There are endless facts out there—some are fun, others intriguing, and then there are those that make you question reality. But there’s one kind of fact that can truly leave you unsettled: disturbing facts.

When a Redditor posed the question, “What is the most horrifying piece of information you have to share?” People flooded the thread with unsettling truths that will leave you feeling rattled. Keep reading to discover some of the most chilling responses!

#1

Sometimes when an elderly person falls and ends up with a broken hip, it’s actually the hip breaking that causes the fall.

Image credits: I_Am_Slightly_Horney

#2

Spiders have exoskeletons that they shed. When you see a dead spider, it might not be a dead spider. It could just be it's old skin, and the spider is now somewhere else, and bigger.

Image credits: Epsilonian24609

#3

When Judith Barsi (The voice of Ducky in The Land before Time) was m*rdered by her father, she was halfway through doing voicework for All Dogs Go Heaven.

Her last recorded voice lines is her goodbye to Charlie played by Burt Reynolds. Reynolds recorded his lines after her death. It took him 63 takes to get through it and you can tell he's barely keeping it together when doing the scene:

https://youtu.be/HhEyYbmTh_Y?feature=shared.

Image credits: killingjoke96

#4

That doctors admitted to euthanizing patients at Memorial Medical Center hospital in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina because their only other option was to leave them to die. Several were charged but have defended their decisions as the only humane choice in an impossible situation. One patient in particular was not terminal, but due to his size, was unable to be moved.

Image credits: plantainbakery

#5

You are not immune to being brainwashed. People don't get sucked into cults because they are stupid. It could happen to you. Also, **cults are not always religious**, they just often are.

Cults draw you in by making you feel smart and appreciated and loved, they douse you in affection and praise, and then they use your trust in them to isolate you from the voices of reason in your life.

If someone is being super nice to you for a long time, making you feel special, and then they start telling you that you should cut off multiple people in your life, especially if it's the people telling you that something is wrong, that's a red flag. They will tell you that those people are unsupportive and that you don't need people like that in your life. This is a systematic way to cut off any resistance so the only reasoning you will hear is their own. And all the while they will seem so kind and supportive. Do not get sucked into this trap.

Image credits: Pluviophilism

#6

That the leading cause of death for a pregnant woman is m*rder.

Image credits: alohabowtie

#7

I lost my leg to a bug bite that I had no knowledge of getting. One day my ankle swelled up and I thought it was just me getting old. It got progressively worse, this was during covid so I didn't have a lot of options. After being up for a few days from pain and running a fever I went to the emergency room and was diagnosed as having a sprained ankle. They gave me pain medication which helped me sleep. I woke up after 18 hours to blisters under my ace bandage. I don't have any memory of anything until I woke up after my third surgery of them removing more and more of my leg. It was necrotizing fasciitis.

I lost everything from a medical misdiagnosis. I am currently just about starving to death as disability doesn't pay enough even though I worked my whole life and did everything I was supposed to.

Image credits: Fun_Situation7214

#8

Supposedly global warming will cause spiders to slowly get bigger overtime.

Image credits: SnooCauliflowers5174

#9

People will hurt you and take joy out of it even if you're the most nicest person in the world

And sometimes those people are called family.

Image credits: Fin745

#10

Carbon dioxide was blamed for the deaths of around 1700 people in Cameroon, west Africa, in 1986 when a massive release of gas occurred from Lake Nyos, a volcanic crater lake. The clinical findings in 845 survivors seen at or admitted to hospital were compatible with exposure to an asphyxiant gas.

They were just sleeping when the lake released a giant cloud of CO2 and wiped out almost an entire village.

Image credits: whatintheactualfeth

#11

During the space shuttle Challenger disaster, the flight data shows that the astronauts turned on their internal oxygen supplies *after* the explosion...so it's likely that some of them were still alive when they hit the water.

Image credits: Yournaughtyjedi

#12

There are orphanages full of kids who will never be adopted and many might not live long enough to "graduate" from the facility.

The reason is that these are kids rescued from, or abandoned by the child s*x trade. They have an eclectic selection of STDs. HIV is rife. And most have major emotional/psychological issues from the abuse they suffered.

Image credits: Barbarian_818

#13

Gaze Detection - The human brain seems to be able to sense if someone is staring at us, even if we do not see the person at all. This ability has probably protected us from predators. So, if you have sometimes felt that someone was staring at you, chances are someone really was.

Image credits: anon

#14

The American blood supply runs on about a 2-3 day buffer for most products. If for some reason the entire system shut down for a couple of weeks, people would die for lack of transfusions. And while at least 60% of our citizens are eligible to donate blood, only 5% of those people ever will. If that number went to around 8%, no blood bank would ever need to call you again.

Image credits: baltinerdist

#15

For a lot of people the first sign of cardiovascular disease is sudden death.

Image credits: anon

#16

On February 3rd, 1998, twenty people died when a cable car situated near the ski resort town of Cavalese, Italy plummeted to the ground from 260 feet. It was caused when a United States Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft, which was flying excessively fast and too low during a low-altitude training mission, ultimately severed the cable that supported the cable car as it was descending from Mount Cermis.

The disaster has been named the Strage del Cermis (Massacre of Cermis) in Italy. The pilot, Captain Richard J. Ashby, and his navigator, Captain Joseph Schweitzer, were ultimately deemed not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide for their roles in the disaster. However, they were found guilty of obstruction of justice and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman upon being found to have **destroyed camcorder footage recorded from the plane's cockpit**.

Image credits: sortilege84

#17

On very rare occasions, a corpse can ‘give birth’. If a pregnant person dies, then certain results of decomposition, such as bloating, can force the fetus out of the womb, giving the illusion of Corpse Birth.

Image credits: SapphicsAndStilettos

#18

50% of all plastics created have been since the year 2000

In recent brain samples inspected, 0.5% of the tissue was plastic by weight.

0.5% of our brains are now plastic. Most of the plastic found (40%] was polyethylene.

I cannot confirm this I'm only parroting it but it lives rent free in my head lately, like the plastic probably.

Image credits: Analgorilla

#19

Morgues prefer to hire women.

For the reason you assume.

Image credits: linuxphoney

#20

During time working at Pearl Harbor National Memorial I came across two horrifying tidbits. When the USS Oklahoma rolled over it trapped sailors inside with no way of rescuing them. Cutting through the hull was impossible, a single gap would have caused the air pocket to collapse and flood the compartment. The workers still heard banging on hull during Christmas, nearly three weeks after the attack and plugged their ears with cotton to drown it out.

The second tidbit is that by the time the workers got the ship upright and drained, workers were only collecting bits and pieces of remains. When caskets of the unknown sailors were exhumed to begin DNA identification they discovered over 100 different strands of DNA from a single coffin.

Image credits: RangerAlex22

#21

Research suggests that people locked in comas or otherwise paralyzed are “conscious” and thinking the whole time.

Image credits: grumpy_troll9

#22

People that work with roaches, such as laboratory staff, reasearchers, and pest control personnel, often develop allergies to roaches....and preground packaged coffee.

Image credits: Superlite47

#23

Remember the crocodile that took the toddler at Disney?

A guy that worked there told me the toddler wasn’t consumed. The crocodile stashed it under some submerged roots to let it soften up for a few days before consuming it. They found the body before that.

Image credits: otter111a

#24

The history of Gynecology and the father of It is quite horrific to learn about. He essentially experimented on slaves without any form of anaesthesia.

Image credits: anon

#25

L'Angolo de Gigi, the iconic Italian restaurant run by chef Gigi Ferruzo, left an indelible mark on the culinary scene in the capital of Colombia in the 80's, not only for its exquisite flavors but also for the dark rumors that surrounded it. It was said that the gourmet dishes served there, located on the road to La Calera, were prepared with human flesh.

Little is known about Ferruzo because it's known that he was a butcher from a young age and emigrated from Italy to settle in Colombia. Over time, he began associating with influential politicians in the country, and his behavior changed so much that many compared him to a mobster. Rumors spread that these politicians were not only his friends but also the ones supplying the bodies he allegedly used in his cooking, because a supposed former member of the secret police claimed that the bodies from the wars against guerrillas and d**g trafficking were sold to Ferruzo and that, on the day of the Palace of Justice siege, he was allowed to select "the plumpest corpses". To this day, the whereabouts of these people are unknown and that is why one of the theories is that he cooked them and fed them to his diners.

The situation worsened when restaurant employees began to suspect something was wrong, as Ferruzo wouldn't allow anyone else to handle the meat because he claimed it was imported from Italy, sent by his sister, although she later denied this. Eventually, after these rumors circulated, L'Angolo de Gigi closed its doors, and Ferruzo disappeared over 40 years ago, leaving his fate shrouded in mystery. No one knows what happened to him.

Image credits: anon

#26

You are currently covered in millions upon billions of tiny little lifeforms; most of which are required for your continued existence. You are the entire universe to a litany of microscopic beings ?.

Image credits: Enchanting-Ichor

#27

On November 25, 1988, a Japanese high school girl named Junko Furuta was threatened and brought to the house of a teenager who, along with his friends, proceed to torture and r*pe the the girl countless times for 44 days straight. in the end, Furuta was severely malnourished and was left in an incredibly weakened mental and physical state. On January 4, 1988, she was k*lled after being beaten up and having her face burned by the group of boys. Less than 24 hours after her death, her body was wrapped in a blanked, placed in a travel bag, put inside a metal drum which was filled with wet cement, and dumped in a construction site in Tokyo.

Image credits: Fine_Chain_4787

#28

Our crew went out to a mall to do some repair work in the main electrical room. The area around one of the main electrical panelswas cordoned off with safety tape. The entire top half of the panel was mostly fused. What wasn't fused together was badly burnt and melted. When we had all gotten into the electrical room our boss closed the door and said " full disclosure, that smell is burnt flesh. A maintenance man was working on the panel when a pry bar he had used to get the dead front off fell across the main lugs. Fortunately he did not survive. You will all be wearing full Hazmat gear while working in this room... EMS did try to get as much of him as they could out of the panel but there may be some...residue .".

Image credits: 12altoids34

#29

Every traditional disposable diaper ever made is still in a landfill and has not decomposed. One diaper takes 500 years to decompose. The best biodegradable ones take 50 years. That means, unless you were in cloth diapers, the ones you wore as a baby are still out there.

Image credits: Pregnantwifesugar

#30

Apparently Yellow Stone is becoming more active ?‍♂️ I’m in the blast zone so there’s that….

Image credits: mwr0585

#31

I'm a vet, and I would say the most horrifying thing I have to tell people is that I can't do anything for their animal. It feels horrible every single time I have to discuss palliative care or talk about it perhaps being "time" for their animal.

Image credits: ExoticBiologist

#32

Prions. Aka a misfolded protein in the brain that causes other proteins to misfold. This literally causes "sponge brain" or large holes in the brain. It is always fatal, and there is no known cure or treatment to slow the progression.

Prion disease can be contagious or genetic. The contagious form cannot be k*lled by extreme heat, meaning that people with prion disease who have to have surgery, those instruments used during surgery cannot be sterilized.

The most prevalent contagious form of prion disease is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, aka Mad Cow Disease. Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is another common form of prion disease, which affects mostly deer. While there are no human cases of CWD, it is theorized that the disease could be capable of infecting humans.

Prion disease can also be "sporadic" meaning the cause is not genetic or contagious, ultimately unknown. The most common form of prion disease, CJD, is mostly sporadic.

Prion disease can lay dormant in the body for years. But once it is "activated", the average prognosis is about 1 year.

TL;DR: Prions make holes in your brain that you will ultimately die from. It can be contagious, genetic, or idiopathic. Once the disease is active, you have, at most, a couple years to live. There is no cure or treatment to slow the disease at this time.

Image credits: Rosiepuff

#33

The chainsaw was originally a medical tool used during birth. They cut your pelvis in half to help get the baby out. It was invented in the 1800s and was hand powered.

Image credits: BlissKitten

#34

This isn’t particularly existential or deep but Whales don’t actually die of old age. They die from drowning when they’re too old to resurface.

Image credits: Kinglycole

#35

The Byford Dolphin accident. November 5, 1983.

4 saturation divers were in a decompression chamber which was pressurized to 9 atmospheres, when one of the tenders outside released the docking collar of the diving bell before the diver inside had closed the hatch all the way, resulting in an explosive decompression of the chamber, k*lling all 4 of the divers and the tender who caused it. The diver who was near the hatch was sucked out of the chamber from a small gap along with all the air rushing out. Due to lack of better words, he was literally turned into pulp and his remains were sprayed all over the deck outside.

Image credits: -Huskii

#36

Pinky toes can auto amputate. It's exactly what it sounds like, and once it starts, you can't stop it.

Image credits: Sarinnana

#37

After a hip broken or after hip surgery, after 60yo, you have 50% chance of dying in the next 2 years. Like flipping a coin.

Image credits: 2Spit

#38

We are either alone in the universe or we are not alone in the universe.

Image credits: atxwade

#39

You can just die completely randomly, I knew a healthy dude in college and he sneezed to death, he sneezed 6 times in quick succession and died of a brain aneurism, I wasn't there when it happened though, it happened when he was at home.

Image credits: MaliceTheMagician

#40

A guy accidentally threw his child into helicopter blades. His wife left him and he k*lled himself later. I think about it everyday.

Image credits: TheFunkinDuncan

#41

Because there will always be pregnant women, the average skeleton per body is greater than 1.

Image credits: treynolds787

#42

1 out of 3 women and 1 out of 4 men will have cancer .

Image credits: Relative_Scale_3667

#43

Our world as we know it can be instantly eviscerated by quasar, a dying suns last hoorah pretty much. It send big a*s laser beams out into their surroundings and as you could think, those beams have the power of the sun in them. And we cant see them coming :).

Image credits: Left_Piece3053

#44

Once you begin to show signs of rabies, it's already too late to do anything about it. You have an inevitable and terrifying death ahead of you. Also, it's possible to get rabies from even a tiny, unnoticeable scratch, possibly while you're sleeping. If you've been camping in the last couple months, you could have it right now and not even know it.

Image credits: FictionVent

#45

Right now is the youngest you will ever be again.

Image credits: DiscardedMush

#46

>In early May of 1898, a ten-year-old boy named Joseph Bufonchio was playing at the corner of Third and Jackson in what was known as the Great Jackson Street Chuckhole—it was eight feet deep and sixteen feet wide. The local children loved to play in these large pools of muck. These children would build rafts and push themselves across these miniature lakes by using poles to push them along. In doing so, at 4:30pm Joseph’s pole got stuck at the bottom of the chuckhole, and he fell in and sank to the bottom. This event was such a huge spectacle that up to 2000 voyeurs watched at what was described as a comical event as men clumsily struggled to retrieve the boy’s body. One by one, they fell into the muddy mess as the crowd cheered and laughed. It wasn’t until Joseph’s father arrived and yelled out to the crowd: “It is my poor boy that has been drowned. Have you no regard for my grief?” Just then, silence fell over the great chuck hole. It wasn’t until 6:00pm that they recovered his body, and he was rushed to a local bathhouse, where Dr. Rogers who theorized was that a body could be revived even after it had been in the water for several hours. He worked on the boy’s body until 9:00pm with no success.

Image credits: Frankyfan3

#47

George Washington's false teeth are not made from wood.

Image credits: Flat_Wash5062

#48

Soft-shelled crabs are just crabs that are molting. You're eating them whole, shell and all, it's just a gross, green molting version of their shell that's still growing.

Image credits: obdurate_past

#49

If you ever eat maggots and don’t chew them properly, a thing called myiasis happens where they eat your intestines.

Image credits: S1l3nce0fTh3Hams

#50

Every year, without knowing it, you pass the anniversary of your future death.

Image credits: RochesterThe2nd

#51

Just purchased 2x4’s from Lowe’s . Had it all cut and glued with pocket joints ready to install in my attic when I noticed dry wood termites coming out of the wood . 15 hours of work down the tubes .

Image credits: pluary

#52

Every breath you take gets you closer to your last.

Image credits: GeneralAppendage

#53

When you make a mistake while scuba diving, you have the rest of your life to fix it.

Image credits: sassyalyce

#54

Humans only live for 3 minutes. Breathing resets the timer.

Image credits: Old_Guard_1578

#55

All the animals from Homeward Bound are dead.

Image credits: Chuckle_Pants