George Takei staff

What's the worst pain you've ever experienced? For me, it was my ongoing battle with ulcerative colitis, and the relentless, unending feeling that my guts were going to shoot out of me. For others, broken bones or cluster headaches left them reeling in agony. Fair warning, these stories are brutal.

dazzler964 asked, What's the most pain you've ever been in?

Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.

A sneeze.

I've been shot (once), stabbed (twice), had gallstones, kidney stones, and pancreatitis, but that sneeze was the worst.

I had open heart surgery (congenitally bad heart valve). They gave me a little pillow and told me to hug it tight if I felt a sneeze coming on. I thought they were crazy but kept it close. Next day, sneezed without warning.

I ceased to exist as a person. The universe and all in it ceased to exist. Reality was a single point of formless, featureless pain, exquisite in its purity, unparalleled in its intensity.

Had a blood clot burst in my spinal cord, affected all of my nerves and I was pretty much stuck and frozen laying down. Couldn't move, could barely breathe, my neck was crooked and my whole body felt like it was burning.

Eventually, the ambulance arrived, I was able to breathe again once I got the breathing mask. It left me paralyzed at first but after years of therapy, I've been recovering. I'm nowhere near the condition I was before the incident though, probably never will be.

Woke up one morning with back pain that I've never experienced before in my life. I couldn't even lift myself out of bed.

After 10 minutes of struggling to find a position so I could lift myself, I stood up and my hip was dropped and my spine was crooked. I can't even explain the pain, I've broken bones, painful recoveries from surgeries, this was the worst pain I have ever had. It was relentless shooting hot pain while my hamstring also felt like it was being pulled from my hip and femur. I couldn't even walk. People always talk about severe back pain and I always thought it was just relative to their pain tolerance.

I'm a healthy 21-year-old that is in shape, this pain would shoot down my legs and took my breath away, I'd literally DROP to the floor because my legs gave out from it. I went to the urgent care twice and they said it was probably sciatica and gave me steroids and stretches which didn't work. Got X-rays that said maybe it was arthritis between my L 1 and L2. This has been going on for around 4 months, the pain has thankfully decreased but it's still always there. I started working out again despite the pain because either way, I'm in pain so I might as well get a workout in.

I'm scheduled to get an MRI soon, so hopefully, that can answer some questions. I still don't know how or why this happened, but I have a lot more understanding of people suffering from chronic pain, it's absolutely exhausting and takes a toll on the mind and body.

I once had Kidney stones due to not drinking enough water. It was not a big one, but multiple very tiny one. It was the first time where I, a grown **s man, had to yell from the pain in the waiting room. I even had to throw up just because of the pain. So dear Redditors, please drink enough water during the day.

Gall stones brought me by far the most pain that I've ever experienced. Basically incapacitated me until the pain subsided.

Pleurisy is a hell of an illness. The way my doctor put it for me was "there is a liquid between your lungs and your ribs. That liquid has now evaporated, and your lungs are rubbing on your ribs like sandpaper."

I know that's not scientific, but let me tell you, it's definitely an accurate description of what it felt like.

Throat ulcer which made me cough and every time I coughed it felt like dragging razor blades down my throat which made me cough even more.

I have Crohn's disease and psoriasis only in my ears, both ears, even in the canal. Both diseases aren't under control. Also used to have horrible Kidney infections. Good news is, if the pain is severe enough, my body shuts it all down and I pass out. The bad news is, sometimes I wake back up seconds later only to pass out again. There have been many more times I can count that I have begged for death because the pain is so bad.

Cluster headache on a plane while it was descending into Amsterdam. The longest 10 min of my life.

Needless to say, I had tears streaming down my face and mouth full of fabric to muffle my screams.

Pancreatitis.... all I could do in the hospital waiting room was yell, "help me". They finally took me seriously when I kept going in and out of consciousness.

I went home with a guy one night, and he got a cluster headache for the first time in the middle of it. I thought he was having an aneurysm. Called an ambulance because I was sure he was going to die. We're both dudes, and he just started yelling and his roommates ran into the room - and that's how they found out he was gay.

Broke my leg playing soccer. Friends all laughed at me for a minute thinking I was faking until they saw the blood and bone sticking out. My friends loaded me up into the backseat of my car. I was 6'4" so I could barely fit sprawled out back there. One of my moron friends thought my leg was all the way in and slammed the door close. My leg wasn't all the way in.

Physically: I got wet cement in my eye.

Emotionally: I held my dog as he seized to death. Similar to I AM Legend.

Debriding an infection. Nothing like slicing open a tender area and the scrubbing the crap out of it.

When I had my wisdom teeth removed, I got dry sockets which turned into lockjaw.

I could open my mouth less and less, then not at all. Then the lower part of my jaw started being pulled outward. It felt like somebody was tearing my jaw off.

My mom doped me up with painkillers, but it didn't help. We made an appointment with the doctor the next morning, but it was the worst night of my life. Constant pain and couldn't fall asleep.

The next morning, on the drive to the doctor, I threw up because of the pain but couldn't open my mouth. So I chocked on my vomit and either had to swallow it or blow it out my nose.

I've never experienced physical pain worse than that.

Testicular torsion. Got my balls in a twist. Swelled to the size of my fist. Had an operation to untwist them. Swelled to the size of my head. Walked like Butch Cassidy for 3 weeks.

Having a badly ingrown toenail get stomped on, break in half lengthwise, get severely infected, and then removed without much in the way of numbing (doctor missed the nerve). There's a reason pulling toenails off is used as a form of torture. 0/10, would not recommend.

Got my leg rebroken. I was in so much pain. They asked me and my mom if I wanted morphine. My mom said no. I was 13 and had no say in the matter. Fun fact, 3 years later I got addicted to heroin.

I got hit in the eyeball with a badminton birdie. Freak accident. I turned around to give my partner s*** about taking so long to serve. My eyeball bled, behind my eyeball bled and I was rushed to ER with the risk of losing my eye. Has to get freezing needles into my eye and wasn't allowed to bend over for fear of the clot bursting. It was a pain like no other. Just this horrible throbbing, pounding pain that resonated around my whole head. I was dizzy, couldn't see, shaking and any light at all caused significant pain. Having a needle come right up to your eye isn't the most pleasant thing either.

I have no peripheral vision in my right eye now. I'm like 1/4 pirate. It's cool.

I had an abscess the size of a golf ball in my armpit lanced (I have hidradenitis suppuritiva), and even with the acid-feeling numbing agent he injected, the process was incredibly painful. The gauze wick that was stuck in there afterward was uncomfortable and felt so gross.