It's important to listen to your body and to take care of yourself.
It's inconvenient to miss work or school or to cancel plans when we're feeling sick. Doctor visits and medical treatment can also be costly, so it's no wonder that we tend to ignore when our bodies need attention
It's also easy write off your gut feelings of danger as just paranoia, and to tell yourself "that would never happen to me."
But Redditor u/ferrisjuulersdayoff asked people about times when when they legitimately thought they were going to die, and many willingly shared their own stories of when a common ailments almost became deadly or times when they were unexpectedly ended up in dangerous situations
20. Thank goodness Crohn's is manageable
"I was just diagnosed with chron's so like, recently when I kept having diarrhea and losing weight for a couple months and didn't know why"
19. Horrifying visual
"My mom and I were going to visit my friend on christmas night a few months ago and out of nowhere the windshield shattered. Glass everywhere, i was fine because whatever hit the car hit the drivers side. I looked over and my mom had glass all in her hair and mouth, she started spitting it out and it scared the crap outta me. I thought we were being attacked."
18. I'd rush myself to the hospital
"I was about to pass out for the first time. First my arms and legs went numb and I started to get really dizzy. My vision was kind of like closing in and I was really warm. I remember clenching my fist to try and get my hands to work again and lifting my shirt up because it felt like i was overheating. I thought I was going to die so in the end I was laying do on the floor for about 10 before feeling fine physically but shocked."
17. Tickling makes me panic too
Giphy
"One time my dad (i think) tickled me, but at one point i didnt have the air in my lungs to say stop and i felt like i was legitimately dying. It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, the cloud that got over me as i basically gave up is one of the scariest things i will ever experience."
16. Also, never isolate yourself if you're choking
"I choked on a small piece of meat. My mother attempted to do the heimlich maneuver on me, but was to freaked out. She later told me I was turnig blue.
Luckily I remained rather calm, pushed her away and without thinking stuck my finger in my throat (which you should never do while choking) and hooked it out.
I saw my life flash before my eyes but I wasn't gonna give up that easily."
15. Ever feel like you're going to die from a work out?
"First time i did a pha excercise regiment. Heart was pounding so hard. I could not catch my breath. Had to lay down on the gymn floor to stopp.."
14. Look both ways
"Got hit by a van jaywalking. At the moment of impact I was like 'Well ****, this is it.' Opened my eyes and was across the street fine, save for major road rash."
13. Supraventricular tachycardia
"I'm a little late to this party, but one time when I was 19, I misread a bottle of energy pills called Black Ice. Long story short, took some, went into SVT. (I didn't know what that was at that time.) But I got rushed into the ER and given Adenosine. And had a cop come in and accuse me of doing drugs."
12. I wonder what they found...
"ive had chronic headaches (at a 7+ out of 10) 24/7 for the last like three years. the first time i had an appointment with a neurologist he sent be straight to have a brain scan. i was ******** myself thinking i had a brain tumour."
11. Is this person a superhero?
"When I fell from the 6th floor P.S I didn't even break anything,I fell on my back and on the way hit one branch with my back when I fell in my eyes everything was red in the end I went home and walked like a penguin I passed so 4 months.I was 10 years old at the time"
10. Norovirus and heart cramps
"Caught Norovirus a few years ago. I didn't realize how bad it could be before it struck.
No fluids would stay in for more than a few seconds. I ended up really dehydrated almost overnight. Like if you pushed on my skin it would stay sunk. I couldn't move or any muscles would full cramp - legs, jaw, arms, abs - all of them.
I didn't think I would survive. At the very least thought my heart would cramp.
But I got over it after five or six days.
I can totally see how it kills old people though. If I was any less averagely healthy for an adult male, I'm sure if be dead."
9. Pneumonia is serious
Giphy
"My third round with double pneumonia. Put into isolation on round the clock oxygen. There's just something about such severe oxygen deprivation that you get dizzy and hack up a lung just crossing a room to pick up a book that makes you certain the end is coming"
8. An unpredictable spouse
"Woke up immediately wide awake in the middle of the night without moving and the hair standing up on the back of my neck because my now-ex-wife was standing in our bedroom holding a large kitchen knife and staring at my feet. She had had a schizophrenic break a few months earlier and had started referring to me as 'the enemy.' I laid there without moving. She stood there for over an hour. Have no idea how long she was there before I woke up. Anyway, she leaves the room and comes back without the knife, gets into bed, and cuddles in little spoon style like she made a decision. Then she made me waffles for breakfast. Best believe I put on my best 'oh wow, amazing wife. These waffles are yum' voice."
7. A threatening party goer
"Some **** pulled a revolver on me while at a party. Turns out it was one of those decommissioned ones with a cemented barrel and cylinder, but I didn't know at the time and it was ******* scary."
6. Good thing their sister was there
"When I had migraine with aura for the first time. I didn't even know this was a thing. But It started with the worst migraine I ever had followed by me losing my sight and becoming dizzy and feeling sick. I thought this was it. I told my sister that I thought I was gonna die. She told me she has those migraines too, brought me a pill specifically for these migraines and told me to sleep. She stayed with me until I woke up just to be sure. Scary as hell"
5. Medical emergencies when you're on a trip are the scariest
"I was on vacation this past summer, was staying at a friends house, when i started to notice my chest feeling tight, i started to get a fever and feel sick, i threw up and the feeling in my chest started to expand, it felt like it was going to explode, like a balloon beind inflated inside me.
I couldn't stand it, i literally felt like at any moment my heart would give out or my chest would explode, went to the emergency, turns out i had a really bad gall bladder attack. But on the drive to the hospital i was tellling my wife how much i love her lol and that if she remarries dont let it be anyone we currently know hahaha."
4. Hope the pranksters got suspended
"We had a lockdown at my school. Teacher didn't know what was going on. We heard a loud series of banging sounds as we huddled in the corner, and we all started texting our friends and family goodbye. I remember my mom sending me photos of our cat to try and help me stay calm, I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been for her. I really thought I was going to die. As it turned out there was no real threat, it was a stupid prank. I don't know what the banging sound was but it was probably chairs moving."
3. Two very different near death experiences
Giphy
"Either when I was moments away from drowning at nine years old. I'd gotten to the stage of acceptance and overwhelming love and compassion. I accepted my fate, wished my family well and was ready to embrace death. Next thing I knew I was hacking up water at the side of the pool. No one helped me. No one got me out and I don't remember how I got there.
Or the day I discovered I have a severe allergy to codine. Took some co-codamol for a headache that day and by my first lesson in school I couldn't breathe. Felt like my body was shutting down internally."
2. Grandpa saved the day
"I got left in a hot tub as a kid and the jets pushed me towards the center where I couldn't stand up. All I remember thinking was 'Someones gonna have to do CPR on me and that's gonna be really gross.' My godfather noticed me and yanked me outta there while my mom was yelling at everyone asking who left me unattended in the hot tub. It was her."
1. Some car accidents have nothing to do with the driver's actions
"Car accident few months prior, hit a stationary car on the highway going over a hundred kmh, wheels locked up due to slippery road, thought it was over for me within that few seconds, but miraculously both me and the other person got out with minor injuries."