Life is a precious gift that should be cherished. While most of us understand this sentiment, it's hard to look on the bright side when things don't seem to be going our way. As great as life can be, it can also be riddled with lows and disappointments. As human beings, we often go through our daily lives in a habitual manner, so not every day brings something profound, exciting, or life-altering.
But occasionally, we find ourselves facing a situation that is utterly terrifying, and its moments like those that make us stop and reflect on where we are and what in life does, or doesn't, matter to us. When you find yourself in an unfortunate situation, it can be somewhat of a wake-up call, making you more aware and emotionally heightened than you otherwise would be. Just take it from these restless people who recently shared the terrifying thing that is currently happening to them.
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#1 Scared To Start Over
My job is evaporating, so I'm being moved offshore to India. At 56, I don't relish the thought of starting over.
#2 Forgetting And Fighting
My mom is getting older and not remembering things as well as she used to. The worst part is, she's being completely antagonistic over any attempts for me or my relatives to help.
#3 Fearful Of Food
My gall bladder. About two months ago, I started having the worst pain of my life out of absolutely nowhere, sometimes for hours at a time. The doctor said, "Just change your diet," but even after doing that, I still had attacks sometimes. I treated myself to a single ice cream sandwich and felt like I had been jabbed in the stomach. I threw up for 20 minutes before I felt fine again.
I finally have a consultation with a surgeon to talk about getting my gall bladder removed, but any time I eat anything even vaguely fatty, I get super stressed out and I've developed mild food anxiety. I get stressed out eating literally anything because it might set off another attack and I literally don't feel mentally strong enough for it. I get an attack once every two to three weeks now.
#4 Post-Break Up Problems
My partner of three years and I officially separated yesterday. All my plans, dreams and long term goals involved her in some way or another, so now I feel incredibly lost. I'm terrified of a future without her, but I know I need to get through this.
#5 In The Blink Of An Eye
I'm turning 30 soon. Time feels like it has sped up since high school. I blink and the years seem to fly by. It makes me contemplate life and what I should spend my time on. I'm basically squeezing the most out of things while I still have my youth. I feel like I'm going to blink again and already be turning 50.
#6 Scary Shadows
I’ve been hearing and seeing things that aren’t there. I’ve been chalking it up to stress but I’m starting to think I may be going crazy. It’s pretty scary. I have started seeing a mental health professional as of last Wednesday. It’s been a week and I’ve started on some meds, as well as tests for my thyroid. I've also been seeing a neurologist for a few years now for an unrelated condition (though now I’m thinking it could be related) and they have me on meds for that too.
I have a feeling my condition has something to do with carbon monoxide poisoning. I’m heading out in a few to buy new detectors because I just moved and I’ve just been using the ones that were here already. I started experiencing my symptoms little while after moving in here, so maybe that’s it. I’ve also recently learned the term “shadow people” and while I don’t really buy into the paranormal-ness of it, the experiences have been spot on with what is described. It’s not always people, but there are always shadows.
#7 Worried About Work
I got laid off a few months ago. My severance ends soon and I keep getting rejected on new prospects. I'm trying to get into new roles since my experience is a bit niche and I've already exhausted those options. I feel like a failure and I don't know what I'll do if I can't find something soon.
#8 Drowning In Doubt
Every time I tell myself I'm not going to drink tonight, I end up drinking more than I normally would. I can't get a grip on my mental health, and I'm absolutely petrified to do anything about it due to my career and the potential loss of benefits.
#9 Scared About Sanctuary
I’m currently conspiring to move a friend I’ve never met but have spent thousands of hours with online across the country and into our home to get him out of a horribly abusive household. It's mostly mental abuse, but sometimes physical. We’ve planned this for over two years and I had to jump on it because his parents are about to start a guardianship case to strip away his rights as an adult.
He is 20 years old and a very talented person. He lives in a small town and his father is the local pastor, so everyone knows who he is. They've all been instructed for years to report everything he does back to his parents. For example, he was locked in his room for two weeks because someone saw him sending something out at the post office. He flies out tomorrow morning, and if they catch him, it’s over because they will lie to the courts to remove his rights as an adult. I’m a pile of nerves right now. We’ve waited over two years because we both wanted him to finish high school. I also didn’t have space until now as I’ve just purchased my first home.
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#10 Brain Surgery Following Break Up
I will have an experimental brain surgery soon. I led an active life (traveling, dating, fitness) before I got mysteriously ill last year. My health is getting worse despite all the medications and at-home infusions I do. My doctor is like the one from the TV show House. He has great outcomes and is a leader in complex diseases. I am still very financially and physically independent, despite some physical limitations.
My boyfriend and I just had a breakup last weekend. We fought about whether he could be there for the surgery. It’s 10 days in NY and he works in Mountain View for a tech company. He said I needed to understand that he derives a lot of self-worth and validation from his career and that I’m basically asking him to quit his job if he has to show up to the surgery. He used to say that my illness brought us closer together and that’s why he fell in love with me.
After almost three years together, he stopped showing up when he said he would, so I had to end it. I relied a lot on him for emotional support. I stopped talking to my family a few years ago due to a lifetime of abuse and trauma. I have friends and asked them for support, but I get scared of becoming a burden for anyone. Asking for help is scarier than the surgery itself.
#11 Mom's Misery
My mom was a kind of addicted to adult beverages. She was so bad that she had a drink on her bed stand for years and couldn’t get out of bed until she had it. Well, I grew older and she stayed sober to my knowledge. She then took it upon herself to share her experience with others who were struggling with the same issues she once did. She helped so many people for years that it’s impossible to go into public with her without people coming up and hugging her.
Yet, she's still really depressed. She cries multiple times a day and it’s impossible to speak to her about anything without her going hysterical. She’s lost all her friends. She lost her longtime boyfriend and is unable to communicate to anyone else on a personal level. She has become completely handicapped in every regard that used to make her so beautiful. She’s functioning in society, yes, but she’s miserable.
I haven’t had a conversation with her in nearly two years without her bawling. She’s lost everyone besides me due to unrelated circumstances, and it’s horrifying seeing her spiral. I’m 22 and she has always been my #1. I miss the old her so, so much, but I can’t do anything about it. I’m an atheist but I beg God to save her every day. She told me a couple of months ago that she wants to stop existing. What the heck am I supposed to do about that? I live a couple of states away but I still only ever worry about her.
#12 Disaster And Disease
I work with data related to healthcare. The conferences on infectious disease and global warming scare the heck out of me. With changing temperatures and humidity, sickness can and will spread like wildfires. Many of the worst are water-vector diseases. This means even though there is decreased potable water around the world, the stagnant wastewaters and sewers will nonetheless allow malaria, cholera, and diarrheal diseases to increase. Oh, and add to this the decrease in farmable land, which will spike malnutrition.
#13 Tooth Trauma
Last year, I got a really bad infection from my two broken molars. I went to the dentist for the first time in like, 18 years (I know, it's bad) and he said that I would need to extract both of them and get a bone graft, so I could get an implant in the place of one. I've been putting it off because I don't have dental insurance and I haven't been able to afford to do everything. But one of the teeth has been acting up a bit recently and I'm scared of another infection. I'm also scared of just how much all problems with my other teeth are going to cost me as well in the future. If you're young and reading this, please DON'T neglect your dental health or you'll wind up regretting it like me.
#14 Caught Cheating
I caught my wife cheating on me a couple of months ago. While I would normally leave in a situation like this, she had something traumatic happen with her family a couple of months prior. She swore it was nothing and that we would work on us. I feel like things have only gotten worse. My mental health has deteriorated. Pretty sure she’s still seeing someone but I’m too scared to confront it. I’m a child of divorce and swore that I wouldn’t do the same to my kid. Everything seems to be going to heck.
#15 Fearing For Friends
I just turned 25. I'm now realizing how hard it will be to make REAL friends the older I get. I'm down to about three, one being my boyfriend, and I'm terrified of the idea that I will never make a new friend again or that I will drift away from the ones I currently have.
#16 Petrified About Pet
I'm worried about my cat. He was never an only cat in the household until a few years ago and since then, he's been very clingy to me. Next week, I am leaving for my best friend's wedding for two weeks. I have never been gone more than like... a day or two with him before. He's older now, but I have this teeny fear in the back of my head that he's going to think I abandoned him while I'm gone. I have a roommate AND another friend who is going to check in on him every few days, but that awful thought keeps nagging at me and I hate it. I know it's probably my anxiety, but ugh. It's a terrible thought.
#17 Afraid Of Appendectomy
I'm in the hospital after having an appendectomy. Apparently, my appendix ruptured before they could get to it. My belly is full of fluid, I've been on IV antibiotics for three days, and my gut is still distended. I'm afraid they'll have to poke another hole in me and place a drain. I've been poked with needles more times than I can count in the past few days. I just feel horrible. I want to get well because this stuff is scaring me.
#18 Buried In Bills
The crippling debt that we and so many other people in their 20s and 30s are in. It’s terrifying to know that the simplest things in life can contribute so much to your debt, especially things like medical and dental bills. How are we ever supposed to feel comfortable and live happily with all of this looming over our heads?
#19 Doors And Digging
Right now, as I'm writing this, I'm hearing this sound of a shovel digging up dirt, but it's mixed with a different sound that I don't know how to explain. If I move my head towards it, the sound moves to the other side of my head. Earlier today, my door which is right next to my desk cracked open, and my cat would normally walk up to it, stand on her back two paws and push it open. Well, she can't come into my room unless I'm watching her constantly or she'll chew up the airline tubing for my aquariums.
Anyway, all of a sudden it just burst open and I just pushed it shut with my foot. Literally two seconds later, I got up to get a snack. My cat would normally sit and wait for my door to open again, but she wasn't there, nor was she in the cat tree that I made for her in the room over. Instead, she was in her hammock sleeping, for at least the past half hour. Stranger things are happening at my house.
#20 Pending Parenthood
I guess I’m scared that I’ll run out of time and never have children. We can’t have biological children but we’ve thought of adoption. I’m 44 and my husband is 42. We’re building a home right now but after that, we’re thinking of adopting. I don’t want to miss out on that, but sometimes I think we’re too old.
#21 Starving For A Solution
I finally got help for an eating disorder this week after struggling with it all my life. After getting tests done, I've been told, "If you make drastic changes now, you'll likely be fine, but if you don't make changes you'll eventually suffer organ failure and pass away at a young age." So, currently, I'm worried that my heart or kidney is going to give out. I should have gone to the doctor years ago.
When I finally started realizing that my relationship with food wasn't normal, I was dating a woman. I would bring up my genuine concern for my well-being, and she would not only dismiss my issues entirely but would criticize me for being disrespectful to people that have actual eating disorders. I never knew anything about eating disorders, so after she said this enough times, I internalized it. I thought I was just an idiot who couldn't figure out cooking and not someone with a real disorder. So, please don't tell someone they don't have an eating disorder just because they're a dude.
#22 Wrong Romance
I developed feelings for the wrong person, and now I'm trying to resolve that conflict within myself before I do something truly regretful.
#23 Mending The Marriage
Failing at healing my marriage. We have two kids (a toddler and baby) and nothing frightens me more than not getting to see them every morning and night. We are on our last leg and it doesn’t seem to be going well. I've been crying often.
#24 Time Flies
Time keeps moving faster. When I was a kid, every adult would chuckle about time flying, but I couldn't imagine it. I remember thinking "Oh goodness, when is this school day going to end?" Now, weeks can just freely pass by. Sunday night is no longer a time of dread for the upcoming Monday because I know Friday night is just a blink away. This scares me because it feels like the deadline for all of these "critical life events" just snuck up on me. Shoot, am I supposed to be married now? When do I buy a house? When will I feel like I am on the proper career path? The existential crisis is real.
#25 Post-School Blues
I'm graduating from university next year. My whole life has been about school. I don't know where I'll be, what job I'll be working, or where I will be living. A lot of changes to come within the next year, and it really does scare me.
#26 Working Off The Weight
I'm approaching 30 years old and I'm getting rather chubby. I'm finding it much harder to keep the weight off and healthy lifestyle up. I've never been a "workout" person but I want to be around as long as possible for my daughter, so maybe I should start...
#27 Conspiracy Theory Consumption
The most terrifying thing to me right now is how people are falling into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, believing that the Earth is flat, vaccinations are harmful, etc. It's like an observable regression in society. I'm not sure if it's been proven that this is the case, but it seems like conspiracy theories are gaining traction and not shrinking because of ridiculous propaganda spread through the internet, specifically Facebook. Theoretically, the availability of information on the internet should help people avoid this, but I guess it doesn't.
#28 Problematic Population Growth
How frighteningly fast the world’s population is growing. We’re at almost 7.6 billion people on this planet. Half of this count existed in 1972; we’ve doubled in almost 50 years. And you don’t even need to know math to be fearful. Just look at how much worse it’s making climate change around the world.
#29 Overwhelming OCD
A couple of years ago, I had what you could safely describe as a complete breakdown. I just stopped functioning, seemingly overnight. I couldn't work, I couldn't think straight, I couldn't get any joy out of anything. It took about 10 months before I could get back to something that felt normal. Recently, I've started to feel the same way I did back then, and I'm petrified that it's going to happen again.
The fact that I've been fairly recently diagnosed with the OCD that, realistically speaking, I've had for my entire life somehow doesn't help and just leaves me feeling like I'm losing my grip on myself. The thing is, given that so much of what I feel like I am is based around navigating the intricacies of what my brain tells me I can and can't do, even if I'm not getting sick again I still have to figure out whether I want to get into therapy and see if there even is a version of myself that functions normally. And if there is, what if I don't recognize her? What if I come out of it as a different person entirely?
#30 Father Forgetting
My dad's health is deteriorating. He forgets more and more every day and I don’t know how to help him. Honestly, I don’t think that I can. It’s breaking my heart to watch him unknowingly lose his memory and I just want to hug him all the time.
#31 Alone And Afraid
My husband walked out on our marriage last month. He moved back across the country, leaving me alone with nothing but debt. Our lease is up in August and I don't know how I am going be able to afford a place on my own, let alone how I'm going to make rent and survive the next few months. I'm trying to hide it, but I am terrified.
#32 Mundane Mom-Life
I'm a stay at home mom, who occasionally works from home too... The thought of "is this all there is to life" is frightening. I love my daughter more than anything, but I never really thought I'd be a mom. She's two-and-a-half, and being with her 24/7 is really mentally exhausting. I need to start my portrait drawing business again, but I can't find the time. Kids. Kids are scaring me lately.
#33 Endless Madness
Me realizing my existence consists of two things: the pursuit of knowledge, and endless madness. I'm scared to go to a mental health doctor, and my library's only getting bigger. I'm delving into subjects that go against my religion, my dreams are getting foggier, I'm worried about the future... I'm going into madness.
#34 Guarding The Dog
Someone keeps opening my gates to my yard. The last time it happened, my dog got out and got hit by a car. I don't know how to protect him. I have cameras inside but they don't see outside at night. Now that I've padlocked the gates, I don't know what will happen next.
#35 Bothered By Bullies
The sheer amount of bullying that goes on in schools. As a father of two young girls that was bullied quite severely in school, I'm so anxious they're going to experience it too.
#36 Baby Blues
It's my first night with a new baby and she's still crying.
#37 Missing Michael Scott
The Office leaving Netflix in 2021.
#38 Heatwave At Work
The heatwave going on in my area and having to work eight hours today as a roofer. I made sure to pack a lot of water bottles, but I don't think they're going to make the work conditions any better.
#39 Poor Poodle
Our 13-year-old toy poodle has a tumor bigger than his eye and it's pushing his eye out. He lost one of his front legs a few years ago after being attacked by a pair of off-leash dogs. We've been seeing specialists about what to do, but they're not sure he can go through surgery. If he does, he will be a one-eyed, three-legged old pup. I'm terrified he won't be with us much longer.
#40 Fiance's Feline Fear
My fiancé’s cat, who is almost 16 years old, is not doing so well. My fiancé has had him since he was a kitten. He was his first-ever pet and I am trying to convince him that his time has come, but he keeps denying it. I'm supposed to bring his cat to the vet for him, so I asked him, "If they say there’s nothing they can do for him, what am I doing?" He told me to bring him home, detailing no other plan of action.
I’m scared he’s not going to be able to make the call to put him to sleep and he’s going to live longer in pain. At some point, I'll have to finally put my foot down to get it through his head, since simply talking to my fiancé hasn’t worked. He’s in denial. I think the cat's got kidney failure, so he’s unable to control his bladder. Just the way he looks right now says, “I’m ready”.
#41 Ticked Off
So basically about three weeks ago, I got a tick bite. "No big deal," I thought. I removed it and flushed it down the toilet. It was only on for an hour so what could happen. But a week passed by and the bump was still there. No sign of a bullseye rash. Two weeks passed by. Still there. At that point, I started to get paranoid and my mind was racing back and forth. A half a week later, I woke up in urgent care. The doctor examined the tick bite and found no head or rash.
She then said that because it was on the "private" area, it was taking longer for the swelling to go down. The tick has to be attached for 34 hours in order for it to transfer Lyme disease. I left urgent care feeling like a million bucks. Just for good measure, I looked up the symptoms of Lyme. For some reason, I put my had on my neck right below my jaw on the right side and I felt a bump. A slightly painful bump about the size of a large pea. Now that's either one of two things; a lymph node, or a common viral or bacterial infection such as strep throat, or Lyme disease. It's been two days since I have discovered the bump and I am kind of terrified right now.
#42 Feeling Fuzzy
I'm in my mid-30s, I left college after three years. I have never gone back. I don't know what to go back for. I don't know what I want. I can't concentrate for more than five minutes on anything. My mind feels permanently fuzzy. I feel like I've wasted my life and my time and it scares the heck out of me.
#43 The Mystery Of Marriage
I’m scared to get married. I’ve heard a lot of stories of people being really nice at the start, then doing a complete 180 when they are married.
#44 Drift Wood
This may sound dumb, but there is a chunk of wood in my backyard that was off to the side to dry with some other wood. I took my dog out only to find that it had been moved into the middle of my yard. It’s pretty heavy. Nothing could’ve really moved it but a person, so that’s pretty cool to find right before bed. My doors are locked and my dog barks at anything, so we are all good... I think.
#45 All Of It
Everything, all of it.
