What's a scary thing you've been through and survived?

What's a scary thing you've been through and survived?

The reason I'm asking this is that, well, I seem to attract bad people. I had a nasty sort of childhood, that resulted in PTSD, etc (including massive weight gain). Recently I was at a gas station and was approached by a group of thuggy men. They wanted money from me, and somehow I lied myself out of the situation, convincing them I had none. This encounter toppled me way over into crazy-lisa-land, where everything is scary, even when it's not. So I guess I'm asking for some sort of reasurance that other people have experienced bad things and gotten over it.

Maybe this is too personal of a question... I know I've dealt with unpleasant things from my past, but somehow since those men approached me, my mind is just blank. It's probably worth mentioning that I have a fear of men in general.

I hknow what you mean. I have had a lot of scary moments but I also have agoraphobia so everything to me is scary. I am working on it trying to not be that way but its very hard.

Hey! 

I guess I could say the scariest thing I went through was when I had third degree burns. The burns didn't bother me so much, it was the panic that came with them. It was like it hit me like a ton of bricks...I never slept and I rarely left the house once I got out of the hospital, because I was so determined that I was going to die, and not only die, but go straight to Hell. I had no reason for even thinking it...it just came all of a sudden.

I worried about it constantly, because I thought that worrying would keep it from happening. I knew that while I was asleep, there was nothing I could do to save myself if I were to by some chance die, so I only slept for about an hour a night. One night, when I actually did manage to sleep, I had a dream about a man that ate an apple that killed him. I took that as a sign that the next apple I ate would kill me, and I didn't eat apples for months. (I have since eaten at least one apple and would like to report that I am alive, by the way )

I was always thinking of ways that something, everything, could kill me. Even something as silly as eating too much riboflavin. It was impossible for me to get a zit during these four months...no, it wasn't a zit, it was a flesh eating virus that would destroy me from the outside in. And Swine Flu? Psh. Forget that, I was scared my bananas would give me Ebola! If I walked by a guy smoking on the street, I was certain I'd have lung cancer by next Tuesday. I even decided to go back to my natural hair color because I was scared of cancer. (ended up looking pretty durn good though.)

I couldn't talk to anyone about it, because they would say "Don't worry about dying, even if you do you'll go to Heaven." and I would always think "Easy for you to say, but I'm going to Hell!"

To this day I have no idea why I thought I was going to Hell. It still bothers me sometimes, but I can usually deal with it, and it goes away. It only comes at night now, or in the evenings, and it never stays for long. I don't have the panic attacks I used to, but I still wonder about the weirdest things killing me. I don't know if the burns actually caused all this fear, but it started at about the time I plopped down on the couch with a boiling pot of water, fresh from the stove and mixed with vaseline, dumped it all over my entire lower body, and spent the week in the hospital and three months not being able to walk. My only guess is that the last thing I expected was to get third degree burns, and it all happened so fast. If that could happen, and right when I wasn't looking for it, then anything could happen, even dying and going to Hell. Amazing how the mind works, isn't it?

There are times when I felt like I should just go ahead and call the loony bin while I put myself in the straight jacket. I mean I was honestly ready to be commited, I really do believe (I still probably need a good deal of commiting). But fear is a part of our lives, whether it should be or not, and it's perfectly normal to be afraid. It shows that we know we still need God. It's really really hard to convince yourself that worrying about something won't make it less likely to happen. We really do feel like worrying about something and expecting it to jump out at us gives us more control over our lives. I know worrying really interferes with life, but it's just so hard not to, isn't it?