Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Debate The Absolute Worst Ways To Die

People Debate The Absolute Worst Ways To Die
File:Death of Saint Cecilia.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Please let me go in my sleep....

We're all going to die. There I said it. It's something I often try to avoid thinking about. I live with an unhealthy fear of death. I pray there is an afterlife because losing this life would be a bummer. But one day, with enough therapy, I'll hopefully get a grip and accept the inevitable.... for something faaaaaaaaaar in the distant future. And when death does come knocking I pray my exit is painless, quiet and quick.

Although after following the reddit chain below my nerves are shot. It seems we all might be a little obsessed with death. People have some very creative and miserable ways to perish. Why we do think this way?

Redditor u/gravy_fetish was wondering about the final moments we'll all be facing one day, who feels likes sharing their thoughts on a final exit? It was asked..... What is the absolute worst way to die?

Cast Away

Drifting in the middle of the ocean with no chance of rescue.

nilsn91

José Salvador Alvarenga unfortunately had to endure this fate. Survived though surprisingly after 14 months.

ICantTyping

Caved

Occasionally I see news stories about people (often cavers) crawling into very tight spaces and being unable to get out and dying. I have an absolute terror of very tight confinement and am extremely claustrophobic. I'm having to look away from my computer just writing this. If I even think about the possibility of dying that way I have to get up and pace around the room.

giraffevomitfacts

On the Wheel....

Being broken on the wheel. I think it might even be worse than burning at the stake because of how long it takes. Basically they tied you to a wagon wheel and then smashed all your limbs with sledgehammer and then threaded the mangled wreck through the spokes like some bloody, moaning octopus and hung the wheel up in the public square until you died, which apparently could take days.

SleepyConscience

Cartoon Death

Being chained down in a vat of acid that's only just barely strong enough to disintegrate you at an incredibly slow rate.

Ferrever

The Roman Way

Crucifixion. The Romans were masters of torture, so they devised the cross as the ultimate torture punishment. Crucified prisoners would have to hold up their body to avoid being suffocated. It's like being slowly suffocated, but drawn out so you can physically feel yourself dying sometimes over the course of days. Plus, everyone gets to see your junk and bloody body.

_good_girl

Depleted Air....

I think being buried alive, running out of air and trying to escape only to drown in dirt is the one that scares me the most.

bowtothehypnotoad

Ryan Reynolds did a movie about that called Buried, it was really good and made it hard for me to breathe safely on my couch.

bsmith159

Thought that was it....

I had complications after having my gall bladder removed, which included a massive bile (alkaline) leak into my abdomen, its was incredibly painful. By the time they figured out what was going on, and were taking me back into theatre, I had to hold my stomach as it was so swollen and the bile sloshing around while being wheeled on the stretcher was agony.

MrsSBell

Melted....

lava GIFGiphy

Lava.

For one, you don't sink. Since it's molten rock, it's more dense than your body. You'd hit the lava, submerge for a second, then pop back up. Meanwhile, your skin would start boiling off, and since your body is 80% water, you'd skid across the top of the lava like a droplet of water, your skin still burning, until eventually you explode in a fantastical flash of guts and blood.

Daxell03

The Bull....

Probably something to be said for the Brazen Bull, a method of execution so terribly that according to legend the king that commissioned it thought it was so terrible that he had the engineer who came up with it killed via the mechanism he made, because surely he was awful for having come up with it.

Basically it's a big metal tube you put a person in and then put it over a fire, so they roast to death.

BEEF_WIENERS

WTF?!

Strapped down, rat in a bucket on your stomach and then hot coals placed atop the bucket to ensure the rat borrows away from the heat. What a horrible way to die.

ElkcState

Keep Eating...

Starvation. It's actually relatively difficult to starve to death, and is in no way a quick end. When faced with starvation, the body will burn through its fat stores for energy. Once that runs out, it will go for the muscle but, eventually, it's going to run out of options. The extreme lack of vitamins and minerals will likely lead to a severely weakened immune system. It might be this, as opposed to exclusively starvation, that eventually finishes you off as you would have little defense against all kinds of diseases.

irishamerican

Agony....

Third degree burns, sometimes people take a week or longer to die, in total agony.

fried_green_baloney

Radiation sickness is still far worse.

Source: have read all the IAEA incident reports several times.

Edit: https://www.iaea.org/publications/search/topics/accident-reports?keywords=

lycium

Hard on the family....

My dad recently passed from creutzfeld jakob.

I'd say in his case it wasn't so terrible for him, he simply wouldn't notice how he slowly just... went away. Also it isn't painful at all.

It's hard on the family though, imagine Alzheimers disease but the whole thing goes down in something like 3 months.

One day he seemed to be doing okay next day he didn't know who we were, couldn't form a coherent sentence and didn't know how to use a spoon.

Rabies seems painful and miserable, totally agree.

Numbindaface

Ok Hannibal....

Being flayed sounds pretty dismal. They cut your skin away from the circumference of the hips, peel it up over your torso, and then tie the skin off over your head, so you end up suffocating in a bag of your own skin. But while you hang there suffocating they throw salt and acid at the now exposed raw flesh of your body the entire time.

Reddit

Titanic 2

titanic leonardo dicaprio GIFGiphy

Trapped in a sinking boat at night.

Jim_Dickskinhttps://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/05/a-sea-story/302940/

One of the best articles I've ever read about a passenger ship sinking in the black sea in the 90s that went down with many people. Legitimately first hand account of chaos and terror.

Bnasty5

up the what?!

Being impaled slowly on a hot metal poker, starting up the rectum.

Reddit

My dad knew a guy whose sister was sold some screwed up drugs and died from an OD. He tracked the dealer down and beat them to death with a baseball bat akin to Lucille in TWD. He's doing life in prison.

crazydressagelady

the blood....

I'd have to say bleeding out. You're just sitting there, in pain, hoping someone can help you, dreading the moment of your death, and then you realize death would at least end the pain you're in, or you just lay there and cry about how there was so much you wanted to do with your life, how you had dreams you wanted to make a reality. You either welcome your death, hope for help, or just wish that you got to live your life to the fullest and look back on every decision you wish you didn't make. It's a combination of both physical and mental pain.

ImAnUglyRat

Tubing....

I've this recurring fear since I was little. Imagine a long tube that's slightly inclined, and closed on one end. It's just wide enough for you to fit. You are put hear first into the tube, your head is slightly below your feet, you cannot move, and it's completely pitch black. The tube is slowly filling up with water.

Fandorin

The Nasty.....

There are lots of particularly nasty diseases out there, but one of the worst I have seen is ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). You are completely lucid, completely cognitively intact, but you slowly lose control of all of your muscles. You lose the ability to move your mouth for speech or swallowing. You cannot swallow your saliva, it either falls out of your mouth, or down your throat. The only part of your body that you can control is your eyes. If you're lucky, someone will bring you a large alphabet board and you can look at each letter, and spell out words.

Some people are lucky and get a fancy Eye gaze communication board, but they are somewhat difficult to program, and have a learning curve. Your helper has to know how to set it up so that your eyes can be tracked. Eventually, you die because you lose the ability to make your diaphragm work, so you just cannot breathe, but you are conscious the whole time.

Froggetpwagain

Top 10

Things in my top 10:
Chopped up by woodchipper feet first.
Killed by Crocidile/Alligator.
Sucked out of an airplane, & fall to your death.
Mauled by lion/bear/tiger/any big predator who will surely kill you for predatorial purposes.
Swarmed by rats or ants, & eaten alive.

TheWorstYear

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

REDDIT

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Hillary Clinton; Liam Ramos; Tammy Duckworth
Alex Wong/Getty Images; Columbia Heights Public Schools; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Dems Blast ICE After 5-Year-Old Minnesota Boy Is Detained On His Way Home From Preschool

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Illinois Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth were among the Democrats who condemned ICE after agents detained 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father on their way home from preschool in the Minneapolis area.

Ramos is the fourth student from the Columbia Heights School District to be swept up in the Trump administration's nationwide immigration crackdown. District officials and a family attorney confirmed the boy and his father are in custody at an ICE facility in Texas.

Keep ReadingShow less
Karoline Leavitt; Donald Trump
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Karoline Leavitt Gives Bonkers Excuse After Trump Is Spotted With Massive Bruise On His Left Hand

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was called out after she gave a dubious excuse for what happened to President Donald Trump after he was spotted at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday with a large bruise on his left hand.

Last year, rumors swirled that Trump was on his deathbed after he wasn't seen for several days and the White House cancelled his public appearances, a development that fueled speculation in large part because of Trump's recent health problems, which include a diagnosis of chronic venous insufficiency and sightings of a harsh bruise on his right hand.

Keep ReadingShow less
A group of men sitting on lawn furniture
men sitting on chairs
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Men Reveal The Mistakes They See Younger Guys Repeatedly Making

There are countless male stereotypes.

Stereotypes which, sadly, still remain all too true among far too many oblivious men.

Keep ReadingShow less
Troye Sivan (left) and a screenshot from the now-deleted video posted by an aesthetic doctor critiquing the singer’s appearance (right).
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic; @drrzayn/Instagram

Singer And Actor Troye Sivan Speaks Out After Plastic Surgeon Says He Should 'Re-Twinkify' Himself

Out of all the unsolicited advice that circulates online, being publicly critiqued for aging may be one of the most jarring, especially when it comes from a stranger with a platform and a medical title.

That was the experience Australian singer, songwriter, and actor Troye Sivan recently unpacked after a plastic surgeon posted a video dissecting his appearance without permission.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @its.avelyn's TikTok video
@its.avelyn/TikTok

Woman's Hack For How To Find The Sweetest Oranges At The Grocery Store Is Both Hilarious And Helpful

Let's be honest, in this economy, groceries are atrociously expensive, and we could use every shopping and saving hack we can find.

TikToker @its.avelyn delivered when she shared a fellow TikToker's hack for finding the sweetest navel oranges at the grocery store, allowing us to buy the fruit we want and get our money's worth in the process.

Keep ReadingShow less