
It's late at night. You're relaxing at home.
It's a still night.
It's quiet.
You're in a great mood. Everything seems just right.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, a lot.
Your perfectly serene evening could go awry... you might hear a sound you can't quite place, only to look outside and see a strange figure on your property.
What could they want?
Redditor harryplaysmusic asked the online community:
"What is your creepiest or most unnerving experience?"
"The key didn't work..."
Was coming home to my place at night when I use to live in the city with my roommate at the time. The key didn't work for the front door so I always had to use the back door that led to our kitchen.
The door had that blurry glass window on it (not sure what that's called) but as I was turning the key I could see a figure walk by real fast. I assumed it was my roommate so I went to my bedroom, then checked his room and couldn't find him. I finally went down to our living room only to find the front door completely open.
I called my roommate and asked where was he going so fast and why he left the front door open. He told me he hasn't been to our place in a couple of hours. So yeah I was walking into my house while someone was snooping around.
"When I was 15..."
When I was 15 I lived on a ranch and cared for my great granny. The only people around were people driving on the highway down the hill, and the neighbor that lived a few miles away.
One night at around 2 am, a man knocked on the door and asked to use our phone. We didn't have any cell service or internet service out there, or a landline. The fact that he knocked on the door meant that he hopped two locked gates and hiked up a hill.
I was so scared I just said "no, go away, I have a shotgun." He left.
"He helped me move..."
Took a photo of my friend on the first day at my new place. He helped me move and then we were just having a couple of beers and chilling. He went home, I went to sleep.
I woke up the next morning cleaned out. TV was gone and my still-unpacked boxes of electronics were all gone too. The door was ajar. I was looking at my photos a few weeks later and I saw a foot sticking out behind my friend in the photo.
It was sticking out from a large overhead storage shelf in a small storage room, which was facing into the room and away from the main space. The robber was hiding there before I even moved in. I have the photo somewhere
That last one was creepy as hell.
The idea of having someone in the space as you—and not knowing it—is incredibly unsettling.
Your home should be a sacred space; stories like this demonstrate how easily some people out there will violate it.
Let's continue.
"This lady jumps off the truck..."
I spent a year in Thailand when I was about 8 years old. While celebrating their new year (Songkran) this big truck of people stopped near where we were standing.
This lady jumps off the truck and walks up to me smiling and grabs my arm really hard and starts pulling me towards the truck and almost got me on when my brother comes running and asks me where I'm going.
The lady let go and the truck quickly drove away. I didn't realise until I was way older that I almost got kidnapped in a foreign country.
"My mom made me go inside..."
When I was eleven, my friend's dad had a psychological episode that resulted in him standing in the middle of the parking lot in his underwear, screaming and crying and repeatedly cutting himself with a big knife.
My mom made me go inside before the police got there, the next day my friends and I went to look at the bloodstains all over the pavement.
That poor man.
We hope he got the help he needed.
Let's continue.
"My dad didn't budge..."
This probably pales in comparison to others' experiences but it stands out in my mind.
I don't remember this super well because I was pretty young. But a contractor that had just replaced the roof on my parents' house apparently didn't pay his employees after my parents paid him for the job.
One of said workers showed up at my house VERY pissed off, yelling and screaming that he wanted money.
I just remember being really scared and comforting my little sister who was crying hysterically.
My dad didn't budge, and finally, the guy gave up and left. We never saw him again.
"I got my dad to call the police."
I've got a lot of these moments, but one that stands out to me is when I was little, I got up at something like three in the morning to get a glass of water, and heard something outside the back door. I went and woke up my mom, and when she opened the door to show me there was nothing out there, she tensed up and said "Hello?"
I got my dad to call the police.
That morning I learn that a druggie had broken into our fenced-off yard, used several needles, broke open our outside freezer, stole a brand new bag of pizza rolls, and tried to cook them in the old broken toaster oven we had yet to dispose of.
"One particular winter night..."
Alright, this story haunts me.
Basically, I was 17 and working at a high-end retail shop in a big shopping centre - literally the last place you'd expect a ghost story.
The shifts used to run quite late over the Christmas period as we'd be open as late as 9 pm, so it was dark and quiet for a long time.
One particular winter night, I was on a late shift with two other co-workers. My two coworkers were on the shop floor and I was out back taking stock and putting away stocks.
If anybody has worked in clothes shops with large stocks hopefully you'll know what I mean when I say the clothes are stored in rolling racks, like shelves on wheels, and each rack is controlled by a wheel on the side which you spin to move it along the rail. You can also lock the shelves so they don't move.
I know that people say this all the time, that they 'know' they did something, but I truly do know that I locked the shelves and I know this because I was climbing the shelves, using each row as a ladder, to reach the top sections. Had they not been locked, I couldn't have done this as the shelves would've rolled.
So I climb down to grab some more stock, and as I turn around the lights turn off. Now the lights are movement triggered, and I was moving in the space, but even so, sometimes they turn off. For some reason though, this plunge into pitch-black raised all the hairs on my neck and I froze in my place. There are no windows out back so no light at ALL.
When the lights flickered back on, all three shelves, all of which I had LOCKED IN PLACE, were rolling towards me on their track, completely unpushed. I have to emphasise that firstly, they were LOCKED! And secondly, if you know what I'm on about, these shelves are heavy - they require pushing and won't move on their own.
It's probably quite unprofessional of me, but I couldn't stand another minute and I dashed out into the shop floor completely unable to speak. Luckily we're a small team and I'm quite close with all my coworkers, and my boss could see me visibly shaking. Once she'd calmed me down enough for me to tell her what happened, she said, 'C'mon let's just go check the security cameras and see what happened.'
Here's where it gets really creepy: we went into her office, brought up the security footage, and all that had been captured was the moment the lights went dark, and then it skipped straight to a minute later and you see the door shut after me as I dashed onto the shop floor. The 30 seconds - a minute where the shelves rolled towards me was completely unrecorded.
Creeps me out just rewriting it.
"I was down the street..."
My friend and I were 11 at the time and were out walking my dog around our neighborhood one night. I live near rural/suburban Illinois so anyone from around there knows what i mean when I say it's cornfields, houses, and just more cornfields wherever you go.
We were ding dong ditching and managed just fine since my dog was pretty chill and never barked/growled. we are alongside the back of the neighborhood now since we walked in a long circle.
It was just a road with about a football field length grass clearing and then more towering corn stalks, parallel to the street. everything was going normal until my friend and I rung a house, then ran into the clearing and dove to the ground. we were about 30 feet into the grass.
Now, important to note that earlier in the week my neighbor's relatively decent-sized boxer had gone missing.
I had been in this clearing before, played soccer and football there countless times but when we sat there waiting for our angry neighbor to come out, something drew me to look away. Not a noise, but rather my dog's intense shaking. She only did that when she was focused so heavily on something I would have to directly touch her eyeball to move. She was turned around staring, and when I turned I noticed something at this wall of corn staring at us.
I thought I was just seeing things, but it was definitely big enough to make out its shape, even without any light other than the moon and street lamp at the far end of the street. Thinking back, there's no way I should have seen it but god damn I somehow did. once I looked, I couldn't take my eyes off of whatever it was. I thought it was a person, but I shrugged the thought off bc they were at the edge of a cornfield at dusk, who does that right?
When I turned to my friend, he was white in the face. He asked if I could see it too, to which I whispered a yes to because i still couldn't make out what I was seeing. We still don't know if it's a coyote, person, bear, wolf, I mean we were really sitting there silently freaking out deciding to run or what to do instead.
We decide to sort of army crawl towards the street and houses and almost at the exact second we turn to start running, we see the figure go back into the corn. We get home and say nothing to my parents, off to sleep and he leaves the next day with no incident.
Later that evening, police show up at the door asking if they had seen a man who was wanted for stabbing his girlfriend to death, along with his 2 sons. My parents turn them away and say they haven't seen anything lately, but luckily I was eavesdropping from the stairs and chimed in.
Now, maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to assume I was 100% correct and tell these cops they had to listen but I'm glad they did. I take them to the field, with my parents and point to where I saw the figure in the corn last night. I was so terrified about last night, I told them I saw him there last night and was sure of it.
Lo and behold they bring about 9 cars out to the street and enter the cornfield. After 15 minutes we hear a scream and one of the officers ended up finding the boxer that went missing above. completely gutted. after about 45 more minutes of searching, I hear a ton of screaming followed by orders and more shouting. Out comes a cop, with this psycho cuffed in front of him. The same guy from the picture. I couldn't believe it.
I was down the street when they were walking across the clearing since I was not allowed to be near the scene. The creepiest part about all of this is he was staring directly at ME the entire time he walked. no variation, head nod, blink, or anything. It was as if he knew it was me, that I told the cops he was there.
I started crying in my dad's arms when I saw him come out, and I have no idea why. it felt like I did something wrong, and that I was going to pay for it eventually. my parents always claimed I imagined that look, but it led to me having nightmares for a few months at least.
Sometimes I still get night terrors/sleep paralysis and I see the figure coming after me, 9 years later. I am the only one here allowed to be legitimately afraid of cornfields.
"In my early 20s..."
In my early 20s, I visited Auschwitz with a close friend who was a prisoner there in 1944-45 and lost his whole immediate family.
He gave me a guided tour of his memories.
There were some sensitive stories here...
...but they were all fascinating. If you're reading this at night, we're going to apologize to you in advance.
We certainly don't mean to make you second guess the next thing you hear go bump in the night.
Have your own stories to share? Want to creep us out? We'd be open to it. Feel free to sound off in the comments below.
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And there are just as many grievances for which we are not at all sorry.
Curious to hear about people's track record of their questionable behavior, Redditor NanoPKx asked:
"What is something bad you have done with no regrets?"
Is it petty theft or flat out stealing? You decide.
The Parting Gift
"'Forgetting' to bring back a company ipad after they forgot about me having it. Actually they never asked for it back so I still have it and use it."
– Koetjeka
Furry Companion
"I stole a barn kitten while delivering packages for FedEx. He kept climbing my legs and getting into the van, sitting under the wheel when I tried to back out (it was a steep driveway, no way to swing the van around). I called the number on the package, looked the name up on facebook, called the local non-emergency to get contact info, all failed."
"So I took him. Now, if you're not from a rural environment, you might not understand that barn cats like that are 'no-man's-cats.' For all the owners know, he got sick or got got by a coyote. And he would have died, because when we got him to the vet he had a nasty upper resp infection and some other nasties."
"Now, one deformed nasal passage and the cutest snore later, we have a bonkers little orange cat with the heaviest penchant for snuggling I've ever seen (his name is Monty btw)."
"Edit: I forgot to pay my Cat Tax: https://imgur.com/a/HIXS4us"
"Edit Part 2: Monty loves the attention. Thank you for loving him as much as we do :3"
"MmmmMMMMRrrrrrrrrrrAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW" -Montgomerey Valentine, 2022
– SonOfSkinDealer
The Dirty Treat
"A housemate of mine kept eating mine and my girlfriends food and even though I asked him to stop the only thing he would ever say is 'I thought it was mine' then keep eating it."
"Well I bought my girlfriend some ice cream she really enjoys and she put the half she didn’t finish back in the freezer. Well when she want to get the rest it was gone and it made me madder than I think it probably should have."
"The very next time I saw him and somehow keeping a straight apologetic face I told him how he accidentally ate our sex ice cream and that bits of it had been on our parts etc. I told him I felt guilty not to tell him and that I had to apologise for him to eat such a thing."
"I will never forget the face he made when I told him. A face of pure self disgust and shock to which all he had to say was 'I wish you never told me that' and proceeded to move out around a month later."
"Although he didn’t actually eat sex ice cream, like why the f'k would you put it back after use anyway? Sometimes I wonder if I went to far but in that moment I just did not care at all. He still doesn’t know it isn’t true and I’ll probably never see him again."
"F'k you Vitas buy your own food."
– SpicyDolphin74
Vengeance is sweet.
Payback Time
"A drunk driver hit my parked car, left a huge dent in the front driver’s side door, and then drove away. I happened to be looking out the window at the time and saw the whole thing, including his plate number. Cops got there not long after and took my statement. After a couple days and a couple phone calls, I found out nothing was going to come of it because he was the son of the sheriff the next county over."
"Fast forward a couple months, I see his car parked behind a local bar within walking distance of my apartment. I got out my hunting knife and sliced all four of his tires, and made a couple trips around it destroying the paint job. Yellow Pontiac Sunfire, and I still remember the goddamn plate number even after almost 20 years."
– IgnoreMe304
For The People
"I was a GM for a retailer that was going out of business. During the liquidation I let my employees that worked until the end store product they wanted to buy in a closet I claimed I didn't have a key to. Oh the final days I sold them all the items they requested for 95% off. 70" tvs, ipads, gaming laptops whatever they requested."
– Midnights606
Surreptitious Swap
"Years ago I worked for a wealthy dude who was married to someone semi-famous. He would waltz in every morning and talk about the fantastic dinner he had the night before, how he hung out with some other famous person or whatever else."
"He paid me peanuts. I had a hard time making ends meet."
"I was the office assistant and IT guy. So it comes time to get a new computer for one of the designers. I spec something out, and show it to him. It was a ripper of a machine for the time (early 2000s). But it wasn’t expensive enough for bossman."
"So I added a really high end graphics card. Boss was happy then. The card added nothing for the designer: they only did illustrator and photoshop."
"So I came in that weekend and swapped the graphics card for my aging one from home."
"No one ever knew. Or cared. And I got a new graphics card."
– Dudeinairport
When times are tough, people had to do what it took to survive.
T.P. Crisis
"In college I was so poor I would steal toilet paper from the supply closet in our major building."
– Business_Loquat5658
Hungry College Buddy
"I stood watch for a college friend who was going hungry because he’d been disowned and his roommates had made living with him intolerable after he came out."
"I was loosely affiliated with an off campus program with local churches that gave free student dinners on Thursdays. We would go to church to eat, then bring dishes into the kitchen."
"Anyway, he would go in there and steal stuff like peanut butter, literal bread (not an allegory), granola bars etc. while I watched out for the pastor."
"Eventually we both got caught, the pastor for the college students got a bit mad because he was responsible for us while we were there to eat. And I think it was offensive on some level to steal from church. But then he saw what my friend was taking, and asked him if he had enough to eat. My friend shamefacedly said no, not usually."
“'Okay, fine. Put the food back, and come with me.' Took my friend grocery shopping instead, got him connected with the food pantry and community garden at church instead."
– SchnarchendeSchwein
Based on these examples, people didn't twice about their actions in the heat of the moment.
Within reason, we all gotta somehow get by.
But do you think their actions deserve punishment?
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When a person sees someone they care about going through a struggle or crisis, their instinct is to uplift them with positive advice.
But sometimes, the wisdom imparted by friends isn't always helpful or relevant to the situation.
Curious to hear from strangers online who could do without specific knowledge, Redditor Saibotnl1 asked:
"What life advice can just f'k off?"

These Redditors have a problem with how certain people have on outlook on life.
Time To Rest
"Sleep when you’re dead."
"Cool, but you’re going to be dead a lot sooner."
– Tag2graff
Irrelevant Sadness
"People have it so much worse than you so don’t be sad!"
– notrachelmar
"To that I like to say, 'people have it so much better than you so don't be happy!'"
– ___jupiter____
Your Life Path
"Almost anything relating to what age you must be in order to buy a house, have children, marry, have a profession, or do anything else. Seriously, everyone's life is different from everyone else's. Make your life the way you want it to be. If you so desire. Up to you."
– Frn071
On The Contrary
“Cheaters never prosper”
"Yes, they f'king do."
– waqasnaseem07
People can get out of any situation they find displeasing.
But others feel people should just "stick it out."
Ignoring Bullies
"Just ignore bullys or get someone else to handle it for you. I have never seen this work, only makes it worse. The only effective way I've seen to deal with them is by not making yourself an easy target and make them scared to f'k with you again. If going psycho on their a** is the only thing they'll respond to that's their fault. Also want to add in schools they will punish you for self defense but that punishment is only sitting around a few hours in detention or sitting around at home with a suspension. The punishment is temporary boredom, it's absolutely nothing compared to being bullied and when it's over the important message will still stand that you will not tolerate being a victim."
– User Delted
Remain to be Miserable
"Stick it out"
"Whether that's sh**ty jobs, shi**y relationships, shi**y living situations..."
"By all means don't just give up on things when you face challenges, but if something feels wrong or is wrecking your peace then take some control and change it if you can!"
– petitezoey
"Easy for you to say," might be an auto-response to these suggestions for many people.
Invitation For Recklesslessness
"Live like everyday was your last"
Yall know what people do when they learn they have a single day left to live?"
– LimeGrass619
A Possible Consequence
"I did that as a teenager and ended up homeless and addicted to heroin. Didn’t pan out for me too well."
"19 years sober though today."
– Open-Section-7263
A Practical Approach
"If I knew with certainty that I had one day left, I'd double-check all my financials, my will, and my insurance policies, make sure my wife had all of my passwords and knew where all the money was, spend the rest of the day with her and the kids, then call the medical examiner and ask to lie down on the gurney so that when I die they won't strain their back moving my remains out of my house."
– Asteriad
Nose Stuck In A Book
"Work while they sleep. Study while they party"
"That's not a recipe for success, that's a recipe for a lot of white hairs, burnout syndrome and a stroke before your 40s..."
– Khomuna
Doesn't Apply To Everyone
"Do what you love and money will follow"
"I love walking my dogs and grilling food for my friends but That sh*t doesn't pay the bills as well as my engineering degree!"
– Elons_android
While people's intentions are good, they're better off keeping their two cents in their own pockets.
Not everyone likes to hear platitudes.
Sometimes, people just want to know they're not alone with their problems over listening to unlikely solutions that are nothing more than superficial pick-me-ups.
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Kids start going to school from the age of five, and for the most part, they spend more time at school than at home. Because of that, teachers can become very important figures in the lives of their students.
Some students don't have the best home lives. Some keep it to themselves, but others confide in their teachers.
Curious about various situations, Redditor Delicious_Mastodon83 asked:
"teachers of reddit what is the saddest thing you found out about a student?"
In Need of Parents
"Not a teacher but was a school-based therapist. Had a student (7 -8 y/o) I didn’t know knock on my office door and ask if I’d adopt her and “if you have room, my brother too, but if not, that’s ok, we can be split up. We’re split up now. And I don’t take up space. I just need a sleeping bag”. Broke my heart."
– secretkpr
Heartbreaking, But Industrious
"My mom taught at a school in a bad neighborhood in Chicago in the mid 90’s. There was a second grader that would save his milk and ketchup packers from lunch for his mom so she had something to eat when she got home from work."
– PowerstrokeMe
Big-Hearted Mom
"Not a teacher but a parent with a 9 year old son. Every day I pack extra in my sons lunch because he tells me he has a friend that never has anything to eat. It's winter and my son came home and told me his friend was turning up with shorts and shirt and holes in his shoes. So I sent in a jumper and long pants for him to wear and some slightly used but good condition shoes. I have been up to the school recently and the teacher pulled me aside and thanked me profusely for helping this child. Apparently teachers are not allowed to aid kids they teach here in Australia and they have already reported the issue 3 times to child welfare without results so I was the only one helping this child. The teacher told me before I started sending in more food and clothes, this child would steal others food from their lunches and look through the bins because he was so hungry. They doubt he gets fed at home. So now I make sure to always send an extra lunch and some school clothes/supplies when I can. I can only hope child welfare eventually does something but it breaks my heart."
– spetzie55
Amazing Big Sister
"It was right after winter break and before class started I was just talking with some students and asked if they got anything fun for the holidays. One girl said on no, I don’t ever get presents, my mom is a drug addict. But I went out and got some stuff for my little sister so that she can have a real Christmas."
"She just said it so matter-of-fact. She was so used to being the parent to her little sister that she didn’t even care about her own childhood. It totally broke my heart."
– tonydanzascaulk
The Importance Of Human Affection
"Second hand story from my mom, elementary teacher for 30ish years. She had a hug or a handshake out the door policy, just some small contact and a proper goodbye, and had this young boy who always picked the hug. She wondered why he always went for it, most kids would go back and forth depending on their mood that day, so she asked him why he was always so excited for the end of day hug? His answer, "It's the only one I ever get.""
– needsawholecroissant
Coming Out The Other Side
"Two teenage boys (16/14) with learning disabilities were on my caseload, they never missed school but often ditched class. They were homeless mid-year after they went home from school to find the locks changed, their Mom had abandoned them for a new boyfriend. She didn't leave an address for them to find her."
"*Edit: both eventually dropped out, however a couple of years later the younger brother came back to visit. He and his brother were both working construction, and his brother had gotten married, had a child, and was living with his wife’s family."
"The younger had roommates and was saving for a car. He told me it was a shame I didn’t have kids, because I would make a good Dad."
"People often persevere, even with the odds stacked against them."
– Kursch50
True Parentification
"Not me but my daughter is a teacher, she has lots of stories but one that stands out for me is one of her kindergarten kids saying she was tired and her asking why, the little girl explained that she had been up all night with her mums newborn baby. She did this every night, fed her bottles and everything."
– lb47513343
Luckily, He Was Resilient
"This year I had a 17 year old kid enroll at my school. He was sitting in my math class and I could tell he was struggling. After class I took some extra time to go over a concept with him. I asked him to read the question to me, and he sat there silently. He then looked at me and said “I’m not going to lie to you, I cannot read. I have no idea how to say these words""
"Turned out at age 17 he was illiterate and had been kept out of school by his very religious, controlling parents. Over the past few months he has worked very hard! Now he can finally read at an 8th grade level and he is STILL improving!!"
– User Deleted
A Heroic Teacher
"I worked in an inner city charter school. One of my students (`M10) had a sib (M8) in a lower grade. The mom was there every day in the beginning of the year encouraging them, helping them and generally being very supportive... until a CPS agent spoke to me asking about her behavior. After CPS left things went downhill. The boys showed up late to class even though they lived a half block away from school. When in school both boys were tired from sleeping in the car while their mom "went fishing". She also had two very young girls which she dragged around making the boys take care of them. One day the boys didn't show up and their teacher walked over to the house to find the mom had loaded up the fridge, paid the rent for the month and abandoned them. The teacher (a candidate for sainthood btw) took them in, adopted them and grew them up to be great men."
– mopedarmy
This is really heartbreaking stuff! Luckily, teachers aren't just another adult in your life; they can be your saving grace as well.
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TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains sensitive content about depression and mental health.
As the stigma around mental health lessens (however slowly), people are more forthcoming about the problems they are facing. One of the most common mental health issues is depression.
Depression can affect many different types of people. Factors such as gender, race, nationality, and even age have no bearing on whether someone suffers from depression or not.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), globally, "...an estimated 3.8% of the population affected, including 5.0% among adults and 5.7% among adults older than 60 years..."
Depression displays in certain patterns, such as mood changes, physical difficulties, and social isolation. However, depression manifests differently in different people and feels different to different people.
Reddit users divulged what depression felt like to them when Redditor iodineseaspray asked:
"What does depression feel like to you?"
Some of this is sure to sound familiar.
The Worst Kind Of Boredom
"Like being more bored than you could imagine but also not wanting to do anything at all, even breathe. So you want to do something, but you can't imagine anything that you would like to do so you're just sort of stuck."
– BuddhistSlater
"So you then spend literally hours staring at a blank wall hating yourself, your life, and everything around you. Well, as much hate as you can summon in the absolutely mentally numb state you find yourself sat in day after day."
– merryman1
Lack Of Motivation and Energy
"Complete lack of motivation."
"Ignoring people that I love, and who are trying to help."
"Just sh*t"
– HatFromStraw
"I feel it extra at work. Letting things slide until you either get into trouble or trying last minute to prevent it."
"Funny those times when I'm working to save my butt, the depression goes away and i feel super focused and motivated."
"I try to carry that energy over but no, it's rinse and repeat."
– ExtraBitterSpecial
Powerful Insecurity
"Insecure about absolutely everything, no hope for the future, dissociation from society and not knowing how to “act” anymore, feeling like I’m not as good at the things I always thought I was good at or that the “talent is wasted on me”, only food cheers me up and sometimes even that doesn’t work"
– tenamonth
Loss Of Creativity
"This. It's like some numb fuzziness you feel in your brain. It's the worst thing ever for an artist who just wants to create but your brain comes up dry with a dense fog that wants to just lie down for a few hours"
– FinnProtoyeen
A Mental Inability To Breathe
"For me, it feels like I’m in a lake with a ball chain tied to my feet, desperately swimming up for air, the only problem is the chain isn’t long enough. I can only get an inch of my head out of the water to breath, and as soon as a high tide comes, the water just floods over me and I feel like I can’t breath again. I live like this, constantly feeling like I’m struggling to breathe, weighed down by my own mind. It’s a struggle and I can’t really describe it in any other way, I’m jealous of people who don’t worry about depression"
– DrowningInBrokeness
"Like suffocating under a heavy cloak"
– kmartfreak
"Like being crushed. Like if the air was crushing my muscles and bones and I can’t breathe because I’m being crushed…"
"Kinda like that."
– Afreshnewsketckbook
Listlessness
"Scrolling thru your steam library. Thinking you want to play something, either not settling on anything or not wanting to put the effort into the game. Going back to the scrolling."
– Aistadar
"It feels like you're forced to play a game of Monopoly (represents life) and your just rolling the dice to appease everyone but you genuinely don't care about where you go, where you land, what you pick up, what you pay, what you gain."
"You kind of just watch it happen without interest and while people are cheering or oh no-ing for you, you genuinely don't care. Everyone is a piece on this board that hardly matters and you feel like we're all just running in a circle over and over again and it's boring and disinteresting as hell."
"You lose all curiosity for everything and just let everything happen and pass by you. No motivation, hardly any love, hardly any care. Feels like the world is in black and white and your waiting for the game to end became it's so absolutely boring and disinteresting, but it never does."
"You come to resent the game and eventually hate it because it feels like you're being forced to play it and suffer it's consequences when you never asked to play it in the first place."
"That's what depression felt like for me. Since then I've been medicated and recieved therapy. I'm doing a lot better now and I don't feel this way anymore, thankfully."
- KnlghtLlghts
A Relation To Fantasy
"You know that scene in the Lord of the Rings where Bilbo is describing to Galndalf what having the Ring all those years felt like? "I feel thin. Like too much jam spread over too much bread." That's honestly the best way I've seen to describe it."
– Electrical_Age_336
"I always say the closest thing to compare it to is a dementor in harry potter. It sucks every ounce of happiness out of you until there is only darkness left."
"Side note: chocolate always helps"
– sunfacer
Fear Of Lack Of Justification
"Like someone close to you died yesterday. Expect no one has, and nothing has happened to justify how you feel."
– AlterEdward
A Physical Pain
"Physical pain in my heart, will start crying just by attending to the physical sensation in my body."
– sagieday
Help Yourself
"I've always described it as having a shadow fixed to your brain which fuels things like indecision and negativity. You can do things to temporarily help but you can't truly shift it. Previous normality is forgotten. But it's amazing how much you can mask it."
"I found I didn't realise how bad I was until I started to get better"
"For anyone suffering with depression. Please, please speak to someone. Best thing I ever did"
– DavosLostFingers
Depression isn't something you can just deal with or get over. Learning to cope is not easy. However, as Redditor DavosLostFingers pointed out, talking to someone can literally save your life.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression, contact the American Psychological Association by phone at 800.374.2721 or 202.336.5500.
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