“Always be prepared” sounds good on paper but it is very hard to put into practice. And that’s due to one single reason: it’s impossible to be prepared for everything. No matter how gifted you are, you can’t prepare yourself for every single risk and eventuality (and who wants to live their entire lives in paranoia?). However, what you can do is prepare for the most likely risks and scenarios... and rely on your gut instinct that something might be wrong.
There are some cases, however, when someone’s overthinking and over-preparedness have saved either them or someone else, both in actually life-threatening and completely mundane situations. What follows is an honest account of what happened, as shared by the overthinkers of Reddit.
Scroll down, have a read, and let us know in the comments if you’ve ever been glad that you overthought something or when your instincts told you something might be wrong, dear Pandas.
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When my wife and I were getting married and looking for a place for the ceremony we have found this beautiful but quite remote garden. We were signing the contract for the event and I kept thinking that it was quite remote, so I asked: "how much time does it take for the ambulance to get here?"
I became the laughing stock of both families. My (then future) mother-in-law, who was present at the meeting, literally fell down from the chair laughing. The wedding organizer, remembered it for weeks, telling everyone we met about it. My dad ended every sentence with "...but maybe you need an ambulance for that". My wife was making siren noises when I was saying something we disagreed on. Every family dinner all the aunts and uncles were "checking" if the ambulance was present. You name it. The entire package.
Still, I couldn't get rid of this weird feeling. It would have taken over an hour for the ambulance to get to the garden. After a few weeks, I ended up paying a private ambulance to be present at the wedding.
Fast forward to the ceremony. As my wife literally walks down the aisle, at the back of the garden I see two Paramedics running with a stretcher and my dad squeezing my hand whispering: "that's not of your god da business, let them to take care of it. "
What happened was that one of our older guests got a heart attack and almost died at the ceremony. Was saved by the private ambulance.
Ever since then, when my wife tells me that I'm overthinking, I just do the siren noise.
I began having chest pain at 21 years old. I'd have difficulty breathing and something they call 'impending doom.' I knew I was going to die, and I told everyone who would stand around long enough to listen. I just knew it. Every night I’d cry, afraid I wouldn’t wake up. For six months, I fought every nurse, every doctor, every provider to be taken seriously. Even my own family turned their backs on me, embarrassed by what they thought was a psychiatric episode. I became obsessed. I went to medical libraries to look for cases like mine. I did online research. I consulted doctors around the world on the internet. I never stuck a name to what I thought I had, but I had a very good idea of what I had and how it would behave. I gathered medical documents as evidence, and put it all in a binder so I could show doctors I saw. Somehow, I actually predicted the cardiac rhythm that would cause my death: polymorphic vtach
I got two of my closest and medically intelligent friends to legally become my durable powers of attorney. Then on June 6 in 2018, I went into cardiac arrest three times during a study on my heart that they were basically doing to humor me because they didn’t believe I was sick.
I was told I had a very rare, very deadly genetic channelopathy in my heart's conduction system. I had to have an automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (AICD) installed in me, which I will have the rest of my life.
I’ll never forget the day I was recovering in the hospital from my AICD insertion. I was lying in the hospital bed, and my doctor entered. On the bedside table was the big, fat binder I had been carting around for months. He asked if he could look through it, and I said yes. After a few minutes he said, 'You showed this to every provider you saw?' And I said, 'I did. You are the first one to actually read through it.'
My aunt had MS. For years everyone said she was hypochondriac because she had vague symptoms.
My boyfriend who has zero history of seizures narrowly escaped dying from one because my overthinking led me to break into his house when he didn’t answer the phone.
My overthinking had begun a few nights prior. He mentioned that he but his tongue in his sleep and woke up with a bloody pillow and sore mouth- but he had no memory of it happening. That for some reason led my overthinking brain to question ‘Wow, did he have a seizure and not realize it?’ He has zero history of seizures, and we had been together multiple years (didn’t live together but spent nights together) and I had never seen a hint of a seizure. But for some reason, this stuck in my mind.
Fast forward two days. We usually don’t hang out in the morning because he likes to sleep in late, but on this day we had an appointment to go see a specific dog at the shelter I was thinking of adopting.
He wouldn’t answer the phone that morning. I called multiple times before I went to his place, but he never picked up. I started getting a bad feeling but quelled the ‘He’s having a seizure’ thought, because that was clearly SO unlikely, meanwhile making an action plan for that very scenario.
I got to his house and he wouldn’t answer, so in a completely NOT ME crazy girlfriend move, I climbed over his fence. Luckily his door was unlocked.
I found him unconscious and unresponsive, lying in his back with the sticky remnants of foam all around his mouth.
I jumped into action- I rolled him on his side to help curb aspiration, put a pillow under his shoulder to keep him in that position, and called the ambulance.
Had I not hopped the fence to get in- had I not driven over when he didn’t pick up the phone- had we not had plans to meet up hours earlier than we usually did- he would have been dead by lunch. His kidneys were already shutting down by the time he reached the ER.
If he had never mentioned biting his tongue in his sleep, I don’t think I would have been overthinking at all. No crazy worries about seizures would have pushed me to go over and find him.
Turns out to be a weird brain disease that’s bizarrely endemic to New Mexico kind of- cerebral cavernous malformations.
Several days later, after we got home from the hospital, I got a call from a friend who said the dog, against all odds, was still at the shelter- as in the very dog we were supposed to be seeing that day. I had given up hope on getting her, pushed it out of my priorities while he was hospitalized- but they had forgotten to take down my 24 Hour Hold sign on her cage, so no one inquired about her.
She’s now our miracle dog and is the sweetest animal I’ve ever owned. My boyfriend wouldn’t be alive today if we hadn’t made an appointment to meet her.
Everybody should have a plan for what to do about a seizure. 1 in 5 people have one in their life.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting a sense of security and clarity. However, life is fundamentally unpredictable. The fact is, it will surprise you, even if you think you’re doing all you can to foresee any possible inconveniences or risks.
Earlier, Bored Panda spoke about how to deal with the fact that life is full of unexpected and unpleasant events with British psychologist Lee Chambers.
"As human beings, we have a desire for certainty and routine that keeps us feeling safe and able to plan what lies ahead in an organized manner. When unpredictable situations or accidents impact us, it can be traumatic, and we will likely feel a sense of disappointment, frustration, and loss," he told us during a previous interview.
So maybe not quite this, but my little sister:
Through a long serious of events, my parents (who where not Foster parents and not looking to adopt) ended up taking care of an infant (who was not at all related to us) whose mother had just died. It was only supposed to be for a few weeks until she could be moved to a more permanent placement. As soon as I found out that my parents had agreed to help watch her temporarily, I knew where this was going, and I had all the initial adoption application paperwork printed out before she ever got to our house. Needles to say my parents were pretty surprised the day they said they were thinking of adopting her, and I handed them a folder of forms and my handwritten notes on how the process worked. (For the record, she has legally been my little sister for 7 years now.)
I was overwhelmed and swamped my first year at university, but I’m a keener who’s determined to do well. One of my hardest classes involved a final exam that was in essay format. It was one essay question, and you had three hours to write on the topic. I asked the professor if we could see exams from previous years to help us study and prepare. I figured it would give me a better idea of what type of question to expect. At first he seemed hesitant, but he wound up giving me an exam from a few years back so I could study. The day of the exam, I opened the test booklet — the exam question was the same exact question from the previous exam he had given me. I looked at the professor, and he was looking directly at me and smiling. I have never been so prepared for an exam.
I wound up acing my hardest class. Afterward, the professor told me he’d been using the same exam question for 20-plus years and that I was the first person to ask to see an exam from a previous year.
I found a nickel-sized lump on my fifteen month old daughter’s temple, freaked out, obsessed over it, researched it exhaustively, and concluded it was a dermoid cyst that had worn through the skull. I was told by a pediatrician that it was a bone bruise that would fix itself over the course of three to six months, no imaging was needed, and I shouldn’t make an appointment at the children’s hospital because it would resolve on its own. I got an X-ray done anyway and the radiologist confirmed every one of my suspicions, but the pediatrician still said to wait and see because that’s what you do with dermoid cysts and it was definitely not through the skull despite what the radiologist said. Made an appointment at the hospital anyway, and the surgeon swore up and down that although it was a dermoid cyst as I’d suspected, it would not be through the skull since in all his years of practice it never had been. Well guess what? It WAS through the skull, and it was pressing on the membrane between the skull and the brain, a hair’s breadth from breaking the membrane or pressing on the brain. A couple more weeks of waiting and my daughter could have had seizures, a brain infection, lasting damage. I overthought it and now she’s a happy, healthy three year old.
What's the difference between God and a Doctor? God doesn't think he's a Doctor.
"It is important however that we embrace the fact that the world can be unpredictable and uncertain, and become more tolerant of this being a reality. Understanding that things are sometimes out of our control helps us to accept that not everything goes to plan, and accept when things happen to us that are negative.”
The psychologist continued: “This acceptance allows us to embrace the change and difference, and manage our expectations so we can become more resilient to the ups and downs that all our lives lead."
"Post-traumatic growth isn't always simple to explain or utilize, but often the adversity we face can create a precedent for what we can overcome, help us to see what we need to be grateful for, and give us an understanding of the support we do have,” he told Bored Panda.
I’m Asian, so my default is to overthink, especially when I’m on a field trip/ holiday/ etc. Essentially it’s just what if I need X, Y, Z JUST IN CASE.
One time, while I was living in another SEA country, I went on a middle school field trip with my (mostly white) classmates.
Side note: in most SEA public bathrooms, bidets are the norm, toilet paper is not. But in this particular country, even the bidets are not encouraged to be used. So toilet paper is a luxury during trips.
At the hotel we stayed at, my classmates made fun of me for taking 3 rolls of toilet paper from the hotel's bathroom. They were embarrassed & reported me to the teacher in charge, who told them off for wasting her time. I told them they were going to regret laughing at me but they continued to mock me for overthinking.
Cue to the bus trip back & a couple of them had diarrhea & guess who was the only one able to provide enough toilet paper. You bet your a** I made them pay me for toilet paper (per square cause f**k you guys for laughing at me).
I moved my family from Kyiv to a safe place before the war started in Ukraine. I did this completely independent, not as a company policy or anything, and with my family protesting, not believing a war would begin.
I hope they're still safe. I'm still in shock about the whole thing
I always hoped I would be the action-taker in a life-threatening situation, so I would always listen and read gore and 'it happened to me' type of stuff. It came in handy when a motorcycle in front of me ran up the back of a flatbed truck. The bike driver tipped over, skidded, and was unconscious. The flatbed never even knew anything happened. Five other drivers just stood around staring at the guy in the road, so I came up and directed one person to call 911, asked another to check his pulse after confirming they knew how to, and stopped another person from trying to wrestle off his helmet. I was also able to relay to EMT that he had a seizure as the other bystanders thought he was 'trying to wake up,' and that he had multiple broken ribs. I could feel shifting and grinding under my hand while gently consoling him once he did actually come to.
I felt pretty good about being able to take charge and actually direct to get help, especially since I was the smallest person there.
wow! you sound SO cool! (I am not being sarcastic, if that's what it sounds like)
“A big part of opening the door to grow from our struggles is finding acceptance and taking ownership over what you can control and finding healthy ways to express the negative emotion that comes with challenges that test us.”
Psychologist Lee revealed that he himself had to learn to walk again. "Using journaling and talking about how I felt played a significant part in my recovery when I had to learn to walk again, and gave me the space to grow to become mentally stronger as a result,” he said.
“It is also important to reflect on all the hurdles you've overcome, so you can see what skills and lessons you've learned to apply in the future, and adversity often helps us to see what really matters, and gets us closer to knowing our values and purpose."
In college, on occasion upperclassmen would randomly steal the underclassmen's towels from the shower stalls and then lock their room doors so they had to go to the RA bare a**ed. I had the idea to stash a towel in the drop cieling tiles for just that event. Maybe a week later I became the victim of a towel snatching. However, the upper classmen were very unhappy to see me strut out with a nice clean towel from my ceiling stash.
I overthink what to do in the event of being kidnapped or being in an event that could lead to a kidnapping. Anytime I'm on the sidewalks at a late hour, I let someone know where I'm at — call it paranoia. I was walking home at 3 a.m. at a college campus, when a truck in the parking lot turned their lights off. It caught my attention. Someone got out of the car and started walking on the sidewalk, too, just a few yards behind me. I texted the girl who knew I was walking my phone number and told her to call me immediately. I said hello loudly, announced my exact location, and implied that we were going to be seeing each other soon. The guy broke off — I don't know where he went after.
I don't know if it was all in my head or not. All I know is that I'm still alive.
Went through a stage as a teenager where I thought I was psychic. I know, I know, stupid. A friend asked me jokingly to make a prediction. I told him to get a flashlight because tomorrow would be dark. I grabbed one myself when I got home and put it in my purse. No idea why, just did it. The next day the Eastern seaboard blackouts happened. He still asks for predictions to this day.
I was once driving on the highway behind a car with a couple of kayaks strapped to the roof. My anxious brain kept saying “what if they fall off the car, final-destination style?”
I tried to convince myself that it was an irrational fear, but the anxiety got the better of me and I decided to change lanes and make some distance.
About 30 seconds later, cue kayaks: they both slip off the roof and go rolling around the highway.
Luckily no one was hurt, but man that did not help my anxiety at all.
I can’t imagine how it would feel if my anxiety thoughts actually came true!! Actually, I can imagine it, and it makes me way more anxious.
I am an amateur clarinetist. I've played in the local orchestra and the like. My son was in the high school band (also played clarinet). Prior to a football game, at the warmup area, he called me as I was about to head to the game, saying that someone in his section had a problem with their instrument, so did I have a loaner?
Now the thing about being a clarinet player is that everyone you know calls you every time they see a cheap plastic clarinet for sale at a garage sale or the like. So over the years (especially when my son was in jr. and sr. high) when I saw one of these for $50 or $100 I grabbed it. Didn't happen every day, but at the peak of my collection I had a couple of beater plastic clarinets in addition to the pretty good wooden one my son played (and lord knows I wouldn't trust anyone with my good clarinets in Bb and A I used in the orchestra).
So I grabbed BOTH of these plastic jobs, which actually played okay, and brought them. I pulled the one I thought was the better of the two out of the car and gave it to my son's friend. Meanwhile, he says "hey another person ran into a problem..." and I got the second clarinet out of the car.
"How many clarinets do you HAVE?" was my son's question.
It was a proud moment.
I was supposed to get married at the end of May last year. At the beginning of the year, before any of the pandemic stuff happened, I became obsessed with thinking about all the things that could go wrong and how we would lose our money spent on the event. As a result, I purchased a very high coverage insurance policy for the event. As luck would have it, this type of insurance had no clause that prevented collecting if there was a pandemic. We got all of our money back.
thats lucky. also thanks for not having mass gatherings during the pandemic.
Mace. A person I worked with was a registered sex offender and he had a thing for me. I told him multiple times that he made me feel uncomfortable and to stay away from me. For some reason I had nightmares about this dude, he was 6 and half feet tall and hideous. Anyways, he said he was going to stop at a store that I stopped at all the time after work, and it was obvious he knew my direction when I left. I pull up to this store and he’s already there, walks up to my car and I just roll down my window and spray this dude, and he dropped a billy club out of his sleeve. Everyone always told me to stop being paranoid and stop thinking he’s going to attack me or rape me, that “he’s been to jail and learned his lesson”. F**k that dude. He should’ve never been let out of prison. For reference, I’m also a 6 foot tall dude who is always prepared for the worst.
Paranoia is the first survival response. GOOD FOR YOU DUDE! It happens to guys too!!!
I carry a fire extinguisher in my auto. I witnessed a car accident where the engine caught fire. I quickly put it out before it burned the inside of the car. Everyone survived.
Injuring my dominant hand... as a kid I had an irrational fear of having it chopped off. I spent all of grade 6 teaching myself to write and do things with my left hand. I made a conscious effort to remain as ambidextrous as possible. As an adult I broke a few fingers on my dominant hand... but it wasn’t a big issue because I could do most things equally with my left hand. Anticlimactic, but it was useful lol
I've also taught myself that skill and used it once or twice due to the same overthinking (and an injury to the dominant hand in primary school)
I was in fifth grade walking home alone because my sister left from school early, and noticed someone following me. As a child with a massive imagination, I had thought of scenarios where I was being followed. I even googled what to do in that situation, so I knew which of my plans would work. So when the guy was following me, I took four lefts. When I checked behind me, he was still following. I was pretty close to my house already and knew not to go in, so I went a few houses down to a neighbor and knocked on their door. 'Hey Mom!' I yelled. 'I’m home. Is the door unlocked?' They opened the door. In a whisper so quiet my lips almost didn’t move, I said, 'It’s an emergency; please let me in.' My neighbor tilted her head just enough to see outside without being seen, noticed the man, and said loudly, 'You don’t have to ask to enter your own house. Come on,' and let me in. We shut and locked the door, then waited until the man left.
I never saw him after another encounter, but I described him to my mom in case we did see him again.
One time in elementary school, a few friends of mine and I noticed a guy standing at the top of the playground with his phone out every day in the exact same place. For a bit of context, there was a wall on one end of the playground, where they had a steep hill. On top of that wall, there was a neighborhood, so we were used to seeing people walking past the playground. But this guy came every day and stood in the exact same place, where he had a good view of the entire playground and was easily able to take photos. I was apparently the only one bothered by this, and I told the teachers. They called the police, the man was taken away, we never saw him again. There were rumors that he was a pedophile and went to jail for child porn trafficking, but I never found out if that was true or not. TL;DR: creepy dude was possibly taking pictures of fourth graders having recess, i was the only one bothered and i told the teachers, we went in early that day, police were called, etc.
Years ago when I was in high school, I used to wait at the side of a busy road for the school bus early in the morning. I would often think of what I would do if a car ever went off the road and headed straight for me. One morning, I was waiting in my usual spot when a car towing a trailer was driving down the hill. I thought, What would I do if the trailer came off? A split second later, the trailer detached from the tow hitch and came full speed toward me.
I dove over the wall behind me and frantically crawled on the grass to get away from it. Sure enough, the trailer hit the wall exactly where I was standing and banged up the wall. I did exactly what I always thought I would have done if a car was ever racing toward me.
I do IT as an additional duty to my primary duties at work. When I took over, I noticed that there wasn't a single tracker for any IT equipment, which was worth approximately $400,000. I had a shower thought that maybe I should just create a tracker. I also had the thought to include warranty expiration dates, along with cubicle details of each piece of equipment even though I might never need it. Took more than two weeks to complete it, but I had a spreadsheet of warranty information, serial numbers, cubicle numbers, room numbers, and model information for hundreds of computers and equipment. Several weeks later, my work replaced all the expired warranty computers with brand-new computers, and they said I needed to get the information on the old equipment before the weekend. I literally pulled up my spreadsheet, looked at all the expired warranties, and sent it to them within minutes.
I would have had to go to every computer and check the warranty on the box, but since I decided to do that weeks prior, I already had that information.
Furthermore, we had an inspection come up regarding our processes and bookkeeping, just to ensure we were complying with standards and stuff. Well during the inspection, they wanted to see if they could 'stump the dummy' and asked several things like, 'I need to see these individual computers. Here are their serial numbers.' Granted this would have been a real problem because finding a random computer without it tracked would be hard...but I had my spreadsheet!
Pulled it up, grabbed the cubicle locations for each of them, showed them where they were, and passed the inspection! All because I thought of adding some unneeded information to a spreadsheet.
You deserve a huge raise! I hope they acknowledged your hard work and rewarded you appropriately! This warrants a whole lot more than a verbal “thank you” or whatever!
Backpacking, I'm always the over-prepared one.. to the point I got a bit of a rubbing from my friends. I always have a rather fleshed-out first aid kit and a couple of really useful things to fix gear when you're out in the sticks. In particular super glue, 50' of parachute cord, and a small roll of duct tape.
Would you know it, we hiked down the wilderness trail from the Lincoln trailhead. It's a straight as an arrow old railway bed. At the end is a nice campsite. We show up, sort or stuff out and a couple shows up at our tent asking if we've got anything to fix a hiking boot. The sole had partially peeled off from the heel of the boot.
They were hiking out the next morning so it didn't have to be perfect.. it just had to last the 7ish miles to the trailhead on flat ground. I glued the sole back on the boot and held the whole thing in place with a bit of duct tape so it would set. Worked like a charm! The whole time I was doing the repair everybody was commenting how handy it was I'd brought super glue with me.
I kept thinking to myself.. why would you go deep into the woods without some simple supplies to fix your gear?
This was at 9 years old. We had driven home and seen the beginning wisps of smoke for the California Cedar fire in 2003.
Naturally, I assumed the worst, packed up all my clothes, and spent about an hour making a travel cage for my guinea pigs. I tied their water bottle to the side so they could drink, packed up their food and their favorite furniture just in case.
I then spent the next few hours monitoring the fire on the news and out in the distance from our window, periodically asking my parents if we needed to evacuate.
At some point in the night, the fire sped up like crazy and was literally on the hillside across the street. I went into my parents' room and said “the fire is across the street are you sure we shouldn’t evacuate?”
At this point, we all went crazy grabbing important documents and supplies, and as we were about to lock the doors and drive I realized I forgot my guinea pigs. My parents told me it was too late and I didn’t have time to grab them, but when I cried and explained I had them packed up, I was able to grab them and go.
The house ended up ok thanks to a neighbor putting out embers before they took, but we were gone long enough my pigs wouldn’t have made it.
One day last summer my dad got a feeling and gathered up all his hard drives and important paperwork and set them by the back door. That afternoon a train caused a spark that burned down his whole village. Grabbed his pile, threw it in the camper and GTFO.
I’m a cash hider. Just a couple hundred bucks in random places like coats and drawers, in case I need cash. These are not used unless it is an emergency. Well, when I got my wallet stolen and all my cards had to be canceled, it took a hot second for the replacements to come. I didn’t have an ID, because it was stolen, and I wasn’t able to prove my identity and get a temporary card at the bank. But guess who was OK for a few days to grocery shop while my cards came in? This girl.
My old roommate called it "squirreling away" and knew I was good at it. Nothing in the savings account, but there's gas money in a shoe!
Not me, but my mother.
Apparently, at a party where my parents and their friends were playing board games, there was a realization that an hourglass was missing from one of the games they planned on playing. My mother proceeded to reach into her purse and pull out an hourglass she just so happened to bring, on the off chance they didn't have one.
HOWEVER, later in the night when some drinks had been had, someone accidentally slammed a drink down, breaking my mother's hourglass. Without missing a beat, she reached into her purse and pulled out ANOTHER hourglass.
She knew the first one, being glass, might get broken so she had a backup ready.
I always carried an extra juice box/snacks and am extra set of clothes during highschool because I was always worried that one of the kids in my school with diabetes might get low and need some sugar(for the juice box and snacks ) and I might get dirty or my clothes would get ruined (the extra clothes) well one day the kid in my class with diabetes did need the sugar. As luck would have it, a few days later a girl in my class was having a really bad wardrobe malfunction and couldn't wait for a new shirt so my XXL t-shirt acted as both a shirt/dress for her.
As a person who has a younger sister with type one, thank you for being ready to help! My biggest fear for her is going low, because people can and have died when their sugars go too low. Thank you!
Covid. I worked at a medical uniform and supply store years ago, and they were moving locations. They decided they weren't gonna sell face masks anymore and were gonna throw boxes of them away. I asked if I could keep them. Just in case. They've been moving with me for about 5 years before I actually used the masks
I used to keep a spoon in my purse.
This was in high school and my friend put a spoon in my purse one day as a joke. I decided to leave it there, “just in case,” and my friend thought it was hilarious. It became a regular thing for her to check my purse every few weeks to see if the spoon was still in there.
Well, one day I decided to spend some extra cash and get a small strawberry ice cream at the end of lunch. I had already bought it and made my way over to the silverware rack when I saw it...the clean spoon holder was EMPTY! With it being the end of lunch on a day when the cafeteria had served chili, all of the clean spoons had been wiped out. I was about to feel very sad for myself (and try to decide if a fork was acceptable for eating ice cream) when I remembered: THE PURSE SPOON.
After a quick wipe with a napkin, the spoon was clean and ready for me to use. Of course, my friend was with me and could barely hold herself together while I uttered aloud my love for the spoon in between bites of ice cream
The older I get (Grandma now) the more prepared my purse is LOL. You need Kleenex? Utensils, pain reliever, floss pick, cough drops, wet wipes, band-aids, chapstick, nail clippers, safety pins, needle & thread lotion, tweezers, you name it, it's probably in Grandma's purse.
I always had bandages, antiseptic alcohol, a piece of halva (Tahini snack mixed with honey), some cough mint tablets, and cotton buds in my schoolbag. Just in case. One day, I went to piano class after school and there was this little girl who had a large sheet of glass fall on her rib — there was blood everywhere. Me, another student, and our teacher quickly bandaged her up and stopped the bleeding before the ambulance came. Her family thanked us so much I didn’t know how to react. And then when I was in an extra class studying for the high school entrance exam, my then-crush caught a cold. I gave her some mint and the piece of halva to warm her up. Damn, her smile that night is still in my mind to this day. I ended up carrying her home that day, and we were in love for the next two years.
We're not together anymore, but whenever I see her in school, we still greet each other.
My partner tells me I overthink and overbuy groceries because I have an intense fear of not being able to provide for my daughter. When Covid hit and the shops were out of stock of EVERYTHING, guess who was the one supplying food and toilet paper to said partner?
I recently spent two years struggling financially. Like I don't know if I'm going to be able to feed my family until the end of the month, kind of struggling. Few months ago I landed a fantastic new job with an amazing salary. Now my cupboards are stocked with non-perishables that could feed my family for months. Yes I have issues, no I won't apologise for it.
When I was 11, I always kept approximately 12 to 15 of some combination of pens, pencils, and markers in my pant pocket. Just like having options and never knowing what I was going to need to write on! Sometimes got some side-eye from other kids though.
CUT TO
At a weekend camp with a bunch of kids, I’m participating in a sort of scavenger hunt race thing. At one point our teams hit this task where everyone has to draw or write something (don’t really remember). But there’s only two pens, about ten people per team, and another team just showed up.
With one pen assigned to each team, it’s going slow… until… YOU GET A PEN! YOU GET A PEN! EVERYBODY GETS A PEN!
Our team screams through the task because we can all write simultaneously, while the other team’s left plodding along with their one pen. We eventually win. Who’s weird now?!
I always keep a sharpie and a pack of googly eyes :) always worth it.
I got pregnant. I thought I couldn't be so lucky. Surely I will miscarry. Nope didn't miscarry, but I had a weird feeling all pregnancy my baby will die. Despite good scans good heartbeat. Over thinking persisted. 35 weeks pregnant feeling tired and swollen I felt a need to have the baby checked. Over thinking this all day I finally went In labor and delivery. Scanned me said my baby was in heart failure and didn't have even have a brain. He did have a brain it was just so swollen with fluid it was undetectable. I was taken by ambulance to a better hospital, diagnosed with vein of galen malformation. One In a million odds and I won... my baby lived for 5 days. My worse case did come true.
I carry scissors in my glove compartment. They came in handy when a kid tightened a skinny zip tie around my 9 year olds finger at a park. Completely cut off the circulation. Also the other kids mom was a nurse so that was helpful too. Carry scissors and a nurse at all times.
I researched how to escape a car that drove into water. Years later, I was catching a ride with someone in a car that drove off a pier and into 25-feet deep water. I immediately unclipped the driver's seat belt after mine and got out of the car, as I had little time to spare. After I got out and was on the car roof, I saw she was still inside. She was frozen in panic. The car was filling fast but hadn't tipped nose down yet. I banged on her window, so she pressed the button and the window went down. I reached in, started to gently pull her toward me, and then she started climbing out. Once I pulled her out, I helped her slide out onto the roof. From there, it was a short swim to safety. She did most of the work once she realized what she needed to be doing. Up to then, she was frozen in indecision and assumed the window wouldn't work or that opening the door was the right thing to do.
I carry some of just about everything, in my purse. We were at a beach, during the off-season, and a kid wiped out. I had everything needed, to clean, and bandage him up. I carried that stuff, (renewing when it got old), for almost 20yrs before actually needing it.
That’s it! Carrying the important stuff around for twenty years and then being equipped to deal with a situation! Well done!
Note: this post originally had 81 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
I always had a fear of if I lost my voice. How would I be able to communicate if there was a situation that I couldn't communicate verbally and could not have a phone, paper and pencil, ect.. Due to this paranoia I started looking into America Sign Language (ASL) and teaching myself. I took it in college and regularly look up new sign to learn names of object, concepts, and places. Fast forward a couple of years I was working in retail and I would tell my co-worker if someone is trying to communicate in sign language please get me. I helped several customers find what they needed via sign and they were very grateful. Most of them were surprised someone took the time to learn their language, take time out of their day to slow down sign to them and to help them. Also I work on film sets and sometimes the crew use ASL to communicate while filming scenes. So it's come in handy.
My father gave me a Swiss knife when I was 13, the one with foldable pliers .. I bring them always in my purse, with a screwdriver with tips and a flashlight.. you don't know how many time I used them!!!! (BTW I'm a woman..)
Mine isn't really overthinking per se but I used to have an SUV. I had a hitch installed on the car so I could attach a bike rack. I used to leave the bike rack on when I wasn't using it cause I kept thinking, it would probably protect me if I ever got rear ended. Wouldn't ya know it, like a year later and I get rear ended in a parking lot. Right into the bike rack. My car was fine.
Am i the only one to think many of these stories are not overthinking or paranoia but Common sense and being alert if a situation?
Two days before my dad died I told my husband my dad was going to die soon as he had stopped taking all of his heart medication and told him that no one else could tell when dad died but him. He thought I was being dramatic. I will never forget it. That Wednesday we were at my dad's house and when I left I kissed him and hugged him and told him I love him so much. He replied that he loved me too and gave my daughter a hug and a kiss and told her that papaw loves her. That Friday afternoon a tree fell on him and my husband is the one who found him.
I ALWAYS keep a stock of non-perishables for emergencies -- toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water and first aid stuff. By the time face masks were mandated, pharmacies were already out . . . but . . . I knew hardware stores had masks for automotive & paint professionals. Sure enough, found boxes of masks, scooped ‘em up and shared with those closest to me. Things I don’t need immediately, I keep a mental note for the future.
I carry a "possibles bag" *everywhere*. It has a first aid kit, reflective vest (never know when that flat tire is going ro happen!), nail Clippers, pens, paper, large 100% cotton scarf (what? It doubles as a pillow for naps!), tampons/pads, extra contacts and solution, sunscreen, battery pack and cords and wireless charger, extra sunglasses and so much more. I've used something from it every trip I've ever gone on.
From a very early age I've always been super paranoid about disasters or injuries, and I made an emergency backpack at the age of 5 (I was still a child though so I put GLASS teacups into it), I have a whole fire map of our house (self-draw hehe), and I always have a first aid kit with me. TW:// S3lf H@rm and mention of su!c!de: -------------- When one of my friends got dumped by her then boyfriend, I got very worried for her due to previous depressive episodes, I grabbed my "emergency breakup bag" then drove to her house. Thank god I did, because she was relapsing (S3lf H@rm), and I was able to stop her, give her candy, and help treat her wounds. I'm so thankful that my paranoia and anxiety were able to help her that day :) TL; DR: Friend relapsed after getting broken up with, first aid kit helped her
people are a lot more psychic than they realize... we are all just spiritual beings having a human experience... sad to say, people are so worldly, busy, self-absorbed, & greedy these days they have forgotten about their spiritual nature, unless something happens like was told in most of these stories... then their spirituality awakes and warns them of what is about to happen... that is the bottom line for what happened in most of these stories... if something happens to you like what happened here, & it shook you up since it was so different from your normal realities, you need to think about it & spend some time exploring & developing your spirituality...
I’ve always overthought what I would do if someone started following me. Sure enough, just a couple weeks ago, I’m at the back of the grocery store when some guy is walking just a little too closely and a little too directly behind me. I walk completely around one of the aisle dividers and he’s still there. At this point I’m just focused on keeping moving. So I go to a different section, he follows. Move to a new one and, once again, he follows. Thankfully, I never go to the store alone, but my bf is at the pharmacy at the front of the store. I make it about halfway to the front of the store before meeting up with my bf. We cut down one of the aisles to look at something and I look up to see the same guy standing in the center aisle facing us while pretending to look at a rack of calendars or something. Since he finally started hanging back I took the opportunity to quickly make our way to the other side of the store and we finally lost him
My Mum took my Aunt to a flower 🌼 club meeting. They were supposed to have a slide show of members flower photos but the projector wasn't working. The fellow looking at it says " I don't suppose anyone has a spare electrical plug on them, do they?" And my Aunt pipes up " Like this one?" And waves a spare plug she had in her purse 👛. The show went on.
There were fires in California. I stocked up on face masks and gave them out to whomever needed them. Then Covid hit. I still had extra masks for myself and anyone who asked me.
I always had a fear of if I lost my voice. How would I be able to communicate if there was a situation that I couldn't communicate verbally and could not have a phone, paper and pencil, ect.. Due to this paranoia I started looking into America Sign Language (ASL) and teaching myself. I took it in college and regularly look up new sign to learn names of object, concepts, and places. Fast forward a couple of years I was working in retail and I would tell my co-worker if someone is trying to communicate in sign language please get me. I helped several customers find what they needed via sign and they were very grateful. Most of them were surprised someone took the time to learn their language, take time out of their day to slow down sign to them and to help them. Also I work on film sets and sometimes the crew use ASL to communicate while filming scenes. So it's come in handy.
My father gave me a Swiss knife when I was 13, the one with foldable pliers .. I bring them always in my purse, with a screwdriver with tips and a flashlight.. you don't know how many time I used them!!!! (BTW I'm a woman..)
Mine isn't really overthinking per se but I used to have an SUV. I had a hitch installed on the car so I could attach a bike rack. I used to leave the bike rack on when I wasn't using it cause I kept thinking, it would probably protect me if I ever got rear ended. Wouldn't ya know it, like a year later and I get rear ended in a parking lot. Right into the bike rack. My car was fine.
Am i the only one to think many of these stories are not overthinking or paranoia but Common sense and being alert if a situation?
Two days before my dad died I told my husband my dad was going to die soon as he had stopped taking all of his heart medication and told him that no one else could tell when dad died but him. He thought I was being dramatic. I will never forget it. That Wednesday we were at my dad's house and when I left I kissed him and hugged him and told him I love him so much. He replied that he loved me too and gave my daughter a hug and a kiss and told her that papaw loves her. That Friday afternoon a tree fell on him and my husband is the one who found him.
I ALWAYS keep a stock of non-perishables for emergencies -- toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water and first aid stuff. By the time face masks were mandated, pharmacies were already out . . . but . . . I knew hardware stores had masks for automotive & paint professionals. Sure enough, found boxes of masks, scooped ‘em up and shared with those closest to me. Things I don’t need immediately, I keep a mental note for the future.
I carry a "possibles bag" *everywhere*. It has a first aid kit, reflective vest (never know when that flat tire is going ro happen!), nail Clippers, pens, paper, large 100% cotton scarf (what? It doubles as a pillow for naps!), tampons/pads, extra contacts and solution, sunscreen, battery pack and cords and wireless charger, extra sunglasses and so much more. I've used something from it every trip I've ever gone on.
From a very early age I've always been super paranoid about disasters or injuries, and I made an emergency backpack at the age of 5 (I was still a child though so I put GLASS teacups into it), I have a whole fire map of our house (self-draw hehe), and I always have a first aid kit with me. TW:// S3lf H@rm and mention of su!c!de: -------------- When one of my friends got dumped by her then boyfriend, I got very worried for her due to previous depressive episodes, I grabbed my "emergency breakup bag" then drove to her house. Thank god I did, because she was relapsing (S3lf H@rm), and I was able to stop her, give her candy, and help treat her wounds. I'm so thankful that my paranoia and anxiety were able to help her that day :) TL; DR: Friend relapsed after getting broken up with, first aid kit helped her
people are a lot more psychic than they realize... we are all just spiritual beings having a human experience... sad to say, people are so worldly, busy, self-absorbed, & greedy these days they have forgotten about their spiritual nature, unless something happens like was told in most of these stories... then their spirituality awakes and warns them of what is about to happen... that is the bottom line for what happened in most of these stories... if something happens to you like what happened here, & it shook you up since it was so different from your normal realities, you need to think about it & spend some time exploring & developing your spirituality...
I’ve always overthought what I would do if someone started following me. Sure enough, just a couple weeks ago, I’m at the back of the grocery store when some guy is walking just a little too closely and a little too directly behind me. I walk completely around one of the aisle dividers and he’s still there. At this point I’m just focused on keeping moving. So I go to a different section, he follows. Move to a new one and, once again, he follows. Thankfully, I never go to the store alone, but my bf is at the pharmacy at the front of the store. I make it about halfway to the front of the store before meeting up with my bf. We cut down one of the aisles to look at something and I look up to see the same guy standing in the center aisle facing us while pretending to look at a rack of calendars or something. Since he finally started hanging back I took the opportunity to quickly make our way to the other side of the store and we finally lost him
My Mum took my Aunt to a flower 🌼 club meeting. They were supposed to have a slide show of members flower photos but the projector wasn't working. The fellow looking at it says " I don't suppose anyone has a spare electrical plug on them, do they?" And my Aunt pipes up " Like this one?" And waves a spare plug she had in her purse 👛. The show went on.
There were fires in California. I stocked up on face masks and gave them out to whomever needed them. Then Covid hit. I still had extra masks for myself and anyone who asked me.
