People are obsessed with hauntings and ghost stories.
Unexplainable phenomena remain a fascination for even for the timid. It's like driving by the scene of a traffic accident. As horrific as they are, people can't help but slow down and look.
This is why ghost hunting shows remain popular. Audiences in general like being freaked out.
But the real horrors that keep me up at night are the ones perpetrated by the living.
Curious to hear about hair-raising anecdotes, Redditor Napalm_Nancy_Yeet asked strangers online:
"What true, non-paranormal story gives you chills?"
No ghosts or murderers here, but these stories are creepy, nonetheless.
Incognito Photo-Bomber
"Seeing that photo of the guy hiding in the trees. The kid took a selfie on a mountain trail and sent the pic to his family then went missing. After closer inspection they noticed there was a guy crouching down hiding in the trees behind where the kid was.... On this trail that no one was supposed to be on..."
Undiscovered Body
"A guy was sleeping on top of fridges at a grocery store trying to hide from work. He fell between the wall and one, and died there. Nobody knew where he was until his rotting body stunk up the place."
These tragic stories are nightmare-inducing.
The Fight For Survival
"Alive. Bunch of kids survived a plane crash but couldn't get out of the mountains. Wound up cannibalizing each other. A few were eventually rescued, their stories are harrowing."
The Drowning Girl
"The story of Omayra Sanchez. Don't look it up if you are sensitive. She was a kid that got a feet trapped under debris during a flood and was imposible to rescue. They could interview her while was slowly dying of infection and hypothermia."
What criminals are capable of are far more haunting than any spooky specter.
Stalker
"The story of Daniel LaPlante. There's quite a bit of information so I'll try to sum up the creepiest bits."
"Daniel met a girl named Annie and took her on a date or two. They talk for a while but eventually, Annie found him to be a bit creepy and dumps him. He continues to stop by the house uninvited but quite sneaky about it. He'd tap on windows and stuff, get Annie and her sister riled up and scared. They'd try to convince their dad someone was out there but he was often working and didn't hear or see anything."
"So one night, the two sisters went to the basement to do a seance, trying to contact their mom who had died somewhat recently I believe. They hear tapping on the walls and run up stairs. All is well for a while, but the tapping and knocking continues. It comes from all over the house and they can't figure out why."
One night, dad finally heard the knocking and investigated. He opened a closet door to find Daniel standing there with a knife or machete. That's scary enough but Daniel was also wearing his late wife's wedding gown (I think make-up too but not sure). Dad fought him off and he was finally arrested. If that isn't weird enough, they found out he had been moving around, even spending the night INSIDE the walls of their house. That's how he'd watch them and it explains the constant knocking from all over.
Prior to this incident, he had assaulted and murdered a pregnant woman and drowned her two children.
I left out a fair bit of details and maybe the timeline is off but I'm telling this from memory.
The Bedroom Watcher
"A few years ago in Saratoga NY there was a guy who would break into people's houses just to watch them sleep. Never took anything, just watched people sleep. They caught him, but it apparently really messed with the minds of the victims. Saratoga Sleeper Creeper."
Laundry Man
"When I turned 18, I got my first apartment. I started using the laundry down the street. I noticed the owner would show up within 10 minutes of my arrival. Didnt matter what day or time. Always trying to chat me up, drive me home etc. Creeper dude. One day, a man I didnt even know was there and yelled at him for staring at my clothing in the dryer while touching his hand to the door. He was staring at my panties. It was so uncomfortable, I began to take my laundry back to my parents."
"About 10 years later, scrolling FB, i see an age progression for a teen girl who disappeared from that laundry, a week before I began going there. I never forgot how scary he was, and would have remembered any missing child posters or even newspaper articles because I was a daily reader then. Turns out, this guy is the only suspect, also lived across the street from me so it explains why he always arrived when I showed up. I had to walk past his place with my clothes."
"She's never been found."
The Paroled Rapist
"A paroled rapist and his wife abducted an 11 year old girl and assaulted her on a weekly basis, even forcing her to give birth to two children. All throughout this time he was being monitored by parole officers and psychiatrists who praised him for his supposed rehabilitation and even tried to have him taken off parole several times, unaware that he was holding three people captive under their noses."
"This went on for eighteen years until he was finally caught when he brought his daughters-by-rape to a campus and the police officers reported it to his parole officer."
The Netflix docuseries, Don't F**k With Cats, seriously kept me up at night.
Witnessing a twisted psychopath's gruesome torturing of animals was disturbing enough, but it turns out his social media stunts were only the beginning.
The three-part series, while being a well-produced show, wound up being the creepiest thing I have ever seen.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.