It's easy to forget that what we think is impossible, could potentially happen. There are people out there who have lived through their worst nightmares- stuff that seems unimaginable. Here are their stories.
Incognito1101: People who have survived an attempted murder, what is your story?
When pizza delivery goes lethal.
"I delivered a pizza to a house just outside of the city. On the way back, I stopped to help a car that pulled over in front of me with their hazard lights on. I pulled up beside them and thought it was weird that nobody rolled down a window or made any kind of contact with me for around 15 seconds. The passenger then jumped out of his side of the car yelling that they needed help as he made his way toward my car. I thought something was weird about this. As I started to pull away before he could get to my passenger door, he began shooting at me. I ducked my head after the first shot entered through the back window and embedded in my passenger seat headrest. Another shot entered through the rear window, while the other 3 only hit the outside metal parts of my car, he missed all together with another shot.
I remember being sure I was about to die as he fired more shots at me. I was very surprised that it wasn't panicky, it was just like "Oh, I guess this is it."
Turns out it was a plot to rob me, the pizza was ordered and the guys were stationed down the road to intercept me. They knew who I was and they knew that I would be able to recognize them, as I had delivered a few orders to them before. The guy wasn't wearing anything to cover his identity, which leads me to believe that he would have shot and killed me if he would have made it inside my car.
By the next morning they had all been arrested. The shooter was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He later appealed that sentencing because there was a word wrong in the jury instructions, he won the appeal and ended up being sentenced to 10 years, and was released November of 2010 after 5 years. The remaining 5 years were to be served as parole/probation. He was arrested twice for parole/probation violation when he was only a couple months away from total freedom. I laughed."
That's messed up.
Giphy
"Had a girl cut my brake lines on my car, didn't know until we checked the camera from the apartment complex.
Luckily she cut straight through them vs slitting them, when I attempted to crank the car the brake pedal went straight to the floor and I immediately knew something was wrong."
Bet that shooter feels really stupid.
"Random dude shot me in the chest because he thought I was my drug dealer neighbor. My neighbor was 6'3 and black. I'm 5'11 and white.
Jokes on him, all he got were a few cigarettes, some pocket change, and 35 years on an attempted 2nd degree homicide conviction."
What a horrible birthday.
"My older sister tried to stab me with a large knife in an attempt to kill me on my 16th birthday, my mother grabbed the knife off her before it got my stomach and slammed her against the fridge and yelled at me to run
Last time I saw my older sister she said "I've gotten over it and you should to, it's pathetic to hang onto it" she then told people it was self defense because I tried to hurt her. I was literally eating my birthday breakfast.
I didn't sleep properly for 2 years while she was in the house because she constantly tried to break into my room at night to slit my throat while I slept. I hate her."
Wrong place at the wrong time.
Giphy
My uncle was attempted murdered by random and pure bad luck.
He was living in a high rise and some crack head pressed every single buzzer. Someone let him in out of laziness/not caring/wanting the buzzer to stop. The crack head proceeded to knock on every single door down the hallways and my uncle is the first to answer the door.
The crack head pulls out a pair of scissors and plunges them into his throat.
The crack head then nonchalantly walks out of the building and says to a passing couple, 'you should probably call the police because I just murdered someone'.
He was picked up very quickly, and my uncle survived.
For a year or two before his epilepsy killed him.
Absolutely terrifying.
"My mom attempted to murder me and my sister when we were younger. She was going through a psychotic episode and pretty suicidal, and I said the wrong thing that set her off. She chased us down to the basement with a knife. We ran into my room and my sister hid in the closet while I tried to fight my mom off at the door. She was trying to push it open while I was trying to push it closed. It was a back and forth struggle until she put her hand in the door (I think she was trying to engage my non-violence because she thought I wouldn't shut the door on her hand) but I slammed the door over and over again.
Meanwhile, my dad who was in the house finally came downstairs to check in what was happening (mind you, this all happened VERY fast and my dad has a habit of zoning out when my mom gets in her episodes.) He ended up pulling her off of the door and my sister and I ran out of the house and jumped in our van. He drove around the corner and turned off the lights and we all ducked down in our seats to hide and stayed there until my dad saw her drive our other car off."
Not related? Seriously?
"When I was a kid, probably around 2nd grade, our house got robbed and my mom and I came home while it was in progress. For whatever reason, she decided to go in and interrupt them. She grabbed her gun (didn't shoot), yelled at them to "get the f out of my house" and then we drove off in a hurry to the corner store to call the cops (this was before cell phones).
Less than 2 weeks later, my mom and I are sitting in the living room on the couch, our backs to the front door. Someone drives by and fires about 6 or 8 shots into the front of our house. Thank God for a steel front door. The cops came and said they didn't think the two incidents were related."
Some people are just truly awful.
Giphy
"This happened a couple weeks ago. It was 4:00 AM on a Monday night, playing Rust with some friends and my curtains were slightly open.
All of the sudden I hear a loud pop and my monitor jumps and starts smoking. The screen is completely messed like I had thrown it on the ground, and I was utterly confused as to what happened.
Turns out someone was looking for someone to hurt. When they saw me through the window, they thought they had found their victim.
A .22 pistol bullet was shot through my window at my chest and was stopped by my monitor. Who knows how long I was aimed at, or why they wanted to hurt someone. All I know is I got really lucky, and I should send a thank you card to Asus."
DANG.
"I posted this story already a long while back. But basically, I worked in a jail and a guy from a biker gang tried to pay $10,000 to have me killed because he somehow got the idea that I was the fed who busted him and was merely pretending to be a jailer so I could spy on him (don't do meth kids.)
The guy was bragging about it and one of the other inmates who I had saved from a heart attack with first aid didn't like that so he beat the living snot out of the guy and then told me about it. Phone call recordings confirmed that he had promised the money to two guys if they shot me in the back of the head while escorting him to court and busted him out.
Federal Marshals rolled them up and on his way to court I whispered to him "your friends won't be joining us" when we got to the planned ambush point, instead of a bond hearing he got charged for trying to have me murdered and organizing an escape."
She's lucky to have survived.
"Not my story but grandmother's friend was getting picked up from work by her husband when he shot at her 5 times. He missed 4 times and the 5th bullet hit the underwire of her bra. He then turned the gun around and killed him self. He had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
She's alive, and was completely uninjured. She now jokes about how bad of a shot he was to miss that many times. Crazy story."
That's so messed up.
"When I was 6 years old I saw my bio dad stab my bio mom 20 times in front of my little brother and I. He took my bio mom's blood and rubbed it on my brother's face and said "this is your mothers blood".
She almost died right in front of us. They got her to the hospital in enough time to save her life. But it was scary, and I remember everything. He only went to jail for 8 years. He claimed he heard demons telling him to do it."
How can someone be so evil?
Giphy
"I was 3 years old and went to this lady's house for swimming lessons. What my parents didn't know was that the lady hated boys.
One day she threw me in the pool and left me to die. I sank to the bottom. I was under for several minutes.
Some how a teenager saw this, jumped the fence and rescued me. The ambulance came and I was in ICU for a week. My parents never found out who the teenager was.
The lady wasn't arrested. The cops told my parents that it would cost them money to take her to court. A lawyer read an article in the newspaper and decided to go after the lady, pro bono. She had several businesses involving kids. He was able to shut her down. She ended up as a waitress and eventually got cancer and died.
As a lovely parting gift, growing up I sometimes felt like I was drowning when taking a shower or in water. I've over came this and eventually got a scuba license and still enjoy swimming."
Dammit, Cindy.
"I had just bought a full sheet of acid (this was 20 years ago, sorry FBI) and I went over to where my friend was living with a bunch of roommates to share the wealth. I knew most of the people he lived with, but there was one guy staying there who I hadn't met before. I basically handed out however many doses people were tough enough to take at once, including three or four hits to the new guy.
We came to find out pretty quickly that new guy had never taken LSD before. OK, no problem, he's at home, he's surrounded by people he knows (except me), he can just chill and have a good time. We wanted to watch a movie so we landed on the Brady Bunch movie (which is trippy af, btw). Everything's going good, we all start peaking and we're laughing and having a good time...and then, on the movie, the little girl Cindy is getting advice from her dad and says "But I don't want to be a snitch..."
New guy stands up and roars "IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK? YOU THINK I'M A FUCKING SNITCH?" We all try to calm him down, explain to him that it's a line from the movie, we even rewind the movie so he can watch that part again, but nothing is working. He's tripping too hard to reason with, and he's convinced that we're accusing him of being a snitch. Then he starts pacing back and forth, back and forth, muttering "This is the kind of shit that makes motherfuckers kill. This is the kind of shit that makes motherfuckers kill." over and over. Great."
"He zeroed in on me, I'm sure because he didn't know me, and he's still pacing back and forth and muttering but now he's giving me a death glare while he does it. I'm getting pretty uncomfortable, obviously, and I'm also peaking from like 10 hits of acid so my ability to cope with the situation is pretty low. I stand up because, well, there's a guy I don't know pacing around behind me muttering about killing people, and I don't want my back to this dude. This would be a really intense situation even if I wasn't tripping balls, but the acid certainly doesn't help.
Suddenly he pulls out a huge hunting knife, lunges at me, and tries to stab me. I dodged him, then he made another try but by that time his friends had jumped up and were holding him back. He's struggling to break free and screaming "YOU THINK I'M A FUCKING SNITCH? I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!", and I took the opportunity to bop right on out the door. I was about half a mile from my house but it took me about two hours to find it because I was tripping so hard and I kept getting lost in my own neighborhood.
Addendum: He was, in fact, a snitch, and the whole house got raided a few weeks later. A bunch of the guys who lived there got arrested for drugs, although my friend had moved out by that point so luckily he wasn't one of them."
That guy shouldn't be a doctor.
"I don't think it was really attempted malicious murder, just ignorance murder.
I was in the ER for what I found out months later was a gallbladder attack. At the time I was in so much pain I couldn't think or see straight, I could barely sit up, I was sweating, it was bad. Doctor tells me I'm on drugs. I've never done drugs in my life. I don't even drink. I'd even quit smoking! He ignores me and tells me to stop pretending. He gives me toradol.
I am very, very, very, allergic to toradol. I broke out in a rash from head to toe and my whole body felt like it was on fire. I told the doctor, he told me I'd done it to myself from being so dramatic and he's discharging me. He leaves and I start getting super lightheaded and start shivering uncontrollably. I kept pressing my call light and I was crying and saying 'help' but no one was coming. A nurse walked out of a room next to me and peered in and saw me and fucking RAN 'We need help in room 7!'"
"Within seconds my nurse was there, with a big cart. I'm laying down at this point I remember her yelling at me to answer and stay awake but I couldn't. I remember the blood pressure cuff going off and looking at the numbers and they were low, and pulse was dropping too. I was just really warm and sleepy and didn't care about anything any more. She kept telling me not to go to sleep but it's the only thing I wanted to do in the whole world.
I woke up about 7 hours later still covered in a rash and kind of confused but otherwise ok. Alive, at least. Still hate doctors to this day."
I haven't tried these rooms yet. Not sure I want to. Highly claustrophobic. Convince me...
No touching...
"I used to work at one. I can’t tell you how many people thought that power outlets were a prop and tried to stick keys into them. Guys. There was a lamp plugged into it and a 'do not touch, not a part of the game' sticker on it. It’s not a trick, don’t do that."
brasscassette
Shackles
"A friend of mine works for an escape room and he told me one about a puzzle where the key to the next door was shackled to a desk by a combination lock. What you are supposed to do is figure out the combination for the lock from the clues around the room to free the key. What one group decided to do instead was get a guy on each corner and pick up the 150 pound desk and carry it across the room, slide the key into the lock, and then rotate the entire desk to unlock the door."
sharrrper
'Yale'
"I am not an escape room employee but I did a lot of em and talked to the employees often. One of them told me there was a simple lock (opened by a key) that had 'Yale' written on it (the name of the lock company) and a lady (not native English speaker) thought it read 'yell' and legit shouted 'OPEN!!' at it, expecting it to open."
Dorza1
searching the fountain...
"Recently went to an escape room with my co-workers. Before we started, we were explicitly warned not to touch or drink the bright blue water coming out of a fountain because it would turn our skin blue - clearly people had tried searching the fountain as part of the escape room previously and now they have to warn everyone."
babers1987
Voice of God
Whos That Voice Of God GIF by Shark WeekGiphy"I was in an escape room once where one puzzle involved some objects that needed to be manipulated inside a structure that made it very awkward."
"We were all looking at it trying to figure out how to proceed when I said 'Well, the bottom is held on with screws and I have a screwdriver in my purse, but that would probably be cheating.' Instantly the Voice of God came over the intercom 'THAT WOULD BE CHEATING!' So we didn't do that..."
Miss_Speller
Well people really do get creative at this game... don't they?
Reverse
genius GIFGiphy"Had a group of engineers who were familiar with the style of the lock effectively reverse engineer the lock. They showed us how they did it afterwards."
Snowf1ake222
Smoked...
"When I was in one they told us several times that the fire extinguisher is NOT part of the puzzle. They said it so many times, I'm 98% sure someone once used it lol."
Zirael_Swallow
"I always wait to see if they say not to disassemble smoke detectors, if they have that warning, I ask about it, and every time they will always have a story about a dumby who ignored the warning labels and disassembled the smoke detector."
cleverplaydoh
Group of 4
"There was a story on here a while ago about a guy in a group of four who took a broom from the first room because 'it had to be for something.' He said it looked too out of place to not be needed. Well he was half right. It was out of place but that's because it was the broom used by employees to clean the room."
"It was simply forgotten when they cleaned last time. The guys giving hints thought it was hilarious that this guy carried a broom through four rooms expecting it to be the key to their escape at some point. I thought that was funny as hell."
PCCoatings
Damages...
"Take in a screwdriver and dismantling furniture or taking doors off hinges... all the while we specifically tell them not to use force and that furniture is just furniture. Though I don't care cause they gotta pay the damages. Also had some groups press our panic button cause that opens all the doors (for emergency cases)."
"So they can skip puzzles and be faster. Makes zero sense to us cause they are paying for an hour of playtime and to solve puzzles, not like the prize is reduced cause you solved less in fewer minutes. Especially since our prices aren't cheap."
karmasabitterpill
Idiots
Idiot Facepalm GIFGiphy"Breaking EVERYTHING. Trying to eat or drink things they should totally not be trying to eat or drink."
Radiant-Comb9058
Even though there are a million ways to escape, I'm still gonna pass. My claustrophobia won't allow it.
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While many cultures should be celebrated, there are some individuals who just can't help but reserve their opinions about those whose behavior and customs differ vastly from their own.
At the risk of coming off as offensive, some might even call these customs, "weird."
European culture got the spotlight when Redditor CoffeeBoy88 asked:
"What is something weird about Europe that Europeans don’t realize is weird?"
Apparently, there's never a dull moment in European nations.
"German tourists are OBSESSED with mooses."
"/A swede."
– worldkeeponspinning
No Offense
"The UK has 30 accents per square mile. And if a large man calls you duck in Stoke … that’s okay."
– InItsTeeth
Nighttime Exposure
"Norwegians don't close their curtains when it gets dark."
– judochop1
The Swarm
"The amount of mosquitos in Finland, Americans go crazy in Spring because of it."
– TheFargus
Redditors discuss what it's like traveling around Europe.
Come And Go As You Please
"How incredibly inconsequential it is to cross country borders. Cycled through France - Belgium - Netherlands and there is barely even a sign."
– sicknessandpurgatory
The Contrast
"You drive five hours in the US: you’re basically still in the same place."
"You drive five hours in Europe: everyone’s talking funny and the cheese is different."
– KaimeiJay
The Short Commute
"The first time I was in the UK my husband wanted to go to Wales and I looked at the train route from London and was like 'It’s all the way on the other side of the country! We’re only in the UK for a week. We don’t have that kind of time!' And my husband was all, 'you know it’s a 2.5 hour train ride, right?' I thought it would all day."
– KateDinNYC
Germans In Transport
"the absolute lack of air conditioning even at 40°, german transport gets sticky and stinky quite fast and nobody seems to care, many people even shut the windows to avoid the 'annoying breeze.'"
– ahorasimeaborregue
Maintaining distance was a thing long before pandemic measures recommended people to be socially distanced.
All About Respect
"Finnish people are silent, small talk doesn't exist. Their personal space larger than COVID-19 social distancing rules, and it's considered normal. Don't speak unless spoken to, and don't invade other people's personal space - it's seen as a sign of a respect."
"Those Finns, who haven't been to abroad or haven't met too many foreigners, don't often even recognize this behaviour being unusual in the global scale."
– RockNRollNBluesNJazz
The "Safety Coffee Cup"
"I'm from Finland and one European thing that all Finnish people hate is cheek kisses when greeting. Its mostly southern european thing but still. There is this saying in Finland that goes 'Everyone has their own safety coffee cup' meaning the closest distance someone should get to you should not be closer than your coffee cup when you're holding it."
– eelisonparas
Let Them Shop In Peace
"Weird at first but I appreciate and wish for it. It might be just a Germany thing but from what I’ve been told German Walmart failed because the North American style of customer service was very unliked. From the greeter at the door to clerks asking if you need help unprompted. German shoppers just want to shop and go home as undisturbed as possible."
– UnusualHospital9579
I remember being weirded out when I went to Paris and asked for some ice at a cafe.
The waiter served me coke by opening the room temperature can and poured some of the contents into an empty glass. With no ice.
When the server came back, he had with him a spoon with one ice cube on it. I thought it was stingy but it got worse.
He poured the rest of the coke over the ice on the spoon he was holding and then walked away with the ice and spoon.
I guess the coke was colder than when I had my first sip, so according to the server, it was viola: mission accomplished!
Do the French not like ice-cold beverages? Weird.
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People tend to forget that therapists–the professional we seek for guidance when we're vulnerable–are also human and are just as prone to feeling the feels.
Curious to hear from therapists who've exposed their emotional vulnerabilities in front of their clients opened up when Redditor Unkw0n_pers0n asked:
"Therapist that have cried in a session, why?"
A patient who feels seen and understood reinforces why therapists endeavor to help people in the first place.
It Wasn't Her Fault
"I was working with a deeply depressed client who had a lot of negative self talk about how she was always a failure. We were exploring the origins of this and how young she was the first time she felt self-blame. She told me her earliest story of when she was in 2nd grade."
"Afterwards, as we were processing it, I expressed that 'it wasn't your fault' about the story. She just broke down sobbing and said 'nobody has ever said that to me before' in between sobs. It hit me and I cried a little."
– Ayzmo
Relatable Experience
"i cried after i worked with a kid who described an emotionally difficult situation with a sibling. the kid’s experience aligned very similarly to something i went through with my own sibling when i was the kid’s age and i hadn’t realized how much hurt i was carrying from the experience."
"being a therapist sometimes means being confronted with things you didn’t realize had such a strong impact on you. luckily, i have a stellar therapist of my own that i can work through these moments with."
– rejecteddroid
The Patient With A Disorder
"I was doing a cognitive assessment for a girl. We were doing tests and at one point she started crying she was unable to tell me why, she was fine just one moment before. I let her collect her thoughts, then she said softly 'I don't want to be more stupid than my friends'. She wasn't actually, she was very bright, but she didn't know that she has dyslexia, dysorthograpy AND dyscalculia. I realized that she went through THIRTEEN years of school without help. Her parents didn't want to do an assessment as they thought she was just lazy. I told her that she was very brave to decide to get help and things would get better after our assessment and I felt tears in my eyes."
"Edit: first of all, I have great empathy for parents, for most of all is just a matter of ignorance, fear and parenting is hard. If you are a parent and you see your kid struggling, PLEASE listen to professionists, we are here to help, not judge, and we will find ways to help you and your kid. Disorders don't go away, don't underestimate it, the sooner you get help, the better the outcome can be. It's ok to be scared but we're here for you and we understand you."
"Second, I'm really sorry to read so many heartbreaking stories about people that weren't believed and struggled being undiagnosed. I wish you all the best, I hope you are in a better situation and you got or you'll get all the help you deserve, because you do deserve it."
"Third, if you think 'something's wrong with me', get help if you are in a position to do so. Worst case you understand yourself better and have a chance do make peace with parts of yourself."
– ---honeybadger----
A patient who has already accepted their heartbreaking fate recalls seeing their therapist getting emotionally involved during a session.
A Mother Who Didn't Want To Let Go
"My therapist cried while 'mediating' a discussion between my mom and I. I have a neurodegenerative disease and she is my full time caregiver. Because of my severe disability, she also has legal guardianship of me, even though I am in my 20’s (this is all fine with me, I need the help, and I agreed in court to all of it. This was the first true 'disagreement' that we ever had.)"
"I am ready to die. I am in pain, unable to do anything for myself, and it’s only getting worse. I asked my mom to sign a DNR, because I have been resuscitated before, it was a mess, and I don’t want it to happen again."
"She refused. She doesn’t want to lose her child and wanted to do everything medically possible to keep me alive."
"The session was essentially me begging her to let me go, while she sobbed and said she could never sign a paper that would lead to my death. It was a terrible situation. No one was 'the bad guy', no one was trying to hurt the other. It was someone wanting their suffering to end, verses a mother not wanting to lose her child."
"My therapist agreed that I should be allowed to make this choice, but certainly didn’t think my mom was manipulative or evil, just already grieving and trying to hold on to me as long as possible. I saw her wipe her eyes several times, and they were red by the time we were done. She actually hugged us both at the end."
"The situation wasn’t resolved during the session, but my mom came around shortly after. She wouldn’t sign the DNR, but gave me legal permission to do so (so, in her mind, it wasn’t her making the final decision.)"
"BTW, my mom and I have a GREAT relationship! This was just one issue that we couldn’t come to an agreement on ourselves. But it worked out, and I’m now in palliative care and have a great team looking after me, INCLUDING my mom!"
– fightwithgrace
The following examples continue to demonstrate how therapists are more emotionally invested in their patients and clients than you think.
Responding To Tragic News
"I cried in a substance treatment group. A client’s mom had reached out via email to me to say that her daughter died from an OD. She called during my group so I chose to take the call and spoke with her briefly. I thought I could continue with the group. Ended up in tears instead."
– ChicagoOwls
She Patient Who Felt Unloved
"My patient cried and said 'there's nobody on this planet who loves me anymore.' I cried when I left because I knew she was right. For context: she was 95, her husband and son had died, she had a personality disorder that made her behaviour unbearable for her environment after her husband died and every person still in her life were paid for to be around her. She died a few months after this conversation."
It is unsurprising that therapists are compassionate people.
Otherwise, they wouldn't be in the room to help someone who is struggling internally.
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