Have You Ever Been Scared Out of Your Wits

[ruaidhri]

Have you ever been scared out of your wits? What happened and what did you do?

Being an old man, I have to go back a lot of years to when I was last terrified beyond all reason and acted on instinct alone.

There was the time during the early 1960’s when I was in the Coast Guard stationed in Astoria, Oregon. My ship was at the tip of an abandoned WWII naval base named Tongue Point. To get to the ship you had to drive (or walk) down a narrow two lane road through a high forest and continue on through to the very end of the abandoned naval base to where the Coast Guard had two Buoy Tenders moored. I was a crewmember of the Cutter Mallow.

When on liberty, I often visited my brother, who lived just outside Portland, OR. He was a firm believer in UFO’s, Big Foot and anything else that was weird. He was a lot of fun. I must admit that I enjoyed his enthusiastic belief that there were large two legged ape like creatures roaming the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Some of his stories were really scary like the truck driver that reported that a Big Foot creature had run alongside his truck looking into the cab window as the driver had the pedal to the metal. Like all his stories, I never knew if they were true or not but they sure made good stories.

One day returning on the Greyhound Bus from a weekend’s liberty in Portland, I got off at the highway entrance to the base. It was late at night and there were absolutely no lights through the forested entrance to the abandoned base. You literally couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. I had just spent a weekend discussing unbelievable creatures and suddenly I could swear I heard something in the forest that cradled the road. Something was walking alongside me in the dark. My imagination exploded. Fear enveloped me. I started to move faster. It, whatever it was, kept pace. I started to run. It stayed with me. Then, I forgot all semblance of bravery or honor, I ran as fast as I could through the forest, through the abandoned naval base and on board my ship. Several of my shipmates were sitting on the mess deck when I arrived red faced and all out of breath. They laughed when I told them my story but no one was willing to investigate.

Although my crewmates laughed they also weren’t sure if there was something in that forest. Others told of being followed. Others ran on board red faced and out of breath swearing that they were being followed.

Of course, it was probably nothing more than overactive imaginations. But, at the moment, it was real and I was really scared.

How about you. Does anyone else have stories of unreasoning, unjustified terror gripping their very souls?

[Roxie]

...well, nothing that intense I guess, but the first time I had the wind knocked out of me I was sure I was going to die. I couldn't breathe or speak and I had no idea what had happend to me, but I just knew it was over. I was 7.

[Kass]

Yeah, the time my daughter figured out how to undo the straps in her stroller, got out in the middle of the mall parking lot, took off at a dead run and wouldn't stop when I yelled. She nearly got run over. I thought my heart would stop and she got one of the three spankings she ever got in her life for not stopping when I yelled at her to do so.

[Soli]

I have a horribly overactive imagination. :knockout:

Before I got my laptop and could be online up in my room, I had to use the downstairs computer. In the summer I'd want to stay up late at night but my family would go upstairs and I'd be the only one downstairs. So when I was sleepy and wanted to go to bed it was all dark. Turning on the lights wouldn't work because it'd still be dark outside and in other rooms where someone could be hiding (or something like that >_>) I'd have panic attacks and hide in the bathroom. Everytime I'd try to leave the bathroom to go upstairs I'd panic and run back. Eventually my mom comes down to see why the door slams shut everytime I run back to the bathroom. XD I'm not allowed to stay downstairs anymore at night. :watson:

Normal stuff I do everynight, is never leaving my bed, keeping my head under the covers, keeping my feet curled up and away from the edges of the bed, and never opening my eyes after the light is turned off. Very very afraid of the dark. Night lights don't work because they make shadows which are even worse. :duh:

I gave myself nightmares from the picture someone posted on this forum. :rofl: They myth was that people who looked at the picture for more then 4 or 5 minutes would kill themselves and the girl in the picture smirked at you. The picture really was drawn by someone to be a character in the story they were writing. So it wasn't scary at all. I still won't look at it though!

I've gotten worse recently. Something I saw on the internet made me so scared I'm even jittery in the daytime. And I won't go to webpages with black backgrounds or someplace I don't know. But I'll get over it someday. :P I hope.

So my answer is: almost all the time. XD

[Josh]

I got grounded when I was 8 so I had the brilliant idea to jump out of my window. I tied one end of a rope to a bunch of heavy stuff in my room and the other end around my waist. As I climbed out the window I lost my grip on the rope and fell 15 feet on a 14.5 foot rope. The fall was bad enough, but the worst part was the loud crack my back made, im fairly sure I blacked out for a while from the pain, but I dont know for how long. After regaining consciousness I figured I was dead for sure, or, at best, I would never walk again.

Well, after about half an hour of wild crying and screaming I noticed I once again had feeling lower extremities so I got up, walked into my house, went up to my room and stayed there until I wasnt grounded anymore. I was too afraid to tell my parents about the whole thing so I kept it all hush-hush.

I do believe thats the most scared I have ever been in my entire life, thinking that I was going to die so young. Needless to say, I never did it again.

[shimanotaka]

I once had hypnagogic hallucinations in combination with sleep paralysis. That was the most horrifying thing I've ever experienced.

I awoke, feeling an evil presence. I couldn't move no matter how hard I tried. I could hear something moving about in the closet and when I opened my eyes I saw things, white things, like notebook pages, flying and flapping around right above me. I tried to scream but could only make a low wheezing noise. My arms were like concrete spaghetti but slowly I could move my arm (it truly felt like it weighed a ton) towards the lamp, and at the same moment I flipped the switch it was all gone. I could move, and everything was normal.

Still it took a long time before I managed to go back to sleep that night.

[PopCulturePooka]

I have a horribly overactive imagination. :knockout:

Before I got my laptop and could be online up in my room, I had to use the downstairs computer. In the summer I'd want to stay up late at night but my family would go upstairs and I'd be the only one downstairs. So when I was sleepy and wanted to go to bed it was all dark. Turning on the lights wouldn't work because it'd still be dark outside and in other rooms where someone could be hiding (or something like that >_>) I'd have panic attacks and hide in the bathroom. Everytime I'd try to leave the bathroom to go upstairs I'd panic and run back. Eventually my mom comes down to see why the door slams shut everytime I run back to the bathroom. XD I'm not allowed to stay downstairs anymore at night. :watson:

Normal stuff I do everynight, is never leaving my bed, keeping my head under the covers, keeping my feet curled up and away from the edges of the bed, and never opening my eyes after the light is turned off. Very very afraid of the dark. Night lights don't work because they make shadows which are even worse. :duh:

I gave myself nightmares from the picture someone posted on this forum. :rofl: They myth was that people who looked at the picture for more then 4 or 5 minutes would kill themselves and the girl in the picture smirked at you. The picture really was drawn by someone to be a character in the story they were writing. So it wasn't scary at all. I still won't look at it though!

I've gotten worse recently. Something I saw on the internet made me so scared I'm even jittery in the daytime. And I won't go to webpages with black backgrounds or someplace I don't know. But I'll get over it someday. :P I hope.

So my answer is: almost all the time. XD
Ummm... right... you levels of fear seem way too much. I'd be seeing someone. lol.

[Fred]

When I found out my mother wanted to kill herself

[PiccoloNamek]

The scariest moment in my entire life was the entire time I played Silent Hill 3.

Damn, that is so lame compared to your stories.

[MeneerDijk]

I think it's about 13 years ago i went on a field trip with my high school class to the zoo in Munster, Germany. Me and two classmates were wandering around the park when we came across the sea bird cage. One classmate had to go to the bathroom and told us to wait there, so we did. While we were waiting we were watching some birds hopping around in a pond wich had some kind of machine blowing air into the water to simulate waves. This process was quite sudden and noisy with air bubbling up and would occur every couple of minutes. The classmate came back from his toilet visit, when the machine wasnt blowing, and asked what we were staring at. We told him there were actual piranha's in the water. He said: Really? and he took a real close look at the pond just as the air-blower machine started working. I've never seen anyone jump that far backwards out of a standstill.

It was funny, but i was also kind of glad he had a strong heart >_>

[Stephy]

I've gotten worse recently. Something I saw on the internet made me so scared I'm even jittery in the daytime. And I won't go to webpages with black backgrounds or someplace I don't know. But I'll get over it someday. :P I hope.

Yeah I am pretty scared of the dark too, and for good reason! Did you see that Grudge movie? *dies*

I got scared out of my wits hm... from an internet thing too. A screamer thing. A lindsay lohan's "child" it was called. I swear to your gods I felt my soul jump out of my body for a sec XD My body felt so cold and my heart was pounding so fast. I couldn't sleep that night. It was posted on this forum way back in August and I still remember who made that thread- Majorproblem. (Thread is long gone.)

Gawd that was scary.

When I was drowning. REALLY scary. Horrible feeling thinking you're going to die. :knockout:

Oh I randomly remembered: When I was younger the glass shower door (which are heavy) fell on me, cutting from waist down on my legs and hands. Lots of blood. Was scary, but later on I noticed the cuts weren't that bad at all. Just like how paper cuts or little cuts can keep bleeding. It was many cuts with lots of blood.

[Trump]

The worst that has happened to me are cases where I see things in slow motion and my body sort of freezes up. Like when I got into an accident. I looked up and they were stopped in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and said "oh crap" as I just watched the car get closer and closer. I didn't hit them going very fast (maybe 15mph, didn't even set off the air bag) but it was a wierd situation. I could see everything just not do anything.

[Candyvan Stan]

I've never been unrationally scared in my life.

Then again, I hopefully haven't even experienced 1/3rd of it. I'd actually want to experience something, so I have something to tell folk, heh.

[Varia]

story

I have seen that somewhere before.
________
Amx (http://www.dodge-wiki.com/wiki/AMC_AMX)

[Mittens]

This one time, when I was about 11, I was playing in a sandpit at a local playground of mine. Now, in this sandpit, there was a sort of wooden little structure made up of about 12 upright panels all embedded in the sand. Beneath each panel there was a sort of gap, about a two foot high if not less. I dug under it until I hit the concrete and made a nice little gap for me to go through.

As I went under, I was in a sort of bent position.
I drew a little diagram =3

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Renkin/Cantbreathe.jpg

When I got into that position, I found myself stuck. I couldnt go out cos my head was in the way, and i couldnt go forward because I was in such an awkward position, and the sand was high at my waist. The panel itself was fixed upon my back, and my chest was on the concrete.

I found it incredibly hard to breathe. In fact, I pretty much couldnt. I started to panic and I started to black out. I couldnt make any noises because my face was virtually in the sand, and there are kids also making lots of noise. Eventually, I managed to pull myself out by... well.. thrashing around enough.. I didnt cry out or anything, but i was hell bent on getting out of there, cos each breath I took, I got a bit of sand in my mouth. It was NASTY.

[Rear Admiral Grapefruit]

I don't normaly get all that scared, but i guess one time when i had to take some tablets and i inhaled as i swallowed the tablet and started to choke, mind starts working at 100mph and the only thing you can't think of is the best way to get the sob out.

Or maybe the time i woke up after a long sleep and found that parts were swollen and sore and very tender for no reason, i kinda panicked then, i've heard people mention things to do with the tubes getting tangled up and i panicked so i decided to leave it and see how it went, i figured if death ensued it'd then become obvious that it was serious. :P It was the whole region btw, not just team nutsack so i wasn't sure exactly, and i'd sooer risk death than google "swollen manparts" or whatever.

[Soli]

Yeah I am pretty scared of the dark too, and for good reason! Did you see that Gudge movie? *dies*

I got scared out of my wits hm... from an internet thing too. A screamer thing. A lindsay lohan's "child" it was called. I swear to your gods I felt my soul jump out of my body for a sec XD My body felt so cold and my heart was pounding so fast. I couldn't sleep that night. It was posted on this forum way back in August and I still remember who made that thread- Majorproblem. (Thread is long gone.)

Gawd that was scary.

Oh and when I was drowning before too. :knockout:


Yeah, a screamer thing is what has made me so jittery recently. >.< My reaction was a whole lot worse then yours though. Ugh. I couldn't even open my laptop for a few days and didn't go on at night for at least a week.

Ha, I don't watch scary movies. I can't even watch the commercials (they really need to make those less scary. >.<) The closest I've gotten was Scary Movie 3 my sister and I watched. That gave me nightmares even though it's supposed to be funny. XD

Drowning is awful. I've never been near drowning, but it's terrifying when you see someone you love almost drown. :boggled: My little sister jumped off the diving board of our pool and her mask went over her nose and mouth. So when she came up she was gasping for air and not getting much. She was too shocked to pull the mask off. It was so scary. :( She was crying, gasping for air, and screaming, "Mommy! Mommy!" My mom jumped in with all her clothes and shoes on to help. At that time we had our neighbor's granddaughters over to play. They laughed when our mom jumped into the pool (they just came over to swim, instead of doing what they said: playing with my little sister. They ignored her the whole time). My sister is fine though. She still likes swimming and is like a fish. :P

(gah, I've been making long posts. boring to read. Someone else make an even longer one so mine looks shorter. >_>)

[Black fist]

Well scariest thing was 3 years ago at my old school little trip to John Knox ranch. It was a three day field trip in the middle of motherfucking no where, what made it bad there were unnecessary amount of windows in your cabin. There were windows in the door the bathroom next to every bed, this equal some bad shit about to go down with me since I used to have a small bladder were I would wake up a lot (10 times a night) so those were the worst piss ever the kind were you push really hard to just release within five second. Second the fucking trees were scary :eyepop: people in the room next to mine said they seen ghosts, I heard ghosts put that together and that equals sleeping pills. This happen for three damn days of shitty food, shitty hikes, shitty boots, shitty weather, and shitty sleep. I was taking naps anytime we stop moving.

[Stephy]

Yeah, a screamer thing is what has made me so jittery recently. >.< My reaction was a whole lot worse then yours though. Ugh. I couldn't even open my laptop for a few days and didn't go on at night for at least a week.

Aww :(. Well, when I see them they scare me out of my wits for a few hours and I don't go online for the rest of that day and have trouble sleeping, but I am so bubble-brained I'd forget the very next day and go online again. XD

No need to fear the Internet! Since nothing is going to change whether you stay on or off.

Ha, I don't watch scary movies.
Really? hm. They scare the heck out of me and I have to have one of my sisters sleep with me for 2 or more nights after watching it, but I usually can bring myself to watch it and when you hear the music get scarier and you know something is going to happen I make an excuse to look away or cough and look down. I can't take it! haha. Doesn't scare me out of my wits though. Well, That Grudge movie did get to me for a whole month. My friends were awful about that too and would make the Grudge noise. Ugh. :gloomy: That movie *shudders*...

Drowning is awful.

It is. It was a horrible experience. The thoughts, "I can't breathe. Help! I can't breathe, I'm going to die!" just keeps passing your mind while you're try to struggle for the surface and gasp for air. I hope to never feel that helpless and close to death again. Drowning would be a horrible way to go. I thinkth. I avoid going in water that is over my head now. Strong fear if it gets close to even my chin. I panic. :( Very scary.

And there you go. I tried to purposely make it longer than your post, because you asked. :) <3

[Roxie]

I avoid going in water that is over my head now. Strong fear if it gets close to even my chin. I panic. :( Very scary.



You HAVE to learn how to swim!! Or at least know what to do when you feel like you're drowning

[Stephy]

I know how to swim. :) Now. It was when I was younger and randomly jumped in a 12 foot end of a pool and *thought* I was okay at swimming. XD Really good now, but I sort of still panic when I get too deep and water is coming to my chin and almost over my head. x_x

[Pierrot le Fou]

When I was 5 years old, I got taken to Chuck-E-Cheese's. I went into the funhouse, which was this 4 floor little structure of some sort that had ramps and stairs and whatnot. I kept going up and up, until I saw this door with this cartoon bee on it. I went in the door, hiding from my friends and shut it, only to be locked out from the inside.

I screamed for about 40 minutes before someone heard me to come and let me out.

The other time was when I was in high school, had a 40 degree fever (errr, 104 degree, sorry), and couldn't move my legs, think rationally, or do anything but sweat and murmur. If I wasn't hallucinating, I probably would have been frightened to death, it was more the cold terror of being unable to move my legs or think through it properly.

[NERD]

I was shooting a clip for some short story film idea I had with my friend. The clip would've been me executing him in the back of some warehouse. He was bound and blindfolded, with me having a replica Glock that looked pretty much like the real thing. In hindsight, I was a dumbass to do it in public.

When we were done and about to wrap up, three police cars pulled out of nowhere, with three officers pointing guns at me and yelling me to drop the weapon. I was not stupid to do anything crazy like making sudden movements, and complied to their orders.

It took cops several minutes examining the gun before they were convinced it was a prop. If I were to make a sudden move, they would've shot me right there on the spot, they told me.

The cops let us go with that. Of course, we were both scared to death.

[/|/@/|/@し]

There was a period of my life from around the ages of 6-8 (actually longer, but that was when it was the worst) where I had severe anxiety and panic disorder mixed with various phobias possibly caused by trauma that I had blocked out as toddler/small child. And I vividly remember having to deal with fear on a constant every day basis over the simplest things. Thankfully, I had learnt how to control it...


And I guess it's just me who wasn't scared at all of the Grudge.. I've only seen the japanese version, but I thought the mother-ghost thing was cute. .__.

[Hitokage]

When I had the flu, I was alone and no one knew I was, with a 106 degree fever. I should have gone to the hospital but I literally couldn't get out of bed.

So I hallucinated. I hallucinated talking to my best friend, who sadly enough was clear across the country in CA with the SAME FLU she had caught from the same person right before she left.

I eventually realized I was hallucinating stuff, but I could not stop it. I hadn't eaten in about three days, and could barely drink anything at all. I couldn't stop the hallucinations.

Finally, about after what felt like an hour of me screaming in terror because I couldn't figure out what was going on, my neighbors got security to open my door (I was in the dorms for college.) One of them grabbed my cell phone, found my mom's number. She called my grandmother and then my grandmother came and took care of me.

I spent a solid week in bed, so violently ill I slept almost all the time, and didn't eat. I mean literally. Did not eat for a week. I couldn't even SMELL good. Even water tasted -vile-... and I still can't look at the Olive Garden's lazagna.

[Psychochink]

Some years back I started getting these weird headaches down one side of my head, and somewhat blurry vision - which would come and then go away after a few minutes. Being me, I pretty much worried vaugely about them and thought I should talk to my doctor, and then kept putting it off.

So I'm sitting at my desk one day and BAM - feels like somebody just rammed me in the back of the head with a screwdriver and I get the old blurry vision again. Hmmm...this might not be good. I ask somebody to check my pupils, and sure enough one of them is blown up like a beachball. I call my doctor, tell him what just happened and ask if I should come in and see him..."Yes!"

Later that day, I leave my doctor's office with instructions that it's probably just the onset of migranes, but I should go and get a CT scan anyway. Being me, I leave it about two weeks before bothering to go in to get my noodle scanned. I leave, and then go hang out at a business owned by a friend of mine.

About half an hour later, I get a call there from my GP. He opens with this gem:

"I don't want you to panic, but I want you to go down to the <hospital> emergency room and check ourself in." Apparently about five minutes after I left, the radiologist processed my scan and got on the phone to my GP. He then felt the need to call my mother (also his patient) to see if she had any idea where I was to track me down. There was something on my CT scan that he thinks we should check out. But I shouldn't panic...right.

At this stage, I'm running through all of the things it could possibly be in my head - brain tumor, haematoma, etc. So I get my stuff, and head down to the emergency room.

Now, keep in mind this is a public hospital. I'd been here before with friends who were bleeding, having bad reactions to drugs, etc. and sat around waiting for hours. Unless you were in immediate and serious need of medical attention, you waited. I registered myself at triage and sat down to wait. Five minutes later, a neurology resident walked into the waiting room to pick me up (i.e. he came downstairs the second he heard I was here).

At this point, I was absolutely convinced I was going to die.

They're sure as hell treating me like somebody for whom every second counts, and I should have done this weeks ago.

I'm a dead man - or they're going to open up my skull and have to remove half my brain to save my life. I'll be using sippy cups and watching playschool.

No, the hell with that, I want to die before I end up like that, I'll have to make sure I tell my mother before I go in for surgery to make sure I'm put out of my misery. As I'm an adult, does she have the authority to do that now?

I haven't made a will, the government's going to take all my money and it won't go to my family.

Fuck it, if I have a brain tumor, I don't want surgery/therapy. I'm going to enjoy the time I have left. I'm taking my savings and travelling around the world.

By the time they'd taken my upstairs to get an MRI and taken me back down again to wait for the results, I had finished the terror stage, resigned myself to my death, was at peace with it and was making plans for all the things I now needed to do.

When I discovered I wasn't about to die, I was almost dissapointed.

As it turns out, I had a stroke. After follow up tests, they still have no idea what caused it - I'm in good health, don't have high cholesterol, blood pressure or anything else they can find that might have caused it - just one of those random things. There's a chunk of my brain missing due to flat-out random chance. It gives you some perspective on life.

[ruaidhri]

Varia,

Your right! You did see this story before. I posted it in a similar thread just shy of a year ago in the creativity forum. The title of the thread was "Scared Shitless" http://www.otpostnine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=839 (http://www.outpostnine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=839).

I've always found fear and how we react to be an interesting topic. As you go through life it's common to do things you regret some of which are truly scary. In the previous thread I mention that I was in a couple of earthquakes and promised to tell the story but never did. So, I'll tell them now.

My first experience was in the late Summer of 1959. I was travelling with my mother from Milwaukee, WI to Portland, OR to visit my brother and his family. I was 18 years old and driving my little two seater Triumph TR3 sportcar. We didn't have much time so I wanted to get there fast so I drove straight from Milwaukee through Yellowstone Park (and this was before freeways). Shortly following leaving the park I realized I was really tired, not having any sleep and driving continuously for a couple of days. So, I parked in a roadside camping area, put my seat way back and attempted to get some sleep. After about a hour I realized I was so keyed up I couldn't sleep so I started the car and continued driving. I didn't stop until I reached Portland. When I got there I found out that there had been a huge earthquake at Yellowstone. I remember that while driving the car was pitched around a little. I thought it was the wind. Anyway, there was a mountain across from the campground I had parked in for awhile. It had a big dolomite bolder that was holding up a large cliff face. The earthquake split the bolder causing a good portion of the mountain to cascade over the campground entombing many of the people spending the night. It also formed a natural dam of a creek and formed what is now know as Earthquake Lake. The following year I again drove to Yellowstone, this time with my father. I realized how close I came to being listed on the plaque commemerating the people never recovered.

My second encounter with a earthquake was in Seattle, WA in the Mid 1960's. I was stationed at the Coast Guard base in Seattle and was on the phone talking to someone in the District Office when I heard a loud noise like someone pushing something really heavy across a cement floor above me. I looked up and saw everything in the office swinging two and fro and I saw people running scared. I said to the person I was talking to on the phone "Are you having an earthquake there?" He said "Shit" and hung up. Then, I really paid attention to my surroundings and realized this was no small earthquake (7.5 on the scale). I ran to the nearest exit and saw that it was a metal staircase attached to the outside of the building. Well it was jumping all around and looked like it might just fall off so I decided to go to the other side of the building where, because the building was on a steep hill, the exit was level with the ground. Before I could cross the building several people knocked me down to get out the exit I had just refused. I reconsidered and joined them hurrying down the galloping metal staircase. The entire base stood on a cement pier over water during the earthquake watching the light poles swing back and forth. We were lucky. The earthquake only lasted for 48 seconds and the pier did not collapse into the water.

Oh, and by the way, across from the base on the hill above us was a gasoline tank farm. The sentry on duty at the front gate saw those huge tanks dancing around like cans on a cookie tin and left his post running as fast as he could down the road. We were really lucky.

Yes, I was scared.

[ruaidhri]

Psychochink

That was truly a scary experience. The fact that you actually accepted death makes me shudder.

[erised]

I used to work at a sports memorabilia store on campus when I was in college. During the week, the place was dead (unless a game was that weekend), so I'd work alone. One day a big guy came in wearing an unseasonal puffy jacket. My phone rang and it was the shop owner next door telling me to watch the guy in the black jacket b/c he tried to steal from the other store. The guy had walked around a corner where I couldn't see him, so being the dummy that I am, I came out from the counter and rounded the corner. I asked if he needed help w/anything, and he walked right up to me (like if I leaned my head I would've bumped him). My head came about to his chest. He looked down at me w/his face inches from mine. He made the meanest look ever and said "I don't neeeeed no help."

I'm surprised I didn't piss my pants right there. Suddenly reality hit, and I discovered I was in this store alone w/a large man who could easily beat me senseless, and it was probable no one would come to the store till the morning. I backed all the way to the counter. There was no alarm in the store, and I couldn't use the phone w/o him seeing or hearing me. The only thing I could think of was a gold letter opener that was on a shelf under the counter (we'd been doing inventory and couldn't find a price for it). He was still around the corner, so I decided to move the letter opener where I could reach it easily. As I did, he came around the corner. I dropped it when I saw him, and it made a noise. He heard it and looked at me. There I was w/my hand under the counter looking scared out of my mind and guilty as sin. He looked me over (I swear I could see him weighing the situation), turned, and walked straight out the door.

My guess is that he thought I hit an alarm, so he bolted. After he left, I locked the doors to the store and locked myself in the office and cried for like an hour. After I was brave enough to come back out, I closed the store and left a note for my manager telling her I'd never work there alone again. Next time I saw her, I gave her the key. If I think about it, I can still remember that guy's snarl and his teeth. It's so creepy.

[Jetsetlemming]

Well, the scariest moments of my life involve drugs and alchohol and child abuse, so I don't feel up to getting into those at the moment. However, I typically get panicky whenever anything goes wrong with my computer. It's my main access to the outside world and most of my friends. My current computer is brand new, but every once in a while something messes up, and I freak out. Just yesterday the internet stopped working for me for a few hours. :meh: I ended up having to reinstall my ISP software.

[Plekto]

Twice.

1:Spun my car on a road at 40mph. Rear end spun into a driveway and up on a lawn. I went sideways at 40mph down the road(front tires dragging a big skidmark), then the car hopped off the lawn, narrowly missing a tree. Then the car spun three times. I missed the tree by inches. If I had hit it at that speed I would have wrapped my car around it like a pretzel right at the driver's side door.

2: Northridge earthquake. See, my father did construction. I knew something about engineering as well. So I knew exactly what was happening as the building tore itself apart. Just from the sounds alone. Of course it was pitch black since the *only* power pole in the entire quake to actually snap in half was the one in front of my building. Rumble...WHAMWHAM *crack*(telephone pole snapping) ***FOOM**(bright flash as the transformer exxploded in the street) then pitch balck and 40 more seconds of the world going up and down three feet every other second. All while I am hearing the building coming apart.

The aftermath was the building split right at my apartment wall - 1 foot wide top to bottom, left to right - like a knife had cut it. Look up and see sky, look down and see the dirt under the foundation sort of thing. Three storys tall.

[japanat]

1) 2 yrs ago, my 4-yr-old son disappeared when we were shopping. Finally found him at home, he had crossed the busiest road in the whole area and found his way home while we were searching the store. We had told him he couldn't eat his snack until we got home - so he went home!

2) When I brought my lockermate's books back from high school for him after he called me and asked, and found him lying dead in the yard, rifle beside him. The really freaky thing is that I had bought a roast beef sandwich on the way, and it tasted bloody, so I threw it out the window. Freaked me royally.

edit:
3) Went camping one time with the dogs and guns (we lived in the deep mtns of Colo, real wilderness). The dogs woke us at maybe 3am, and all we could see was a circle of eyes all around the camp, just at the edge of the firelight. When our shorts dried, we realized that a pack of coyotes was sitting there, trying to lure the dogs out to kill and eat them.

4) Dogs woke me again in the middle of the night, looking at the window to the deck and whining and acting terrified. So I grabbed a gun and peeked through the curtains -- to find Smokey the be-damned Bear staring right back at me. I nearly fainted; he was surprised, too, and climbed up on the deck railing, then fell off the other side, leaving a huge paw print on the white paint wainscotting below the rail.

[setrict]

Two times I can remember being so scared I was near panic. The first was a lot like Mittens story. Some friends and I went 'caving' (I can't spell speeelunking!). We had worked our way back a mile or so through some pretty tight spaces, several were the type where you'd have to take off your backpack, throw it though, and squeeze through with breath exhaled just to fit. There was one in particular that was a passage about a foot wide, and probably about 12 feet long.

Long story short. If you barely fit before lunch, you are not going to fit after lunch. We ate back in the cave, and on the way back I got stuck in that passage. Managed to get 4 or 5 feet into the passage, but then I got stuck and couldn't move through or even go back. It was tight enough I could barely breath, and kept starting to black out. With some painful tugging for friends, I finally got pulled out and could breath again. The whole thing only lasted 5 minutes, but it felt like forever. Haven't been in a cave since.

The second was recent. I had a very bad case of the flu this year, and in addition to be sick I couldn't sleep. At all. For 5 days. I had a mild case of sleep apnea too, so the doctors wouldn't prescribe anything to make be drowsy. It was totally surreal, because I wasn't at all sleepy, just extremely tired, sick, and totally wide awake. I was really freaking out near the end, wondering if I was ever going to be able to sleep again. (reading on the net about some poor guy who hadn't slept for like 40 years didn't help). It's been 6months now, and I'm still suffering from some short term memory issues that started during/after the illness.

[erised]

I had a very bad case of the flu this year, and in addition to be sick I couldn't sleep. At all. For 5 days. I had a mild case of sleep apnea too, so the doctors wouldn't prescribe anything to make be drowsy. It was totally surreal, because I wasn't at all sleepy, just extremely tired, sick, and totally wide awake. I was really freaking out near the end, wondering if I was ever going to be able to sleep again.

I saw a thing on TV about a DJ who tried to stay awake for a week, and at the end, he was hallucinating and going crazy. O_o Be glad you finally got some sleep.

[Roxie]

Yeah, getting enough sleep is highly important to our sanity. Sleep is a funny thing, too bad we don't understand it all.

[chad mullet]

In the 70's at the height of the Cold War, I worked in a Royal Navy nuclear submarine base. One day,because I'd been out partying the night before, I was in a workshop alone, trying to sleep behind some tall shelves.I was half asleep when suddenly there was an incredibly bright flash of light ,a wave of intense heat and the loudest fucking explosion I've ever heard . I nearly shat myself

For some reason , I suppose because one was always aware that a sub base would be a prime target ,I was convinced the Russians had decided to nuke the place . I could not understand why I was not dead and stood terrified, utterly convinced I was about to be vapourized.

After a while I crawled out to discover that an acetylene cylinder had exploded because of a fault in the hoses. I felt like an absolute clown having mistaken it for Armageddon. So the moral is, I suppose, don't try to catch up on sleep at work.

[Overkongen]

I too have an overactive imagination, but although I have often been scared, I rarely panic. I like to test my strength of will against my fear sometimes. My parents live in this old house in the country. Usually, when I stay at their place, I'm the last person to go to bed, which means that I go around the house alone turning off all the lights. I can feel my baser instincts taking over, egging me on to start running for my room, but I fight it, and walk around the dark house at my normal speed.

Last time I freaked out for sure was back when I was a kid. It was my ophidiophopia. In Denmark, we have this here viper, that usually lives around these here purple shrubs. Some friends, and an adult who calmed me down convinced me that it was too cold for snakes to be out, so I went with them, to pick the shrubs. All of a sudden, the adult points and says: "Look, a snake!" I panic completely, making large jumps to get me back on the nearby road. the rest of the day, I refuse to stand anywhere where I can't see at least two meters of bare ground all around me.

Also, whenever I see snakes on television, I have to flinch, and hug my legs, or at least make sure they're not touching the ground. Lucky me, Denmark has just started running commercials for "Snakes on a Plane". Also. I hate Fred. Like noone else in here. Fucking shitty avatar.

[MNJetter]

When I was a kid, I had a genuine phobia of severe weather. It didn't help that we live in Minnesota, on the northern end of Tornado Alley. Every time the sirens went off, even if it was just a monthly test and it was a 100% clear blue sky with no wind at all (this actually happened once), I would go into a panic attack. Eyes would glaze over - as my parents described it. I just interpreted it as not being able to see - hyperventilation, sweaty palms, uncontrollable shivering, and the urge to escape from the weather and get somewhere safe that I had to follow completely involuntarily, even if it meant being violent with anyone and anything that got in the way of what my brain percieved as an escape route. Except that, in a tornado, there really isn't somewhere that you can guarantee to be safe.

There was one time when I was about eight that a severe storm actually hit - not a tornado, but winds strong enough to knock down trees and take electrical power and whatnot. Probably about medium-severe weather. But it was the strongest I'd experienced at that point. I remember accidentally glancing outside and seeing the trees bent sideways, and then just going into complete panic attack. I hung onto my little sister - she was four at the time - for dear life as my siblings and I hid in the basement bathroom - and I just remember rocking back and forth and repeating something over and over again. I think I was praying, but I have no clue as to what I said.

Luckily for me, though, my parents figured that something should probably be done about my phobia. So, they signed me up for a community education class on severe weather and tornadoes. After one failed attempt at sitting through the introductory video, they signed me up for the next term, and I got through it. Now I have a huge fascination with storms and severe weather, and I love lightning almost more than fireworks.

That does it for real panic situations. I've had other frightening experiences, but nothing that comes even close to having a phobia-induced panic attack.

I also have a phobia of swimming in deep water, but I would rather just avoid swimming in deep water than try to get over that one....

[Beowulf]

When I got stabbed.

[Black Dog]

雷が怖いです。

A few time I when riding my bicyle downtown, I have had cars just miss me by an inch.Although that only scared me for a fleating second or two.

[japanat]

fleating second

A "fleating second", that is small time....:hat:

[羽之助]

雷が怖いです。

A few time I when riding my bicyle downtown, I have had cars just miss me by an inch.Although that only scared me for a fleating second or two.

Come to Japan. You get used to it.

[sakana]

One night a few years back we were on our way home from church in the middle of winter. Here in Wisconsin it gets pretty icy in the winter and this night was pretty bad. My older brother was driving and wanted to get home fast, he wasn't speeding, its just he was going to fast for those conditions. The freeway was surprisingly busy and my mom told my brother to slow down. Right then we started to fish tail and we spun out.

There was a semi right behind us that managed to get around and we ended up spinning 3 full circles before my brother got us under control (well, sort of) and we wound up in the ditch.

Those three circles were the scariest moments of my life. It went in slow motion and I could see the cars that were going to T-bone us and kill me. I knew it. They couldn't break because it was too icy and we were spinning in the same spot so we couldn't get out of the way.

No one got hurt and there was no damage to our car but now I will always take icy roads seriously.

EDIT: I think the only reason we didn't get hit by all those cars was because we were comming home from church.

[Black Dog]

Come to Japan. You get used to it.

That reminds me ! I saw a book in the library,on how to cycle across Japan.
Although it was printed in the early 90's.

[mugen]

I once had hypnagogic hallucinations in combination with sleep paralysis. That was the most horrifying thing I've ever experienced.

I awoke, feeling an evil presence. I couldn't move no matter how hard I tried. I could hear something moving about in the closet and when I opened my eyes I saw things, white things, like notebook pages, flying and flapping around right above me. I tried to scream but could only make a low wheezing noise. My arms were like concrete spaghetti but slowly I could move my arm (it truly felt like it weighed a ton) towards the lamp, and at the same moment I flipped the switch it was all gone. I could move, and everything was normal.

Still it took a long time before I managed to go back to sleep that night.

So that's what it's called. It happend to me 3 days in a row, each time it was at 7AM.
I hope I never have to go through something like that again during my lifetime(I FELT A HAND ON MY HEAD FOR GODS SAKE!).

By the way, right before you could move you body again, did you feel a weird sensation, like your body was vibrating?

[Snake eyeS]

Hmm seems like quite a read doesnt it? :)

A few years ago i was walking home from a night out. im almost home when i pass a home of a pretty nasty drugsdealer in my neigbourhood. he moved there recently and always had alot of pshycos chilling at his house. As i walk by, a few of those guys are just about to enter, one of which ive known from highschool, so i get invited in. bieng stupid i go inside. Buzzing from the high amount of alcohol in my body i kept on babbling with these 7 marrocans all pretty known in my neigbourhood for bieng criminals, it seemed they kinda liked me so i thought i didnt have anything to fear. just when i wanted to leave, that friend of mines gets up and leaves aswell, to bad for me that i just beaten some bigass marrocan in a PS2 game and he wants a rematch so i cant leave...

There i am, in the middle of 7 dealers, one of which just got out of jail for cutting someones mouth open from lip to ears(both side) for looking at his car. This is also the guy that has decided to freak me out, at first i didnt reconise him but as the night continued his name got mentioned a few times and then i realised i was only a few feet away from a notoriously known criminal.
All the while he is seizing me up and taking a few sniffs of cocaine during our conversation about racism..he gets up and sits himself next to me(way to close). at this point i was sure someone would tell him to back off so i could leave.. but no such luck.
Here i am, in the middle of a room with 7 marrocans that have just snorted enough cocaine that would drop an elephant.
As he keeps pushing me and taunting me i try and figur out the fastest way to get out of that room..there was none, i had to jump over a table and across 4 guys hanging in their coutches with their legs spread out, only one was needed to make me trip if i tried and make a run for it. needless to say that was one of the scariest minutes of my live..

Anyways, after some hectic minutes where i try my best to not piss this guy off while he is trying to make me say things that would give him his so called excuse to have a go at me.Then finally the dealer that lived there told me to get up and leave real soon or else i was dead meat(not in those words)... With an evil grin on his face and dropping a knife on the table infront of me, the one taunting me asked me to stay.

I tried to keep my cool while standing up and walk across the room, but i was sure i was gonna get stabbed in the back that night.. the second i left the house i ran like crazy without looking back.

A few days later the dealer came up to me sober and told me it was a good thing i left, my friend that left returned with a mate he picked up with his car, and the pshyco did have a go at him.. He had him sniffing cocaine at knife point.

[erised]

*story*


That is freaky. :eyepop: Situations that seem real (as opposed to supernatural) scare me the most...