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People Share The Scariest True Stories They've Ever Heard

People Share The Scariest True Stories They've Ever Heard

Scary stories are a great pastime. You tell them in front of a fire and you stoke the coals of fear by reinforcing the truth of your ghost story.

Or maybe it's an urban legend, something that happened to a friend of a friend...and you're sure It happened. You just know it did.

But have you ever really told a scary story that happened to you? How many times have you shared your own experiences with fear?


u/ugotheglizzy asked:

What's the scariest true story you've heard or told ?

Here were some of those stories.

The Small Town Scaries

One day as a kid I was exploring the forests near our house with my cousin. The forest was on a hill, but there were several craters there because of bombs that were dropped there during the world wars (Germany). One day we saw a backpack at the bottom of one.

We tried to climb down, but it was kinda steep and slippery, so we didn't want to risk falling. We planned on returning later with a rope, and went home. The next day news story was that there was a backpack found with the remains of a girl, in that forest. A guy walking his dog found it, after the dog wouldn't stop barking and going crazy at the edge of the crater, while staring at the backpack. We stopped exploring the forests after.

somewhatofalegend

Please Actually Take Your Medicine

When I worked in healthcare I had a patient who got a sinus infection. He stopped taking his antibiotics after a few days because he felt better. His sinus infection came back with a vengeance. When he got to the Emergency Department he was presenting with stroke symptoms.

The infection had spread to his cranial cavity. There was so much pus that it was twisting his brain. No one thought he would survive the surgery. The family was advised to expect the worst. Amazingly he actually survived. He ended up needing 3 more surgeries to wash out and spent almost 2 months in the hospital. Take your full dose of antibiotics, people!

slappy_mcslapenstein

Close Call

I was walking out of a Walmart one night and this guy caught my attention and asked me if I can get him a ride. I don't know this person and I don't give random strangers a ride. He told me he was a truck driver and he wanted to go back to the to the gas station across the highway literally just within walking distance so he can get to his big rig.

I made up some BS excuse so i wouldn't give him a ride. I suggested to him that there's uber he can contact for help.

He starts yelling at me saying that its just a ride and that he needs help. At that point, I just said "I gotta go" and I quickly turned around and headed to my car. I heard him say "Okay". I got into my car and sped off. Initially I felt extremely bad for not giving him a ride but the way he yelled at me made it seem justified that I said no. I don't give strangers rides unless its family or friends.


Cut to almost a year later. I'm at a restaurant eating lunch. I decided to open up Facebook on my phone. What I saw next just spooked me down to my core.

The article showed a picture of the same guy, who asked me for a ride that night, in a mugshot. Turns out he was a running fugitive wanted on several murder charges across the state I live in.

One of the scariest things he did to trick people was that he would ask for a ride and then when him and his victims were out of sight of everyone he would then kill them by shooting them and he strips them of their money and their clothing. He then would take their vehicle and travel to the next area to find his next victim...

I legit almost choked on my drink when I saw that.

lugarius1990

OoooOOOoooOOOooo

The Lake Bodom murders are scary as hell

Like, there are 4 teens who go on a camping trip in Finland. The next morning, 3 of the teens are found murdered, and one of them is almost dead and severely injured, but survived.

No one knows who the murderer is today.

Forty-Four years later, the fourth teen, Nils, who survived, was accused of murdering them and gets sent to prison. But then he was released a year later, because there was little DNA evidence to prove this. And no good evidence to prove that he murdered them at all.

However, there is circumstantial evidence such as he allegedly fought his one friend due to an argument and was drunk. Some say this could've ended in accidental and/or intentional murder. However, I personally highly doubt that Nils is guilty.

Some other key suspects include the manager of the camp, who was known for being quite hostile, an ice cream vendor who admitted to the crime on his deathbed, and a man who lived only a short distance from the camp who claimed "to be in Germany" during that time. However, there is much doubt for his claim

There was a sketch released of the alleged murderer. Who seems to be an unsettling picture of an older man

snowythandi8

Nice Mental Picture, Thx

When I was young, I saw a documentary about a guy who got flesh eating bacteria in his nasal cavity. It ate his face and he's still alive. Eventually they removed the bacteria by removing the eaten parts of his face. He got a prosthetic face, which back in those days was basically a plastic Halloween mask that tried to look human. At the end of the documentary, he took the mask off. His face from his forehead down to his mouth was just a hole.

huggalump

Random Attacks

Lived w 3 other girls sophomore year of college. All 3 took off early for spring break, leaving me alone in the house. First night alone, I heard someone bang on my front door at 2am. Then I hear more knocks at the back door. A man yells "Boulder police, open the door!" When I didn't, I heard body slams against both doors.

Soon I hear "little girl, open the door, we know you're alone." At this point I'm so scared I keep accidentally dialing 611 instead of 911. When I eventually do get the police, cars roll up (thankfully) just minutes later. Officers have 4 boys from our school hockey team face down on the grass. I had to file restraining orders against them and the kicker - one lived across the street from me and we'd never spoken a single word before then.

etrain828

They're Lucky They Made It Out Alive

I met a guy who had been traveling Australia with a couple friends, hitchhiking around as many of us had done. One of his friend told him they were near his distant uncles house, whom he'd never met before. He got a phone number from a family member and as they had hoped, the uncle offered them a place to stay. He picked them up in town and drove them out to his rural property way out in the bush.

They said he seemed like a pretty normal guy, friendly and cheery. When it was time to set up a place to sleep the uncle took them to a closet that was totally full of sleeping bags and bed rolls. They didn't think much of it at the time and all grabbed a kit and set up on the living room floor. They stayed a couple days and nothing out of the ordinary happened, and afterwards the uncle drove them to the bus station and they continued on their way. About a year later that man was arrested and charged with several counts of murder. He was the man who was picking up young hitch hiking backpackers and slaughtering them. The guy who told me this story was 100% certain he had slept in the sleeping bag of one of his victims.

pasomider

Why Would You Say This

Back in the 70s, some friends and I planned a camping trip to northern Cali for a long weekend. We packed up and headed north on the highway. Somewhere around Bakersfield we picked up a hitchhiker headed to Kernville, who we dropped off before heading further north.

So we get to our campsite and start getting things set up, my gf finds a note tucked into the top of her backpack. It read, "I could have killed all of you".

None of us slept that night.

adanipse

A Stranger In My Home

There have been several confirmed cases in a few different countries of people living in other people's houses unbeknownst to them.

I believe one case went on for a couple of years. The intruder would wait until the homeowner would go to work and then sneak out and steal small amounts of food as not to be noticed. Well, eventually the homeowner did notice and couldn't figure out where his food was going, so he set up a hidden camera to record it.

I can only imagine how scary it would have been to come home from work one night and sit down to watch the video, skipping through hours of stillness, to suddenly come across a person crawling out of your attic. And then the slow realization that that person is still in your house at that moment.

And then the retroactive fear of thinking back to all the times you laid awake at night and heard a noise, which you just dismissed as coming from the pipes or the old wooden beams, but actually it was a f*cking person just above you.

It gives me the heebee jeebees every time I think about it.

Iwillpickonelater

Broken Doors

My sister dated a guy when she was in high school who lived a few towns over. Once, his families garage door broke, which they credited to a big storm, and they couldn't get into their garage for a while. Finally when someone showed up to fix it, they found a bunch of blankets and some food scraps in there. Turns out, a guy who was on the run after murdering some people a state over was able to break their garage door and lock it from the inside so he could live there for a bit. I believe he was found and arrested, but still not a comforting story.

jelljen

An Unexpected Tenant

For about a year I lived in a house with four housemates. We had a pretty big backyard with a garage and a tool shed that we never used, ever. We also had motion detector lights. Two of my housemates were very superstitious and believed in ghosts and spirits and such.

The lights in our backyard would go off randomly, I assumed it was animals, my housemates were sure it was a ghost. One of them told us she'd seen a man-ghost looking trough our window when she was high. They thought it was scary, I thought nothing of it because... well yeah.

A few nights later, drunk me thought I saw a man through the mesh-door to the backyard. I just thought my mind was playing tricks on me because my housemates kept talking about the "ghost".

Eventually I moved out to go back to my home country, and about 6 months after that I FaceTimed with one of the housemates. Well, turns out it hadn't been a ghost. A homeless man had been living in our toolshed for god knows how long. It gave me the creeps for sure.

ieams85

Truly Worst Fear

One of my friends was drugged by a "nice seeming" girl at a bar that tried to sex traffic her. The girl got her an uber to an address she didn't know under the guise of "get my drunk friend home" but she woke up on the way and told the driver she didn't know where they were going. They called the cops, apparently that wasn't the first time that week they'd heard the same story and they recognized the address as one they were already tracking. If she hadn't woken up on the way she might have been trafficked by now. Apparently they use younger, safe seeming girls to do the collecting a lot of the time.

spacelordmthrfkr

When Being Polite Backfires

Not the scariest one I've heard but one of the scariest things to happen to me (also in my post history in r/letsnotmeet).

A few years ago I was living in a big city, didn't know anyone. A guy I was seeing came (from abroad) to visit me. At the end of his trip I accompanied him to his train home. After that I went back into the metro to go home. It was about 2 PM, very bright and sunny outside. I sat down on a bench near a man. We made eye contact and I said hello, he said hello back. I felt like something was off but tried to ignore it. The metro car came and we both got inside.

It was crowded. I took a seat, he took one of the only available ones which was right across from me. I started thinking I was overreacting since he started talking to a man near me, seemed like they knew each other. His friend got off after a few stops but he stayed. Once I saw my own stop approaching to change lines I got up. He got up too and was right behind me. I could see his reflection in the metro car window and he was very slowly looking my legs up and down. I started to feel very uneasy. The doors open, we get off. I start walking quickly to the end of the platform then realise he might be following me. There were several entrances/exits around so I suddenly changed direction to go to another exit. He changed course as well. Then I turned around again, he followed. I did this a few times and he changed his path to match mine each time.


Eventually I knew I had to leave somehow so he wouldn't catch up so I went to the exit I needed to take to change lines and go home. Unfortunately the passageway to the next line was flooded with people so I was slowed down. He caught up with me and started crowding me in, getting closer and closer to me. I was backed up against a wall at this point, him just smiling brightly at me.

"Hello, how are you?" He asked me, still inching towards me. I was terrified at this point. No one stopped to even glance at us so I knew unless I did something myself I wouldn't get away from him. I glanced to the right and saw a staircase downwards.

Without warning I SPRINTED away to the stairs. He was very caught off guard and it took him 2 or 3 seconds to start following me. I flew down the stairs and straight into a metro car. I turned around to see if he was close behind. He was sprinting down the stairs as well. Thankfully, the doors closed before he could get to the bottom and we pulled away.

Surprisingly I had gotten onto the right metro line and direction to go home, not that it mattered much to me at the time. That incident and several others of men following me home or in the street make me paranoid when I walk outside alone.

AardvarkCactus

Who Was Looking For Me?

I had two incidents in school that I still don't understand. I would have been Year 9/10, so about 14/15 years old.

The first one, I was walking out the school gates when this huge man who I didn't know stopped me and asked "Do you know Evilmentalhamster?" to which I quickly answered "No." and went on to my school bus home. I never found out why someone was asking after me.

The second occasion, someone phoned up the school reception saying that they were waiting on road nearby to take me to the dentist. I didn't go because I knew that I didn't have an appointment booked. Again, I have no idea what it was about...

Evilmentalhamster

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

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.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

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.