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What Is The Most Frightened You Have Ever Been?

rhinefire

rhinefire

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Mine is when I was 9 or 10 I was standing by a stream fishing by myself. A man appeared out of the wooded area on the opposite side of the stream. He made a vicious face and said, "I'm gong to cut your nuts off." I instantly dropped my pole and ran as fast as I could for a mile or so on the paved road to the cottage we were vacationing at. All I could think of as I was running is to run as fast as nature would allow! I never told my parents about it. I have never forgotten that image of him staring at me. He had what I think was tree branch clippers in his hand but then I did not spend a lot of time looking at him. I often think how horrible it must be to be a child kidnapped by a murderer.
 
The scariest thing that ever happened to me was being stuck in Libya for a week after the revolution broke out in Tripoli. I was responsible for helping coordinate the evacuation of Americans while also fearing for the lives of my wife and two very young boys who were there with me. As an Army officer I would expect to be in a combat zone. But being stuck in a combat zone with your family and zero military support is beyond terrifying. The only US military personnel in the whole country were me and two other Army attachés. This was back before Benghazi so we had no Marines or anything. We only had the local security forces to protect us and they disappeared the moment the shooting happened.

There I was in my house with my wife, newborn baby son, and 4-year-old son. People were dead in the street in from of my house, my 4-year old asking, "Daddy, can we go watch the fire works" as the sounds of combat got closer and tracer rounds were going over our roof.

There was no 911 to call. There was nobody at the embassy or anywhere else capable of coming to our rescue. American diplomats were not permitted to have weapons so I was unarmed. Not that a gun would have saved my family if our house was identified and attacked. It was hands down, by orders of magnitude, the worst several days of my life. Zero sleep and this deep feeling of helplessness beyond anything describable. And on top of that I was being hounded by very high ranking officials outside the country with constant requests for SITREPs and coming up with evac plans that wouldn't get everyone killed. In the end we pulled it off with zero American casualties but the pressure broke me. I didn't feel the ramifications of it until after we were out but it took a good amount of therapy, and medication for a time, for me to be normal again.
 
In 2008 when Obama was elected President.
 
There have been several times I really thought I was about to die, but I was also very occupied with doing my job at the time and fear never really took hold.
A few years back, we were out on a small island beach and we and our pontoon boat had the place to ourselves. The tide had shifted and started really going out hard and the boat suddenly started to slip both anchors. Without engaging my brain I ran into the water without my vest and went swimming after the boat. I got about halfway to it when the speed of the current really started to take me sideways. The boat was not moving out to sea as fast as I was and I suddenly realized I might drown. I swam as hard as I could and just as I was running out of gas, caught the bumper hanging off the stern of the boat. I barely had enough strength to drag my dumb ass to the ladder and get on board. When I got to the console and looked up I was about a 1/4 mile from where I started. When I got back to the beach, nobody seemed to have realized what had just taken place. For the minute or so I was chasing that boat I was terrified. I have never told the family this. They have questioned my upgraded rule regarding lifejackets.
 
Well let's see... I've been shot at, been on the wrong end of a knife a couple times, fought men twice my size, fought several men at once, survived several car accidents, and all kinds of other crazy crap.


The most frightened I've ever been was at Six Flags Over Georgia on a ride called Acrophobia, which I rode with Son#1 back when he was about 14.

Didn't really know what I was getting into. There's not really a seat, just a stub of one, and a double shoulder belt to hold you.

I fastened my own belts and noted the ride operator did not check them.

Then we swoop up to 200' and stopped... THEN you tilt outward and dangle.


Nothing holding you but those crossed belts... that the operator didn't check.

Then we dangled. 200' up over nothing, a little nylon between me and falling. This went on while the guy babbled nonsense over the loudspeakers for some time. Minutes. Seemed like hours.


My heart was trying to hammer its way out of my chest. An utter certainty took hold that I was going to die of heart failure before they dropped us.... assuming my unchecked belt buckles didn't give way and drop me. I was as terrified as I'd ever been. This thing was going to land and Son#1 would find his father's corpse strapped to the not-a-seat next to him.

Closed my eyes and waited to die.

Freefall came, and I was thankful. Finally, I could die and get this over with.


Well obviously I didn't. Instead I staggered and wobbled out of the ride and sat at the nearby outdoor cantina. I spent several minutes talking myself out of murdering the ride operator, declined Son#1's request to "go again!" and went looking for something to ride that didn't involve dangling a mile up by an unchecked seat belt.


'Druther fight six men with straight razors any day of the week. Screw that ride.
 
Goshin said:
Well let's see... I've been shot at, been on the wrong end of a knife a couple times, fought men twice my size, fought several men at once, survived several car accidents, and all kinds of other crazy crap.


The most frightened I've ever been was at Six Flags Over Georgia on a ride called Acrophobia, which I rode with Son#1 back when he was about 14.

Didn't really know what I was getting into. There's not really a seat, just a stub of one, and a double shoulder belt to hold you.

I fastened my own belts and noted the ride operator did not check them.

Then we swoop up to 200' and stopped... THEN you tilt outward and dangle.


Nothing holding you but those crossed belts... that the operator didn't check.

Then we dangled. 200' up over nothing, a little nylon between me and falling. This went on while the guy babbled nonsense over the loudspeakers for some time. Minutes. Seemed like hours.


My heart was trying to hammer its way out of my chest. An utter certainty took hold that I was going to die of heart failure before they dropped us.... assuming my unchecked belt buckles didn't give way and drop me. I was as terrified as I'd ever been. This thing was going to land and Son#1 would find his father's corpse strapped to the not-a-seat next to him.

Closed my eyes and waited to die.

Freefall came, and I was thankful. Finally, I could die and get this over with.


Well obviously I didn't. Instead I staggered and wobbled out of the ride and sat at the nearby outdoor cantina. I spent several minutes talking myself out of murdering the ride operator, declined Son#1's request to "go again!" and went looking for something to ride that didn't involve dangling a mile up by an unchecked seat belt.


'Druther fight six men with straight razors any day of the week. Screw that ride.
Click to expand...

Now they do it with VR.

https://www.sixflags.com/overgeorgia/attractions/acrophobia
 
The most frightened I had ever been was with MDMA. I don't do drugs... but I have before... could count the number of times on one hand I smoked weed, and I did MDMA 3 times over the course of 5 years in college....nothing else
never again....

I was at a music festival with friends... called Tomorroworld(it actually got bankrupt now so they don't have it anymore) And a friend of mine offered it to me... and I usually decline, but Idk I had it 2 times before and it was perfectly fine, so whynot? I rarely ever do anything...

My body overeacted to it... I don't know how much I took, but no more than my friends. I felt like I took 5 red bulls and injected them into my bloodstream. I was so amped up, I was checking my pulse and it was no slower than 200 bpm... and at times higher...

I didn't make a scene, but I was in a huge crowd and was in just utter internal suffering and horror... the feeling of not being able to relax no matter what I did, no matter what I thought.. really got me. I retreated to outside the huge crowd, and just played the waiting game and debating on whether I should seek first aid. It eventually died down...

for the first month after the incident I had a panic attack at least 4 times a day... never had a panic attack in my life. What happened was, I think, is whenever my heartrate elevated beyond bare minimum pulse, my body would freak out. for 3 months straight I had a panic attack almost daily until it started to go away. Also during this time I had extreme head fog, and I felt like I was outside by body looking in.

don't play games with the brain kids...

I think I honestly had some form of PSTD from the experience. It made me realize what a panic attack actually was, before I never really understood... it's a completely involuntary action, outside your thoughts... your body just decides to go into panic mode for no reason at all. I could even appear 100% calm, but inside by body would be in panic.
 
Decided to go for a hike early one morning. Climbed up this little slide area to the base of a large finger where I knew a trail was. Noticed that I was climbing past pitons on the way up but there was a trail at the top and it didn't seem that steep. Got about 20' from the top and found myself looking at a sheer wall with that damned finger on top of it and the trail just over the ledge. Since I didn't have any gear with me (it was just a hike) I took a good long look at that wall and decided it was just high enough, and there was just enough debris at the base, where if I fell I'd be about guaranteed to break an ankle with nobody anywhere close to shouting distance. At that I decided to turn around and climb back down. Well, once I turned around I got a whole new perspective on what I'd been climbing up for the past two hours and it was, in a word, unsettling. The slope I'd come up was about a 70° average with several vertical sections. There was loose rock, yucca, cactus and other stuff with stickers all the way.

It was a LONG and slow climb back down which included me hugging a yucca to lower myself over one of those vertical spots more than once. When I got back down to the trail I simply burst into laughter because I was so happy to still be alive.
 
celticwar17 said:
The most frightened I had ever been was with MDMA. I don't do drugs... but I have before... could count the number of times on one hand I smoked weed, and I did MDMA 3 times over the course of 5 years in college....nothing else
never again....

I was at a music festival with friends... called Tomorroworld(it actually got bankrupt now so they don't have it anymore) And a friend of mine offered it to me... and I usually decline, but Idk I had it 2 times before and it was perfectly fine, so whynot? I rarely ever do anything...

My body overeacted to it... I don't know how much I took, but no more than my friends. I felt like I took 5 red bulls and injected them into my bloodstream. I was so amped up, I was checking my pulse and it was no slower than 200 bpm... and at times higher...

I didn't make a scene, but I was in a huge crowd and was in just utter internal suffering and horror... the feeling of not being able to relax no matter what I did, no matter what I thought.. really got me. I retreated to outside the huge crowd, and just played the waiting game and debating on whether I should seek first aid. It eventually died down...

for the first month after the incident I had a panic attack at least 4 times a day... never had a panic attack in my life. What happened was, I think, is whenever my heartrate elevated beyond bare minimum pulse, my body would freak out. for 3 months straight I had a panic attack almost daily until it started to go away. Also during this time I had extreme head fog, and I felt like I was outside by body looking in.

don't play games with the brain kids...

I think I honestly had some form of PSTD from the experience. It made me realize what a panic attack actually was, before I never really understood... it's a completely involuntary action, outside your thoughts... your body just decides to go into panic mode for no reason at all. I could even appear 100% calm, but inside by body would be in panic.
Click to expand...




Yeah, people who have never had a panic attack don't understand. I know I didn't... I thought "bah, it's all in your head, just exercise some self-discipline!"


Uh-huh. Then I started having them. Went to the ER, thought it was a heart attack. No sir, nothing wrong with your heart... diagnosis: panic attack.

What? Me? Panic attack? Don't be ridiculous. That's for the weak minded.


Hah. No it isn't. "But I thought that was all in your head," I protested.

"It is all in your head," the doc said.

"Didn't FEEL like it," I replied resentfully. "Felt like dying."

"That too," said Doctor Comedian.


The mind is a terrible thing....
 
Eighteen years old. About 4 months into my first tour in Vietnam. I worked on helicopter electronics/communications systems (Avionics). REALLY tired of the same old same old. The call comes out for volunteer door gunner on our Hueys for a week. I raised my hand.

The third day, we were inserting a group of ARVN troops into an LZ...we started taking fire from the tree line...we came in fast...the ARVNs jumped out...and we were out of there. The whole time, I'm firing my '60 at any flashes I can see in the trees...hoping to god I hit something.

We beat feet out of there. As we are pulling away, the co-pilot's head explodes. He took a round through my open door and under the back of his helmet. I flipped the rear locks on his seat and collapsed it back so he wouldn't interfere with the pilot. Blood washed the floor. We got back to the staging area and dealt with the mess.

But you know, during all that...I wasn't scared a bit. I didn't have time. I was just reacting...doing. It wasn't till later when I thought about it...if that round had been fired a split-second later...at a slightly different angle...if WE had be moving in a slightly different direction...it would have been me.

THAT'S when I got scared. I finished my week with no other incidents and never volunteered for door gunner again.
 
Lutherf said:
Decided to go for a hike early one morning. Climbed up this little slide area to the base of a large finger where I knew a trail was. Noticed that I was climbing past pitons on the way up but there was a trail at the top and it didn't seem that steep. Got about 20' from the top and found myself looking at a sheer wall with that damned finger on top of it and the trail just over the ledge. Since I didn't have any gear with me (it was just a hike) I took a good long look at that wall and decided it was just high enough, and there was just enough debris at the base, where if I fell I'd be about guaranteed to break an ankle with nobody anywhere close to shouting distance. At that I decided to turn around and climb back down. Well, once I turned around I got a whole new perspective on what I'd been climbing up for the past two hours and it was, in a word, unsettling. The slope I'd come up was about a 70° average with several vertical sections. There was loose rock, yucca, cactus and other stuff with stickers all the way.

It was a LONG and slow climb back down which included me hugging a yucca to lower myself over one of those vertical spots more than once. When I got back down to the trail I simply burst into laughter because I was so happy to still be alive.
Click to expand...



It's so often like that isn't it? Everything seems to be going fine, then suddenly it isn't fine at all. :)
 
My first time on the flight deck during flight ops. There is nothing quite like it. The sound is continuous and so loud that you cannot use it for anything. It is all around, all pervasive. You can't get directions from it. It is insane. Then there are 20ish aircraft, all with motors going, some where taxiing. Plus tow tractors rushing in to hook up to aircraft not launching and get them out of the way. Couple hundred people, all rushing about doing whatever. Sections of the deck would lift up and drop down. All these lines I did not really understand marking out where I could be, and seeming to change meaning by the minute. It is total sensory overload and you have to try and do your job in that environment.

Note: once I got used to it, I fell in love with it, but that first time...
 
Mine is basically more of a comedy in the ending, though it didn't seem so at the time. I was in Baghdad on a normal night when the entire city erupted in gunfire, and I mean the entire city, with some decent sized weaponry. I thought, somehow, that there was some massive up-rise that was planned and somehow we had missed the indicators. It was such that I thought we would all be done for in a human tidal wave.

Come to find out, the Iraqi soccer team had made the Olympics for the first time and it was all celebratory gunfire. Stupid people and their stupid idea of celebration by shooting bullets into the air, rofl.
 
Mycroft said:
Eighteen years old. About 4 months into my first tour in Vietnam. I worked on helicopter electronics/communications systems (Avionics). REALLY tired of the same old same old. The call comes out for volunteer door gunner on our Hueys for a week. I raised my hand.

The third day, we were inserting a group of ARVN troops into an LZ...we started taking fire from the tree line...we came in fast...the ARVNs jumped out...and we were out of there. The whole time, I'm firing my '60 at any flashes I can see in the trees...hoping to god I hit something.

We beat feet out of there. As we are pulling away, the co-pilot's head explodes. He took a round through my open door and under the back of his helmet. I flipped the rear locks on his seat and collapsed it back so he wouldn't interfere with the pilot. Blood washed the floor. We got back to the staging area and dealt with the mess.

But you know, during all that...I wasn't scared a bit. I didn't have time. I was just reacting...doing. It wasn't till later when I thought about it...if that round had been fired a split-second later...at a slightly different angle...if WE had be moving in a slightly different direction...it would have been me.

THAT'S when I got scared. I finished my week with no other incidents and never volunteered for door gunner again.
Click to expand...


Scary stuff. I know exactly what you mean though... while its going on you're too damn busy to be scared. Always hits me later, after it sinks in how close it was.
 
Only once that sticks with me when I think about it.

Our older boy who was a freshman in HS at the time got hit by a car who ran a stop sign. My wife calls me up in a panic telling me that he got hit by a car and was at the emergency room. My face drained of color... then she told me not to worry he was going to be fine. I still vacillate between fear and rage at that one.
 
1985 Fourth of July at Michigan State, me and a bunch of house mates went to a gravel pit lake (It is now a park...Hawk Island), drank a lot all day, smoked a lot....I decided to swim the the island but no one wanted to come with so I went myself. Was floating on my back, really enjoying myself. Fell asleep. Woke up drowning. It seemed to go on forever.

I had a serious talk with myself the days after about risk assessment.

This is when I figured out that dying stupid could happen to me.
 
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I was once extremely frightened of an individual for reasons I cant really articulate:

I was doing contract work in a medium security correctional environment. I had done this work from time to time so I was experienced with prisoners. Likewise, at the time, I was in good shape and had boxed recreationally for a period of years. Though there were prisoners there who could hurt me physically, the average medium security prisoner at that place did not intimidate me.

Anyways, I was evaluating an inmate. The man had been tortured by vigilantes in his home country and had the scars to prove it. He had also been convicted of a few offenses in the US, including a mid level violence based offense. He was not large and did not appear to be exceptionally athletic. He was calm and did not threaten me verbally or physically. He was not mentally ill.

Yet, there was odd flatness to his eyes and he seemed to radiate some sort of alien malevolent aura. maybe like a fully evil person? Soon, I was dreading his presence and felt that he intended to attack me with an intent to maim. I ended the assessment early- completely un nerved by him. Even the presence of the two guards escorting him back to the cells did not make me feel that I was out of danger.

To this day, I cant explain why I felt so un nerved by this man. Though I no longer work in correctional environments, I have only felt such feelings of malevolence with one or two other inmates. Even these two other men did not un nerve me like that man did.
 
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Goshin said:
Yeah, people who have never had a panic attack don't understand. I know I didn't... I thought "bah, it's all in your head, just exercise some self-discipline!"


Uh-huh. Then I started having them. Went to the ER, thought it was a heart attack. No sir, nothing wrong with your heart... diagnosis: panic attack.

What? Me? Panic attack? Don't be ridiculous. That's for the weak minded.

.
Click to expand...

A lot of times, people just don't understand the trials and tribulations other people go through until it happens to them. That is everything from panic attacks, to fighting discrimination, to trying to claw your way from poverty... without a good family support system. After you seen someone go through a flashback , you tend to be more sympathetic. I have not had that kind of incident happen to me, but I have some experience in having to handle someone's flashbacks.
 
celticwar17 said:
The most frightened I had ever been was with MDMA. I don't do drugs... but I have before... could count the number of times on one hand I smoked weed, and I did MDMA 3 times over the course of 5 years in college....nothing else
never again....

I was at a music festival with friends... called Tomorroworld(it actually got bankrupt now so they don't have it anymore) And a friend of mine offered it to me... and I usually decline, but Idk I had it 2 times before and it was perfectly fine, so whynot? I rarely ever do anything...

My body overeacted to it... I don't know how much I took, but no more than my friends. I felt like I took 5 red bulls and injected them into my bloodstream. I was so amped up, I was checking my pulse and it was no slower than 200 bpm... and at times higher...

I didn't make a scene, but I was in a huge crowd and was in just utter internal suffering and horror... the feeling of not being able to relax no matter what I did, no matter what I thought.. really got me. I retreated to outside the huge crowd, and just played the waiting game and debating on whether I should seek first aid. It eventually died down...

for the first month after the incident I had a panic attack at least 4 times a day... never had a panic attack in my life. What happened was, I think, is whenever my heartrate elevated beyond bare minimum pulse, my body would freak out. for 3 months straight I had a panic attack almost daily until it started to go away. Also during this time I had extreme head fog, and I felt like I was outside by body looking in.

don't play games with the brain kids...

I think I honestly had some form of PSTD from the experience. It made me realize what a panic attack actually was, before I never really understood... it's a completely involuntary action, outside your thoughts... your body just decides to go into panic mode for no reason at all. I could even appear 100% calm, but inside by body would be in panic.
Click to expand...

Yeah, drugs are the only things that ever game me a panic attack. Never MDMA, though. That has always been positive. But too big a dose of magic mushrooms or LSD will do it. The more you fight it the worse it gets. If I ever do psychedelics again I will be staying in the lightweight class.
 
My father fought the Germans and told me had a recurring dream of being behind a machine gun firing at close range and watching all of the bullets miss all of the charging Nazis despite the close range. He would awaken when they were right on top of them. My next door neighbor growing up was a wonderful and kind human being that fought in several campaigns against the Japanese. He battled his nightmares and memories all of his adult life and drank at the local bar until he could barely walk. He could manage to dry out for several short period of time but the memories were simply too much. It taught me to never lose sight of the real horrors of war and that war is man's greatest abomination. Our fears are nothing in comparison to those that have witnessed the unforgivable atrocities of war.
 
Goshin said:
Yeah, people who have never had a panic attack don't understand. I know I didn't... I thought "bah, it's all in your head, just exercise some self-discipline!"


Uh-huh. Then I started having them. Went to the ER, thought it was a heart attack. No sir, nothing wrong with your heart... diagnosis: panic attack.

What? Me? Panic attack? Don't be ridiculous. That's for the weak minded.


Hah. No it isn't. "But I thought that was all in your head," I protested.

"It is all in your head," the doc said.

"Didn't FEEL like it," I replied resentfully. "Felt like dying."

"That too," said Doctor Comedian.


The mind is a terrible thing....
Click to expand...


I am addicted to a drug that controls my panic attacks. It isn't just in the mind. My panic is caused by a chemical imbalance. Yours may be as well.
 
fmw said:
I am addicted to a drug that controls my panic attacks. It isn't just in the mind. My panic is caused by a chemical imbalance. Yours may be as well.
Click to expand...



Yeah probably so. Sorta falls under "in your head", in a sense lol... but not something you can do a lot about.


I can frequently control and subdue minor panic attacks with various mental techniques, but once in a while I have a bad one and can't do anything with it without a "chill pill'.


I refused any sort of regular daily medication for it... that stuff concerns me... so I have a mild sedative in my med bag for the occasional bad ones.
 
Goshin said:
Yeah probably so. Sorta falls under "in your head", in a sense lol... but not something you can do a lot about.


I can frequently control and subdue minor panic attacks with various mental techniques, but once in a while I have a bad one and can't do anything with it without a "chill pill'.


I refused any sort of regular daily medication for it... that stuff concerns me... so I have a mild sedative in my med bag for the occasional bad ones.
Click to expand...

Before I started Lexapro I used to engage in walking fast in a circle. That seemed to help sometimes. I could slow it sometimes by hyperventilating in the cold winter night air I've been on Lexapro for 12 years now and I've only had 4 attacks in all that time. All of them occurred when I was hospitalized for other things. For me it is worth the addiction. Addiction may be an overstatement. I could wind down from it in a month or two but the attacks would resume. So I continue on.
 
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