Life is so fragile. We hope and pray that there is an "after," after our last breathes. And some people say they can prove there is a life after death and a death after life....
Redditor u/NiekW274 wanted to hear from those of us who have lived, died and lived again by asking.... [Serious] People who have been clinically dead and brought back to life, what was your experience?
So Calm.
GiphyAside from the experience everyone really talks about when they are dying while they think it is what they experience when they are actually dead such as seeing a light or loved ones, there was absolutely nothing. No sense of calm, no darkness, nothing. One moment I was dying and seeing things and the next I was coming back alive. Reddit
On the Head.
When I was ten years old I fell from the roof of our house and landed on my head. I was in and out of consciousness on the way to the hospital via ambulance. When I recovered they said I was legally dead at one point at the hospital but they revived me with paddles after 5 minutes.
I remember nothing at all only the darkness of a deep dreamless sleep. The headache when I came too was unbearable. I was extremely lucky not to have any major spinal damage from the fall. Just a huge lump on my head that went away after about a week. No other injuries. AtheistComic
13 Years Later....
Pretty uneventful. I shot overdosed then dropped to the floor. My friends packed my groin with ice cubes and took turns punching me in the face, but I just lay there, unresponsive. EMTs saved me. I almost certainly suffered some amount of brain damage, as I was gone for several minutes. There was no bright light, nothing noteworthy.
I'm convinced that when you go, you're worm food, no fancy cosmic procession. The paramedics treated me like human garbage after I came back, and for most of the ambulance ride to the hospital. They treated me like an actual person once I was lucid enough to be articulate. All I could think of was my mother - if I had stayed dead, she would have perished from grief. Last time I ever stuck a needle in my arm. About 13 years ago. ProbablyDrDre
A Long Nap.
I don't remember a thing. I had a pretty traumatic experience before I died that I would prefer not to revisit, when I came back it was like waking up from a long nap. Nothing in between. It is scary but also a bit comforting, it all depends on your perspective. --Christ--
Heart Issues...
GiphyCardiac arrythmia led to full cardiac arrest. I got dizzy, then nothing... woke up in resus. Wish i could say there was any substance there, but nope. WETHEREX
The Theater.
I died in the surgical theater and again in the recovery room.
I don't recall anything from the surgical theatre, but the recovery room everything started burning then I got tunnel vision. What I could see started getting further and further away and everything was fading to black.
I remember trying to move my arms but feeling like they were pinned down by an unmovable object.
After that... Just peace and euphoria for what seemed like an eternity.
Then pain. So much pain. Everything was on fire. The surgery site wasn't even the worse and it was major surgery. I started screaming as best I could. In my head it was loud, but I had a breathing tube down my throat. I wanted to start vomiting everywhere. I passed out after pulling the breathing tube out my throat and spewing everywhere. I was also convinced the recovery room crash doctor was some kind of ginger angel with ginger wings, which is odd as I'm an aethiest. After I woke up the second time I asked her out to dinner. She said no. I laughed. AsleepNinja
Just Breathe!
The only thing I remember is that there was no light, no tunnel, no clouds or anything. Just peace, the most amazing peace I've ever felt. Nothing mattered and I wanted to be like that forever. Then I started to hear like a whisper "please breathe, please wake up." It was my aunt giving me mouth to mouth resuscitation in the car while someone else was driving (that's when I knew I wasn't breathing). When we arrived to the ER I was rushed into one of the beds and my poor mom could see when the ECG showed that I was flatlining. Long story short, I'm here but I spent 3 good hours trying to remember who I was because I couldn't even remember my mom or my name. shofaz
Fading Out.
Not sure if this counts, I suffered an atrial fibrillation which couldn't be controlled without the doctors stopping my heart and paddling me back again - 47 seconds I was clinically dead not a lot I know but my memory of it was the anesthesia then slowly vision fading out, was like a darkness closing in, no panic, no unusual feelings, then when I came too almost like the reverse just slowly woke up heart back in normal rhythm, can't say I saw any lights or tunnels or anything 🤷🏻♂️ iwipemyownassboi
The Pulse.
My best friend was hit head on by a drunk driver. He states he does remember the 10 minute ambulance ride to the hospital but then he coded in the trauma room. He heard he a voice claiming to be his grandma talking to him. He never met her as she passed before he was born. They said they were about to call it when they got a pulse back. gil_beard
Hey Grandma......
GiphyMy grandma was presumed dead for about 3 minutes and she had told me that it was at first black than she saw a light and there was a voice, it sounded like her father who passed away late 80s early 90s and he said not yet and my grandma woke up to my grandpa slapping her to wake her up. Me and her both laughed. at the last part to this day. Skyrobot2000
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.
