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People Divulge Their Most Unexplainable Supernatural Experiences

People Divulge Their Most Unexplainable Supernatural Experiences
Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay

Pragmatic people believe there is an explanation for the unexplained, given the fact they have a practical and realistic approach to everything.


But contrary to what they may believe, plenty of hair-raising situations in life defy logic, and they will never be able to find a rational explanation for them.

This leads to one conclusion: that there are supernatural forces around us. It is ignorant to deny the existence of greater forces at work invisible to the naked eye. At least that's what I believe.

And just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Curious to hear from strangers who have had brushes with otherworldly forces, Redditor HalfOfABraincell asked:

"What is a supernatural event that happened in your life that just can not be explained?"
Not every incident recalled by Redditors was sinister in nature. Some were actually heartwarming.
However, prepare to be baffled.


While dreams are chalked up to wild brain activity in the middle of the night, the line between dream and reality was blurred for these Redditors.

Message From The Other Side

"My siblings and I all had the same dream on the same night a year ago. It was exactly one year after my mum died and we all had a dream about her and she was in the same place and was speaking to us. She reassured us that she was ok and she was with her mum and my dead siblings and that her dad is in the bad place."

"The next day we all realised we had the same dream, we even all independently drew a picture of the place we saw her and wrote down the name of the place it resembled. Most of my siblings took that as an actual message from my mum but my youngest sister and I like to believe that we have all developed some freaky hive mind low level telepathy lol."

Queen_Omega

A Tragic Discovery

"I had a dream once about my high school best friend who had moved out of state and started a family. I hadn't seen her or spoken to her in at least 10 years and had never met her child, except seeing pictures/ posts on Facebook and commenting on them. In my dream I was walking down a street at night and out of nowhere her little girl appears next to me and I asked her, 'Where is your mama? Why are you by yourself?' I remember her taking me to some bushes near a random house on the street and finding my friend in bad shape (beaten up or something) on the ground and I remember running to the door of the random house screaming for help and to call the police. This is all I can recall from the dream but I think there may have been a little more."

"The next day, I wake up and think to myself, man that was weird. Maybe I dreamt of her because we had just spoken a little in comments of a Facebook post, I should send her a message. I go on about my day, go to work, get home later that day and sit on my couch and scroll through Facebook."

"BAM. 1000 posts— Rest In Peace, etc - All of them tagged my friend and her daughter. I thought WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F*CK!?!? At that point there was no information as to what had happened, so I thought it must have been a car accident or something. Over the course of the next few weeks to months, more and more information came out and it was NOT an accident. My friend and her sweet baby had been murdered by some animal (I won't refer to them as a person)."

"This happened about 5 years ago. I still remember the main parts of the dream vividly. I still am a little horrified that I had this dream that night. When it was happening possibly. I haven't been able to tell anyone else about it either because just thinking about it gives me chills."

_bella_x0

About Dave

" I have to make a bit of a premise, when i was little the woman that came to clean my house (i'll call her Mary) while my parents where working was also my babysitter, usually after she ended up cleaning she would bring me to her house until my mom would come and pick me up. There during the year i knew her whole family, among these was her husband that i'll call Dave. So Dave was a pretty cool guy, just the average elder you would find in any rural town, he liked to drink wine with his friends at the bar, go hunting and he had a lot of good and interesting stories to tell me when i was a kid, and after all these years spent togheter he basically considered me as a grandson.

Now back when [the virus] hit for the first time in my country i had a dream one night where Mary was coming to my house to clean as every other week, but this time in my living room there was a closed black coffin. When i asked her what was in there she looked at me and said in a sad tone: 'Dave is inside there.' Now if that wasn't strange enough i remember waking up later that night and feeling a presence to the side of my bed, and i distinctly remember to have said while still being half asleep: 'Come on Dave let me get back to sleep.' Next morning when i woke my parents told me that Mary had called saying that Dave had passed that night due to [the virus] complication, to this day i still haven't told anyone about it and i am still a bit freaked out from the whole story. Also sorry for format and grammar but i'm on mobile and english isn't my first language."

Uzzo_99

Preparing For Company

"One night I had a dream about my Grandpa (who had died almost 20 years prior). We were in his home, and he kept telling me 'we need to clean the house, we need to get the house ready.' When I asked him why, he just said 'she's coming home.'"

"My Grandma, his wife of 50 years, died the next day."

dirtbikejess

A Late Brother's Encouragement

"My brother passed away in 2018 suddenly, about 3weeks after I was having surgery on my hand I was waking up from surgery and my brother was standing in the door way, I started freaking out and the nurses were thinking I was in pain but I couldn't tell them my dead brother is over there, he visited again when I was in labour last year he told me he was so proud of me and that I can do it because I'm strong like a viking... I was in labour on his birthday and gave birth at 1.12am.​"

Dontbeacreepernow

These Redditors saw, or thought they saw, a person who was no longer part of this world.

Reassurance From Beyond

"When I was 9 or 10, it was a bad year. I was regularly physically and emotionally abused. But that year, I was sexually abused. On top of all that, I started having serious mental health issues. Well, when things were at their absolute worst, I started having dreams of this blonde lady telling me to hold on. That things would get better. It was so comforting and peaceful and continued as long as the extreme abuse continued. I didn't know who she was, I just figured I imagined her. Well, things finally simmer down, and the dreams stop. About a year later, mom was going through old photo albums, and my blood freezes. I see the blonde woman from my dreams. I ask who she is. Turns out, it was an aunt I had who died shortly before I was born."

Tenebrousgent

The Not-So-Absent Worker

"Working as night security for a small office at a sanitation plant. Building was a single entrance and you had to check in at the security station to get in or out. A worker shows up and checks in saying he needs to take care of a few things and grab some stuff. So I check in his ID and flip a few lights for him then go back about my business."

"Fast forward a few hours and my shift is about to end, I still haven't seen the guy come back. So I go patrol the building to find him and literally can't find him anywhere. He's not in any of the areas I turned lights on for him, no other lights are on, and he's not in any other rooms. I stop by security to see if we just missed each other and he's trying to leave, but nobody is there. I do a second patrol and still no signs. At this point I went to check cameras to see where he went, but he's not on a single camera except the one covering the entrance and security station. He turns down a hallway and never shows up on the next camera down said hall. At this point I logged it as an incident, and GTFO right as the relief shift showed up."

"Next day my boss calls me and says that worker had been on vacation out of state for several days, and wouldn't return for several more. Nobody could offer any explanation to what happened."

DuneManta

People Share Their Best 'Whoa, It Worked' Moments | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

The Hitchhiker

"When I was going to my families home I got in a suv going down the road. This was in Bangladesh at the time and after taking the suv the next two hours would be a highway going down a forest. I was sitting shotgun and along the highway their was an old man walking down the highway. He was hitch hiking and the driver decided to pick him up. He insisted on sitting in my seat and obliged as he was an older man."

"About an hour down the drive our car collided with a bus and the shot gun seat was mangled up. We all got out and we looked around but we couldn't find the old man that insisted on taking my seat anywhere."

"Stories like these aren't rare but I didn't believe them. We all know the man sat in my seat and we all saw him. But he was nowhere to be found."

Leondas04

These Redditors were haunted by memories of bizarre and poignant cases that defied explanation.

The Stairwell Guardian

"When I was a kid (about 10-12ish) I was carrying a load of laundry upstairs home alone while mom was out doing errands. We have this weird carpet runner over our hard wood stairs that's only really attached at the top of the flight but otherwise not fitted or secured to each individual stair, so naturally I step on an air bubble of carpet with my vision obscured by the laundry and fall backwards while bear hugging a bunch of blankets."

"I specifically remember thinking "welp, guess I'm about to die" while almost airborne with just my big toe left on the carpet when I felt two hands, one on either side of my shoulder blades, give me a firm shove that launched me back up on the step and diagonally against the stair rail. I assumed mom somehow silently came back early without announcing herself and turned around to thank her while still clinging to the railing, but no one was there. I scurried upstairs to put my things down while calling her name and walked the house afterwards to check if any doors were unlocked or if her car was there. I finally resorted to calling her cell where she told me she was hitting up a few more stores. It still feels like there's a presence on that stairwell- like someone's watching but in a protective way rather than sinisterly."

blickyjayy

The Stairwell Demon

"Well when I was around 6 years old I was walking down the stairs no one was behind me and all of a sudden I remember getting chills then feeling a faint hand on my shoulder before I got basically pushed down the stairs, I was alright a few cuts and bruises nothing serious but I still remember the feeling of the invisible hand on my shoulder, it haunts me."

x_oblivious_x

The Exorcist Stairs GIF by filmeditorGiphy

Unidentified Hovering Object

"I was home alone in high school. It looked like car headlights where shining through our kitchen door which didn't make sense because it was next to a field. I looked out the kitchen door and the lights where coming from about 50 feet off the ground. It was a row of 3 white lights and 1 red light. I opened the door and there was complete silence and the whole field was lit up. I closed the door quickly, turned around and it was gone."

mrserinisyourenasty

All Dogs Go To Heaven...And Make Periodic Visits

"I was about 15 and trying to sleep but having an asthma attack. Late in the night I started hearing a rhythmic breathing from the floor next to the bed. It wasn't scary, more comforting. And it wasn't me, because my breathing sounded way more f'ked up than that. It helped me calm down and get to sleep, even though I was still sick (I was able to get my hands on an inhaler in the morning). At the time I thought it was a friendly ghost. I later rationalized that maybe I was hearing a family member through the heating ducts."

"What I realized years later, when I had a dog, was that it had sounded exactly like a big dog sleeping next to the bed. So now I'm 50/50 on whether a ghost dog came to visit me, or my own dog time traveled back about ten years before she was born to comfort me."

greeneyedwench

Owl Ally

"Super minor compared to many in this thread."

"Night before thanksgiving 3 years ago I was across the country at my parents, driving back to theirs with my now-wife from a friends house. As we draw near, there is some type of bundle in the middle of the road. I stopped and pulled off to move it, and it turned out to be a barred owl that got clipped by a car. Long story short I spend the rest of that night getting the owl into a puppy cage, gave it some food and water, and the next day dropped it off at a wildlife rescue center."

"I got home the next week, all the way across the country (New Jersey to Oregon). I stepped outside and there was a barred owl sitting on my fence watching me. It was gone by the time I got back. But now I know I'm straight with all owls."

abxytg

Missed Call

"My buddy and I were playing tennis one night at some courts by my house. Lights usually went out at 11, but for whatever reason that night they went off at a weird time, like 10:43. Whatever, that was weird, we collected our stuff and started walking to my car about 500 feet from the courts. My buddy's mom pulls up right as we're getting to my car and goes "Where the hell have you been? I called your cell and some guy was just laughing, it didn't sound like you". It was then my buddy realized he didn't have his phone on him. He told his mom to call his cell again and we could see it light up in the middle of the court we were playing on (by the net, but still definitely in between the single lines, not at all where we kept the rest of our stuff). He goes and gets it and only has the one missed call from his mom, the one she just made. He asked if she called the right number and her call log showed 3 calls to his phone all that night. We can't explain why the cell was on the court or what happened with the calls or what happened with the lights. It was surreal."

dgrantschmidt

An Invisible Reunion

"The only way I can explain this one is 'wishful thinking.'"

"My mom and dad were co-dependent, and they liked it that way. They didn't want other people (other than the kids). They were completely happy to be just wrapped up in each other. My dad died the day before his birthday in a hospice centre. Afterwards, it was like he was still home. His touch lamp beside his recliner would go on by itself. The recliner would rock like someone was getting in it. And sometimes, my mom or my sister would hear my dad saying, 'Honey, fix me a cold drink?' That was exactly how he'd ask my mom to fill up his massive mug with Sprite over ice."

"My mother died less than a year and a half later. After my mother died, there was never another sign of either of them being there. They've been gone now for close to 14 years now."

ClothDiaperAddicts

Not Invited

"This didn't happen to me, but a very nice old man and his wife used to live a few streets over from us. Well she got very sick and his son flew in to help watch and care for her. A few weeks later she moved to hospice and later died. The night she died her husband and son drive home and they were talking about what to do for the funeral and the husband asked, 'Do you think she'd want (some person) to attend' and they both said they heard the dead mom/wife in the back seat say 'no thank you.'"

_________FU_________

The stories concerning the deaths of the elderly or those gone too soon resonate with us the most because we want to believe we still have a connection with them.

Maybe that's why they visit us in our dreams, either to give us a heads up indicating it's their time to go or to check up on us long after they've left this world.

I gladly welcome a presence that brings me comfort.

However, if there really is a presence that pushes people down the stairs, I'm taking the elevator.

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

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.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

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.