What's the scariest thing you've ever been through?

[AhhhHereItGoes]

Obviously you don't have to share details if you don't want to.

Could be woo, a painful or life threatening situation or x near accident or an existential fear.

I'm going to think what I think mine was. In pain so engaging in distraction

getting tested for the condition that killed my dad, it was a horrendous decision to have to make at 14 years old, i knew it was 50/50 odds and fortunately i didn't have it. But having to go through a bunch of tests when i hadn't trusted many people at all to physically touch me after he died let alone go near a bunch of health professionals took a lot mentally.

A (luckily ineffective) bomb going off on the tube train in front of mine at Parsons Green. We were held on the track, above ground, and knew something was up within minutes because of the sudden, sheer number of emergency services sirens going off followed by the helicopters.

The worst part was the first c.10 mins knowing something was going on, but not knowing what it was or the extent, whilst also being trapped in a can that would be hard to quickly escape. It felt like ages before the driver said that there was "an incident", but by then everybody had been refreshing Twitter and knew.

I kept myself very collected at the time and was on autopilot after, but it finally hit about a week later and I just burst into tears.

Tearing halfway across the country to a strange hospital after a police phone call to say my DM had been involved in a huge car pile up and "it wasn't looking good." Worst journey of my life. We got there to find out she'd actually died some time earlier.

Being SA
Growing up not understanding why I had gaps in my memory and hearing voices. I understand it now I have a diagnosis.

Losing my daughters to adoption. Uttering the words "I think they would be better adopted" was one of the hardest things I have done.

Finally, going into hospital 12 weeks ago vomit and in pain to find that my bowel had died and I had sepsis.

My DD(3) telling me how a family member had abused her.
Watching the police restrain my DM during a suicide attempt.
Being beaten during a robbery.

I hope you're doing much better @caringiscreepy .

@darkriver19886 I'm so sorry. To come of that you must be an incredibly strong and determined woman.

@Ahardmanisgoodtofind your poor daughter (and you and family obviously)

So many here that put any fear I've had into real perspective.

When my DH called me at work to tell me our DS then aged 7 had been hit by a car outside school and they were in an ambulance on their way to hospital. My legs actually went from under me.

He escaped with some bruising to his face and a broken arm thank god.

Having psychosis. I was completely detached from reality and it was terrifying. I could actually smell my own fear.

On the up side though, nothing really frightens me any more.

@ohbutyoulovescarves It’s really confusing isn’t it. You feel relieved that you survived but shitty for feeling that way when plenty didn’t. You feel like what happened to you was huge but not as huge as the people that didn’t come through it. It’s some really complex emotions. On the 10th year anniversary of the one I was caught up in, the Guardian published an article talking about all the 100s of people that walked away that day either with minor physical injuries or emotional trauma and how they will have never got any help and how that’s a terrible thing. I don’t think I ever really believed that I was one of those people until I had it laid down in blank in white.

Being trapped in a car with life changing injuries following a head on collision. I though I was dying in the 2 hours it took to cut me of the wreckage and the long hospital stay & operations whilst being physically immobile was genuinely terrifying . I have subsequently been diagnosed with PTSD.

@BettysLeftTentacle hit the nail on the head. I took dniece and her friend as my sister was feeling unwell that day and I get flashbacks of dniece and her friend screaming and me just rooted there frozen, not knowing what to do. I was off work for months after and when I came back I heard some of my colleagues whispering in the tea room that I was attention seeking because I wasn't even injured. 😔 I hope you were able to seek some help after the event.

Being raped when I was 13yo, miscarrying alone in a dingy little medical room at work (because they wouldn't let me go to hospital until the supervisor was free to accompany me ) and an aggravated burglary at home, men with knives upstairs where my DD was sleeping while they held me downstairs, utterly terrifying.

Each and every one of the 7 miscarriages. The weeks, which were often few, were filled with utter fear and terror.

My 9th pregnancy was one that day by day I expected pain and bleeding at any moment.

Until the moment of his cries, in that room, at that moment, that precise and precious moment is the moment that the weight of that horror lifted and I smiled. Widely, with joy and with relief.

I have had many many many moments of terror and gut wrenching desperate begging in my head for things to be ok in my job.
Desperately sad and frantic attempts to resuscitate a young and previously fit person holds a singular unique fear and terror that can be seen in the eyes of the whole team.

Thanks hereitgoes doing much better than I was but still walking like a 90 year old woman . Getting there! Mad how much brain stuff effects everything! Very thankful to neurologists

What utter dickheads @ohbutyoulovescarves. And don’t get me started on the grief vultures that appear.....’oh my cousin’s, sister’s, husband’s, aunty lives 2 streets away from there and 5 stops on the tube and 15 minutes on the number 16 bus, I’m just so devistated and scared! checked in safe on Facebook from 80 miles away’

That feeling of when fate twists is like no other. I never got any help afterwards. It was the 7/7 bombings and was expected at work the next day and so I went to work as normal on the tube.

for you and your niece and her friend.

@Captaindobbin I was the same with my daughters first febrile convulsion (and only ) I had no idea what it was and honestly thought she had died , was being told by the 999 operator how to perform CPR etc , same as you it still upsets me now even 9 years later and being aware of exactly what febrile convulsions are.

Being attacked by a gang of men and dragged into a car six years ago. Stuff of nightmares.

Oh Betty. I'm sorry. I remember 7/7 so well, I was off work because it was my birthday and felt so guilty for being relieved. I cant imagine what it must have felt like having to step onto the tube the very next day.

Breast and ovarian cancer diagnoses. I was kind of expecting the former, my sister had it and I tested positive for, the BRCA 2 gene change. But the ovarian, I did feel a bit cornered over that, and it was more aggressive.

@homemadegin I was about to type the exact same thing as you. Pregnancy was the single most terrifying thing to ever happen to me. Every single day of it. I honestly can't believe I came through it a normal person, there were times when I thought the worry would make me crack up.

Sorry to hear you had a similar experience, it should be the most exciting time of your life but for some its very scary

20 years of domestic abuse

Being called into a school meeting where I was informed that my 5 year old child was being expelled from the school with immediate notice. I had absolutely no idea this was going to happen.

Turns out DC has undiagnosed severe SEN and the incident that led to them being expelled was the last in a long long series of the school totally failing to meet dc's needs. The way the school mishandled dc's needs has left dc with an almighty school phobia and issues with school refusal. As for me, having to deal with the fallout of my child being expelled from school plus then subsequently finding out they have a lifelong learning disability has left me with PTSD.

And I've since found out that expelling a child because of reasons associated with a disability especially when the school has totally failed to make any reasonable adjustments amounts to an act of disability discrimination.

First was being 16 and working in Manchester Arndale Cente when the IRA bomb went off in June 1996 I'll never forget how loud it was and consequently still hate loud bangs and fireworks today and secondly having post natal depression and anxiety with my second child .

Childbirth, rare complication, icu, coma with life support. The single most scary thing post delivery happening ever. The enormity (according to doctors) of me not surviving is/was huge.

Crashing & tumbling down a forested ravine in a car, in Africa, in a storm.