People Describe The Absolute Creepiest Thing They've Ever Experienced

Creepy experiences? This writer has one. I used to get terrible nightmares. Not sure why, probably reading too many mystery and horror novels. This also didn't help my vivid imagination. My dreams were often extremely real, like being trapped in a movie.
One night in my young adult years I stayed the night over to my moms house. She liked Victorian style items and dolls especially. Well this one creepy porcelain-faced doll she usually had sitting on the top of the couch. Not a big deal. Except I slept on the couch that night…
I had a horrible vivid nightmare that night where some "The Ring" style creepy young lady was holding me underwater with her face against mine saying "I'm going to eat your soul". I must have thrashed hard in my sleep because I woke up and the HECKIN DEMON DOLL had fallen onto my face eye to eye with me.
When I say freaked out! To this day I do not want to be in the same room as that doll.
One Redditor asked a serious question wanting to know real-life instances where people were uneasy.
OnlyAnAverageUser asked:
"What's the creepiest thing that you've witnessed or experienced?
The accounts shared might just keep you up at night…
“A couple years ago I was on a ferry leaving a small island off the coast of RI, about an hour long ride in total. It was a cloudy day with some fog but as soon as the ferry departed to take us back the the fog intensified to where we could only see about 50 - 75 yards in front of us."
“I went down to the stern with my dad, we had got some cigars on our trip and the only area where smoking was allowed was down around by the propellers. So we're standing around smoking our cigars, drinkin a beer when we see a guy riding a jet ski in the wake of the ferry."
“Me and my dad both looked at each other in disbelief - why someone would EVER ride a jet ski through open ocean on a day with heavy fog is beyond me. We're watching him dodge through our wake, hitting waves and catching some air, weave in between some of the heavier swells…then all of a sudden he hits a wake at an awkward angle and immediately the jet ski goes one way and he goes another, both disappearing almost instantly into the fog."
“We ran up to go get someone from the crew but apparently they had been watching the guy as well, so as soon as he lost control the crew alerted the captain. The ferry laid on its horn and did a complete 180 turn in order to look for this missing jet skier."
“The fog was still thick but the boat turned around about 1 minute after he fell…we searched for about a half an hour with no sign of either the jet ski or the unfortunate man who was riding it. Eventually the captain announced that we had to go back and the coast guard would continue the search.”
“We made it back to shore and for the next few days/weeks I was constantly checking the local news for anything related to this story however there was nothing…it still keeps me up wondering about the man on the jet ski.”
“Just imaging the horror of being 5 miles from either shore, the panic of trying to look for the jet ski while you're in 3 foot swells, knowing that if you do not find it immediately the current will take it and you are stranded in the middle of the open ocean.”
“But even if you did get lucky and find that jet ski the fog is so thick how would you even know that you're heading in the right direction? You could get back on a ride off into the Atlantic until the jet ski ran out of gas…the open ocean is beautiful but unforgiving and I just hope this guy didn't experience anything like the scenarios I can't stop imagining." odfr
Thank God for their diligent Grandpa…
“When I was about 6 years old, I was at my grandparents house for the weekend. They had a massive garden that I would play in for hours at a time. One day I was out there, out of view of my grandparents and a man climbed over the fence and crouched down behind some planters and was staring at me.”
“I was frozen; because he could see me and he knew I could see him and he just stared at me whilst crouching. He looked scruffy and unhinged and he was scratching his arms. He kissed towards me a few times too and was mumbling to himself.”
“My Grandpa happened to come over, saw me stood there like a statue and then saw the man. He jumped cos it caught him off guard but to my amazement he just sprinted towards the man and tackled him down to the ground. I screamed and my grandma ran outside, and ran back in to call the police.”
“The whole time he was looking at me, literally wouldn't stop staring at me to the point where my grandpa was getting very angry and looked like he was close to choking him or something. The police came super quick and that was that. I'm 30 and it still creeps me the f**k out” kicksjoysharkness
A different type of Spidey-sense…
“I worked with woman, who was severely frightened of dogs. She could tell if a dog was around before she could see them. It wasn't super obvious, but once you looked for it you could see it. She would turn around, and stare. A second, or three, a dog would appear.”
“This was all the time. I would see here do that looking, then a dog would be there. Funny dogs didn't like her either. They would be walking along, then freeze when when they seen her. She was twenty two at the time. The dogs always left.” Jmonroe_tenn
We would have done the same.
“Went hiking up the woods on a highly trafficked trail, but due to being end of winter there was still some snow towards the end that didn't get used much. Being a strong hiker and having my husky, I figured we'd plow through anyways to reach the peak overlook and head down after that."
“As we were approaching the big bend to the view point, my dog started to stop and trying to turn around. I kept going a little bit, but she kept resisting and her hackles when up."
“ As soon as that happened my heart dropped and I started to get freaked out and as soon as I turned around to walk the other way my dog growled and started to run the way we came, and you bet I followed. Not sure what was out there, or if she,(being the weirdo she is), just wanted to turn around, but I haven't been that scared in a long time, and I hike with my pistol." mrdrjrl
A midnight intruder or a ghostly surprise?
“Mine is actually super funny but at the time it scared the sh*t out of me. I was working as a live-in companion for an elderly woman, helping with her errands and some medical needs. Mostly she just shouldn't be living alone but she refused to go into a nursing home so her kids paid me to spend a few hours with her at night keeping her company and then sleeping in the guest bedroom and being there when she woke."
“Easy job. Hurricane Matthew hits us and the power goes out. I get up to pee, the hallway is pitch-black, lightening is flashing, I'm trying not to let my irrational mind flare up. I'm about halfway down the hallway when I hear a female voice talking very fast just down the hall at the darkest end."
“I scream and run into the bathroom and lock the door. I don't know what I was thinking because a lock isn't going to keep a ghost out and if it were an intruder then they'd know I was awake and where I was and that I knew they were there. Either way, I was convinced locking myself in the bathroom was the smartest thing to do."
“First thing I do after I lock the door is pee because I practically wet myself when the voice started. And then I called the name of the old lady but she didn't answer because she's hard of hearing. So, I was basically all alone with either a ghost or a fast-talking lady robber and locked in the damn bathroom."
“I must have stayed in the bathroom for half an hour waiting for something to happen, hearing nothing outside but the sound of wind and thunder and rain. I was convinced there was something or someone standing on the other side of the door waiting to strike. I was also so sleepy and just wanted to go back to bed."
The spooky saga continued…
“The old lady never had guests because her kids all lived within a few miles of her house so the bathroom didn't have anything decorative, just a ceramic soap dispenser so I picked it up and braced it as a bludgeon and opened the door. I ran as fast as I could back to my room and shut myself in, clutching the soap dispenser and waiting for whoever had been talking to come and get me."
“Ten minutes later I hear the creak of a door down the hall and the sound of shuffling footsteps getting closer and I just prepared myself to hurtle that damn soap dispenser at whatever dared come into my room. The knob turns, the door starts to creep open, a strange yellow light flooding in. I screamed like the little b*tch I was and started begging not to die."
“It was the old lady with a flash light. She'd woken up to pee and noticed the power was off so she wanted to check on me and make sure I was okay. We both just collapsed on the bed laughing our @sses off. When we'd calmed down I told her I'd been terrified for the last hour because I heard a woman talking somewhere near her bedroom right after the power went off."
“The old lady started laughing again and told me that was her LifeAlert Home Security System letting her know the power had gone off and if she needed assistance to use her Alert necklace to summon police, fire, or medical. And, I was going to kill it with a soap dispenser in the shape of a f**king fish." carmelacorleone
These Actors Seemed Miscast But Absolutely Nailed The Role | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
The Actors Who Seemed Miscast But Absolutely Nailed The RoleFew people bought into the idea of Bryan Cranston in the role of Walter White before Breaking Bad...Laughter from the dead…
“2am very distinctly could hear my grandad (86) and mum (48) who have both passed away in 2019 laughing happily from the front room and talking, I couldn't afford to have them buried so their urns are both in the front room. I am not the only one to feel activity since I brought urns home."
“Don't get me wrong it is nice to think of them pain-free together again and happy and hearing them was nice but at 2am in the dark going to the toilet it did make me jump." CursedFamilyTree
Grandmother came to them in a dream…
“Sleepwalking - sort of. One night I had a very vivid dream about my grandmother. I cannot remember all the details (I was 10), but the lasting image I have is of her sitting in ‘her’ chair in our living room, with her favourite cup of tea and a digestive biscuit.”
“She only spoke to say ‘Don't worry George. All is well’. I woke up crying and was found by mum standing in the living room, alone, having sleepwalked there I guess.”
“Needless to say, next morning during breakfast mum received the obvious phone call and whilst talking on the phone I just blurted out ‘It's okay mum, Grandma's happy’. She had died in the night of course.”
“You hear stories like this a lot, so they've become a bit of a tired old cliché - but I experienced it personally and it makes me wonder just how such cliché's come about in the first place!” VorlonKing
The creepiest part is that any point someone could have said something!
“Former hotel maid here. Worked at kind of mid nice place in the northeast. In summertime, all tourists and families on vacation, kids playing in pool, happy fun times. In winter, mostly business men on conferences, and women who um, provide them companionship. Sometimes a sex worker would have her own room rented and would work out of it.. we always put them at the end of a hall near exits so we didn't have to see their clients come through the lobby."
“As long as they were discreet and stripped their own sheets none of us staff had a problem with it. One winter there is a girl working out of the floor above me. I see her a few times. She's petite and quiet, probably 30ish, sad looking thing really. A few days into her stay I hear her in the stairwell crying and blubbering something like 'I don't have it, he never gave it to me, no I don't have it!'"
“So I popped my head over the stairwell and say 'hon are you okay, do you need to be let into your room?' She says no and she's sorry, goes outside through the exit. I continue on my cleaning. There was a family staying on my floor, mom and three teenagers, and I was refreshing the linens for them a day or so later."
“The mom is sobbing and wiping her face when I come in. 'I can't stop thinking about that poor girl up there! They worked her over so bad..' apparently she saw the girl that morning and her face was all beaten up and swollen. Broke this sweet momma's heart. I hugged her and I promised to try to leave that girl some numbers for DV resources or something and encourage her to call the cops."
“I didn't see her again though. Few days after that I finished up my floor early and went up to make a few beds for the maid on upper floor. The girls room was a check out, the maid had already been through and gathered the trash and pulled the sheets. But holy f**k, the whole room smiled strongly of bleach. We didn't use bleach, wasn't on our carts at all. But I see three gallons of off-brand bleach sitting with the trash collection."
"The bathroom is streaky with the stuff, and the mattress is wet. The whole mattress. That's sketchy as sh*t and I said as much to the maid I was helping, who just shrugged. She was kinda sketchy herself and definitely wouldn't report anything that would have her talking to management or the police. But I couldn't let it go."
"I asked the front desk when the girl left and they looked up the time. It was super easy to access the security video from the computers so we looked at the lobby video. A woman in a hoodie, sunglasses, and a big rolling suit case. Just judging her height from the counter she stood at, I don't think it was the sex worker. Too tall, and body too wide even in a hoodie. I have no proof of this but I'm literally convinced they chopped that girl up in the room, cleaned with bleach, and put her in that ridiculously huge suitcase." - user deleted
“We both said a quiet prayer on our own and it stopped."
“A couple years ago when my wife and I had just started dating, I got her a vinyl album of one of her favorite artists for her birthday and we listened to it on her record player that used to belong to her grandmother that passed away a few years prior to us meeting."
“A couple nights later my at the time girlfriend(now wife) woke up and said that she could hear music. I couldn't hear anything but just brushed it off and said it's probably just somebody out in their car playing their music really loud or something like that, but she said that it was coming from the living room and it sounded like country music. I tried as hard as I could but I couldn't hear any music and I started to feel like I was in a horror movie where the wife always hears and sees stuff but the husband doesn't."
“We walked out to the living room and she said that now it sounded like the music is coming from the bedroom and I was really starting to get scared at this point. We go back in the bedroom and then I could faintly hear music playing and I told her I could hear it too and we both we were so scared about wtf was going on. We both said a quiet prayer on our own and it stopped."
“Sometime after this we looked at the record player that belonged to her grandmother, it was a multifunctional one that played records; cd's; radio; and auxiliary, and we opened the CD player and there was a country music CD in there, I can't remember what singer it was though. The weird thing is, is that the record player was off and we had it on the record player mode so it wouldn't have been playing the CD anyway. We're still not sure what exactly happened but we think maybe it was her grandmother trying to say hello. Either way we have not used the record player since then." BlueShoe15
Nothing to see here…
“I know this is late and will get buried but when I was 8 my parents rented a cabin in the woods. On one of the days, I and my brother are playing a game or something in the rain. At one point in the game, my brother points towards what appears to be a figure dragging a bag through the woods. As we're watching this, he turns and looks. We don't break eye contact for a good 30 seconds. He continues dragging the bag."
“After we can't see him anymore, we both ran back into the cabin. We were both too young to understand. I realized what it was a couple of years later. This was 11 years ago. I asked my brother when I was writing this and he doesn't even remember. I try not to think about it cause it creeps me the f**k out and I wish I realized what was happening back then" Wild-Ad-3471
“Creepy but also funny. Thought it might make you all laugh. My BF at the time (now husband) and I had not long moved in together and been burgled we were staying in the rented house still till we could move back in with my folks (stayed one night, as the landlord said they'd fix the door that day but didn't and we ended up with a piece of ply over the door screwed into a post )."
“He wakes me up in the middle of the night ashen faceted telling me I was "writhing on the bed yelling that someone was in the house". He goes on to explain "you didn't sound like you". I have no recollection, shrug it off as him having a bad dream. Move back into my folks house with my OH and I wake up to the bath taps running and a pillow in the bath about a month later - Weird but I shrug it off as some sort of drunken thing as my OH had been to a stag do that night and returned home after I fell asleep."
“A few months after that my mum wakes up to the gas hob on and a pan of water boiling on it. (She didn't tell me this till later).She starts locking the doors at night again, something she didn't do for a while - "just in case". Nothing else happens for about four years.“
“We buy our own place and move in. OH wakes up to me kneeling by the side of the bed shaking from side to side with my hands clasped in front of me on the bed as if I am praying. He asks me what I'm doing. In a deep gravelly voice I reply "spinning". So he tells me to "Go back to sleep spinning is finished"."
“I climb back into bed and start talking gibberish. He grabs his phone a tries to record me as he knows I won't believe him. My eyes snap open and snap at him "Don't record me!" He stops, rolls over and tries to sleep all with me still staring until I star snoring about 5 mins later."
“Here's the thing, up until the last one I never recalled even dreaming and so never believed him. He tells me what happened and shows me the brief video and my mum who's round for tea wets herself laughing. Apparently I used to sleep walk when I was little but it stopped when I was about 10."
“I've always talked in my sleep and it's "always been a little demonic sounding, which is why the kids at school stopped inviting me to sleep overs" - cheers. The thing is, I remember my dream from that night, I dreamt I was at the gym doing a spin class and that had to leave to do the round ball balance things (you can tell I'm not a guy goer) as in my dream the press were following me!"
“After that I told some.old friends, who laughed and said "we thought you knew, you slept walked a couple of times at uni". So yeah, creepy demonic style sleep walking is my thing." cpb21
No one wants to be next to the haunted room…
“I used to live in a house that I am 100% sure was haunted. All the creepy things that happened in that house were centered around the guest bedroom. Can you guess who's room it was right next to?"
“One night (I think I was 13 or 14 when this happened), I was awoken in the middle of the night to a sound I couldn't entirely discern the origin of. It took me a moment of waking up to realize it was the sound of a small child crying. And it was coming from the guest bedroom."
“It went on for a few minutes before I just couldn't stay awake any longer and just passed out. Nobody believes me when I say that this house was haunted, but I knew what I heard. And this wasn't the only incident either."Faulty_Cyanide
Not an ok choice…
“When I was in first grade (I'm 27 now), for some reason the teacher put on… like a documentary or something. I don't know why she would have done this, but I distinctly remember it was about some tribe of people, I can't remember where."
“All I can remember is the scene that really haunted me. A woman in the tribe had cheated on her husband, and was sentenced her to death for it. I can specifically remember they wrapped a rope around her neck & pulled on both sides until she died, and then lowered her body into the ground in a sh*tty wooden box."
“Every time I bring it up I'm told that "there's no way a teacher in the first grade would've shown something like that to you" and that I'm "probably misremembering things." And maybe they're right, I mean, why would a first grade teacher show her students something like that? But… I remember it so clearly. So vividly. They choked that poor woman to death on camera." PineappleLubricant
Who’s voice was it?
“While I was in the shower talking to myself, I said something along the lines of "who would even break into my house?". Then I heard a voice saying "hello". And that made me freak out. Once I was out of the shower I went to every room were I thought I heard the voice from. But I found nothing, I didn't think of the voice I heard the voice. So that is my creepy experience with a voice."MainStaffMan
A barn poltergeist perhaps?
“Was helping my grandpa throw some small square bales as a 10 year old the stack shifted and it fell with me I fell between the bale spikes on the bed of the truck and was pinned for about 5 minutes while he dug me out it fell perfect where I wasn't crushed suffocated or impelled. That was the first time I ever actually saw my grandpa in a sheer panic it was creepy it was like the barn pushed the bales I always had an eerie feeling in that barn after that few years later it burned to the ground we never could figure out how it fell in the way it did." j-twoxd
How about you? What's the creepiest thing you've ever experienced. Let us know in the comments.
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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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