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

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

Lesbian Has Podcast Hosts Cracking Up After Thanking 'Stupid' MAGA Alpha Males For Hilarious Reason

To cap off an otherwise bleak year, Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan gave their listeners a gift: a TikTok roundup of the top voice memos of 2025 from their podcast, I've Had It.

One message, in particular, sent the hosts into hysterics—and the algorithm into a tailspin—after a lesbian listener thanked MAGA “alpha males” for their accidental contribution to the rise of late-in-life lesbians.

Keep Reading Show less
Screenshots from @ms_d_math's TikTok video
@ms_d_math/TikTok

Teachers Share The Things That Were Normal For Millennials That Would Have Their Students 'Crashing Out'

We all know, in theory, that the times are changing, and with each new generation of students there will be changes in educational curriculum, approach, and learning tools.

But just like how hard it can be to do the math to figure out how long ago we graduated from high school, it can be really hard to swallow the fact that school looks so incredibly different for students now than it did for Millennials and Gen-Xers.

Keep Reading Show less
Mehmet Oz
Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

Dr. Oz Raises Eyebrows Over His Bizarre Defense Of New Guidelines For Alcohol Consumption

Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump's administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), raised eyebrows over his bizarre and surprisingly permissive defense of new guidelines for alcohol consumption, saying "it does allow people an excuse to bond and socialize, and there’s probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way."

Oz spoke as the Trump administration on Wednesday released updated dietary guidelines for Americans, emphasizing whole and minimally processed foods, reduced consumption of refined carbohydrates, and what officials described as a “war” on added sugars.

Keep Reading Show less
Bowen Yang
Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Bowen Yang Gets Candid About Why He Decided To Leave 'SNL' After His Sudden Exit

Bowen Yang, who's well-known for his work on Saturday Night Live and his role in Wicked and Wicked: For Good, stepped off of the SNL stage for the last time, mid-season, after being a writer and performer for the past eight seasons.

During his final skit, Yang starred opposite Ariana Grande, with the couple playing a married couple. Grande was waiting for Bowen to come from after his final shift before retiring from working at an airport.

Keep Reading Show less
Kyle Rittenhouse
Sean Krajacic-Pool/Getty Images

Kyle Rittenhouse Blasted Over Sociopathic Post Following ICE Shooting In Minneapolis

Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse sparked outrage after he offered to travel to Minnesota following ICE's fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed Good “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.” But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pushed back against this narrative considering witnesses described seeing Good in the vehicle trying to flee officers when she was shot.

Keep Reading Show less