Hopefully we all travel through his world with happiness and health - never knowing what it's like to truly fear for our lives. But for some, that's just not an option. These people experienced truly heart-stopping fear and lived to tell us about it.

I was flying an airliner. We were maybe 1,000 above the ground while on approach to land at a smaller airport. There were thunderstorms in the area and we ended up in a microburst with zero visibility. We got a wind shear warning in the cockpit and started to go around. At full throttle and the nose up we were still sinking at around 400ft/min.

Everything seemed to be running in slow motion both me and the other pilot were running through our required actions and call outs due to the training. In the back of my mind all I could think about was I can’t see the ground and we are falling. I know there is a hill out here somewhere, this is where I am going to die. The plane got down to around 400ft off the ground before it finally started to climb. This was the most fear I had ever felt in my life.

121guy

The time I got into bed with my girlfriend and immediately started coughing up blood. Ran into the bathroom and held onto the sink for dear life, every breath I tried to take I just ended up wheezing more blood out of my lungs. By the time the ambulance got there I had pretty much come to terms that this was how I died. Then it slowed down and finally stopped by the time I got to the ER.

Long story short it turned out to be hodgkin's lymphoma. Had chemo for 6 months and am cured now with minimal repercussions. Scariest time of my life.

emf3rd31495

When i was trying to sleep at around 3 and felt someone press on my bed. Then bag on the chair started shaking. Then again i felt something on my bed. Finally I had the courage to switch on light and found a giant rat on my bed .

jakewang1

I was riding my bike home from work along a pretty busy main road (I live in the city). I got to a downhill and started to pick up pace when I noticed a brown snake, which are very deadly, lying across the bike just lane ahead of me. There was a car in the lane next to me and it was too late to stop, but I somehow managed to dodge the snake and kept riding.

About 50 metres later, just as I thought I was safe, I heard a very loud hissing and felt something rush past my leg and thought the snake had somehow caught up and bitten me. It turns out my back tyre burst but in the moment I was absolutely terrified.

danpra

When my mom and then- 5 year old brother got in an atv accident. They were driving slow through the woods and a large, dead tree fell alongside the trail, knocking down a smaller tree, which hit them both in the head. Freak accident.

My other brother and I were outside filling the pool and we heard my mom yelling something. I didn't know what it was but my stomach dropped. We both ran to the head of the trail across the yard, and she was carrying my little brother, both covered in blood. She ran half of that mile-long trail carrying him.

They were both in the hospital for a week. Mom got some stitches in her face, and my brother's skull was shattered, requiring surgery and a metal plate put in.

He's graduating high school next year and doing well.

Milayouqt

I was on a 360 degree roller coaster and you go around and around but it got stuck at the very top and the ride shut down for 5 minutes so I was upside-down and I was verylittle and it was terrifying.

Bulletbill7597

I was 6 years old and went to take a leak. I was at my grandma's house in a small village in India. The bathroom was an outhouse. Just as I was about to start, I noticed a cobra hissing at me. I ran like hell.

AmanLovesSanDiego

The morning of my mom's wedding. Everyone relaxing. Eating breakfast. Clothes everywhere. Cousins running around. All of the adults are on their porch chilling.

I hear my daughter SCREAMING. I run in the dining room. There were clothes draped over the back of a dining room chair. The clothes had a metal coat hanger on them. She had gotten the hook of the metal hanger under her eyelid.

I grabbed the back of her head and slowly pulled the hook out. Put a little ice on her eye for a bit. Luckily, it hadn't hit her eyeball at all.

SailingmanWork

I used to measure roofs for a solar company.

One time I went up on a very steep roof of a two story house alone, and without a harness. This roof plane was too steep to walk and the shingles were old and crumbing so I had to crawl so I didn't slide down towards the edge.

After about an hour of crawling around, the sun began to bake the shingles so they were too hot to touch, so I decided to bug out. As the roof was too steep to walk, the only way to the ladder was by scooting on my butt with my feet pointed towards the edge.

Every time I'd skid toward the edge my heart exploded in fear because it was hard to stop from moving. I had to use my hands to slow myself down and they were getting burned. All I could do was to rub my palms on my legs to transfer some of the heat, but they were being scorched. Imagine putting your hand on a hot frying pan full of grit.

I was completely alone, in a faraway town, with no one to call. It took forever to get to the ladder and by the time I did I was shaking and drenched in sweat. When I finally got back to the ground some people came out from a nearby house and said they saw me and were ready to call 911.

I had burn blisters on both palms and I never went on a roof like that again without a helper or PPE.

BarcodeNinja

When they told me my 12year old has a stroke during brain surgery. Fear.

iamagirl1

It was 5 years ago almost to the day. I was home with my two daughters who at the time were 3 and just over 1. I was giving them a bath, kneeling on the ground and all of a sudden it felt like something exploded in my heart. I remember thinking just get the kids out of the water, nothing else matters. I got them out of the water and was able to call an ambulance.

I was taken to the hospital and long story short I had blood clots in both lungs and my right knee. They think a piece of the knee blood clot broke free and passed through my heart. I am very lucky to be alive and so grateful I was able to get my daughters out of the tub.

I found out I have multiple blood clotting disorders and am on blood thinners for life, but I am alive!

mkrzemin

My first time doing truffles, we were in our hotel room plus another friend who was in Amsterdam with us at the time for a total of 3 guys. I was just hanging out being an jolly idiot in the bathroom looking at the tiles.

Walked back into the bedroom and Friend 1 is in a fetal position staring at our wide open window, we're on the top floor so pretty high up.

I can't see Friend 2 anywhere so I ask after him, only to get a thousand yard stare and the answer "he went out". I say that I didn't hear the door when I was in the bathroom.

"He didn't go out the door" says Friend 1.

So I sidle my way over to the window and can't see anything, I'm absolutely freaking out. All the thoughts about what we're going to have tell his family, what do we do, etc. etc.

I sit down on the bed next to Friend 1 and just felt cold.

Then Friend 2 just slumps out of where he was, being an idiot curled up in the wardrobe of the room. I don't think I've ever cried in relief before that or since.

Hick2

When I was alone in my house and I heard something call my name.

It was probably some weird bird or something outside but I was 11 and dumb so I was terrified.

KGShaw

A few years back I was in a toxic relationship with an individual suffering from several mental illness. He refused to take medications. I had not a clue how bad it had gotten until he was driving us back to our apartment.

He started rambling about how God chose him to save my soul and I was a fallen angel. He would send me back to heaven. He floored the gas on a short dead end road and almost drove into a cement wall. I remember briefly wondering if I should jump put the car at 50 mph, or stay in and pray the airbag saved me. He slammed the brake last minute as I was about to open the door and jump.

Absolute fear. I ended up hospitalized a few days later due to other s**tty relationship related events and never saw him again.

Hands down, one of the more terrifying moments of my life, but not the only one I experienced by being with him.

heros_soup

When I was little, me and my brother were sleeping, and my mother came in the room telling us to get down on the floor quietly. We then saw a light from outside. Someone looked at our window exactly. I felt huge fear. I took a metal pipe because I knew I couldn't run away, so I had to fight. The lights were gone. My mother got outside while I thought she'll die. Turns out it was my dad pranking us.

01001101c

The first time I had a panic attack. I was sure I was going to die.

giatokalomou

I was sitting in the waiting room of the ICU talking to my Aunt. My Dad has just been moved from the ER to the ICU that morning. My Mom was with him but I had to go to the waiting room while they got him settled in. All of a sudden, I hear "CODE BLUE ICU ROOM XYZ". I didn't even know what his room was but I just had this terrible feeling. My entire body goes numb. I look at my Aunt and say I am going back there. As soon as I open the ICU ward door, a nurse looks at me and says, "Are you the daughter of so an so?" with a very empathetic look on her face. And I say, "Yes. OMG is that my Dad? is that my Dad coding?" She says come with me. We sprint down the hall to the back of the ICU and I turn the corner to see a room full of people. My mom is standing in the corner. In complete shock.

My 100% genuine fear? Standing in the corner of the ER watching nurses perform CPR on my Dad. For 17 minutes.

CPR is nothing like you see on TV. Any medical professional will agree with me. It is violent and intense. There were about 15 people in the room and it is intense. Organized chaos. It is one of the worst memories I have but talking about it somewhat helps.

I miss you Dad.

2019purpledrank

Running out of gas in my boat with my girlfriend in open water during a storm. Ended up on a shoal trying to hold the boat while a friend brought us more fuel. Honestly thought the waves would wash us away and drown.

SendItRicky

Anytime you turn around and your child isn't still behind you

brownbagtreecake

Once my mother called me on the phone telling me that a copy of our house keys was stolen that afternoon from the lobby and someone might be in the house. This happened in the exact moment I was entering the house. Pretty scary but no one was there thank god

the_soup_whisperer

When I was still a beginning driver, I basically misjudged a turn at a highway exit when it was raining. My car swiveled and turned around. Somehow I managed to get it to stop, but I ended up bumping the side railing with the back of my car, and the car turning more than 180 degrees on the road before coming to a halt.

This is a very busy exit, and if someone had been right behind me I'd have been dead.

Somehow I managed to gather my wits, restart the car, turn it around, and drive off before another car hit me.

I stopped at the earliest possible parking opportunity, and that was when I felt it - the fear. I just started shaking uncontrollably.

Kay_Elle

when i walked across a glass floor. It wasnt even that high. But HOLY was my gut not liking that

derpenking

I was in labor with my son and my blood pressure kept bottoming out. First I lost my vision. It came back. Then I lost my hearing. While I was unable to hear, all of the medical staff in the room suddenly had very concerned looks on their faces and rushed to the monitor tracking my baby’s heartbeat.

I then started to pass out and as I was losing consciousness I saw a nurse thrust an injection into my leg but I felt nothing (because of the epidural.) All of that combined was probably the scariest moments of my life.

Both my son and I were okay and he’s a healthy 1 year old now.

bexallday

It's hard to remember, but there was one point in the past where I was utterly terrified of my mother. I was in my room and terrified that she'd come in. Pure fear.

Kraft__

My SO was in kind of a slump emotionally for a bit, and while I was at work he texted me and seemed pretty down. I asked him what was up, he didn't respond. I tried calling but he denied my calls, then suddenly he just wrote "I don't feel too good mentally.", and just went offline on ALL platforms at once and shut off is phone.

I just slammed my work laptop shut and ran as fast as I could to the subway to get home. When i finally reached the apartment he wasn't even there. I was so freaked out, i was just screaming his name like madwoman, somehow hoping he'd respond.

Everyhting turned out just fine in the end and he apologized for scaring me, but OH MAN. I was so sure I was gonna be the one to find his body that day.

kerpoople