“What’s Something That’s Happened To You That Sounds Fake But Unfortunately Isn’t?” (50 Answers)

Was in a relatively mild car accident. EMS recommended xrays just to be safe. I argued a bit but ended up relenting. Xrays lead to a CT and a kidney cancer diagnosis.

Doctor said I would've been dead inside a year if it hadn't been found.

Not mine but a friend’s story

When she was about 5 or so she was at CVS with her dad when someone robbed the store. While the robber is pointing a gun and yelling at everyone to get on the ground, her dad, being an Asian man born in Asia, says “Happy Halloween” because he thought it was a costume. This happened in November.

I wrecked my bike in the summer after 7th grade and had to be mercy flighted, broken bones, quite severe concussion…. I forgot 90% of seventh grade and struggled in 8th, but a weird side effect was that I could music. Before I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, couldn’t hear when notes were the same or different, completely tone-deaf, and after the accident I could. I sang in my college choir for four years.

When I was in elementary school we went on a class trip to one of those old colonial towns to see how life was back then for settlers.

During lunch break I went to the bathroom and a man paid me to take pictures of me in the bathroom. I was really excited to get money.

Next thing I knew I was in a police car scared out of my mind that I was in trouble. I kept apologizing to the cop while my mom tried to calm me down. I remember crying all night that my principal would hate me because I made the cops come.

What an odd memory.

I was working and felt like I broke a rib. It went away but I off handedly mentioned it to my doctor. She was super concerned and ordered a bone scan. It was stage 4 cancer.

I won an art competition with my painting judged while hanging upside down.

When I told them, they tried telling me I was wrong till they realised I had painted it. TBH, it was a school competition.

I got hit by lightning while driving my car down the interstate. Completely killed the computer system and totaled the car out.

My dad forcing me to eat my pet squirrel. I grew up lonely in a rural area. I made friends with a squirrel and the little guy got tame around me. Like I could sit in the bench swing and he would climb down and I would pass him a granola bar. He actually begged with his hands asking for the food.

Well one day my dad was cooking fish and drinking beer with his friends. Well the see me in the bench drawing and the squirrel comes down. They shout what am I doing. I said just chilling with my little bud (I was 10m). They make a joke about my dad raising a Disney princess. He gets angry and goes inside. He comes back outside and next thing I know is the bench I was in is being knocked over the squirrel bails and then boom. Little bud is shot with bird shot. His friends were laughing til this. He then tells me to wait by the fryer will he proceeds to clean the squirrel and then deep fries it in front of me and makes me watch. I see the eyes of what was my friend exploding in the oil. He cooks it til it was done. He then Infront of his friends demands that I eat it. I say know but he grabbed me by the collar and pops me three times. He then tells me the squirrel got off easy. He could do a lot worse to me. I eat my friend that literally had just been feeding and laughing with thirty mins ago. His friends alot lost their composure. Many left and a few threw up at this sight. It was not a good day.

So yeah again being made to eat a pet

I was hit in the head by a bowling ball on a trampoline. 911 hung up on my cousin because they thought it was a prank.

When I was 3-5 my mom married my little brothers dad. She was working basically all the time, and also trying to balance out school. After she had my little brother, his dad started getting... hostile towards me.

For context, I was living with my mom, twin sister, little brother, step brother, step sister, and stepfather (now he's an ex stepfather). His daughter was awesome. His son was a completely different story.

So, my ex stepfather abused me, just about every day for 2 years. I didn't know what to think about it because I was so young. He used to beat me with his belt, lock me in the attic, make me drink beer. He left me in the woods. But, he was smart enough to hit me where the marks wouldn't be seen by my mom. He did give me a black eye once by punching me in the face. He always screamed at me. He scared me. Every time his kids did something wrong he blamed me for it and he beat me for it.

I hate him. And every time I go down to my bio dad's house I'm scared I'll see him again. I'm scared he will try to do it again.

His son, who was around 10-12 at the time used to groom me. He and I shared a room, and he made me touch him at night. And every time I said "I don't want to" he'd break something, or say I hit him, or lock me in the closet. All of those getting me beaten by his dad.

I'm 16 now and I'm still trying to get over it. I'm hurting. I wish I could go back and change it. I had my childhood stripped away from me because my mom had bad taste in men, and that's unforgivable. She doesn't believe the scars he left. She negates what i say and feel, just so that she can feel better about herself.

I have panic attacks whenever I smell a certain type of alcohol now, and I have panic attacks whenever I smell weed. I'm claustrophobic too, and I hate being alone in the dark.

Thank you for listening. I had to get it out there in a way that I'm comfortable with.

Tldr; my ex step-dad abused me and his son groomed me when I was 3-5 years old, and my mom still doesn't care.

Update: I've been going to therapy for a few weeks now. The only reason for that being I have pnes (ptsd related non epileptic seizures. Basically if I have a panic attack it could cause a seizure.) My therapy is tbcbt, or, trauma based cognitive behavioral therapy. The only reason my mother is allowing me to do this is because A. I almost died because of a seizure (caused by my current stepfather because he hit me and held me in a headlock after screaming at me) and B. So that I could stop pissing her off by not wanting to be around her. Both my mother and current step-dad are abusive. I can't do anything about it. As a 16 year old, I can't legally move out unless I get emancipated in the state of PA.

I (15 at the time) was traveling in a foreign country with my sister (26). We stayed at a local hotel. My period came and I got a little bit on the sheets the first night. Housekeeping came and cleaned as usual, nothing mentioned.

A few days passed and when we were checking out, they asked to see our passports again. I guess we thought they just needed to double check their guest registry to update it. Once the passports were in his hand the front desk person (male) got really angry with us and began yelling at us for "making mess" in the hotel. At first we had no idea what he was talking about because we are very tidy travelers. He just kept yelling that we "made trouble" for him. He then proceeded to ask housekeeping to bring out the evidence and guess what, they proceeded TO BRING OUT THE UNWASHED SHEETS (wtf?). No idea where they had stored it.

A nice young Australian couple witnessed the whole thing. The lady muttered "it's just a few spots, can't you just wash it?" He yelled at them to stay out of it and they fell silent. He even asked who made the mess (my sister said she did).

15 year old me felt like I had done something criminally wrong. My sister "paid him for the sheets" and got our passports back so we could leave.

I was thrown off a motorcycle on the interstate when I was 22 months old. Yes, MONTHS. My parents thought I was dead because my head was ripped open (skull too) but took me to the hospital anyway.
ETA: This happened in the Midwest US on an interstate.

My sister almost got arrested at the White House because she sat down in the line outside to get in. She only did that because her feet hurt.

Apparently it’s illegal to sit down at the White House because it’s considered a sit-in protest.

She was 12.

My grandfather has been married to 3 women in my lifetime :
1. my dad's mom, to whom he was married when I was born and divorced when I was a year old so he could get with #2
2. my step-grandmother, who he married immediately after the divorce from #1 and who I've considered one of my grandmothers my whole life - he divorced her when she was diagnosed with schizophrenia around the time I was in my early 20s
3. his current wife, who he married when I was in my early 30s, and who I have never met and have zero plans to

Here's where the unbelievable but true part comes in: Each of these women have a photograph of themselves holding me as an infant in the hospital when I was born. #1 makes sense. #2 is a bit tacky - he wasn't divorced yet so I'm not sure what the vibe was. #3 though - none of us know why or when she was there, we didn't even learn about this woman's existence until they married 30+ years after the picture in question was taken. I was a very distinct looking baby thanks to being severely post term (born more than 2 weeks past my due date), so the photos are easy to verify.

I've been no-contact with him for almost 20 years for many reasons, including this one. He's a f*****g piece of work.

Tldr: grandpa's a ho, brought his wife and all his sidepieces to the hospital when I was born and there's photo evidence.

When I was young I swallowed a game token and it got lodged in my throat. Thankfully just before it got stuck I let out a muffled scream. My dad was downstairs watching TV. He heard the scream and came running upstairs. He found me choking and attempted the heimlich maneuver. Unfortunately it didn't work. So he picked me up and rushed me into the bathroom. Lifted me upside down and my stepmom began hitting me on the back while she was calling 911. I swear it felt like forever but the token came out and fell in the toilet. I'm sure they must have been shocked to see what I had been choking on this whole time lol. If it hadn't been for my dad's superhuman hearing and quick thinking I don't know if I would still be here now.

I got punched in the face by a kangaroo when I was 13.

I was chased down the street by an angry chicken.

I was in a weird love triangle. This was back in like 2007. I was into a girl, but her near-inseparable best friend was into me. I wanted to go out with the girl, but she felt weird going out with me while her best friend kept talking about me, and said I should go out with the best friend first and let her get me out of her system...so I did that. It went ok but no chemistry. Went out with the first girl and there was major chemistry, but still withholding. It became more and more where it was always the two of them coming on outings with me (and sometimes ditching me) until the day they told me they both decided to date each other.

I was cuffed and thrown in the back of a cop car after being accused of stealing cars, while walking through a bowling alley parking lot.

I was 12.

My cousin beat my aunt to death then put a towel over her face and sat down and ate dinner. My other cousin had a welfare check and they found him watching tv with her body in the kitchen.
Edit: this happened about 10 years ago in Florida. My cousin is mentally unstable. Due to a car accident that happens to him when he was in his teens and has been on medication his whole life and I guess the older he got the worse he got. He was in his late 40’s when he killed my aunt. I guess they got into an argument and he snapped and beat her to death. Then cleaned up and put all the evidence in the attic but left her lying on the kitchen floor with the towel over her face. He’s been in a mental institution ever since.