What moment scared you the most in your life?

Driving in the Sierra mountains in winter and the guys driving thought it was great to spin the car on the icy mountain passes. I thought it was dangerous. They stopped when they saw my terrorized face, thank God.

Someone else’s health concerns in my family.

-Being put under for surgery.
-Coming out as trans to the guy I’ve been in love with for years (preparatory to telling him I loved him, which was also quite scary).
-Having such low blood sugar a couple of times that I had to ask strangers to help me before I fainted. My field of vision was turning white.

When I was a kid I built a raft with a sail and took it out to sea. I had a pole to help push myself along parallel with the coast which was fine until suddenly the water was too deep for the pole and I couldn’t touch the bottom no matter how I stretched.

The wind and the tide were pulling me further out from the shore and I knew I had to get back quickly before it was too late. I jumped off and couldn’t swim as I still had a woollen jumper on. I had to clamber back on the raft take off the jumper and try again. I wasn’t a very strong swimmer.

I swam for the shore until I was tired and I tried to feel for the bottom with my feet. No joy, the water was too deep. I struggled on and though the shore didn’t seem too far off it wasn’t getting any closer either. On my third attempt and to me great relief my feet felt the sand and I was able to walk ashore. It was close. I could easily have drowned.

Probably when I was a child, my sister and I were awakened by smoke in the middle of the night because apparently my mom left a candle lit and the curtains went ablaze and pretty soon there was a big fire. We were so young and scared we didn’t know what to do and were afraid to leave our room until our mother came in and hurried us outside. My poor mother was hospitalized from inhaling too much smoke and she was in pretty bad shape. I was afraid for her life, but she made it out fine. We’re more cautious with the candles after that incident..

Last summer, after a CT scan, I was told by a doctor I needed to get to the hospital immediately. He wanted me to go by ambulance but I opted to drive myself. Ten miles in traffic… I still shudder when I think about it.

Thanks to meds and regular checkups, I’m fine now (in case you’re worried.)

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room That is very good to hear. Gosh no wonder you were scared. I’m not a very good patient and would have a stroke or heart attack at such an approach.

@TheProfoundPorcupine I’ve had so many so can only think of two now. Both were car accidents and both were when the car hit a pedestrian. Well three, as the third one involved hitting goats at high speed in the dead of night on a highway. It is a horrible feeling when your car is spinning out of control, and on one occasion into oncoming traffic.

I’ve faced death. I knew I was going to die. And the only thing going through my head was regrets for my loved ones. It wasn’t fun. And the adrenaline was insane. But God, please never let me face that again.

The first thing that came to mind was a few years ago. I drove over a set of railroad tracks. It was night time. Suddenly, not 10 feet away, ON the tracks, was a light bearing down on me! My heart stopped! I thought I was about to get hit by a train! Turns out, it was a motorcycle running beside the tracks.

A cold night on a cold pavement where I thought I was going to die. I was very happy the day after. I saw my life with fresh eyes.

Back in my ad agency days, I was working late one night—I think on a Sunday (those were my ambitious years). This was a very large, 2-floor building, and all the lights were out except in my cubicle upstairs. Suddenly I heard a noise in the hall, and I went out to check. There, standing about six feet away, was a night guard. He dropped to a shooting position and pointed his pistol at me. I threw up my arms and yelled, “I work here, I’m working late, don’t shoot.”

I had unknowingly tripped the security alarm when I cam in earlier, and this guard had come upstairs, seen my light and heard me coming out into the hall.

Thankfully, he believed me and lowered his gun. (To this day I still wish I’d had an extra pair of shorts in my desk!)

Gosh, I can imagine why I don’t like guns.

My scariest moment would be when my (then 15-month-old) son had a seizure. I’ve seen patients and my brother have seizures in the past, but that is nothing compared to when it was my son. Knowing all the things that can happen during and after a seizure just made it worse. He slept in our room for almost a week after that because I was so worried he would have another one while sleeping and I wouldn’t know about it.

I’ve been through numerous other scary situations, but that one was the worse.

A child’s medical issues has to be the scariest. I don’t have kids, but if I did that would be the scariest thing ever.

It wasn’t during my near death experience but after. Kind of funny how the fear didn’t hit me at all during the acute moments. Partially because I didn’t understand how serious it was, and partially some kind of defense mechanism, I’d guess. It was after I got home from the hospital and got my wits about me again and read the wikipedia article on septic shock and realized I was lucky to get away with my life, let alone all my organs, that sent a chill down my spine which took me years to shake. I’m still working on shaking it, honestly.

@Mariah That’s exactly how it was for me when I went through thyroid storm at age 15. I had no idea it could have killed me until later. Probably a good thing for both of us!

I’ve had long-term fear a couple of times, for very good cause, but they don’t seem as dramatic as the instantaneous terror that hits out of nowhere. Long term fears included being sure I was going to be murdered by my sexual abuser the whole year between ages 13 and 14, until he moved out of state. Later on, being afraid my middle child was going to have to be hospitalized and put on a feeding tube because she wouldn’t eat. She weighed just 44½ lbs at 8 years old, and was ½ pound away from the bottom weight limit when we finally hit on something she could/would eat. It took a long time to totally turn that situation around. Today, she’s alive and well, and eats the healthiest out of my whole family!

Two terrifying instant fears: The time a very large TV fell over, almost crushing my oldest when she was just a toddler. I heard a huge crash, came running, and couldn’t see her…initially thought she was under the TV. Thank god, she was just on the other side of it and it had only grazed her knee on the way down. And the time my youngest child choked on a piece of hard candy. I think she was 4 at the time. I vividly remember ‘knee walking’ across the floor, doing the Heimlich on her, to reach the phone to call 911. Just before the ambulance arrived, the candy popped out. Both of those incidents left me shaken for days.

Oh….That time, Auggie, when my son was about 3 months old. I had him in his car seat and the car seat was on the dining table. I didn’t have him strapped in. I was in the kitchen when I heard this “SPLAT!!” sound. I thought….“No way. NO FREAKIN’ WAY!!” And I rushed in there, and there he was, on his belly, on the floor, waving his arms around with this bubble over his head that said, “Let’s do it again!!” Didn’t scare him in the least. About made an orphan out of him, though! He’s tall and skinny now. I’m just glad he was a fat baby!

Got lost on a wet, muddy hill track in New Zealand and nearly died when trying to make our way down. It took me ages to lose the nightmares of grabbing on to small trees and bushes to pull myself up and the tree or bush in my hand would uproot and I would slide down to a cliff’s edge with the raging Manawatu River swirling and raging below.