49 Times People Thought They Were Being Paranoid, Only To Face A Real Terrifying Event

Having two cops knock on my door in the middle of the night to tell me my husband, the father of my then 7 year old son, had been in an accident. When I asked if he was okay their only response was "He's alive but you might want to hurry".

Then upon arrival to the hospital we got put into a private waiting room and for about five hours the only two people I saw were 1. A chaplain and 2. A nurse that described, in horrific detail, all my husband's injuries (and there was A LOT). Oh, and just sprinkled in that he may be paralyzed and/or brain dead.

So then I had to sit hours without any other answers while he had multiple life saving procedures, all while dealing with our child who was so scared. They're both okay now, but it took months in the ICU and a long couple of years to get there and we're finally on the other side.

I remember when I was 6 I lived in a cul-de-sac, and my siblings and I used to play outside all the time (early 2000s ya know)? This guy in his 50s used to park his white Chevy Astro van in the cul-de-sac and run in our neighborhood. Even at 6, I was extremely extroverted and would talk to anyone, so I chatted with this old guy frequently. It went on for a few weeks until my neighbor (Mr. Doug, may he RIP) called my dad and told him I was talking to strangers. My dad scared the absolute stuff out of me when talking to me about how dangerous this was by grabbing me up and throwing me on the couch and telling me “this is how fast someone can get you into the back of their van.”

Fast forward 20 years, the memory came up for some reason, and my dad said “I swear to this day that was the guy who attacked that young hiker girl on Blood Mountain.” I asked if he remembered his name, and he did, so I pulled up his picture and I swear to god my blood ran cold because I would’ve recognized this guy’s face anywhere. Turns out he kidnapped, ended, and beheaded this girl in her 20s and drove around with her in the back of his van for weeks before getting caught.

I’ve done all sorts of extreme sports and been in crazy situations throughout my life but the scariest thing imo was a full blown anxiety attack… was at home in a safe place but couldn’t get over the helplessness, fear and confusion, was shook for weeks (was triggered by stopping valiums suddenly, I honestly don’t think anyone should be prescribed that stuff, ever).

In February 1996. My neighbor and I got off the school bus by our apartments. It was still snowing hard out since the early morning. We were playing on a snow hill and decided to head back after 30 minutes.

I saw this snow drift that was almost taller than me. I went to walk through it. Next thing I know, I'm sitting down a 24 foot sewer. Some punk took the sewer lid off in fall. Snow and ice was covering the sewer hole.

I broke my ankle and leg. Cracked my skull on the ladder rungs. It was crazy scary.

I was home alone and I heard something in my attic. I don’t believe in the supernatural. I convinced myself it was vermin of whatever sort. Nope, definitely bigger. WAY bigger. I started crying, DEFINITELY a human and they were in my f*****g attic.


Turns out, my landlord had someone come to inspect my roof. The d*****t didn’t let me, a stay at home mother of three, know anyone was coming. And the bigger d*****t, the roof guy, didn’t knock on my door to let me know he was going up there, even though my car was clearly parked in the driveway.

I grew up in Belfast during to early 1970s, at the peak of the “Troubles”. Found the remains of a guy who had been caught in an explosion (basically his torso, head and one arm), was chased by 2 guys wielding hatchets, and witnessed an assassination attempt, all before I’d turned 15. The scariest thing, however, was when the Gasworks in Belfast was blown up in 1976. It ignited a huge gas tank that exploded in a blast that shook the entire city. I was outside playing with friends. We heard the initial blast when the b**b went off then turned around in time to witness the gas tank explode, throwing a huge mushroom cloud shaped fireball into the air quickly followed by the pressure wave. It scared the c**p out of all of us and sent us sprinting indoors!

Slipped and fell into the pool during a swimming class when I was 4. I still remember, very clearly, being underwater and unable to breathe, thinking I was going to die. I clawed and tried to reach towards the wall but couldn't get out. One of my teachers pulled me out and I just remember crying and sitting on a bench. Developed a severe phobia of deep water since then that I have not gotten over.

Made me realize how quickly drowning accidents happen and how quiet they can be.

Lost my daughter on the beach. Looked down for literally a second, I looked up and she was gone. She was probably about 4. I kept thinking this is going to be the day I remember as the worst day of my life as we panic searched for her. Luckily, the life guards were alerted and she was found at the next stand. She had gotten disoriented and just started running along the shore line. I thought for sure she either drowned or was kidnapped. It was terrifying. She’s a teenager now and I still tear up thinking about how scary it was.

I started feeling dizzy at random times, and at first I tried to ignore it, drink more water, etc. It got worse, and one day I woke up and was so dizzy that I was having trouble keeping focus. My ahole boss called me and while he was laying into me about something stupid, I felt something *shift* in my head. After the call, when I went to stand up, everything went very sideways very quickly. I couldn’t walk straight at all, even while holding onto a wall, and I was so dizzy that every time I moved my head, I vomited. My vision was basically sliding around my eyes, and I couldn’t focus or pinpoint anything at all. Called my best friend and told her that something was very wrong and I needed to go the emergency room right now. I got to chill in the waiting room for about an hour puking into a bag and holding exceptionally still. When I got back, they tested me for inner-ear vertigo, and once they realized that wasn’t it, I became very popular.


After a long litany of tests, the consensus that was delivered? I had a virus. In my f*****g brain. I had been running around with microscopic demons chomping on my brain meats. I got discharged with like 5 different medications and told to stay home until the nausea and dizziness had passed. The thing about brain viruses though is that they impact your…well, brain. Instead of doing that, I just…didn’t do that. I went to work. I ran errands. I drove a f*****g car. And then about three weeks later, I started getting better. It was like slowly surfacing from the bottom of a deep, dark well. It was like becoming sentient.


I have no memory of those three weeks. At all. My work was all done up to par, I didn’t get into any accidents that I know of, I didn’t act abnormal other than being “really forgetful” according to folks close to me. For three weeks, I got used as a meat suit by a brain virus, and I had and still have no idea what was happening.


So yeah. Brain virus. Scariest f*****g thing that’s ever happened to me, both before and after.

My husband d**d. I was left alone to raise our three sons while dealing with grief so profound I could barely function.

I had never been more scared in my whole life.

Fell in love with con artist. I was missing and endangered for 10 days.

Back in my 20s, I was sitting in my friend’s car, going down a dark stretch of road in upstate New York. He thought it would be funny to turn the headlights out and fly down the road at 90mph.

I was screaming at the top of my lungs, and he was laughing his a*s off. He did this for a good 40 seconds, which is eternity in a situation like that. Words can’t explain how terrified I was. I literally thought I was about to die. My life didn’t flash before my eyes, but in that 40 seconds, I was thinking “this is it! This is how I die! Will it hurt? Will I go to hell?”

I still get the chills thinking about it. By far the most scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.

Flicker vertigo, where your brain receives images at a different frequency than it's used to processing them, such as with a strobe light. It can cause your brain to briefly forget how your motor functions work. It's been over 20 years since I experienced it, but I still remember the mental image of being trapped in my own skull, screaming for help and unable to move.

My wife was giving birth to our daughter. It was a high risk pregnancy and we had complications the whole time. Her water broke 6 weeks early and so we went to the hospital. There was a point in the delivery where my daughter’s heart rate dropped. Alarms were going off, several doctors rushed into the room and all I could do is watch. I was frozen and had this feeling of dread. I don’t know what they did, but her HR stabilized and I have a healthy beautiful little girl.

My friend and I ditched school and headed to Hollywood for the day. Some guy asked if we wanted to take a personality test, so we agreed. Test was done and I was told I have a roller-coaster personality, not sure what they told my friend about her personality.
They start telling us about a book we should purchase. We said we didn't have money. These guys would not take no for an answer. They asked us repeatedly for our parents numbers so we can call them up and buy these books. They said that our parents don't love us if we don't get the books. Got to the point in which we said we would go to the ATM, they wanted to walk with us. We said the parking meter needed more money, again they wanted to walk with us.
We somehow convinced them that we could go to the ATM alone. As soon as they opened the door, we ran right out of there. We turned around and they were following us past a few stores, then they stopped.
Turns out it was a Scientology center.

I fell down the stairs and bit through my tongue on Halloween. My mom had to carry me through a blizzard to get me to the ER. The anesthetics they used on me caused an allergic reaction that sent me into cardiac arrest.

Abducted by my stalker at the park. Driven to a second location, motel. R***d repeatedly and verbally a****d and isolated, robbed, and made to drink (I'm sober). Driven to several other locations and back to the motel until my money was gone and we stayed in his car. He stole my medications so I couldn't sleep and was feral with fear and trauma. Thank god he got too comfortable in public and was pulled over by the cops and arrested for something unrelated. I was speechless; they didn't know my story. They said I could go. I've been through a lot but this sticks out.

Been swimming in the ocean my whole life. One day went snorkeling in about 10-15ft deep water, it suddenly started sloshing me around and I was struggling to stay above it. Then I started getting exhausted like I never felt before. Managed to get to a rock where I was able to stand myself up with the tip of my toes to hold my head above water, and I waited for it to calm down. It was scary and I thought I was going to drown.

Twice I had scary events : coming back to my folk's place from work as I was getting out of the bus at night (it's a road alongside a river, pretty dark) when I spotted a man hidden behind the bus stop cabin in the trees, got back inside and asked the driver to let me get out at the next stop. I ran for my life when I saw he was coming towards me. There had been a recent event of a woman victim of a throat slash 5 minutes away so I was sure that I was the next victim.

The other time, got off the last subway, walked home (5 min away) but midway I got spooked by a dude almost naked in the middle of the street laughing and talking to himself. I took out my keys between my fingers/knuckles just in case, continued to walk home, the guy went his way without bothering me but I had pre dialed 911 on my phone in case. Just as I got on the corner of my street, a car with 4 guys inside slowed down and they yelled at me to come and talk to them, I ran towards my building, they bolted to the red light, made a u turn and followed me. I called 911 and as I got inside the building the 4 dudes were parked in front. The police got there very fast, of course the guys were gone.

At 27 I had an emergency 2nd open heart surgery due to contracting endocarditis on my replacement tissue valve that almost k****d me. I found out I also had a heart attack on the operating table that left me with complete heart block.

Three years on, I'm approaching my 30th birthday in a couple months thanks to my new pacemaker that keeps my heart beating.

Live every day to the fullest, you never know what tomorrow will bring.