Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Explain What Absolutely Terrifies Them To The Core

People Explain What Absolutely Terrifies Them To The Core
Melanie Wasser on Unsplash
Make us preferred on Google

Fears.

We all have them, but not all fears are the same.

There are things that make us a little uncomfortable, but then there are things that completely terrify us.


Reddit user, Immediate-Salary-736, wanted to know what makes your hairs stand up on the back of your neck when they asked:

"What terrifies the sh*t out of you?"

Trapped

"Locked in syndrome."

"Cannot move your body, speak, do anything but think."

"I think you can move your eyes?"

"Maybe?"

"Otherwise you're completely at the mercy of your surroundings."

"If I ever get it, just kill me."

Brachiozord

Losing Control

"Alzheimer's disease"

Dapper-Way-1114·

"On a similar note, Parkinson's. My grandfather was lucid to the end; but physically he was just completely helpless."

mossadspydolphin

"Yup. I don't fear death, but the prospect of losing my personality and sense of self little by little terrifies me. If I ever get diagnosed with Alzheimer's or dementia I'm going to go out on my own terms."

Northerleyfire

In An Instant


"A brain aneurysm. One killed my mother when I was 23, instantly. I rang her 4 days before and she didn't even have a runny nose then bam, dead. Late fifties."

"Supposedly I'm more likely to have one on a hereditary level. F**king terrifying"

[user deleted]

Clots

"Blood clots, aneurysms anything that you cant really detect happening in Your body until it’s too late. Like WTF."

Deus_Ex_Machiavelli

"In a 5 year stretch I knew 12 people who died of blood clots in their legs. 3 of them were related a dad and his two daughters. They all started out with a weird pain in their leg. Then dead. I’m petrified of this. Whenever I get a leg cramp I freak out."

klsprinkle

Late Discoveries

"Finally discovering very late in life, what I was supposed to have been doing the entire time."

MeToolMovement

"This one definitely resonates very strongly with me. I just turned 40 and I've failed to achieve much of anything for myself... after college I was totally lost and directionless- and I never stopped being that. I often lie awake at night wondering if any hypothetical positive that might occur at this point in life could make up for all of the wasted years already behind me."

DonktorDonkenstein

Thought not everything has to do with the body. Some people had real world fears and phobias.

Seaworthy

"The thought of Being in the middle of the ocean stranded"

crackonwednesdays

"Ooof, Open Water. That film would’ve stayed with me for years even if I hadn’t known it was based on a true story, but knowing that those two people were just abandoned in the open sea (and that no one realized they were gone for TWO DAYS) just ruined me."

Elvis_Take_The_Wheel

"The last scene in The Perfect Storm where the guy is alone in the water during the storm and the camera pulls away until he disappears."

Ardothbey

Pest Control

"Cockroaches when they start flying."

luvkakar·

"I went to South America for a summer in my teens. I stayed with a very poor family and slept on the floor. I will always remember being woken up by these strange noises. I turned on the light and the room was absolutely teeming in giant flying cockroaches. When I turned on the light half of them started flying around. I've never been more grossed out and horrified in my life. It still haunts my dreams."

rburgundy69

'We have a saying here in Mexico: Todos son muy machos hasta que vuela la cucaracha 'everyone is too tough until a cockroach flies.'"

alxtronics

Open Road


"Driving. Especially out of town. I do it every day in my own town, and have very few issues, although I do get a little nervous sometimes. But man. Put me on a road trip even just 2 hours away and I'm a nervous wreck. Unfamiliar traffic and driving conditions will never not scare the shit out of me."

"Oh, and heights. F**k heights."

[user deleted]

Wreckage

"Getting into a serious car crash."

Primary_Asparagus_58

"So, here's how mine went if anyone's interested. Moral of the story is don't drive tired. Might be a little long, but it's here if anyone wants to read it."

"I fell asleep driving once. When the car went off the road, that's exactly when I woke up. So opened my eyes to going downhill in the grass, at about 100kmh/55mph. My reaction was just steer away from the trees and mash the brakes. I avoided the trees, but hit the end of a steel culvert sticking out from under a driveway."

"The culvert caught the car just below the steel bumper support, ripping the bottom half of the rad and condenser off, the oil and transmission pans, and part of the floor, as the wheels straddled it, and the car went up and jumped the side of driveway, becoming airborne. Landed completely sideways in the driveway on all 4 wheels."

"The scariest part was when it stopped, my glasses were gone (found them in the rear window deck) from the airbag, and I put my hand on my face and felt lots of warm liquid running down my skin. I figured it was blood, and when I pulled my hand away, it was brown?... looked down, my coffee was still in the cup holder, no lid, half full. It was coffee."

Mechanicface

We all face our fears daily.

Hopefully we never have to face the ones that truly terrify us.

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Zohran Mamdani
Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images

Mamdani Speaks Out After Releasing 9/11 Records That Reveal NYC Officials Knew Air Around Ground Zero Was 'Toxic'

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke out after releasing more than 170,000 pages of undisclosed city records to the public ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks that prove city officials knew that the air was "toxic" around Ground Zero during recovery efforts.

Documents reviewed by the New York Times before their release indicate that asbestos concentrations in dust collected throughout the area exceeded hazardous thresholds in the days after the World Trade Center collapsed. Testing also found asbestos and other contaminants in the air and dust at levels considered unsafe.

Keep Reading Show less
Donald Trump
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Trump Was Just Spotted With A Bizarre New Brunette Hair Color—And Here Come The Jokes

President Donald Trump was widely mocked after he was recently spotted departing Air Force One sporting what appeared to be a much darker shade of hair color than the blonde that we're used to seeing.

Trump has for years sported his signature combover, and he has previously spoken about having a significant bald spot on his head. However, he denies wearing a wig.

Keep Reading Show less
Screenshot of Donald Trump
Fox News

Trump Slammed After Jokingly Lamenting That 9/11 Hero Is 'More Famous' Than He Is In Tone-Deaf Speech

After speaking during the “Steel Across America” event put on by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, President Donald Trump was criticized for lamenting that one hero of the September 11 terror attacks is "more famous" than him.

Trump was referring to Welles Crowther, an equities trader at Sandler O’Neill & Partners who was working in the South Tower on Sept. 11, 2001. Crowther, who became known for wearing a red bandana, helped evacuate people from the building and is credited with saving at least 18 lives before the tower collapsed.

Keep Reading Show less
Robert Pattinson (left) responds to Chris Hansen’s (right) criticism of Primetime.
Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images; Mireya Acierto/FilmMagic

Robert Pattinson Reacts To 'To Catch A Predator' Star Chris Hansen's Criticism Of His Portrayal In New Film

It’s probably not every day Robert Pattinson gets publicly critiqued by Chris Hansen, but here we are. The actor addressed the former To Catch a Predator host’s concerns about Primetime at the Venice International Film Festival, offering a gracious response to the man whose television career helped inspire the film.

At the panel, Pattinson addressed Hansen’s concerns directly:

Keep Reading Show less
Amanda Hirsch (left) apologized after facing backlash over a Polymarket post tied to the Lindsay Clancy (right) trial.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TIME; Greg Derr / POOL / AFP via Getty Images

Podcaster Apologizes After 'Insensitive' Post About Betting On Lindsay Clancy Trial Sparks Backlash

Amanda Hirsch is walking back a promotional post that encouraged followers to wager on the verdict in the Lindsay Clancy trial. The Not Skinny But Not Fat creator and host found herself in hot water after her partnership with Polymarket drew backlash online.

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse from Duxbury, Massachusetts, was charged with killing her three young children in January 2023. Her case has since fueled debate over maternal mental health, the healthcare system, and the legal definition of insanity.

Keep Reading Show less