When did your world go quiet?

[PalominoOrGreyOrChestnutOrBay]

inspired by a tiktok trend recently, just thought it might be an interesting thread. I’m a regular poster not a journalist or anything like that (MNHQ can verify!).

When did your world go quiet? Basically, what was a time you got a fright and time seemed to stop or go quiet?

mine was I was on my horse and he decided to rear up, over concrete ground, and I felt him wobble back. As soon as I felt that first tilt backwards everything sort of went quiet and it was like an out of body experience (not a good one!). I couldn’t hear anyone around. I just remember the last thing I thought was along the lines of this is it im about to die and it was like everything was in slow motion. Luckily it was all ok but that split second was easily the scariest moment of my life and my world completely stopped.

So, when did your world go quiet?

When I had a knife pulled on me during a mugging. I'd initially told the little twat to fuck off when he approached me and told me to give him my bag. But when I saw the knife and he came at me everything just stopped and all the strength left my body. Time/noise definitely paused for a few seconds and I thought I was going to die in a bus stop.

Adrenaline and rage then kicked in and I chased after him shouting he'd robbed me. Passerby took him down as he ran round a corner and to cut a long story short he ended up getting 7 years.

Similar to you Op. my horse reared up and I fell into a large ditch. The horse was about to fall on top of me but then managed to regain its balance and I was saved for being squashed by a a very heavy horse.

When I was admitted for a pre-planned c section under general anaesthesia (due to my own health issues) at 39 weeks with DD1 and we were told they couldn’t find the heartbeat?! 6 years later & I still don’t think I’ve understood or accepted how or why I didn’t know that could happen so late on in pregnancy and if we had gone in the day before would the outcome be different as post mortem gave estimated time from DD heart stopping & us arriving at the hospital to have been within 8 hours. 💔❤️‍🩹🥺😩😫🤬

Dunblane after the shootings and Aberdeen after a helicopter went down and after Piper Alpha

When our son was born not breathing. They worked on him and got him back but I couldn’t tell you how long it took I have no idea. DH and I were holding hands completely silent while the obstetrician and two midwives worked on him and called for help. It was only how calm the medical professionals were that kept us calm. I don’t think I would have had the words to communicate at that point anyway. It was probably less than 2 minutes.

When I was a kid and came into the kitchen and saw my dad sitting on a tiny stool with his head in his hands. I quietly went back upstairs with a sense of dread. When I came back down my parents and brother were stood looking at me and told me my dad was leaving.
I did still get to see him regularly though.

I did a bungee jump and all I could hear was my rapid breathing.

When I stupidly and naively let my ex -boyfriend back into my house, believing him when he said he was locked out of his place and he just wanted to "talk'. As soon as he was inside with his bag he calmly tells me there's a gun in it. I froze and time slowed down but my brain had this clarity. A million thoughts ran through, like how did my life end up in this position. What had I got so wrong, how had I let someone suddenly have this power to end my life . Then I just started calmly talking to him. I don't know what I said, but i had this intense focus on calmly talking him out of whatever was In his head.
Eventually he left and I never found out if he had a gun In his bag, but he was someone who could have easily got one.

When I was told my nearly 16 year old son had a huge brain tumour.

When he took his last breath 2 and half years later. The silence was horrendous.

Then when I had to tell his brother.

Then when I stood in front of the congregation at his funeral. The silence in the cathedral was deafening. But it gave me a moment to gather myself and speak.

I can't imagine. I'm so sorry. These stories are entirely heartbreaking and I will hug my 9 yr old tighter today. 💐

Dd aged 6 months choking on the corner of a Mars bars wrapper she’d found on the floor. Back slaps weren’t working so I was running to the back door to my neighbour holding her upside down when she was sick and it dislodged. Same baby also crawled through the spindles in our loft bedroom as I changed the bedding ( no idea a baby would fit through them till that moment) time stood still as I watched helplessly as she rolled down the stairs like a slinky. Thankfully her cry at the bottom and no marks on her meant she was ok but I still feel sick thinking if she crawled through at the other side it was a straight drop and things could have been different. She’s 27 now so I managed to keep her alive. The phone call to tell me my beloved cousin had been set on fire by her partner and the weekend being a blur till the phone call came in the early hours of the Monday morning to say she’d died but going to work as normal in a trance. Working in a shop when I was young and the supervisor had gone to cash up so I was left on the last till. Heard a lot of noise but couldn’t register what was happening then saw the lottery machine been pushed towards me and I as I jumped out of the way a man running behind the counter and grabbing the cigarettes. Everything went in slow motion and I didn’t come back into myself till the police arrived and took control. Also had a couple of times when I’ve had a strong feeling not to do something like after my last flying lesson when we did checks on the plane, all ok then went to start it and it took 3 attempts. Went to taxi down the grass runway and a weather front came from no where so I aborted take off. Still think it was a sign as I was supposed to do my stall and start that lesson. I’ve never flown since (myself) and I’m now terrified of flying and had a panic attack on our outward flight this summer.Due to visit daughter in London alone and kept getting a weird feeling (it was around the time of a spate of terror attacks) and I wrapped all the kids Christmas presents and told hubby what I’d got them etc. A few days before I suddenly announced I couldn’t travel on the tube alone. I was supposed to meet daughter at Oxford Circus. She said she’d come to kings cross instead.Get to kings cross and have been waiting a while when mum rings to ask if I’m ok? Apparently there had been an incident at Oxford Circus (2 men fighting and a crush as panicked people tried to get out) and Olly Murs had tweeted there was a gunman so Oxford street locked down. My daughter was locked down in her place of work but luckily her security guard walked her to kings cross to meet me as she knew I’d be frantic. I’ll always listen to intuition now and realise what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Hugs to all of you that have suffered traumas.

When I was told I needed an emergency c section as DDs heart rate had dropped rapidly. I remember being wheeled to theatre at pace and just thinking that she was going to die and I would come round from the anaesthetic and she would be gone and I’d never see her. I wasn’t panicking but just sort of accepted and assumed that was what was going to happen.

She was quite unwell for the first few weeks but luckily no permanent damage and she is now a lovely 24 year old woman.

I went round to a guys house for a date once when i was younger, immediately something felt off, he told me he was slow answering the door because he fell and hurt his hands in his eagerness to do it, and when i went in there was no furniture just empty beer cans and small brown medicine bottles scattered about.

I felt this panic rise up in me as he shut the door and thought i was going to be sick - everything went quiet and slow motion, immediately made up something about my housemate having locked themselves out and I had to go, ran out the door and down the stairs only to realise I'd forgotten my car keys in my haste!

Had to go back which was awkward, afterwards he text saying sorry if i scared you...

..i still check the papers from that region as I'm convinced ill see him in there one day

Holding my grandson in my arms in PICU when he had a seizure, he was 6 months old. I called out for help, doctors and nurses came running from everywhere, I was still holding him as they worked on him, I thought they would take him off me but they did whatever they did as I held him. It seemed like hours but in reality was only a few minutes.
Once he’d stabilised, a nurse gently took him out of my lap and told me it was ok I could breathe now. I looked across at my daughters white face, she’d gone for a cuppa and walked back into the room to see all of this going on, she was still holding the two cups of tea.
Inasked the nurse afterwards why they’d done that instead of taking him straight away, she said it was better to leave him where he was, as he needed medication quickly, those few minutes were better spent bringing him round than taking him to a treatment room.
He’s absolutely fine now.

Oddly I was only recently thinking about this, from a very long time ago. As a child I was on multiple occasions beaten, flung into walls and kicked and hair pulled and knife at my throat stuff. I always was watching from above. It was the weirdest sensation. Me watching me having the shit beat out of me. I still remember the actual me looking up into the corner of the room that watcher me should be.

It obvious when you look back why I did this, but I tell you I'm still proud that I never ever cried in front of him. No matter what he did to me, he never saw that pain. The watcher me was screaming and crying but the real me never did.
I would not give him the satisfaction. Many times he told me, if you cry, I'll stop. But I just knew somehow that if I cried he would double the punishments and then the next time it would be worse because he wouldnt stop until I cried however long it took.

Should have added, the time stopped every time because I didnt know if this was going to be my last few minutes on earth. Knowing that you might well die this time is a time stopper. My heart slowed down, I felt every beat slowly, and of course I did have an out of body experience.

1. When i was being attacked and sexually assaulted. I left my body and looked down at myself.

2. In labour - same happened

3. In car crashes, especially one with my kids in the car

4. Sat with my mum when she died

5. whenever my headteacher walks into my classroom

6. When my son fell off a climbing frame and I thought he had broken his neck

This is very interesting as id had a similar experience of this years ago and thought i was the only one this had happened too.
Driving on the M1, which i did daily for years, very busy and a rainbow was above me, i remember glancing up at the colours, they were so clear and bright, it felt like i was driving through them, i can still feel it , all the colours were around me like fog, then everything went so slow and quiet no car noise , no road noise, radio was quiet, just so calm and peaceful, seemed like it was for about 10 mins but obviously was only a couple of seconds, then i was still driving on the M1, nothing happened to me but there was an accident about a mile in front.
Believe or not i always thought something/someone higher was with me.

Please tell me this bastard was prosecuted.

At the birth of DS1.. the cord was wrapped multiple times around his neck. I remember the doctor saying 'he needs to come out NOW' and they reached inside dragged him out . He was navy blue and silent and the few minutes it took to ressussitate him lasted forever.

Same child again aged 6.. at Efteling Theme park in the Netherlands.. with a friend and 7 kids between us. We had moved to another play area when I realised he was missing. It took 25 minutes to find him (he'd wandered off) and eventually found him sitting on a bench sobbing. Not one adult had approached to ask if he was ok.

Spinning my car on black ice and just feeling incredibly calm.

But the worst of all was waiting for my DD2 to give birth, realising it had gone on too long, and then hearing he was in PICU sedated, ventilated and incredibly unwell after an awful birth...the cold terror for him and for my DD2 was numbing.
Thankfully he survived and is now a lovely little toddler.

Monastics 💐 I hope you have a good life now and that this person is dead.

I found a lost little boy in the shopping centre. I always keep my eye out to make sure I can see an adult with any children around.

We found his mum in not too long, fortunately.

When we got my 3 year old sons cancer diagnosis. Everything seemed to go in slow motion, my ears started buzzing and I had the weirdest sensation go through my body. I'll never forget it.

When my husband died of cancer.

I'd gone home from the hospital when he was being treated for pneumonia which he'd contracted just after coming home after being told his cancer had returned & was terminal (8 weeks earlier, there was no sign of the cancer in his body during the PET scan). As soon as I walked into the house, I just had the feeling I had to go back to the hospital. I told my mother in law who was staying with us & she told me to follow my gut so I had food returned to the hospital where they had moved my husband after I'd left earlier to a side room.

We tried to have a talk but breathing was so difficult for him, he could hardly talk, so we spent the night watching BBC4. Sometime around 2:30-3am, I tried to get some sleep in the recliner chair the nurses had brought in for me. Best I could manage was dozing as the nurses were coming in every 15-20mins to check his drip.

At 4:15, the nurse came in again & I came around again(my chair was on the same side as the door so they had to pass me each time). The TV channel had shut down for the night & I realised that there was no other sound in the room. I said to the nurse, "He's gone" - she looked at me, then to my husband, and tried to gently shake his shoulders for a response. I just quietly went "Don't do that. He's gone", and she left to get the doctor.

I hate complete silence since then. I can't find any peace in it.

Amazed at the strength of some people after reading this thread 😢