25 Of The Scariest Encounters With Patients, According To Psychologists

No matter what kind of job you choose to do, you meet all kinds of people on the gig, some of whom are a little more unhinged than others. Today, we take a moment to consider the challenges faced by those who choose to become professionals in a field like psychology. It can be a huge responsibility to help people navigate difficult episodes of their lives while consistently balancing trauma and emotions. Sometimes, this can lead to genuinely terrifying interactions between the psychologist and the patient. One Reddit thread dug deep into such issues when someone asked psychologists online about their most disturbing experiences, and the most haunting confessions were revealed. 

#1

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A very sweet, mostly blind teenager who was going through his first psychotic break and had a love of martial arts (Taekwondo, if I remember correctly) Like…Was really, really, really good at it. He couldn’t see and would practice kicks, and at one point, accidentally kicked one of the reinforced shatter-proof windows in the quiet room (think padded room without the padding). Turns out they were shatter-resistant – He destroyed it with that kick.

Why those particular details? Because he would practice his kicks EVERYWHERE, was mostly blind, and the one time he flipped up to practice one and I was walking around the corner, it came literal centimeters from my face, and I FELT the impact of it against the air, like a physical force bashing into my face. Sweetest kid in the world, he would have been horrified if it had connected, because things would have broken. A lot of things. He also grabbed my arm once in a suddenly firm grasp and asked if I wanted to do taekwondo with him. No. No I did not.

#2

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Clinical psychologist here. I used to work in a prison and did a parole evaluation for a inmate that was a high ranking g**g member in a national g**g. By his account he was the highest ranking in the state. In fact he was placed in that prison to hold his “people” accountable and keep the peace. He had a long violent record and was, in my opinion, a genuine psychopath.

Part of the eval is discussing the crime and assessing remorse and whatnot. He was so clinical in his description of how he tortured and left this guy to die over an unpaid debt. “Live by the sword, die by the sword” was his phraseology for the act. Like it was nothing.

He was also very nonchalant about his ability to “take care of his business” while inside. I believed him. He had only spend 18 months of his last 15 years outside of prison.

My recommendation was not to parole him. There were various factors that I gave and in the end the parole board went with my recommendation.

So the part that actually scared me (this was my first parole eval) was this guys ability to affect the world outside. He could have sent someone to my house if he wanted to. I had no doubt about that. More experienced psychologists told me not to worry about it. That he knew the score and wouldn’t take it personally. I had a hard to buying it.

I was running a long term offender group a few months later and he was part of it. After the first group I pulled him aside and asked if we were good. He smiled at me and told me not to worry. I did my job and he didn’t blame me for writing what I did because it was true. He went on to be a really insightful and active group member.

#3

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Not a psych but my dad is a retired forensic one. He’s got far too many stories but his first ever m****r case decades ago as a noob was a rough one.

It involved a guy who kept asking this girl out, she made it clear numerous times that she wasn’t interested, but the guy wasn’t having it and just kept harassing her. Finally, one day he followed her home where he stabbed her parents and the family dog to death.

I don’t really want to hear about any of his other cases.

#4

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Not a psychologist, but saw a breakdown in my ex that scared me senseless.

He had just started meds and the meds reacted HORRIBLY with him for whatever reason. He mostly had hallucinations, but sometimes he’d black out and do activities and not remember them. He would call me screaming at 3 AM and he didn’t remember a SECOND of it. Any of it. He had hallucinations before, but they got increasingly dangerous with these meds.

In particular, I think of one instance. While on the phone during an episode, he said, “I boiled some water.” I asked why, as it was 3 AM, and he replied eerily calmly “they told me I have to stick my hand in here.”

It was absolutely terrifying. I finally begged him to go to the hospital that following morning to ask for a medication change and he begrudgingly obliged.

While he was there, he started throwing up blood and had to get his stomach pumped. Turns out, in one of his black outs, he swallowed his entire bottle of medication.

#5

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I’m a therapist, but not a psychologist if that matters. I used to work in a facility for kids and adolescents with pretty intense behavioral issues. Even when a client was aggressive, I was usually able to de-escalate them and I generally didn’t feel unsafe. In fact, most of the time I was concerned about their safety during outbursts.

With one exception…I had a client that was pretty strong and prone to intense tantruming. This client was acting in a way that was unsafe (had a plan to seriously hurt another resident I think?) so I had to put them on restriction (within staff eyesight at all times). Their response was to run up to me and attempt to choke me. Luckily the staff got there in time and prevented this kid from seriously hurting me. On another occasion, this same client also took apart their curtain rod in their bedroom and swung it at my head (I dodged in time). Oddly enough, this client and I had a pretty good relationship the other 99% of the time and I generally enjoyed working with them.

#6

Image source: BDayCakes, Lionsgate Studios

Not a psychiatrist or psychologist, RN on acute psych unit. I’ve had a few, but one that really stands out was a young and rather built fella. Perfect example of a sociopath, charming when he wanted something, zero capacity for empathy, lack of remorse, very manipulative. If you’ve seen the movie American Psycho, he nailed the role of Patrick Bateman. I won’t give out too much information because I love my job and want to keep it, but anywho. Just very cold, and I’ve never seen such and evil and malicious smile. Had that grin on his face seconds before assulting a staff member.

#7

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I think psychologists tend to be more scared *for* their patients than *by* them

Especially in the US, there’s a lot of situations in which psychologists cannot help because the problems their patients are facing involve justified and realistic fears.

#8

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I’m not a psychologist, but I have two psych degrees and have been in and out of psychiatric wards since my late teens. For fourteen years I worked with adults with developmental disabilities. So, as you can imagine, I’ve seen my fair share of frightening behavior. But nothing scared me more than nannying for a five year old boy with autism and a mood disorder. He had just been released from the hospital where he had stayed for a month to get acclimated to behavioral meds. But in the short two weeks I nannied for him, I feared for my life. He would kick, bite, scratch, hit, spit, come after me with knives, punch cars, scream loud enough for neighbors to think he was being abused, and destroyed his mother’s picture perfect apartment. And when I tried to tell his mom that he needed more help than a babysitter could give him, she fired me saying I was wrong and that he just needs someone more attentive. Complete denial.

#9

Image source: anon, Getty Images/unsplash

Not a psych, but I worked with parolees for a while as my first job. There was one guy that still sends shivers up my spine whenever I think about him.

He came in straight from court and sometimes we didn’t receive the details of the offences before we met with them. This was one of those times. I called him into the office and started going through his paperwork – rules and restrictions of his order, how often he had to report, etc. He started requesting a male officer and stated that he hated females and got along better with men because they “understood him”. At this point, I still didn’t know what he had done to be on Parole and he did not want to disclose anything. He spent about 30 minutes talking about how he was the victim of the crime and that females “had it out for him”. He was very hostile and kept looking at me with a disgusted look and sat with his arms crossed.

The paperwork finally came through about an hour into the meeting. He was on for some *very* serious and disgusting offences against females. I then let him know that I had received the paperwork and asked him to discuss what had happened (we were asked to get their version of events). It was like something switched and he suddenly became very happy and almost proud of what he had done. He kept standing up and acting out what he had done in detail while smiling the whole time and asking me what I thought of it all. Without going into detail about his offences, it was very graphic and hard to hear, and the fact that he appeared to be so proud of it was just chilling. He also kept asking whether I thought he was the victim of the crime and at one point asked me if I had any contact numbers for victim compensation for himself.

Towards the end of the meeting, he was trying to charm me and kept asking me what time I was finishing work and whether I was parked near-by. I left with a group of my colleagues that day. He ended up back in jail about a month later and while I am all for rehabilitation of offenders, I sincerely hope he stays in there.

#10

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Once when I was a medical student I was asked to see a patient in the psychiatric unit of the emergency room. I walked in with my short white coat and clipboard and asked the guy what brought him in today and what was wrong. He looked me dead in the eyes with foamy saliva dribbling from the corner of his mouth and a strange smell in the air and said “the devil told me to k**l you and k**l myself.” He was sweaty and his eyes were bloodshot and his wifebeater had dark red/brown stains on it. The door was behind him and I wasn’t sure I could make it there before something bad happened. No idea if he had a weapon on him. Was afraid of calling loudly for help, I was in a quiet corner of the ER and I felt like I would have had to yell to get attention and I didn’t want to startle him. I stayed there for a half hour and asked him more questions. Slipped out when he started to look sleepy.

#11

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Therapist in training and my tutor, who is a childhood abuse and trauma specialist, tells some horror stories. The one that stood out for this question was a guy in his mid 40s who had lived most of his life with extreme paranoia that his parents were sending people to get information from him to blackmail him with. This guy was extremely unstable and was legally obligated to go to therapy after committing some petty theft because he believed his parents were tracking his money. Anyway, he’d been going for about 6 weeks and he began to talk about a plan for the future, he was kind of vague but said he had worked out a way to break free from his childhood and move forward. My tutor was apprehensive but hopeful, he had been making good progress in the previous sessions. Fast forward a week and this guy is back again. He’s noticeably agitated and carrying a large sports bag. My tutor remarks that she’s pleased to see him and likes his new bag. He breaks down. He confesses that he has a machete in the bag and had planned to k**l everyone from his old life, starting with his therapist, so he could be free from his past but she was very nice and would be hard to k**l. My tutor politely excused herself and called the police. The guy was very compliant, he’d pretty much given up at that point but the police confirmed he did indeed have a large machete in his bag and his car was full of bin bags. She said that was the only time she felt she was close to dying and says the moral of the story is to treat all your clients well because you never know who’s plotting your murder.

#12

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Clinical psychologist in training here. I’ve never been afraid, but my friend had a client once who made her extremely uncomfortable. Without revealing any information that could break confidentiality, I will say that he had issues with m*sturbating too much (and not doing much else), and at one point asked my friend if they could watch p**n together in the next session so he could show her what he does… At another time, he talked about his m*sturbation habits while touching his d**k through his pants a bit – totally inappropriate behavior, obviously. This client had lots of other issues, but when these things came up, her supervisor took her off the case because it wasn’t suitable for training and my friend didn’t feel safe.

#13

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Masters level psychotherapist here. Was doing anger management with a young person, 19/20yo. On probation for domestic a*****t. When we were talking about the situation and what happened he said, “my girlfriend had a smart mouth, so I punched her in it [her mouth]” I was talking to his probation agent later about his cold demeanor and he told me to watch him closely. Suggested (verbatim) that “he could be the next Ted Bundy.” This was a PO that usually didn’t get involved with the treatment program unless his probationers were really high risk. His words had me spooked. Kid violated probation quickly and was sentenced to a few more years, which we all thought was fine by us. He was creepy.

#14

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Not a psych but I briefly worked at an inpatient psych hospital and during my training a support code was called because a woman who’d had abdominal surgery had ripped open the wound and stitches and was saying over and over “I can die now, I can die now” as she reached inside of her wound. I lasted only a month, but never felt fear like I did there.

#15

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My wife and I worked as house parents for a dozen or so girls between the ages of 5-18, all of whom had varying degrees of mental illness. Had a 6 year old who had brutally r***d other little children at knifepoint and smeared their blood and feces all over herself and the walls of her room. When she was with us she was a bright, funny, sweet little child.
Honestly, we had girls who had a history of animal abuse/murder, arson, violence, etc…but the ones who scared the absolute s**t out of me were the manipulators. Now – all of them would “manipulate” – but not to this capacity. One girl had a history of accusing – with such incredible detail and story consistency – men of r**e/molestation, that she utterly ruined lives and broke up families with her convincing lies. As a male, rule of thumb is never be alone in a room with any one girl. With this girl, I couldn’t even be in the same room without my wife also present and cameras consistently monitoring our interactions.

#16

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My brother-in-law is low-functioning autistic and blind. At one point his care provider who had worked with him for years and knew him quite well got into a very dangerous situation with him. She had worked with him since he was smaller and had become experienced at interacting safely when he would become angry and aggressive. They had found a good balance of medication for him and she let her guard down. This time though, he was now 20 years old and 6 foot tall. In a split second, he attacked her, jumping up from the couch directly across from her chair. He was very strong and viciously aggressive. I have found myself in tough situations with him, and I’m 6′ 4″ 225 lbs.

After receiving quite a few blows from his hands, hair torn out and bites on her arms and hands, she was able to push away across the ground and get behind the couch he had been sitting on. She quickly slid the couch into a corner so that he wouldn’t have a way around it easily, and she hid herself behind it and tried to be very quiet.

He searched that corner of the room for over an hour, following the front and side edges of the couch with his hands, back and forth pacing until he eventually lost interest and went to play with some toys off in the corner of the room. She got out of the corner and ran for her door just as her assistant was coming to remind her that she had gone over the allotted time.

My BIL is an amazing guy and I’ve had some awesome experiences with him over the years, but the idea of being hunted by sound like that is pretty freaky.

#17

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Obligatory not a psychologist, but I used to work as an aide in a special education classroom in a middle school. The year I started, a majority of my workload was eighth grade boys and two of them had *deeply* troubling behavioral issues.

One kid assaulted a girl in his class. At school. In front is a bunch of other kids. He actually got arrested for it, but the school couldn’t expel him “because of his disability.” For the rest of the year, he was forbidden from being anywhere (including the lunchroom) with her. I spent a lot of time essentially babysitting this kid. And because he didn’t give a f**k about school, he did practically nothing during his time in the resource room. The last I heard, he’d been arrested again for breaking into someone’s house and stealing a handgun.

But the one who scared me was completely antisocial, to the point of threatening to hurt himself or others when a field trip or school assembly was coming up (we eventually had to tell his parents in advance so they wouldn’t bring him to school.) He talked about death constantly…all while extremely medicated, so it was a very muted, mumbled, and done through a thousand yard stare with spittle coming from his mouth. One of the teachers was pregnant (she wasn’t his teacher, but he knew who she was) and one day he asked me “Would Mrs. X’s baby live if someone ran her over in a car?” I told him I didn’t know and tried to change the subject. Then he asked “What if someone cut her stomach open? What if they stabbed her? What if she had been dead for awhile and no one found her?” This really freaked me out, and I had to report it to the sped teacher. When I told her, she said he had asked her and other students the same thing and scared the s**t out of them. She said the pregnant teacher had been advised to avoid him, in case he did or said anything to upset her.

#18

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Not a psychologist but I work at a psych hospital. Your first experience with a patient attempting to seriously injure or k**l you is always frightening, but most of the time (at least at my workplace) it’s more heartbreaking than scary.

#19

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Oh man once I was psychotic (bipolar) in hospital and imagined my parents and little brother were there and I thought they came up an escalator into the hospital (not real) and my dad was about to be beaten up by these guys.

I attacked the nurse trying to get to them, pushed her over, tried to pull out my catheter, and ran around looking to save my dad with nurses trying to hold me down

I feel absolutely horrid looking back because I really hurt that nurse and by the time I came to and wanted to apologise her shift had long ended and I never saw her again to say sorry.

#20

Image source: anon, Universal Pictures

Good friend of mine’s wife is a psychologist at a well-known prison and sees some seriously f****d up people for a living. Let’s just say, Hannibal inspired her to do what she does for a living and she’s as close to Clarice as a person can probably get in real life. She is usually briefed on relevant details before she is assigned to a case, this includes court proceedings, testimonies, etc. She’s heard recordings of m*****s and other such disturbing s**t. She’s tough as nails and I guess she loves psychoanalyzing scary psychos.

She had to be taken off a case because she was so uneasy, disturbed, and threatened by one of her clients. Apparently this guy was either a serial r*pist or m******r (She couldn’t give lots of details), but he has a victim profile and she fit it. He started to behave strangely towards her, trying to converse with her and ‘get to know her’. He would write her letters and draw her pictures, and attempt to give her tokens and things. All the things he would do to his victims (well, everything possible under the circumstances).

She was so upset and disturbed by his special attention that she was even afraid at the grocery store and started to feel uneasy in her home at night. Despite the fact that this guy was locked up in a maximum security prison. She described it like a hunter/prey vibe on a really weird animalistic level.

She was taken off his case and received counseling. When she told me about it, she was very honest and matter-of-fact; this is a hazard of the job she works. While she may talk about her patients as if they are lab rats, this was one case you could tell really got under her skin and spooked her.

EDIT

obviously giving tokens and letters is not only creepy but violates the doctor-patient relationship. She would decline very firmly and clearly, and I guess maybe some stuff was intercepted before he had the chance to try and actually give it to her? It’s been about 10 years since I heard the story but it stuck with me.

#21

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I’m not a psychologist, but a CNA at a facility that treats a lot of dementia and Alzheimer’s patients, we have had some with serious behaviors. One time this guy kicked me so hard in the left side of the ribcage that ribs on the right side we’re out of place.

#22

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Im a farm worker, the grandson of the guy i worked for was off the charts crazy, the grandparents couldnt control him, they bought him a .22 rifle, it had a trigger lock, they gave him the key and some ammunition, i locked it away because he was 6 years old. he threatened to shoot me so i put him in time out, he s**t on the floor and laughed like a crazy a*****e. i came to find out it was his sisters rifle i took away, because a few hours later he came outside with his rifle trigger lock off bolt in and ammunition in his pocket to k**l me for taking away his sisters gun. everyday i had to deal with something like this. i have seen other workers chasing this 6 year old kid with hammers, he was batshit crazy i have many stories about that year. i warned him to stop playing on the roof of a tractor he would get hurt and i am not there to watch that b******t, he starts to get down and just seemed to flop down on purpose, landed stomach first on the back of the tractor, it would have hurt so bad, he cried for about 20 seconds, then cackled with laughter, he probably broke ribs and i saw massive bruises on his stomach when he lifted his shirt to check for cuts.

i watched him k**l baby chickens by first saying how cute and petting them, then standing on them. he tortured the farm dog to the point it growled when he went near and one point i actually had to stop the dog from killing him it had him by the back of the neck and was chomping down, he was crying then burst into laughter.

i cant speak enough about this kid to convey the frustration he would cause, he scared me and i was on a farm where agressive black angus bulls were a daily thing. everyone hated that kid and i am relieved im not around him anymore.

hes coming your way psychologists.

#23

Image source: anon, Getty Images/unsplash

Worked in a mental health facility for children for 6 months. Saddest 6 months of my life. Top three shocking things that happened were

1. Severely schizophrenic 16 year old teenage boy who was around 5 feet tall, 90 lbs, would get put into a straight jacket during one of his “episodes”, and he could physically take down the 6’3’’ 230 lbs male tech…while being in a straight jacket. He would speak in voices that almost sounded “demonic” while doing it. It was horrifying.
2. Severely schizophrenic 17 year old girl would hide in a corner, wait till her “targeted” worker would walk by, stick her hands down the front of her pants into her v****a, grab a handful of period blood, and smack us across the face with the blood. She did this to me more than once and I had to go to the hospital more than once (during work hours) to get tested, especially when the blood would get close to our mouths and eyes.
3. Very sweet, but very non verbal 13 year old boy would masturbate, constantly. Constantly. Pants down, p***s out, masturbating, all day, all night, in front of everyone and anyone. He had elephantiasis of his p***s and part of one of his legs, so these events were not only disturbing and inappropriate, there was literally a practical problem with him taking his 1.5 foot long p***s out of his pants – it seriously took 2 people to pack it back in, and then he would drop his pants and take it out all over again.

#24

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A few people had unpredictable anger and outbursts that could be scary at times, and once a husband brought a gun to a couples therapy session and threatened to k**l himself/wife.

Luckily we were able to calm the situation down, but things like that can end badly, and you always have to be aware of that possibility when emotions run high.

#25

Image source: anon, Getty Images/unsplash

This is from my in -law

I was working at a juvenile detention center. One boy was only 10 years old but had already committed r**e and abuse . He r***d his 3 year old cousin and stabbed a student at his school in their back with a pencil. When I talked to him I realized he had absolutely no remorse. He laughed talking about how the baby cried and said that he wants to do it again. He also regretted not killing the kid he stabbed. He understood the system too he said “I am cute. I have curly blond hair and blue eyes. I am not black or something. I can do anything and get away with it.They don’t know EVERYTHING I’ve done either” When I looked into his eyes I saw evil.
And technically he was right. About a month later he was released back into his parents home. And since they didn’t want to ruin his childhood they destroyed his records. It’s been 15 years and every time I hear about a murder or r**e I think “was that him”.