The world around us is as scary and mysterious as it is beautiful and intricate. Many people would rather look away from the dark side of life, which is understandable. Because once you start opening that can of worms, there is no going back.
You’re about to read some of the scariest facts shared by some people on TikTok. You probably know many of these already, but you’re also likely reading some for the first time.
For those that flew under your radar, you will likely be tempted to do some Googling. But if you must, prepare yourself as you go down that rabbit hole.
#1
I've always struggled drinking water, but then I learned that the headache you get when you're dehydrated is - and I'mma scream when I say this - YOUR BRAIN SHRIVELING AND PULLING AWAY FROM YOUR SKULL
Image credits: Liz
#2
I’m a teacher and it’s actually frightening the percentage of children that cannot read… We are trying to teach them in schools, but a lot of the learning happens from practicing reading at home
Image credits: Mijita
#3
Prions exist. Knowing that is pretty awful. I should have specified prion diseases exist. CWD in deer, Mad Cow, incurable in humans. Can’t even autopsy without a hazmat room, then burn all equipment it touched. Scary stuff
Image credits: SavoyTruffle1
#4
History major here, we are already in WWIII. We just don’t know it yet.
Image credits: natalie 💌
#5
psych major: if you stare into a mirror in the dark for a while, your reflection will grow disfigured and turn monstrous/something that’s not your face. it’s called the caputo effect.
Image credits: VANNY! (¬ ´ཀ` )¬
#6
Bonobos are literally one wildfire away from becoming extinct and there’s not much we can do about it because they live in the DRC
Image credits: Lindsay
#7
Mortician here. You could be living your last moments right now and have no idea.
Image credits: Leif
#8
the universe is expanding, which is scary but I think the scariest part is that nobody knows what it’s expanding into
Image credits: rubaespams
#9
The climate crisis is FAR worse than they tell you.
Image credits: Fidel Caplan
#10
when they have to remove your digestive tract during surgery, they don't meticulously put it back in the order it's supposed to be, not only because it would take AGES, they don't even have to. They kinda shove it all back into the general area and just make sure nothing is twisted up, and our digestive tract moves back into place on it's own!
Image credits: greenxeclectic
#11
Severe childhood trauma can make people into psychopaths and take away their ability to feel empathy
Image credits: - guitarist -
#12
the bystander effect. no one is coming to save you
Image credits: weesnaw
#13
Most people have vitamin deficiencies, not mental health issues. This does not include people with true trauma.
Image credits: TriggerMamaASMR
#14
I am an art teacher and I share all the time that humans can only see 0.0035% of the light spectrum! What else is out there?!
Image credits: Smashley
#15
Men have frontal lobes not as developed as women and we live in a world dictated by their thoughts.
Image credits: usensne4111399
#16
The fact that there are people imprisoned in basements, secret rooms, and homes all over the world. Some are rescued, most are not.
Image credits: Stephanie Tackley
#17
We aren't going to be able to fix what we did to the earth
Image credits: Socks(She/They)
#18
"a cured patient is a lost customer"
#19
It’s a very well known fact but knowing that NASA gave up on doing research on our oceans and we know more about space than our own waters. 5% of the ocean’s creatures have been discovered. That’s it.
Image credits: taz
#20
studying aviation, "all the rules made in aviation are written in blood" bcs they are only made after a tragedy
#21
We are in the silent depression… the income to cost of living ratio is worse than it was during the Great Depression, but it’s not being talked about
#22
everything pregnancy related is straight up body horror
Image credits: czika_bongo
#23
i probably wont be able to buy a house in my lifetime
#24
serotonin syndrome. I'm absolutely terrified of it.
Image credits: Mariah
#25
A good chance Uncanny valley exists is because there was something else that hunted us and looked like us
Image credits: carl_9999
#26
not too crazy but i work in vet med, and when i started i found out how rabies tests were done... The animal’s head is cut off because doctors find evidence of rabies in the spinal cord
Image credits: gaby :3
#27
the fact that 2 people can grow up in the exact same in environment same set of parents experience the exact same traumas, yet can describe entirely different memories and have exact opposite trauma
Image credits: I have a username for a reason
#28
Studying wildlife biology. Everything is dying. Species are going extinct at rates that are getting harder and harder to stop. This will eventually affect human food resources.
#29
The U.S military is the biggest buyer of glitter. It’s insane the amount they buy. But what for?? No one knows.
#30
They didn’t use any numbness or anesthesia on babies and infants until 1985-1990s. Back then they believed that babies didn’t feel pain so they would perform their work without anesthesia
Image credits: Emily
#31
The human immune system doesn’t recognize the eyes as an organ so if you get an eye infection, your immune system could attack them and you can go blind
Image credits: froggiebaybee
#32
A disproportionate number of CEOs fit the clinical definition of a psychopath.
#33
That you can be in a relationship with someone and they can fool you for years, well into marriage. Can’t comprehend pathological liars, cheaters, abusers.
#34
Harlequin syndrome babies. My sister would show me those pictures when i was a child to make me literally terrified when i disobeyed
Image credits: ☾⋆₊arte⋆⁺₊
#35
unit 731, and how we know the human body is 70% water.
Image credits: Rachel
#36
When someone dies, you can smell it on them days before.
Image credits: Morgan
#37
Most humans can only tolerate an unstable food source for one week before they start to consider cannibalism. Just one week with unstable food sources and people go on the menu
Image credits: JackJack
#38
the fact that u can just die or the world could end at really any time without any warning
Image credits: * ☾ ‧₊˚. sophi !! ꩜ 💥
#39
Poison Ivy grows in areas where soil has been disturbed and is only poisonous to humans. It acts like the Earth’s immune system to repel humans from the wounded areas.
Image credits: baddies.get.sad
#40
Trauma is so common now that behaviors we think are normal are actually severe trauma responses to abuse that we didn’t register as such
Image credits: blackmercury
#41
Every time you recall a memory it's not a perfect recall, some information will be slightly altered each time you recall the moment, your happiest memory may be true to you, but it really been distort
#42
That a majority of human history is not recorded and therefore the narrative of humans was created by those in charge at the time
#43
Anyone could have a stalker they don’t know about.
#44
basically 80% of languages are probably going extinct in the next 20-50 years
#45
geologist here, Florida is almost entirely limestone which is rapidly dissolving due to sea level rise. the entire state will likely be underwater in the next 50 years
#46
Microplastics are in everything, we have no control group to test the effects or impact that it is making. We made plastics, We made microplastics, We cant take that back.
#47
every financially successful man that I've interviewed fits the full definition of a malignant narcissist
#48
That man has been interpreting the Bible as literal history, when it's psychological symbolism that reveals that the reader has the creative power. The harm that literal interpretation has caused
#49
The stress a woman’s mother goes through affects her DNA and her eggs. Meaning we are the product of the trauma our mother’s, grand mother’s, great grandmother’s and so on endured.
#50
The fact the civilisation and society would immediately fracture in the event of a major disaster is frightening, take the toilet paper shortage in 2019. Imagine if that was food or water
#51
There’s a certain depth at sea where you wouldn't be able to swim back up… the water would just start to pull you down
#52
Your brain physically deteriorates from emotional trauma
#53
The blue eye gene came from one common ancestor so everyone w blue eyes is distantly related.
#54
we are 97.7% the same atoms as a combusted star, so when we die we just return to star dust and travel the universe for eternity.
#55
one that sticks with me is that you can literally die from a broken heart…the heart strings and muscles deteriorate over time
#56
The #1 cause of death for pregnant women in the USA is domestic homicide .
#57
the more stuff we store digitally the more we risk losing it all if technology stops being accessible
#58
Our future doctors are using ai to pass their classes/exams
#59
the brain doesn’t have pain receptors. If someone was literally poking your brain (surgery) your brain wouldn't feel it.
#60
The more you discover about life the less you want to live it, it's better for mental health to experience than research
#61
if you start experiencing the symptoms of a dementia, you're 10-20 years too late
#62
If you want to, you can easily take a picture of someone’s keys and 3d print them. You can also reverse engineer locks to find which key should open it. I’m in cybersecurity.
#63
The fact that nothing actually touches each other because of the atoms
#64
Slavery is still happening after all these years, and there are places where it is legal. It breaks my heart that we can only save so few.
#65
1 in 200 miscarried fetuses have cyclopia, that's like over 1,000,000 a year. do not Google cyclopia unless you want to ruin your whole day. I'm still upset about reading the wiki page.
#66
How many serial ki**ers could have been possibly stopped if their parents had noticed the signs.
#67
Periodontal disease having a link to Alzheimer’s
#68
That your brain is lowkey your worst enemy if you fall asleep too fast your brain thinks you died so it jerks the body to make sure you still alive
#69
Psychosis is terrifying having experienced lower levels of it. The fact that your reality doesn’t match up with everyone else’s version of it. Snapping out of it is worse you can’t remember the truth.
#70
There are still hundreds of people missing from hurricane Katrina
#71
no information is safe in the digital age. anything you think is secret is almost certainly not. coming from a digital crime detective.
#72
history person here: there's actually a fairly large amount of items made from leather made fr human skin. books, shoes, coin purses, etc. we have a pair of shoes at our local museum. really sad story
#73
Hospice nurse here. Do not choose your husband or any of your daughters as your POA. 9/10 times they are the ones most who will allow you to suffer and die a painful death bc they cant let go.
#74
Not scary but quantum physics and neuroscience. The trajectory of your life 1000% depends on your beliefs and mindset about yourself our mind is more powerful then we give credit
#75
The fact that, at this right time, people and animals are suffering, getting beaten, makes me ultimately sad. I feel not worthy for this world.
#76
People who really study consciousness and free will largely agree that "free will" is mostly us justifying our actions after the fact. we have some free will sure but not nearly as much as we like to pretend
#77
Morticians know if you were a hairstylist because you’ll have a bunch of hair behind your eyes
#78
The scary fact that human flesh is similar to pigs. That's why when a body is being cremated, most people think they smell a BBQ
#79
I do know that the brain named itself and I think that's cool
#80
The transatlantic slave trade caused shark migration patterns to change bc of the amount of dead bodies being thrown off those ships
#81
Reproductive adaptation like menopause. Humans, Elephants, Orcas all evolved to value experience over just reproduction, which is rare in the animal kingdom. Women should be valued more among our own.
#82
about half the water used in concrete is lost forever. chemically bonded with no efficient way to get it back. makes me think each time i see a skyscraper
#83
The slippery slope between social groups, political groups, religious groups, communities and cults is VERY SLIPPERY. We crave belongingness more than we thought.
#84
we don't actually perceive the world as it actually is. it's technically upside down but our brain processes everything a fraction of a second. we experience everything at a delay we cannot detect
#85
You can form false memories—vivid, detailed memories of events that never happened. the brain can create entirely fictional experiences that feel 100% real.
#86
There are sharks that evolved to survive and thrive in underwater volcanoes.
#87
the more things i learn about slavery and the "aftermath" if you could even call it that revolts me. theres always something i didn't know and it always shakes me to my core
#88
Horses cannot throw up, instead they colic and pretty much die
#89
when you die, you see all your memories flash before your inner eye. it's because the brain tries to rapidly find a solution, fast forwarding every situation in life in hopes of finding how to stay
#90
there is a correlation btw contracting a virus (flu, covid, etc) your second trimester of pregnancy and that child being diagnosed w schizophrenia later in life
#91
When given a transfusion of blood that isn’t your type, one of the symptoms is “sense of impending doom”
#92
Career paramedic. A ridiculous amount of people die on the toilet and then proceed to become wedged between the toilet and wall or bathtub.
#93
From an abnormal psych perspective; you’ll brush paths with serial unalivers more than you will ever think.
#94
some triceratops ended up having to eat other animals because there was no plant life during the extinction event for them to eat. they ended up dying from meat poisoning
#95
Humans as a species display signs of Zoochosis, we aren't meant to live like this
#96
As a CJ major- most cops end up ki**ing people. It’s a lot of people who get ki**ed by cops and it goes “unsolved”
#97
50% of all human that have ever been born have died before age 5.
#98
Humanity once came so close to extinction it's estimated that there were less than a hundred remaining. Every modern day human is descended from those survivors.
#99
Elementary school students reading level determines our prison system. Kids who can’t read have a higher odds of going to jail.
#100
Human life could have literally come from extraterrestrial origins via asteroids, etc. we are the aliens
#101
Trees can communicate. So during a forest fire the can hear the trees around them screaming but can’t run away…
#102
Male mummies are found to be way better preserved because female bodies were not sent immediately for embalming right after death due to fear of necrophila.
