Life is scary. There are daily reminders that we are not inhuman and that we are vulnerable to the world at large. Anything can be viewed as frightening. And it should be! Now that is not to say we shouldn't live free and take risks but, we have to live smart. Ghosts are real. Crazy people live among us (and run our government). The air is poisoned and cars are weapons. I could go on. But we all need to be able to sleep sometime.
Redditor reddit wanted to see who would be willing to share what are things that haunt us all by asking.... (Serious) what scares you the most?After....
GiphyThe fact that one day, everything is just going to go black. What happens after death? Is it just eternal darkness? If there is a heaven- hell of some sort, would I be happy spending eternity there? If reincarnation is true, the thought of living in different times without being conscious of your past lives scares me a little. To whoever is reading this, we all have a life, lets try to live it like everyday is our last. TheMythicalNeko
The Sea Storms....
I love the ocean but I have a lot of scary dreams about tsunamis. In real life when I see the ocean I'm so happy and at peace, but in my dreams I immediately feel dread cuz I know what's coming. natsugrayerza
I went swimming in the ocean for the first time when I was about 28. Jumped off a boat in Hawaii, looked outwards, and started having a very mild panic attack. It was so.... weird. skeeve87
It's Me.
Myself. I struggle with self-control and am prone to self-harm. I don't feel like one person and sometimes my mind even talks to me telling me to do bad things. Twice now I've tried to cut my hand open. Im seeing a therapist about it currently. And I know it isn't good, but I cant really stop it entirely. I just have to overpower my sub-conscious when episodes start. NotALifeFan
Alone.
I fear that in the end, I will truly be completely alone. No one to comfort me, no one to take care of me or me to care for them, no one to talk to.
Which is weird since I am in a very happy relationship, have a very great relationship with my mom and grandparents and have a good support system. SaraNaomi48
Reality Issues....
Locked in syndrome.
Or a strong case of schizophrenia and other neurological disorders. Basically everything that parts myself from the rest of the world irreversibly. Not able to communicate and/or connect to others and lose track of our shared reality. Amicelli11
I had a boss who once suffered from locked-in syndrome (as well as multiple comas), and this resulted in him developing PTSD from the fear and frustration he felt. He did his best to describe it to us, but it's such an unfathomable feeling to those of us who have never experienced it. Thankfully he did eventually recover, but unfortunately died last year due to a preexisting neurological condition.
I really miss the guy, and his stories about locked-in syndrome really make me grateful that I still have most of my motor control (I have MS and often complain about losing my fine motor control, but he really made me learn to stop taking what I had for granted). Karjo2000
H2O Scare....
GiphyBeing neck deep in water, I have aquaphobia (the fear of water) that shows up whenever I'm near very few people in high water. It's stupid but I always have a panic attack when I'm forced to swim and I despise water (I'll drink and shower often but hell no to baths and swimming). Reddit
It's about how you take it.
Being unsuccessful. applefanatix
There is nothing to fear about being unsuccessful. It's about how you take it. Rather than taking it as a failure look at it like a step closer to achieving success. It is like process of elimination. Once you have done everything wrong there is no chance in hell you can't do it right now. Feral_Ghoul69
just because of my laziness.....
I'm lazy. I have friends, we go out together, I have fun with them. But every time I have to go out it's almost a chore, even tho I know I will have fun. It's as if I live in the moment and don't want to leave what was entertaining me. Be it my PC or phone or whatever, I know it's better for me to go out, but the lazy part of me says "do we really have to go?" I hate this feeling. I hate being friends with someone I don't feel like going out with, just because of my laziness. sydneysixer
My Babies....
Something horrible happening to my kids. Honestly, I get scared when I'd send them off to school or when my son would go outside to play with the neighborhood kids. Im definitely bored and going stir crazy during this quarantine, but I feel a degree of relief knowing they're safe at home. AlysonWonderland7
Just Scared....
I am afraid of failure. Although panic attacks are now rare for me, I can still get one if I feed the anxiety. I am also afraid of my own mental illness. I was in a really bad place 7 years ago. I am much better thanks to a great support system, medication, and coaching... but I am terrified of relapsing because my anxiety views relapsing as failure.
I am also scared of heights and spiders. katinthekingdom
Besties....
Losing my best friend. We have been great friends for years but sometimes we get into arguments really really bad ones. Epsilon_One
Wasted Time.
If I die now then I've wasted the better half of my life on preparing for the rest of it for no reason. PhysicalRisee
I'm struggling with this right now too. I'm in uni right now and it seems like I'm wasting all this time trying to get a degree to get a job when I should be finding things that make me happy in life, however few things that may be. But, you have to have money to do most things in this world. TheOminousMoose
Time Lost.
The loss of my mind.
The thought of developing Alzheimer's or dementia terrifies me.
The thought that my family would have to endure my downward spiral until I become nothing but a hollow shell of who I once was terrifies me even more. mipu
Life.
The fact that, when I really sit down and think about it, I can't really see the point to life... not in a suicidal way, it just seems like in the grand scheme of things everything I do is insignificant and unremarkable and will be forgotten. Reddit
Pessimist: Nobody cares and nothing matters 😞
Optimist: Nobody cares and nothing matters 😀
It's remarkably freeing when you realize that no one really cares what you're doing. okzaa
The End.
GiphyPainful death. Death is fine, agony isn't. I want to just go to sleep and not wake up. Metruis
Empty Existence.
Living a life with no meaning. I don't know what that meaning or purpose is, but I think life is such a gift that I don't want to just idle by. Racing_in_the_street
I agree pretty completely. I'm pretty young and I feel like my biggest fear, or at least the one I think about the most is never managing to accomplish anything in life that makes me satisfied with my life.
With school coming to an end instead of thinking that's a problem for the future I worry more that I won't be able to find a way to feel like I did life right. But there's so many things to see and do that regardless of whether I never reach a standard I'm satisfied by its still incredible that I get to be here alive. A_lone_goose
Freedom.
False imprisonment, where no believes my innocence. flash3444
I am a whistleblower that was ignored by my government.
I believe your worst fear is my fate.
It is haunting. wwguru
Not my Son.
Watching my youngest son die of this virus. He survived cancer at 16 months and recently diagnosed with heart failure from the chemo. One kidney, heart failure and immuno-compromised has me terrified to bring home any part of this crap storm. We are taking huge measures to try and prevent it. ac1dre1gn77
Vehicles.
Drivers who routinely run red lights long after the light has changed, especially at busy intersections. Back2Bach
I once crossed at a crosswalk and it was our turn to cross but a guy ran the light really late. He almost hit 6 people, myself included. His car was within arms reach of me when he stopped. I'm not sure he would have ever lived a normal life after that had he not been able to stop in time (Not that he would deserve a normal life). bottles124
In the Time of Corona....
GiphyGetting sick and never feeling better.
Every time I get majorly sick, I always freak out thinking that I'm never going to get back to normal again. Terrifies me every time. SqulliamFancyson44
That fear is especially strong given the pandemic we're currently facing. I get rationally angry every time I consider my country's ineptness in preventing its spread. elee0228
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk him about it.
Reddit user New-Low5765 asked:
"People who work in the airline industry, what are some of the craziest things you have seen?"
Don't Drink And Tow Aircraft
"Worked as ground crew. 2nd day on the job we were issued a notice to gather."
"So when you check in every morning you’re supposed to always take a breathalyzer test to prove you can like you know, ride around the tarmack, use pushbacks on planes, etc..."
"For whatever reason this dude hadn’t taken it/got past without taking it."
"He was not sober."
"He was tasked with pulling a 370 [aircraft] into a hangar."
"He eyeballed it for whatever reason."
"So here we are watching a video of this absolute loon break the whole wing off while damaging the hangar in the process."
"Because he was drunk, insurance doesn’t kick in."
"We were promptly told that Christmas bonuses might be a bit smaller."
~ ProbablyChe
Occupational Hazard
"Someone had the tip of their finger cut off when closing the door to the plane and didn't say anything until the flight landed at the arrival gate and when the door was opened the chunk of finger fell out."
"The staff then said, 'Oh yeah, that's my finger. you can throw it away'."
"I guess he just bandaged and wrapped his own hand."
"It was about 1/4 of his finger including the nail that was cut off. The cutoff portion wasn't particularly bloody and it was really pale."
~ If_I_remember
"A plane I got on once almost left without half of its aircrew on it."
~ BeerisAwesome01
"'Let’s just go, they can meet us there'."
~ InformativePenguin
"Plot twist. That included the pilots."
~ Windyandbreezy
Excess Baggage
"Coffin with dead body inside being left off the flight due to overload without notice either to us or the family and the family realising it by seeing it while the plane was leaving and screaming to us."
~ elenivog
employee of the month ups GIFGiphyNoped Out
"Saw the pilot walk into the passenger area and say 'I'm not flying this piece of sh*t' and get off the plane."
"All the passengers followed him."
~ Jaded-Session8422
"Hell yeah, I'm following the pilot off the plane if something like this happens!"
~ lukaron
Giphy"I had something similar happen, but never got on the plane."
"It was sitting there seemingly ready but they never started boarding."
"Eventually the pilots walk off the plane and a few of us heard them say ‘This junk isn’t going anywhere’."
"Flight ended up getting cancelled a short time later."
~ potatocross
"I was threatened with [pilots walking out] multiple times a week as an aircraft dispatcher."
"Auxiliary power units (APUs) run the air conditioning (AC) in the aircraft and they were always broken down and not fixed quickly, so when the pilots show up it is hot as hell inside and there's no ground crew to connect the external AC."
"So I would get a call from the Captain telling me he is not going to fly this piece of shit because it is too hot."
"Then they'd go on a tirade about how bad the company sucks because they don't do maintenance."
"I would agree with them completely."
Giphy"Then by the end of the call they'd say they will take it but the company sucks and needs to fix the APU."
"Occasionally the captain would refuse it, but then the ground crew would hook up the AC and they would always get back inside and fly it."
"For sure there were issues that popped up where the AC had an unsolvable issue and it would result in a cancelled flight."
~ Winchery
"I’m Dallas-Fort Worth based. No APU/AC in November? Meh, whatever."
"No APU/AC in August in Texas?"
"I’m not going on that airplane. Ground just can’t keep up."
~ poser765
☣️ Bio-Hazard ☣️
"Flight diverted to my airport because a girl in hotpants got uncontrollable diarrhea from the laxatives she took before the flight to help get over her weekend binge in Vegas."
"She sh*t in her seat and down the aisle and all over the bathroom."
"Five other passengers had uncontrollable vomiting because of this and the panic on the plane from the crew and rest of passengers caused the plane to make an emergency landing."
"They ended up having to cancel the remaining leg of the flight to decontaminate the plane."
"Police were sent and interviewed her and her friends and no charges were filed. I don't know if the airline put her on any kind of no-fly list or tried to have her pay for damages."
~ If_I_remember
GiphyHighly Unsuccessful
"There were two suitcases checked in that were full of nothing but weed."
"The police arrested him in the gating area & confiscated the bags."
~ Traditional_Pair4840
"Something similar happened when I was a ramp rat back in the 1960s."
"Law enforcement was going to do the arrest at his destination."
"The weed disappeared before they got there."
~ endadaroad
Stealthiest Catch
"As a baggage handler I once had a shipment of live Alaskan crabs escape their container on the ramp."
"Flights were delayed."
"Turns out those guys scatter when they panic and try to hide under anything and everything."
~ Gregwaaah
"My significant other worked doing maintenance checks on commercial planes."
"This explains why they once found a bunch of dead crabs under the floorboards in the cargo bay. It was a mysterious mystery."
~ Highly_Referential
Avoiding A Strip Search?
"A fully naked woman just walked through the terminal and tried to walk through security like she wasn’t fully naked."
~ Commercial-Chance561
"She was just very considerately trying to make it easier for TSA."
~ TrooperJohn
"They make you take off your shoes but they don't say that's all you can take off."
~ smartguy05
Language Barrier
"I witnessed this in the security screening of a large American airport."
"And to be fair, there was a language barrier as the passenger in question seemed to be speaking mainly French, and struggling to understand the TSA agent's instructions in English."
"Female passenger (tall, attractive, and sophisticated-looking) was wearing a business suit with a pencil skirt and matching jacket, which was buttoned closed, going through security."
"The TSA agent told her she had to remove the jacket. She ignored and tried to go through anyway."
"He stopped her and told her again more loudly (that's when everyone started noticing)."
"She said no. He insisted. She refused again, and tried to walk through."
Giphy"He got angry."
"She tried to explain something but it was unclear because her English was poor."
"It went back and forth."
"They both started getting angry and frustrated. It started holding up the line and other passengers were getting agitated."
"A few people tried to intervene and explain more calmly that she needed to put her jacket through the x-ray machine."
"Finally, near tears, she blurted out 'fine' and removed her jacket, revealing that she was wearing nothing at all underneath, and walked through the screening machine topless."
~ SigmaSeal66
I'm a nervous flyer so it's not something I do often, but I still feel a little cheated that nothing this bizarre has happened while I was traveling.
Has something ever happened during your travels?
Share it in the comments.
A good friend is not always the one with whom you share laughs and fun experiences.
The friendships you want to keep include those who won't abandon you in a time of need or someone who supports you in a variety of complicated situations where not even a family member can be relied upon.
Unfortunately, many of us have experienced a time when a person's true colors revealed to us that the so-called "friend" we've always trusted wasn't one at all.
Curious to hear examples of this, Redditor Aesthetik_1 asked:
"What made you instantly realize This 'friend' is not a real friend?"
These Redditors didn't realized at the time that they were being used.
Recurring Favor
"When he only called me when he needed something. It didn't hit me until much later."
– Queasy-Location-9303
"I have one of those 'friends'. She always gushes about how we're friends but she never initiates contact unless she wants me to do something for her."
– StiffAssedBrit
The Errand Girl
"Several years back, I had a friend who introduced me to this new boy she was seeing. Maybe a year later, their relationship blew up in a fury of bs (whole other story), but by the time they split, I was equally friends with both of them. He and I were both photographers at the time, so the friendship was instantaneous."
"One day we started talking about her, neither positively nor in poor taste, just kind of in general."
"He then asked me 'when she texts to hang out, what does she usually want to do?'"
"I paused. I thought. Holy sh*t, she'd either be asking for a favour or for help with some kind of errand. I was her f'king errand girl."
"She texted me a month or two later, just a 'hey'. I never responded. She never texted again."
"I'm still friends with her ex, though. That dude is genuine as heck."
– ChamomileBrownies
Testing The Friendship
"When you decide to let them be the one to reach out. And you never hear from them again."
– plzdontgetmad
"Yup. Made plans with a friend three times, she cancelled each time. I finally told her to let me know when she was free, we haven’t hung out since."
"She was a good friend for the season, but not a lifetime."
– NoMrBond3
People were shocked to discover the moment they realized they didn't really know who their "friend" was anymore.
The Chaperon
"I had been giving rides to a girl I thought was my friend. To and from school in high school. She wasn’t really suppose to ride with other teens but due to her mothers work hours we could easily pull this off. I thought we were close."
"One day while on the way home my brakes went out. We were about 2 blocks from her gated neighborhood. I managed to roll in safely and parked at her house to call a tow truck."
"She flipped. Told me I couldn’t stay. She knew my brakes were not working as she had also been terrified when we couldn’t stop. She said she wanted to go to a movie that weekend with other friends and her mom would ground her if she saw me at the house. I offered to lie and say I only stopped there as my car malfunctioned on my way home. I had to pass her neighborhood on my way home anyways."
"She refused. Started to scream at me. She didn’t care what happened I had to go. Started to call the guard at the front gate to tell them I had broken in and was threatening her."
"I left her and that friendship that moment. I managed to roll my car slowly to a mechanic not too far away but never forgot the shi* feeling of knowing I could have been seriously hurt and she wouldn’t have cared. She wanted to see a movie. She had the nerve to sheepishly call and ask me a couple days later if I could give her a ride to school. Told her I was too busy and no longer had time… after all I wanted to help her obey her mom's rules. She rode the bus til she graduated."
– Duffarum
Unwilling Companion
"I had this friend in school. Each year there was a funfair in our city, all students received vouchers for a drink and something to eat. This friend complained the whole day that she had no one to accompany her to the funfair. So, stupid me offered to go with her."
"Once we arrived we met another friend of hers. And another, and another... until we were a group of 5 or 6 people. I didn't know anyone and was basically just walking behind them. This friend took me aside and said, 'My friends think you are annoying, and we would like you to leave.'"
"It was a pleasure to see that she failed her exams a year later."
– Auldale
There's the spirit of competition, but when it's taken seriously, we're no longer game for these friendships.
I Can Do It Better
"Constantly 'one ups' me. A real friend is happy for you."
– Complex-Half8338
"That one time I got a fake bag but she doesn’t know and then 2 weeks later messaged me that she also bought a luxury bag… Then when I got a bf, she also went to get a bf within 3 months which is TOTALLY fine but she constantly messages me for us to go on a double date. Anyways, sadly they didn’t last long :( I mentioned that I wanted to go to Cuba, she went ahead and bought herself a ticket to Cuba but I didn’t end up going lol"
– Hot-Coffee-8465
Never Steal The Spotlight
"When they loved the idea of me shining, but behind their shadow, I could never do or achieve anything above them, and when I did, they would get jealous."
– Jasssin23
"Yes! I recently ghosted a friend because of this kind of behavior. She was trying to compete about EVERYTHING. Like she bragged about how her mom’s car accident was more traumatic than my elderly MIL’s - which is not even an appropriate thing to compare. She would also try to 'outshine' celebrations of my milestones and was mean to several of my friends for no apparent reason. She was a loose cannon at best."
– thefifthtrilogy
All About Me
"ALL she talks about it herself and her problems. Granted she has a a lot but never asks about me or my life until she realizes she just bypassed my attempt to want to talk about something in my life bothering me and continued to talk about herself."
– PokemomOnTheGo
People can just be so rude.
"When I got really sick. Very few came to help."
– Tofflus1
"Same here. I got cancer and everyone I knew was over the top supportive for the first six months and then all but three of my friends just vanished. I saw one of them at a Halloween party while I was going through chemo and she told me that my bald head made people uncomfortable. I was dressed as Captain Picard, it was awesome and she ruined it."
– CatGoNoTail
Not Missing High School
"At lunch, she was sitting with her boyfriend, I was sitting with our friend circle. She came up to me, guilted me into sitting with her and her boyfriend, and then proceeded to ignore me for the rest of lunch."
"She didn't care about me, she just didn't want me talking to the friend circle that she had abandoned for her boyfriend. When I pointed this out to her, she called me a jealous b*tch."
"Ah, high school. How I don't miss thee."
– Symnestra
These examples actually served as a good reminder for me to take a moment and assess my friendships.
Not so much about how I've been treated but more about checking myself to see if I'm respecting the people I call my friends.
We've all been guilty of casually mentioning future plans to get together. I embarrassingly wait for people to initiate something, which is terrible.
Show up for your friends. Make them feel important like the individuals they are.