30 Disturbing Facts You’ll Probably Wish You Could Unlearn

Reddit is famous for uncovering everything from wholesome stories to unsettling truths, and sometimes the responses can be downright chilling. When someone asked the community, “What’s a very disturbing fact almost nobody knows?”, thousands of people chimed in with answers that were equal parts fascinating and horrifying.

These facts range from dark corners of history and biology to strange animal behaviors and shocking social realities. Some are gross, some are tragic, and others are so unexpected they’ll stick with you long after you’ve read them. What makes them disturbing isn’t just the fact itself, but how casually hidden these truths often are.

So, if you’re curious, and maybe a little brave, here are some of the most disturbing facts Reddit users shared that most people probably don’t know (and might wish they didn’t).

#1

Image source: Quote21, Albeiror24

In 1977, the average life expectancy in Cambodia was 18.91 years.

RedundantOxymoron:

That’s because the Khmer Rouge [ended] anyone who wore glasses, because that meant they knew how to read and therefore were a bad intellectual.

X0AN:

To save on ammunition Khmer Rouge used to murder babies by grabbing them by there feet and repeatedly smashing their heads into a tree.
Parents were made to watch this.
If you go to any k**ling field there’s always a tree that was the baby k**ling tree. Longest time I’ve ever spent just staring at a tree.

#2

Image source: ilovemydogs17, joebelanger / Envato

I think it might be a decently common fact but it disturbs me so much that I’m gonna say it anyway: less than 5% of the ocean has been explored by humans.

Anon:

The ocean legit FASCINATES me. We’ve been to the freakin’ moon and are exploring space but we have no idea what truly resides at the bottom of the ocean.

Daddy__Boi:

I think there’s a fair chance those sea monsters from movies and tales actually exist in those undiscovered depths. Well, least a variation of them.

#3

Image source: Shadowkiller215, Peter Wilton / Flickr

Due to fresh drinking water being so scarce on the Galápagos Islands, some bird species, such as the Galapagos Hawk, have adapted by drinking the blood of other animals.

dustinem09:

Wild cats get most of their moisture from their prey and rarely drink water.

#4

Image source: roughcall19, svitlanah / Envato

As a cancer researcher, I was fascinated to learn that the most common cancer is lung cancer. The majority of the patients were, of course, smokers. But that’s not the worst part. The second biggest cause was second hand smoking, usually from a close relative or spouse who is a smoker.

So millions of people are unknowingly leading their relatives, children and spouse towards death because of their smoking habits.

Anon:

My father was (and still is) a heavy smoker when I was growing up, despite multiple doctors telling him not to smoke around his kids. All three of us have asthma, and I have a form of COPD that was exacerbated by his smoking. Thanks, Dad.

#5

Image source: bassistmuzikman, solovei23 / Envato

A toddler’s adult teeth are right below their eyes.

fishintheboat:

Had a 3D scan done of my son at an orthodontist and he was shocked to see his face full of teeth.

#6

Image source: JediMimeTrix, Slepitssskaya / Envato

There’s over 200 dead bodies on Mt. Everest and they’re used as waypoints for other climbers.

PianoManGidley:

And human waste. There’s so much human waste from people climbing Everest that it’s tainted the local water supply of villages at the base of the mountain.

Lockwood85:

I’ve always been so weirded out by this, like those climbers are literally frozen in time. Green Boots for example, who very clearly has 90s era gear on.

#7

Image source: Notmiefault, ckstockphoto / Envato

Organophosphates, including the chemical weapon Sarin Gas, work by inhibiting your muscle’s ability to relax. Your muscles basically constrict and can’t unconstrict, causing what feels like a muscle cramp through your entire body – your arms, your chest, your eyes, your tongue, everything. It most frequently kills via asphyxiation, because you can’t exhale. Surviving means a permanent, irrecoverable loss of motor function, even with rapid medical treatment.

I_Automate:

Also originally discovered while chemists were trying to make a more effective insecticide.
I’d say they succeeded.

UptownShenanigans:

Don’t forget that while this is happening, you will also be p*ssing and s**tting yourself while vomiting
The way we are taught to remember the toxidrome (collection of poison symptoms) of organophosphates is SLUDGE
Salvation, Lacrimation (crying), Urination, Diaphoresis (sweating), GI upset (s**tting yourself), Emesis (vomiting).
All of these body functions are controlled by muscarinic receptors. These little guys receive signals from the brain to do all the stuff I mentioned – except in a controlled fashion. Organophosphates just turn off the the stop control.

#8

Image source: maymayiscraycray, A. C.

If you get bitten by a human, you absolutely have to go to the hospital right away because the amount of deadly bacteria in any given person’s mouth could actually k**l you if it enters your blood stream.

Anon:

Yup. Basically no part of dealing with being bitten by a human is fun.
I got bitten at a Cradle of Filth concert back in April of this year. Drunk chick was trying to push her way to the front, and when I wouldn’t let her by, she decided to chomp on my left bicep. Broke the skin, bleeding pretty good. I’m a clean cut kinda guy, and this chick was pretty trashy looking, drunk, and cussing me out in what I think was Spanish, so I was like ‘Oh what fresh f**king hell is this?’
So after cleaning the wound out with Purell (that f**king sucked) and slapping a bandage on it (like hell I was leaving after paying for the Meet N’ Greet), I got to the hospital where they put me on a 10 day course of extremely heavy duty antibiotics as well as a 30 day course of 2 prophylactic medications in case this chick had HIV/AIDS. Oh, and a tetanus shot, since my last one was 11 year previous. EDIT: Oh yeah and my family Doc wants me to do an HIV/AIDS test in a year or so, even though my first one came back negative. Ain’t life grand?
Those meds f**king sucked.

#9

Image source: LivRite, Maria Kozyr / Unsplash

A vitamin D deficiency can make you su*****l, and deficiencies among adults is very common. Like more than 50% of the population in the US.

iBad:

My vitamin D number was single digit when I went to see my doctor because I felt depressed. I now take a big weekly dose along with diet change and sunlight to feel “normal”. If I hadn’t gone to the doctor when I did I might not have been able to face another winter.

#10

Image source: tavonottaco, National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office

There are 8 nukes that are missing all around the world.

anevar:

Oh that’s actually not all of them! There’s a grand total of 51 nuclear weapons lost in the world, 40 Russian, 11 American. One of them is apparently half a mile off the coast of Georgia, and the city of Savannah is within its blast radius.

#11

Image source: ancientpokemon, Image-Source / Envato

You are more likely to die on your way to buy a lottery ticket than you are to win the lottery.

#12

Image source: Star_Trekker, NASA Hubble Space Telescope

If you were to put the entire lifespan of the universe, from the Big Bang to the final heat death, onto a twenty-four hour clock, at the universes current age (est. 13.8 billion years) we would not have reached the end of the first thirty seconds.

If you were to go into the far future, past the point where there are no more solar systems (the planets have either been destroyed or become rogue planets), where there are no more galaxies (everything either being swallowed up by black holes or being ejected from the galaxy), no more anything of normal matter due to proton decay, and no more black holes due to Hawking radiation, even here at this point, you would not have reached 12 o’clock/noon on our universe clock.

The universe will spend most of its life as a dark, cold, empty void (you would be unlikely to find a single surviving sub-atomic particle in an area the size of the current observable universe [est. 98 billion light-years across]) until the background temperature reaches -460°F/-273°C/0 Kelvin, at which point entropy wins, time becomes meaningless and the universe remains in a cold, dead state for all eternity.

#13

Image source: anon, Getty Images / Unsplash

If pigs get fed meat, they start to cannibalize and eat each other, had to ‘harvest’ them early one year because of it.

Mtcowbou:

Pigs are actually omnivores. Feral pigs in the southeast are actually causing massive depopulation of snakes leading to increased rodents. Feral pigs also have had the remains of deer, calves, lambs and other animals found in their stomachs. Not to mention how much damage they do by constantly rooting, they can destroy wetlands, pastures and crops.

#14

Image source: itsnotmytree1986, Max Westby / flickr

Ants farm aphids like we farm cows. They protect them from predators and then eat a few every now and then.

#15

Image source: justacinnimonbun, Zdeněk Macháček / Unsplash

Owls can’t be choked. Which means that someone had to try and choke an owl on more than one occasion and fail.

DrNerdfighte:

They don’t choke on their food, but they can be strangled.

#16

Image source: anon, gator426428 / reddit

There is a type of mushroom that can grow on small bugs and control them.

Anon:

Cordyceps.
It has hundreds of strains , including ones that can hijack ants, small spiders and even tarantulas. If it’s any consolation, mammal bodies are far too hostile for cordyceps to survive in, although most insects and other non mammalian smaller animals are vulnerable to cordyceps, although it would have to have an adapted strain to be able to incubate in its non native animal of choice.

#17

Image source: anon, Danie Franco / Unsplash

Even if there are intelligent aliens, the universe is so massive and vast that due to the speed of light and physical limits the human race will most likely die alone.

#18

Image source: newo48, Getty Images / unsplash

There are strains of CRE bacteria that are resistant to all known antibiotics.

Anon:

If it makes you feel better, Phage Therapy has been making good progress with clinical trails. While some bacteria are becoming immune to antibiotics, they can still be destroyed with designated bacteriophage.

#19

Image source: DakuYoruHanta, Sean P

Diamonds are extremely common just every diamond mine know to man is privately owned and they keep them in vaults and only let small amounts out at a time.

#20

Image source: happy_maxwell

The dolphin who played Flipper committed s*****e.

#21

Image source: Tsuki_17, Max Bvp / Unsplash

When your dog chews a squeaky toy and plays with it, they enjoy it because it reminds them of k**ling a small animal.

softwaremommy:

Yep. It’s true.
I used to think my pets were saints that wouldn’t hurt a fly. Then I moved to the country, and the dogs and cats all love to hunt. They get so excited about bringing their kills to show off to the family, it’s hard not to be happy for them. It’s really ok. They still love you, even though they love good hunt.

#22

Image source: jackSeamus, LightFieldStudios / Envato

On average, ~30 people die in the US annually in elevator-related incidents.

maxx1993:

Elevators are still the safest mode of transportation by a long shot, measured by how many people use them and how few accidents there actually are compared to that.

#23

Image source: Madrojian, Vaz Mann

Approxmately 2100 children are reported missing every day in the US, or 1 every 41 seconds. On the bright side, most will be returned unharmed.

#24

Image source: followthemusic_, halfpoint / Envato

Encephalitis lethargica causes you to slowly ‘survive’ – but not ‘live’. After bouts of deep sleep, where patients can be woken very easily but fall immediately back into the deep sleep, they’re left with post-encephalitis symptoms. The main one being that their minds are fully aware and conscious, but they can’t physically function – a bit like locked in syndrome, and they display extreme apathy. They even KNOW they’re displaying apathy but can’t express any emotions. So they’re completely stuck – UNTIL someone throws a ball at them, which they then can immediately catch. OR until someone holds their hand and walks alongside them, then they can suddenly walk. Otherwise nothing. So so bizarre..

EDIT 2: I’ve never seen it, but based on the comments this is definitely what the film Awakenings is based on.

_napkins_22:

Honestly this is so heartbreaking. For someone with depression, the feeling of apathy and emptiness is already fucking awful, imagine this. There are times where I would just be numb to everything, but it would go away every now and then. Imagine that feeling never going away, never being able to feel love or happiness or anger or fear. Already I feel like a monster for not being able to feel these emotions, I wouldn’t be able to bear not feeling anything for the rest of your life.

#25

Image source: KommandCBZhi, Perry Quan

Non-avian dinosaurs did not go extinct immediately at the asteroid strike. There would have been a period when the survivors kept on, slowly declining in number, starving to death before being able to mate and produce offspring.

#26

Image source: Edymnion, pickpik

At any moment a nearby star could possibly become a gamma ray burster, and point a jet of radiation at the earth that would vaporize us instantly. Math says a gamma ray burster located 100 light years away that aimed at us directly would generate the energy of 100 hiroshima bombs *per square mile* across the entire exposed surface of the Earth.

Anything caught in this blast directly would be vaporized instantly. It would also instantly boil the oceans and rip the atmosphere off the planet. It would end all life and leave the Earth a charred cinder in space.

And it is 100% impossible to see one coming, since its moving at the speed of light (because gamma rays ARE light).

daecrist:

The good news is a star has to be the right combination of being pointed right at earth, large enough that it’s capable of producing a gamma ray burst, close enough to do real damage (we detect GRBs all the time that are too far away to be harmful), and close to blowing. The only star close enough is Eta Carina, and it’s off axis by a few degrees so even if it does blow the GRB won’t be aimed directly at us.
Other than that there just aren’t currently any stars close enough in terms of distance to cause that sort of damage when they go.

#27

Image source: Blackmere, Mstroeck

I’ve said it on here before but it still disturbs me to think about. Moray eels have a second set of jaws and teeth inside their throat. They latch on to prey with their primary jaws and then the second set can move forward and either latch on and pull the prey down their throat or eat away at larger prey without having to let go. Creepy as f**k.

#28

Image source: anon, dolgachov / Envato

It used to be believed that babies as old as 15 months couldn’t feel pain. As a result, doctors would preform surgery without anesthesia. Doctors used muscle relaxants on the infants to prevent squirming, essentially paralyzing the babies for the duration of the procedure. How long ago was this? Reports indicate that this continued up until the 1980’s.

vk2786:

As an infant in the late 80s, I fell & split the top of my scalp open.
Local doc refused to numb my skin bc according to him babies that little (I was maybe a year old, if that) don’t feel pain.
I’m very glad I can’t remember back that far because it would probably have really f**ked me up.