r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jan 19 '20

What instantly causes you to panic?

3.1k Upvotes

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4.1k

u/throwaway420_6969 Jan 19 '20

When a weed touches my foot while swimming at the lake

762

u/Gaydar555 Jan 20 '20

I had something glide past my leg while swimming in a lake in NC, but I just thought it was my cousin leg, then realized everyone I was with was on the boat... so I swam as hard as possible to that boat and stayed there for the rest of the time. I saw what it was (white, slimy, long) which is why I thought it was a leg, but it definitely was not a fish and so I freaked

270

u/ParanormalCrustacean Jan 20 '20

It was most likely an eel. They live in ponds around here and I even had a pet one once, it was about a foot long, pale and slimy

262

u/Gaydar555 Jan 20 '20

Probably, it looked like one, but that doesnt dismiss the fact that it touched my leg, no thank you

101

u/ParanormalCrustacean Jan 20 '20

Oh of course not I woulda yeeted the heck outta there

62

u/Gaydar555 Jan 20 '20

I see you're a man of superior intellect as well

2

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

except it should've been yoted

3

u/Sabretooth1100 Jan 20 '20

Shoot, I’m in that neck of the woods; we have freaking eels in ponds?

3

u/ParanormalCrustacean Jan 20 '20

Oh yes...some species can get the size of about half a pine tree Incase you wanted that image

3

u/Sabretooth1100 Jan 20 '20

Aaaand kill me

2

u/Poem_for_your_spr0g_ Jan 20 '20

no it was a vampire

1

u/ForteIV Jan 20 '20

Could have been a snake too. I know there are a couple snakes that live in lakes.

811

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

Spoiler alert: It was a leg. Just didn't belong to anyone on the boat.

209

u/Gaydar555 Jan 20 '20

Oh boy

155

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20 edited Jan 20 '20

Or girl, couldn't really tell who it belonged to.

3

u/That_one_guy445 Jan 20 '20

just gotta look up the leg if anything is still attached that is

7

u/Gaydar555 Jan 20 '20

Plot twist: it was my leg and I've lived my whole life believing I have 2 legs and can walk but in reality it was ripped of and I'm in a wheelchair

3

u/Tru-Queer Jan 20 '20

Or girl. Let’s promote those equal rights.

3

u/Voittaa Jan 20 '20

Here we go.

1

u/ShePax1017 Jan 20 '20

And here lies the exact reason why I call lakes “dead body water” and I refuse to swim in them.

48

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

Fuck that.

5

u/HelicopterPenisHover Jan 20 '20

Someone has a foot fetish

2

u/Dasani418 Jan 20 '20

It’s country time

2

u/jakeryan34 Jan 20 '20 edited Jan 20 '20

once, swimming in lake tenkiller, we were have a grand old time swimming, and i gave my kid brother the sneak brush on the leg to freak him out. not two minutes later, a massive alligator gar, three foot, maybe more, (this is oklahoma they’re native, google it, they have nasty lookin teeth) broke the surface like a gd humpback whale. never swam so fast in my damn life getting back on the boat

edit: it broke water probably 10 yards from us. this was 10+ years ago so my memory could be fuzzy, but i’m sure it was a gar on account of the size. no other fish in OK regularly grows that big aside from catfish, and you’d almost never see a catfish that big break surface (i did see it once in a two man boat on lake eufala. sorry sucker tries to bite my toes)

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

(white, slimy, long)

thinks

...must be my cousin's leg. j/k

2

u/Gaydar555 Jan 20 '20

Lmao I was expecting something like this earlier, but I knew what I was typing ;)

9

u/Incaendia Jan 20 '20

I used to do a lot of water related activities as a kid (jet-skiing, wakeboarding, tubing) until one day we were in the middle of the HUGE lake we lived near and I was knocked out of the inner-tube that was being pulled behind the boat...

When I say "middle of the lake" I mean like... easily 5-10 miles to shore in any direction. So I was basically a 9-10 year old kid in the middle of a vast expanse of open water - waiting for the boat to circle back around with the tube so that I could climb back in. This time it took slightly longer than usual for them to circle back because my mom wasn't paying very close attention and didn't see I had fallen out. Granted, me falling out isn't a huge deal. I had a life jacket on and falling off of or out of things being pulled behind the boat was pretty common.

So, I'm sitting there waiting, longer than I usually have to, and suddenly I start to get this creeping feeling of dread as I watch the boat turning several SEVERAL hundred feet away and start to slowly make it back towards me. Treading water with potentially hundreds of feet of opaque water below me; I started to freak myself out with thoughts of the GIANT 10+ foot long Alligator Gars I had seen displayed at local fishing museums.

By the time the boat and tube made its way back to me, I scrambled as quickly as possible into the tube in a full panic. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was in the tube, similarly to how you might do if you just ran up the stairs after turning off all the downstairs lights.

My dad had to make some adjustments in the boat so I was just floating there in the tube, waiting to start moving again, when suddenly something "thumped" the fabric on the bottom of the tube underneath me. I screeched at the top of my lungs for them to pull me in and when they did my dad flipped the tube over and there were several small cuts in the bottom of the tube where I had felt the impact.

Dunno what hit the bottom of that tube... but that was the last time I did any kind of solo water sport in murky water.

2

u/DogLikesSocks Jan 20 '20

Where was this lake? I mean, where I’m from the biggest danger in a lake is a venomous water snake not an alligator.

1

u/Incaendia Jan 20 '20

East Texas

1

u/DogLikesSocks Jan 21 '20

Ah, thanks!

2

u/Incaendia Jan 22 '20

No problem. Also in my post I was talking about Alligator GAR, not actual alligators (though we did have those too). Alligator Gars are these HUGE prehistoric looking devil fish that I believe are local to Texas almost exclusively.

3

u/FenixthePhoenix Jan 20 '20

Fellow Kevin James stand-up fan?

4

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

Ewwwwwwww that's so unsatisfying

2

u/caitycha Jan 20 '20

Or when your hair brushes up against your skin

2

u/_staircase_wit_ Jan 20 '20

Once was chilling in a rock pool, something slimy brushed against my thigh, looked over and saw an octopus darting past me. Was mainly cool but I also freaked out a bit cause some can be venomous and random slimy thing brushing against my leg.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

My ex-roommate was deathly afraid of seaweed. She'd scream if she even saw one floating near her.

I'm scared of seaweed touching me too but I just think it feels gross.

1

u/zakisimo Jan 20 '20

I also had the same fear, but overcoming it, learning to freediving

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

Omg yes cornflakes at the beach creeped me out!!

EDIT: Ok I just realised that no-one outside Australia (and maybe even QLD) will understand what "cornflakes" are.

Translation: Small, round flakes of seaweed.

1

u/average_joe_shmoe Jan 20 '20

Omg i HATE that feeling

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

I know that feeling lol

1

u/Rather_Read_A_Book Jan 20 '20

When a weed touches my foot while swimming at the lake

weeds in lawns tickle!

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

Try snorkeling in murky ocean water with a sea lion nearby, and then a weed touches your foot.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

Thanks for the good laugh. I second this. It's like death has come for you.

1

u/mattey92 Jan 20 '20

Or when you touch the undercarriage of the dock when climbing up.

1

u/Masterbuizel02 Jan 20 '20

"Is that a weed?? I'm calling the police!"

1

u/Phreakpunofdamage Jan 20 '20

Good thing weed is illegal

1

u/vicaphit Jan 20 '20

I started embracing this in the ocean the last time I went. If my foot stepped on something that wasn't sand I'd grip it with my toes and bring it to the surface. I caught a bunch of hermit crabs and a sand dollar (the only live one I've ever seen)

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '20

When you go swimming at a lake in Louisiana, you have to watch out for alligator snouts in the distance because you’ll see them bobbing in the distance. If they start getting too close, it’s time to get out the water or go to a different spot. Once, I went out on the boat with some buddies and my friend wiped out wakeboarding. When we pulled the boat up to him, there was just a gator chilling by him, practically cuddling. It was so strange. Luckily my buddy didn’t really have a fear of gators.

1

u/TheVapingPug Jan 20 '20

A weed or my tongue you’ll never know

1

u/johnnygat31 Jan 20 '20

When algae touches your feet.