Sometimes, no most times, truth is stranger than fiction. Often people will tell us wild stories and regale us with detailed recountings that just seem s bit.... embellished, but later we see ourselves proven wrong, which leaves us stunned. It is true, some people just live through crazy moments that couldn't be thought up by even the most gifted writers. So be careful when you accuse someone of telling tall tales. They may be spewing facts.
Redditor u/Not-A-Robot12 wanted everyone to chat about the times they realized the truth was the truth which left them stunned by asking.... What was your biggest "Oh, you weren't lying" moment?At 5
GiphyWas working in a care home, a lot of the residents had dementia and would often want to 'go home', not believing that's where they stayed.
I had just started working there and this lady was telling me all day that her mum was coming to pick her up soon, she was about 60.
Sure as heck, at five o'clock a little eighty year old lady comes to pick up her daughter
I felt like such an idiot, it was a very valuable lesson for me though, don't just dismiss someone because they've got dementia!
The Family Tree
Elderly neighbor told me that at one point in the sixties he was the only British person in Finland, and the Finnish secret service had spies on him all day.
Also told me his nephew cloned Dolly the sheep.
That his ex wife was a former Miss Finland.
That his mum had been the governess for the kids of an Indian Prince. (Not sure of proper title)
Yeah, turns out all of it was true.
Moneybags...
I worked with a guy in his late 30s who had all kinds of crazy stories from when he was younger and had won a big chunk of money. I just kind of brushed it off as him being a bullsh***er. Then he brought in a ton of pictures. Ok, so you really did party with Metallica, crash a Lamborghini, get arrested base jumping, and still own a vacation house in Italy. I thought he was just full of shit. Nice guy too.
Through the Smoke
scared on fire GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphyI was heading to school when I got a text from a friend saying my neighbor's house was on fire.
I said "haha, yeah sure" and kept driving. I pass by the fire department and see the ambulance pull out so I decide to follow. I see it pull into my neighborhood and from the highway, I see the fire truck and all the smoke, and I just remember being like "holy crap."
"Twas I"
I was the one suspected. I ended up playing semi-pro rugby in NZ and none of my friends back in the US believed me (even though I was captain of my college team.) Post season I ran into a teammate of mine who had made it big and we ended up in the news. "[Teammate] out on the town in Auckland CBD with former teammate [Me] of the [Our team.]"
But then I didn't want to be the guy to post it and be like "see, I told you guys." Luckily a friend of mine saw the paper and tagged me on FB.
"call the neighbors."
When I was in 4th grade, the teacher was calling each student over to her desk one by one and asked them a question. When she called me up to her desk she said. "You see thick smoke coming out of your neighbors window. What do you do?" I said "call the fire department." She asked "what else would you do?" I again said that I would call the fire department. Then she asked again "what else would you do?"
This went on for a few minutes until she said that I could go back to my desk. When I got home from school, I mentioned this to my mom, and I asked her if she could think of anything else which I could do. My mom said "call the neighbors." To this day, I have no idea if that was the answer which the teacher was looking for or not. I also have no idea why she asked that question.
That Day
I was in middle school during 9/11 and our school didn't announce it or put the tv on or anything so most of us had no idea what was going on. In lunch me and my buddies are sitting there when another kid, who was a known bull sh.... artist, came up and told us about the attacks. We laughed in his face and called him a liar because we didn't believe him. I didn't find out he was telling the truth until I got home and my mom had the news on.
4/1
Hilary Duff Laughing GIF by YoungerTVGiphyA neighbor called me on April 1st to tell me that I left a faucet turned on, and it caused damage to the apartments below.
Laughed my butt off.
Still paying, though...
Get the RAID!!
My daughter, aged 6 or 7 at the time, is the biggest worry wart. I've never met a more highly strung kid (I'm already aware she's got anxiety and going through steps now to help relieve it and give her tools as she grows) She came running in yelling that a spider ran across her face in her sleep.
Her hair was wild and it was like 2am in the morning. So I'm like "pickle, it was your hair, come on let's go back to bed"
Next morning as I'm getting her clothes ready I see a huge palm sized huntsman beside her drawers. It was indeed a huge spider who crawled across her face.
I'd rather Pepsi....
home alone pepsi GIFGiphyIn college, I was showing off by smashing Coke cans with my head. A girl in the group said "Yeah? I can do it with my boobs."
We didn't believe her.
She stood up, unhooked her bra, put an empty Coke can between her breasts, kinda flexed her arms forward, and completely crushed that can.
I don't remember much after that. I kinda rebooted, and then it was the next day. Dunno where she went.
Grain of salt
I had a friend who was just super dramatic and and full of over the top stories about how f*cked up and crazy their family was; I took it all with a grain of salt. As years went by I had multiple experiences actually meeting their family members, and gradually came to realize that they had not been exaggerating AT ALL. I now look at them in wonder and with profound respect, for managing to come out of such a background as well as they did.
Small town
I'm from a small town and went to a small high school. In the area it was common for kids to switch back and forth between tri-county schools due to parents divorce or guardianship/foster care. Well one day I was talking to a girl next to me in class and I was asking her where she was from. She said the small town and said "yeah there is only one traffic light in the town and it's in front of the middle school." I thought she was just joking around until about two weeks later my academic team went to said small town and I saw she was right. There was only one traffic light and it was in front of the middle school.
Snip
During my vasectomy. My doc said "ok I'm done on that side" it felt like he had been down there for an hour and it was painful. I laughed thinking it was him making light of the situation. He then scooted his chair over and kept working. 😬😅
Strike out
My grandfather told me that bowling used to have nine pins. I honestly thought he was joking, but I looked it up and it's true.
Spurt
I was a huge joker in 8th grade and my teacher (who was a really cool guy) knew it. One day I came in class asking for a bandaid because I was bleeding and he said, "Aw you're messing!" So then I squeezed my finger and blood just spurt out of it. He explained that he thought I was joking and proceeded to get the medical kit.
-
Wait, what?
At the beginning of the year, a supervisor where I worked asked me if I wanted to be on the Coronavirus Strike Team (where we'd go to other prisons hit by covid and help them out if staff got sick). This guy was a noted prankster and had a perfect deadpan delivery, so I figured it was another one of his many jokes. I laughed and said sure. Keep in mind, this was January, it didn't seem that big a deal then. Three months later, I got a text reading: "Pack a bag for 3 nights, we're going up to [redacted] Prison. They're hit hard and need people."
I went ahead and kept my word, but I wasn't happy about it.
Missing
When my parents believed I was kidnapped at the age of eight years old or so and decided to organise a search party after not seeing me for the whole day when I was actually in a new friends house from primary school that was up the road from us and I was happily stuffing my face with hotdogs etc with the rest of her family. If I didn't randomly appear in the square when I did during late evening when a family friend was walking back to her house, I'd have definitely ended up on the news as a missing child.
Talking stalk
A guy I worked with in the late 90's claimed he was being stalked by his ex, not entirely unusual. The picture he showed was of some supermodel who was so hot the picture was practically smoking. I did a double-take and looked at the nerdy little goof ball who showed us the picture. I couldn't believe for a half-second this little dweeb with his D&D obsession and fondness for everything Star Wars was being stalked by some woman with a body like an angel. I pretended to go along with it until one day she showed up and confront him, and yeah she had a heavenly body. You couldn't not notice how hot she was, a gay dude in the office couldn't take his eyes off her. She cried for him to take her back, apologizing over and over about something, but he kept shaking his head and told her to leave him the hell alone. We had to get the police to take her off the property.
Much later I learned that she wasn't always that hot little number, they had known each other through high school and got together around graduation. She too had quite the obsession with D&D, making her as rare as a unicorn at the time. The girls cousin came to visit and took her for a makeover and showed her how to maintain her appearance. She had instantly found success modeling and was taking courses to help her get into acting. Her looks got her lots of attention she'd never had before, but that was the problem. She wound up having an affair and kicked her boyfriend to the curb. Later she realized all of the guys she was sleeping with only cared about her looks, but her boyfriend cared about her. He was willing to let it all go, but wasn't willing to take her back.
Odd jobs
That's a common thing people have said to me, usually about my job history/hobbies. I've worked as a MMA instructor (adults and kids, with the kids I've taught martial arts summer camps too), makeup artist/hair assistant, personal support worker, and registered nurse. I'm 23.
When you look at it in order though, it makes sense.
I started jiu-jitsu at age 5, did a few small local exhibition-type fights as a teenager and taught as well. Then I worked at a salon after moving out, as a makeup artist/hair assistant (they provided the hair assistant training) while studying a year of biochem and then switching into an RN degree. I worked part-time as a personal support worker doing homecare in my last two years of my 4-year degree, while still working part-time at the salon. Now, I'm a registered nurse (with some odd skills in my back pocket)
Adoption
I was volunteering in an animal shelter, working in the small pet supply shop that was attached to it. A happy, excited woman came in and asked me to help her find a collar that would be a good fit for the dog she was about to adopt. She didn't have the dog with her, so I asked what kind of dog it was so that I could get an idea of its size.
She told me that it was a Rottweiler/dachshund cross. I admittedly thought to myself, "Right, OK, you don't know much about dogs, this is probably going to be a corgi." But I humored her and said, "Wow, that's an unusual one! Let's wait until they bring him out and we'll size the collar right onto him."
Out he comes on his little blue-and-white slip-lead, and I swear on my honor, there is nothing this dog could have been BUT a Rottweiler/dachshund cross. He looked like a stocky dachshund with a Rottweiler's head grafted onto its shoulders. His body was dark liver-dachshund and light liver-dachshund in the classic Rottweiler dark/light pattern. I was just speechless. He was quite a little sight to behold.
My absolute favorite part of this story: the lady turns to me, eyes shining, and says, "Isn't he the handsomest dog you've ever seen?" Lady, there sure is something beautiful here. Just warmed my heart.
Emergency
Working at Frito Lay, stocking a store in inner city St. Louis at 3:30 in the morning. Guy walks in and shouts "Call 911, I've been shot!" He looked completely fine until he turned around and the back of his wife-beater was completely red with blood.
Got the store clerk to lock the door and call 911 while I provided first aid until police/EMS arrived.
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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.