What was the last thing that really scared you?

[RCMerchant]

I can't really think of anything. Serious. I will try!

[Rev. Powell]

When I found myself running a high fever at the very beginning of the Covid outbreak. (It turned out to be something else, thankfully.)

[retrorussell]

I kinda freaked out over last weekend when I developed a sudden bout of intestinal flu.  It hit me so hard I was sweating bullets.  I got off the can and started washing my hands and I passed out for a second.  I hit the floor and just kind of laid in the corner for a minute until I could stand up.  Scary!  Could have been one of two restaurants whose food got me but rest assured I will not eat that again.

[RCMerchant]

I keep having this evolving nightmare that I am lost.It started in an old house, and evolved into so really weird s**t that scares the f**k out of me.  

[bob]

when I sprained my ankle -- I thought I broke my foot

hurt like a mother

[Trevor]

Talking to Mom on the 15th of July 2020 and feeling something wasn't right with her, then getting a call later to say she was in hospital (this was after I had called her neighbor to please go check on her).

[claws]

Last yearr being told that I have colon cancer. Further tests revealed that it was only colitis, which has the same symptoms as colon cancer.

[lester1/2jr]

my own brain

[Alex]

When we lost Lilly-Beth, and Kristi wasn't reacting well to the meds. I really thought I was going to lose her too that night and there was nothing I could do about it.

[zelmo73]

1996 in Lawrence, Kansas. I was attending college and walking back to campus one night after watching a movie at the cheap theater at the edge of town. I decided to take a back road because it was a quicker route than walking on the main streets. It was dark and threatening to rain. There was thunder off in the distance and I could see lightning. I didn't think much of it at first but as I walked the thunder and lightning started getting closer. I got to a wide open area with fields off to my left and right and a treeline ahead of me in the distance in the dark. The lightning started flashing brighter overhead and the thunder was getting louder. All of a sudden I get this tingling sensation throughout my body like I was getting excited, and then I saw that the hairs on my arms were starting to stand on end. I was a 22 year old kid that knew nothing about lightning or how it worked, but I started to run like hell toward those trees up ahead because the only thing I knew about lightning is that you didn't want to be the tallest thing out in the open; I was scared out of my mind that I was about to get struck by lightning. Obviously, nothing happened to me, but that felt like a close call to me and was the last time that I ever truly felt in fear for my life.  

[LilCerberus]

Gunfire...
Awful lot of it in this part of town, but a couple months ago, I heard several shots start at one of the houses across the street from me (I live on a corner), then run down the side street past my house.....
Made me duck....

Woke me up many nights, & I'm kinda used to it, but it's never been that close before......

[Rev. Powell]

Gunfire...
Awful lot of it in this part of town, but a couple months ago, I heard several shots start at one of the houses across the street from me (I live on a corner), then run down the side street past my house.....
Made me duck....

Woke me up many nights, & I'm kinda used to it, but it's never been that close before......

Wow, here's hoping you can move to a better part of town. By some measures Louisville is one of the most dangerous cities in the country, but the violence is all confined to certain neighborhoods. I can't remember ever hearing a gunshot in my life (other than at a shooting range or something like that).

[LilCerberus]

^The last place I lived, there was this one culdesac across the street that always had gunfire & the cops with their lights on...^

That  didn't bug me half as much as when my landlord put a fence around the dumpster to prevent locals from cutting through the alley behind our apartments....
But he only did it at one end, so trespassers started rounding this one corner to walk right past my front door in order to take the shortcut through that alley....
Scared the hell out of me many times.....

And then, my stepdad would get after me for leaving the front porch light on, because I was running up my electric bill...

[RCMerchant]

^The last place I lived, there was this one culdesac across the street that always had gunfire & the cops with their lights on...^

That  didn't bug me half as much as when my landlord put a fence around the dumpster to prevent locals from cutting through the alley behind our apartments....
But he only did it at one end, so trespassers started rounding this one corner to walk right past my front door in order to take the shortcut through that alley....
Scared the hell out of me many times.....

And then, my stepdad would get after me for leaving the front porch light on, because I was running up my electric bill...

I would buy a gun, myself.

Oh- wait a minute...


This is Lil Cerebus I'm speaking about....

[Alex]

Just one point that I feel is worth pointing out about fear.

It isn't a bad thing to be afraid now and again. If you aren't feeling it occasionally then you simply are living in your comfort zone and not challenging yourself. Fear lets you know when you are living on the edge, Some people say if you don't live there, then you are taking up too much room. Not sure if I 100% agree with that view, although I can certainly understand it. Certainly, I'd have to agree that if you don't feel fear you are merely living in your comfort zone and not pushing yourself any. Not feeling fear might not be anything to be ashamed of, but then again it isn't something to be proud of either. I'd rather be beside someone who had felt fear and conquered it, than stand beside someone who feels themselves immune to fear, but craps themselves when placed on the firing line.

If you've never been in a situation where your life has seriously been in danger, or even more importantly, the lives of those you care about more than your own do you really even know what fear is? I mean you can face death. You might survive or you might die and one way or another the challenge is over. Facing the loss of those you care about (to my mind anyway) is a much greater challenge. Hell, I've had dozens of occasions where I might have died and I guess I've been lucky and walked away without really a second thought, but anytime I've been in a position where I might lose someone else, well that is where I've faced real fear. Not the thought of personal harm or injury, but the thought that someone else would get hurt.

Worrying about myself just feels like cowardice.