11 Bone-Chilling Experiences From People Who Survived Living In Haunted Houses

Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community to share their stories about living in a haunted house.

Here are 11 of the creepy and scary experiences they shared:

1."My husband and I used to live in a 100-year-old, hand-built craftsman home. Any time we would change something (paint, hang pictures, etc.), we would hear footsteps, doors slamming, and glass breaking and find our things moved around. Neither one of us ever felt 'alone' in the house either. However, it never felt scary or dangerous until we started having marital problems."

guy holding a womans hand trying to lead her into the house

2."I spent my childhood in south Louisiana in a home just off the Bayou Teche with a ghost. My 83-year-old mother lives there to this day. We often saw a translucent young man walking slowly across the front window and through the yard. Lamps and radios turned themselves on and off all hours of the night. The worst growing up was the heavy boot steps that were up and down the long back hallway of the house leading to the addition that held my bedroom."

girl putting her hand up to a hand print

3."After both of my grandparents had passed, my 6-year-old son and I moved into their home. It has been in our family since the 1960s. On our first night staying in the house, I was walking down the stairs, and my son was waiting at the bottom. He looked up at me and asked, 'Who is that guy behind you?'"

little boy at the end of a staircase

4."I lived with my mom and grandmother in a house outside of Gettysburg, PA (technically Cashtown) and SUPER close to all the spooky stuff. My grandparents built their house on a mountain in 2000. There was nothing on the land before, but being so close to Gettysburg, it's not surprising that we still had creepy stuff happening in our house."

two people in an attick with flashlights

5."I lived in a typical 'haunted' house as a young woman. All the usual bumps in the night, footsteps on the stairs, doors and cabinets opening seemingly on their own. I just kind of got used to it. One day, I was standing at my kitchen sink and looked over my left shoulder to see what I can only describe as a glitch in the matrix. I saw my living room, but it wasn't how I knew it."

closeup of two people

6."The house I grew up in was haunted (IDK why, I think it might have been more so attached to a physical object than the house itself), which included full-blown apparitions, hearing people talk (including once a child calling my name), and slight poltergeist-like activity, including objects disappearing and later reappearing, loud noises, and shouting at night."

three young people hugging each other in fear

7."I've lived in our haunted house for about 22 years. Mum deals with the ghost the most. They really like walking on our flat roof. At first, we thought it was animals or people. Nope. You hear very distinct human footfalls, but when we go check no one is there. It freaks the cats out something fierce."

person on a balcony at night
Artem Peretiatko / Getty Images/iStockphoto

8."I have so so so many stories. I lived in a very active haunted house from the age of 6–22. You could not go more than a few days without seeing someone who wasn't there on the steps or in window reflections, seeing things moving, hearing someone run the hallway and steps, hearing voices calling your name when home alone, or hearing voices in another room, only to open the door and find the room empty."

ghost woman watching as a child plays with a tea set

9."I grew up in a haunted house, but it was pretty mild. We would see what looked like human-shaped smoke clouds, especially in my room, the living room, and the kitchen. There were also times I'd see a bearded man looking at me through my doorway, and I would think my dad was home when he was not. On two occasions, I was sitting on the floor and felt hands holding my legs down. The most memorable incident, however, was when I was trying to pour myself a cup of water and something kept pushing the cup away when I tried."

glass of water

10."I currently live in a haunted house and really, it's great. Our ghost, who we have several names for (Salty Ghosty, Salty One, S.G.) is honestly cool. I think he's just lonely. Someone did die in our home 20 years ago, and he never seemed to leave."

closeup of beetlejuice

11.And finally: "The house I grew up in was haunted. The biggest event happened when I was in middle school. My sister and I were having a sleepover, and we usually all slept in the living room since we had a big sectional couch. At the time, my mom was working nights at a casino, so she wasn't home yet when we went to bed. When we woke up the next morning, my dad asked us why we left all the downstairs lights on. This was weird because we had several overhead lights in our house, and when they were all on, they lit up the whole downstairs. When we had sleepovers, we tended to leave the oven light on for mom or dad if they were coming home late from work, but not the over head lights. We explained that we hadn't, but our dad said when mom got home that night, they were all on. We kind of just forgot about it until a few days later. Our dad was reading the paper one morning when he said, 'Holy shit!' and started reading one of the obituaries."

ghost woman in an old dress

Which story did you find the most frightening? Do you have any similar ones? Share your own experiences in the comments!

Some entries have been edited for length/clarity.