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People Describe The Scariest Person They've Ever Met

A Reddit user asked:

Who is the scariest person you’ve ever met?

And the question immediately made me think of my oldest kid... which I'm sure we will address later with a qualified professional.

But let me explain...



She was the first thing that came to mind, but my little one is spooky - not scary.

I was going to tell you guys all about how my family calls her "Spooky McPsychicpants" and how she has weirdly predicted lots of pregnancies ... but that's honestly just neat. It's not scary.

These Reddit users have met scary, and it isn't cute. It isn't an adorable kid with a cool little quirk.

It's heartbreaking. It's world changing. It can be the kind of thing you are never the same after.

Or maybe it's just a terribly mundane movie night with an axe murderer.

Read ahead with caution. There are some serious atrocities and triggers touched on here.

The Nice Library Guy

Probably this dude who worked at my local library around the time I was 17-18.

He was my age. I worked with his older brother at the local grocery store when I was 16 and had his dad as a teacher in 5th grade.

He was a nice guy, quiet, helpful. We'd chat whenever I had a research paper for school or a project.

He murdered them both - as well as his brothers girlfriend. He was sent to prison and was shot trying to escape.

- xsnakexcharmerx

Megacharm

confused powerpuff girls GIFGiphy

The pastor at a local megachurch goes to a doctor's office I used to work at. The church is basically a cult at this point, and everyone outside of it knows it.

He walked in the door while I was at the front desk, and right away all of my higher faculties just... got hijacked. I don't know how to explain it. In that moment, I wanted to be the most fantastic receptionist he had ever met in his life. I wanted to impress him so badly it hurt.

The second he walked out, I came back to myself like what the hell just happened?

A few months later the same exact thing happened again.

He didn't scare me, at least not as far as I was aware. But I'm open to the possibility that it was a fawning response. I do have a tendency to do that to …a lot of people.

This just felt sort of different; like pheromones in movies or something. I want to stay very far away from that man.

- an-ineffable-plan

Poor Buck Taylor

When I was really young we were at a rodeo and met Buck Taylor. He was one of the actors who played a bad guy on Tombstone.

I was TERRIFIED of him.

I couldn't understand why my parents were chatting with a murderer.

The actor was a lovely guy, I just wasn't old enough to know movies weren't real yet.

- sock-nessmonster

My Brother's Mental Health Monster

Honestly, my brother.

He has severe mental illness that's incredibly unpredictable. Months go by with him seeming fine, and then there's a day that he just completely shifts. Having dealt with it for over a decade now you'd think you'd get used to it, but you don't, you just get smarter about seeing a break coming.

There's no countdown timer though and half the time it doesn't end up being anything, but saying something about it can trigger that break. The reason it's terrifying is because he's almost always around either myself, my mom, or my dad, and it goes from 0-200 in the blink of an eye.

The first violent episode it was just me, we just fought intensely for a while, and then he went around smashing everything he could find until cops came and had to tackle him. People joke about "crazy-strength", but it's no joke.

Since then, he's been stun-gunned, tased, flash banged, and bean-bagged by police. Mostly separate incidents, some multiple times.

He violently threw my mid-60s mom to the ground. He cornered my dad with a knife when he came to check on him at his apartment, which my dad did because someone who knew my brother called him to let him know that he was sitting in a public park in the city repeatedly stabbing a knife into the ground. That fiasco ended with my brother taken down by SWAT.

He's been involuntarily admitted to mental health facilities more than a dozen times, but they have a catch and release policy unless you've got insane money, which neither he nor us do.

I've learned a frightening amount about both our legal system and mental health system throughout these years. There are holes big enough to drive a bus through. He needs help and those around him deserve to be safe.

At this point, my dad has moved out of the country so the only option was for my brother was to move in with my mom or be homeless. She couldn't even begin to entertain the idea of making her son homeless.

After years of never owning a firearm, I do now - and I have a different perspective on why it might be necessary for some people. Some people just love guns; but some people have a legitimate reason for needing one...

Thankfully, for now, he's not a threat to either of us. Our relationships with him seemed to be going better, but then he got it in his head that we were part of a conspiracy that was seeking to kill him. So he went to the police station to report it.

They know both myself and my mom (at this point they've met us several times) so they called EMTs, but that spooked him. So he pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the cops (went through the Kevlar).

Thankfully the cop was okay after some stitches.


Because of that incident, my brother now meets the requirements to be kept in a mental health facility for a while. No idea how long though. And once he's out, he'll be going back to my mom's.

Oh, and the cop my brother stabbed is suing my mom and trying to go after her homeowners insurance. That could very well make them drop her, even if it doesn't go anywhere. She would have an extremely difficult time finding a new company that would cover her based on all of this. So there's that.

This newest episode almost broke my mom but she pushed forward, and I'll never forget the sound in her voice when she told me that she'd received that notice in the mail. It was like it finally broke her.

She's tried her best to help, but there's only so much she can do. The cop involved is close enough to retirement that I have to think he's trying to leverage this to make that date come sooner, but I don't think he realizes what effect that'll have. Or maybe the department is forcing him to go after her?

The system is f*cked, and it breaks my heart to think there's likely one of two outcomes in the future:

Either I'm around when he snaps next and I at least have a chance to defend her (she will never raise a finger against him, even in self-defense)

or

I'm not and I get the worst phone call of my life.

She doesn't even believe he's capable of such a thing because she sees him through rose-colored glasses (he is her son), but his consistent history makes it obvious to anyone else.

He literally tried to kill a cop but I don't think she understands that it very well could have been her. Psychosis overrides the person you know.


The only fitting comparison I've ever been able to make is if you'd had a dog that you loved for years and then all of a sudden, it got rabies. It's just not the same dog anymore. But it can be close to impossible to accept that when you're looking at the dog you've loved for so long.

We'll have to see what they decide in court due to the severity of this incident, but at this point we genuinely have no idea if he'll be out in a few months considering "time served" or if it'll be longer than that. The prosecutor also made the case that he's mentally fit to stand trial, which I think was done to increase any penalties against him, but that carries significant effects.

It means they can't force him to take his meds - which makes things worse the longer he goes without. It also means he'd be placed in gen pop if he's found guilty, which is dangerous both for him and anyone else he's locked in there with.

Either way he will get out eventually. He will go back to my mom's. Then it's just a matter of time until the consistent escalation of this reaches the next level. He's only gotten worse over the years, and I'm terrified of what the next manifestation will be.

- caangus

Escaped Only Because Of His Whims

I met a guy in a Parisian brothel who was 'security' - but in reality was there to pressure customers to buy the overpriced drinks and max out their credit cards on the 'ladies'.

I didn't know it was a brothel and as soon as I saw they were charging $25 for a small glass of beer and the place was full of young women who were all far too interested in my ugly @ss I started to nope out of there.

This intimidating muscular man in a suit, complete with facial scars, held my bicep and pulled me back inside. I told him I wanted to leave and I would call the police if he tried to stop me.

At that point he gave me a look ... and to this day I swear he looked like he was trying to decide whether to kill me or not - and it was a close thing.

He let me go with a face like thunder. I truly believe I was in mortal danger and I escaped only because of this guy's whims. Or perhaps he didn't think he could avoid problems with the police.

One scary mother f*cker. Definitely killed before and would again, in my opinion.

- NuffSaid98

Human Traps

grand canyon arizona GIF by Go USA KrGiphy

Maybe 8 years ago now I was working at a local Subway with this really nice kid who always seemed eager to help.

I was watching the news one day and saw that he had gotten arrested for setting up traps for humans up the canyon.

- w-o-r-k-l-o-g-i-n

Saturday Dinner

I work in a mental health facility. Every Saturday I watch a movie with a man who killed his step father with an axe.

"Cold blooded killer" right? Some of his family members absolutely hate him.

But he's kind. He loves movies and media. He helps the other guys. He listens....hell the other staff and I sometimes joke that he works there.

"Hey "Bob" you wanna go grab this room check?"
"Yea man I got you lol."

He's an inherently "good" person who committed a horrible crime because he was an undiagnosed schizophrenic. In situations like this all you can do is take it day by day and do your best to help these people.

-xsnakexcharmerx

"Of Course" 

The leader who ordered a teenager to shoot into a truck full of girls on their way to school.

It was a big deal locally that these girls were starting school that day.

The man who ordered the attack was completely nonchalant when questioned about it. "Of course I told [teenager] to do this. He wanted his soul saved from evil, so I told him when and how."

"Of course they should die. [the girls] They were on their way to school to be made into whores for America. We had to stop them from being corrupted."

This went on and on. He acted like it was the most commonplace, banal thing he'd ever done.

Like tossing a piece of paper into a trashcan. Or cutting up vegetables. "Of course I cut up the carrots, how else do you put them in stew?"

It was insane. He was terrifying.

Most of the girls survived the attack. Every one of them had horrific injuries, though. Hope they eventually went to school, but I don't know.

- plague681

Just Because He Could

My ex. Dear God...

Women fawn over him, just like I once did. He is the most masterfully manipulative person I have ever met. An expert at reading people, and a most accomplished gaslighter.

Physically, mentally/emotionally, financially toward relationship partners.

You're either 100% with him or you're his enemy, there is no in between. It's all black and white. A thief and a liar and he actually just thought it was fun to fight people.

He'd just beat the sh*t out of someone because he could.

Impulsive and reckless, a loose cannon. And he was enormous, a giant block of muscle.

- PhysicsHedgehog39

Grim

Probably the night I saw the grim reaper.

It was 3am and me and my friend decided to walk to get some fast food. The walk was on a well lit long street, no way on or off for a good long stretch on the way there. It was a very flat road we could see a good distance ahead. There was no one around. No cars, no pedestrians.

All of a sudden we see a guy ahead of us. He came out of nowhere. He was just there. We hadn't seen coming even though we had an insane and clear field of view.

We noticed him when he was about 10 meters away. Way too close. My senses told me to cross the road and avoid this guy, but instead we go quiet and pass him.

He is wearing all black - but not normal looking clothes. Like nothing I've seen before. He looks quite aged and he has a long black beard and a long walking cane that looks like it has a skull on it and its made out of wood, but like crazy wood like a staff or something. He was creepy AF.

After he passed us, I didn't look back right away for fear of our lives, but after a while we turned and looked. He was gone. We should have been able to see him still. There is no way he walked that far in that amount of time.

Every now and then I ask my friend about that night. We can't explain it. I've never been more terrified.

- HazzyP

Dad Was Usually Angry And Scared Us

Growing up my best friend's neighbors were a family with two boys, both younger than us. We didn't hang out with them that much, but would swim in their pool in the summer and their mom would bring us snacks.

She was really nice, but their dad was usually angry and scared us.

Their dad ended up killing their mom in the house, dismembering her body and dumping the parts in different dumpsters around the area.

He only ended up getting 11 years and tried to move near his kids once he was out, their grandparents had adopted them and had to get a court order for their dad to stay away.

- tubby0789

The Reason There's No Cutlery

There was this kid at my elementary school who constantly got into fights. He was just outright aggressive.

He stared at people while hunching like an animal about to strike, made himself vomit on people he didn't like, slammed his head into the brick wall on more than one occasion, and stabbed people with the silverware so many times that the school ended up getting rid of metal cutlery entirely in favor of plastic.

- rad_influence

A Sociopath Looking For A Place To Happen

I did administrative work at a local residential drug and alcohol treatment facility in my early 20s (I'm 35 now), paper pushing, filing and the like. The scariest dude I've ever met was this guy who was there for alcohol and some kind of narcotic.

I was delivering something urgent and unrelated to his counselor and he just happened to be in her office when I knocked on the door frame (door was open) and he looked straight at me a continued describing how he liked to get f*cked up, mutilate small animals (especially squirrels and cats) and masturbate over their eviscerated remains.

The way he said it was so matter of fact, like how a person describes how they like their coffee, and there was NOTHING behind his eyes. It was like they were dead and glazed over. It was like looking into the face of every serial killer mugshot I've ever seen all at once.

Looking at him was like getting hit with a low voltage electrical current. I dropped the message on the counselor's desk and avoided the hell out of that guy for the rest of his stay.

I still think about him a lot and to this day I hope that man is either dead or in prison because that man was a sociopath looking for a place to happen.

- emu-eggxstentialist

The Really Big Big Show

wwe divas GIFGiphy

When I was bout five I went to see a WWE match.

When it ended, I got the chance to meet The Big Show. While he was really nice to me, it was his shear size that scared me. The Big Show is really big.

- Bubbajay2019

The Pigeon Was Just The Beginning

When I was 5, my friend and I found a pigeon that was either sick or injured since it wasn't flying away. My mom has nursed animals back to health before, including a squirrel and a different pigeon.

My neighbor and his friend came out (teenagers) and wondered what we were doing. We told them and they said to wait right there and they will take care of it.

They returned with aluminum baseball bats and just start beating the sh*t out of this unfortunate creature like Glenn from The Walking Dead. My neighbor's friend said "You're welcome" and they just left.

We were horrified and left with a destroyed corpse.

A couple years later, I saw my neighbor's friend in a newspaper article. He killed a girl with an axe on Christmas or New Years eve, I forget. Decapitated her.

That f*cked me up a little bit.

- cheepcheepimasheep

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.