25 People Give Details About The Time They Were Brutally Tortured

1. My husband tied me up and set the house on fire

“I was tied up in a house fire. My former husband was extremely mentally and physically abusive… I was leaving him and he decided that if I was going to leave, we were all going to go.

I ended up escaping (I was tied to a chair) after he passed out from the flames. He and the dog died and the house was burnt to the ground.

The only thing that got me through it was knowing that he was trying to kill me, I was able to seek help properly.

I think about it everyday.” — drlala

2. I was burnt by cigarettes while my mother was raped

“I was very young and I don’t remember it in detail. I just have flashes here and there of the car and pipes and water and copper smells which I assume was blood.

I was kidnapped with my mother in our car. I was burnt by cigarettes, cut on my face and genitals, and was stomped and punched in the head. I watched my mother get hurt and raped. We were driven to the woods and then to a basement. My infant brother was getting hungry and screaming. He told us he’d kill him if he didn’t stop crying. I remember him yelling, ‘shut up, shut up’ to him. Mum wasn’t allowed to touch us so I comforted him.

He brought us to a bank to make mum take money out and she grabbed us and we ran. She went to houses bleeding until somebody helped us. He was driving around looking for us I guess when they found him.” — skrim_shaw

3. They shackled me and left me hanging for eight straight hours

“Went to jail after a fistfight during a road trip with my traveling companion. Police shackled my ankles through the cell bars at the foot of the bench, shackled my hands together and took a weightlifting belt that they looped between the handcuffs and a bar a couple feet beyond the other end of the bench. They tightened the belt as much as they could so I was stretched enough that most of my weight was suspended between the bars. They latched the belt and left me hanging for 8 hours. I screamed the whole time, my hands turned purple, then a dark blue. When they released the tension the capilaries in my hands had burst, and I couldn’t lower my hands below my heart level without severe pain for days. Both of my rotator cuffs were torn. Charges were dropped.” — AbsentThatDay

4. My pedophilic uncle dunked my head in water

“My uncle was a pedophile with a sadistic streak, and he started molesting me when I was 5. The summer when I was 12, he interrupted me while I was taking a bubble bath in his jacuzzi tub and tortured me by dunking me over and over.

When he first came in, I threatened to scream for my aunt, and he told me that she was gone to the grocery store and to please scream as loud as I wanted. I expected him to rape me immediately, but first he washed and conditioned my hair and combed it out. Then he grabbed me by the hair and held me facedown in the water that was about two degrees short of scalding. My vision started to go black, but I managed to get my foot hooked around the tap. When I flipped myself over, though, I also turned on the hot water.

He hit my head against the marble and dunked me again until I started to pass out. He pulled me out, let me take a deep breath, and then dunked me again and again. There is nothing worse than being drowned. I thought I was going to die. I must have stopped breathing completely at some point because when I woke up he was giving me CPR. I coughed up what felt like a gallon of soapy water, and then he raped me.” — Elphabeth

5. My father would pin me down against my will

“I don’t know if this counts, but my father used to pin me down then inflict pain on me until I screamed. He’d usually hold me in place then grab a finger and bend it back, or squeeze my knee, kneecap, or wrist, or bearhug me until I felt like I was going to pass out. I guess it counts as torture since pain was being inflicted on me purposefully against my will. He called it ‘toughening me up.’ Little sister was sexually abused by him as well. Certainly not a good dad, yet he’s an active Jehovah’s Witness to this day.” — zootwaffle

6. I was teargassed and waterboarded

“Been waterboarded as part of a demonstration,

72 hours of no sleep, stress positions and interrogations,

Been purposefully teargassed.

14 hour flight to Vienna filled with obnoxious and drunk Croatians, of all the 3, personally, the no sleep and the flight were the worst, at least the water boarding was quick.” — Sabrevicious

7. Robbers tied me up and held a knife to my skin

“Back when I was an idiot and I did many stupid things my house was robbed. About 6-7 guys came inside, tied me up and beat me, held a knife to me and generally just fucked me up.

The worst part was the psychological shit, when they left they untied me because I was just broken and they told me to count to 30 after they had left, the part that fucks me up is I counted to 30 after they left, they really broke me.

It still fucks with me sometimes, can’t hear a door open without freaking out and I wake up sweating with nightmares a lot. The police were useless but my neighbors were fucking cool and got the license plate of the guys which led to a conviction for one of them because he used his Dads car and his Dad ratted him out.

It was 2 days before my 18th birthday and they stole my grandfathers watch which he wore from 1939 – 1945 as a British bomber pilot and he said was his lucky charm, it was worth about £5,000 I think and my Dad was super pissed because he loved his Dad and he died when he was 15.” — TripleOGeg

8. My boyfriend abused me with electric shocks

“My boyfriend was a sadist. While I was concussed (and thus my memory and judgement severely impaired), he started to take advantage of me. He would enforce rules. If I made a sound, I would be beaten or whipped 5-20 times at the end of the session (depending on his mood). He would keep track and it would usually culminate into a very severe beating at the end. He liked to electrically shock me, especially on my groin. A few times, he would tie me up, blindfold, gag me, and then he would sell me to others. It would usually end with me begging him to just beat me instead of selling me.

Honestly, the list of terrible things he did to me goes on and on… It lasted for six months. I finally got away by switching schools (though I was switching schools for a different reason on the outside). I managed to get through the rest of high school and into college. I was an emotional wreck. I’m a pretty blunt person in general, so I became rather frank about my experiences. A lot of ‘friends’ stopped talking to me after I gave a speech about it at my high school. They said I talked about my past too much. My programming kicked in (“If you speak or make a sound, you’ll be punished”) and I stopped talking about it at all for a while, but I got new friends in college and eventually they found out what happened. They stayed with me through all my constant panic attacks, flashbacks, drunken ‘episodes’.

I’m in my last year of college. Honestly, I look back and it seems like a completely different life. While I still have the occasional episode, I have overall dealt with the trauma well. My psychologist says I have an overly logic nature, which actually greatly aided in my overall recovery. I have a boyfriend. We have taken things very slow, he knows everything. He’s the best thing to happen to me. He’s patient and never pushes or pressures me.

It will always be a part of my life. But as time goes on, it will ever become smaller and smaller, and thus more insignificant. I have great friends and a boyfriend, I’m doing incredibly well in school and in my research. I’m grateful.” — DragonMeme

9. My teacher slammed my hand in the desk

“In first grade (I was just shy of six–started kindergarten early) my teacher found a text book that someone had written my name in repeatedly with a crayon. It was clearly the writing of a child; my name written a half-dozen times, from top to bottom on the inside back cover. My teacher accused me of doing it, but I had not. The more she accused me, the more I denied. The more I denied, the angrier she became. Soon she was screaming in my face, swearing at me, demanding that I confess, but I refused.

We were sitting at the kind of desk where the top opens to reveal a storage area underneath for notebooks, pencils, etc. She told me to get my things out of the desk as I was to go the principal’s office. When I reach inside she slammed my arms with the desktop, then asked if I was ready to confess. I refused, so she told me to get my things again. I didn’t want to get my arms slammed again, so I refused. She demanded I get my things, and I continued to refuse. She became so angry she grabbed my arm, lifted the desktop, stuck my hand inside and slammed the top again. She repeated this about a dozen times asking between each slam if I was ready to confess.

I never did confess, and she eventually stopped when a number of other kids started crying.

I told my parents what happened when I got home from school. There was a big stink at school the next day; I had to tell the story of what happened to a number of people. I never saw the teacher again.

It really wasn’t me who wrote in the book.” — keenly_disinterested

10. He cuffed me and beat me

“In 2008 I was 19 and homeless. I managed to get a room with a 40-something guy I barely knew that was a convicted felon. Then I found out why…

I slept on a bed in his basement two days. Then I woke up one morning to discover I was tied to the furnace. Managed to untie myself but when I went upstairs to leave, I was beaten and cuffed in the basement.

Turns out the guy was an alcoholic and a sex offender who kept firearms illegally. He would beat me, torture me, and force me to constantly buy cheap liquor from a nearby store (from which he was banned) while he waited outside, armed. He tried to get me to convince kids from a nearby elementary school to get in his car which I intentionally failed at and accepted the inevitable beating for.

This went on for a week. I managed to get away. Immediately went to the local police station and told the whole story. He was in jail for a few years. He’s out and I’m worried, not for my sake but for others.” — alexjowski

11. My ex would dump water on me to keep me awake

“I had an ex-fiance who would lock me in the house and yank the phone out of the wall. He was around 300 lbs and he’d sit in front of the front door so I couldn’t get out (apt. only one exit.)

He’d do that because his way to torture me was to make me tardy or miss work. I was always going through the steps (written warning, then suspension, then suspension without pay, then termination) and was usually on suspension without pay so I was terrified I’d be terminated. (It paid well, great benefits, it was a union job. My dad was really proud of me.)

One time he kept me up all night by dumping ice water on me so I’d be exhausted in the morning when it was time for work. I was on antidepressants so I was especially tired at that point. It was horrible.” — Shaydie

12. I was stripped and forced to sleep on metal

“When I was 15 I spent several months stripped to my underwear and forced to sleep on a sheet of metal. I had to spend 23 hours a day in there, and for my one hour of freedom a day I was take out and forced to run in place continuously for the entire hour.

If I failed or fell while running, I would be beaten until I couldn’t walk, dragged back into my cell, and allowed the privilege of not getting my hour of exercise the next day. I was allowed 3 meals a day, provided I didn’t try and communicate with any other inmates, or the guards that checked on me every hour. If I did make any noise, I lost the right to my next meal. Meal punishments were compounded. I had gotten sick my second week there and the moaning and groaning were enough to have my meals taken away for 2 days.

In the 4 months I stayed like this, I was allowed 3 showers. Once because my parents finally were allowed to visit, once because my lawyer was showing up, and once before I was released. I was allowed one book, a the King James Book.

Out of the ~15 or so guards that regularly checked on me, only 2 of them physically abused me on a regular basis, however they also had private individuals come in to give us ‘educational opportunities.’ I personally was never molested by any of them, but the threat was very real from the Physical Education instructor as well as the Computer Instructor, and had there not been prettier boys in there I have no doubt I wouldn’t have gotten away with that particular part of my dignity intact.” — Nochek

13. My closest friend was physically restrained

“I was in a mental hospital for 6 months. While not necessarily torture, being restrained. It was only meant for if someone was at serious harm to themselves or those around them. I watched my closest friend in there restrained because she picked a scab. A person on each limb and one on her head holding her as still as possible. Makes me tear up thinking about it. Watching a girl be pinned to the floor because she was ‘at risk’ to herself? Fuck you. That’s all. No where near the SERE shit. But it’s not nice to watch. I’m lucky I escaped the one time they tried to restrain me.” — SausageManDan

14. I was flogged by my father

“I was 8 years old. Getting stripped naked and flogged with a long piece of coaxial cable by my own father for stealing some hockey cards from a convenience store. Still hurts 30 years later. The pain from the floggings was on another level of pain. When you get whipped the pain sort of lingers, reverberates through your body. It’s hell.” — tortured-kid

15. I was threatened with a knife and a gun

“Stabbed, raped, beat, abused, dragged out, beaten some more, threatened with knife to the neck and gun to the forehead, all in the same hour. This went on for a couple years when I was like 10.” — overwhelming_girth

16. He smothered me until I passed out

“My son’s dad used to pin me down and hold a pillow over my face and wouldn’t remove it until I was unconscious. Then he would rape me and force me to confess to ridiculous shit like I fucked his drug dealer or sucked off our landlord. Of course I never did any of those things but if I didn’t confess he would just keep doing it. I knew if I didn’t do what he wanted he’d keep doing it until I ended up not coming to again.” — analith

17. She forced her animals to attack me

“My grandmother was a horrible bitch. She didn’t understand that I had ADD as a child and honestly probably didn’t care. So whenever I was in trouble she would take me to their chicken coop which housed my ex-nazi’s step grandfathers fighting chickens. She would throw me in there and begin to agitate them until they would attack me. And of course me trying to throw them off me would piss them off even more. I am glad she is dead.” — ShawnGipson

18. My cousin tried to drown me

“An older cousin of mine kept dunking my head underwater when I was about 6, it was several minutes of torture before I grabbed his balls and twisted them, then he let me go. I’m not sure if he intended to kill me, but the way I thrashed and (tried) to scream should have made him stop. I still have nightmares about this shit.” — Wesmic

19. I was beaten with a stick filled with nails

“I got put upside down, naked, into a used trash can and my ass was beaten with a stick that had nails in it.

There was no objective, they just did it because I was defenseless kid.

My friend chucks mother ripped her fucking hand over vaulting over a poorly made fence to save me. I didn’t see this of course, but her hand was fucked and the time it took for the initial beating to start, my screaming to start, and then their laughing to stop was quite noticeable. They got in SO much fucking trouble and people thought they were strange in the head, which did a lot to actually help their behavior. I still know these kids, they’re alright now. (I want to do it back though kind of, clothes are not optional, they will have to be on.) I don’t want to see hairy taints.” — [deleted]

20. I got kicked in the face and had my jaw wired shut

“This wasn’t really torture in the sense that it wasn’t deliberate but what I felt was absolutely torturous.

I got kicked in the face one night after I looked out my back window to find someone trying to break into my car. I walked out and confronted dude only to find out it was one of my best friends growing up, I asked him what he was doing and he swung at me. I wasn’t going to ask questions at that point so after I got punched on the side of my head and my ear hurt like hell so I stuck him with one right to the chin and his legs gave out. I got on top of him and pulled out my cell phone to call the police. His friend (who I hadn’t seen at this point) ran up and kicked me in the face, breaking my jaw in 3 places.

That’s the story leading in to the “torture”.

I wake up a half hour to 45 minutes later and stagger inside, hoping my jaw is just dislocated. I lived very close to the hospital at the time so I walk over to the ER. After having the ER doctor manipulate my jaw for what seemed like a day he tells me it’s most likely broken and that I’m going to need an MRI scan to make sure I don’t have a brain bleed or anything else. What he failed to mention was the position I had to be in to have this scan done – laying on my stomach, chin on the table…I could literally hear the bones in my jaw grinding together for the whole 30 minutes I was in the machine, it was excruciating and when I came out I had soaked through the front of my clothes with sweat

Finally I was out of there with some pain killers and a referral to an oral surgeon to have my jaw wired shut, which sounded terrifying but with what I had just been through I could handle it!

I was right, I could handle it but… While I was under anesthesia I awoke during wisdom tooth extraction (oral surgeon said we might as well kill two birds with one stone), I couldn’t move though, I was only able to blink and I had a surgical napkin draped over my face. Now when you have a jaw broken in three places and are “knocked out” the surgeon won’t hesitate to use that broken jaw to his advantage during wisdom tooth extraction with the extra space it can provide him. When I woke up I heard and felt that familiar sensation of bones grinding with something completely new, my chin was touching my throat (my head was angled backward). The tears started immediately, I couldn’t help it. I was still pretty incoherent, so the amount of time this was happening could have varied but it was at least 15 minutes of the surgeon cutting out wisdom teeth and pressing my jaw into my throat. My reprieve came when the nurse saw the surgical napkin soaking up my tears, I’ll never forget the look of shocked surprise when she lifted it, she immediately stopped the surgeon (I love you, my goddess – thank you, thank you, thank you) and got me put back under. I also awoke one more time while the surgeon was putting in the wires to hold my mouth closed – agonizing but not nearly as bad as the first time.

All that then 6 weeks of having my mouth wired closed. The first 3 nights after having the wires in was excruciating, my gums swelling to rid my mouth of this metal intruder and the wires occasionally shooting into the inside of my lips.” — PathToExile

21. My father hit us with his belt

“My dad would hit us. We would run, he would chase us… drag me by the hair to the shower then hit us… turn on the cold shower and yell at us. Hit us more… until we were frozen and crying silently.

Once in a while he would tell us to go get him a belt… or to kneel and pull our panta down to be hit… if we didnt it might be worse.

Once we hid his belts. He screamed at my sibling to get him one so he could hit me… they said no or that they didn’t know where it was. He said he would hit them too once he found it. So I told them to go get it and they listened though they said no at first… i didn’t want them hurt too. He hit all of us anyway.

Hard.

They would lock my sister in the cold garage at night when she was only a kid who hated the dark. I would open that door at night and sit with her. Or let her into by bed till it was time to put her back so no one might notice. She was tiny enough to curl up ontop of the dryer and sleep when I couldn’t help her get out. Fucking made me so mad.

It took ages to stand up to our parents.

When he is old he goes is a crappy nursery home where people can wonder why no one visits when he dies alone. He doesn’t know… but i would send him back to his country to die if I could.” — Just0sAnd1s

22. I was raped by a drug addict

“Being raped for four hours by a meth head.” — iamagiraff3

23. My friends tried waterboarding me

“I’m something that I’d call an ‘experience addict.’ I like different kinda of extreme conditions just to know how they feel like (morphine, dengue fever and the bite of a redback for a couple of examples). So one day at my friends summer cottage, the topic of waterboarding came up, and we concluded that it is fairly easy to set up. So an old t-shirt and a bucket of water later i decided to lay down and give it a go, you know, just for shits and giggles. Being a somewhat of a pussy I didn’t want to have my hands tied up, in the end, I just wanted to see how it is, NOT spout out and confess a bunch of shit I haven’t even done. I couldn’t even get through one bucket of water. The sense of drowning is so overwhelming and immediate, and most of all inescapable. It truly is a horrifying torture method and it is no wonder it is being rallied to be prohibited. All in all 2/10, would not do again. Next I’d like to go for water drop torture (you know, the one where a droplet of water is dropped on one’s forehead consecutively) but I reckon I wouldn’t have the patience for it.” — elbowski

24. I was locked in a dark room with static playing

“Surprisingly, yes. A bunch of us superiors were in charge of an ex of about 40 soldiers. Observation posts. If you were caught or acting lazy we sent a team in to capture you and you were interrogated.

In order to act as a deterrent for soldiers doing what they do best, being lazy, we used real torture techniques. One was waterboarding but we used a bunch of other methods. If we wanted to use it on the troops we had to undergo it ourselves to know the limits.

Waterboarding is definitely not fun. I knew what I was getting into and didn’t necessarily fight it, but lemme tell you. Its horrible. Constantly I thought I was swallowing water but there was no way I actually could. Followed this with dousing with cold water while blindfolded. At the moment you warm up BOOM, cold water. That was horrible.

I was in a dark room with static playing ridiculously loud. When you least expect it a beep plays. No pattern, just random. That was a gradual crappy pain in the neck.

The moment you fall asleep you are awoken. It made four hours feel like a day and a half. Sliding off to sleep and someone rips you up and asks the same questions. That was really bad.

Suffice to say. We toned it right down to a bit of a hose down and just questioning, we weren’t about to make an already dodgy ex even worse with diggers going crazy.” — ArmyGuyOnReddit

25. My mother punished me with enemas

“When I was really young, over a period of years when I was 5-8 years old, my mother used to punish me for wrongdoing by giving me forced enemas.

The physical and emotional terror was severe. It happened at least five times. (The memories are a little hazy.) She thought she owned my body, she thought she knew what was best for me, and she justified the act of forcibly inserting the hard plastic tip of the enema machine into my body as I sobbed in shame and horror and helplessness by saying it was good for my health.

It hurt, it was incredibly physically unpleasant, but probably unsurprisingly, the thing I took away from it was… body shame… or whatever else emotionally abused kids carry into adulthood.”