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Original poster

What was your most terrifying experience?

203 replies

Mixedupworld · 20/11/2020 13:20

For me it was being winched up into helicopter after I fell and injured myself.

Followed closely by me and a friend aged 12 getting cut off by the tide and having to be rescued by RNLI. We didnt have phones so had to scream for help and were eventually heard. It was pitch black.

OP posts:
Strokethefurrywall · 20/11/2020 22:10

Most recently, experiencing a major earthquake (7.7) in January this year.

I remember crawling under my desk with a colleague, holding her hand whilst she said Hail Marys in Spanish, and all I could think was that I would buried under tons of rubble and not be able to get to my babies who were in school half a mile away.

I had flashbacks for days.

Beck30 · 20/11/2020 22:11

A coin toss between two;

1; Whilst on acid 20-30 years ago. Was also probably the funniest experience - until someone suggested we go for a walk outside. Then a tad unnerving.

2: Car crash at 70mph+ last weekend. Somehow ended up aquaplaning through a small partition in the central reservation and down the opposite side of the dual carriageway. I guess any vehicles coming the other way (and it is usually a v busy road) and I would be odds on to be dead. There weren't, and I am still here. Feeling very fortunate

gurglebelly · 20/11/2020 22:28

Being charged by a Bull Elephant during a safari

jessstan1 · 20/11/2020 22:28

Being 'put away' when I was 16.

DipSwimSwoosh · 20/11/2020 22:30

A bus trip down a mountainside from the Andes to the Amazon in the wet season. The track kept washing away, bus on two wheels, crosses all over the mountainside.

sophandbridge · 20/11/2020 22:30

@BitOfANameChange Pretty much all of it is worse than mine.

We all have different things that were terrifying and it's not the kind of thing that can be compared, what is terrifying for one is going to be different from what is terrifying for somebody else.

I might say swimming with sharks is terrifying whilst an idiot another poster might say it's the best thing since sliced bread.

What I'm trying to say is don't compare your own experiences to those of others, it was terrifying to you Flowers

DipSwimSwoosh · 20/11/2020 22:32

I agree with different things being terrifying. I posted about the bus journey. I have also been mugged. And told my daughter might not survive the night at 1 week old.
But in all honesty, labour was my nemesis. I had 2 back-to-back labours and the pain was excruciating. I wanted to die.

sophandbridge · 20/11/2020 22:32

Not the scariest thing that's happened to me but one less so was when I had just left the garage to have the car checked over and they didn't shut the bonnet properly.

That's scary. I had a really weird thing, I stopped at the services and dropped somebody off and then drove straight out. Part of the way down the motorway I noticed that the bonnet was partly open and so pulled off and shut it. I'd only been away from my car for a few minutes when I carried their suitcase to the coach for them. Why somebody had tampered with my bonnet (the only explanation I can think of) is beyond me.

Motnight · 20/11/2020 22:41

Waking up to find a man who was a complete stranger on top of me.

Watching my husband have a stroke.

gurglebelly · 20/11/2020 23:15

Oh and choking on a bit of steak while at home (where I lived alone), it felt like hours that I was slamming myself against furniture trying to dislodge it, my vision was just starting to close in and go black as I succeeded, but I am very well aware that another 30 seconds and I probably wouldn't be here

foreverandalways · 20/11/2020 23:21

F

Delatron · 20/11/2020 23:32

A lorry serving in to me on the M25 and flipping the car upside down with an 18 month old and
6 Month old baby in the car at the time. We ended up on the hard shoulder (somehow). All
windows smashed. Glass all over the kids. But not a scratch on us. Thankfully.

I’m so sad to hear all the else horrific stories of child abuse though.

BitOfANameChange · 20/11/2020 23:48

[quote sophandbridge]**@BitOfANameChange* Pretty much all of it is worse than mine.*

We all have different things that were terrifying and it's not the kind of thing that can be compared, what is terrifying for one is going to be different from what is terrifying for somebody else.

I might say swimming with sharks is terrifying whilst an idiot another poster might say it's the best thing since sliced bread.

What I'm trying to say is don't compare your own experiences to those of others, it was terrifying to you Flowers[/quote]
I guess you're right. I suppose I think mine are not so bad, as I came out ok. Whereas I think many posters have had long term effects, and that's scary.

princessonabudget · 21/11/2020 00:05

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn at the request of the user.

AWaspOnAWindowReturns · 21/11/2020 00:09

Watching 3week old DD turning a dark shade of blue while she repeatedly held her breath for over 10 seconds at a time in hospital, machines beeping like crazy and the nurse holding a seemingly gigantic (small child-sized) oxygen mask over her face (undiagnosed respiratory disorder).

Watching the same DD lifeless and floppy in resus at 10mths old, while several doctors tried to get a line into her tiny collapsed veins (hypoglycaemia). Just as the doctor announced the veins were no good and they'd have to put the line into the bone in her arm, she gave it one last try and it finally went in. Thankfully DD is now healthy and full of attitude, but she gave me some good scares when she was younger.

MIL, dying and off her face on pain relief, cowering in the corner of her bedroom frightened out of her wits (drug-induced hallucinations and unable to explain what she was seeing/hearing). I'll never, ever forget that, it'll haunt me until I die.

SimonJT · 21/11/2020 00:15

Domestic violence when we were children, it was almost better when I was my turn to be the victim as it meant noone else was being hurt. My mother also used to deny or give me to much insulin, I remember her pinning me down to do it knowing that if she gave me too much it could kill me.

I was seriously assaulted when I was 17, I felt that I let it happen. So I thought it was my fault for a long time, for a long time if I thought about it I would almost have to relive it, the smell, his voice and the physical feeling of what happened.

My son had sepsis as a toddler, as he had meningitis as a baby this made him have a higher risk of complications and decreased his chance of survival without lasting damage. He made a full recovery and it hasn’t caused any lasting damage, but everytime he gets an ear infection I do get paranoid it will happen again, so his antibiotics are timed to the minute and I take his temperature during every dose. Sitting in that room alone for an hour will always be the scariest thing I’ve experienced.

Cheeseandlobster · 21/11/2020 00:39

@princessonabudget

An accident on my first day at a new job. My boss was killed by an animal in front of me. Having to live with the guilt of not being able to save him is very tough.
Oh my goodness. That sounds horrific
MooseBeTimeForSummer · 21/11/2020 01:41

@Mixedupworld did you ever see the video of the poor woman whose stretcher started spinning as she was being winched? Oh my word.

DigitalChristmas · 21/11/2020 01:56

@StormyInTheNorth

Being beaten by my mother. I was beated a lot but three stand out. Once at Christmas, we were supposed to be getting a tree when my dad got home. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but my dad walked in to find her holding me down on the sofa and slapping me over and over. I was six. I think that was one of the years she refused to get up on Christmas day.

Another from a similar age. I must have actually been younger because my sibling wasn't born where she shut me in my room for hours. Shewas on the other side of the door and every time I tried to open it she slammed it back. My granny was there pleading and crying for me to be let out. I just kept trying but she didn't stop until my dad came home.

The last was when she knocked me to the floor aged and was kicking my face and head. I remember being curled in a ball hoping she'd stop. I eventually lay still and hoped she'd kill me.

@StormyInTheNorth

Referring to your first paragraph, you were six years old, you did nothing to deserve it. 💐
I’m so sorry you went through so many horrific childhood experiences.

justilou1 · 21/11/2020 02:07

Realizing that I had been drugged and gang-raped at 14 and that I had been firing myself to suppress the memory. Also realizing that I had done so because I knew if I had tried to tell my parents, my mother would have made it all about how it affected her, and I would have been humiliated and punished for it in so many ways at home, so there was no point in seeking help.

Lofari · 21/11/2020 02:17

A couple stand out.

  1. DD born by planned section not breathing and being whisked away (she's fine)
  2. The GP sitting me down and telling me my son's routine blood test had shown something that was very likely to be muscular dystrophy (it later was confirmed)
seayork2020 · 21/11/2020 02:30

Nothing compared to what's on here but having a mri and the 20 seconds or so i thought misplaced ds ( i hadn't i just forgot he was home with dad) so again nothing like on here

Pyewhacket · 21/11/2020 02:44

I was working a night shift in A&E and was trying to stitch this guys arm when he attacked me. He grabbed me by my hair and kept punching me in the face. It all happened so fast. The next thing I knew I was on a treatment trolly being prepped for surgery. Luckily I hadn’t eaten any thing that day. Found out later the patient in the next cubical came to my rescue. He’d been in the army and didn’t hesitate to put this guy down. He was in his seventies too. I cried like a baby when he dropped in to see me with a bunch of flowers. I was off for 12 weeks and lost all my front teeth and had my nose and jaw broken. It was my twenty first birthday the next day. Kids used to scream when I took my teeth out and stick my tongue through the gap. I have a wedding photo of me in my wedding dress , smiling with no front teeth.

Pyewhacket · 21/11/2020 02:49

Top set of teeth. They straighten the rest out.

Shortsinwinter · 21/11/2020 02:58

About 25yrs ago I was on holiday in Greece (Crete) with 4 friends. We decided to hire a car & drive to the next resort. On our way back in the dark we were stopped by a police road block. The police were shouting at us in Greek & then we were taken to the police station and kept over night. We had no clue what we were being accused of. We spent the night in a brightly lit room/cell, eaten by mosquitoes. In the morning we had to pay them i think it was around £100 each. They drove us back to our hire car & just drove off. It was both the most terrifying & bizarre experience of my life. Never been back to Greece since.