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Travel Enthusiasts Share The Worst Case Scenarios They've Found Themselves In During Vacation

Travel Enthusiasts Share The Worst Case Scenarios They've Found Themselves In During Vacation

Travel Enthusiasts Share The Worst Case Scenarios They've Found Themselves In During Vacation

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Travel can lead to memories and adventures unattainable in your home town. Architecture and memorials to civilizations long gone, and interactions with a populace from a completely different upbringing. It's a treat for anyone, except for those people that fear something bad will happen 14,000 miles away from home, far from their couch and Commercial-Free Hulu subscription. Getting lost or forgetting your hotel room key or having a literal nightmare scenario in the airplane bathroom is very possible, as evidenced by these Reddit answers to user, r/fizio900, when they asked:

Travelers of Reddit, what's the worst scenario you found yourself in?

With Help Like this...

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Was in Cambodia, group of men trying to mug me. Spot a police officer very close by. I look at him for help, he proceeds to also demand for my money.

At the time it was a bit of a prickly situation but today it makes me laugh just thinking about how I felt when I finally understood the cop was also trying to rob me.

nomadicfrog

Making A Bad Situation Terrible

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Wife and I dined out at a remote town in Italy. Wife decided to take a short cut out of parking lot and ended up in a ditch. The only chef and waiter came out to help. Chef ended up twisting ankle badly. Waiter brought his car and tied a rope to mine to pull it out. His bumper ripped off. All the while we were communicating through gestures because I didn't speak Italian and they English.

portajohnjackoff

I Guess Say Thanks?

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My husband and I were on a road trip through Romania when part of the car started to come off. I don't know what it's called, but it was like a plastic piece that went from one side of the car to the other right in front of the wheels, sort of like a guard. One side of it had come loose, so it was just dragging on the ground. The broken part was really frayed, as if it had been working its way loose for some time before we ever got the car. We were in the middle of nowhere at the time and the only way we could see to solve the problem was to cut off the guard on the other side, but we didn't have a knife. It was fairly awkward to drive with this piece dragging on the ground and so we didn't want to risk trying to find a proper mechanic (and also, it was Sunday...)

This guy drove up to us as we were parked by the road, and he was like... well, imagine an American guy named Bubba from Alabama who drives a pickup truck with a Confederate flag and only listens to country music. This was clearly the Romanian version of that guy. We indicated the issue and mimed cutting it off with a knife, and this redneck went to his truck, pulled out a large knife, and sliced the piece off for us. We thanked him, and he tossed the piece on the back of his truck and drove away.

LogicalBike

Ew, Ew, Ew

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When I was about 10 I was at a run down French train station in the middle of nowhere, and I had to take a sh-t like nobody's business. So I go to the restroom and find out that there's no toilets, just holes in the ground. Apparently, the process for sh-tting in a hole in the ground is you pee first, and then poop.

But being the champion that I am I decided to go for both at the same time. Ended up peeing directly into my pulled down pants and then had to sit inTHEM for a 3 hour train ride back home.

auburnite240

Clowns To The Left, Smokers To The Right

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Having the middle seat on a flight from Los Angeles to Auckland.

squid1891

Quite A Pickle

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We were crossing the border from Malaysia to Thailand over a bridge. As we were making our way across no man's land, this local looking guy ran out of nowhere in his underpants chased by 2 guys. He got to the Malaysian side and a soldier put his hand up to say he couldn't go through. He did a U turn, dodged the 2 guys chasing him and ran to the Thai side. Again, a soldier put up his hand to stop him. He did another U turn, dodged the guys, tried to jump on a scooter, but as he was taking off, they pulled him off the scooter. He got away from them again, but was stuck on the bridge with no way out.

We got to the Thai side, checked into Thailand and to this day, still wonder how the hell he ended up almost naked, in no man's land, with 2 pissed off guys after him.

KuriTokyo

When Coming To Jersey Is Traveling Abroad

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We once traveled to visit friends in Camden, New Jersey, who had their first apartment in the downtown area.

When it was time to drive home, we found that the wheels had been removed from our car and the vehicle was sitting on blocks. (Thankfully, they left the interior alone.)

Back2Bach

When You're A Spy But You Didn't Know

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I was in Berlin when it was a divided city. To go from West Berlin to East Berlin I, as a US citizen, went through Checkpoint Charlie. Some friends and I were meeting in East Berlin for dinner one night. We were traveling separately. The thing to realize is that once you were on East Berlin soil, you were on your own. If there were any problems, I was told to seek help from the Russian occupiers. (The Cold War was still real, so this was just surreal) We were to have limited to no contact with the East German military or police. So, I get through Checkpoint Charlie and walk into East German soil. I stopped at their checkpoint - it was like a little horse stall were you stood and had the Easy German military look at your passport. I handed it over. He looked at it, said something in German. I said I didn't speak German. He began accusing me of being a spy. I was escorted out of the "stall" and into a very plain holding room with a bench running the length of the room. That's all that was there. I remained standing. It was January and really cold. I wondered what my friends would do when I didn't show up as planned.

About 30 minutes later, two soldiers came into the room, handed me my passport, and let me go.

I drank a lot that night.

Terpsichorus

Lesson? Don't Take Pictures Of Russian Tanks

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Your story reminded me of when two of my friends were arrested by the Russian military as teenagers. Their story is less terrifying than yours, though.

They were American high schoolers on a trip abroad for school, and they were out during their free time walking around. They saw some tanks sitting behind a fence in front of a building, so they stopped to take pictures. From what they said, out of nowhere they heard shouting and were confronted by two very angry Russian soldiers. They were brought to an interrogation room and held there while the soldiers took their passports and went to find someone who spoke English. They finally found someone, and he came in and tried to interview them, but by that time they were both sobbing, terrified messes who could barely answer any questions. They were convinced they were going to be put in prison. The interviewer realized he was dealing with hysterical, stupid kids and not spies, gave them back their passports, told them to enjoy the rest of the day, and let them go. Let them keep the pictures too.

Nadaplanet

Luck Is Thy Middle Name

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Got stuck in Sydney. Gigantic cluster of a day.

Took the rail to the airport 3 hours early to go back to US. Went to check in and realized my passport was back in the hotel. In attempt to still make flight, took a luxury cab back to hotel. Got it, and sped back. Expensive. Got back to airport, ran in, but still missed flight. Went to reschedule/reorder tickets for next available, realized my wallet was missing. Now no cash. Ran back to cab, but was already gone. Tried to call company but my world phone was running out of minutes and charge---with no credit cards or cash to recharge. Was my birthday.

Ultimately was able to reach my wife who arranged a stay at nearby hostel and rescheduled flight the next day.

Cabby ended up showing back up at the airport much later that day, and I asked if I could search cab. I ended up finding wallet in between the seat cushions. Crazy. Day.

Kenitzka

Maybe It's Not Always So Bad

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My brother spent the summer one year living with a friend in a family friend's summer home in this tiny Mexican surfing town. Another family friend lived close by and had taken them out to lunch that day at a tiny non-descript restaurant, about 30 minutes by car, in a much poorer / non-expat town nearby.

My brother forgot his camera at the restaurant. He likes photography quite a bit, so I don't know anything about cameras but I do know he spent upwards of a grand on it. Tried calling our family friend but couldn't get a response and the sun was going to set relatively soon, so he got on a bus, which was actually just more of a hop on hop off system of VW-esque buses, where bus stops were only based on landmarks (Stop at the bridge. Stop at the purple house, etc). He rode this system of buses for about an hour and a half to get to the town based on what looks familiar. Wandered around for a while and tried to find anything that looked familiar to get to this restaurant.

By this point the sun has gone down completely, and he's this gringo kid walking around some Mexican town he doesn't know, and only speaks the broken basic Spanish of someone who grew up in Texas / Florida / California / Arizona / New Mexico knows just by osmosis.

So walking around in near darkness, phone's dead, he started getting pretty nervous when this guy starts yelling down the street at him. He can't understand what he's saying so he just stands there until he realises this guy screaming at him is also running at him. So he books it. Starts sprinting away -- no idea where he's going, while this guy is chasing and yelling at him in Spanish until he finally hears the guy yell camara.

So he stopped, the guy caught up, and after some poor Spanglish and a lot of pantomime, he figures out that this guy's family owns the restaurant they ate at where he left his camera. So this guy walks my brother back to the restaurant (he had actually gotten pretty close by dumb luck and 'things that looked familiar'). The guy's mum opened up the kitchen again to make him more food than he could eat. Refused when he offered to give them money for the camera, or even for the food they gave him. Made their son accompany my brother on the bus back to the town my brother was staying in. And the mum packed extra food to give him to take home as he left.

ridersderohan

Better Lesson: Don't Mess Around In Russia

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My -sshole co-worker thought it would be a great idea to be an ahole to the police while on a business trip in Russia. The cops arresting him and asked him for his passport. He proudly whips out his US passport and tells the cops off they be not dare touch an "American". The cop takes his passport, his phone, and wallet and proceeds to throw it down a sewer and arrest him as an undocumented foreigner.

He ended up sitting in a Russia jail for 8 months before [the] US Embassy was allowed to see. He spent three years in prison in Russia before he was released. When he came back he looked like he was 30 years older, lost most his teeth, and went from a muscle bound 220 pound to somebody who weighed 160 pounds.

Quitstamp

Overseas Healthcare Is Great

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While traveling in Greece, my son had an accident - a large boulder crushed his foot. Lots of blood, lots of broken bones. I held pressure against the wound on the way to the hospital in aN ambulance. It would not stop bleeding even with pressure. Finally get to the hospital, they wheel him to the most sub standard emergency room you can imagine. It was closer to a Russian prison cell than a place for medical care. Dirty, dark, multiple people laying on stretchers. They put my son between two people, one of whom looks like an enforcer for the Russian mob - BIG guy, like muscle big, not fat big, about 6 foot 6 inches. Tattoos, unhappy disposition, with cuts on his shaved head. While the doctor starts inspecting my sons foot (no pain medication, jamming his fingers in the wound and adjusting bones), Mr. Mob Enforcer starts to argue with the doctor who is working on my son. Presumably they were refusing him service and asking him to leave. In a matter of about 30 seconds the argument escalated to the point where Mr. Mob is standing over the doctor, screaming at the top of his lungs, fingers in the doctors face, being very threatening. The doctor still has my sons foot in his hands, trying to provide care. It is at that moment it becomes clear I may need to wrap my arms around Mr. Mobs neck so that the doctor can continue to provide care to my son. I am just waiting for some physical contact before intervening in a situation guaranteed to not end in my favor. At the last second, a very small diminutive security guard arrives and gets involved.

Very thankfully, the guy turns around and storms out, and the Dr. goes back to working on my son.

Everything about that situation makes me sick to my stomach when I think back on it. The fear of your child being hurt, the fear of uncertain outcome, the fear of being in a situation where your child wellbeing is out of your control, the fear of putting yourself in they way of certain physical harm to protect your child. NOT F.U.N all around.

Silver lining. 3 day hospital bill, $200 USD.

zerbert111

Dodging A Literal Bullet

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My family and I were took a 16 day trip across Europe a few years ago. We were supposed to get on the 11am train to Paris from Munich that morning, but we all had gotten up early and decided to take the 9am train instead. Found out later there was an incident with an armed gunman on the train we were initially planning on taking.

RollingOwl

Making The Large March Home

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When I was 18 I went travelling around Europe by myself, one of the things I wanted to do was visit the beaches at Normandy and because I love band of brothers I decided to stay in Carentan. While I was there I got a train/bus to the American military cemetery and spent a few hours there and at Omaha beach and then went back to catch my bus, I somehow however managed to miss the last bus by about 10 minutes and with it being a Sunday everything was closed early. So I was stuck in Normandy 20ish miles from my B and B, my phone battery was nearly dead and so I had to make a decision between trying to find an English speaking taxi firm or to use it for maps.

My stupid 18 year old self decided it'd be better to walk it, 6 hours and a few sketchy looking French villages later I got back to my room and stuck my mouth under the tap in my bathroom, because to top it all off I had no food or water with me at the time.

Pentonvile

Fulfilling Your Promises

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Was leaving the Forbidden City in Beijing with my Chinese buddy. Right outside there's a ton of touts trying to sell us jade dragons. We ignore them and try making our way to the street. My buddy bumps into this tout and the tout says something to him. All of a sudden my buddy starts flipping out, yelling and screaming, shaking his fists at the tout. They start pushing eachother and a crowd forms to watch.

All of a sudden I see like ten rough looking Chinese guys materialize. They're balling up, I see brass knuckles on one of them. I don't mind a good fight, but I don't want to see what the medical care inside a Chinese jail is like either. I grab my buddy by the shoulder and start pulling him away from the tout. He's still screaming.

We eventually get to the street and he gets out his phone to call a cab. My buddy says that the tout called him "the white man's dog" or something to that effect. I ask him how long the taxi will be and he says "No, I'm just calling my friends. We're gonna come back and f-ck those guys up later"

Lightning Shoppers

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I had my wallet/ID stolen in Ireland while roughly 5 hours away from where all my other stuff was. By the time I was able to get back to my hotel and cancel my cards, the thief had already spent 1200 dollars.

PleaseFightMeIRL

Wow...

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I was in Guangzhou, China at a trade fair and at the end of the day I was SO tired plus I was jetlagged and just wanted to go to my hotel room and sleep.

There was a line for the Taxis (think of Disney attraction lines, like velvet ropes that zigzag through a hall) and there were like 200 people in line. I was like fuuck I don't wanna stand in line for an hour so I walked towarda the metro station (it was like a 45 min metro ride to my hotel) and then some guy walks beside me, looks both ways and says to me "private taxi?" And I was like "yes please" guy told me "wait here" took my briefcase and left and came back in a brand new honda Accord, I hop in the back and off we go..

Like three blocks from there we stopped at a red light and suddenly some guy opens the passenger door, jumps in, and takes the key off the ignition, another guy opens the driver's door grabs this dude by the shirt collar drags him out of the car a throws him on the ground, and the first guy (the guy with the key) goes around and turns on the car locks the doors and drives away with me in the back..

I was 1000% sure I was being kidnapped. In China of all places. I was like f-ck f-ck f-ck f-ck now what? My heart was at like 250 bpm. We drove in silence for like 5 mins and it felt like an hour. Then we turns at a dead end street, pulls over, turns around, looks at me, reaches for his pocket.. and whips out a badge.

He was an undercover policeman. And there was a sting to catch illegal taxis. Which ironically often kidnapped tourists. Dude takes out a video camera a makes me tell him how everything went down, hoW much I paid him etc. So in some courtroom in China there was a video of me testifying against some dude that probably went to jail thanks to me.

The policeman then went to the street waved at a taxi with his badge out and put me in the cab and told me never to take anything other than the cars that were painted like this. (This was before uber was around).

It was scary but thankfully nothing bad happened.

jorsiem

This Is My Nightmare

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I was an hour into a 9 hour international flight. I started feeling ill and went to the lavatory. I sat in the toilet with the lid down and leaned against the sink splashing some water in my face. Next thing I knew, everything faded out.

A woke up crumpled on the floor and completely disoriented. It took me a moment to get uncontorted and to get up. I was dizzy and shivering. I looked down and I had vomited all over myself. In addition, I peed and soiled myself.

Good times.

Edit: Ironically, I'm about to get on an airplane but when I land and get settled I'll describe the aftermath.

Edit: The Aftermath - once I got clarity, I really had little choice. There were no clothes in my carryon, a big mistake and one I would never make again traveling international. I had been in India, and on the last day felt a little off. After a long delay, long flight and long layover in London I was tired and my stomach was gurgling. I wasn't sick, but I didn't feel right...

...After waking up, I washed and cleaned as best I could everything. It took a while, and thankfully it came out as well as I could hope. Especially since the hardest stains were on the inside of my pants (sigh). I emerged from the lavatory soaked from head to toe, probably with a thousand yard stare. I went to my seat which was on a right side aisle, grabbed a blanket and wrapped up in it as I started shivering. Instantly the person next to me hit the attendant button and requested that he and his wife be seated elsewhere since I was obviously ill. She relocated them, and the entire row was empty except for an Asian woman on the other end. She stared over several times and had a medical mask on. Poor lady. I fell asleep not long after and woke up feeling better on the inside but a wet, crusty, nasty mess otherwise. In Chicago, I switched to a flight to St. Louis which is my home airport and arrived home incredibly tired. I took a shower, slept two hours, then took my kids to Six Flags for the Halloween thing. It was the last weekend the park was open, and having been divorced in the last year, I had promised them no matter what I would take them. THAT, was the longest night of my life. But I was just tired from there, not sick.

Raintitan

H/T: Reddit

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.