For me, the knowledge that we all have spiders crawling around our faces keeps me up at night. Yes, we all have face mites.
I cannot go on with the rest of my life being aware of the phenomena without sharing this with you all lovely readers. So, you're welcome.
Curious to hear about other dreadful information from strangers, Redditor jo_exotic asked:
"What is a disturbing fact you wish you could un-learn?"
Natural Phenomenon
Let's face it, organisms are downright creepy...or gross
Constant Nibbling
"There's a type of crayfish that farms sea stars by cutting all their water legs off and eating it's arms all the way to the center, but leaving the center intact. it then feeds the sea star with kelp to keep it alive so it regenerates, and then repeats the process."
When Comes A Parasite
"In most cases when a parasite gets into the brain, they don't remove it. They just kill it with some sort of acid or something with a similar effect, then just let the body calcify it. It's weird cause you'd think that the parasite could still do something."
Mouth To Toilet Paper
"If you have an intestinal blockage you can burp up farts and have fecal vomit which is basically just throwing up your poop."
In Your Blood
"My biology teacher had a Q&A session before Christmas and one student asked if its possible to be allergic to your own blood. Unfortunately you can. Just imagine your own immune system destroying your red blood cells, constant hemorrhaging, constantly feeling cold and out of breath. When we got back from winter break we saw a new face in class, a former student of my bio teacher who just so happened to have this disease and we spent the whole class asking questions. I feel so bad for the guy but thankfully the medicine available to suppress the immune system has made his life bearable."
Horrific Facts
The following are more disturbing than fiction.
Cause Of Death
"When the Challenger exploded in 1986, the astronauts didn't die from the explosion. Nor did they die from depressurisation as NASA has initially claimed. (There is some evidence they turned on their personal oxygen supply.) They died from impact when they hit the surface of the Atlantic Ocean."
"They were in free fall for two and a half minutes."
"Jeffrey Dahmer drilled a hole into some victims' skulls and tried pouring different toxic liquids into the hole. He was trying to make a sex slave that could eat and drink but could in no way fight back or escape. The worst fact is that victims might survive the first hole with all brain function intact and live long enough to be fully aware they were going to get a second or third hole drilled."
Animals
If you could get inside the mind of an animal, you might want to make an immediate about-face after discovering the following:
Deep Bond
"Parrots often bond with a keeper, from their perspective, as a lifelong romantic partner. If the person dies, or the parrot is displaced, they can go into massive depression and pluck out their own feathers."
Pecked To Death
"I learned on Reddit that a woodpecker will tap enough to break into a baby bird's skull and slurp up their brains."
Shriek Of Terror
"The fact that dogs like squeaky toys because it sounds like their prey crying out in pain."
Most of us have a thirst for knowledge out of genuine curiosity about how things work or why certain events occurred in history.
But Google searches will inevitably lead you down the proverbial rabbit hole where you uncover a lot more than you could ever bargain for.
This is exactly what happened to me when I looked up what might be the cause of my face itching. I may not have found the most accurate information about my ailment, but that was when I was introduced to the existence of Demodex or eyelash mites.
They're basically arachnids that spend most of the time burrowed in your hair follicles and come crawling out on the skin's surface while you're asleep at night to mate and head back to lay eggs.
Did you just feel something on the side of your nose? It's probably nothing.
But here's the thing about secrets – they can weigh you down and affect how you interact with the people involved.
Lucky for you, there's Reddit, where you can anonymously confess your deepest, darkest, dirtiest misdeeds
Redditor YourOwnBiggestFan asked:
"What is the most disgusting secret you're hiding right now?"
The Airborne Poop
"As a teenager I was abroad with my class. I shared a room with two other girls. One morning I went to the toilet and take a dump. I was shocked as I saw that the toilet flushing was not strong enough to wash it away. I panicked. So I grabbed it with toilet paper, wrapped it around and throw it as far a I could out of the window."
Waste Not, Want A Lot
"As a student with a sh**ty waitering job paying me almost nothing I used to eat the food my customers didn't want after I took their plates to the kitchen."
"Been there mate. It was like a second fu*king payday if someone forgot about their to go order."
The Ruff Diet
"My younger brother used to eat the dog food because he thought it would make him better friends with the dog."
"We began to leave a bowl out for him next to the dog bowl."
The Cruel Reward
"When my sister was younger probably around 2-4 age range, whenever she did something I asked her to do I gave her a dog bone as a reward. She never listened when we were younger but as soon as I started giving her dog bones she was a different person it was great. this was almost 20 years ago now and I woulda gotten away with it too if it weren't for my meddling mom asking why her breath smelled like dog food randomly."
The Stripper
"A buddy of mine had a wife that used to be a stripper. She ended up leaving him for one of her patrons. Before she left him, she was impregnated by him (my buddy). She ended up marrying the guy she left him for and the newish dad is basically raising his kid. I'm still friends with both of them on Facebook since I was cool with both of them and her son definitely looks like him. This was maybe 7-8 years ago. I just shut the f'k up about the whole situation."
Broken Printer
"I secretly broke a 2500 euros printer, that is rare and precious, I just fixed it just enough that the second person using it got blamed for this and almost expelled from school."
The Alleged Liar
"My one friend has no idea that I've known that he doesn't have kids for months, also that I know he's been saying this and lying to everyone for attention."
"He tells a very convincing story. He goes into vague details, has a photo of the girl, says that she's been showing him fake paperwork as proof for the children. If what he says is true would be literally extortion. Everything. Little does he know that I've been watching closely and also researching to find this woman. I know she isn't real and that he's lying and been lying this whole time for almost a year. Nothing he says makes sense and it just keeps escalating which also doesn't make sense. I literally couldn't help myself but investigate."
"If everyone finds out that he's been lying this whole time it will spread like wildfire. He doesn't have many friends and the friends he did have stopped talking to him because of his compulsive lying."
The Condiment
"I loved ketchup so much as a kid that I used to have it with cereal sometimes."
"Ketchup was the first thing my son ever ordered at a restaurant. I said, He'll have some fries with that."
"Also, I managed to keep the fact that you can buy ketchup at the store from him until he was five or so. I let him believe you could only get it at restaurants."
george costanza ketchup GIFGiphyThe Wandering Eye
"In biology class we were dissecting a pigs eyeball and my hand slipped and the eyeball fell on the floor and me being extremely lazy I kicked it under a cabinet and it lay there for 2 years until someone finally found it."
The Man, The Myth
"I made up a person. When I was in high school, I wanted to sound more popular so I made up a guy friend. He had am incredibly interesting backstory. This went on for years, well into college. I had the same friends so I couldn't just end the charade. The funny thing is all of these people: my family, my best friend, even my husband believe that they met this man. I never introduced them to anyone, but over the years, they all have different memories of seeing him. Finally, I just sort of phased him out, saying that we grew apart and lost touch. And yet, people will randomly ask me for updates on him. I just give vague answers and watch my husband smirk from across the room. My husband is the only person who knows the truth. I am so ashamed that I will never admit it. That lie was such a dumb thing that snowballed."
The Brown Lesson
"My wife went out drinking with co workers and got sh*t faced. I had to struggle to get her inside. Blackout drunk crying, puking, it was a nightmare and not the first time doing this. After putting her to bed, I sh*t on the drive way next to her car door and told her she did it while drunk and told her the neighbor saw her do it. She found it going to work the next day. She has not went out drinking since and this was 4 yrs ago if she does drink she's one and done."
Cheater, Cheater, Candy-Corn Eater
"We had a candy corn counting contest in like 4th or 5th grade where you guess how many are in the big jar. when no one was looking I carefully took the tape off the top thinking I was going to count them all or something and saw that they had written the total on the inside of the top so, being a genius, I took out about 30 of them, ate the evidence, and put my guess in for the number minus 35 - ya know, so it wouldn't be suspicious if i got it on the nose - not realizing they weren't going to recount them. The winner guessed it within 20 of the number on the bottom of the lid. So basically, I cheated, sabotaged and still lost and I kept all that stupidity to myself for all these years."
ABC Gum
"As a small I child I ate an old piece of gum from under a bus seat."
"I'd really like to exchange my mouth for a new one."
Hitting The Pavement
"One time, when I was like 9 or 10, I had to go to the bathroom really badly while my family and I were at a hotel pool. I didn't make it in time, so I sat on the pavement and just sh*t on the pavement. In my swimsuit. When no one was around I snuck to the bathroom and tried to clean it up the best I could. Never told anyone about that lol."
Clueless Dad
"When I was younger, I would steal coins from my parents and when I had enough, I would bring them to my dad and had them changed to paper bills and he would be so proud of me for saving coins that he would buy me ice cream or sweet bread."
It was not fun.
A badly recorded and garbled video made in a hospital for children with developmental issues. It was not fun. The worst part was when a girl's parents were discussing something and the mom mentioned other children.
Then the father said something like "other children don't want to play with [daughter's name]".
For a few seconds after that he looked like he was going to break down, but then he managed to collect himself, clapped his hands in a gesture of hopeless acceptance, and started playing with his barely coherent child. Mind101
Tragedies.
I worked in the humanitarian sector for a bit. So for me: testimonies of people who had gone through the horrors of war, had been assaulted, kidnapped, or had seen family members/friends/neighbors be killed in front of them. Also press releases announcing that a member of our organization had been killed while working in a conflict zone. CamelliaSafir
Carl's Jr.
I was once eating in a Carl's Jr. in Chula Vista, CA when a woman in her late 40's entered with her boyfriend (¿? idk really) arguing very loudly, everyone was very alarmed as most of the clients were families with small children. She went out and everything went normal again.
30 minutes later, I was waiting for the bus to take me to the international crossing (I live in Tijuana) when the same woman approached me and the ones who were in the bus stop asking for help and for someone of us to call 911, as she was physically abused by her partner.
She also spoke English, but she was so nervous she told me how he was dressed and some of the things she had passed in Spanish. Before she finished, she saw the man coming towards her, so I told her to don't worry, as I would call 911.
When dispatcher asked for details, I had to translate everything (as the Spanish-speaking dispatcher wasn't available), it was so awful I wouldn't want to remember it. Also, it was my first time calling American 911, so I was nervous as I had the idea dispatchers were not paying attention or were mean, but she was very nice and comprehensive.
Just as I went on the bus, the cops arrived behind it, when they approached her partner, he started running away, but was luckily caught. The last thing I saw was some officers calming the woman and arresting this man. I hope she received professional help, because she suffered a lot. Emi6219
I'm Great!
GiphyWhen my neighbor started telling my mom how great I am. Translating compliments about myself I found disturbing a bit. SaveTheNature
Bananas....
I do a lot of work internationally, and we use translators pretty frequently. After work one day, a few of us went to grab drinks. We were talking about how wild translating could be- one of the guys said his craziest experience was being the sole translator for the Russian National Rugby Team.
He was a Spanish/English translator. Three of the twenty or so Russians had played rugby in Scotland, which is where they learned to speak English.
So- Speaking Spanish for a team of twenty guys who were speaking Russian through three guys who were speaking Scottish-English (with Scottish slang) with a thick Russian accent.
Bananas. WatchTheBoom
TMI!!!
GiphyWhen my French friend had met one of my American friends and they started flirting and dirty talking. I had to translate back and fourth.
Lemme tell you, hearing how your American guy friend is gonna have sex with your hot French friend so intense she's gonna be numb and forget she's French, then having to translate to French then having to translate your French friend saying she's his is pretty damn awkward and disturbing
They ditched me and tbh I'm fine with that. Don't ever wanna translate for them again. ExistentialNerds
My German is rusty....
I had a relative who translated games from English to German for EA. His English is excellent, my German is rusty, but occasionally he wanted input from a native English speaker.
He was stumped on "fusion gorp pus tosser" and I couldn't really offer any help on that one beyond something that flings a gross substance. sezah
The Gamble.
Probably not going to count for much, but I used to work in the Online Gambling industry, so my job was partly translating "game" descriptions. Wasn't disturbing as such, but I mean I knew how problematic gambling can get for some so there's that. JimBro55567
The Butt Area.
GiphyA patient had hemorrhoids, described to me in full detail what it was like. Since the patient didn't know how to send an email, I received the picture by text and forwarded to the doctor. Never thought I would see another guys butt area tbh. huycx
Tech Support.
Used to be a customer support team lead at a big video game company. We received a report that someone was grooming kids over the in-game chat. Had to read and translate (for my manager) the whole chat history for the last 4 weeks of a disgusting human being trying to get details off children to contact them outside of the game. Police report with the user details was filed. darkunrage
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "
" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.