I DID need to know that. 
Sit through an incoming mortar barrage and get back to me. It’s involuntary, believe me.
Hmm…I honestly still don’t think I’d scream. I’ll stand by what I posted.
mmm
I tried to scream, but it came out as more of a squeak, since the guy had his arm against my throat.
I had an American friend in Japan who started acting increasingly worse and worse when he drank. He discovered how to let lose a primal scream, inside whatever drinking establishment we were in. Then there were a couple of Aussies in one who let him know they didn’t appreciate the noise. He was also hitting up on other friends’ dates and such so we finally stopped drinking with him completely.
Just to clarify: Have you ever been startled? When you are startled, do you ever make a noise?
As will I.
I’ve certainly been startled, though I can’t recall a specific incident at the moment. I don’t believe I make any sound at all when startled.
I know that there have been several times when I was with someone and they were startled - by a very loud noise, for example - and they jumped out of their skin while I did not react at all.
BTW I’m not claiming any sort of superiority here, just pondering what makes some folks react quite severely to an event while others may not react at all.
mmm
I’m trying to picture this. During said barrage everyone is standing there screaming?
There is not one person who does not scream?
mmm
I couldn’t swear to that, as the detonations while we were cowering in our bunker clutching each other were deafening. I know that my fellow clutchee was screaming as loudly as I was. Can’t speak for the others, but I suspect they were, also. As I said, it was reflexive and not a matter of “Oh, I think I’ll scream now.” It was truly the most frightening thing I ever hope to experience.
My best friend in college heard someone screaming who had jumped off a bridge to commit suicide. I get chills thinking about it, even though I wasn’t there.
I can’t imagine going through that.
I will concede that I don’t know how I would react.
mmm
I work with a woman who is extremely easily startled and screams every time. Mostly I say her name from a long ways away to make her look at me so I know she won’t scream. She’s also the most disorganized packrat I’ve ever encountered. Her cube looks like an episode of Hoarders. Once two people hid in her cube amongst the debris. When she sat down one guy stood up and scared the crap out of her complete with blood curdling scream. After those of us in the cube farm laughed and joked with her for a bit she went back in and sat down, at which point the second guy jumped up…
Yes, I’ve screamed. (The first time I remember involved me coming my hair and a spider falling out.) There have been plenty of times since then.
And I’ve heard others scream. (I remember once when a coworker screamed behind me. I swung around in my chair. She was pointing at a spider on the floor. I told her I was busy, but she wouldn’t stop screaming until I stood up and stomped on the spider. She congratulated me on my bravery. I pointed out that I was bigger than the spider and she was taller than I was!)
I had a roommate once with a sensitive startle reflex. She was also tiny, and loved to nap on the couch in a pile of throw blankets. One day I came home with my then-boyfriend (now-husband). I didn’t know she was home and I definitely didn’t see her asleep on the couch. But our noise started her awake, and she screamed. Which made me scream, because ohmygod the couch behind me just screamed! Which made my boyfriend scream, because ohmygod my girlfriend just screamed in my ear! I still laugh when I think about it.
to zombie:
Beetles wheeze? uh-say what?
Not bad hi-jinks.
I will not lie in saying that I derived much joy in this.
Hate to see what she’s like at surprise parties.
Watching a retro screening of Wait Until Dark - the scene where Alan Arkin LURCHES out to tackle Audry Hepburn - e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y in the theatre hit the roof.
Possibly similar reaction, different theatre, with the introduction of Richard Dreyfuss to Ben Gardner.
Most interesting screamer here: Ulfrieda, by far.
inward screams - fun, but probably not good for the throat.
Seen anyone scream? Only the teeming, dog-piling hoardes watching my old bands play back in the day.
One customer I had - this disengenuous headcase of a dingbat - was having a perfectly regular convo with me, and then maybe a minute later, back in the house, lets off the longest wail of a scream - I could’ve counted off maybe seven or eight steamboats for its duration. I had to rule out earth-shattering orgasm because she had talked to me too recently for this to happen, and then found out later that she had been informed that her dog just died. However, even with a reason as understandable as that, she still sounded ridiculously over-the-top; came across more like acting.
Screamed? A couple weeks ago, this sleep paralysis sufferer got another attack, feeling like someone was leaning their knees on top of the side of my body, making me not so much scream as much as let out this sort of loud, moaning “OOOOOWAAAAAAAHHHHHHGGGGGAAAAHHHHNNNNNUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAA!”.
TIL:
- Jerusalem Cricket
- water beetle
- wind scorpion
This summer, I went into the well house at my cabin to turn on the garden hose, a snake fell off the ceiling and wrapped around my neck; I screamed like a tween meeting Justin Bieber. Once a deer ran in front of our car and my wife screamed like a lunatic, which is surprisingly unhelpful.
On a moonlit night, I was walking down a gravel road on the outskirts of town. I heard a shuffling noise in the gravel nearby. I glanced over, and saw a cat about six feet away.
And then I saw that it had white stripes down its back. And it was facing in the worst possible direction.
The scream was not particularly loud, but in retrospect, the high pitch was rather embarrassing to the possessor of a Y chromosome.
Fortunately, it just scampered off, and never even bothered raising its tail. I think it was probably more annoyed than frightened.
This past summer I was out in the back yard while Mrs J. and Pluto the spaniel were out on an afternoon walk down to the pond. I heard a piercing scream from that direction.
It turned out that they had been walking past the entrance to the barn when a fox emerged. It saw them, screamed and ran back inside.
Apparently they had a den in there and weren’t expecting company.
Addendum to previous post: the little girl who lives across the street has not outgrown her predilection for loud screaming. If something really bad happened, would her parents react appropriately or just figure it was typical playtime hijinks?
Same here, though to a lesser degree. I’ve rolled up on a lot of things that cause people to scream. Gunshot wound, suicides, overdoses found by their partner, car crashes. And I’ve helped deliver 2 babies, including on the side of the highway in my ambulance.