“My Stepdad Catfished Me”: 45 Deeply Disturbing Experiences That Left People Struggling

I was holding my dog as he was being put down (had growths in his chest). When I felt the life leave his body something from me left with it.

Watching my wife after giving birth to our stillborn daughter try to wake her up by rubbing her cheek and hands scream crying for hours for her to just wake up.


You are young you can try again, probably the worst words said to us afterwards.


A year and some later a happy healthy rainbow baby.

But yeah that f****d me up good for a while and makes being the best parent I can be that much more rewarding.

(Edit)
Thank you everyone for the upvotes and comments I am truly sorry for everyone else that shared with the loss of a little and appreciate the openness this can be a very hard subject for a lot of people just know you don’t have to grieve alone or in silence and it’s okay to grieve and remember how you see fit.

My whole childhood was an event that f****d me up mentally for the rest of my life but When I was 8 my little brother hung himself with his long sleeve on our bunk bed and I walked in while he was purple and limp with his eyes rolled back. I screamed and my mom got him down barely in time. I remember the paramedics holding me and calling me an angel as I was shaking so bad and crying. That's the only day I have a clear picture of every single detail... Few years later at 16 we got adopted by separate families and he hung himself in his closet and this time no one saved him. That was 10 years ago and every single day I honestly feel apart of me is dead and I never been the same since the first time. I cant look at ropes or people hanging in movies or people talking about stuff like that or suffocation or anything related. Severe like ptsd from when I was 8 and the news at 16. I have so much anger no one saved him and so much anger we were separated and I couldn't save him again.

Being a nurse during the pandemic in NYC. S**t was so crazy that everytime I told others, I didn’t feel they understood the magnitude of the situation. I also didn’t see my folks for 3 months. Family members couldn’t say good bye to their loved ones because no one could enter the hospital. Some people were fine and just dropped within hours. RIP to all those who lost their lives.

Long story short, millitary trainning 60-80km long march in the mountain, dumb ahh wannabe survivalist instructor make us ration water, me and ma buddy got dehydration, 3 organ damaged, peeing blood, hallucinating, almost dead or be a cripple, and ma buddy that I thought was sleeping next to me while I was dying apparently wasn't sleeping-he was dead.

I came home one day mind you my mother had been abusive to me my whole life. She had a grundig stereo and was playing Irish music very loud. After I called out a few times pretty loudly no one answered so I picked up the needle which scratch the record and she came out of her bedroom with my dad's gun and shot at me twice. I was 13 at the time and never went back home.

When cops came into my home, without knocking, grabbed me from behind and beat the tar outta me. Then they lied on the report and said they knocked, I meet them at the door then ran into the kitchen and came out swinging a knife at them.
I'm a highly decorated veteran with an honorable discharge. No I have a criminal record because of bad cops and my ex-wife.

*Heard* the impact of someone falling to their death. Can never unhear that noise and whenever i hear something similar i jump slightly.

Back in January, my girlfriend had an aortic dissection while we were [making love] and needed emergency life-saving surgery. 6 stents and a bypass. Her aorta artery literally collapsed and she was losing blood flow to her brain, kidneys, and legs. The ER doctor told me that she would have died if I hadn’t taken her to the hospital when I did.
She was only 26 when it happened, which is insanely young.
Doctors kept asking me if she [used illegal substances] because this only happens to young people who OD, but I said we only had a couple drinks and were [making love]. They told me it wasn’t my fault and it was going to happen regardless. We later found out she has a genetic disorder that causes thin and fragile veins; combined with her high stress, she was constantly at risk of this happening.

It was the worst night/day of my life. Seeing my love, my high school sweetheart, laying in a hospital bed crying and saying “I’m not ready to leave you”. It broke my heart.
I’ll spare the details of transferring hospitals and waiting around for the surgery.

After a week of recovering in the hospital, she got to go home. She had her family and best friend who flew out to help take care of her.
My dad came back in state to visit her and coincidentally had an episode the first week she got home and was rushed to the ER. He had a hernia that was about to rupture. This had happened before and the doctors encouraged him to lose weight before the surgery to prevent the risk of going septic.
This time, though, they said it was urgent and they should probably operate. My dad refused and insisted on returning to work and was convinced he would shave off a couple pounds. I was so frustrated.

All while this is happening, my grandmother (who I grew up with and am very close to) was not doing good, and my mom, who lives with her on the other side of the country, had been encouraging me to visit because she doesn’t know how long she has left.

What the f**k else, right?

I juggled being with my girlfriend who was staying at her parents, and then my dad before he left back to work out of state, but my girlfriend’s family and best friend gave me so much flack when I wasn’t with her constantly. It was intensely stressful trying to balance everything.
I was with her when I could be. I changed bandages, I comforted her in really difficult nights. It was a rough recovery for her.

Two months after the surgery, when she seemed to be stable, I decided it was time to visit my grandmother.
My girlfriend couldn’t really travel from Georgia to California, due to appointments and just needing to be close to her doctors. She gave me so much s**t for leaving her. I was torn. I just wanted to go to my childhood home and see my grandmother and now my girlfriend is acting like I’m betraying her. She had been so cold to me on the phone the entire two weeks I was gone. Then I came back, and everything went back to seemingly normal. I thought about leaving her because I just feel like I am maxed out. I know she went through a lot, but I felt like she wasn’t understanding that I was also going through it.
We talked it out and have been all right since.

She is healthy and progressively getting back on track now, it’s a process. I am so incredibly grateful that she is strong and has worked through so much pain; emotionally and physically. Also, my dad is fine now. He eventually got the surgery, urgently, a month later after a similar episode. Grandma is also still hanging in there.

I have been in a pit of depression since, though, even when everything seems fine now. I can’t think straight, and I feel guilty when I don’t spend every minute with my girlfriend. I just don’t feel good about much anymore. I’ve lost drive in my passions. And I get so anxious during [intercourse] with her. I had secretly bought blue chews, and she found out without telling me and thought I was cheating on her? It eventually came up and I embarrassingly had to tell her how depressed and recently dysfunctional I was, but until then, she treated me without trust and it broke me down. Again, we talked it out and now we’re fine and reassured.. I just feel like she has always had trust issues and it really puts me on edge now. It’s hard to snap out of a 12 year relationship, no matter how unfairly treated I feel. She is seriously my other half. Everything is seemingly all right now though.

I just feel like nothing feels real anymore? My life has changed so drastically this year and I can’t snap out of it. I don’t feel present. I used to love being around anyone and everyone, but now I feel like a buzzkill deep down. Just a domino of depressing events. I have never let loose about all of this to anyone but my mom. I often dream of running away and being a beach bum or something

Thanks to whoever read this messy rant.

The death of my baby twins.

Seeing my Mother dead this morning, she passed in her sleep, still way too young.

Absolutely no one being there for me after I broke my back.

Growing up as a Jehovah witness.

Work stress induced burnout. My first job out of university I was the wonder kid. took it all on and did it all well. Worked ridiculous hours to impress higher-ups. Ended up depressed and unemployable alcoholic. Will never fully recover, unfortunately, the psychological damage is done.

The war in Ukraine. My friends and close people to me moved in different countries and all of them started new, interesting life with new people. And I'm still here and didn't make new friends.

Doing CPR on a Cambodian soldier when my interpreter tells me the soldiers brother (who's behind me with an AK-47) said that if I don't save his brothers life he will shoot me. I could feel the muzzle of his rifle bumping into the back of my head each time I did chest compressions. That kind of f****d me up.

It wasn’t even that long ago.

My dad was always the idyllic standard of a strong person. At 6’5” and around 240lbs, he was hard to miss. But he was kind, charitable, memorable, and often unflappable.

Even after the one-in-a-million cancer diagnosis he continued to be the same old guy. In between hospital visits with mesh screens for MRIs and bouts of radiation he never seemed to weaken.

My parents had moved away from me and my home town years before, so I didn’t get to see dad too often. The last time he came to my coast I finally started to see the cracks forming; he couldn’t walk very well, and had bathroom issues (he was always way too free about telling me things like that. Classic dad).

The last time I saw him was back on his coast. I was able to have the joy of telling him that my now husband and I were engaged. But during that trip I saw one of my heroes look truly weak.

He insisted on trying to stand and walk as much as possible despite his prognosis and weakened state. One day several of us in the room helped him to stand, and he immediately fell backwards and said “I’m dying.” It truly broke my f*****g heart, and still does to this day.

Seeing someone you love and admire come to grips with mortality is almost indescribable. Dad’s been gone for just over three years now, but that is a moment that i wish i could scrub from my mind.

I got shot in the leg when an active shooter stormed into king soopers and now i get paranoid whenever i go shopping.

Watching my dad beat my mom and beating me for a period of time. hasn't done it since then and it's been 30 years.
watching my friends get killed in war.
watching people die throughout life.
this whole political s**t show since the early 2000s.

my brother putting a bullet in his head.

my girlfriend of 5 years verbally drunk abusing me.

I'm peachy.

When I was in grade 11, it was the last day of school before summer, and I had some extra time so I went to the nearby mall with some friends. On the way back, I just stepped onto the sidewalk after crossing the street when I heard a blood curdling scream right behind me. I turned to see a woman had been run over by a flatbed truck, and was between the front and rear tires under the driveshaft.

She was still alive and calling for help. Blood leaked out of her and there was a visible tire tread mark over her mid back, which was squished flat as a pancake. She quickly faded and stopped moving or calling out just before the paramedics arrived. It was around then that I realized had I been at that crosswalk 5 seconds later, id have been run over too...

It was a a surreal moment going back to school. I didnt know where else to go, I was in shock and just kinda wandered there as it was a block away. Everyone else is cheering for the end of the school year and Im just white as a ghost wandering around aimlessly in total shock, probably had the thousand yard stare going too.

I will say, it for sure made me pay great attention when I cross any road. It has saved my life from stupid or crazy drivers more than a few times, so I guess I thank that poor lady for that intuition, or instinct or whatever you wanna call it. But Im pretty sure I have some ptsd over that event, I can see it very clearly in my mind when recalling this, right down to the wavy tread pattern on her back. Ill never forget that day. Im not superstituous, but it was a friday the 13th for whatever its worth.