What's been the scariest experience of your life?

When I failed my first test.

The most scary was, when I tripped going out the bath tub with my baby son. Reflexes kept him unharmed, while I hurt myself badly.

When I was 19. Getting caught in a lie by an employer, and being held accountable for it.

When I opened Fluther and found every question phrased redundantly.

Or when I was robbed at gunpoint.

Hmm.. maybe when I was going in for surgery

crossing the border from joberg to maseru in south africa;

i was sitting in the car behind my driver when he stopped in the middle of the road because a car was in the way. the driver of that car was indicating for us to come closer, which we did. we assumed the driver of that car was asking for help- that his car had broken down.

then we got close enough to see that it didn’t quite look right. his car was parked in a way that blocked both lanes, and we could see he was waving a gun in his hand. my driver shouted at me to get down as he slammed his seat back onto my lap and i laid down across the backseat. he hit reverse and got us out of there. kudos to him.

I started to give a long answer then realized I was in a public forum. I will shorten it to just say I was a teen aged girl, somewhere where I didn’t belong and bad things happened and I was afraid of getting in trouble for being where I shouldn’t have been and bad people got away with bad things.
I have another more sociably acceptable one about falling out of the sky in a small plane and my husband pilot saying, “I’m sorry Judi, I’ve killed us,” But that story is way to long.

My husband’s car accident several years ago. That whole day, from the initial phone call to rushing to the ER with a toddler, then seeing my husband covered in blood and surrounded by doctors. Ugh, it’s still so vivid in my mind. Even though they told me pretty quickly that he’d be OK, it took a while before I believed them.

There have been several contenders, but I think the worst was living alone, in Chicago, and having three obviously very drunk men try to get into my apartment. They clearly thought it was there own and were confused as to why the key didn’t work, but when it didn’t work they tried to force the door. And failed.

It woke me up from a dead sleep at 3am.

Hearing the words, “it’s malignant”.

I was on the D train in the Bronx. At the time, they used to lock doors between cars (they since changed that). A loud, boisterous couple got on. The train started when, soon after, someone shouted “he’s got a gun”.

There was no way to escape. Fortunately, the train made it into the next stop, whereupon an army of cops pulled the guy out.

I was flying from LA to Auckland last summer when, somewhere near the Equator, the plane just dropped. People fell out of their chairs, we were all awoken, and some people were even getting into the “crash” position. The pilot came on the intercom and said, rather tersely “Flight attendents sit down, now.” There was a jolt as the pilots pulled the plane up, and then everything was OK. I was fairly sure I was going to die, but for the three and a half seconds I felt this way, I was completely calm.

The plane: an Airbus A330. I’m just saying… let’s figure this out, Airbus.
The bummer: I have to re-do this flight this summer. Guh. I’m going to need several strong cocktails.

When the person I loved most in the world died, I wanted to go to sleep and not wake up because I couldn’t imagine how each day was going to be without the feeling of connectedness to them anymore. Some people said the “spirit” of that person would remain with me, the bond would remain but it didn’t- I felt single in a very strange and uncomfortable way which took a few years to adjust to.

I was blind drunk. Driving north on the north bound highway. Drifted to the left and caught the shoulder. Went into an out of control spin. Still not stopping, I suddenly found myself, still spinning, north in the south bound lane., Traffic heading my way.
Ended up back in the middle, (grass and dirt patch between both lanes) off the road. Car stalls, traffic comes to a halt in both directions. I turn my key, car starts, and I drive away.
Getting drunk from that moment on has had a completely different meaning and perspective.

@ChazMaz ; Thank goodness you learned that life lesson without killing anyone, yourself included.

You said it! That was 22 years ago. If I did not wisen up, I would not be here today.

Rolling an eight ton straight truck with a 28 ft box in the snow on the interstate at 60 mph. Truck ended up in the median, on its side, facing the other way.

All of the above: been there, done that (not to be cynical or macho: it’s just true).

My scariest experience: having just seen “The Exorcist” (yes, the original) at the drive-in, and having to walk, alone, from my friend’s car to my parent’s house. Maybe a distance of 100 ft., but it seemed like it lasted forever!! I kept seeing Linda Blair’s head spinning in the parked cars in the driveway. Aaaaagh!!!!

@PapaLeo just curious, what trucking company were you driving for? Did you have Haz-Mat regulated chemicals on board like I did?

when i was 15, sneaking out of our RV (where we lived at the time because we were moving across the country) with my mom and four year old sister to get away from my stepfather in his sleep. my mom encouraged him to drink that night so he would sleep harder. i remember i was laying in bed, sweating, bug-eyed nervous about what was about to happen. stepping so very lightly moving our bags to the truck, tryin not to wake my little sister or stepdad. i knew mom would be proud of me, knowing that i did all that. so somehow by the grace of god, we got out and got to the end of the road, realizing that mom forgot her laptop. oh shit, that had passwords to bank accounts and important info. i volunteered to go in knowing that if she went, she’d remember something else and i’d be in and out. i ran barefoot across the RV lot so nervous, i was forgetting to breath. i open the door just knowing my stepdad would be sitting there with a gun preparing to ‘shoot at an intruder.’ but we got out and drove 36 hours straight across the US. the next few months i didn’t sleep at night, staring at the doorway, waiting to see him coming for us, but we did it. we got away and he had not the slightest clue where to find us. that mother fucker.
and i’d do it all over again. nobody messes with my mom or my sisters. i’d just kill him first and save a lot of trouble.

Being robbed at gunpoint by some twitchy crackhead for my skateboard and loot in Nashville TN. He took my stuff told me to walk away and not turn around or I was dead. It was spooky walking away with my back to him. I just knew I would catch some slugs to the back. When I got a block away I risked it turned around and he was gone.

@PapaLeo so you’ve almost crashed in a plane, been shot at in africa and seen your SO in a near death state? wow, you must be 200 years old.

I was driving in a remote, mountainous, jungle region in Malaysia with my wife and kids 20 years ago. We were stopped at a makeshift roadblock by 2 men with automatic weapons. They stood on both sides of the car and held the guns to our windows/heads. The saw both of my kids in sleeping in car seats and waved us on. Before I stopped, I actually considered speeding up and taking out at least one. It is a good thing I didn’t. There was another group just past them with a tripod mounted weapon in case there was trouble.
We went back to the same place (near the Selangor border) in 2001 so I could get “closure”.

When I was little I choked on a pepperoni grind. I tried to cough or talk but nothing would come out. I couldn’t breathe and I thought to myself that I was going to die. I was also told that my face turned blue. My dad gave me the Heimlich Maneuver and saved the day!

@evelyns_pet_zebra You didn’t say anything about hazmat chem on board and, no, I wasn’t driving a truck. But two experiences combined came close: 1) rolling, multiple times, a BMW 528 off an ice covered autobahn and 2) getting thrown out of the back of a hi-speed pickup on a dirt track.

@Clair 1) I’ve almost crashed in a two-seat Cessna over a windy drift in Hawaii with hella crosswinds with my ex-wife behind the wheel, 2) been shot at during a fast food robbery in LA and 3) my wife in a stroke state with extreme aphasia which, though not near death, was pretty damn scary.

So, no, you’re right you two, I didn’t literally, word for word, do everything above, but it’s been close enough for jazz. I didn’t mean to demean the others’ experiences, not at all. But, yeah, I’ve lived a full life.

@PapaLeo ; but ever actually been physically assaulted and violated?

@PapaLeo i wasn’t gettin up your ass or anything, it’s just that these were serious incidents for every one of these people and you were brushing them off with ‘been there, done that.’ i’m sure you didn’t mean it that way but i would have been offended if you said that about me. i’m very sorry to hear about all your misfortunes though.

@Clair Are your family still in hiding from your f. stepdad?

@oratio we stayed in a house without even going outside for fear of him finding us for almost three months. when we got out, i had blisters on my feet just walking through the store because i hadn’t walked on anything harder than carpet in so long.

@clair: What a terrible story. I hope you guys are doing well now.
BTW, where in Wyoming did you live?

@Clair No, I didn’t mean it that way. I’m sorry I came across as being so brusque. It wasn’t my intention to belittle what others have experienced. My apologies if I came across as inconsiderate.

@Judi sigh Assaulted yes, violated no.

@Les we are, thank you. every little bit of support is so encouraging. so many families think they can’t get away and most of the time, stay, being abused. but we didn’t. i’m glad i’m over the nightmare thing now and i can think about it and smile.

(when I was first diagnosed with schizophrenia) When I found out 2 people I know don’t exist, they live in my head, I’ve known one for 8–10yrs,also you don’t know if what you did in your past really happened,
and the Delusions I have are terrifying.

Realizing that I could just be me.

When I was told by a nephrologist that I was in kidney failure severe enough that dialysis was in my near future.

Fortunately, he was wrong (and almost as glad as I that he was).

I have a lot of supernatural experiences with ghosts and sixth senses which scares me ALOT!! But nobody believes me so I just don’t talk about it…but it does frighten me…

do someone has near death experience, kind of scary,

The times I couldn’t find my small children.

@Clair What do you mean trying not to wake your sister? You took her out of the RV with her. you poor, poor thing….

The time a deer ran into the side of my car. My little Honda kind of got knocked sideways, and I was horrified to think I had killed or badly injured it. It got up and ran away though.

I had gone hiking with some friends in the part of the Apennines called the Garfagnana. It had rained heavily just a few days previous (it was August, the most extreme season as far as thunderstorms were concerned, and so it was with little surprise that we came to a portion of the trail that had been washed out: nothing on the left but mountain face, nothing on the right but a steep, thousand-foot drop into the gorge below.

For some reason, we decided to try to cross the gap.

I don’t know how much of a gap it was. It may have been a mere six feet or so. But it seemed to be forever across, and handholds were reduced to a clump of grass and a bit of rock. I got halfway across (face down in the dirt, mind you), and then realized that I had no idea how to get the rest of the way over.
I thought of pickaxes, and helicopters, and how I had neither. I tried to kick a foothold in the soft dirt, but it just rolled down the slope. I briefly thought of myself following it. Finally, someone on the far side reached out and pulled me over.

I cannot remember just one, there were several. I guess the first one was the most memorable one as far as details. I was 15 or so, and I was walking from my apartment to a store owned by one of the teachers about a mile away as bus service was still crappy at that time. Some guy pulls up in a black pickup, stops on the road and asks if I needed a ride. I am thinking what luck; I don’t have to make that trip on foot this time. I get in and he ask me if I know where the action is, I am thinking he is talking about buying or using dope, which I had no clue. I tell him I don’t know where any action is. He asked me if I wanted some action, I asked what action, he said ”Do you want a blow job”. Cautiously I said “Where at?”, he then said ”I know a place we can park where no one will see us”. My blood ran colder than ice water. I said I had to get the stuff from the store first. He said OK and that he would wait. I got my stuff and seen a person from school and asked him to peek around the corner to see if the truck was still there. He said it was, and I told him of the bizarre tale, I told him I was going to book to the gas station at the corner bit it was a good 400 yards away. I must have ran that 400 years with a six pack if soda tucked under my arms like the pigskin on the gridiron, and a sack of stuff faster than I ever had in my life, all the time thinking he was going to come up behind me in the truck. I stayed at the gas station for a good while before heading home, all the time looking over my shoulder.