Fear For Your Life -- Ever Experience It?

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I'm curious if any of you have ever found yourselves in situations where you've experienced true fear -- for your life -- where your stomach drops, you start to shake, your heart hammers so loud you can feel it in your ears....and you can think of nothing but survival.

I recently had an experience such as this on Monday night. I was working late in downtown Seattle; the sun had already set. I packed up my things, took the elevator to the ground floor and emerged out on the street, heading for the parking garage. I had parked on the second level and in order to get there, I had to ride a small outdoor glass elevator up to a skybridge that connected with the garage. When I came out from the elevator, I noticed a man standing on the walkway, a ways from the elevator, between me and the garage. He looked disheveled and unkempt -- definitely not a "business" type. There was no one else around, as most of the office rush was over -- it was after 7 pm. He watched me steadily as I briskly walked the expanse of the bridge, closing my distance to him rapidly. I periodically glanced his way, trying not to appear vulnerable and, hopefully, seeming much bigger than what I really was. While I knew not of his real intent, I had a very bad feeling.

As I passed him, exuding an air of contrived confidence, I heard him mumble something to me. I didn't look at him, but quickened my pace. He let me pass a ways and then fell in behind me. I walked faster and faster, fleetingly thinking about turning in my tracks and confronting him. That idiocy was shortlived, thankfully. As I approached the garage, I scanned it for some sign of activity...but it was deserted. My car was on the next level down...I had to take the stairs, which were off to the left in a corner. As I entered the garage, I made my turn left, glanced back and noticed that he was walking faster now, had gained on me and was staring straight at me. I stepped up my pace and ran to the stairwell....flying down the stairs. Just as I was about to exit on my floor, I heard the door above me slam shut. I didn't wait for much more of a confirmation, but raced to my car, which was very close....got in and locked all the doors. Heart hammering in my ears, sweat pouring off of me and shaking uncontrollably, I started it up and watched the stairwell door steadily to see if he emerged. He never did.

Was it my imagination? Possibly...but all my instincts say "no". It took me many hours to calm down from that experience, so intense did the fear seem to me.

So...I'm curious....have any of you experienced something truly frightening? Do tell.

 

I did, when I found out that i had canser. But its gone, they took it out today, and I am happier than ever. Read more in the topic about it.

 

good for you ivanji.

ive experienced that kind of fear twice, it was easier the second time.

the first ime i was 14, i got attacked by 3 muggers, one of them stabbed me (for £3!!), they ran off, and i remember as i layed there, watching the pool of blood getting larger, and i was convinced i was going to die there i could feel my heart pounding in my chest and that weird tingling feeling through my body, until i got numb.

the second time was during my first year in the forces, i was in columbia investingating the association with columbian rebels and the IRA, and as we were travelling to one of the bases, our vehicles were shelled. but that was a different kind of fear for my life then i had had when i was 14, it wasnt the lay here and die fear, it was the 'get out and kill the ****ing bastards' (which we did), but my heart was still pounding for hours afterwards.

 

Poor guy, he was probably just going to ask you for some spare change Spellbound. Seriously, I think a good deal of it was in your head. I think the best thing to do in a situation like that is keep cool. If he looks at you and you look back at him confident like, if his intent was malicious in the first place, he'll reconsider. If you look weak and scared, then you make yourself a target. When did he start after you? After you broke down and started running, not when you were confident.

Say for instance he just mumbled hello to you and you start running. Well of course he's going to give you a not-so-pleasant look. Follow you? Now that may be a bit extreme, but he probably was just doing it because he liked to see you scared. Sort of like a "well since you didn't say hello to me, and you think I'm some punk who is going to hurt you, so I'm going to play on your fear" attitude. Whereas if you had just acknowledged his presence, even said hello, he probably would have smiled and said it back and that would have been that. All humans want acceptance. But they also like power. So if you give him that power to scare you, he might just take advantage of it. So in the end, the guy got attention, but not the kind you wanted to give him I'm sure. Just say hello next time.

Once a "freaky" homeless person approached me at night and we ended up eating together at the local Spanish restaurant, El Rodeo, that was in walking distance.

Now to the question. Fear for my life eh? Waking up in ICU after an operation wasn't thrilling, but not fearful anyways. I just wanted to sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep. Probably the best way to die. And because of my religion, death isn't something I fear.

 

Yes. I have.

More than once.

 

I have felt this one moment of blinding panic once, when I was a kid.. I can't recall how old I was, possibly 11 or 12, when my mom asked me to climb to the roof to see if I could dislodge something that was obstructing something. (Can't recall what it was): It was winter, and when I was in the middle of the roof that was one of those tilted ones, I suddenly started sliding down, and, well, I was scared out of my mind. I didn't fall, because I managed to slam the ladder and not to slide over the edge.

Needless to say, I didn't go to the roof ever again.

(going off to somewhere...)

 

I was driving one night on a secondary paved highway, and I decided to slow down. I should mention that it was icy. I gently touched my brakes, but no good, I started skidding, and I started twisting in the middle of the road. soon I was in a full spin. A friend of mine had been seriously injured a few weeks before in a similar situation, and I knew that if I hit a dry spot or a bump in the road my mini-van would flip. I was fortunate in that I didn't hit that dry spot or bump, and that no other vehicle came along while I was spinning. It was pretty nerve racking, and all I could think about was my wife and how she'd take it if I died.

 

hmmm..

let me think

When I was 7 I dropped through the ice. Couldnt figure out how to get from under the ice for like 40 seconds since I couldnt find the "exit"

Imagine you going down a ramp, with +30km a hour, and 20m in front of you theres a busy street, you wanna hit the breaks (since its a smart thing to do and all) and suddenly you notice your breaks wont work


Now a lighter note
G - Why are sitting up there
P - Well it might sound silly, but we are ermmm afraid.. afraid to come down..
G - What?!?
P - Ah.. there is a word for it, the opposite of fear of heights
G - Fear of Killer whales??
P - Ah no, thats not it
G - Sounds more like Workaphobia to me

 

Tuesday before halloween break 1999 i was 14 and late for school, i got on my bike and rushed off to school

It had been raining all night and it was wet outside.

Halfway to school i cross a road, suddenly i hear a screeching sound look to my left and see a car about 6-7feet away closing in on me.

I totally froze up and couldnt do anything just watch the car come closer closer and then hitting me

It hit my bike mostly and knocked my down on the street head first(no helmet), my left eye took most of the blow and some minor scrapes on my hand and chin.

After the hit i just layed still not seeing anything, i was sure i was blind but i couldnt scream or cry or anything, i was in shock.

Luckily an old friend of my dads witnessed the whole thing and called my dad and an ambulance and talked to me to keep me calm.

At the hospital they had to sew my eye, the eye swelled up and i couldnt open it for about a week and a half all the time worrying if i was blind on one eye but after the swelling came down and i could open my eyelids.

I could see and was quite relieved over that fact, all that is left from the accident now is a small scar close to my eye (oh and i still dont wear a helmet)

 

Ivanji -- A very good friend of mine went through similar about 5 years ago, with the same successful conclusion. While I watched her go through different phases and a host of reactions, I still couldn't even fathom dealing with something like that. But strength is found in unexpected places sometimes -- I'm glad you weathered the storm.

Big B -- I'm a pretty strong sensory type person and this felt all wrong to me. When I glanced at him and met his eyes, they weren't smiling....they weren't friendly in the slightest degree.

We're all a product of our environments in some way and I'm no exception. When I was working for RJ Reynolds in North Carolina, a girl I worked with was attacked in our parking garage one night, after leaving work late. He cornered her in an empty stairwell, raped her and tied her to the railing with her pantyhose. I've never forgotten that. Does it warp my perception of scuzzy looking strangers hanging out in or near parking garages after hours? -- you bet it does. No apologies here.

 

Absolutely, brain-consuming stomach-warping fear..? I've felt such fear, a time or two before. But I can't remember when.

I can however remember two quite recent events of my life where extreme fear was involved.

A few years back when I was spending a few times off in the country with a friend of mine, we were walking his dog outside. Just as we got to around 4km away from his house (all fields, flat leveled fields of crops and nothing more) and turned back, we saw this great oval-shaped evenly gray and featureless cloud approach our direction. The cloud was the fiercest lightning-storm I've ever seen. But it was approaching us too fast for us to move away from it.

When the edge of that cloud reached us, the dog went crazy. And he's normally quite cool and composed. So we ran, ran and ran like... well, like two people and a dog would run when they were in the middle of a flat terrain 2km into any direction, representing the highest landpoint under a lightning storm striking 1 lighning in 2-5 second intervals. Just after entering, it started raining, and just as we reached the middle area, the wind, rain, all just stopped. And that's when we really put some pace to it. I'd been bored to death for quite some time before that, so the irony didn't escape me even if I did believe I was gonna die. My friend was just laughing hysterically. And the dog was just pulling us forward like no dog ever has. Needless to say, I'm here to talk about it because even if I did get quite a few closeups to a lightning, none of them ever strook us. In Finland, a phenomenon like that is *rare* to say the least. To end up in the middle of it is even more rare. All I can say is someone out there somewhere was angry that day.

The other incidence was just last summer. I was rollerskating for the first day of my life, thinking that jogging wouldn't be good on an aphalt but that something had to be done to get rid of this extra fat. Well I fell here and there, in the end of the day twisted my ankle to the point of being unable to rollerskate for the rest of the summer (that was, an almost completely unusable ankle sportswise for around 3 months). But the fear point was quite simply put: knowing that you can barely move forward on a flat apshalt terrain without falling. Knowing that you do NOT know how to brake over 2km/h without falling over. And then taking it to a 300m long downhill in the center of the capital city of Finland. I actually enjoyed that. Only thing that kept me from truly enjoying it was the fact that I knew I'd probably not die, but break some 10 different bones and suffer permanent changes to my appearance as well as a possibly get paralyzed, instead of just plain dying. I must've gone around 40km/h. One little rock would have made me go flying, or car, or a casually walking human. Even without all those I should've gone flying. So either I got lucky, blessed, or I possess incredibly superhuman abilities that manifest only when needed.

 

Spellbound, it's sad that we have a society that fosters such mistrust, but that's the way it is, I guess. You did the right thing, as far as I'm concerned. It sucks that you had to run, though -- the guy sounds like a scumball, it would have been nice if you could have shot him on general principle. I'm bringing my daughters up the same way -- better to be a little paranoid than end up in therapy because some animal raped you.

 

twice I have felt that sort of fear.

second time I was 9/10 rather weird. there had been a power cut at night - I woke up because of the absese of light - we had a street light outside our house and my mother keeps a light on in the hall always. I tried to get up but relised I couldn't move at all and was having difficulty breathing, I couldn't feel my anything below my neck - it felt as if they'd just gone and weren't there any more, I tried to call out to my mother but I couldn't talk. After a while I was able to and a felt an extreme pain in my back - I was partly relieved I was actually feeling something, my mother came in but couldn't call a doctor or anything because our phone was also connected to the electricity. She had to sit with me until I regained my sense of feeling - the first thing I did was sit up ad try and figure out what had happened. When we went to the doctors it turned out to be a sever muscle spasmsalong my spine. I now know what to do

The first time I would rather not talk about as it upsets me even though I should have got over it by now. It happened in the same year as the second one. It was at school. I will only say it involved a gun.

 

When I was 7 I was in the basement playing with matches. My mother started coming down, so I shook the match (rather than blowing it) and went to stick it in my back pocket. Well, it wasn't out. My polyester shirt caught fire, and I was up in flames (this is 1973, clothes weren't flame retardent yet). My mother put me out with a blanket, but I had 3rd degree burns on my chest. I defininately feared for my life.

April 25, 1997. I was driving to work on the highway, doing about 65 mph. My pickup started fish tailing. The rear end came around, hit the dirt on the side of the highway and I rolled. 5 times. While I was rolling, I remember saying to God, "Sheryl (my wife) doesn't need this right now". Her sister Pam (age 34) had died from an epileptic seizure 2 months before. I felt Pam there with me. When my pickup stopped rolling, came down on the remaining 3 wheels, I managed to climb out as the other commuters came to my aid. I "walked away" (in an ambulance) with a lung contusion, a chunk of meat missing from my left arm (where it hit the pavement) and a new appreciation for life.