Growing up, my parents used to force me to hang out with a girl. They felt bad for her because her life was pretty rough, and she was legitimately a caring and funny girl. So far, so good. Then the sleepovers started and holy crap did that change everything. She lived in a house that constantly smelled like feet, sweat and pee. Her mom didn't believe in seasoning food because it "hid the natural flavor." She had a brother who did a lot of staring and groaning, a dad who chewed his toenails, a serious bug problem, and she herself always stunk like vinegar because she couldn't smell her own funk and showers were "too boring" to bother with.
I was forced into sleepovers at least once every few months for about six years. It's a shame, because I really liked the girl but I hated her place so much that it ruined our friendship completely. I kept trying to explain to my parents that the whole thing creeped me out, but they weren't having it. They felt bad for the girl so I had to be the one to pay for it. One Reddit user asked:
What caused you to think "I'm never visiting again" after being in someone's home?
I'm going to go ahead and warn you now - there are many many bugs and filth stories ahead. People are ... incredible. And I don't mean that in a good way. Brace yourselves, we're going in!
Drunk Dad And The Ghost
I had a new friend in middle school and I went over her house for a sleepover. It was fun at first because we were just playing outside. Then she shows me her creepy, unfinished basement with a rabbit hutch and some bunnies. She tells me how sad she was when one of her bunnies died recently and how her older brother made her laugh by making it's corpse dance.
Her dad is drinking in the kitchen, big beer gut. Something about him makes me feel uneasy. She shows me a room with a big fish hanging on the wall and flies around it's eyes. She says we can either sleep in here on the couches or in her bedroom. Then she tells me that her mom and brother sleep in her room with her every night and they lock the door. I ask why, she says ghosts. I'm thinking, what about your dad? Don't ask it aloud because I figure it's really him they're hiding from. Then I fake a stomach ache and had her mom take me home.
Scorpions
GiphyA failed scorpion farm.
Made the horrendous mistake of spending the night at my ex's parents' house. I woke up to the feeling of something crawling on me. I soon realized there were three somethings. I flipped on the light and discovered...scorpions. There are NO scorpions native to our area.
I freak out, swat them off and then run to the bathroom to strip and check for more and when I turn on the light, several scorpions on the wall scattered like roaches. I wake up the ex because seriously, wtf?
Apparently when he was younger he thought ant farms were boring and decided to order scorpions on the internet and make a scorpion farm instead. The survivors of his arachnid Mad Max setup escaped into the house where a few turned into an insane amount. The very wealthy parents chose to live with the scorpions rather than call an exterminator.
Never went back.
No Hospitality
A work friend invited me over to his house to watch a hockey game so I said sure why not. I bought a 6 pick of beers and he said sweet. He just put them in his fridge. He proceeded to pour himself scotch but never asking me I wanted to have a drink. Then he pulled out some leftovers and made himself a dish and again, he never asked me if I was hungry. Then i just asked for a beer (that I had bought) and he said "i guess, but I was going to save them for another time". I left after the game and its been really awkward at work.
- gb1993
Petrified Poop Pile
Finally went to a girls house that I had been talking to for a little while. We were messing around on the couch, things were advancing, and she asked to move to the bed. We get in the room and I noticed a foul smell. I started looking around and saw a pile of dog sh!t on the floor, no big deal, we had been out for a few hours and accidents happen. I told her about it and she said "oh no!" Like she was surprised and went to the bathroom to get things to clean it up. While she was in the bathroom I spotted 3 separate piles of shit and one of them almost petrified and had to have been there for a few days. I told her I didn't feel well and was going to go home. I never saw her again.
The Bath Tub
They had accumulated so many dirty dishes, they just put them into the bath tub.
- Bmc00
Getting To Know You
Met my biological father and half siblings when I was 12. Spent a night at his house to "get to know my family".
Proceeded the spend that entire night feeling disgusting, watching roaches crawl across the TV, trailing from the ceiling down the wall into the trash can. Crawling all over the piles of actual garbage laying on the bedroom floors.
I did not use the bathroom that night. It was a very long night.
The Hostage Situation
I was the new kid in the 6th grade and quickly made friends with this one girl. I think she kind of jumped at the chance to be friends with the one person who knew literally nothing about her. She was really nice to me, but also kind of really strange... like she'd growl at people and she'd draw wolves on every single surface from the classroom to her bedroom, but nonetheless we were both in an advance art program so we saw each other more than I saw other people in my grade and I wasn't in a position to reject friendship.
Went to her house once- never went back. When we entered the home it smelled HEAVILY of dog urine... but there wasn't a dog. When I asked if she had a dog her response was "no, not since the accident" then there was an uncomfortable silence and she just started laughing uncontrollably. RED FLAG.
I stayed because my mother wasn't picking me up until a bit later and I didn't exactly know how to walk home. When my mother did come to pick me up and I was about to exit the house, the girl's mom literally ran after me and grabbed me and brought me back upstairs. She shook my shoulders screaming I couldn't leave right now. I started freaking out not knowing what was happening. The girl's mom is frantically running around to all the windows and screaming at someone outside in a language I don't understand. My mom calls the house and is also freaking out, the girls mom wouldn't let her talk to me and she also just watched me get dragged back by this woman. So she calls the police.
It escalates and turns into like a mini hostage kind of situation. There was a guy outside that the girl's mom used to date and he wanted something from her and if I left he'd run into the house when the door opened, so I couldn't leave. Cops come, the girls mom gives me a plastic shopping bag duct taped everywhere and tells me under no circumstances am I allowed to look inside of it and that I had to hand it to the man outside. I didn't want to do that but it seems like it's the only way I'm getting out of there. It was rounded out by the contents and I remember it bearing the weight of a bowling ball. I actually pee'd on myself I was so scared. I didn't know what else to do so I took the bag and started to leave the house. When I made it to the exit I straight up YEETED the bag and ran to my mother. I have no clue where the guy was, I think at that point he was already apprehended by the police.
Whole time this was happening, the girl who I was there to hang out with was sitting on the table in her kitchen, eating cereal LIKE A DOG, not at all phased by the series of events happening in front her.
We had to go to the police station that night and because it was so late when I got home, I didn't go to school the next day. That day I missed school, the girl told everyone I was insane, and that when we hung out I went crazy and I pee'd myself for no absolutely reason.
We don't talk anymore.
Couch Crabs
Their hermit crabs lived in the couch for whatever reason. Yeah, in the couch. Guess their glass cage thing broke on it and she figured it was easier to let them live there. She poured sand under the cushions. It was f*cking weird.
- NanoBuc
Almost Rich
GiphyI had an almost rich friend. Almost meaning that his parents were well to do (they just up and gave him a house) and his grandma was in the oil business (would leave 6 figure dividend checks uncashed on her tables because who cares?).
So he moves into his detached garage, halfway turns it into an apartment, and rents out the house to another friend. I didn't go over there often, but I knew that he hadn't sprung for improvements to the apartment like a toilet or running water. Understandable. I guessed he would just go in the house to use the bathroom.
I visited one day. His 'apartment' was trashed. Used pizza boxes were everywhere, dirty dishes, dirty clothes... etc. All of that I could understand; this was his house, his living space. Who was I to judge?
Then I noticed two things: a definite dog sh*t smell and his penchant for Gatorade. The dog sh*t was obviously from the other friend's dog, except that it'd tracked it into the apartment and my friend had tracked it all around, smooshing it into the sh*tty carpet. I was about to comment on him storing Gatorade all along the shelf near his computer and how keeping it cold would be better... until I realized that these were already used. The bottles were full of what I was sure wasn't Gatorade.
But he was almost rich, so he was better than me, according to him.
- junket89
We Never Got Over It
It actually caused a rift in our friendship that I don't think we ever got over.
He was in town only for a few days, I told him if I came over, since we were drinking I needed to spend the night and that my wife would be there, because we lived an hour away.
So he's home from college, and we go to his childhood home, his mom's house. She's out with friends.
I walk in with an overnight bag for me and my wife. I ask where to put it and he shows me where we'll be sleeping. This is a mid 80s era trailer. Looks clean though. Until he opens the door to this room. His mom's room. I dare'd not turn the light on. There are unclean sheets on the bed. There are 5 dogs in there, mostly laying on the bed, which I now notice is covered in dog hair.
On the floor, which is bare plywood as the carpet looked to have been haphazardly torn out, there are 10 - 15 piles of sh!t and piss soaking into the wood everywhere.
My friend looks past all of this and tells me I can put my bag on a chair in the room. I said "OK....." and my wife was just glaring at me. I looked back at her like "I got this."
It looked as though he had cleaned the whole house pretty well, then shoved the dogs into his mom's room (which seemed frequent given the state of it).
So I went out on the back porch with my wife and the first thing out of her mouth was "we are not f*cking sleeping here, your friend is f*cking disgusting and I'm not staying in that room."
I said "babe. you don't have to sell me on it. I just don't know how we're gonna get out of it, I basically requested a room."
She said "i'll stay sober, I can drive, you gotta get us out of here." I said "Ok, can we just hang out a while longer?" She agreed that was fine. A couple hours later and her body language basically said she was donezo. I asked where the bathroom was. I went in there and shat, as I tried to think of what to do to get out, then it occurred to me, I was doing it. I shat, wiped, then read everything in the bathroom, and flushed probably 6 times. I came out of the bathroom gripping my stomach and covered in flop sweat (splashed on water from the sink.) Proclaimed we had had sushi for dinner and it must have been bad. Went and got my bag and went home.
I'm not the best actor. I'm pretty sure my friend knew what was up. We were never the same after that. IDK. Our friendship definitely wasn't worth staying a night in that literal sh!thole.
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.