Interacting with someone who is completely out of touch with reality can be a challenging experience. Whether it’s a friend, family member, co-worker, or acquaintance, these individuals can often exhibit behaviors that are difficult to understand or relate to. We asked people to share their more memorable interactions with someone who seemed to be living in their own world, and the stories they shared were nothing short of fascinating. From delusions of grandeur to bizarre conspiracy theories, here are some of the most eye-opening accounts of people completely out-of-touch with reality.
Videos by Suggest
All content has been edited for clarity.
I Don’t Think That’s How it Works
“‘You know, if a baby is born underwater, it can live its whole life underwater!’
I laughed a bit because it’s a fairly well-known dark joke, but then told her not to joke about that stuff because our co-worker was pregnant. She was confused when I told her not to joke.
‘It’s not a joke, it’s a fact!’
After some debate, I learned she genuinely believes if a baby is born underwater, it will grow gills and learn how to breathe underwater.
Same lady, 6 months later.
‘Yeah, I’m saving up right now to buy a car. I have my eyes on this great 2007 Holden.’
Her: ‘Why don’t you just buy a new one?’
Me: ‘I don’t have a lot of money, I wouldn’t be able to afford a new car. I’m stretching the limit with this one as it is.’
Her: ‘Ugh, it’s not even that hard to afford things. Just budget!’
We were on the same salary, but she sold drugs on the side, her grandpa paid her $200/month phone bill, and her mom gave her a $250 a week allowance.
She was also GIVEN her car, by her parents, and was constantly complaining about how old it was and she wanted them to buy her a new one.”
She’s Asking The Hard Hitting Questions
“I worked at a little all-local, all-organic grocery store for a bit.
A lady comes in with a friend, they are looking at the eggs. She goes ‘Are these eggs organic?’
‘Well, they’re not certified, but these are grown here in town by someone who feeds them a non-soy, non-gmo supplemental feed. But they’re on pasture most of the time.’
‘So they eat bugs.’
‘Well, yes, quite a few of them, it’s good for organic pest control in the gar…’
(to her friend) ‘Those bugs could come from anywhere. This is why you have to ask the hard questions about your food, and really know what you’re putting in your body. King Soopers has actual organic eggs.'”
At Least He’s Against Human Trafficking
“Former friend. He was the stereotypical ‘nice guy.’ Always going off on how he couldn’t understand how girls weren’t flocking to him cause he was so nice and intelligent. So one night a bunch of us are at a restaurant getting dinner and he proceeds to tell us how if he can’t get a girlfriend, his backup plan is buying a mail-order bride from Ukraine. Says he has it all planned out.
When we all try explaining that mail-order brides are essentially human trafficking, he was devastated. His whole plan for getting a girl was ruined, lol.
Eventually, he blocked us all from his social media and stopped talking to us, but that was more because he couldn’t stand that we wouldn’t bend over backward for his every whim.”
That’s A Lot of Effort
“An American tourist I met (I live in South America), when I asked her how it felt to be so far from home, told me that she really isn’t that far because these ‘so-called foreign countries’ are actually located within the United States and they just fly the plane in circles for hours and hours to convince you that you’re in another country.”
Better Safe Than Sorry
“A guy at a party was talking about how great technology was. I agreed. He then proceeded to talk about how there are people made of computer chips walking among us and we don’t know who they are. I took the opportunity to say, ‘I know. You could be one of them.’ And walked away. I stared at him from across the room off and on for the rest of the night. Good times.”
Most Empathetic Boomer
“A family friend’s son has autism.
I overheard my grandfather say, ‘When’s the kid gonna snap out of it and get a job?’”
They Probably Get Paid To Sit In An Office
“I am a waitress and someone wrote ‘get a real job’ on the line for my tip. It was a $150 tab with an incredibly demanding table. I work another job and I go to school full-time, but whatever floats your boat.”
Understanding CGI And Not Corn Is Crazy
“My mom was ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that corn could only be harvested by hand. I showed her videos of corn harvesting machines, and she insisted they were all CGI. It grew into a pretty significant argument.
Eventually, she called my sister, who is a librarian, to ask her. When my sister agreed with me, she said, ‘Okat then,’ and never spoke of it again.”
Yeah That’s A Lot To Unpack
“I worked at a vet clinic, and a woman came in with her dog who had a horrible skin problem stemming from a flea infestation. Before I could even say anything, she claimed someone was after her, and had been stabbing her and her dog in their sleep with tree bark. It took me a few seconds to process that one.
She also told me that she knew we hadn’t actually euthanized her old dog (that she had YEARS ago) but that we had sold her to Hollywood. Apparently, she saw her in a commercial and that was her proof. The dog would have been like 20 by that point so no, we didn’t ‘sell her to Hollywood.’
Honestly kind of sad, but the only person I have ever directly interacted with who was truly out of touch with reality.”
You Miss 100% Of The Shots You Don’t Take
“My dad retired last November. After being out of work for a few months he decided he needed a simple job to keep him busy. He applied at Total Wine as a cashier and asked for $20 an hour because that’s what he thought minimum wage was up to.”
Fine Keep Your Secrets
“Someone seriously asked me, ‘Wow, how’d you get your baby so tan?’ My Native American wife holding the baby. I always avoid this person when I can. How can you be so dumb?”
Just A Girl And A Dream
“I work with a girl. She’s 21, a bit of a stoner, and living with her boyfriend who works at pizza hut. We also work in food service. She thinks she wants to marry him, but he HAS to spend at least $10k on a ring. And when she gets married, She wants one room in her house that is all pink, so she can get ready and put her make-up on. Then she’s going to sit around the house all day smoking the ‘dankest weed’ in a pink fur-lined house coat. Then when her man comes home they ‘can do their thing.'”
How Is He Not In Prison
“A friend’s uncle, who is a spiritual healer of some sort, claimed one day he would be known as the first man to cure cancer with ‘spiritual healing techniques’ whatever that means.
The woman he ‘treated’ stopped her treatments because she was ‘cured’ and died within six months. Apparently, no one saw fit to bring that guy to justice.
His explanation was: ‘She died from a different cancer that was at the same place with the same symptoms at the same time and the first cancer was hiding the second one so he couldn’t treat her properly because, you know, I couldn’t feel the second one.’
I wish he would go to prison.”
Some People Really Shouldn’t Reproduce
“I work as a psychologist at a school. One student had missed nearly 30 days of school in one term (55 days), so I was asked to investigate. The mother straight-faced told me that she didn’t want to drive the 2 minutes from their house because they had to cross a train track, and she thought having to wait for a train to pass was simply unacceptable. I thought she was joking. She was not.”
Grandparents Are Always Full Of Gems Like This
“My grandmother (who doesn’t live with us) told my out-of-work brother that he needs to ‘stop doing work around the house’ because I, being female, should be the one doing it all. Never mind I’m the only one with any sort of income, let me do all the housework too, k thx. We had a good laugh at that one.”
It Would Be Nice If They Could
“I was struggling to pay bills and a friend was like, ‘Don’t worry, your mom and dad care about you, they’ll pay them for you.’ I told her I wanted to be a self-sufficient adult and my parents didn’t have the money to cover my bills anyway. Her mind was blown.”
It Must Have Been Pretty Bad
“I’ve mentioned it here before, but twice this year I’ve had a coworker threaten me for things that only occurred in his head. A few days ago he got in my face because I asked ‘How was your Christmas vacation?'”
As Out-Of-Touch As It Gets
“I grew up in a rich town not being rich. I will never forget this one girl who saw me with my iPhone 3G in high school (and I was super lucky to have it), and the iPhone 4 had come out the weekend before. She then asked me 100% seriously ‘Why don’t you have the new iPhone?’ She didn’t really understand not everyone could afford the new iPhone every time one came out.”
I’m Guessing That’s A Good Thing
“In Portland, Oregon. I asked a traveler, ‘How do you like Portland?’ And she replied, ‘I love it! It has the aura of a lizard,’ and I just got up and walked away. Portland can be weird but sometimes I just can’t.”
At Least She’s Worried About The Economy
“Overheard from a girl at college freshman orientation in 2008:
‘I’m definitely worried! The economy is SO bad my parents had to sell our vacation home! Well you know the second one we don’t visit as often.’
Yeeeeeeaaahhh…. don’t mind me with my flat of ramen…”
I Wonder Where She Lived
“I worked at McDonald’s (Sydney, Australia) for the good part of my teen years.
One shift I was on register taking orders and this lady came up to me, she must’ve been in her mid to late 40s.
She said, ‘Wow McDonald’s, you guys still exist? Haven’t seen you around in years!’
That is word for fkn word.
I was like .. wot ¿”
I Can’t Believe She’s Single
“A very close friend: ‘My money is my money but my partner’s money is also my money.’
To clarify she wasn’t going to accept her partner having access to her money but only her to his.
Also, she’s single.”
You Have To Elaborate On That One
“A colleague and I both had our laptops out at work. He had some movies on his that he was offering to share with mine for later viewing. I suggested an ad-hoc wifi network as a means of quickly and painlessly transferring the files.
‘Oh no I don’t believe in Wi-Fi.’
Sorry, what?”
He Changed His Mind The First Time She Asked
“After getting a ‘Dear John’ letter from my ex that explains why she wants to get divorced, we were sitting in the car and she asks me.
‘So after we get divorced, do you think we could get together sometimes and have sex?’
She leaves me for another guy and has the balls to ask for casual sex after our divorce. Really quite pathetic.
I noped the f*ck out of that.”
I Know Her Lungs Look Crazy
“A woman I work with once said, ‘I’m convinced I’m immune to cancer because neither my mom nor my grandmother had it.’
Said lady has smoked more than a pack a day for 30 years but uses the above ‘evidence’ as a reason why she’s never had her lungs checked.”
What Did The Books Do To Her
“I watched my grandmother shove a load of books off of a shelf at the bookstore the other day because she wanted one that wouldn’t come out. When she walked away and left a pile of them on the ground, she looked at me and said, ‘It’s okay, it’s their job to pick that stuff up.’ Speaking from a retail experience, no it’s not. You’re just adding extra work.”
I Would Keep Him At A Distance
“My 50-year-old brother asked me if I don’t believe in God and hell what stops me from killing people.”
I’m Glad You Haven’t Let Her Live It Down
“My mum once said that the sun couldn’t be a star because ‘stars only come out at night.’ She hasn’t lived that one down haha”