The Most Shocking Things People Have Ever Seen That Scarred Them For Life
Who hasn't claimed they've been "scarred for life" by something?
Usually something fairly trivial, like a scary movie, a food that disagreed with them, or a poor travel experience.
As a result, we say it more in jest than anything else.
Unfortunately, there are those who have had experiences that genuinely scarred them for life.
Memories so deeply implanted in their heads that they will never be able to erase them, no matter how hard they try.
Often witnessing people in situations that we could never imagine anyone finding ourselves in.
Situations that were anything but trivial, and sometimes legitimately life or death.
Redditor _pleasesendhelp was curious to learn if anyone had gone through a truly horrifying scenario that legitimately scarred them for life, and eager to hear their stories, leading them to ask:
"What is the most shocking thing you've ever seen?"
To Think This Is Actually Part Of The Job
"Used to be a traffic safety engineer."
"Traffic collision analysis was part of the job."
"Images of the collisions are intense and you can never unsee the decapitations."- Bobbingforfrenchfrys
Most Frighteningly, It Could Have Happened To Anyone
"About six years ago, my family was traveling to Pennsylvania to visit some relatives for Easter and we drove back on Easter Sunday afternoon."
"We were driving on I-81 South in Virginia, and noticed traffic was slowing down and smoke coming from the side of the road, a car had crossed over the median and hit another car head on."
"Both cars were beyond totaled and were engulfed in flames."
"I remember looking over at one of the cars and seeing a person in the passenger seat and a good chunk of their head was missing, and the driver appeared to be dead too."
"I looked it up on the news the next day and only one person survived out of the five people involved in that crash."
"It was a pretty ugly scene to put it mildly."- HerrPaws
Silence Can Be More Terrifying Than Any Sound
"Working at a special care home, had a resident who routinely screamed for help over minor things."
"'HELP!! I NEED TO TURN MY LIGHTS OFF' kind of thing."
"One night she fell alone in her room and split her face open above her eye."
"Instead of calling for help, she just quietly walked out into the common area at 3am looking like Carrie."
"It was my first time applying my first aid knowledge and my first time calling 911."
"Most unforgettable was the sight of her blood-covered rosary."
"Woman really looked like a movie crew had made her up."- shiveringsongs·
So Many Questions...
"My dad took me and my brother to the beach when I was 6 and we saw a dead body wash up on the shore."- pringle513
There Is Little More Devastating Than Desperation
"I was walking down a neighborhood where number of homeless people is insane, but most of the time I just mind my own business walking to where I work but one day I saw a person eating his own human waste."
"I was mind boggled."
"Later when I was heading back to my home I saw him at the same area so I decided to give some leftovers I got from the shop I was working."
"Man he was the happiest person I saw when I gave him the food."- MrD1SRESPECT
A Traumatizing Miracle
"Pedestrian hit by a car."
"The victim looked like a fake body as he flew through the air."
"He had a shoe land over half a block away."
"Somehow only broke a leg."- Potential_East_311·
Neglect Can Be The Most Lasting Abuse
"A kid bawling his eyes out, begging with a sign and no coat in 20 degree weather in a downtown setting."
"It was really windy out and I saw him talking briefly to his mom in a doorway who was bundled up out of the cold texting the whole time."
"She was dressed expensively, looked comfortable and didn’t seem to want to be seen with him."
"Talked to building security who brought the boy inside, was on my way to work so I didn’t get to see the full resolution."
"Sh*tty mom."- _manicpixie
Dangers On The Road
"In person?"
"Accident between an idiot in a Camaro and a moron on a bike ( motorcycle)."
"Camaro genius was trying to turn left across 3 lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic."
"Just as someone let them through, guy on a bike came flying down the right side berm."
"Biker was not wearing any gear; just shorts, shirt, sneakers, and sunglasses."
"Guy got massively lucky, though. If he'd hit a regular car/SUV, he would've gone splat right against the side of the car."
"But the Camaro was so low-sling, he just got vaulted over the top."
"He was in a world of hurt, but apparently in one piece."
"In video?"
"I'm a racing fan, so it'd be a tie between the fatal accidents of Roger Williamson or Tom Pryce in F1 and Gordon Smiley and Greg Moore in Indycar."
"All can be found on Youtube, but consider this a big warning--they are not for everyone."
"Williamson burned to death while trapped upside down in his car at Zandvoort, despite the efforts of fellow driver David Purley."
"Tom Pryce hit a track marshal who was crossing the track."
"The fire extinguisher the marshal was carrying struck Pryce on the head & killed him instantly."
"Smiley had a catastrophic crash during qualifying for the 1982 Indy 500."
"He reacted incorrectly and ended up going straight into the wall at 200 mph (320 kph)."
"In photos of the wreck you can see his helmet go flying."
"Part of his head is still in it."
"Moore was killed after losing control during a race at Fontana Speedway in 1999."
"Ultimately, he was launched sideways and head-first into a cement barrier."
"The impact was recorded by the car's black box at 154 Gs."- Unique_Football_8839
Worst Nightmare Averted
"About 2 or 3 years ago, my fiancé and I were in the kitchen cooking dinner."
"I was standing by the counter talking to her whilst she was stood over the hob frying."
"She started slowly lowering herself closer and closer to the flaming hobs to the point I interjected and panicking said 'what are you doing?', for her to slowly turn her head towards me with the blankest of gazes and then proceeded to collapse onto the hobs."
"Thankfully I managed to jump in and pull her away from receiving any burns but she collapsed to the floor and was out for a good 30 seconds."
"I thought she was dead, I'll never forget that look in her eyes too."
"Really felt like it was over."- JLUK95
Seriously, What Leads Someone To Do That?
"In a bar I worked in once, very angry men stormed in, grabbed one of my regulars by his hair and dragged him outside, and curbed him."
"Never seen anything so graphically violent in real life."- kerrykat91
Nothing Can Prepare You For It
"Finding my younger brother had just died."
"He'd been very sick for a long time but nothing prepared me for it."
"I was 14."- Professional-Permit5
It's Hard To Think It Ever Stops Being Shocking
"As a hardware tech working at a hospital."
"I got a high priory ticket to go into the OR."
"A computer shutdown in the middle of preforming open heart surgery on this guy."
"I normally don't cover this area, but it was early in the morning and I was the only tech on site.'
"I go down there and I have to gown up to go into the room."
"I had no issue going in till the nurse was like OMG have you ever been in a surgery room before?!? "
"The room is a bloodbath! "
"This guys is cut wide open! "
"Are you going to be okay?"
"I was like I was going to be fine before you started talking to me."
"Anyway I go into the room, and it is a blood bath with the guys chest cut wide open and a group of people operating on him with country music going while they were all singing."
"The issue was easy to fix."
"It was a desktop on a a mobile cart that had limited mobility in that section of that room."
"Anyway they had it pulled out as far as it could go and the power cable came out of the desktop slightly."
"I just had to tighten up the connection and turn it on."
"It was one of the most shocking and amazing things I have seen."
"Just the guys chest wide open and how calm and casually they are singing."- itsthewendigo
Most of these stories are the sort of things no one should ever witness in their lives.
One can only hope they all got and continue to get the help and comfort they needed to move on.
Horror comes in many forms.
Sometimes the scary moments we encounter draw their horror from the eerie unknown in the same way horror films spook us.
Other times, terror comes in a very real-world, pragmatic form--sudden and grave danger of complete vulnerability.
However it comes, it's a whole lot better to read about it on the internet than experience it first hand.
Redditor aggressivepicklenato asked:
"What is the scariest thing that's happened to you?"
Of course, driving an automobile is one of the scariest, most dangerous things we can do. We often forget that, until one moment reminds us.
Out of Control
"Heart attack while I was driving. Pulled over and went into cardiac arrest." -- Big-Craft-72
"So you got arrested while driving." -- Quirinus84
Instincts
"I was driving home late one night when I saw a girl on the side of the road, asking for help. I distinctly remember every nerve in my body suddenly going on edge, and I locked the doors as I drove past (old car had manual locks)."
"But something was telling me that no matter what, I shouldn't stop and help this girl. As I went by her I remember her yelling 'Fu** you!' "
"I felt guilty for not doing anything about it, so next morning I looked up reports in the area to see if I could find information on her. Turns out a guy got car jacked in the exact same area trying to help a girl in distress."
"He pulled over, and a group of people beat him and left him on the side of the road while they took his car. The girl in the report perfectly matched the description of the girl I saw."
-- dibaw39699
Everything Stopped for a Second
"Truck swerved into my lane going highway speeds this last winter and smoked us. My wife, 3 kids and dog were in the car."
"The scariest part wasn't the impact, or the realization that we were about to get fu**ed. It was the brief moment of stunned silence after, the moment I turned around to see if everyone in my family was ok."
"Thankfully, my kids escaped with no injury, my wife had to undergo surgery for internal bleeding (but ultimately recovered and is great today) and my sweet, lucky old dog. Somehow, he survived getting tossed around in the trunk."
-- iD-Remus
When You Realize How Fast You Were Going
"I had a tire blow out while I was on the highway. I felt the wheel start to vibrate and my heart just dropped. Cars were flying by at least 70 mph as I'm trying to merge onto the shoulder."
"I have had anxiety about driving on the highway since then"
Others traced their horror back to the unbelievable power of the natural world.
At the Whims of Giant Plates
"I live in San Francisco, in 1989 we had an earthquake. It was so intense, it moved my refrigerator to the other side of the room."
"I've never felt that adrenaline fright as much as that day."
-- Sfswine
Never Underestimate
"Nearly getting swept out to sea while swimming alone in the ocean and barely making it back to shore."
Pinned...Forever?
"This would be super scary now, but for 6 year old me this was TERRIFYING. I was out hiking with my cub scouts group, and I was trailing behind."
"I fell, slipped a couple feet down a hill, and got my leg caught under a log. It was only the start of the hike and it was pretty long, so I was terrified that I'd be stuck there for almost 2 hours. This is canada, during bear season."
"They came back after about 5 minutes. Present me would've know that probably would've happened, but that was terrifying for 6 y/o me."
-- QweqDuck
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And others recalled the times they were sure violence--and even death--were coming straight for them.
A Surge of Violence
"My ex is an angry drunk.. one night we got drunk for our mutual friends birthday. The birthday girl and her bf started getting in a big fight so we separated them. While doing that we got separated and couldn't find each other. I found him after about an hour."
"He was pi**ed I took birthday girl home and didn't care about him being at the bar alone with her bf. So he punches my car windshield out and chases me into the house. He catches up to me and pulls me by my head down to the floor. Proceeds to put one hand over my mouth and one hand around my neck."
"I remember nothing but begging for him to let go. Every second felt like a lifetime without air. On top of him sitting on top of me and the crying I was doing. I never thought I'd ever beg for my life like that. I was literally saying sh** like 'please just take your hand off my mouth, I'll do anything, please, I can't breathe!' "
"Eventually he just snapped out of it and let go in self pity 'omg what am I doing' and I ran upstairs to my roommates as he chased me again to try to not let them know what happened. Luckily I got to them in time and they called the police."
-- Drugsbunny23
Lock Up Your Guns!!
"I was 13 and baby sitting two 7 year old boys. One of the boys found his dad's gun. They proceeded to point it at me and threaten to shoot me, because they found it funny."
"I still don't know how I talked them into putting the gun away. I had been baby sitting them for a year on Wednesdays. That was the last night I did though."
-- KoebGaza
Smooth Talker
"Found myself behind my high school with a bunch of kids who didn't know who I was. They threatened me and pulled knives."
"I still don't know how I managed to talk my way out of it but I got out of there as quick as I could"
When I was 12
"My step dad was angry in general and even angrier drunk, which he typically was. One day he decided to scream at me for some reason or another while I'm minding my own business, and he told me he was going to get his shotgun from his mom so he could shoot me. I was 12."
"I called the police, and he started to backtrack and beg me not to call on him. I told the officer to please take me to a friend's house. On the way, the officer was telling me that my stepdad was just drunk and didn't mean any of it. This was a small town where everyone knew each other."
- labbykun
Psychosis...
"I suffer from psychosis and I would have to say hallucinations."
"Psychosis was def the scariest thing I've ever been through in my life, and I'm sorry you struggle with it consistently. I went through it three separate times, some lasting days last summer. It was like waking sleep paralysis. At one point I thought I was bleeding out into my carpet, hallucinating the blood and having tactile hallucinations I was wet and sticky and my blood pressure dropped so low I had to be brought to the hospital. I hope you're in a better place. Take your meds, that's what made my hallucinations stop and I eventually began to be able to function."
In the blink of an eye
"10 months ago when I heard a crash in the bathroom my husband was in and he didn't answer me when I called out asking if he was ok. Called 911 as I struggled to get the door open. Got in. Found him facedown. I rolled him over, and he exhaled for the last time in my arms. I tried to breathe for him, compress his chest."
"But I already knew he was gone. And in that moment, it was like a bomb exploded in the middle of my life. It's scary when you've lost your person, your love, the most important thing in the world to you. When your life changes in an instant. I went from being a happy wife to a 31-year-old widow with an uncertain future. In the blink of an eye."
A Trip to Florida...
"Wend for a scuba dive trip down in Florida. On the second day we were just finishing the dive in the Spiegel grove when out of the blue I see a panicked diver heading towards me. He shows me his digital console and there is a big fat 0 there. Gave him my spare second stage."
"The current was very strong and we still had to either descend another 15' or so to the main deck holding on to the railings to reach the boat line which was tied to one of the cranes , or gun against the current directly to the line. I chose the second. By the time we barely made to the line, i started to feel a little water in my regulator. That is a sign my air was depleting. The panicked guy was breathing like a bull. I switched him to my buddy's air and signaled to continue the ascension."
"Luckily as the pressure decreases, air expands a little in the system so o could still breathe up to 15'. I left the two of them there to do a safety stop and surfaced. With them surfacing 3 minutes later. Long story short, he lost visual contact with his buddies during the dive, panicked and used all of his air looking for them. Not following your training can get you killed."
- ElCaipi
Testing for Weakness
"Woke up around 3am one night to loud tapping outside my bedroom window (my bedroom was in the basement of our house). I assumed it was raccoons or something trying to get into our neighbour's shed. After listening for a while longer I managed to fall back asleep. In the morning I brought up the noise to my mom who said she had heard a similar noise coming from that same side of the house, only she got out of bed and went to the front living room window to investigate."
"What she saw was a man emerge from between our house and our neighbour's place. He stopped in front of our home, took a long look before removing a pair of latex gloves and then proceeded to walk down our street. I assume he was testing for weak spots or something and luckily didn't manage to make it inside that night."
- TEreAnah
Bad Night
"Mugged and beat up at 1AM behind a dumpster in Denver when I was 19."
"I went to middle and high school in Denver. It's a bad place to be after dark. Not a great city anymore anyways. It's gotten pretty spooky during day too. Hope you weren't hurt too badly, friendo."
- Artholos
Spinning out...
"Spinning out on a highway due to hydroplaning. Ended up barely tapping another car, but I thought I was done for."
"Sorry to make it about me but you just reminded me of my first "accident" a few years ago. It had rained the week prior so the ground was very mushy. First snow of the year and it had snowed a good 3-4in (and it was the nasty lake effect snow all Michiganders know)."
"I'm in the left lane, there's a smallish SUV ahead of me and a semi next to them. Then a pickup truck was trying to merge on to the highway. I think what he did was to try to beat the semi truck by speeding the heck up instead of being smart and just entering the highway like a normal person. This fool literally spun out a MINIMUM of 6 times."
"I tried following the path of the little SUV in front of me (in a company Nissan Sentra) which included slightly going off the road. I would have been fine until the pickup barely clipped my car and sent me into the median. And since it had been raining the week before, I was completely unable to get traction to get out. The pickup? Never stopped. By the time I realized he wasn't going to stop, it was too far away to read the license plate. A**hole."
At Night
"Also, sleepwalking. Holy crap, is it scary and disorienting to go to sleep in your bed and wake up mid stride through the living room, bruised and bleeding from bumping into things. Night terrors and sleep paralysis are also quite awful. I've experienced all of the above more times than I care to remember."
Dad, what are you doing?
"Fell asleep in the living room watching TV. Wake up around midnight to my Dad walking pass me. He heads to the side door, unlocks it and starts walking to the chicken coop. By the time he's outside I'm up and following after him; calling out in a whisper "Dad, what are you doing?" - no response, I think maybe he can't hear me despite being only a few steps behind him."
"Dad walks in to the chicken coop and I lose sight of him for about two seconds - I walk in to chicken coop and... it's empty. I'm very confused now. There is only one door for the coop and I'm standing in it. Suddenly, there's a hand on my shoulder. Almost jump out of my skin and whirl around - it's my Dad. He heard me walking outside, had followed after me trying to call out my name but for some reason I hadn't heard him."
Surely you have your own example of the most horrifying moment of your life. Here's hoping the scars haven't lasted too long or burrowed too deep.
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In an eerie version of timing and prescience, some photos are taken just before tragedy strikes.
At the time the person took the photo, they had no idea what was coming. But only moments later--or perhaps moments before--horror lurked.
When the dust settled, the news was written, and the horror of the moment was fully understood, that once innocent photo then takes on a whole new, terrible significance.
Redditor KermitTheFraud92 asked:
"What is a seemingly normal photo that has a disturbing backstory?"
Some photos were taken just before a catastrophic accident took place. These were the final moments of peace before a terrible twist of events resulted in tragedy.
Studying is One Thing
"There is a photo of an American volcanologist sitting down while studying volcanic activity at Mount St. Helens."
"Article."
"13 hours after the photograph was taken, on May 18, 1980, the volcano erupted and killed 57 people including the volcanologist."
The Last Moments of Bliss
"this photo was taken at a nightclub before it caught on fire by fireworks leaving 100 people dead" -- AffectionateBat2687
"A few years after the fire I visited the area and there were burn victims everywhere we went. I don't think I truly appreciated the scope of the fire until then." -- onekrazykat
Just a Guy
"This was the last picture taken of Dale Earnhardt. it's weird because the race was televised and 10-15 million people were watching at the time, but this is the last one that shows him as a person and not just a car."
"This is a replay of the crash along with an onboard (roof, he didn't have an onboard camera) view, and the half-speed doesn't do justice as how hard and fast it was hitting the wall head-on at 190 miles per hour."
"He was the face and living legend of what was the second most popular sport at the time and 20 years later fans who were watching at the time still haven't gotten over watching their hero die live on TV."
A Historic Tragedy Was In the Wings
"This photo always gets to me somehow. Just a couple of astronauts posing in zero gravity happy to have such an incredible opportunity, like astronauts often do. Meanwhile they have no idea that their space shuttle is irreparably damaged, and in fact will be dead in a few days during reentry (which was considered 'safe' until then)."
"It's the crew for Columbia for those who don't know, whose tiles were damaged during the launch of the shuttle into space by foam. No one knew how bad the damage was until it disintegrated."
-- Andromeda321
Proposal
"A man who swam to his girlfriend in their underwater hotel room while on vacation in Tanzania, and proposed to her with a note and a ring. He died before he could resurface from the water."
"Louisiana man dies during underwater proposal"
-- tojoso
A Dangerous Rustling
"A kid went missing hiking a spot on the Big Island of Hawaii. He texted some pictures of the scenery while he was hiking. After he never showed up at home, his family noticed somebody lurking in bushes in the photos he sent. Iirc, my family that live in Hawaii said the spot is illegal to hike at, so it's not like it would have been a heavily populated trail."
More info, and the photo in question:
-- forcehatin
High High Speeds
"This image may seem quite insignificant, but this was Marco Simoncelli's (#58, white and red motorcycle in the middle of the pack) last race."
"It's on YouTube and there are plenty of articles about it, but there was a crash and his helmet came off. His good friend, Valentino Rossi (also in that shot, #46) was unable to avoid him and went over his head."
"Ten years ago this year, still one of the most horrific live sporting events I have witnessed."
-- Counteract92
Others chose to share the photos that were taken just before a horrifying act of murder took place. The calm demeanor of the murderers are especially unnerving.
A Powerless Infant
"This photo. John Edwards Robinson (yellow sweater) is holding baby Tiffany, whose mother he murdered the day before."
"He gave baby Tiffany to his brother, saying she was adopted. His brother, along with Tiffany, didn't find out the truth for 15 years."
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A Brutal Scheme
"2 brothers smiling, kevin and bart whitaker. Hours later after arriving home from dinner, Bart killed Kevin and his mother after conspiring with a friend. He tried to kill his father as well, but he survived."
"It's a horrible story. I don't know what became of Bart though, all I know is that his father somehow found the courage to forgive him."
Playing the Part
"The Lawson Family Portrait always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Wikipedia tells their awful tale, which has been memorialized in murder ballads. Dressed in their finest, a picture made for the holidays, and no one knowing that the father would kill most of the family days later. Brutal stuff."
Seconds Before
"I've posted this before: A politician at an election rally"
"Last photo of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Taken moments before a suicide bomber, (wearing orange flowers, lower left, also on the inset, top left) hugged him bent down and touched his feet and detonated her bomb."
-- tinkrman
Way Too Calm
"This is a photo of Tyler Hadley holding a cup in a party at his house."
"Just before this party he had murdered his mother and father and hid their bodies in the master bedroom."
"Murder of Blake and Mary Jo-Hadley"
-- your-playboy
The Yosemite Killer
"These photos were found and developed after the three women went missing near Yosemite National Park. Turns out they had been murdered by serial killer Carey Stayner."
"Carole Sund, her teenage daughter Juli Sund and their friend Silvina Pelosso; and later naturalist Joie Ruth Armstrong were all murdered shortly after these photos were taken."
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-yosemite-murders/#app
-- nutmegtell
Broken Down
"Brandon Price. The picture in the article is the only known picture of him. He was living with his grand parents and being abused. He was dead when his grand mother brought him to the hospital. She has been charged and the last I heard was still awaiting trial in his death. The community took up donations to pay for his burial and headstone."
"He looks completely demoralized in the picture and I've always felt so bad for the guy."
https://www.walb.com/story/31193639/woman-indicted-for-young-grandsons-murder/
-- Wastedgent
The Details Are Shocking
"If you're British, and of a certain age, you'll probably be as haunted by this grainy image as I am. I still distinctly remember the first time I saw it."
"At the time, James Bulger was only missing, and it was regarded as a cause for optimism that he was last seen with other children. The truth was far worse than anyone imagined, and still inspires a visceral reaction unlike any other crime in my lifetime."
It's important to remember how many other, not terrifying photographs are being taken every single second. It's nice to know these kind of eerie premonitions are not commonplace.
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The internet has democratized knowledge and information at an alarming rate.
In seconds, we can pull up an exhaustive article that delves deeply into a niche topic that once would have required a day in the library and whole lot of time spent in the index.
It's awesome. We can whip out our phones to answer questions and win arguments, depending on the situation.
But there's a downside: every once in awhile we come across a terrifying tidbit of information that we'd rather never have heard about. Just knowing the info can leave us feeling unnerved for plenty of moments after calling it to mind.
For better or worse, here's a whole list of those from Reddit.
Green-Owl6244 asked,
"What's a piece of information you wish you never knew?"
Many Redditors chose to discuss the awful dynamics of people and institutions. There are some tendencies of "civilized" life that really show the underbelly of what we're capable of.
The Mourning Industrial Complex
"The funeral industry. In general, it's very predatory, and mostly unnecessary. It's a way to make big bucks by guilting people into feeling like they don't love their family if they don't buy all this ridiculous stuff."
"Vaults for caskets have other purposes, but they are important so cemetery machinery can drive over graves without collapsing them. Caskets themselves are...comfortable boxes for people who don't need comfort anymore. Embalming is to preserve for viewing, but doesn't make much sense otherwise."
"The flowers alone are crazy expensive. It's all a gross show to make us feel better about death and make it pretty."
One Track Mind
"The mental hospitals I went to didn't actually care about me, their sole job was to make sure I didn't hurt myself. That's it, nothing to make me happier or to see what was wrong with me, nada. Told to me by my therapist."
"Sometimes ignorance is bliss"
Nooooo Poor Fluffers
"As a vet tech and shelter worker, there is a euthanasia 'season' just after Christmas day. Everyone wants one more holiday with their pet, I get that completely"
"There is also a 'balcony season' which comes during the first nice days of spring when everyone opens up their balcony doors. Huge influx of cats and dogs who go over the side"
-- ellegryphon
Other people called to mind historical or scientific facts about humans that were truly terrifying. Some of the things of our past are ugly to look back on.
180 Seconds, Falling
"The crew of the Challenger weren't killed in the explosion, the crew module remained intact until the module crashed into the ocean three minutes later."
"There's evidence they were conscious during this, and attempted to take steps to save themselves (knowing full well the situation they were in wasn't surviveable)"
-- Notmiefault
Deteriorating
"In the 1920s, women who worked on watches that glow in the dark used paint that contained radium. They were told that the paint is safe, and were instructed to regularly put the paint brushes in their mouth to keep them pointed."
"They got necrosis of the jaw. One woman went to the dentist to get a tooth pulled and her entire jaw came out."
-- Aqquila89
Taste Test
"Before modern medicine doctors diagnosed diabetes by tasting the urine of the patient. Sweet urine = diabetes. I don't really know how this helped anyone because I assume that everyone just died from it afterwards."
-- TomBuilder_
How Smell Works
"The fact that you smell things by just taking small parts of the objects you smell and put them inside your nose. So any time you smell poo ..."
- Big_Bad_Baseball_bat
Her Eyes
"I paid for part of my college tuition by working in a nursing home. I was with people when they died. I saw people with advanced dementia, devastating strokes, developmental disabilities, and all kinds of illnesses. Many of the people I cared were awesome, amazing people whom I still think about."
"However, they brought a woman in once who was only in her late 40s. Her file wasn’t complete with a history like all the other patients files were. She was in very good shape physically, very strong. But she was...not there. And by that I don’t mean she was confused or had Alzheimer’s. I mean that you looked into her eyes and didn’t see anybody in there."
"It’s hard to explain. Even the people I took care of who never spoke were still in there. You would get a glimmer of something, some reaction."
"Often they would surprise you by reacting to something when they usually couldn’t. Children. Music. A kind gesture. At least anger or pain!"
"But this woman seemed inhuman. No recognizable bit of humanity at all."
"She had to be restrained or she would hurt anyone she could reach. She came to us with three orange jumpsuits and that’s all the clothes she had. She liked to eat her own excrement (I know...sorry). Her eyes were dark and empty. She never had a facial expression. Blank."
"And she scared me."
"No patient before or after was scary, to me, but she really scared me. Because it honestly seemed to me — and I am not given to thinking things like this — that something not human was in there. That this lady’s essence was gone and something else was in there."
"She was only with us for a month, as they were just waiting for a bed to open up somewhere else. But nobody would say where. It was weird."
"Here is the last awful bit. One day a lovely teenage girl came in, really a nice kid. And this lady I am talking about was HER MOM. She hadn’t seen her in many years, she said."
"The head nurse took her back to see her mom and just a few minutes later the girl hurried out, almost running. I felt awful for her. And I felt even more spooked. What had happened?"
"I wish I had never seen that patient. I wish I had never known that was her daughter. I wish I could un-know what 'evil' looks like."
"Not one other experience do I regret, but that one lady still scares me to this day. She seemed wrong or evil in a way I that still freaks me out."
- Gen-Jinjur
Tumor Troubles
"Apparently tumors can grow shit like eyes and teeth."
"Google it at you own risk but be warned, it'll make resident evil look like the teenage mutant ninja turtles in comparison and it'll take days to get the image of it out of your head."
- bored_asfuk
Finally, some people shared animal facts. Even the cute, well-loved animals have some subtle behaviors or features that are enough to make you shiver.
Yuck. Just Yuck.
"Softshell turtles pee out of their mouth." -- KO-is-a-BIATCH
"They breathe through their butt" -- bmeupsctty
"Can they at least swim backwards while they do it? Peeing out your mouth is bad enough without having to swim through it as you pee." -- bowyer-betty
Delegated Stomachs
"that pelicans have three stomachs, and one of them's just for bones" -- pizzzazzzler
"I wish it could be five seconds ago when I didn't know this" -- ShadowHasBerries
"They can also push their spine out of their mouth to help cool off." -- thefifthwheelbruh
Let's Hope Opportunity Never Arises
"Horses are opportunistic carnivores."
"I learned this when I saw a video of a horse just popping a baby chick in its mouth like popcorn."
-- Jeremy12021
Blink
"I don’t remember how I found this out. In short, the fact about frogs. As soon as the frog grabs an unsuspecting insect, it should blink: the eyelids push the eyeballs to the top of the mouth and actually help push food down the throat."
"By the way, the eyes of frogs are larger than the stomach."
"Most frogs have teeth on the upper jaw, but these are mainly used to lock prey in the mouth and prevent it from escaping before the eyeballs push it towards the stomach."
- backroomsentity_
Alive?
"There were scientists that once kept a dog's head alive on a table through electrical stimulation. It is a YouTube video I can never unsee."
"I have left no link on purpose. Seriously, google at your own risk. I still cry any time I even THINK about it."
- Mxysptlik
The Fly
"The Human Botfly is still a thing."
- jjvolfan1
Hyenas Hurt
"So... uhh... I saw a comic and googled 'Hyena's Birth.' "
"This is what came up:"
" 'Giving birth is difficult for female hyenas, as the females give birth through their narrow clitoris, and spotted hyena cubs are the largest carnivoran young relative to their mothers' weight. During parturition, the clitoris ruptures in order to facilitate the passage of the young, and may take weeks to heal.' "
"God, I wish I didn't google that..."
- Mo_Ami·
So there you have it. An onslaught of reasons to lay awake tonight and feel scared to ever leave your bed again.
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Alongside all the fun facts out there are a plethora of totally unnerving pieces of information.
They take many forms: behaviors and abilities of animals, the surprisingly easy ways to suddenly die, and cosmic realities of the solar system that are enough to make us feel existential horror
Lucky--or unlucky--for us, a bunch of Redditors shared their favorite scary facts.
Keep these in mind for the next time you want to freak people out when the conversation gets stale.
Ppeanoot asked, "Whats the scariest fact you know?"
Many people chose to share the facts having to do with the surreal, sudden ways we can die. It's always lurking around the corner, and it can take many subtle, yet horrifying, forms.
It Only Takes a Few Minutes
"A brain aneurysm can hit you any time, any where, with next to no warning."
"Source: Watching my otherwise healthy grandma go from happily singing and making dinner to crying about the worst pain she had ever been in to being a vegetable in less than an hour."
-- KoldGlaze
Under the Surface
"You can have rabies for years before it even shows symptoms, then one day you get a headache and it's a death sentence from there." -- MonkeyPlower
"Oh god. I found a dead bat in my apartment like 2 years ago. Guess I should go get checked before the paranoia sets in." -- Throwaway47321
"Another one for the hypochondriac headache list"
"Nice" -- lolicvnt
Air Pockets
"Your skin is not 100% attached to your body."
"With enough air pressure beneath the skin, your body will become a balloon with a solid core and it will be excruciating before the embolism kills you."
-- Rusty_Ram
Waking to Death
"If you have FFI (fatal familial insomnia) you will experience progressively worsening sleeplessness. Your inability to sleep eventually turns into total insomnia at which point you'll die."
"People who have this rare genetic condition will all die. It's inevitable; most people within a year of it's onset... scary to think about."
Folded Wrong
"Prion diseases exist. They're not bacteria or viruses, there isn't an infection, per se, to attack."
"They're basically an alternate form of protein, and we can't stop them." -- balloon99
"Prions are misfolded proteins, which makes them the origami of diseases." -- Harleye
Others also discussed the possibility of sudden death.
These examples, however, dealt with the morbid ways that human beings can directly cause the deaths of one another. Sometimes it's gruesome and purposeful. Sometimes it's a freak accident.
Friends Like These
"If you will die because of murder, there's 80 percent chance you already know your killer." -- idigit1
"It's horrifying that several potential people just flew through my mind" -- ThatsdumbDoit
"Instinctively looked behind myself." -- Congoods
My Goodness
"Fun fact! Being flayed (skinned alive)by a skilled torturer meant that you'd be likely to survive the ordeal. Believe it or not dying of shock, or blood loss wasn't guaranteed."
"Often people survived hours, or days with no skin. In these cases what finished them off was hypothermia."
A Nation's Toll
"80% of Soviet males born in the year 1923 were dead by the end of WWII."
"...extremely high infant mortality, lingering effects from the Russian Civil War, the Ukrainian famine, Stalin's purges of the military and government, forced resettlement of ethnic minorities, the Finnish Winter War, and yes, WWII."
Slipping Through the Cracks
"If you commit a murder in the United States, the chances that you will be arrested and convicted for it is less than 50%." -- DioHecho
"There was a man who was finger printed as part of a job application with the federal govt. When his prints were captured, they linked it to murder from decades before." -- Esmeraldem
Snap of the Fingers
"Often all it takes is one random act by one random stranger to ruin your day and have your life taken away from you." -- oldbutnotmad
"I was just thinking about this in relation to drunk drivers" -- motofrommadagascar
Finally, some people decided to turn their gaze to the natural world. These facts are all about the strange creatures and life that populate our planet.
Escaping the Pain
"There's a plant that grows in Australia called the Gympie-Gympie, touching the plant will result in an unbearable pain because of the small needles on the plant. The pain is so unbearable people and animals killed themselves because of it."
"There's also a plant called Hogweed that can cause severe burns and blisters that can scar you for life."
One in a Million
"That a large number of asteroids and comets that could potentially hit Earth directly have not even been discovered as of yet, and our ability to actually stop a large object traveling stupidly fast is much worse than depicted in films."
-- ZootyMudkip
Ending it Early
"The fact that rabbits eat their babies when they know they won't survive." -- Schopenhauer1788
"Almost all animals do, in a sense it's humane. Cats will just leave their sick babies to the wild to starve to death, rot to death, or get picked apart to death by bugs."
"I'd take the mom doing the deed over hours of ants any day." -- PM_Me_Pikachu_Feet
Cruising Along the Bottom
"A moose can swim about 16 feet/5 meters underwater, which is why orcas are natural predators of them."
"Imagine you're diving underwater, suddenly there's a moose sitting at the bottom eating sea grass, then it gets eaten by an orca. That would be terrifying."
Caught in the Wave
"At any second the whole planet could be completely destroyed by x-ray bursts from quasars. So many other scary things have practical solutions for protecting the human race, but there is no defense humanity could conceivably develop against such a massive amount of energy."
"I subscribe to the Star Trek utopian techno future, massive gamma or x-ray burst.. nothing can stop it.. goodbye planet earth."
Boom, Eggs.
"A botfly can lay an egg in a fraction of a second. Literally swatting the fly can be enough for it to lay an egg which burrows into your flesh and feeds in there until it hatches and matures enough to fly away and start the cycle again."
"It can also happen to an eye. I know this because I'm an eye doctor and I have removed a botfly larva from the INSIDE of an Eyelid (tarsal conjunctival membrane). And yes I have photos. I have posted about it in the past before."
-- OscarDivine
Majestic Vampires
"Some butterflies drink blood" -- Stormtruper1
"And there's a type of bee that eats decomposing flesh." -- Bedlambiker
"Blood-er-flies." -- BubbaFrink-
So commit these to memory and drop them on party-goers when you least expect it.
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