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Ghosts and monsters might give us a scare, but real life has its own horrors, and they’re often much harder to escape.
Redditors recently shared what they believe are the most terrifying things that actually exist. From devastating diseases and mental health struggles to the threat of nuclear war, their answers paint a chilling picture of the fears that keep us up at night.
You’ll find their most haunting picks below—and who knows, you might even want to add your own.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Alzheimer's.
namdor:
Knowing that it is eating the memories, emotions, personality, body, and life of someone you love is brutal. It is so dark and terrifying not knowing how many years the shell of a body will live, while the person inside is gone.
Panda Kicki 8 months ago
New studies suggest that Shingrix vacc can reduce the risks ,.hope so
RELATED:
#3
Human traffickers. No sense of morality and atrocious humans.
IndelibleIguana:
Pretty much one of the worst crimes that exist.
Nils Skirnir 8 months ago
It’s terrible, but as old as human history. The Bible is fully of it, for example
#4
Dictators that think they just can bust into any sovereign country and claim it.
It scary, it causes death and destruction and is generally bad for the mental health of all involved.
#5
'The sin of empathy' being a literal thing people live by like wtaf.
Kaedyn Walsh 8 months ago
This is something that I think would be higher up. The blacklisting of empathy is beyond grotesque and terrifying.
Lady Eowyn 8 months ago
For those unaware, Muskrat has said that empathy is a major fault of the western world. Or words to that effect, I don't have a transcript in front of me.
Sarah Belt 8 months ago
Muskrat is a major fault of the western world. But even Ayn Rand was essentially arguing against empathy. All those libertarian psuedo-capitalists just love coming up with twisted ways to whitewash the dystopian implications of their selfishness.
Load More Replies...
Silje Olsen 8 months ago
What is empathy, if not the ability to understand common sence.. without empathy, we're only driven by law, and law without empathy is a society without mercy..
Auntriarch 8 months ago
Not heard of this one. I do recall reading that the Romans classed compassion as a female fault and unworthy of men
#6
The banality of evil. Good German citizens that rounded up Jews and put them in concentration camps. Put little babies in the gas Chambers. Hung people on meat hooks while they were still alive and cut their guts out while taking notes. Scientist that put them in freezing ice water to gain statistical data on how long it took to freeze to death. American college students that were willing to administer 450 volt shocks to unseen scientific experiment subjects as long as somebody else took responsibility. Don't think it can't happen here because it's about to.
#7
Working until you die.
#8
A few handful of Super Rich people we probably never heard of who are pulling and manipulating the strings of the masses. Who control everything. It’s a spooky thought in my opinion.
#9
A sh**load of nuclear weapons, mostly in the hands of man children.
#10
Locked in Syndrome (LIS) basically you have total body paralysis but you have all your normal cognitive abilities. It’s basically a waking nightmare where you can’t move but you can feel and process everything like you normally would. It’s a big bag of no thanks.
#11
Environmental collapse. Entirely preventable but being ignored or refuted so that a group of rich men can keep their power.
katiekat0214 8 months ago
What good is having all the money if there is no earth, no economy to spend it? Such dumbasses on every level.
#13
Sinkholes. I often think about that guy that was in bed when a sinkhole opened up and swallowed him. His brother could hear his screams but could do nothing to help.
LauraDragonWench 8 months ago
I grew up in Florida, the land built on sinkholes. They were a daily reality to me, but it took me moving away to actually sit and realize how bloody terrifying they really are.
#14
Cancer. I lost a loved one to this disease. I lived with her screaming in pain 24 hours a day, for 6 months. I wouldn't wish this on anyone, not even the most evil human being.
#15
Rett syndrome. You have a daughter, she does great and is developing normally until about 6-12 months. And then her development slows. Your pediatrician is reassuring, everyone develops differently so you are okay with it. But then it progresses…she loses skills she already had. No longer speaks any words, starts having tremors and spasticity and loses purposeful movement and may start developing breathing issues or apnea. Then the seizures start. Despite maximal treatment of the symptoms there is no cure. Your previously healthy daughter is now likely unable to walk, care for herself, and can usually barely express herself. She still smiles and looks around and can be cared for well, but won’t ever recover fully. This is her life now, and your life now, and there’s nothing you could have done or can do to fix it.
F**k Rett Syndrome, it’s the f*****g worst.
#16
Knowing that our lives could change for the worse in an instant.
obxtalldude:
Yep - I was having a great summer in 2016 until my Mom got dizzy.
Within a week we found she had a glioblastoma at 75.
From perfect health to a state I wish I could forget in 6 months. I had to hire a team of nurses for hospice after it became too much for me.
Brain cancer is no way to go.
There's a certain look from Doctors I realized afterwards - they know what's coming, and know you don't.
John Dilligaf 8 months ago
aggressive brain cancer is what took my uncle. Big, strong independent man. Passed out at work one day, gone in less than 10 days.
#17
Was a Marine for 6 years and deployed constantly to countries in Asia via naval carriers, there is nothing more terrifying and more humbling than being in the middle of the ocean, ESPECIALLY during the night.
Lowrider 56 8 months ago
Being on the fantail, at night, on an aircraft carrier. It's very weird feeling
#18
Burning alive. No, not dying in a house fire, when smoke will get you before the flames. But literally dying in flames. Or surviving for a short while with massive burn injuries. Burn injuries are absolutely horrific.
#19
AI
What do we need all of these extra people for when it takes our jobs? We don’t really believe we’re just going to get lucky with a 2 day work week. It’s a beautiful lie like getting complete universal health insurance in the US.
Life is going to get better somehow? We already can’t tell real and fake news. Unbiased journalism is dead. Individualism has become the priority and soon we will be teaching AI everything we know privately.
Closest feeling I ever had to that was being replaced by an intern. I took pride in teaching them my job and wish I knew all of the shortcuts I had told them when I was their age only to be replaced because they would do the tasks for free.
AI is here and people celebrate that s**t at the cost of humanity.
Nils Skirnir 8 months ago
A Soylent Green world is upon us. And every government in the world and all the uberwealthy are pushing it
#20
Rabies. The second theres symptoms, chances are, you're already screwed. Theres only a few known cases of someone surviving rabies without the vaccine, and as of 2016, only 14 people are known to have survived it.
So if you get scratched or bitten by an animal, it's better to be safe rather than sorry and get it checked out.
Panda Kicki 8 months ago
Yeah. Was bit by rabid dog in a russian hotel lobby. Didnt trust.their vaccines so took off home.and started.treatment.the.day..after instead
#21
Prions.
peridaniel:
Misshapen proteins that, once they get in your brain, cause the proteins in your brain to deform too. basically, something that malforms the proteins in your brain until the cells in it die. if you've ever heard of mad cow disease, that's a well known prion disease.
and since it's a protein rather than any organism, there's nothing that can be done about it once you have a prion disease. once you're diagnosed, it's just a ticking clock as your brain degenerates.
Pferdchen 8 months ago
Another prion disease, this one affecting deer, is Chronic Wasting Disease. The prions persist in the environment and can be metabolized by crops. Doesn't affect humans but, if it ever makes the leap, it isn't going to be pretty. An infected deer was discovered in Manassas National Battlefield Park, just outside of Washington, D.C. last week. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/northern-virginia-deer-tests-positive-for-zombie-deer-disease/ar-AA1BJJke
#23
That group chat that had 70,000 men in it talking about assaulting their mothers/sisters/wives.
#24
Mental health issues.
KombatBunni 8 months ago
Not the most fun thing to have, I can tell you. Some days I don’t want to recognise my own thoughts. Anyone who says it’s not real can take a hike
#25
Suffocation.
The starving of oxygen is one experience that scares even those without a functioning amygdala in their brain (the part that regulates emotions such as fear).
And those are the most fearless people of us all.
Lady Eowyn 8 months ago
I have asthma. I had had attacks that sent me to the hospital, I'm gasping for breath, I'm terrified, it's ... beyond words. I am now on 2 inhalers and one pill daily, and once in a while have that peculiar tightness in my chest that precedes a full-blown wheezing attack. I've got emergency inhalers all over the place.
#26
Antibiotic resistant superbugs.
F******n_Ad9356:
Agreed. If they accidentally release some super secure antibiotics, that could be game over. Bacteria mutates rapidly and can become resistant to all our antibiotics. It's just a matter of time. Eventually we will run out.
Lady Eowyn 8 months ago
Antibiotics are overused. People want antibiotics for colds, for viral infections, for all sorts of stuff. Doctors overprescribe them.
#27
The fact that brain eating amoeba exists in warm freshwater lakes keeps me up at night.
Agreeable_Cow_7230:
My uncle contracted that. While he was fishing.
#28
Natural disasters. The most we get are monsoons where I live, but I would never live where tornados or hurricanes could happen. Scares the hell out of me thinking about it.
Cara Vinson 8 months ago
I grew up in tornado country, you just make sure to have a good storm shelter and get on with your life.
#29
The cartel💀 the government can’t even stop it, Mexico is infested with gang violence and d**g members. El Salvador got lucky to manage the danger in their country and had strong enforcement but Mexico has been going down a s**t path.
#31
Huntington's disease.
Tilly’syellowsnowman 8 months ago
It’s a hereditary neurodegenerative disease, in case anybody was wondering
#32
Organized religion.
#33
Autonomous drones being armed and sent out to k**l people. I recently read an article about how like 70% of human casualties on the Ukraine / Russian front line were attributed to drone warfare. It went on to say that the most effective drones were the more autonomous version, and how there were anti drone drones, and mothership drones being developed and I just kind of sunk in my seat. I remember when existential risk associated with AI Skynet situations were laughed at as science fiction garbage and ridiculous because who would be dumb enough to arm robots, give them autonomy and send them out to specifically k**l human beings.
#34
Other people’s thoughts. You’ll never truly know what’s going on in someone else’s head, whether they adore you, despise you, or fantasize about turning you into chopped meat.
Panda Kicki 8 months ago
As long as they dont actually chop me up its fine by me.Not like I care what they think.
#35
Random, uncontrolled car accidents. I was 2 or so car lengths behind an suv the other day - car was driving normally and weather was clear / little traffic.
Driver brakes and starts pulling off to the shoulder. As soon as her front passenger tire touches grass the car violently pulls right into the ditch. Hits an embankment of sand, and flips a*s over teakettle like in a movie.
Called 911, cops were there in less than 2 mins. Car roof was caved in on driver and passenger side. Rear hatch was pinned against a tree. Fire & EMS arrive and pull the woman out - the only person inside the car - and she’s responsive / visually okay.
It’s a case where, given the circumstances, everything went right for the drivers safety. 5 or 10 feet further down the road she would’ve hit a fire hydrant head on, possibly not flipped, and could’ve continued directly into a tree.
Just the idea of doing your thing driving and with no one else involved your life could end shook me up.
Roxy222uk 8 months ago
I had an argument/debate on our local FB group trying to explain to someone that you can be driving absolutely perfectly and still end up with the car upside down if the physics come together a certain way. Unfortunately he would not accept it. I know someone it happened to, who I trust if she says she was driving careful (she was a nanny and had someone's toddler in the car with her), and I once flipped a car on its side at under 25 miles an hour when I allowed the tyre to touch a verge.
#36
Ebola Zaire virus. Currently reading the book Hot Zone and it’s scaring the s**t out of me.
Sarah Belt 8 months ago
That is not a fun book. Andromedia Strain is also not fun... if you're into that kind of thing. Will make you want to stock up on duct tape and bleach.
#37
Pyroclastic flows. They're superheated avalanches of volcanic ash, lava, and gases. The documentary Pompeii: The Last Day describes death by one as "the first breath is like breathing fire. The second, the ash mixes with the fluids in your lungs, forming a concrete like mixture." You suffocate while your skin is on fire.
Hotter pyroclastic flows can cause teeth and skulls to explode from the insane temperature difference. There are even cases of brains turning into glass from the heat from the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius.
And if you see one coming towards you, it's the last thing you'll ever see. You can't outrun them, they can travel more than 100 mph. They can travel miles from the volcano erupting. The lateral blast from Mt St Helens vaporized over 20 sq miles. While extremely unlikely to erupt during our lifetimes, pyroclastic flow deposits have been found upwards of 60 miles from the Yellowstone caldera.
#38
Black holes. Thankfully we aren't near any... that we know of.
#39
Radiation poisoning.. one mistake and you're potentially suffering for months as you literally turn to soup as your DNA fails to properly create new cells. Then you slip into a coma and die 😬.
#40
Drowning. And I was a collegiate swimmer.
Regina Holt 8 months ago
I had a bad experience once, thought I was going to drown. I never ever put myself in that situation whatsoever. Won't go near a pool or any water that covers my ankles.
#42
Brain aneurysms.
LauraDragonWench 8 months ago
This scares me. I live with a permanent migraine, so a sudden head pain is, like, Tuesday afternoon for me. I wouldn't know if it was an aneurysm.
#44
Any individual who falls under the dark triad of personality traits.
Simplified: evil people.
The Scout 8 months ago
To explain if someone is not familiar with the concept: The dark triad is a psychological theory of personality, first published by Delroy L. Paulhus and Kevin M. Williams in 2002, that describes three notably offensive, but non-pathological personality types: Machiavellianism, sub-clinical narcissism, and sub-clinical psychopathy. Anyone know a guy who shows all three, maybe accompagnied by the presence of a certain red cap?
#45
The fact that we have in our society a large group of people who derive entertainment from watching people be t**tured and k**led. It is frightening to think that people will pay money to see movies like Hostel or Saw.
Don't give me that s**t about it being some sort of cathartic outlet and it isn't real. If you need to watch the total degradation and t*****e of a human as an outlet you are a sick f**k.
#46
Human nature. Most of the things mentioned here are terrifying but highly unlikely. I'm actually scared of how we react to the inescapable eventuality that we are slowly cooking our planet to death. The collapse of agricultural zones, food chains, ocean and jet stream currents, and habitable land forecasts a world going to war over resources. The future will be filled with desperate people trying to survive and we have seen that there is no limit to how depraved or cruel we can be to each other even when we aren't fighting for resources. The Jews during the H*******t climbed over each other to get the last of the fresh air before succumbing to the gas chambers. Now imagine a similar scenario at the planetary level. That is our future and it terrifies the ever living f**k out of me that I might see that in my lifetime.
#47
10 year old me: Quicksand, because that stuff is everywhere and a daily threat to my life.
20 year old me: Nothing, because at that age you feel invincible.
30 year old me: Being invited on a night out that goes past 11pm.
40 year old me: The postman, because that guy brings nothing but bad news.
#48
The fish that swims up your p**s pipe.
Panda Kicki 8 months ago
Urban myth. https://www.iflscience.com/fact-check-will-a-fish-swim-up-your-urethra-if-you-pee-in-the-amazon-63508
#49
Global fear of the unknown, or Time.
The fear of the unknown prevents us from unraveling the endless number of things not only on our planet related to society, civilization or technology, but also on the scale of the universe. It is unlikely that we will ever be able to find out what really happened to neighboring planets millions of years ago, and it is also unlikely that we will know exactly how we lived hundreds of years ago and what exactly awaits us in the future. And now add to all this a fast flow of time that never stops. And the realization that the entire existence of humanity in a time frame is not even 0.1% of the existence of the universe is truly frightening.
Panda Kicki 8 months ago
Why is that scary? I think it is exciting. Even if we just learn a fraction of the riddles.it is still a amazing.thing.
#50
Love...
Something we have no control over and a pain like no other when it eventually goes wrong.
It's the best and worst thing to happen to a person.
Explore more of these tags
What do you think ?
Nils Skirnir 8 months ago
No one mentioned Elon Musk or Peter Thiel. Two of the most evil people in US history
Betta Fish 7 months ago
I personally disagree quite a lot that Elon Musk is one of the most evil people in US, would you mind explaining your reasoning? No judgement, that is just a really huge statement, and I want to hear your opinion. :)
Load More Replies...
Otto Katz 8 months ago
The thing that makes me think, and saddest, is the heat death of the universe. When everything is so spread out, when the atoms have all decayed down to the component quarks and they to their components, and there are miles and miles of empty between them, and they are all floating away from each other, and there is no attraction of any kind to bring them back together to make a new big crunch. That is the saddest time of all
Cyril Sneer 8 months ago
Not very scary though right? We'll probably all fall into the great attractor before that happens
Load More Replies... Cyril Sneer 8 months ago
No one mentioned industrial, walk-in autoclaves. Those things give me the heebie jeebies
Nils Skirnir 8 months ago
No one mentioned Elon Musk or Peter Thiel. Two of the most evil people in US history
Betta Fish 7 months ago
I personally disagree quite a lot that Elon Musk is one of the most evil people in US, would you mind explaining your reasoning? No judgement, that is just a really huge statement, and I want to hear your opinion. :)
Load More Replies... Otto Katz 8 months ago
The thing that makes me think, and saddest, is the heat death of the universe. When everything is so spread out, when the atoms have all decayed down to the component quarks and they to their components, and there are miles and miles of empty between them, and they are all floating away from each other, and there is no attraction of any kind to bring them back together to make a new big crunch. That is the saddest time of all
Cyril Sneer 8 months ago
Not very scary though right? We'll probably all fall into the great attractor before that happens
Load More Replies... Cyril Sneer 8 months ago
No one mentioned industrial, walk-in autoclaves. Those things give me the heebie jeebies
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