Stalkers are a special kind of scary.
That is just a cold, hard fact of life that we must deal with.
And for some reason, these people get fixated on others.
They think they're in love... meanwhile we're calling the police and moving cities.
There is nothing more horrifying than having your life held hostage by someone.
Redditor rentinghappiness wanted to see who would be willing to discuss what it took to live through this scary life experience. They asked:
"People who have had a stalker, how did you realize you were being stalked and what ended up happening?"
I was had an ex who wouldn't take the hint. Keep my phone blowing up for months. I'm lucky though, finally they gave up. Others haven't been as fortunate.
“this is not goodbye”
"It was my ex. When we broke up it was all very dramatic and he got on a bus across the country the same day for whatever reason and sent a long message from the bus ending with 'this is not goodbye' I said 'yes it is, good luck.' Two years later I met my now husband and I suppose he moved back after 3 years. I started seeing him everywhere."
"He followed the two of us around Walmart for 45 minutes until I just posted up near a security guard and slipped out as he tried to wait for me to get away from the security guard. Then I saw him wandering around near my mother's house, but I had at that point moved in with my husband."
"Then I saw him outside of my work. He was clearly trying to get the courage to come in and he was also very clearly high. Some of the regular police officers came in by chance for their coffee and he left when they arrived. Then he figured out the general location where I was living and I saw him sort of wandering around a few times. I didn’t go home when I saw him, I went and sat in a public place for a few hours."
"Then I changed places of work and I saw him outside about three times. I was near a major transportation hub so I tried to ignore it. But when he started doing the pacing/tweaking/chain smoking thing again I figured I oughta do something so I waited for a family friend I knew would be in who was pretty domineering and I knew would go to bat for me and let him know who it was and what he was doing."
"He went outside and told my ex off I suppose. And scared him I guess cause he left quite quickly. My family friend was a bus driver so I gave him a picture and he shared it with some drivers along my regular route and as long as I stuck to that route the few more times I saw him trying to get on my bus we drove right past him or the wrong door opened to let people off and not let him on."
"We finally moved again and I quit my job because I had been bouncing around the same chain and was easy to find. Since then I have seen him once but he didn’t see me and I think it was unrelated because he actually bought something. I just sat in the camera room and watched till he left. It’s been an additional 5 years now so I assume he has figured himself out."
"I got an air of doom every time I saw him. He was kind when we dated, never abusive. But he was anti drugs and anti smoking and so seeing him high and things like that set off alarm bells. I know he was not well when he returned. I don’t know what would have happened had he gotten close to me. Maybe nothing. But every bone in my body was screaming danger. So I trusted my gut and took steps to maintain distance and I was okay. The police wouldn't have done anything. No threats were uttered and we were always in public. But all in all it turned out ok."
rkspm
Why are you up so late?
"I had a stalker in high school, and he didn't make it a secret."
"We were friends at first, kind of talking romantically, but I was very shy when it came to relationships or being physical. We had never even kissed before when he asked if he could send a song he wrote about me. It made me very uncomfortable and I asked him not to send it, but he did anyway. I expressed my discomfort and tried to continue the friendship, but it was just not working because he would still write me poems and send me weird songs."
"He started following me to my classes even though his were on the other side of school, but he wouldn't speak to me at all. It was insanely uncomfortable. This continued for weeks. He started sending me mean messages anonymously online and sending me songs with scary titles. He sent me that Smith's song The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get every single day, sometimes multiple times."
"Then one day at lunch he gave me a hand written poem and, I can't remember what all it said but the end was something about how he wanted to watch me get eaten alive by sharks. While friends, I had told him sharks were my biggest fear. I showed my teacher the poem and she freaked out and took it to the guidance counselor. She knew all the previous incidents so the letter made her worried. Especially how his handwriting changed when he was writing about me dying."
"I ended up getting called into a meeting with the principal, a guidance counselor, and the teacher I told. They even called my mom in and we all sat down and talked about what would be the best thing to do. The principal was really nervous he would do something crazy, so he said I should just avoid him as much as possible and be polite anytime we may interact. Basically how I was already handling it."
"I'm not sure if they ever spoke to him about it, but the last interaction I had with him still creeps me out to think about. I was up very late, and received a text from him, 'Why are you up so late? You should get ready for bed.' He had been to my place once before and I lived very close to the school. I'll always wonder if he was outside my house that night."
rat-kabob
I may be paranoid...
"It started while I was still in high school, he would be in a few of my classes and we would occasionally see each other around town (a very small, rural town). It slowly turned into him showing up at some of my friend group's hangout spots and saying that I had inspired him to start looking into similar hobbies. We thought it was kinda weird but just brushed it off and avoided him."
"Flash forward a couple weeks into the start of summer vacation. He had found or followed me to all of my favorite places and my work even though both were sometimes towns over from our own. I would see his car at parks where I did outdoor painting, at my place of work as well as at friends' houses, and he would drive passed the house of the family I nannied for during my days on."
"I thought it was creepy and told local authorities, but they told me not to worry. This went on for the rest of high school and up until graduation. I didn't tell anyone what university I was going to and lied claiming it was one hours away from mine. He was accepted and attended there while I left for another. He found out after a semester that I wasn't there and showed up at my dorm hall."
"He tried to break in and convince me and other people in the building to just let him in. I hid out in another girl's room until my friend was able to pick me up and take me to her boyfriend's off-campus apartment. I found out he was arrested the next morning for assaulting an RA. I called and showed them the evidence I had for his persistent stalking and finally filed a restraining order."
"He just got released a few months ago and I have never been more nervous. I'm just happy my current job and living area has amazing security and they all have pictures and his information to be safe. I may be paranoid, but better safe than end up on a true-crime podcast."
MalkiaBahari
From Church!
"He followed me home from church! He left long letters on my car every night for about a week. He was a lot older than me. The police spoke with him and he left town. I know how lucky I am that it was so simple. It was a small college town. I only know what the police told me, which was that they located him through the letters and the description of his car, found out he was not a resident, and told him there would be charges if he didn't move on."
"I realized he had followed me home the first day, so I parked at a different house and even walked into the back yard to try to throw him off. I didn't have a garage so when he came back to the neighborhood it wasn't hard for him to see my car and he started leaving the letters."
ExxoMountain
leave her alone...
"My wife did, it became a real problem. He was a maintenance man at the school where she taught. She was throwing out a lot of old, damaged books, he asked if could have them for his kids, of course. After that he wanted to always be there, wherever my wife was, he was always sweeping or cleaning near her room."
"Then one day in the winter, my wife got a flat right after leaving school, it was getting dark and her new best friend is there to fix it. While changing the tire, he started asking sexual questions, he wanted to know if she ever had a black man. Of course she said nothing."
"It got worse and the school administration was ignoring it, I was now going way out of my way to take her and to pick her up from school, she was scared. Then he said something to her while she was eating in the cafeteria, she lost it, she just started screaming and crying for him to leave her alone."
"They sent her home for a few days paid leave. Since the school was no help I went to see 2 school board members I knew, but not well. I told them that I had hired an attorney and would be suing the school district unless my wife felt safe. They moved the custodian to another school, but it took months before my wife felt safe. The custodian got in trouble at the next school and was arrested. We never heard from him again."
Disposable70
Well that is a mess of scary. How are people allowed to act out like this?
“you again?”
"I have a weird kind of related story… there is a man in my town that for the last 15 years I see him constantly, almost everywhere I go he’s there, at least 3 times a month… the grocery store, the corner store, the gas station, Walmart, the liquor store… occasionally we catch each other’s eye and look at each other like 'you again?' and kinda laugh it off."
"It has come to be a little bit of a joke where I will come home and tell my husband 'guess who I saw at the store today?' The only catch, he’s always at these places first!!! so it’s ME who looks like the stalker!"
Pinkiepie1111
Freaky
"I worked as a secretary at an adult school when I was 18. An adult student kept bothering me taking pictures of me outside the office etc... I quit that job and got him banned from the school. Fast forward 3 years later I’m in a relationship 6 months pregnant and I’m working at a drs office."
"A police officer shows up and tells me I’ve had a private investigator on me for a few weeks but he reported his client to the police because his client said he was my husband but the PI after following me for a few weeks figured out he wasn’t and was stalking me. He went to jail for a few days never heard from him again it’s been 19 yrs... freaky a** crap."
lola2203
Crazy
"He wasn’t subtle about it. He threatened me by phone and email, followed a moving truck to my new apartment, ignored police instructions to stop contacting me multiple times, then contacted me through other people, showed up in random places in my new city."
"It only stopped after he got arrested for assault (on someone else) and ultimately moved to a different city, where he was again arrested for assault. That last part I only know because I was regularly looking him up on court records to see if he was free."
TerrifyinglyAlive
Be careful out there. Stay aware of the people around you.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Content warning: suicide.
Cherish every moment.
That is a saying we just keep taking for granted.
Another second is never promised.
Sometimes we check ourselves when the death of the young happens.
The unfairness of it all is almost too much to handle.
Let's share some stories.
And maybe learn to appreciate life a little more.
Redditor deadmoby5 wanted to see who would be willing to share about the not-so-great days in school. They asked:
"Has anyone ever died at your school/college/university? What happened to them?"
Death is inevitable, but it's intended to be much later in life.These stories are so sad.
Fallen
"Yes, in front of the whole school. I was maybe 10 yo or younger. The girl was 6 or 7. Everybody was gathering for the national anthem. She just fell on the floor dead. I think it was something on her brain, I'm not sure."
Fun_Computer_8401
"Probably a brain aneurysm."
dndaresilly
Very messed up...
"Someone jumped in front of a train. He had a horrible home situation where his dad died and the mom was on the verge of dying. He was really close with the teachers so they were crying all the time. Very messed up. My mom had a friend that got driven over by a truck. They were waiting for the light and this truck backed up with them in the blindspot. My mom doesn't like trucks anymore."
onixdog
broken cable...
"A guy I know was working on a dredge when a cable broke, cut the top of his head off and his brain popped in the water just before him. It took 4 days to find his body."
"P.S. always wear a hard hat when in a construction site."
WokeUp2
"Hard hat might not have saved him. I have seen countless pics of fatalities from motorcycle accidents where the helmet just prevented brain spillage. The brain still came out of the skull."
Nairbfs79
'tripped'
"When I was a sophomore in high school a girl who I only slightly knew dropped dead during a soccer game. While I wasn’t in attendance I knew a few who were. She was on the team and running when she 'tripped' with a hard fall. She didn’t move at all or try to pick herself up so the ref, coach and medics came to her aid."
"She was stone cold dead, her parents weren’t at the game as she was a junior and had her own car. I can only imagine that phone call. We learned later that she had a brain aneurysm and was likely dead before she hit the ground. She was a very promising student, in a lot of clubs and very friendly. It’s crazy to think at any point that can happen to anyone."
GellertsEyes
Behind the Wheel
"A senior girl died in a car accident my freshman year, fell asleep behind the wheel. The school made it a whole thing. A friend of mine died in car accident (he had a heart attack while driving) our junior year and he got ignored."
carmelacorleone
Well this is a lot to take in. So young. So much sadness.
Oh Lord
"My class administrator of my electrician course. It was a TIFU because when I entered class, everyone looked very sad."
"I asked 'Gee, who died?'"
"The answer was 'Mr. CA.'"
"My answer was 'F***, I was only kidding.'"
Khaos_Gorvin
babies
"A set of twin boys died from leukemia. I was probably about 8 when the first one passed and then 10. Idk what specific one it was because I was young myself."
fauxfomo
"I remember we had a set of identical twins at my school they were teenagers girls and both had leukaemia as well, both died in the same year. It was really really sad for our community."
Any-Difficulty-8694
Not Sure
"In my elementary school this girl died in first grade and I don’t actually know what happened but there are two memorials for her: one is three trees, two benches, and two places to play chess that no one uses to play chess, and a statue of her old dog. Yeah, idk either."
"There was another girl who was my best friend at the time who died when she was in first grade and she died by falling off a tree and cracking her head open. She was put under a medically induced coma and never woke up. She didn’t get a memorial."
unicornGenocide12334
Lies?
"Our teacher always told us that a girl fell and got run over by other students while a fire drill happened. We never figured out if she was lying or not but she looked a little bit too serious for my taste."
thatwasmyfoota**hole
Wild Days
"My school was wild. None legit in school but in general. Someone my age died in... kindergarten? Idk who they were but a seat was left open at graduation for her. In high school someone a year younger had cancer. Someone in my grade committed suicide over the summer. Some guy was chopped up by a boat (idk boat parts but it was the back thing). A dad went crazy with his wife and middle school daughter."
"Then every year in high school we had a safety week for the last week of school and one major part was a girl who was killed by a drunk driver in 2012 when I was 12. Since I graduated in 2018 I think there's been 3 or 4 deaths of people I knew and 1 or 2 current students."
ItsNowDaisy
This was back in 1998...
"This girl who was my friend in my primary school (In UK ages 5 - 11) class died one weekend when she went to the local fairground. The roller-coaster she went on had a faulty safety bar. Going round the track it came loose and she fell out. This was back in 1998. She was only 8 years old."
"I actually happened to accidentally visit her grave in my home village where the school is located just the other week. (we were taking a walk as it was a lovely day and came upon the graveyard) so I went and said hello. Was quite emotional as I had my 2 year old daughter with me."
ZPM89
One Weekend
"A PhD student in our department went water skiing one weekend. The tether he was on became tangled, and he was pulled under the boat, where he drowned. I'll admit, I didn't know this guy particularly well, so I didn't feel overly sad from this, but it was still a shocker."
"It was also strange seeing everyone with whom you work, including professors, suddenly switch from being professional to being upset. I honestly didn't know how to respond to it."
deadmoby5
Everyime
"A girl in my high school committed accidental suicide. Sort of. Every time her bf broke up with her she overdosed and told him she was trying to kill herself, and every time he called an ambulance and got back with her. But the last time they broke up he told her he was actually done and not to do anything stupid because he wasn't going to answer his phone."
"And he shut his phone off, and the next day he found out she overdosed. She had texted him after she took the pills like she always did but his phone had been off and he didn't get the text. Her family blamed him and put him through hell."
TRANSparent-Ink
first year of university...
"When I was in my first year of university, a kid committed suicide in his room in the student dorms. He was at a party with his friend and left saying 'I'm away guys, I'll see you all later' (or something to that effect) and no one knew what he meant. In the same year, a kid I went to school with when I was a bit younger died after some internal bleeding in his head."
"He had walked into a shop when there was an armed robbery happening, got his nose broke when the guy hit his face with the handle of the gun. He avoided going to hospital because he didn't want to be put on painkillers since he was preparing to go to the navy. The nose break caused bleeding from the brain and he died alone in his flat a few days later."
Cyanide_Revolver
"going places"
"There was a guy I went to school with who was very bright, funny, and was one of the ones you could tell was really 'going places.' We spent an afternoon chatting in an abandoned auditorium once and he was just a nice guy. Had an aneurism and now needs constant care and is severely mentally disabled. Just out of nowhere. He was healthy. Terrifying."
sylvanwhisper
Tragic
"I'm a senior in HS right now, and every school year (without fail) at least one of the our teachers will commit suicide. Every year. None of us know the reasoning behind any of their passings, for the most part. One of the teachers that committed suicide was an AP World History/European history teacher who was exposed (for lack of a better word) as being a pedophile."
"And having inappropriate relationships with students. The same day everyone found out about the investigation is the same day it’s reported that he committed suicide. But, other than that, we don’t know why our teachers keep killing themselves. It is very tragic."
kai-lan
Falling Back
"A girl at my high school. She was ripped apart and eaten by dogs. She went round to a friends house, which was a proper council estate death trap. Her friend wasn’t in so she decided to let herself in and go sit in the garden. She was eating a pie at the time and her friends 5 dangerous dogs were in the garden."
"One of them jumped to get the pie out of her hand, knocking her over in the process. Once she fell on the ground pack instinct kicked in and they all dived on her and ripped her throat out. The neighbors were the first to see the remains and call the police. The dogs were all shot on sight."
dave-505
In the Trunk
"This kid I knew in high school was murdered by his girlfriend's ex boyfriend. He beat him, put him in a trunk and drove him to a cave, he then pointed a gun at him and told him he would kill him unless he swore to never see her again. This guy, was much older maybe 21 and the kid was only 15, the girl, 14."
"He ended up killing him and then killing himself. The 15 year old boy lived just long enough to say what happened. So, he didn’t die AT the school, but he was beat up and put in the trunk at the school."
AccomplishedAd6025
Head first...
"Yeah. Um- This kid- middle school- we had a two story middle school which the second story was a inside balcony if you could call it… Group of boys went Up to him and cornered him and told him to jump. They even went as far as giving him a lift. I guess the poor boys hand slipped and he fell over. Head first. At least 40 feet. There was a crack in the tile downstairs where he landed. May him and his beautiful soul rest. God bless that boy and his family."
Altenalo
DOA
"Girl living in a house off-campus was shot by police, who were responding to an armed break in at that same house. I almost lived in that house, but chose a different one up the street. My house too was robbed at gun point, though the perps got away before police arrived."
Mitch_from_Boston
That is a lot of tragedy. I'm sorry for everyone's loss.
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/
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Life is not guaranteed. Every second is fleeting and could be your last! Feel better about the state of the world? I do.
I'm not here to coddle you, I'm here for truth kids. Danger abounds like mosquitoes in summer. But... there is hope.
We can survive. Everyday we all face insurmountable, life threatening situations, just by crossing the street, or going to Starbucks. And in some instances we survive actual near tragedy.
Who hasn't heard the tales of people walking away from the jaws of life with barely a scratch scratch? It can happen, but often it's rare. So let's discuss them.
Redditor u/CrownedBird wanted to hear about some major miracles by asking:
What moment made you say "Yep, I'm definitely dead", but survived with no major injuries?
When I was in college my friends and I were constantly out galavanting, and of course, liquor was involved. One night on the way home from the most fabulous club I thought it was a great idea I drive because... wait for it... "I was the least drunk!" Perfect reasoning right?
Without a Scratch...
thank god singing GIF by WE tvGiphy"I survived a car crash that wrecked my car."
"Rolled twice, landed upside down, learned the hard way that I didn't have airbags (or at least they didn't deploy). Did have my seatbelt on though, that probably saved me. Paramedic said he hadn't seen a wreckage like that and have it end well. Not even a hairline fracture."
200 Stitches
"Not me, but my mom before I was born. She was riding in a convertible with a friend of hers. They came to an intersection and the friend wasn't paying attention and lost control of the vehicle. There was a big rig going through the intersection and they went right under the trailer. My mom ducked, the driver didn't not."
"Driver was decapitated, my mom was lucky and only ended up with a scalp full of glass and some serious psychological trauma. She had to get over 200 stitches in her scalp But nothing else significant. I think about it all the time and think how close I came to never being born at all."
- Laszerus
"dude let's climb it!"
"I had an idiot friend and we were hiking. We got to this waterfall and he goes "dude let's climb it!" I said no freaking way. He says "well I'm gonna do it and if I fall and die it's on you for not coming." So I climbed it with him. Got stuck halfway up on a slick a** rock. Pinched a nerve in my shoulder, so my right arm was useless. I thought I was certain to slip off the rock to my doom, but we managed to get me unstuck. That was the beginning of the end for that friendship."
Point Break
"I went out for a surf on a stormy day and thought to myself, "no one else is out, those idiots." Before being held down by 2 waves after eating it on the first wave of the set. First wave of the session. Was thrown down and held under and while being tossed around my leg rope wrapped around both my legs and one of my arms so I was probably being held at around 5ft under with only one arm free while my board tombstoned (board tip is barely visible at the surface but floats vertical like...a tombstone)."
"Finally managed to catch a breath between sets before taking another 3 or 4 on the head and for sure just thought... well this is it. No ones out, fishermen will find my body or my board. Managed to get my other arm free and got to shore very quickly and then avoided the ocean for a few days even though the waves were absolutely perfect. There's a reason no one was out, everyone else was 10 minutes down the road at another beach where the waves were smaller and cleaner."
Both Sides Now
Giphy"Tire popped going over a two lane road with steep drops on both sides."
"My car jerked to the side hard, and my car went sideways. Half my car hung over the side and luckily it's low so it bottomed out. I climbed into the back seat and jumped out the back door. Some dude in a truck pulled me out and I drove on a flat to the other side and swapped my tire out."
That all sounds about right...
And so when my besties and I were driving along the road we got lost in conversation, about boys. Like you do when you're blitzed and should be paying attention to the road, like many others...
Jump!
jim carrey falling GIFGiphy"Parachute deployed but failed to open. That was one of those moments, then training kicked in. Cut away failed chute, deploy secondary. But for a brief moment life was about to be over in my mind."
Games
"When I was a kid I was playing hide and seek with my siblings and I got the brilliant idea to hide in the trunk of the car. I meant to leave the trunk barely open so that it didn't latch but accidentally closed it too far and it latched. Mind you this was before they put handles in cars to open trunks from the inside so I was legitimately stuck."
"It was almost completely dark so I started seriously freaking out and I thought I was going to die, so I started yelling for help as loud as I could and was kicking at the back seat thinking maybe I could break the latch that keeps the seat from folding."
"I was probably only in there for about 5 minutes before someone heard me and let me out but it felt like an eternity. To this day I firmly believe it was because of this incident that I developed some minor claustrophobia. I still have serious fears about being in small, cramped and dark areas."
A Terrible Choice
"I was driving down a highway, doing 65 MPH, and suddenly my car started to shake. I tapped the brakes in reflex and my entire car flipped 180 degrees. I'm now facing oncoming traffic, including a semi truck. I was so close I couldn't see the driver compartment."
"I screamed and jerked the wheel, bringing me in front of a sedan with two people screaming as they watched me appear out of nowhere. I kept screaming and floored the gas pedal. Made it to the side of the road and cried for a long time. I had blown a rear tire. Hitting the brakes was a terrible terrible choice."
At least 90...
"I was driving home from college on one of those highways with only one lane in either direction and no shoulder. A guy in the oncoming lane didn't see me as I was in a small car. He thought he could pass 4 18 wheelers in one go and pulled into my lane going at least 90. There was no where for me to go. He flew off into the ditch to avoid hitting me head on, likely did severe damage to his car, but I lived!"
On the Gauley
Rafting Raft GIF by Kern River OutfittersGiphy"Went white water rafting on the Gauley river and my raft flipped on pillow rock (one of the most famous class v rapids). Scariest moment of my life but, other than unexpectedly swallowing some water and almost vomiting, I came out completely unharmed."
See... everybody needs to pay attention more. That's the lesson.
Just like my friends and I. When we were not paying attention, and in all of our drunken glory, we hit the medium and flew across lanes. We plowed into a fence and did two... TWO 360 turns. We thought we were dead! We literally flew! But we all lived. And what I remember most is my friend Kate screaming... "TELL MY MOTHER I LOVED HER!!"
Be better people!
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Narrowly escaping death after being at the wrong place and time is something nobody takes for granted.
I still shudder when thinking about the time I drove home after rehearsing for a show in Los Angeles.
It was 9 p.m., and I was exhausted. My focus was not as keen as it should have been while driving on a busy street.
However, it's a good thing I had quick reflexes when I saw an 18 wheeler on the opposite side of the road swerving onto the wrong side of traffic and hurtling towards me at roughly 50 m.p.h.
With the brights blinding me, I made a sharp right, not knowing if I might hit parked cars along the street. In that instant, the semi clipped the back left of my vehicle and I did a 180.
The driver – clearly under the influence – kept going and doing who knows what else.
I walked away with my life and no injuries.
I continue to count my blessings.
Wanting to hear about scary life situations, Redditor LegitimateShift8 asked:
"What was the biggest bullet you dodged?"
Close Call
"A few years ago I had pneumonia, but my whole family insisted that it was just post nasal drip, (Which runs in the family) after a week or two I woke up in the middle of the night when I couldn't feel my arm. After I got to the ER the doctor said that it was the worst he'd ever seen and he was surprised I wasn't dead."
"I had 3 lbs of mucus cut out of my lungs and another two weeks in the hospital siphoning out the rest."
"For three months afterwards I could barely walk half a mile without starting to pass out and I still can't run for more than 200-300 yards without collapsing."
The Landing
"Many years ago, my flight had just landed at Chicago O'hare and the plane was taxiing when the pilot suddenly slammed on the brakes. People were literally thrown forward against the seat in front of them. A few seconds later, another plane (taking off I think) went screaming by right in front of us."
– khendron
City Bus
"Around 30,000 pounds."
"I was driving with my wife in town one snowy evening and we had pulled up to a stop light. I happened to glance up at the rear view mirror and saw a city bus heading towards us... and rotating sideways. I hit the gas and pulled ahead into the intersection and left into the turning lane, and less than a second later, the bus went sliding through right where our car was. It came to a stop on the other side of the intersection and fortunately didn't hit anything, but one second or two feet difference and we would've had some nice spinal injuries."
Was It Purgatory?
"As a kid, after running errands in town with my mom, I was climbing into the backseat of our family station wagon. A semi-truck hit a power line pole down the street causing the still-live wire to fall, bounce off the roof of the car and hang across the open door just a foot or two above my legs."
"Raised catholic, I wondered for a while after if I had actually died that day and that the rest of what I thought was my life was my purgatory."
Keeping The Job
"Not changing jobs in early 2020. Would have been a short lived promotion after early restructuring and layoffs."
The Con
"A friend had lost his job under suspicious circumstances. A few weeks later he asked me to take him to the bank, as I got near to pick him up I caught a train. He called to say never mind he would get someone else."
"A few days later a friend sent out a message to a large number of our friends, this guy lost his job and was running a check cashing con - Can you cash this check for me? I'll pay you $50 if you do. The check is $500, he has no backing funds, you eat the whole amount. He did this to several friends in a few day to amass a few grand and was about to skip town when the cops got him."
Don't Bypass Safety Lockouts
"Not me, but I had a field service engineer working on one of my big robotic liquid handlers. He decided to bypass the safety pin that prevents the heads from moving while the cover is open while he had a diagnostic program queued up on the computer. What he didn't know was that the instant he reinserted the safety pin the machine would execute the queued instructions and start moving, and he had a hand inside it right in the danger zone."
"I grabbed his shoulder and yanked his hand out an instant before it was crushed. He stopped ignoring me when I told him to stop bypassing safety lockouts to save a few minutes."
Hero Wife
"after i had a stroke, i was in a coma and it didn't look like i'd wake up. the drs asked my wife if they should let me go. i only exist because she said no. i didn't dodge a bullet so much as my wife blocked it for me."
– miked4o7
Dodging Flames
"Was going to move to a different apartment complex last month...got injured at work and lost hours; therefore, couldn't come up with the deposit money in time. Last week some a**hat was cooking meth and caught the building on fire."
My current apartment complex is notorious in my city for having elevator troubles, so in reality, username DOES check out! Also, you could say I dodged 2 bullets...1, the fire. 2, I know 'bad stuff happens everywhere blah blah blah' but the new place really didn't strike me as the kind of place where methheads live. So I guess avoiding those kind of people for neighbors was dodging a bullet in itself!"
The Newborn
"My newborn needed to be rushed to a super high level NICU to be put into a state of induced hypothermia, because he only had hours before he would suffer permanent brain damage. I live in a small town in the middle of no where."
"The small town next door just barely upgraded their hospital to have that hypothermia suite, one of only a few in Texas."
"He's doing great, no sign of any damage."
Thank You For Being A Friend
"I stayed up all night before a daytrip to Hong Kong. You know that daze when you haven't slept, you're just kinda robotic and doing the human stuff, nearly zero awareness of anything?"
"Well, I went to cross a street and my friend behind me SNATCHED my shoulder and yanked me backwards just in time to feel the WHOOSH of a doubledecker bus breezing past us. I just looked at him like 'oh, thanks man' and it took a whole extra minute for my brain to process I would be f'ken ded had he not grabbed me."
Involuntary Early Riser
"Freshman year of college I had a calc class. It was material I had learned before, but for various reasons they didn't give me transfer credit. So I skipped class quite frequently."
"Though I usually slept in, one morning I find myself awake at 8:30 and not really feeling like sleep. Might as well check in on the class and see what's going on."
"It was the midterm exam."
– mlahut
Alarm Setting Mistake
"Junior year of college I was planning to get up at 6:30am for an 8am economics final. I wanted to give myself enough time to come to, get a decent breakfast and do some last minute reviewing."
"Instead of my alarm clock, an ambulance siren instead ends up waking me up. I look at my clock, 6:35 am. I had done the classic 'set the alarm for PM instead of AM'. Even through I had a buffer of 90 minutes, I would have most certainly overslept as that whole semester the earliest I had a course normally was 10am."
The Stab
"Getting chased by someone with a knife across my apartment. I closed my door at the right moment so that person ended up stabbing my wooden door instead. The mark was there until I left the apartment a few years later as a constant reminder of what could have been."
A Smooth Criminal
"When I was in middle school I wanted to buy a fedora, but none could fit my head."
Got Married
"At 17 y/o I met and married a sweet little North Carolina daddy's girl."
"had I not I would have still been hanging with my friends that just discovered heroin."
"of the 3 friends, 2 are dead and one did 10 years in prison."
Life can be a harrowing experience. Sadly, we have to be careful everyday of people. Some true evil walks among us and hopefully most of us will never have to be on the rage end of certain lost souls or soulless bags of flesh.
Redditor u/TheShadiestPillow wanted to ask survivors of darkness if they could share some tough experiences by asking.... [Serious] People who have been tortured, what happened, what was your experience like and what impact did it have on your life?
1.
I was never tortured but I used to work as a SWAT medic and we had a case where there was a child about 15 years old that had been chained to their bed and tortured for about 5 years. The parents were very violent and barricaded themselves in the house which is why SWAT was called in. I was the 4th man in a 6 man entry team and when we got into that room none of us could fathom the evil that had been done to that child.
Those guys were some of the hardest people I have ever known and they all just recoiled when they saw that kid chained to his bed lying in filth. He had been beaten, starved, drugged, cut, and I don't know what else. The entry team leader went and threw up outside later. I was one of the few guys on the team that didn't have kids so it was a little bit easier for me. I started to administer care to the victim and after that everything is just image after image of pain seared into my mind.
The kid made it 2 years into foster care and then committed suicide. The team never talked about it again. We thought we were tough and stuff but torturing kids is a whole different level.
And if anyone is wondering, the parents tried to shoot us on the way in, so we smoked them. Only time I have had zero remorse having to shoot someone. PaleGazelle
2.
Not torture in the classic sense of being tied up and beaten. But in a way, enduring years of chemo and radiation as a young child was bad enough.
You have those things (embarrassing and painful) inflicted over and over on yourself and at the same time you have to watch it happen to your friends - almost all of whom died in agonizing ways. You can't learn properly because you can't go to school very much. And then the lasting damage continues to hurt you for the rest of your life - both psychological and physical.
In the end, you're left stripped of everything. Dunno what to do or say about it. You just try and pretend it never happened and it doesn't hurt anymore. TheRainbowsEnd
3.
I grew up in a very volatile household - mother was bipolar that refused treatment, my older sister was a hellish child that would literally have fist fights with my mom.
Through the summer when my parents worked, we stayed home by ourselves (roughly 10, sister 15). She called her boyfriend over since no one would know and they'd lock me in a small closet (mobile home) for hours at a time. I was told that if I ever told my parents about anything, they'd kill my pets and I loved animals, so that terrified me.
I've never told anyone about that except my current boyfriend. I think I repressed it for a long time, but was/am uncomfortable with signs of affected or being overly touched... it's like a light switched flipped and I get overly upset. Also not a fan of small places or feeling confined.
My mom was constantly angry at the littlest things, so I grew up always apologizing for things that weren't my fault, but trying to appease everyone. She never thought about the things she said; calling me a fat, ugly whore (lost virginity at 19) that would never amount up to anything, no man would ever love me.
The emotional toll was severe. I've struggled with depression, anxiety, self-loathing, and completely devoid of confidence. At 35, I'm just now starting to find myself and love who I've become despite all the BS.
My mother died eight years ago and I was her primary care giver in her last 6 months. I dealt with the guilt of wanting her dead so many times in my life because of the horrible things she did and said to me, but watching cancer destroy her is nothing I'd wish on anyone. It broke me for many more years.
So yeah, life's been fun. Ms_Madam_Meow
4.
Like most people here, we shouldn't have had to go through a lot of it, my most hated was the "submission" game where my old boy would fold me in half, twist my arms or legs or trap me underneath covers so I couldn't breathe with the aim for me to tap out or say submit, but if I DID submit he would hurt me that much more so I learnt all giving up done was cos more pain. I'm 40 years old with a fear of authority and speaking up for myself but I gotta say. I can fight like a crazy person with no fear of pain. If my Dad wanted to raise a right S.O.B he succeeded but see if I ever saw ANYONE raise their hands to my sons, I'll kill them and no crap I will drop them where they stand no one should go through what I did. Scotchrain
5.
Don't want to get into specifics. The nastiest filth on the planet was imported to the country unfortunately. Was subjected to drawn out torture by the nasty filth (which will hopefully be erased at some point). It gave me severe ptsd, anxiety issues, took years off of my life, a huge life loss on many levels, vast resulting financial losses etc. Perhaps the biggest loss is a personality contortion, going from being kind and loving to being hateful and angry. There is very real evil out there, make no mistake. acutepresence
6.
A therapist decided the best way to cure my needle phobia was with "exposures". Under her guidance my parents bought some medical lance things (the things you use to prick your finger to test your blood), and would routinely make me stab myself with them.
I remember one time scream crying on the bed with both of my parents in the room while they tried to make me do it. I had to pee so badly that I though I was going to wet the bed in front of them, but they wouldn't let me go until I did it. They just kept saying "Just do it quick. It'll be over and then you can go to the bathroom." I was so terrified I kept trying to slowly push it into my finger instead of just pricking it. I finally did, and the let me go to the bathroom. That was the worst panic attack i had over it, but making me stab myself happened many other times.
I now suffer a very sever and crippling phobia. I can no longer get flu shots or update my vaccines. I couldn't get the birth control shot that would help my endometriosis. I will attack people or huddle up rocking back and forth hyperventilating in corners when doctors bring them into the room because they didn't take my phobia seriously. When I had to have some surgeries (many do to the Endo mentioned above), special accommodations had to be made to put me under, or to get IVs in. And even then, it always ends in tears, hyperventilating, and sometimes passing out.
It was truly traumatic, and looking back on it, probably torture. They were mentally abusive, and though not usually physically, I suppose this would count. I still have nightmares where people come after me with forks made of needles, or where people attack me with a needle of drugs to kill me. I have to close my eyes if I see one on TV.
I still haven't gotten over it, and I don't think I ever will. I don't trust therapists, which sucks because I need one for my anxiety, depression, and possibly PTSD. But how can I? Zero_Minus_One
7.
Idk if this counts, but between the ages of approximately 2-10 my dad would spend his nights drunkenly torturing my younger brother and I. He'd do stuff like pin us against the wall by our throat, smash his face into ours and scream into it; leave the room then come charging back in with no warning, grab one of us and start beating; throw heavy objects like frying pans really hard at us; drag us out of bed by the leg if we fell asleep during a beating session etc. There's a lot more but those are the most typical events I can recall.
He'd be screaming all kinds of verbal abuse the whole time. He'd chase and hunt us down if we tried to hide, even if we got out of the house and tried to run away. He'd also make my brother and I fight each other, like actually fight. Full force hitting and we'd be pulled out and beaten by him if we refused to cooperate, so we'd obey and beat each other since it was less painful than a beating from a grown man.
My mom had had split custody and took us on weekends since our dad's house was zoned for our school. Since my dad was very sneaky about it and left as little evidence as possible, my mom never knew the extent of the trauma. She knew he was on the mean side, but we never told her about how bad it was in fear that we'd have to go back and it would be worse. If we had marks or were bleeding when she picked us up, he'd give her a story about how we got into a fight with neighborhood kids or one of us fell out of a tree. We'd always agree to the story out of fear.
On top of severe anxiety, I also have very handicapped social skills and aggression triggers. I don't act on them (unless I'm asleep, but I'm unconscious and unable to control it at that point) but I can't begin to explain the amount of rage that fills my soul when I am triggered. If someone taps my shoulder, pokes me, knocks on my head, boops my nose, puts their face right up to mine or throws something at me (especially if it hits my head) I literally fantasize about clawing their face off of their skull. If I'm asleep and someone starts tapping or grabbing me to wake me up, I'll wake up enough to swing at them until they leave me alone.
I'm also very easily startled, I enjoy haunted houses and scary movies and stuff because I'm expecting the thrill, but if someone pops out and scares me as a joke it will jump start my heart and give me an adrenaline rush large enough to beat a grown man's ass to the ground in 3 seconds. Even sudden loud noises do it for me, especially metallic clangs/crashes. It physically hurts me; my chest hurts, my heart races, I lose all focus of reality for a minute and get tunnel vision for a fight or flight response. SlytherinAhri
8.
not really torture but when i had a pretty messed up childhood and when i was about 11 or 12 i found pro-ana communities online who made me think that if i developed anorexia i'd finally be loved and stop being a 'bad person' (which i believed i was). i tried to give myself an eating disorder by acting exactly like someone who had one, researching and watching films then copying what they did etc. obviously you cannot give yourself a mental illness though and i never developed disordered thoughts because it doesn't work that way. kept forcing the treatment on me.
anyway i was taken to therapy and i kept it up for a while but being there kind of shocked me out of it so i admitted what i was doing to them and was so relieved and ready to accept help for the issues i had. except they didn't believe me. i was forced through anorexia treatment despite not having stuff wrong with me and the more i tried to explain the situation the more i was told i was lying, trying to avoid treatment etc. was weighed twice a week, couldn't make friends because i was constantly supervised eating so couldn't really go out and see people etc.
my life from 12-15 was completely taken up by this and there was no escape. i have a high metabolism so i physically couldn't gain the weight they wanted me to no matter what i did, was accused of lying and the issues i actually did have just got worse and worse as they were ignored. i think somewhere along the line the psychs realized they got it wrong but it was kind of too late to admit that so they just kept forcing the treatment on me.
was eventually sent inpatient and one of the psychs there would compare me to the other girls, say something to me then claim she never said that, call me names and tell i was a bad person, a liar etc etc, encourage me to take PRN medication when i was panicked then make fun of me when i took it, told my parents and the other staff (the only people i ever got to see) that if i tried to speak about my "delusion" of being falsely diagnose, i was to be punished. she withheld an autism assessment i was supposed to have and told my parents i had been assessed when i hadn't.
eventually got out of there and was finally allowed to leave services at 15, am now about to turn 17 and my parents deny this ever happened, would probably believe them if i didn't know someone else it also happened to. i am now severely depressed, have a phobia of medical professionals and haven't seen a doctor since then, and developed binge eating disorder as i was so used to being forced to eat ungodly amounts of food that i don't remember what it was like to not do that. have no education or skills as i was never at school due to constantly being kept home to eat or at therapy. i just lie in bed all day. i'm finally free but have no idea what to do with myself since i never learned anything during my vital developmental years. not as bad as people on here but felt like torture to young me. still does. just horrible. tsukimishin
9.
I've read quite a few of these and too many of them start with "not real torture but" and then go on to describe very real torture.
It's not because it's done by your boyfriend or parents that it's not torture. Not all torture is done by the government. My heart is with all of you. Guilty_Coconut
10.
My neighbor was tortured to death almost two years ago. They pushed in an air conditioner to wait for him to get home, they tied him with duct tape, put a laundry bag over his head, and cut him with broken bottles and kitchen knives. They then stole his stuff and left him to die.
I can only guess that the lesson that he would have learned is the lesson that I surely did learn: Don't ever let someone tie you up. Make them kill you trying. Once you are bound they can do much worse than if they killed you while you were free.
Edited to Add: Link here -> https://www.lowellsun.com/ci_32038689/second-man-arrested-lowell-killing. Sort of doxxed myself but whatever. BigBobby2016
11.
Some back story, My dad was in the military, I have two sisters, one older and a twin. Our babysitter was "a good christian" lady. Anyways, my twin and I be would separated by our babysitter and she would lock us in different areas of the house. Such as a hallway closet, basement, or furnace room. She also made sure we couldn't turn on the lights by holding her hand over the switch or taping it down. She would then proceed to say that she was calling monsters to come get me and make noises like they were actually in the room/closet.
Of course being five and not being able to see well in the dark I believed her. She would then leave and go off to do the same thing to my sister leaving me in the dark alone. To keep from telling our parents she would threaten to kill us and even put a knife to my sister's throat one day. This happened five days a week for about six months because our dad was TBY in Korea, and our mom worked full time so no one was home to watch us until our older sister got home from school. (She got out 2 hrs. later than us cuz she was in high school and did afterschool activities).
Eventually, after our dad returned home we told our parents because we never wanted to be babysat by her again but they didn't believe us saying that she wouldn't do those things since she was a good christian. Our older sister did believe us, thank goodness, and quite her school activities to watch us after that. To this day, I'm scared of dark places, very claustrophobic, and have trust issues. wolfgirl2243
12.
Well, I was not tortured in the most strict sense of the word, like a prisoner would be.
But I grew up with a higly abusive, very violent step father. His beatings were way out of proportion to a kid. He would punch me and throw me around until I peed myself and couldn't barely move, and on a daily basis for any reason at all.
It really leaves a mark on you, the psychological impact is huge. I lived there from ages 13 to 17 when I finally was old enough to run away.
For years I had repeated dreams about being killed in many ways. So I never got proper rest during the night, that made me have issues to be productive during the day, it can lead to depression, anxiety, PTSD... It's really a sh!t scenario, cuz you escape but in a way are still not free.
Anyways, I hope that's not too depressing, it was a long time ago, I'm 30 years old now, things changed for better, I got the help I needed, I only have like some insomnia. I managed to don't become a violent person neither a toxic partner to my SO. So...Maybe I talked too much, sorry hahaha. EmotionalMeltdown
13.
I grew up with an abusive brother who used to duct tape me and beat me and literally harass me all day. I used to tell my mother and she did nothing pretty much stop crying. It made me a lot less trusting of people. I don't expect help from anyone. EarlyBirdTheNightOwl
14.
I went through emotional abuse at the hands of narc friends and people who I thought were with me due to my kind nature—I was wrong.
This led me to lose my trust in people, develop social anxiety and I now have a few friends who I can trust.
I agree with the not expecting help from others—in today's society that's the reason why homeless people are homeless—the government doesn't do anything major, and people walking by on the streets are not going to help them for free.
In this society, people make friends to gain a connection to further themselves in one facet of their life. Artistic-Result
15.
Joe vs. Elan.School <----read
The webcomic above is a completely insane, and true, story about being psychologically and physically tortured by a "troubled-teen" cult in Maine. Everyone should read it. It is extremely eye-opening on multiple levels.
It would be dismissed as unbelievable if not for the crazy amount of proof that this place actually existed.
Believe me, clear your schedule if you start reading this. It is very addictive and puts you into that head-space of going through a very messed up and unique type of torture that apparently happened to thousands of American teenagers. dwightornado
16.
This one was run out of Georgia and was not for teens but for adults and was fronted as a drug/alcohol rehabilitation house. It's an absolute mind-screw. I ran away 10 years ago and I'm just now getting help. I was held against my will, psychologically abused, my family was financially out a lot of money. It works because the people who go are 'troubled' so family doesn't believe the crazy stories they tell. LauraB6789
17.
Only one person apart from those involved know about this.
Forgive my spelling.
When I was 10 my friend had a sleep over for his birthday, 3 of us in the party. All was going fantastic until my friend found his eldest brother's stash, including a Co2 pistol, booze and marijuana. My friends brothers were little psychopaths who could do no wrong in his mothers or fathers eyes. Anyway my friend took the stash to his mum and she instantly grounded the eldest brother. The sleepover continued without any problems.
A few months pass and I'm invited again to the same house by the same friend for another sleepover. His brothers were also allowed a friend each to stay, the brothers (13 and 16) were left in charge because their parents were staying away for a night. As soon the parents left the torture began. We were blind folded and we were subjected to lashings, force fed vinegar, knives held against our throats and beaten with phone books.
Just when I thought it was over I overheard one of them say "I'm coming up, they're good pills" my 10 year old brain didn't know what they were talking about. What followed was more cruelty then a mock execution. They tied a noose around my neck and stood me on a balcony, I peed my pants and started to cry, then they started laughing. They pulled me down and said "we are going to kill you but not yet".
I was then put in stress positions while they raved and poured beer over me and slapped me about, knives to my throat again.
Then we're both dragged to their parents allotment, their dad had a chopping block and axe there. Then began mock execution 2. My head was the chopping block and I heard them counting down from 3 then chop right next to me then laughter again.
They got bored eventually and left us in a room bound and gagged, I remember getting that airplane sleep feeling for an hour so, only to be awoken by the youngest brother, he untied us and told us "that's what you get for being little grasses, breath a word of this and we will kill you".
That was it over, they never touched me again.
I'm 32 now and I don't feel particularly scarred by what happened but I do think about every day. Newtons_Cradle87
18.
Lived in an abusive household growing up and worst abuse came from my mom. If something goes wrong it was always my fault. Worse thing that ever happened was when she had someone stay over with her 2 kids who never got along with me and one night they blamed me for destroying a paper plane that they made which in truth they were mad that the ones I've made always looked good and they wanted to get me in trouble. They're mom didn't like what was going on and that caused my mom to get mad at me and took me into my room tied me to my bed post and kept hitting me with a belt until i admit that i did what the kids said.
I don't remember when but i passed out and was in the emergency room being treated for my wounds. To this day i still have a scarred lip, no feeling near my left eye, a removed rib, and half of my face is drooped. Things like this got me diagnosed with borderline personality disorder which I've been trying to overcome. Its the memories that will stick with you, haunting you in the darkest part of your mind. odagled86
19.
A guy i used to be friends with owed some dealer (also his cousin) £15000. No one had seen him for weeks, turns out the kidnapped him, tied him up in a old warehouse, they beat him with poles, pulled ALL of his nails off, snapped all his fingers, burnt him everywhere among many many other things.
Yeah he survived, he definitely wasn't the same after that. He was always on edge, never really left the house and gained loads of weight but never told the police what happened. His cousin moved country shortly after and 'found God' then come back a few years later, he volunteers at homeless shelters and runs a anti-violence charity apparently. crazypepsicat