Hey, so I go into sleep every night whilst also in pain, (maimed my hand previously) and I've almost drowned before, and I can state definitively that they're nothing alike. Drowning, whatever anyone says, is a panicky, terrifying affair. Even as you calm down physically and accept that you're going to die, your body is FREAKING THE FUCK OUT WITH SHEER TERROR. You think, "Oh god, I'm going to die, please no... But it's so quiet under here..." Whilst your body shrieks at you to MOVE OR DO ANYTHING AT ALL TO GET AIR.
Sleeping with pain is more like, "Ah, fuckin'... So sore. Try to relax. Uggggh. REeeeeeelax. Okay, getting tired... How are baseballs made...? -sleep-"
I think people have different susceptibilities to fear, panic and under what circumstances they are driven to such lengths. I remember that I felt no fear and after I realized that I couldn't signal for help and that I had no chance of getting any air (betwixt spasmodic attempts at reaching the surface or attempts to signal help) I just drifted, looking for a way out. Curiously I accepted death but felt no fear of it, with the emotion I felt most suitably describing my state of mind as resigned disappointment. I think now were I in the same situation in the sea for example I'd be more energetic, probably more susceptible to panic, but as I couldn't swim back then I guess my survival instincts were doing their best by doing nothing at all. Or in other words, if you are capable of prolonging the inevitable, your instincts are going to try and make you do so. It really was quiet, though that was no comfort, for I couldn't even hear my own screams for help - nothing would escape the water of course, but I think that calm was my instincts getting me to stop and conserve oxygen. The pain was there but the mind just sorted tuned it out, it was only when I was back on land that I noticed that the pain was painful, though I will say breathing in water is much less painful than chest infections (really, breathing in large quantities of water is painful in a manner quite unlike any other pain). Sleeping with pain also varies by the pain and such, cos when you're coughing your way in and out of consciousness or sitting in a hot tub till it turns cold cos you want the vomiting to stop then it all just becomes one very long and painful day that doesn't end, because you're too exhausted to go on yet you're too pained to pass out. 0/10 would rather drown than have that pain
But then again there's the kind of pain caused by physical damage like getting bonked on the head terribly so, and that one is less like a marathon of pain and more like the Soviet Army conducting deep battle operations inside your nerves
Ah, I get ya. I've known how to swim almost my entire life, barring about four years at the very beginning. (Born with Mammalian diving reflex, must learn2swim immediately, very important) so my body was fully wired to swim to the surface, but I was restrained by another human. I don't exactly want to explain the circumstances, but I was drowning, being forced to drown, and fighting it viciously. I will agree that inhaling water is a pain unlike any other.
Mind you, my hand isn't a constant, dear-lord-if-you-exist-let-me-die-instead pain, more of a intermittent either no pain or extreme pain, slightly short of let-me-die-ism. I've had SADO pain before, but rarely, and thankfully so. When I was swarmed by hornets at a young age was so. I could... I could FEEL the toxins in my heart and limbs, flowing through me and killing me softly. I felt my lungs wheezing and my throat clenching from the apitoxin. I was so agonized I literally couldn't move the entire time I was taken to the hospital, then worked on. It was a deeply enlightening experience, and ever since then, I dedicated myself to learning as much as I possibly could about things that frightened me. Death first, phobias second. I know so much about bees and sharks and drowning and falling too far nowadays, it's ridiculous, but the knowledge helps me deal. I'm generally unflappable as far as fear goes, these days. But I still would never ever cave-dive. Fuuuuuuuck that.
I just hope I never get stung again, cuz they said I'm almost definitely allergic (113 stings on my upper chest, front. They stopped counting then.) and I am sure I would die in wheezing, suffocating agony as my body quickly betrayed me and shut it's primary O2 exchange system down instead of processing a minor amount of apitoxin.
Author
Topic: Things that made you absolutely terrified today (Read 2018591 times)