My husband calling me to tell me his brother took his parents' lives and that I needed to get the dogs and myself out of the house immediately in case his brother was on his way to our house. I was incredibly fortunate that a neighbor let me hide the dogs in her garage and come in until my husband gave me the all clear to go home.

Image credits: storyofohno

#2

Work in a mental health unit. Only 2 staff on on nights. Other staff went to lay down for a few minutes as she was doing a double. Had my back turned for about 15 seconds and a very sick man newly diagnosed with schizophrenia came behind me and got me in a choke hold. One of the scariest positions to be in. Even in our self defense training our trainers pretty much said, if someone gets you from behind in a hold, do whatever the f**k you need to do to live. I’m a pretty small human so I really couldn’t move despite flailing like a MF. he had my arms between his legs so I couldn’t reach for my panic alarm. Whole time he was singing ‘tiny dancer’ into my ear. Thank whatever higher power is up there another patient had woken up for some Tylenol. I was seeing stars at this point, could feel my eyes bursting out of my head. I just remember thinking this is how I was going to die and thinking about who would take care of my dog and then everything went black. Woke up on a medical unit. I guess I’d pointed to a sign last second behind our nursing desk that instructs how to call a code white (violent patient) and the patient who woke up did it successfully and kicked the guy holding me in the face to get him off me before security came. Pretty f****d up. Still see the pt that saved me on the unit every once in a while. Always buy him some chocolate bars and coffee when he’s here.

Image credits: nunchuckdaddy766

#3

When I was eleven years old, my neighbor was using a bulldozer to clear out some of the wooded area on his property. For context, we lived in a waaaay rural area; while the property lines were touching at the back end of the property, it would have taken twenty minutes to walk from our driveway to their driveway.

In this said wooded area, where our neighbors generally said we were allowed to play, I had constructed/cleared a little hiding place in a hollow in the ground surrounded by a big stump and some fallen trees.

The day of the bulldozing, I was watching from the edge of the wooded area when I suddenly had the STUPIDEST idea of my life: wouldn’t it be so much easier to watch from the hiding place? So I walked over and climbed in while my neighbor was facing another direction. I watched from a large peephole as he disappeared behind the big stump that was the largest portion of wall in my hiding place.

Wait… why didn’t he appear on the other side?

The stump started moving toward me at what seemed like light speed. To my horror, my feet were immediately caught underneath the clay clumped in the roots. I fell on my back, screaming. No one was going to hear me while the bulldozer was going, though. I screamed and tried to shake bushes around me to catch my neighbor’s attention, but he didn’t notice. The stump creeped further and further up my leg, sometimes stopping as the dozer repositioned, but always resuming its terrifying movement. It couldn’t have taken that long, but it felt like hours.

I knew I was going to die. I would die buried under earth and debris and no one would know what happened to me.

When the stump reached my waist, a miracle happened. It stopped moving! The bulldozer shut off, and suddenly I could hear my own screaming! So could everyone else, as my neighbor ran over, my sisters and mom sprinted down from our house, and for some reason my dog Cookie was licking my face.

Three hours, twenty volunteer firefighters, two jaws of life, and an ambulance later, I found out why I was alive. My scruffy little schnauzer Cookie, the hero that she was, had come to save me. I’m tearing up just typing this. I guess she heard me screaming or had already been close or something, but she jumped on top of the stump and stared down that bulldozer, barking at it like it was a mountain lion that was ready to eat me. Of course my neighbor didn’t want to hurt her, so he cut off the machine and finally heard me shrieking for help.

My injuries ended up not being too bad, considering. Leg broken in a couple places, several surgeries, in a wheelchair for a few months. Cookie and I made the front page in every city in the county, and two different feed companies awarded her a year’s supply of dog food. My sweet puppy is no longer with us, but she’ll always be the best dog I could ever have. I miss you girl, and thank you.

tl;dr My neighbor accidentally pushed a thousand-pound stump on top of me, and my dog saved my life.

Image credits: Soulsboin

#4

Giving birth to my son, they put him on my chest for about 5 seconds then snatched him up and an entire team of medical types crowded around him working in complete silence. He wasn't breathing. I got to see him for all of 3 seconds, and only heard a couple of weak cries before they rushed him to the NICU. Two hours later they came up to tell us he was on a ventilator and not doing great, they suspected a heart defect and were going to helicopter him to the closest children's hospital (about 90 miles away). We did not get to see him for five hours and it was a couple days before we could hold him. I gave birth at midnight, so all of this was happening in the late late hours.

A couple of relatively common issues had happened, both of which on their own need immediate attention but are not difficult to deal with, but the resolution of one caused serious problems because of the second. His heart is fine. He's a perfectly happy healthy preschooler now who is squirting bath water into the tub faucet and laughing hysterically.

Image credits: Yavemar

#5

It's happening right now. My wife is in the ICU with pneumonia on top of a year+ long battle with cancer. Sedated, on a ventilator and barely clinging to life, her heart could just give out at any time and that's it. I'm literally sitting in her room all night fully expecting to lose her sometime tonight or in the next couple days. Ive been through some scary moments in my life, but in a completely different way, this is by far the scariest night of my life. 

Image credits: DerpingtonHerpsworth

#6

My mom was in ICU for a month when I was 18. She'd come out of ICU and been moved to a regular room and she seemed to be getting better. I had a scholarship to college and she told me to go. I did and I didn't want to go. This was my one shot, you know? But I wanted to stay and be there for her, but she told me to go, so I did. Second day of classes I got a call at 5am. She'd arrested. She had no living will so they brought her back and she was on life support but had no brain activity. I had to sign the papers to turn off the machines. I was 18 and she was my only family. I'm 51 now and I'm tearing up as I write this. I k*lled my mother. Yes, yes, I know, brain dead. They did scans, the neurologist advised me, I've had counseling. But at the end of the day, I signed papers, they turned off machines, and my mother died. And then I was alone. Make a living will. Don't ever put your children or spouse through what I went through.

Image credits: deagh

#7

My mother tried to stab me in the eye because I had schizophrenia and she thought I was “cursed,” but I got away without even a scratch. Three years after that they trained our dog to attack me and I was not permanently injured thankfully. And in 2009 they forced me to commit s*icide by swallowing acetone. I was ill but survived.

Image credits: anon

#8

I grew up thinking my house was haunted.
Weird s**t would happen all of the time. I’d walk into rooms and lights would turn on. I’d go to the kitchen in the middle of the night and cupboards would be open. I’d hear footsteps upstairs when I was home alone. I’d feel the ghost sit down on the bed while I was trying to sleep… ya know, typical “haunting” stuff that would freak any kid out.
Then I had a stalker that started getting weird when I was in my late teens.

Turns out it was much, much worse than I could have imagined.

The stalker was actually a peeping Tom that had been watching me since I was (possibly as young as) 7. As it turns out, there was no ghost and the house wasn’t haunted. The psycho was breaking in when I was home alone and f*****g with me (as a little kid!). As I got older, he got more bold. He’d come in at night when my parents were home and even sit on my bed while I was trying to sleep.

Pretty sure he found where my mom stashed the extra key and just made a copy. Never caught the guy, cops said it was “just some high school boy making jokes.”

I’ve had lots of therapy.

Image credits: entrecouture

#9

My son had his first seizure while I was driving. He was in the back seat and I heard a noise. I looked in the rearview mirror and he was convulsing with blood running out of his mouth. Then he collapsed, I thought he had died. To this day, I don't know how I was able to get off the freeway, call 911 and check his pulse. He was 7 years seizure free on Nov. 29, but that one day changed my life forever.

Image credits: anon

#10

"It is cancer. I'm sorry"


I was 34, and had just gotten married a few months earlier. Stage 2. Grade 3 triple negative, invasive ductal carcinoma.

I'm OK now, treatment was successful.

But three years on, my husband cheated on me, we're getting divorced and my only chance to ever have children (after the chemotherapy left me infertile) remains with the 12 embryos currently stored in a freezer somewhere.

So now I have to decide if I want to be tied to the man who ruined everything and betrayed me, by having his children... its my only option if I ever want to get pregnant.

Image credits: TNBCisABitch

#11

When I was a teenager I had an irregular heart rhythm, and required a medication called adenosine.

Adenosine is usually given via infusion just once or twice, in hospital under careful monitoring, and the side effects include an 'impending sense of doom'. This side effect relates to your heart beat temporarily stopping. This fires signals to your brain, telling you it's time to panic. Or you've reached the end.

'Impending sense of doom' doesn't begin to describe it. I was told in advance, but nothing prepares you for it. I went from sitting on the hospital bed, just finished a sandwich and thinking about my year 11 exam, to suddenly being certain that I was going to die here. I've never felt so sure of anything - I couldn't move or speak, and my mind suddenly raced very fast, to the extent I couldn't keep up with my own thoughts. It was similar to what you hear about your life flashing before your eyes. My brain was drowning, and telling me to find more oxygen - even though I was breathing fine. I was suddenly sure this was a nightmare, that this hospital was fake and all the doctors and nurses were actors, and I was poisoned.

Then it was over in seconds. I haven't had a single heart problem since.

Image credits: manlikerealities

#12

My ex husband pressed a loaded pistol to my forehead and screamed at me because he thought I had cheated on him. I hadn't, but my emotional state was in such a bad condition that all I could think was, just pull the damn trigger, I know I haven't cheated and at least if I'm dead I won't have to be this unhappy anymore. It was not the first nor the last time he hurt me, but I got out eventually after being thrown down stairs, across rooms, threatened with a knife, punched, choked, burned with cigarettes and manipulated to make me think it was my fault. Screw that a*****e.

#13

Firefight while i was in the forces. At the time you just kind of shut off and run on instinct/training. But once it's all over, you look down and see you've pissed yourself, your mind runs through it again and again. That s**t stays with you for years. 15 years later and fireworks still f**k me up.

#14

I'd just finished a night shift, I'd only been asleep for a few hours band I got woken up by my mother frantically hammering on my front door. Open it to be told I needed to get to the hospital PDFQ as my wife had been taken in at 30 weeks pregnant, she'd had a placental abruption while out and about and was being rushed for an emergency C Section. The surgeon who operated told us after the fact that 5 minutes later and both her and my son would have been dead.

That whole day, man..... Best and worst day of my f*****g life.

Image credits: TheFloatingCamel

#15

 
Scary, just a few weeks ago I got robbed at gunpoint by three guys that came up behind me. It was 9PM and right in front of my house. Even when I complied and gave them my cash, they still punched and kicked me afterwards. My focus was on trying to make sure they didn't get my keys either to my house, where my wife and kids were at the time, or my truck that I was unloading. They did get my phone though and dumped it off a bridge. The police found it, but it was smashed to hell, but they did get prints off of it and there is a warrant out for one of the guys. Still scary that they know where I live.

Image credits: crlarkin

#16

Collapsing to the ground because I couldn’t breathe due to covid pneumonia, not knowing if my time was up. I had taken every precaution and still ended up in a situation I thought was going to k*ll me. That was early on in the pandemic, when respirators were reported to be death sentences.

Image credits: PMYourTinyTitties

#17

I have walked in on my best friend's corpse after a s*icide.

Image credits: ConsequenceLanky6580

#18

I was put in jail by some corrupt cops saying that my kid wasn't my kid. He put me in there for welfare fraud, as I was getting food stamps for us both.

I had to spend MONTHS in jail as I couldn't afford bond and I refused to settle, demanding a jury trial as my kid is my kid.

This is all while I'm trying to get treatment for a major tumor, which set me back for months. After that, I couldn't afford both the tumor treatment and a place to live, so I was homeless after jail.

I'm still feeling the effects from that a decade later.

Image credits: popemichael

#19

A morning within a few days of Christmas Eve my oldest (he was 4 at the time) sons flu like symptoms turned terrifying. We were relaxing watching TV as he was out of it and I was lucky my wife recognized the warning signs - his stomach was sucking in and extending with each breath. It kicked in he was struggling to breathe.

We called 911 and they said while we waited for responders to take him out into the cold air without a jacket, it might help his congestion somehow.

My wife’s on the phone and I’m standing in the driveway holding my little boy and he’s gasping now, his face is taking a tinge of blue, and all I can do it hold him and tell him it’s ok and it’s going to be alright and stay calm and nice big breaths buddy and I felt so powerless and small and all I could do was hold him and soothe him and wait and not lose my s**t for him.

The firefighters arrived first and rushed up our yard with oxygen. They cheered for him and told him what a brave boy he was and that everything was going to be alright. My wife went into the ambulance with him while they kept him on oxygen, and they drove off because we had our second son, a baby at the time.

I called my dad to come watch him and he was over in an instant, and drove to the hospital. The whole time there, not knowing what my boy was going through or if he was ok. I got there, he was doing great, some steroids did the trick and after a fun time hanging out with the docs we went home same night with some precautionary meds.

I collapsed in my wife’s arms taking a shower after he fell asleep, trying not to let my big ugly sobs wake him up.

I’ve never felt so powerless ever in my life, and it was the scariest s**t I’ve ever gone through, including other situations I thought I might die.

Image credits: crazyrich

#20

Got caught in a rip tide when i was 7, after being picked up and beaten with the earth multiple times from the waves i just gave up. My uncle Tom saw me struggling and ended up saving me and pulling me out.

Image credits: anon

#21

When my daughter was about two, and was choking on something. I tilted her upside down and beat her back, nothing came up. She was making zero noise, fully suffocating. I was a complete mess, thought she was going to die in my arms. No sooner than I was out the door to jump in my van for the hospital she started whining and coughing. Best sound of my life. Took her to her pediatrician right away. They sent us to hospital for xray to see if object had been swallowed or possibly rearranged in her trachea. Got home and there was a bloody nickel on kitchen floor where incident occured. The whole thing probably lasted 20 seconds of her not breathing, but it felt like nightmare slow motion. This event actually pushed me to pursuing an EMT career. I completed EMT Basic, ended up deciding it wasn't the field for me. But the schooling was a great course of first aid I will carry forever, and I learned CPR and heimlech which I feel every single caregiver should learn.

#22

A co-worker (and friend) severed an artery in his arm when a jagged piece of metal hanging off of a car door slipped from the stand it was resting on. He came in to the room I was in screaming for help. Every pump of his heart sprayed blood. While everyone else stood frozen, I somehow had the peace of mind to rip off my belt and apply it as a tourniquet. The EMT staff that arrived as well as the doctors that eventually saved his arm said he would have absolutely bled to death had I not applied the tourniquet.

#23

My baby's crib caught fire in the middle of the night. Some people's literal worst nightmare.

Edit: My baby was in it and he was severely burnt and spent a month intubated and in a medically-induced coma. He is 5 now and is ok though!

The fire was a freak accident. His humidifier caught fire, smoldered for a little while and drained the oxygen in the room before the smoke alarm went off. When we opened the door to his room if flooded with oxygen creating a backdraft and launched a fireball at his crib.

Image credits: Gubble_Buppie

#24

Two are tied:

Being shot when our neighbor’s gun “accidentally discharged” and the bullet came through the shared wall, severing an electrical line, barely missed my head, glanced off my chest, and landed on the other side of the room. The sheer thought of what could have been if I’d been laying an inch further left is terrifying.

Gas pedal getting stuck while driving home from my mom’s funeral. I somehow managed to get the car pulled over and turned off, but I was going 85 mph+ going uphill. If it had got stuck three miles earlier, I’d have plunged off a seaside cliff, taking my aunt, cousin, and 9 month old daughter with me.

Image credits: Imaginary_Train_8056

#25

Being held underwater by some classmates in highschool. Not the worst or most damaging thing I've gone through, not even close to being the worst incident of bullying, but it was the most frightening.

#26

Was doing some mineral exploration work up in Alaska this summer in a very remote mountain range. I was working at a drill site where a grizzly had been spotted at the rig earlier that day and I was naturally a little on edge. I was laying out some wires through very thick brush (couldn't see through it at all), and all of a sudden I hear a really large animal close by, and I smelled the typical wet dog bear smell. Before I had time to react the wire gets ripped out of my hands and dragged into the brush at probably 20mph. I'm freaking out trying to reach my gun and this massive bull caribou just pops his head out and looks me over, then walks away lol.

Image credits: jackkymoon

#27

Someone breaking into my house last year.

It was really early in the pandemic and my wife was in the bedroom asleep, I was in the living room with headphones in playing video games with some friends while my son was asleep in his little jawn next to me. Was maybe 8PM.

Basically I stood up and took my headphones off, and turned around just in time to see this guy in a bright red ski mask (which is way scarier than black it turns out) opening up the doors into the living room / dining room area I'm in. Nearly sh*t myself.

He pauses, I'm like, frozen for a second but then stammer out 'get the f*ck out of my house' and he just lunges at me. Like, he wasn't armed, he wasn't bigger than me, I think he just panicked and thought he could knock me down and run...or worse...


But uh, it turns out when someone breaks into your house and your entire family is home and your child is now crying while you fight a tweeker in your living room...some really primal sh*t kicks in, and I fought the guy until I had him in like, my approximation of a choke hold (not a fighter), before shouting for my wife to call the police, who arrived like, instantly because:"My friends heard the entire thing on/through discord and one of them called the police."

Was over in under 5 minutes but I couldn't use headphones anymore while I gamed in that room (we've since moved), I don't like having my back to doors, and I had to get a few stitches on my hand from how I fell.​

#28

Coming out, yes this serious i came out to my family that yelled at me took my devices for a year threw bibles at me etc. Its not always sunshine and rainbows being bisexual but its who I am.

#29

Being 18 and waking up to the FBI screaming and pointing guns in my face with bright lights and dragging me out of bed and getting cuffed and thrown into a van.

Dont build a bomb and then try to sell it online. The feds dont like that s**t. 1998 was a wild year for me, I didnt know what was going to happen to me. Sentenced to 10 years federal prison and was paroled after five. I dont do dumb s**t anymore and I dont buy anything that would make them think im up to my old ways.

Im on the straight and narrow now and after all that the only job I could get was in the trucking industry and now I own 5 trucks and built a nice life and try my best to be a up standing member in my community.

Image credits: Sparkey_The_Great

#30

Please no negative comments about this. It’s irritating when I get asked did I think to catch the ball. I got hit in the left eye at a baseball game by a line drive. It was going at 100 mph. It was to late to think is that the ball coming at my face because it is small and at the speed hard to see. I was looking for it as soon as I heard it leave the bat. I didn’t realize how much of an impact it had on my face until I sat down. I was standing up after the 8 inning stretch when it hit me. I was going to walk it off like a black eye but as soon as I sat down I knew something was wrong. I couldn’t see out of my left eye. The rush around me from my boyfriend (now my husband) and from others around me was frightening. I ended up losing my eye. Adjusting wasn’t hard because of the support system around me.

#31

I have cheated death 3 times this year.

1. A car accident where a person didn’t yield and struck me driver side. I was airborne for a few seconds and flew over the median into a parking lot and hit a parked car. I walked out minor bruises. Same for other person.

2. At 2am a couple months ago carbon monoxide detectors go off in my moms house we start opening windows and calling the fire dept as we wait outside (w 2 dogs). The minute he opens the front door the detector starts going off like crazy. He said longer than 20 min we all could’ve died with the amount that was in the basement caused by a problem with the hot water tank.

3. A large patio chair flying out of the back of a pickup truck which almost smashed my windshield had I not swerved just in time.

An angel has my back and is watching out which I’m grateful for!!

Image credits: IntelligentIsland167

#32

My perception of time is off, I think this was last summer.

I was out camping with the wife (now ex) and kids and we decided to go swimming. The kids were playing on the beach and wife and I decided to swim out to the boundary line and back. About 80% of the way there we both got tired as we had grossly underestimated the strength of the wind and current we were swimming directly into.

We turned around to go back and it hit. The wall. Neither of us could touch bottom and were already completely out of breath from swimming against the current. We both started to hyperventilate and each screamed towards shore once each. The beach was nearly empty other than two adults and two kids on the far opposite side of the beach in chairs with clothes on, who probably couldn’t even hear us or tell what was going on.

As we both started to fall swiftly into sheer panic that neither of us could breathe and my wife started to go under I used every last ounce of strength I could muster and cheered her on to keep going. Suddenly, I could JUST touch the bottom with my big toes extended down. I grabbed her arm and dragged her forward in the water until she could also touch and we managed to get back to shore.

I’ve been swimming hundreds of times. Maybe thousands. I grew up on the lake.

NEVER have I felt so close to drowning in my entire life. We packed up camp that day and went home after she and I both fell asleep in the blistering summer heat at camp under a tree. I was seriously messed up mentally the several days following.

It was a mistake I had never made before and definitely never will again. We really should have known better but we were enjoying the water and it’s difficult to explain but the bay we were in was so big that comparatively the distance that safety line was from the shore made it very hard to judge and we both just made a bad decision because of that.

On a calmer day we might have made it to that line but it was quite windy that day and the current was way stronger than either of us had realized until it was too late.

#33

I got caught in a rockslide and fell off a cliff while backpacking. Early Spring, things were starting to melt, we were hiking on a ridge and looking for a way down the side, maybe a 60 - 70 degree loose scree slope, to a stream about 500 feet below. I was in the lead, heading down at an angle, rocks kicked out from under my feet, and I fell backwards onto my butt. All of sudden, the entire slope around me began to move en mass, like an island of broken up rocks with me sitting in the middle. I rode it down the hill, bouncing off stuff and trying to stop myself and dig in but no luck, just picking up speed. At the bottom, the hill dropped off to a 40 ft cliff, and I was launched off with the slide. I landed in a pile of debris and loose stuff that previously came down, including a lot of loose snow, which mostly absorbed the energy. I was mostly OK, muddy, lots of scratches and bruises, a separated shoulder and broken tail bone, but I was able to walk out. My one memory is being in mid air, time standing still, and looking to my left at a stove-size boulder likewise suspended in the air, about 6 feet away. Any good size rock would have killed me.

Image credits: psilome

#34

I was robbed at gun point in 2001. I was living outside of Detroit and worked at an Aco Hardware (yes, Aco, not Ace) as a lead cashier. I don’t know if they still do this because I don’t live in MI anymore, but they used to have these weekly fliers that always had a coupon for some ridiculous deal, like 10¢ for a box cutter or something else that was a loss leader. It was super common for people to come in JUST to get their coupon item and nothing else.

So it was a super busy Saturday, just after my lunch break, and I’d just got back on my till. We had lines out to BFE and so I got into the speed zone, just trying to get people cashed out without being rude. A dude walked up and put his coupon for a pack of lightbulbs for $1.50 (crazy what details stick in the mind) on the conveyor belt along with 2 singles. I smiled, asked how he was, rung him up and immediately got the register open as I saw his payment right there.

The next thing I knew is he’s opening his coat up and pulling a gun on me and hissing at me, “Give me all your money.”

I s**t you not, the first thought I had was, “Why does he have that toy gun and why is he pointing it at me?” I just stood there staring at him in confusion. This pissed him off and he cocked the pistol (it was a slide action one; again, what you remember when?) and shoved it closer to me and repeats, “I said give me your f*****g money!”
Then it hit me that it was a real gun and I think I just went into autopilot. I took all the money out of my till and just kind of shoved it toward him, and he gathered it up and booked it out the door.

I just stood there and my coworker across the way started calling my name until I finally looked at her with a completely calm face and said, “I think someone just robbed me.” Then my legs gave out and I just fell down and couldn’t stop shaking. It only hit me then how I could have just died.

Later, after the statement and the cops and everything, my coworkers and I surmised that it was a friend of someone who worked there, because they knew to hit my till (since I was head cashier) that had the most money in it.

Still sometimes see that guy with his gun in nightmares. As far as I know they never caught him. I don’t think hardware store robber was high on their list of priorities.

Image credits: chathamsapphire

#35

We’d gone to an island for Christmas. It was the day before my daughter’s second birthday and we, plus my wife’s sister and her husband and child decided to visit one of the spectacular waterfalls.

A proper welded-together Mad Max truck took us half way up the mountain with us having to walk the rest of the way. My almost two year-old had to be carried so I picked her up and walked up the trail. It wasn’t far before I lost my footing on the damp leaves, fell and, still holding my girl began to slide. I had no real concerns, after all I’ve fallen plenty, but I began to slide. Holding my daughter’s head with one hand I grabbed at everything I could with the other but carried on sliding relentlessly. I glanced over my shoulder to see a drop just meters away, a big drop, an unsurvivable drop with nothing to stop us from falling. I rolled onto my back with my daughter, crying, on my chest holding her tight with the hope that she, at least, would be ok when, at the very edge, I managed to push my foot into the vegetation that grew there.

We stopped sliding.

My wife and brother-in-law were scrambling down towards us and took my daughter from my arms and carried her away. I stayed there, entangled in the bushes and smoked two cigarettes, silently, with one leg dangling over the cliff.

I didn’t speak at all for the rest of the day.

When we visited the temple for her birthday the next morning we meant it.

#36

My ex bf breaking into my house when I was asleep. Ambushed me in bed, r*ped me, beat me unconscious...woke up naked on the road, someone had luckily seen me and stopped, they were checking my pulse. His plan was to leave me there so someone else would k*ll me (accidentally.) Still in therapy dealing with PTSD.

#37

This is going to sound really weird but my dad threatened to k*ll me over my grades. Last year I was a sophomore during zoom lessons and I was struggling in a trigonometry class. I asked my parents for a tutor and they obliged. However the tutor was very expensive. Every day I would go do my homework with the tutor and he helped me understand it perfectly. I’d do the hw and get an A. A on the study guide. But I’d fail my test . 5 tests in a row. After tutoring one day I was in the car with my dad and he asked me about my grades and because I was agitated I told him I hated school and that I was su!cidal and depressed. He then told me he wanted to go to the highway and k!ll us and make it look like an accident because he hated his work too and he was also depressed. He started speeding towards the highway and ran through multiple red lights. At this one light I got out of the car and he pulled me back in and asked what I was doing. I told him I was going to go into the nearby Wendy’s and call the police. He then told me that “ my own son would snitch on me “ and “ our bond meant nothing” and he drove me back home. We have never spoken about this since. I also have told my mom and she said I deserve it. I still live with both of my parents and I am very depressed and kind of unable to do any schoolwork.

#38

I'd say my mother's cancer but especially her last year, the first ones were bad to the point I would go to her bedroom to see if she was still breathing whenever I felt there was too much silence but the last one was nightmare, still remember one day when she had a really bad fever and while a nurse friend of hers worked on it I went to my bedroom and lied in like fetal position in my bed crying like a child, I was so damn scared.

Image credits: Kilroy83

#39

I had a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in my lungs) earlier this year. My wife drove me to the hospital at 10:00 PM when I couldn’t even lay down in bed, and I know I could have easily died from it. Two days in the hospital later, though, I was on a quick road to recovery.

#40

Walked through a skid row in LA downtown by mistake….

#41

Got a couple knives pulled on me one night while working at a pizza shop. Had a little mexican standoff. First time experiencing the thought "I might have to stab this dude or be stabbed"

Luckily our pizza knives were bigger and with my coworker backing me up the two dudes both left. I owe my life to my coworker from that night, dude had my back.

Image credits: ASmufasa47

#42

I don't think that's the scariest thing that happened to me but it's the one I can remember now


I was sleeping in class and when I woke up the class was empty and it was dark outside so I got up started panicking and ran down 3 stories of stairs in 10 seconds only to find out that it was break and it was dark outside because a storm came in the half hour I was sleep in and made it look like night time.

#43

Woke up just at dawn to a thunderous boom and roar like a jet engine way south west of the house. So deep the doors and windows were rattling but the sound was steady and not getting louder or softer. as the sound continued I felt less anxious and went to the sink to pour water for our morning coffee. As I started the water I saw outside the kitchen window the sky light up with a rolling fire wall of red yellow flames that were moving in all directions across the entire sky. Including towards us. Thinking the worse and scared to near death I immediately went into the bedroom and woke my wife up. I held her and kissed her telling her this may be it. The sky glow quickly subsided, thankfully, after all the "loose" gas burnt off. A large underground natural gas pipeline, 13" I believe, had burst ( initial boom) causing a huge pressurized release ( roar) that the wind carried south of town that finally found a ignition source. Continued to burn for a while until
it could be turned off with a loud roar but contained to a quarter mile of the break with flames 400 foot up.

Shortly therafter I turned on my police scanner. The first reported dispatch was from a town 12 miles away to the east and when they got outside of town they called in saying in disbelief that what they see is not in their jurisdiction. At the same time a town 15 miles to the south was notified by a truck driver that he could see the flame column straight in front of himand he was pulling over, despite being 12 miles down the road. Our town , closest was the 3rd call, although we were already on the way. It was hard to miss.

#44

Psychosis brought on by a kidney infection. I thought my husband was trying to k*ll me and my kids were trying to help him k*ll me. Pretty dark times.

#45

Finding out at 21.5 weeks of pregnancy that I had an incompetent cervix, and needed an emergency cerclage (getting my cervix stitched shut until 36 weeks) ASAP, as in “get out of our office and head straight to the hospital”. If I didn’t have the anatomy and physiology scan that day, and if the tech didn’t test my cervix, I would have lost the baby. It took us years of trying and fertility treatments to get pregnant. Losing him would have destroyed me.

#46

Almost being caught by the national guard on protests against the government. The government of my country is know for really f****d up tortures to protestants, so it was scary to get caught by them.

There were a few risky moments, but the worst was when the national guard came out of nowhere with smoke grenades and shooting, so we lost the streets barricades and any sense of organization. Everyone just started running, some were caught and others managed to escape. I was saved by a citizen who let me in to his house, otherwise I think I would have been caught.

#47

Being mugged with a knife on my throat. Only time I've been scared for my life.

#48

The scariest thing was probably the car accident. I didn't know where or who I was, they had to use the jaws of life to get me out.

#49

Hearing a smoke alarm go off and discovering my kid had set fire to her dollhouse. Nobody hurt thank god.

#50

When my dad hired two guys to get close to me and become friends of mine with a real intention of robbing and k**ling me later on.

#51

Almost loosing my 3 week old son. My husband was watching him for me for a couple of hours while I did some errands. When I got home he said he slept the whole time. I woke him up to feed him. He seemed off and I kept telling my husband he seems sluggish. That night he started this moaning sound and felt hot. I woke my husband up and told him we need to take him to the children's ER. He ended up being septic. His fever was over 103, his oxygen was low, and his heart rate was extremely high. I just stood there panicking. All I can remember saying over and over was is he okay is he okay. Apparently he got ecoli in his blood. I have no idea how and neither do they. He's 3 now and has been fine since.

#52

Driving on I-95 in the rain when a truck cuts off the car in front of me and I had to slam on the brakes. Car goes into full hula hoop mode and spins erratically three full times at the speed of light through the left lane of traffic. It hits the concrete barrier that happens to form the side of the f*****g bridge I was driving over, tips a little like it might go for a swim, and then somehow spins AGAIN in the opposite direction. I swear that I experienced this all in slow motion, like long enough to think "when is the spinning going to stop?" and also long enough to appreciate the fact that "In the Ayer" by Flo-Rida was playing on the radio when I thought that I might, in fact, go airborne.

#53

Taking a 7 hour flight and not knowing if my mom would be alive when I touched down.

I don’t have a relationship with my mom, but her being rushed to the ICU when I live on the opposite side of the country was..depressing.

Image credits: Vivid-Intention-8161

#54

A really bad ice storm in my area earlier this year. We got a couple days of freezing rain, which covered absolutely everything in an inch or so of solid ice. House roofs, cars, streets, tree branches, everything just frozen solid. A couple oak trees 30+ tall just collapsed and fell over (none on anyone’s house, thank f*****g god.) But for an entire weekend we had no power, no heat, no running water, and I had to go to sleep to the sound of tree branches cracking and falling, worrying that one would fall onto my house or through a window or something, while I shivered and struggled just to stay warm.

#55

I've been robbed at gunpoint twice at the restaurant I work at, but the 1st time was very traumatic. Walking out of the restaurant I was ambushed by 2 men, turns out they were brothers & 1 of them was a former employee but anyway they ran up on us (myself & crew) we ran to our cars but they caught me & got into the car with me , 1 brother took my keys out of the ignition & threw them, laid on top of me & his brother opened my passenger door, cocked his gun & pointed it directly against my temple. The 1 with the gun told me to give them the $ which I wasn't trying not to f**k that $ but I had already handed it to the 1 who was on top of me. I yelled at him that I gave it to him & they ran off. I somehow stayed calm the whole time, as soon as they were out of sight I fell to my knees crying. I was not brave I was scared f*****g shocked. To make matters worse as I said the 1 guy was a former employee I'm in SC & they were from New Orleans had very thick accents, as soon as the guy spoke I knew who he was, I told the cops when they arrived as we have personnel files I had all his information, address , SSN, etc for some reason the cops did not pursue any of the information I gave them. The next day they robbed a convienvece store in the area & shot the cashier. That could have been me & it could have possibly been avoided had they followed up that night.

#56

When I was told I might have a blood clot behind my left eye due to some concerning symptoms and I would be life flighted to the closest hospital with neuro and a nicu because I was 39 weeks pregnant with our second daughter.

After quite a bit of scans, testing and a very concerned looking neurologist, it turned out to be an ocular migraine along with pregnancy hormones getting out of hand.

I was induced and my OB asked the neurologist if he wanted to stay and he said, “I’m good, I saw enough births in med school and I’ll let you update me.”.

#57

Either being in a car with a drunk driver or Iraq.

#58

I hydroplaned on a overpass, I broke the retaining wall and fell 17 feet to the bottom. I walked out with a sprained wrist— my truck was a 5speed and I was trying to down shift to get traction. I failed.

#59

I was visiting some family in Edmonton years and years ago and they use to have this big fair full of rides and attractions. I wish I could remember the name sorry. All the rides were your standard carnival rides, the gravitron, tilt-a-whirl, log flume, etc. I had gone to many of these traveling fairs in my time and had a good time so thought nothing of it. After going on a few rides and having fun I decided to go on that ride that is the boat the goes back and forth before going all the way around. So at the beginning everything seemed fine. However at a certain point when going back the safety bar that was suppose to hold me in place just fell forward. It had not locked in and the ride was underway. The ride started heading the other way and the safety bar fell back on to me again. I pulled it as hard towards myself hoping to lock it into place. Yet when we started heading back the bar just flopped completely open again. I was s******g myself. I literally thought I was going to fall out of this ride and die. All those carnival horror stories were true I was fearing. I just wrapped my arms around the bar and held myself with my hands. If worst happened I would dangle from the bar I thought. Fortunately after a rocky ride it came to an end and I was safe with maybe only leaving my seat a few inches. I immediately ran to one of the workers after I got off and told them. The ride was shut down for 30 minutes after and I was done having fun for the night. The only other time I've been that scared since was the few times I've had sleep paralysis .

Image credits: MrSchop

#60

When someone broke into my house when I was 10.

Me and my mum lived alone with my little sister apart from on weekends when my step dad slept over because my mum wanted me to get used to him. Of course the night he just so happened to not stay over this happens.

We always double checked (we still do) locking the door because of my anxiety and of course my mum forgot to that day.

Anyways getting to the point, it was 12am and my mum came through to me and my little sisters room and she said “there’s a man in the house” and of course my 10 year old brain was like “OH S**T ARE WE GONNA DIE?!” my mum told me to not panic but of course I was gonna panic because I was 10. She sat on my bed whispering to me trying to calm me down. She phoned my step dad first, he wouldn’t answer. She hates my sisters dad but she was so desperate for help she phoned him and he wouldn’t answer. After that we phoned the police and turns out the guy was just drunk and came into the wrong house. He lived in the apartment next to ours and he mistaken my house for his. I do feel bad for the guy and he wasn’t a threat at all but it was horrifying. It must of been embarrassing when he woke up the next day.

#61

I had found out that the man I had been dating for the last 9 months was an active IV d**g user and I couldn’t get free from him. I had gotten up to leave for work one morning for my 6:30 shift an hour away. As I was getting ready I heard his alarm go off. Turns out he had a scheme to take me to work so he could run d***s across the east Coast and use my car apparently with another female. I told him no that was not happening and the next thing I knew I was running for my life because he had a loaded gun hidden between the bed and the night stand. I remember hearing metal hit the floor and the evil look in his eyes.

#62

I suffered from an illness with no name for years, when i got sick i would p**s blood, and be violently ill, i didnt have a problem as i was told i was going to grow out of it (Childhood Nephritis), so imagine my shock when i hit 19 and feel like s**t, like i was going to die... i went to the doctors office to see a GP, and they had closed early for a christmas party, but i forced them to open the door to deal with me, the GP said "WE NEED AN AMBULANCE NOW!" and i was forced in to the Ambulance and down to the ER.


Whilst in the ER they took blood and found i was suffering from hyperkalemia, to much potassium in my blood, which was causing my heart rate to hit the 200's... i was on the verge of a stroke/heart attack... i was admit in to the hospital and immediately put on d***s to lower the levels so i didnt die, but i kept vomiting Black bile.... i thought, this is it... this is how i die, not doing something heroic or awesome, but in a hospital bed alone, vomiting and wanting nothing more then my mom and dad...and honestly i was scared out of my mind and couldnt stop crying.


apparently after that i was put in to a medical coma, and pumped full of more d***s and given emergency dialysis... My kidneys had failed and i was dying of blood poisoning.


when i woke up i had missed my birthday, and it was roughly 2 weeks later, i had a dialysis machine attached to a chest line, and a dialysis nurse, trying to keep me calm, but i was choking to death, so i ended up pulling the Ventilator out of my mouth and this long pipe came with it, i started to cough violently and almost vomited but there was nothing to come out so i just dry heaved alot and pulled alot of muscles..


later i was told my kidneys had failed, i was lucky to be alive and doubly lucky that i didnt clot and suffer a Stroke, or a heart attack.. i was weak as a newborn and could bearly lift my arms after a while and remained in hospital for 3 months, getting rehabilitation because i couldnt speak properly or walk properly, after 6 months i was basically back to being me, just struggling with this new condition that had basically ruined my life and my plans..

#63

Being stalked by a Tinder match. He would call me multiple times, moaning. I tried to block his number, but he kept leaving voicemails (it’s stupid that they can still do that even after you block them). He didn’t stop until I had my boyfriend that I met after the fact text him to leave me alone.

#64

I had a man aggressively scream at and follow me for a good city block as he yelled about what he wanted to do to me about a year and a half ago. I managed to get back to my hotel and have the front desk call the police. Scariest experience of my life. I am convinced the only reason he didn’t attack me was because I had my dog with me, who was making it clear she was ready to kick his a*s. But I never want to go through that again.

#65

I was caught in a tropical cyclone out in the Pacific in a shonky converted trawler with no hatch covers. The waves were taller than the boat. Genuinely wondered if this was the end.

#66

Driving home late at night with my friends (we live in the middle of Yee-Yee Nowhere, WV), we’re all exhausted so I’m just taking it slow as we chat. We pull off the highway and hear a scream from out in the woods. That’s not totally uncommon bc Forest People Be Wildin, so I just rolled up the windows and carried on. The fog got really thick so I had to squint to see. As we get close to the house, my pal Petey yells and points out his window, and we all look at the ditch next to us. I swear to god, there was a deer that had been ripped apart and it’s organs were strung for like twenty feet. Naturally, I slammed the gas and we almost fell over each other getting in the house. None of us slept that night, and we just kept watching out the windows hoping to high hell that whatever tf did that didn’t see us.

#67

Windy day, took the bus home, got off the bus, saw a lady selling husky plush toys on the sidewalk, slowed down my walk, 2 seconds later, a GIANT billboard blown off, fell from the building and landed 5 meters away in front of me. If I walked as fast as I normally did...

#68

Thus will probably get buried but at the age of 20 I went through critcal heart failure and my 4th open heart surgery.

It started out like thd flu, I just fel like I had a bad cold and was sick to my stomache, nothing that I couldn{t handle and I just didnt think much of it. Then it started to get much worse, I would have these attacks where I could not stop shaking, so I went to the Hospital. I have Pulmonary Atresia, which is a form of Heart Disease (Something I was born with and nothng I can do about) So I told them and I figured they would account for that. They told me it was a bad cold and sent me home telling me to get some rest.

It continued over the next month, I was barely sleeping and could not keep much down, I wasnt eating prettty much anything but I started gaining weight and had no energy during the day. One night, I was shaking horribly in the bed and went to go vomit (Something that I could not control and would happen frequently) and when I did it was all blood.

The next day I went to the hospital again and by that time my Vision was loosing all of the color and the walls looked like they were melting. My heart rate was resting at 177 bpm and my blood pressure was 60/40. I had little to no blood flow in my arms and I was on the brink of dying.

Thanks to some amazing nurses and doctors, I was emergency driven to another hospital in the town over. I spent 150+ hours in the ICU, 4 more weeks in the hospital, and went thorugh another open heart surgery trying to get the infection that has taken over my blood out. It was a success

This all happened because of a Strep Throat bug that got into my mouth, and then into my blood stream after I accidentally brushed too hard one night with my tooth brush. Over all, I had 150 hours in the ICU, a month in the hospital, open heart surgery, a blood clot in my left lung, and a 2 million dollar bill, a month of infusion treatment, with some hefty PTSD with it, but I wasn't ready to go, and thanks to my loving Fiance, my caring family, and some absolutely incredible health care workers, I had the strength and determination to get through it

Shout out to all the nurses and doctors out there, you don't realize how fragile life is until you are about to go.

#69

Being locked in a house all alone without food or money starving to death for three months. I will never forget the smells, bugs and the silence

Edit: This happened four years ago. I wasn't in a good place mentally and in a toxic relationship with alchohol and other person. Things escalated and I ended up bring stranded in the middle of nowhere for those three months .

#70

Being followed to work for accidentally cutting off some random guy 30 minutes before.

Then getting screamed out in a language where I understood 5 out of the 100 words. And then getting the police called on me. Where after reviewing the tape sent me on my way

If a car follows me for too long I start panicking now.

#71

Kidney stones. They were only about 1-2cm in size, but the pain they caused me was the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced. Doctors thought my appendix burst.

Image credits: Dear_Willingness_600

#72

I was robbed at gun point in 2005 : I worked for an Advance Auto parts in Coastal South Carolina. 2 of our stores had been robbed in a 3 week period on Sunday nights and we were all nervous it could be us next. Sure enough. A little background : I was the third key manager or this store, and had one other person with me who's father happened to be a local police officer.


Any way our Sunday night was stressful, we had the GM watching the place from across the street. Around closing time we wanted to celebrate and order pizza, we asked the GM if she would pick it up. My partner started brining in outside merchandise when we got hit. Short white guy with a ski mask (actually it was a beanie with eyes cut out) and a ball cap on. comes in pointing a gun at us.


I'm fairly big in stature but I was scared as hell of this guy. He pointed the gun right at me and demanded we go to the safe. I opened the safe with the gun to my head then he made us lay on the floor. He cleared it out and started screaming at me about the money. Day time manager did an early deposit and stashed the PC in a locker...


this guy is going nuts and I just plainly tell him "it's because of you, you hit 2 other stores they are making daily deposits to limit the cash" that's a paraphrase I was mostly stammering and please sir and yes sir to him. he made us empty the registers and lay back down, he cleared them and bailed out.


When the cops showed up they were complete a******s to us, saying how we should have fought the guy especially me since i'm bigger (we caught everything on camera). Little note about me, i'm big but i'm not made to fight. I hate it, I don't mind sports much etc but unless I have to I don't go looking for fights. especially with guys with guns. Not to say i never learned to defend myself, but I've only been compelled to hit someone a handful of times max.


My partner's dad showed up and was basically like "i had a feeling I should have checked on them because of everything , but I just didn't"... So got robbed, made fun of by cops, and essentially not prioritized in lieu of the situation.


I have some PTSD about this and somewhat of a complex: I wonder if I was a coward? The video clearly shows a few opportunities I could have hit this guy, but I was scared to f*****g death. Had a gun held on me. Once the guy was caught there were no bullets found on him so its a possibility the gun was unloaded. Typing about this made me realize I think I still have something to work out about this night...f**k.

#73

Being told while in the throes of severe mental illness that if I didn’t comply with taking ketamine again (which I had tried just 2 days prior and had paradoxically left me with such a severe, paralyzing apathetic depression that I had to consciously stop myself almost every waking moment from jumping in front of a car) by the psychological facility that I was at they would confiscate my belongings and make me homeless.

#74

Driving home, then nothing, then waking up days later in the hospital having no idea what had happen, where I was, why I was in so much pain, and no clue who I was.

#75

It happened so fast that I wasn't really scared during it, but the Aurora shooting. Wasn't in there very long.

#76

After I retaliated at a toxic family member by causing criminal damage to his car I left town for a bit. Slept rough on the streets of London. Few nights in I started freaking out. Walked through a graffiti tunnel then started hallucinating that I was been followed. Then I stared across the bridge and all I could see were hundreds of dark figures. I Walked into the river Thames. Was in the water 90mins. I wasn't feeling suicidal but in that moment I accepted my fate, It took a boat of rescuers 3 attempts to get me to get in the boat. The ambulance trip from Kings cross to Middlesbrough didn't seem to take long at the time but it was about 4-5 hours. The ambulance crew gave me cigs and let me have one every so often in the ambulance.

#77

Hurricane Ida. That severely heavy sheet of rain scared me to death.

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