The best stories are ones with exciting plot twists.
But the next best type of stories are the ones that continue spiraling out of control.
Curious to hear examples of this, Redditor _Mitnix_ asked:
"What's your best 'oh you thought this was bad, it gets worse' story?"
It's story time. You may want to buckle up.
It All Started With A Cat
"This is a long one, but I promise it's worth it:"
"A buddy of mine was cat-sitting for a friend of his while the guy was out of town on a vacation. My buddy didn't have a car, so the dude told him that if he needed to go out and pick up more cat food or anything, he could borrow the car."
"At the time, my buddy was living right down the street from this guy, staying at his parents' house. So my buddy was just going over for a few hours each day to feed the cat and keep it company, then going back home."
"Meanwhile, he's also been flirting with this woman online. She lives several states away, but he feels like they seem to be getting pretty serious. So he decides to take some liberties, really push the envelope on where he'll pick up cat food from, and he takes his friend's car on a little multi-state road trip."
"This is insane, right? Just atrociously bad judgement, especially since someone does need to feed the cat. To solve this, he left his parents a note. It read, 'I am camping in the woods behind our house. Please go over to ____'s and feed his cat. I'll let you know when I'm home.'"
"Boom. Problem solved, right?"
"Except that the 'woods behind our house' are about 20 yards deep. It takes less than five minutes to walk through them and come out into the neighboring housing development. So his parents went looking for him, calling out for him, and couldn't find him. They got worried and contacted a family friend, a local police officer. He subsequently got a hold of the fire department. There was a full-on search party combing through about 1/50th of an acre of woods. Unsurprisingly, they were coming up with nothing."
"This was before cell phones were common, so my buddy was completely unaware that his plan had fallen apart. He was cruising along on his 12-hour drive, expecting to get to this girl's house just in time for dinner. Except he didn't have a GPS. So he got lost. Very lost. Like, by the time he turned up at this woman's house, it was almost midnight."
"When he got there, she was crying her eyes out. He assured her that it was okay, he was fine, wasn't hurt or in a wreck or anything, he'd just gotten lost. And she said, 'No, no, I wasn't worried about you. My dad just died in a motorcycle accident.'"
"So he bailed on his cat-sitting duties, stole a car, and inspired his parents to file a missing-persons just so he could awkwardly watch a woman cry for a few hours and then drive back home."
– GavinBelsonsAlexa
The Beekeeper's Nightmare
"I will try to keep it short. I am a beekeeper. My 3rd year of beekeeping, I suddenly developed a severe allergy to bee stings. It was spring and I was installing bees for the beginning of the season. I was up to the last hive, went to install that package of bees and one stung me right in the top of my head."
"I finished up a few minutes after and went up toward the house to do some other things. I started feeling flush and I could feel my heart racing. After I few minutes I realized I was having an anaphylactic reaction."
"If you’ve never had one, aside from the physical symptoms, they also say you will get a feeling of impending doom. That was spot on. I absolutely felt I was going to die and people do die from these reactions."
"So I am now in the house and desperately searching for Benadryl of which I have none. I am also having trouble breathing, my body is going haywire and I feel like I’m going to black out shortly."
"I call my mom, who lives an hour away, to call 911 because I feel like I will be unconscious soon. She says okay, phone rings 30 seconds later. It’s my mom, she goes 'I called 911 but they said you have to call'. This was my first wtf."
"So I call and it’s a very typical 911 call she is trying to keep me talking and I essentially started vomiting and she is still on the line and I am waiting and waiting for this alleged ambulance."
"A full half hour goes by. At this point I am actually coming out of the reaction. So I go to sit at my kitchen counter. I’m still on the line with the 911 dispatcher. I see the ambulance pull up and I say, oh they’re here. She’s like great, are you okay? I’m like yes and then she says goodbye and hangs up."
"I see the EMTs outside but my driveway has a gate so they are just standing there and they ring the bell on my gate and I am just looking at them, dumbfounded. Like I called for an emergency over a half hour ago, and they’re gonna roll up here and ring my bell and wait for me to come out when I more than likely could be unconscious or dead on the floor."
"I literally had to go out and let them in. Then they basically talked me in to going to the hospital to get checked out. Another huge mistake because this took place in the 2 months in my entire life when I didn’t have health insurance. So I ended up paying $4000 for a late ambulance and some IV Benadryl and epinephrine."
"Oh which also reminds me, a paramedic also showed, put the IV in when I agreed to go to the hospital. Then I felt something dripping and turns out he put it in my artery rather than a vein and it was just pushing the fluid out of the IV."
"0/10 would not go through any of that again…but I did 10 years later when I had another anaphylactic reaction due to a bee sting. However this went a lot smoother and I had epi-pens and a responsive ambulance."
– soline
Oil Everywhere
"Arrive home from work, my house reeks of oil."
"Go in the basement, and there's a pool of oil, with my stuff floating in it. The oil filter on my burner rotted out (it was defective and recalled, but the tech never bothered to notify me or replace it). Call up the tech, he throws a new one, charges me the emergency call fee, and advises I call HO insurance before running away (it was his fault, I didn't know it yet)."
"This was February in NY, about 13F out, and obviously the burner wasn't on while sitting in a pool of oil. But, they get there pretty quickly soak it up, and get things running so my pipes don't freeze."
"Only way to get the smell out is to dry clean everything I own, then shampoo all the carpets, run deodorizers, etc. Takes weeks. Had a headache the whole time."
"Turns out, my basement has cracks, most of it leaked through. They had to cut out my foundation and dig out the contaminated soil."
"Oil in soil means DEC gets involved. Whole new can of worms as they now had to monitor the process, test at every step. Big enough deal I have a spill number in their database."
"A 20 yard dumpster, with 20 yards of oil soaked sand, is so heavy that it broke through my driveway, destroying it. They did that twice, took out my entire driveway."
"Remember how I said this was in February? March brought the COVID shutdown."
"I spent over a year with my basement in shambles, holes in my driveway, plastic sheets taped up, no washer/dryer, and all sorts of equipment kicking around."
"The next spring, they're back and working, and screwed everything up. Not going to get into every detail, but after a big fight, I managed to get rid of them and bring in a new company to fix their screwups and finish the job. Old crew got very difficult when the new crew requested permits and reports. Turns out, they never bothered. Had to do all that before they could start working again."
"New company dropped a storage crate on my yard to store my stuff while working, destroyed my grass, took out a sprinkler, took out my neighbor's driveway curb, got concrete all over my brickwork, but at least the nightmare was finally over."
– MyNameIsRay
These Redditors have been dealt with some major blows.
People who say that things will always get better, are partially right. Things do come around, eventually.
But you never know how many curve balls life has to throw at you until there's a resolution.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
There's something about the woods that creeps me out. Listen here, people: I'm a city guy. The idea of getting lost out there freaks me out. No thank you. I wasn't made for that. The rest of you who like to go camping and stuff? You do you. I'll stick with my running water.
But maybe I've seen too many horror movies. After all, if I saw some creepy stuff in the woods I'd definitely run in the other direction. And so would you, right? Right?
People shared their best stories with us after Redditor shantics asked the online community,
"What have you seen in the woods that you can’t explain?"
"I stepped on what I thought was a small rock but it turned out to be weird and gelatinous. I've also seen tombstones in the woods."
his_eminence56
You just suprised it. Rocks are soft and squishy, they just tense up when you touch them! /s
"I was hiking through the remnants..."
"I was hiking through the remnants of a remote, long-abandoned town and the surrounding area. To get to as far into the woods as I was, you had to cross fallen trees over a creek three times. I had just crossed the third "bridge" and was about five miles in and something blue caught my eye just ahead of me."
"There was a man, in his sixties at least, wearing blue satin pajamas, sitting in a tree. The closer I got to him the louder he laughed; it wasn't a maniacal laugh, but it set off all the alarms in my head nevertheless. He also wasn't wearing any shoes and looked well-groomed/cleaned."
"I gave him a friendly nod as I passed and he just kept laughing. Then it stopped. I turned and he was gone. There was no branch cracking, plants rustling, nothing... He was just gone."
"Still rubs me the wrong way. The area I was in was a pretty rough hike, very secluded. Not very many people venture as deep as I was that day. No idea what was going on there."
mrwitch
“Over the Third Bridge” would be a great title for a spooky book or movie.
"Neat as a pin..."
"Fully decorated Xmas tree. Middle of summer. Neat as a pin it was, as if it had just been finished. Who ever did it came back at some point and cleaned it up, because it wasn't there next I did that trail a week or so later."
OldWomanintheWoods
This one’s not that uncommon actually. Lots of folks will decorate a tree in remembrance of someone out in the woods. Sucks when they don’t clean them up though.
"It's an interesting..."
"In Japan. A hotel was abandoned before it was ever finished being built. It only became a cement skeleton, about 5 stories high. It was left that way to eventually mold back into the forest around it."
It’s an interesting small building to explore. There are halls that are unlevel to the point of hitting your head on the ceiling (think: Willy Wonka)."
"There are stairwells that lead to nothing and one that leads to an unintentional hole in a cement wall. And on the top floor (but “inside” - as in, under the “roof”), is an old car - all smashed up - with seemingly no reason or method to have been up there."
[deleted]
This reminds me of those old abandoned amusement parks that pretty much exist to destroy me mentally.
"I once walked..."
"I once walked through the undergrowth (i.e. off the trail) with my then-girlfriend when we came across this spot where a few empty plastic bags were lying on the ground (strange because the woods are otherwise super clean), a pair of gloves and, most confusingly, the official ID card (= passport) of a young woman."
Minister_of_Joy
I would freak out and call the cops. That sounds like a murder scene.
"Many plastic bags..."
"Many plastic bags with nothing really in them but random odd things tied to trees. Sure, it could have been a homeless person but us kids att (like 12+) of us lived in those small woods behind the church every single day. We never saw anyone like that, ever. Passing through I guess, but why so many bags...still wonder."
WiseOwlBear
Do we want to know what was in them? Probably not.
"When I was a teenager..."
"When I was a teenager, I worked at a fireworks stand that was run by my friend's family. It was in a rural area: they owned a few acres of land, had the fireworks tent at the front of the property and the house towards the back, but no lights in between. My friend's mother would prepare dinner for all the workers and we'd take turns going back to the house for dinner."
"One night, I was going to the house for dinner by myself. I felt something on my arm. I thought a bug might have landed on me, but it was really dark so I couldn't see anything. I stopped walking for a second. Then I started hearing this low, raspy breathing right next to me."
"There weren't any people around me and it didn't sound anything like a bug. It was like a slow, asthmatic wheeze."
"I started getting really freaked out. I reached my hand down to my arm and felt... something larger than I expected. I furiously rubbed my hands all across my body to try and dislodge whatever this thing was, then ran as fast as I could to the house. When I finally got to the safety of the house, I could see a small red mark on my arm, but that was it."
"To this day, it's probably the most freaked out I've ever been."
[deleted]
Chills reading this! Nooo thank you!
"Several very large holes..."
"Really big holes. Several very large holes, fairly close to each other, that seem to serve no purpose. Ten feet wide, deep enough that if you jumped in you’d have to have help getting out. Was someone preparing to bury a bunch of people? Was someone punishing their kid by making them dig holes? Did they hear there was buried treasure out there?"
"We’ve never figured it out."
theyarnilama
How far apart? How neat were the holes? In a plantation or natural wood? Accessible by a small excavator?
"I once saw a huge pile of cat and dog skulls and bones about 100m from my cabin so we sold the cabin as soon as we could. It was creepy."
[deleted]
This definitely sounds like the beginning of a horror film. Did the ghosts follow you? Please report back.
"There's a small patch..."
"There's a small patch of woods where I live. You could walk across it in less than an hour. It's entirely safe and has marked trails. People somehow manage to get lost in there and I can't explain that."
ThadisJones
Did they stumble across the bounds of time and space? That might explain it. But you might be underestimating how many people lack a sense of direction.
None of this makes you want to go out into the woods, huh? Yeah, we thought so. We'll pass the next time we get an offer to go camping somewhere.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
Traveling is one of life's greatest pleasures. To see new places, meet new people, and witness different cultures in action can be both a thrilling and rewarding experience.
But travel can also feel intimidating, especially if you've only just started to get a feel for it. What do you pack? What if you forget something?
And when you get to your destination, how should you behave in order to blend in and to avoid making yourself an easy target for scams and the like?
People shared their best advice with us after Redditor swankyhank asked the online community:
"What travel tips do only the pros know?"
"Ignorance..."
"Know the rules/laws/currency exchange rates for the country you are going to. Ignorance is not a get out of jail free card."
CptSmarty
This is so important. You should know it and come prepared! It'll save you a big headache later.
"Do not entertain..."
"Do not entertain people asking questions in other countries."
CptSmarty
Similarly, know the common scams for wherever you're going. If you travel around it's inevitable that you'll be targeted at some point, probably more than once.
"My tip is to download..."
"My tip is to download the map of the towns you are visiting. You can do that easily in the Google Maps app. If you have the map downloaded on your phone you can easily find your way around town even if you don't have any internet connection."
"It won't show you the route you should walk from A to B, but through the magic of GPS you will still see where you currently are and if you are moving in the right direction."
Bassmeister
Google Translate as well. You can download an entire language onto your phone, and type back and forth.
Obviously don’t physically hand your phone to someone else, unless it’s like a hotel concierge, and not a random guy at the metro station who might just run off with it.
"If you are traveling in a group..."
"If you are traveling in a group, give yourself breaks from others. Some people want to do everything together, and that can lead to a lot of fighting."
HobbitFoot
Indeed. Getting some alone time to wander or nap or whatever can make or break a trip.
"Clean or at least..."
"Clean or at least leave your home in some state of clean prior to leaving on your trip. It feels terrible to come home to a mess when you're likely exhausted from a plane or long road trip. Especially if you have to work the next day."
Racthoh
Yes! It is such a relief and I always make sure to clean before I head out anywhere.
"You are allowed..."
"You are allowed to have your ID and boarding pass out and ready before your turn in the security line. You don't have to begin fumbling for these things only once it is your turn to go."
chicagotim1
I seriously don’t get how people don’t understand this. It's so frustrating.
"If you don't know..."
"If you don’t know where you’re going, walk and act like you do anyway."
Marquetan
Same goes for any busy location, metro, train station, bus station, busy park...
"If you're going on vacation..."
"If you’re going on vacation and can swing one more day of time off, take it after you arrive home and give yourself an extra day to mentally prepare and get organized."
NuthingToHoldBack
A vacation from your vacation. This is the way.
"Navigate before going..."
"Navigate before going into a massive crowd. A simple mind map of 'right in three blocks, left in two' usually suffices for the walk, and makes you look like you're walking with purpose, instead of standing out immediately as a target."
UnoriginalUse
Excellent advice. The less you stand out, the better for you (and anyone in your party).
"It's worth it..."
"It’s worth it to pay more for accommodations in the city center close to all the action rather than a cheaper place far away. It’s less stress and you have to pay for transport back and forth anyway."
lakersforever21
Very important. I am generally quite frugal but spending the extra money to have a place close to the airport saves a lot of time and makes the trip relatively stress free.
Get out there, young traveler! There's so much to see! And watch out for pickpockets. They're always around.
Have some suggestions of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
Have you ever done something new or scary and decided once is enough? For me, it was ice skating. The first -- and only -- time I went, I made it out relatively unscathed. However, my friend, who was an experienced skater, ended up needing ankle surgery after a fall. I never went ice skating again.
Life is made up of experiences, good and bad, and we can only get those experiences if we're willing to try something new. Of course, it's totally okay if you tried something and decided never to do it again. The important thing is that you tried.
That was probably the thought process when Redditor Scouseuserman asked:
"What is something you have done only once but never want to do again?"
Too High for Comfort
"Paragliding. Realised I have a fear of heights after we took off. Was so relieved when we finally landed."
– altguystory
No Turning Back
"Spelunking. We were crawling in a cave where you couldn’t stop forward progress or turn around once you started. I survived, but I’ll never do it again."
– CategoryTurbulent114
Too Much Pain
"Passed a kidney stone. The morphine was nice for a while, but only softened the pain. No thanks to twice!"
– atomicsnarl
Home Improvement
"Removed roof shingles."
"Replaced roof shingles."
"By myself."
"In Florida."
"In August."
"Never again."
– sammyno55
That Was My Shoe, Not Me
"Farted in a board meeting."
"Leaned over to get a pen out of my purse on the floor. Completely unexpected BRRRRRAAAAAPPPPP"
"Shocked silence from a group of uptight executives."
– Botryoid2000
Helping People Is Hard
"Work in retail and hospitality."
"People are c*nts and can f**k off."
– Slifer967
Seeing Candy
"Mistaking a pill for an m&m and biting straight down into it. Nasty and terrible"
– DustInner8548
Sniff It First
"Drank out of an old milk carton to see if it was spoiled. It was."
– nuF-roF-redruM
The Worst Idea Ever Award Goes To...
"Shot a moose with a BB gun from a tree fort we built in the woods. Thing was huffing and puffing mad and trapped us up there for hours."
– Haist
Lost In The Sky
"Hot air balloon."
"It was cool and the views were nice but you really can’t go anywhere but up or down. We ended up not being on a good path for a suitable landing spot, ran out of fuel and landed on top of a parked car."
– sawer707
And all I did was go ice skating. I'm clearly not as brave as some of you guys!
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
*The following article contains discussion of suicide/self-harm.
Many of us strive to do better in life and be the best versions of ourselves.
At least that's the hope since there is always room for improvement for the good of humanity.
But in order to take the necessary steps, we must first acknowledge our missteps and learn from them.
And sometimes, in spite of our best intentions, life can deal to us unexpected blows, and it's up to us to rise above it all.
Curious to hear about life experiences from strangers, Redditor MikBrasil asked:
"People of Reddit, what is the situation that you thought to yourself 'Yeah, this is my all-time low?'"

A series of bad life choices and circumstances led people to experiences their biggest regrets.
Nowhere To Go But Up
"Last year my mental health finally hit rock bottom. I was over my marriage, I hate being in the military, and I had little to no interest in anything. I drank heavily for about a month. I’m talkin whole handles in a day."
"One of those nights I planned to take my life. I was going to write out my note to the family and sit in my shower, bathroom door locked, and blow my brains out. I got as far as putting the barrel in my mouth but I was the only one with my kids and I couldn’t bring myself to do it."
"Next day I had a psychiatric appointment and told them about my struggles and my plans to kill myself. They shipped me off to a mental health program for military members. I was there for two months going thru therapy, processing my traumas, and learning all of the science behind mental health."
"During that time my wife left me for another man, moved out of our home, and I had no idea until I got out and returned to an empty home. I think that time of my life and really that moment after I got home to an empty house, after working my a** off to better my mental health, definitely was the lowest point of my life."
"But on the bright side a year later I’m a lot happier. There’s no where to go but up once you hit that all time low."
– Manonthemoonxv
A Family Problem
"When I went to my ex-wife’s parents to plead for help dealing with their gambling addicted daughter. Poured my guts out explaining that if we didn’t get help for her soon we’d lose the only house our 3 sons have ever known. Over the last year we were together I stopped counting her loses once I hit $100k. Casino apps are no joke."
"Anyway, her parents explained they had no idea en would step in asap. 2 weeks later my ex and her family got together over the weekend. They didn’t tell me anything other than keep an eye on the boys. No problem, figured it was an intervention."
"Nope. They all went to the casino together. I filed 2 months later after realizing I could secure the house for my kids."
– andS0NS
A Dark And Lonely Period
"For me it was the time I invested my money, my time and lost my relationship for an agency I built with my best friend. That was a solid 3 years then he(my bestfriend) took all our clients and team and made a new agency and left me with all the debts and misery. Yep that was my All time low, no love-life, no money, no work, and disappointed my family. fast forward 3 years, Almost done paying my debts, created a new team, new clients, but it was a hard 3 years to do it all by myself."
– stevedeleon1991
For some, it doesn't get any lower than body image and body functions.
Health Problem
"When I got in my car and my gut was so big that even with the seat as far back as it could go, it would dig into the steering wheel. I had to suck in my gut before making turns."
"Heaviest i'd been in my life. 100 lbs down from that weight though. Still going strong."
– ThatoneguyTonight
Mudslide
"When I had been on a 3 day party trip and was going back to my apartment on the train. Started to sweat like mad and my stomach did NOT feel good. Tried to waddle myself home like a penguin, clenching my buttcheeks all the way. About 200m from my apartment building it didn’t work anymore and I sh*t my pants."
"Had to then sh*t the rest out on the pavement, and get home asap. I don’t think you could even measure the level of shame, anxiety and stupidity I felt at that time"
– manwithtubeinhishead
People who struggled with being an alcoholic shared their stories.
Publicly Embarrassed
"The amount of times I a grown woman have peed myself in public, drunk is insane. Anyway, I'm two weeks sober today and never touching the sh*t again in my life. Here's to you doing better too. You got this, my boy."
– IreallEwannasay
Faced With Ultimatum
"I was at work, still drunk from the night before. I was starting to panic realizing that I would have a client in my office in a half hour and I looked like sh*t and felt worse."
"The kicker? I worked in a drug and alcohol treatment center. I was the financial person and did the intake process with every client before they went to see their counselor."
"I ended up going to my boss, fessing up, admitting that I had a problem and being told that I needed to get help or I’d have to be let go. I was faced with losing my job, which would lead to losing my home and probably custody of my child. I realized I was on the path to becoming my father and stepmother and I did NOT want that. I had to make a choice and my whole life hinged on that choice."
"I’ve been sober over 17 years now."
– FairyDustSailor
These Redditors didn't plan to end up where they found themselves.
The Accident Survivor
"Woke up with a tube down my throat, brace around my neck, cuts and bruises everywhere, unable to move with two cops right above me. I had to sit there while they explained to me I was hit by a driver who ran a light. I had to drop out of school for a year, lost my job and was in/out of treatments for over a year."
"All because of someone’s stupid decision."
"Edit: should have mentioned this, I wasn’t in a car. I was crossing a well lite crosswalk. And yes, I waited until the sign turned green and looked around for cars, still wasn’t enough to save me."
– BranwenTheRiveter
Living Conditions
"When I rented a 'room' in a house, and it was the 4’ x 7’ floor space behind a home basement bar, you could smell the dead rats in the wall."
– Canary_Trap
Rude Awakening
"Psych ward. I remember waking up and thinking 'I never thought I'd see this day.'"
– IntrepidMage
Unfortunately, for many people, their life's wake-up call to do better doesn't come until they've scraped the bottom of the barrel.
Hopefully, those at their lowest lows can recognize the signs that will encourage them to get out of the rut.
They may not know it, but there is always someone caring enough to help guide them out of the darkness.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/