What is the biggest risk you've ever taken?

[dustybiker2]

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I intervened in a gang beating long ago. It was outside a nightclub in Tokyo and a large gang from Nepal were beating a Caucasian couple.

The man's head was bleeding profusely and he was raising his hands almost like a plea for mercy while they kicked him through and around his hands. The woman was spooning him from behind and they were kicking and stomping her in the back of her head.

I broke away from my friends immediately trying to stop the gang leader, grabbing him and shouting, "You've won already! They're down. Whatever beef you had with them, it's over. Leave them alone!" Then he pissed me off so much since he ignored me and kicked the man in the face again. So then I got belligerent calling them all motherfuckers and assholes and fucking cowards and started pushing them all around. It just pissed me off so much.

So then they turned on me and started beating me and I could barely put up much of a fight as I'm not a skilled fighter and there were over 10 of them and most bigger than me.

I ended up taking the worst beating of my life. All the fingers of my right hand were fractured from blocking their kicks along with ulna fractures in both of my arms, cracked ribs, broken jaw, lost two front teeth, and serious trauma to the head. At some point I couldn't block their kicks anymore. My hands and arms felt like broken twigs and swigs and I really thought this was my final moment and so I embraced it and stopped blocking.

Thankfully my friends as well as the security at the nightclub all called the police and they arrived along with an ambulance and saved the day.

Unfortunately after recovering from all my injuries, something went screwy with my head. I started developing a habit of shouting at my friends out of the blue for no reason at all and constantly getting angry and belligerent to the point where I'd look in the mirror at home and ask what the hell is wrong with me. It's like a demon had possessed me inside and I wasn't in control of myself. So I ended up blowing off my friends for almost an entire year as well as quitting drinking for that entire year since I was afraid I would lose control and hurt them.

I did manage to recover by studying about psychotherapeutic techniques as well as Stoicism and applying them on myself. That's actually what caused me to study all these topics that I now tend to share often on this site. Someone said it sounds like I got PTSD from the beating. That sounds roughly right although my symptoms seemed a bit unusual even for PTSD.

On the positive side, the nightclub security, staff, and owner all saw what I did and gave me free lifelong VIP access to the nightclub. I also got celebrated on a small level in a local Japanese newspaper for having intervened.

[dustybiker2]

((Warm hugs)) I am speechless. You brave man.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

Thank you! I'm also a bit reckless at times.

[dustybiker2]

That couple owe you their lives it sounds.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

They actually visited me a bit later and got me flowers and a nice card. Yet I could see after interacting with them in a nightclub setting (over a year later) why they ended up getting into such trouble.

They were quite a wild couple and swinger types (like they didn't mind if the other slept around). I thought I had a binge drinking and impulse control problem but they took it on a whole new level while getting so sloppy drunk, knocking over everything and breaking glasses and spilling their drink all over the place. That's not with any regret for what I did but I was able to understand how they invited such trouble in the first place. 😅

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

It was pretty awkward hanging out with them. They contacted me and invited me to a night out with them and I tagged along like the third wheel while they bought me drinks. Then the girl started getting frisky with me and I was asking the guy, "Wait, are you okay with this?" And he said he doesn't mind and that they have an open relationship and even left me dancing with her awkwardly while he started fooling around with other girls.

Then in the middle of the night after hopping a few bars, the guy was so drunk that he tried to raise a glass and clashed it so hard that our glasses broke. So I hung out a bit longer after that but I mostly wanted to find the exit and some point and was eventually like, "Okay, it was so nice meeting you both! Thank you for the night out! [retreat]"

[Agagagagaga]

Sorry to hear what happened to you man. You took a hell of a beating and it’s a miracle that you survived and are doing as well as you are. I hope you give yourself some credit and aren’t too hard on yourself. I say that with genuine empathy, really.

Your angry outbursts and changes in behavior were likely the result of a concussion. This is known as TBI or traumatic brain injury. I’m not saying this to be mean or insulting, but genuine care. I work in healthcare, on top of that I’ve trained martial arts for most of my life and also boxed a little. Grew up watching boxing and fighting so I know a lot about it. There are numerous, numerous examples of fighters, boxers, football players, hockey players, and even soccer players who have had changes in behavior and problems with anger after having a bad concussion or several concussions over their career—chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

I’m not saying this to diagnose you, or to tell you what to expect out of life, but to just try and shed some light on some of the changes you went through and suffered with, and to say it isn’t ENTIRELY PTSD (in other words there is not only an emotional/psychological element to your behavior changes but an actual physical one—your brain got rattled. Bad.

Take it easy on yourself, buddy. We may be two very different people, from different backgrounds, beliefs, views etc. but I genuinely hope you’ve recovered well from the attack and wish you good health and happiness.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@Agagagagaga Thank you very much! I will definitely have to look more into encephalopathy. I assumed the problem was more psychological than physiological but I did suffer a very serious concussion from that beating.

Sometimes I wondered as well if I truly made a recovery or just managed to get the symptoms under control with cognitive reframing techniques (like learning how to work around it than fixing it). There was always some feeling as though I was a different person before and after even after I got the worst symptoms under control.

I may have to do some tests at some point. There was a point over the past several years, but exacerbated by heaving drinking, where I was questioning my sanity once more and behaving so oddly. I thought it was mainly the alcohol that was causing me to feel like some screws were loose in my head and I finally quit drinking completely last year. I've since felt so much better but might need to be wary and keep a heads up.

Thanks so much for the concern and kind words! 🤝

[handsomelad70]

Being a genius-level intelligent, cover boy handsome black man.

[DryGermanGuy]

- Driving very fast (Autobahn)

- Facade climbing a hotel

- Walking in -40 degrees weather

I am generally a rather risk-averse person, though.

[dustybiker2]

Those are three biggies.
Climbing a hotel? Why? lol

[DryGermanGuy]

Doors were closed after midnight, for whatever reason. I knew my balcony door was open and I was too tired to find any other solution, so I just climbed the lower balconies to reach my room. Alcohol-induced Spiderman abilities, I guess...

[dustybiker2]

Smart.

[dustybiker2]

So how was walking in -40°?

[DryGermanGuy]

It was a dry coldness, which made all the difference. I had long-sleeved and long-legged underwear, so it was bearable. Later that night we went a few rounds of bobsledding, the windchill really pushed it. Winter holiday with drunken Russians, need I say more... I am glad nobody got shot.

[dustybiker2]

hilarious

[laly520]

there is lot but I think shielding a young girl with my body in public after noticing her boyfriend starting to hit her then called cops on him n stayed with her

[dustybiker2]

Brave woman.

[Kelly6]

@laly520
very brave

[electromagnetic]

Once, I straighten my hair and went outside in the humidity.

[dustybiker2]

Oh no 😶

[Wiredone]

I quit my job when I got my license and I started my business. I had no customers of my own. It was just a spur of the moment move.

[dustybiker2]

You must have sweat a little. Brave man.

[Wiredone]

Oh I did a lot of sweating. The next day after I quit I was out passing advertising flyers about my new company. It was a struggle but I did it.

[dustybiker2]

Well earned. I'm proud of you. 😎

[Wiredone]

Thank you 😊

[Friendlybro79]

Stopping a man from striking a woman. It is not easy to do the right thing and help someone in need but I was able to scare the guy off without getting physical.

[dustybiker2]

Love you for that. Good man.

[Miah04]

That time i jump off a building on to a flying plane, and backflipped landing on a horse and riding off into the sunset

[dustybiker2]

Of nobody filmed this it didn't happen.

[Miah04]

It happened 👀

[dustybiker2]

Okay. I'll take your word for it this time

[Miah04]

Yay!!

[dustybiker2]

.😂.

[Miah04]

This deserves mho

[dustybiker2]

Now you're just pushing it

[Miah04]

I literally jumped off a building onto a flying plane🥺

[dustybiker2]

But there is no footage...

[Miah04]

It was so amazing they locked it up in a vault

[dustybiker2]

I'll think about it.

[DJB72]

22 years ago I asked a girl to marry me on our first date.

She said yes.

[dustybiker2]

🤯 That must have been one heck of a first date. Bravo the find. 💎

[tfan1]

Getting married. But it was a risk Well worth it ❤️👍🙂

[dustybiker2]

Haha Glad it worked out for the best 😎

[bobalife]

jumped over a big cliff to a lake for camping some years ago, it was crazy fun... but I can't do that again lmao.

[Likes2drive]

Getting married, it did last quite a few years though

[dustybiker2]

Hopefully good years.

[Likes2drive]

Yeah it was for awhile

[jennifer_bloom]

Agreeing to go on vacation after the pandemic.

[Sameone]

Having sex inside the cockpit. Which got me fired.

And. I challenge my captain for 500 €
if he can takeoff at 55° ( and he reported me to my supervisor)

[Nice222]

Joining the Army to get money for college and learn a trade.

[dustybiker2]

Thank you for your service, sir. Did you join with plans on a career?

[Nice222]

No not really I just did my time and got out.

[dustybiker2]

Gotcha

[gorydetails]

I left a company who I'd worked for many years to start over at a new company.

[TheSpaceGnome]

I'm not a risk taker.

[dustybiker2]

That's fair.

[sheikalana]

Relocating to other country by myself.

[dustybiker2]

That is no little thing.

[sheikalana]

There’s not a single day in my life I regret making that decision.

[dustybiker2]

I'm so happy everything worked out for you. Big risk and big rewards.

[Fuentes]

Moving to California with zero

[dustybiker2]

My family did the same at two points.

[OtterMan68]

Travelling abroad alone I guess

[dustybiker2]

Takes guts