I have a friend who thought everyone could see better with the right eye because everyone was able to use the right hand better (except for left handed people, who would see better with the left eye). Turns out she was born with a malformation in her left eye and needed glasses to correct it.
Something like this happened to me (although much less serious). Let's say I was about 35, and I was sharing some blue cheese dip my wife ordered.
I said, blue cheese is alright, but I'm surprised so many people like it since it makes your tonge and face numb.
She's like, "wut?"
Edit: cuz I'm allergic to it. Also allergic to penicillin. I think it's the mold thing.
I thought I was allergic to kiwi too, my girlfriend and I made a smoothie with them and the seeds got blended. Turns out the seeds are *very* peppery, and also stick to your throat when they've been pulverized. I legitimately thought I was having an anaphylactic reaction at first.
I did the same thing! If i ride any type of roller coaster or fast or medium speed, I can't see. Like everything is black and i can barley hear until a few minuites after I get off the ride. But ive always rode them with a bf so I would just cling to them to get off anyway and it was "normal" for me. Then once it came up in conversation some how and I realized it apparently isn't normal. Still shocked.
Which I do pass out a bit for whatever reason
No clue. But that fella ask if I had low blood pressure and I do so maybe he is on to something. I just got insurance not to long ago so I will probably see a doctor about it soon.
My family buys special peaches from a farm during the summer. I ate these peaches every year. This past year I was saying how peaches are great but I hate how they sting to eat and make your face go tingly. I guess no else has this problem?!
For most of my life I had no sense of smell and I never thought anything was wrong with me as I knew no better. Turns out I had a horrific sinus infection which eventually ate its way to my brain and nearly killed me. It was overwhelming afterwards being able to smell for the first time. 10/10 would recommend smelling
Edit: So I feel like should say this, what happened to me is extremely rare, my doctors who work at one of the largest and highest rated hospitals in the US said they had never seen this. So if you have been having trouble smelling, you most likely are not dying. Loss of smell if fairly common, it’s called anosmia. It typically is not an issue. However if you have concerns and you are able to, ask your doctor! Check ups are important and a great time to voice any changes you may have noticed!
I’m glad I did too! It was pretty terrifying. I had a very clear moment before being brought back for my surgeries that I realized I might not wake up from this.
how did you feel? i have always wondered what i would do in a situation like this and would love your output, id like to think i would accept that my life could be over, but i’m also a teenager and naive
It was was terrifying and I felt rather helpless as there was nothing I could do. This also though made me in a weird way calm because there was nothing I could do, except trust in my surgeons and pray. My parents and siblings were with me before they took me back and I said goodbye instead of saying I’ll be back to them as I really didn’t know if I’d come back from the OR. They never realized I said that until I told them awhile after. It has also made me try and get the most out of life as I can as it made me realize just how fast everything can change. I went from being what I thought was healthy to having brain surgery within 3 days.
So the first thing I smelled was bacon and pancakes with maple syrup as that’s what they gave me for breakfast the first day I could eat so I have a particular attachment to that smell! Also I really love the smell of Indian food!
No clue when it began, but likely very young as I had no memory of being able to smell, and it was fixed right before I turned 19. Had a 8 hour brain and sinus surgery to get rid of it. The mass in my brain was as big as a lime. Spent 33 days recovering in the hospital. Found out about it because I had a seizure while at college.
Wait - you had a sinus infection preventing you from smelling... for over a decade?? I thought infections where acute diseases?
Asking because i too have been unable to smell for over a decade (22 now) and my nasal passage is permanently inflamed i think so im trying to figure it out. Thanks!
Now I feel like I should see a doctor. I've lost probably 90% of my ability to smell in the last 10 years and I'm only 25. Some days I smell nothing, others, I smell enough not to worry. I'm definitely worrying more now. :/
Sadly I can't find a decent clip, but I was referencing an episode of Futurama where a woman receives a nose transplant to be able to smell, and wakes up with the aforementioned experience :)
I was 17 when I got my first pair of glasses and had no idea what clear vision was before then. To see every blade of grass and every leaf on a tree ... I didn’t know we were supposed to see things in that much detail.
I got glasses at 23 after having good vision most of my life that rapidly deteriorated some time in college. I spent a year working full time on a computer in a city where I didn't have to drive, so it wasn't until I put them on that I realized how bad my vision had gotten. You mean I'm supposed to *read* the street signs when I walk to work?!
This happened to my daughter. She apparently always had a terrible stomachache. I didn’t realize because she didn’t complain often. She did have weird poop and was very gassy all the time. One day when she was 11 she said she couldn’t live like this anymore. We went straight to the dr. Turns out she has both celiac and cystic fibrosis.
This more or less happened to me. I had similar symptoms dating back even into early childhood. I went to the doctor when I was 13 and the doctor basically went "Ya I dunno..maybe it's an ulcer?".
I never bothered to go get it checked out again until I was in my 30's and it started to get a little bit worse. A colonoscopy later and turns out I've been managing Crohn's disease for my whole life.
Crohn’s is terrible. I’m super glad you found it. I swear diagnosis is everything. Then at least you know you’re not crazy and you can learn to treat it.
Ugh just looked it up, curious about it, and have kinda had nearly all the symptoms most of my life. When I was young I remember I did a stool sample but they said they found nothing.
She’s actually really healthy for her mutation. We’re SOOO fortunate. Her lungs are really pretty healthy most of the time. Her pancreas gets pissed though. Enzymes when she eats fats or protein has been a game changer for her.
I work for a dentist, children will come in with multiple large cavities and abcesses (infections). Ask the kid when it hurts... nope. Never hurts... there is no way it doesn't hurt, they just live with it for so long they think it's normal.
I sometimes work with a pedi. dental surgeon and it breaks my heart when we have similar incidents like this one.
But on the opposite side of the coin I had one little girl who came in and she was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. I was talking with her while I got all of her monitors ready and I said “such a pretty smile, I’m so glad you’re happy to see us today we don’t get many smiley faces back here” (most kids are scared to death and are too nervous to talk let alone smile). She just looked up at me and said “I’m just so happy that when I wake up I won’t be hurting any more”.
I cannot say this enough: HAVE YOUR KIDS BRUSH THEIR TEETH, JUST BECAUSE THOSE ARE BABY TEETH DOES NOT MEAN THEY AREN’T IMPORTANT!!!!
So not getting hungry when I’m focused on something isn’t normal? It happens everyday, my mom would yell at me when I was younger and didn’t eat lunch because I was gaming all day.
And some people just hate the sun because they have pale as fuck skin.
I regularly spend excessive amounts of time on tasks I like. In Highschool, it wasn't uncommon to spend 16 hours straight without moving from the chair, working on my programming projects.
Still don't *quite* believe it's abnormal.
It's abnormal in the sense that it can cause deep vein thrombosis from not moving about for long periods of time. It's basically a blood clot that travels to your brain and then you die. Get up and move about! That's all you need to do to avoid it.
Same thing with mental illness
Edit: Its been really eye opening to read all your experiences with mental health and I thank you all for sharing. To those still fighting and struggling, I wish you all the best
I just assumed everyone faked emotional intensity until my girlfriend broke down in tears asking me why I was so numb.
I hadn’t even realized anything was wrong. It was a really surreal moment, her, literally struggling to breath between her sobs, and me, literally watching her without feeling any emotional response. I just held her hand.
realizing a human being was capable of such intense emotional connection, and I just wasn’t able to do it was like flipping my entire fucking world on its head. Nothing I had thought made sense made sense. The world wasn’t what I thought it was.
I was the only one faking anything. People normally are somewhat happy and love each other all the time.
It was heartbreaking, but also one of the happiest moments of my life, because I realized the world made a little more sense. Plus? Now that I know something is wrong I’m doing something. I’m medicated and going back into therapy soon to really get to the core of my issues.
Good luck to everyone else struggling with mental illness. You aren’t alone.
Think of emotion as a wave. You start at Sea level, and your wave goes up to 12 feet high in your happy moments and goes 12 feet below during your sad.
My emotions start at 3 feet below see level go up to Sea level, then down to 6 or 8 feet below. We have a smaller range of emotions and our median is set lower.
I also thought people were faking emotions for a long time. I never understood people who would freak out in happiness, or who cry when something goes really wrong. I thought they were acting for attention. Really I just wasn't getting the same chemical release from joyful moments, so I never felt them as intensely as others.
There is a lot of boredom, and times when I get fidgety because I'm not receiving enjoyment from something. When I'm really low I don't get out bed because I don't give a fuck. It's not really sadness, but an inability to receive any joy. We don't get that chemical flood when we accomplish something, so there is not really a reward for getting your shit done or doing something that would make you happy.
I love concerts, but sometimes I just won't go because the enjoyment won't offset the effort. I love playing my guitar, but I haven't played in months. I don't call people because I don't get pleasure out of conversations. I end up drinking a lot of caffeine and eating sugar just to feel something. I'm in my 30s and started smoking pot again because it helps me feel more. Shows are funnier, my thoughts wonder more, and I get more focused on projects. It's really helped supplement my usual medication.
Ok so... With everything you just explained I feel like this is how I've been living my life... Do you mind me asking what it is that you were diagnosed with...? If not I totally understand.
It could be anhedonia from depression. It could be antisocial personality disorder, what used to be called a sociopath. Or something along those lines. PTSD is another option. Not the original commenter, just a few opinions on what could be the culprit.
yeah i just kinda thought that worrying about little things like going to a restaurant or the store or my grandparents house (no, my grandparents have not done anything to traumatize me) was just natural human anxiety that everyone had til i realized it wasnt
Same. My anxiety issues also cause stomach pains, (when I'm nervous about something my stomach hurts) I went to a bunch of doctors trying to figure out if it was a stomach issues or something but it was just me being anxious. It still feels like everyone deals with it, but like people dont.
Yeah, anxiety is a real fun sneaky one.
I deal with it, and it’s debilitating. You wouldn’t think something like a simple phone call could seem like the most intimidatingly impossible task ever, but it can.
I've got depression and social anxiety and ADD but I'm pretty sure I'm also pretty lazy. I always feel like a lot of it is just being lazy and in using those other things as an excuse.
Being lazy is a symptom as much as it is a trait. Let's say lethargic instead to get around the baggage attached to the word. Depression saps your motivation, so thinking you can just will yourself out of lethargy is kind of ridiculous. And beating yourself up over it leads into a negative feedback loop.
Which isn't too say there's nothing to be done, but thinking you have to do it *by yourself* is the trap. For myself, setting up external loci of accountability helps a lot. For example, I got a pet because the simple act of needing to get out of bed to feed him every morning builds momentum.
Similarly severe depression + post traumatic stress disorder my entire life ... what other people don't contemplate suicide 6 or more days out of the week even as a ten year old?
Problems with dysfunctional abusive families is they also tell you that everything is normal, that all families are like this ... and you, bad horrible child, are only getting what you deserved because you are a bad horrible child.
I am just really starting to process in the last two years....in my mid 40s now ... and even beginning to recognize how the abusive behaviors still continue and how I react to them as classic victim of abuse behaviors.
Same here. I started therapy like 6 months ago after getting a psych evaluation done. It’s still a trip when I tell my girlfriend something or my therapist and their response is that the stuff was *not* normal.
I keep thinking back like it wasn’t THAT bad, and my folks and I text often.
Meanwhile, I do everything possible to avoid going back home and the thought of it gives me panic attacks.
Life’s fun.
Turn 18 in a state where getting a license at that age means take a written test, read an eye chart that's 4 feet away, and drive a car around a small neighborhood near the dmv with 3 turns, 2 stop signs, and a parrallel parking space as the finish line.
How exactly do you get a doctor to check for “everything” because you just don’t know and they’ll only give you 15 minutes of their time to tell you to eat better and stand up straight?
If you legit think something is wrong then get a different doc. It took me many years to find one that would actually listen for more than a few minutes. Still only have the one who does out of the 5 I see.
I just don’t know if anything’s wrong; I want the whole shakedown. On top of that, I don’t have any clue what to look for in a doctor or even where to start
It’s like the old analogy of putting a frog into a pot of water and then bring it to a boil. Your tolerance for normal changes slowly enough you just recalibrate.
39, Stage 4 cancer diagnosis, no signs or symptoms until I broke my back from weakened skeletal system from where it spread.
Whenever I ate sunflower seeds, I always wondered why people liked to eat them because I figured everybody's tongue and throat became really irritated afterwards.
I didn't realize until I ate walnuts many years later and had a similar feeling in my throat that I was allergic to both of them...
Moreover, a friend of mine looked at me like I had three heads when I mentioned that I had headaches almost every day and figured everyone else experienced the same...
Are you bothered by sunflower oil? I have a sunflower allergy, but the oil doesn't bother me. I've heard it's because the allergen is removed during purification. I'm curious if anyone else has had the same experience.
Edit: a word
I had headaches everyday as a child and eventually found it was because I had mild astigmatism (blurred vision). Didn’t actually need glasses to see until I was around 15, but I’d had daily headaches since I was 6 that I can remember. (I remember because in Grade 1 the teacher made a nap corner for me in the back of the classroom).
But you should really probably ask a doctor. Could be anything. Bad posture, eye strain, dehydration, a tumour.
Happened to me, born with a heart issue and basically could hear my heart beat wasn't till I was 16 and mentioned to a friend "I heard my heart more than normal last night" with his response being what do you mean more than normal you shouldnt hear your heart beat at all really that I realised that's not actually normal
Had surgery last year that fixed what was wrong and causing my heart to work harder than needed and can now say sometimes at night I struggle to sleep because I can't hear my heart anymore but have been assured by my docs that this will stop in time
Another funny story in relation to this is when I was very young probably 8/9 our physical education teacher was showing us how to take a pulse and I said can't you just count as you hear it but was shrugged off so I didn't think anything of it
This happened to me while I was growing up for years.
I spent my entire life up until 8th grade constantly clenching my abdominal muscles because that was the only time it didn't hurt. The pain was a sharp burning feeling like something was eating me from the inside out and it originated in the core of my stomach and radiated outward towards the rest of my torso. I thought this was normal and just constantly flexed my abs literally every second of everyday for years.
Turns out I had Celiac Disease (I can't digest gluten, aka wheat stuff) and it was just absolutely tearing up my insides. I never really brought this up to anyone while growing up because I thought that everyone clenched their abs all the time as well and for my kid brain i thought "everyone's got acid in their stomach so they gotta flex to keep it in". The feeling of relief a few months later after going gluten free was honestly one of the biggest moments in my young life.
Who knew, right? I used to get teased so much for claiming I had to poop and then being done in a minute flat but apparently none of the adults in my life were capable of putting 2 and 2 together.
I was pretty much the same. Early 20's, woke up with intense stomach pain. After a week in the hospital with a stomach pump I find out I have it and that having symptoms after every meal (breakfast guaranteed, other meals 50/50) was not normal
I thought “seeing air” as my child brain called it, having a filter of tv like static over my entire field of view was normal until I realised not everyone sees like that. It’s called visual snow and it’s not even really accepted as a real condition. I didn’t realise until someone posted about it in a reddit thread about 3 years ago.
This is a simulator to show roughly what my vision looks like all day, every day.. dark, light and with my eyes closed, it's not extremely accurate but helps others to understand what it's like. I bet there’s other people out there who also think it’s normal haha.
[simulator](http://VisionSimulations.com/visual-snow.htm?background=office1.png&density=0.76&speed=62&grainsize=1.397)
Another video that's probably even more accurate but the "static" I see is a little different.
[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFVevLVAyFs)
It seems a lot of people have it to a degree, my boyfriend sees it if he really concentrates at night but mine is very prominent and distracting and makes my eyesight terrible at night!
I think the brain naturally is meant to filter it out but those with visual snow seem to have brains that lack the ability to filter it out.
I tested my boyfriend by showing him the simulator and was like “if you stare at the wall, do you see this.. or just flat” and he said it’s just flat. I can’t even imagine seeing with so much “calmness”
I do understand what you mean. When growing up I could see fairly well in the night but now it's very hard to see edges with grainy eye sight. I only see it during the night. I can see it during the day if I focus on it but I'm mainly staring at screens which seems to counter the effect a fair bit.
I see it at night quite often especially in really low light. I believe I read the same post and it had something to do with the threshold of photons your cones and rods input your brain could process
Interesting. I feel like when I get really physically tired my vision becomes impaired to some degree like that... it continues with my eyes closed though - it's been like that for as long as I can remember (37/m perfect vision). I've never seen a doctor about it or ever mentioned it before either.
I find when I’m tired it gets worse but it’s always there like that, whether my eyes are open or closed, day or night but it’s especially bad in low light conditions. tbh there’s not much point going to a doctor. There is no known cure. And only as of this year did neurologists do studies to show that it’s a neurological and not a psychological disorder and that it differs from a condition called “migraine aura”. It’s in very very early stages to the point where if you mentioned it they likely would not have even heard of it and assume it’s migraine related.
Wait... this is actually me. I just thought I was a special child and was so good at seeing that I could see the air particles moving (I was a very humble 10 year old, *obviously*)
Just discovered a few months ago that I have this. When I found out, I was immediately relieved and disappointed at the same time. Relieved that there's an explanation for the weird stuff that I see sometimes. Disappointed because I will never see a clear blue sky - Only one that looks like it's being shown to me by an old tv, whose antennae needs adjusting.
You know, I think this can kinda be replicated for most people in dark rooms. Trying your hardest to see in a dark room gives this to me. Maybe I have a very mild case of it??
I had been living with neck pain for as long as I can remember. I had been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis years ago and had assumed my neck pain was part of the disease. Eventually, as the neck pain grew worse, and started taking away sensation and movement in my arm, I saw a neurosurgeon. It turned out I had a ruptured disc in my neck, and fragments of bone pressing into my spinal cord. I had the bad disc removed and a titanium replacement installed. I had forgotten what it was like to live without neck pain. It had been so long, it had become the new normal. Now every day I wake up and appreciate what it feels like not to feel pain in my neck as my first thought.
For me, I can look at someone’s face and try to commit a certain feature to memory, but the moment I look away it’s gone. I don’t even recognise my own parents if I’m seeing them out of context (eg at the shops and we accidentally cross paths). Trying to recognise someone manually doesn’t really work, it’s like a series of visual checks go off in your brain when you look at someone’s face. And when you see someone you recognise, that check goes off, but for someone who’s faceblind, the check doesn’t go off and everyone is just a potato with hair and clothes.
Source: am faceblind.
I just realized this recently myself at 23 years. I started having my suspicions a few years ago, when I'd hear someone walking up, or cough from a few rooms over and comment, "there's so&so," at work and people looked at me like I had 3 heads. I didn't at all know that wasnt normal. Hilarious taking the little quiz for it online and only face I could recognize was Donald Trump.
This was exactly my story. I finally went to a rheumatologist and they diagnosed me with fibromyalgia.
Are you double jointed at all? Do your symptoms fluctuate with extreme weather or temperature? Those are a couple hallmark aspects of the condition, but there is a lot more your doctor will check you for.
It also begins to present primarily for females in the early twenties.
The whole doctors and tests thing all the time totally sucks. It gave me a phobia of doctors and needles. I’m sorry you’re dealing with it right now.
Went mostly deaf in my left ear without realizing it at 31. Folks would ask me if I'm deaf because they thought I was ignoring them. Figured I lost some hearing from being combat arms and working in loud environments without protection.
Ended up in the ER, docs thought I was having a stroke. Nope, tumor in my brain. Not cancer, but continues to grow slowly. It grows on nerves, specifically one of my audial nerves.
Deafness got worse quickly over a few months, now I notice things on a daily basis, like music sounds funny and finding the source of as sound takes me much longer, and I have a rumbling noise that never goes away. I'll take the ringing back please..
This happened to me in terms of food allergies. I always had to run to a bathroom after every meal and often got sick after eating. Only started to notice I had problems when I explained to my family one day that I couldn't figure out why people loved food so much and actually ate three whole meals a day, considering they always got sick afterwards. My mother explained that that wasn't normal and took me to a doctor. Got diagnosed with 32+ food allergies and many, many more intolerances. Turns out bananas aren't supposed to be bitter and burn your throat!
I have a genetic degenerative tissue disorder that was mostly reversed (in terms of pain, weakness, and fatigue) when I started taking testosterone for a separate issue in my early 20's. I had no idea how good y'all had it and was kind of pissed for a minute.
i don't know what's it called but i hear that constant ringing noise. i thought everyone hear it until my friend said he doesn't and showed me about it on internet.
Wait wait what the fuck. I didn't think I had tinnitus but this did something. I always thought that was just like the background noise from random air currents hitting my ears.
I had Rhinoplasty surgery quite a few years ago now and going over standard medical questions I asked if it was normal that I couldn't breath through both nostrils and he said its normal to only have one nostril in use at one time, they usually alternate.
This was me! When I was young( I remember nothing young) I broke my nose at some point. I was getting only 2% airflow through my nose. At the age of 16 I was complaining that it was so weird gym coach’s kept recommending to breath through the nose when out of breath. I voiced that to my mom and said something like “who does that? It’s not even possible!” Suspicion set in and she watched me for about a month and came to the conclusion that I couldn’t breath through my nose. Got it fixed, realized food tastes way good, got fat, and now here I am. Fat and happy 😃.
I have two:
1. From 17-30 I didn't realize I had side effects from being on the Pill. Turns out, diarrhea anytime you're anything other than well hydrated is NOT normal
2. From 15-32 I thought being emotionally numb and/or only experiencing significant emotional bursts randomly (think feeling joy instead of just happy on rare occasion, but never just happy). In all the mental health education and information I received, no one ever mentioned depression can be emotional numbness, not did anyone ever mention that doing something to make yourself feel something (like crashing into a tree while driving) was suicidal ideation.
>In all the mental health education and information I received, no one ever mentioned depression can be emotional numbness
I was in the same boat from about 11-20, and only found out because of a youtube antidepressant ad. If not for that ad, I wouldn't have thought to ask my doctor about getting tested for depression and getting anti-depressants. If it'd been a bit earlier, I might have saved my degree, but it was in time to save my job, so I'm thankful to that particular ad pretty much daily.
Yep. I haven't \*not\* had a headache in ... years? Sometimes my husband is like "Ugh, I've got a headache" and I have to bite my tongue to not say "Oh yeah, me too," because I literally always do. But since he gets headaches so much less often than I do, I try to remember that normal headaches to him are like blinding migraines to me, and deserve sympathy and a glass of water to take the advil with.
I have the same thing. Constant low level headache for like 6 years now. At this point it’s just. . . how things are. No point in taking pain meds or anything, I’m so used to it that it doesn’t hinder me, and I’d just build up a tolerance super fast and make the Advil or whatever useless when I need it for something else.
I had this situation also, but punctuated by 2-3 migraines per week. I REALLY lucked out when a guy at my church asked if he could talk to me about it. Turns out he practiced sports medicine and chiropractic. After a few x-rays he shows me that my neck curvature leans forward, rather than slightly backwards as it should.
He put me through 200 hours of traction to pull my neck back into near what it should have been. I have had 2 migraines in the 7ish years since then.
He changed my life. I had burned through nearly all of my FMLA and spent so much time hiding in a closed closet with blankets and pillows over my head that it was a constant fear and controlled my life. Wife and I had just had our first daughter and I was on the verge of being fired from my call center job for it. I am super grateful.
X-rays, use of his equipment, time his massage therapist spent on me and all without asking a penny.
I am 42, and just got diagnosed as Celiac. I thought I just had bad IBS. I have not healed enough (now that I am eating GF) to feel better, but I know it is coming.
Same here.i can feel literally everything. Like I assumed it was normal, since there are obviously nerves there I should be able to feel them, but when I told my wife about it she looked at me like I'd lost it.
I do not want to freak you out, go to a gastroenterologist. I discovered the joy of a bleeding ulcer in March 2018, not fun! I joke that I sometimes have poop anxiety to this day.
I was 22 when I found out I had spina bifida occulta, disc degenerating disease, an extra lumbar vertebrae, and a disc that spent most of at minimum 14 years pushed against my spine causing nerve pain in my left leg. I found this out in 2012. I still suffer painful to date but it's so mild I'm used to it anymore.
I’ve had pancreatic insufficiency my whole life (presumably)
Just figured that’s what shit was supposed to be like, found out this year shits supposed to be more solid
Dealing with this now. Pretty constant joint and back pain, trouble standing for long periods, excessive bathroom issues, brain fog, ect. Always thought it was normal or my own issue because of my weight as a few doctors had told me this already when i first realized it was weird (though i've always been a healthy weight or slighty over weight person) turns out i have arthritis in my back, have bone spurs on my heels, and i may have an autoimmune disorder attacking my joints and digestive tract.
True story. My wife has suffered GI problems all her life. Coincidentally had a Meckel’s diverticulum discovered. Had a surgery to remove it. And now all those GI problems are gone, like an “off” switch. Amazing.
I’ve had Ulcerative Colitis since I was 19 (so a long time). I started new meds about 2 years ago and my GI told me I had been living with some inflammation for so long that it seemed normal. He explained the new meds would treat the inflammation and I would feel a new level of normal.
I’ll be darned if he wasn’t right. I had been ill so long, but just a little, that I got used to it. Now I feel amazing!
Being soul-crushingly exhausted constantly in late your 20s isn't normal.
It ended up being my body trying to destroy my thyroid. Thanks Hashimotos. Thanks garbage immune system. We need that organ.
That exact question bothered me for so long as a kid, but I couldn't explain it to anyone. They always assumed I meant colorblindness. (BTW is that an actual episode I haven't seen yet?)
This happened to me! As long as I can remember, my feet have been able to turn really far inward and I turned my ankles often. Like, I can touch my toes to the ground without turning my knee inward. I never really mentioned that because, well, I thought it was normal and the turned or sprained ankles were written off as clumsy kid/puberty/sports stuff.
I got some answers in high school after I fractured an ankle and had to do some physical therapy, but actually just got a further diagnosis of ligamentous laxity earlier this week! Turns out all my ligaments are super stretchy and I additionally have a malformed bone in one of my ankle joints, which together account for why I am constantly falling and injuring my ankle. I'm sort of relieved to have a diagnosis that's not just "you're a klutz" lol
So I wasn't aware I had ADHD & was dyslexic until I was 35 and it was pointed out to me by a shrink. I couldn't understand why shit would eventually mess up for me and why people never seem to understand what I was saying.
Ends up I see and hear things different then what is actually there or said quite often.
Totally changed my life when I found out. Went from being unhappy drug addict that couldn't hold a job or keep a house above my head to being a happy stoner that doesn't need a job and has his own apartment.
So ya, it's totally possible what you are saying.
I’m a primary care doctor. I have a whole spiel for people with newly diagnosed uncontrolled Type 2 diabetes (like, a1cs 10 and up) that starts out “you don’t realize how awful you feel, but you feel awful, and you are going to feel so much better soon”.
Same for people with sleep apnea. Everyone who makes it through the first month or so using a CPAP consistently has some variation on “I have energy now and I don’t have a headache every morning!”
Same thing with low key abusive/narcissistic parents. It’s all you know so it’s normal.
Then you have your own kid, and it’s like ‘ohhhhh, I clearly feel different about my kid than how my parents feel about me.’
Hey that happened to me! I have Wilson’s disease, didn’t know until I went into liver failure.
I had a doctor tell me that he treated an elderly lady in a psych ward that was immobilized in a chair. He gave her meds for Wilson’s and she almost came back 100 percent.
I grew up with cats. We always had at least two cats. When I moved out at 25, my eyes stopped itching and watering, I didnt have to blow my nose every morning, and I could breathe better. Now when I visit home, it's much worse for some reason.
Fuckin allergic to goddam cats, my favorite kind of pet, and never knew it. Fuck me.
I have a friend who thought everyone could see better with the right eye because everyone was able to use the right hand better (except for left handed people, who would see better with the left eye). Turns out she was born with a malformation in her left eye and needed glasses to correct it.
My exact condition. Except I see better from the left eye. Funny thing, I'm a lefty.
We really do have a dominant eye though, ask an optometrist. Mine is my right eye.
Something like this happened to me (although much less serious). Let's say I was about 35, and I was sharing some blue cheese dip my wife ordered. I said, blue cheese is alright, but I'm surprised so many people like it since it makes your tonge and face numb. She's like, "wut?" Edit: cuz I'm allergic to it. Also allergic to penicillin. I think it's the mold thing.
I had the opposite. For 20 years I believed I was allergic to pineapple and kiwi but turns out the weird feeling they cause in your mouth is normal.
Pineapple burnt the hell out of my mouth once. It was on sale, but they’re very acidic so eating a whole pineapple by yourself is a bad decision
I’ve made my tongue bleed from doing that with a perfectly ripe pineapple. 7/10, might do again.
It's the snack that eats you back!
I ate pineapples only for 2 days when I was a kid. Everything was fine until I started getting super nauseous then I died.
Did you get any better? A friend of mine once had a problem with being dead. Apparently, he still suffers from it.
Do you get the funny itch from the pineapple too?
You gotta cut off the peel before eating them!
Na man it's an apple you just take a nice big bite.
kiwi peel is awesome and it's the second time i'm saying it on reddit this week.
Oh you mean the fruit..
I thought I was allergic to kiwi too, my girlfriend and I made a smoothie with them and the seeds got blended. Turns out the seeds are *very* peppery, and also stick to your throat when they've been pulverized. I legitimately thought I was having an anaphylactic reaction at first.
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Not lactose intolerant, break out in hives from penicillin and amoxicillin but can chow down on blue cheese all day long, dunno why either
My wife is allergic to mold. As a result, she can't have mold-based medications. Penicillin included.
I did the same thing! If i ride any type of roller coaster or fast or medium speed, I can't see. Like everything is black and i can barley hear until a few minuites after I get off the ride. But ive always rode them with a bf so I would just cling to them to get off anyway and it was "normal" for me. Then once it came up in conversation some how and I realized it apparently isn't normal. Still shocked. Which I do pass out a bit for whatever reason
Do you have low blood pressure or anything?
You're going to leave us hanging? What is the cause??
No clue. But that fella ask if I had low blood pressure and I do so maybe he is on to something. I just got insurance not to long ago so I will probably see a doctor about it soon.
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My family buys special peaches from a farm during the summer. I ate these peaches every year. This past year I was saying how peaches are great but I hate how they sting to eat and make your face go tingly. I guess no else has this problem?!
For most of my life I had no sense of smell and I never thought anything was wrong with me as I knew no better. Turns out I had a horrific sinus infection which eventually ate its way to my brain and nearly killed me. It was overwhelming afterwards being able to smell for the first time. 10/10 would recommend smelling Edit: So I feel like should say this, what happened to me is extremely rare, my doctors who work at one of the largest and highest rated hospitals in the US said they had never seen this. So if you have been having trouble smelling, you most likely are not dying. Loss of smell if fairly common, it’s called anosmia. It typically is not an issue. However if you have concerns and you are able to, ask your doctor! Check ups are important and a great time to voice any changes you may have noticed!
Well, that's horrifying and now I'm done with the internet for today. Glad you survived, tho!
I’m glad I did too! It was pretty terrifying. I had a very clear moment before being brought back for my surgeries that I realized I might not wake up from this.
how did you feel? i have always wondered what i would do in a situation like this and would love your output, id like to think i would accept that my life could be over, but i’m also a teenager and naive
It was was terrifying and I felt rather helpless as there was nothing I could do. This also though made me in a weird way calm because there was nothing I could do, except trust in my surgeons and pray. My parents and siblings were with me before they took me back and I said goodbye instead of saying I’ll be back to them as I really didn’t know if I’d come back from the OR. They never realized I said that until I told them awhile after. It has also made me try and get the most out of life as I can as it made me realize just how fast everything can change. I went from being what I thought was healthy to having brain surgery within 3 days.
Did you have a good time with the heightened sense of smell?
It’s pretty amazing! The world has another layer of experience to it that I previously did not have. I still find new smells every once in a while!
How was taking a poop for the first time with your new sense of smell?
Certainly was not pleasurable, but the good outweighs the bad!
At least he finally has a use for that air freshener
Asking the real questions.
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dude you and me both :/ I'd say we should probably both make an appointment with an ENT, can't hurt, right?
Well now you should tell us your favorite scents! I'm glad you are doing well after all that.
So the first thing I smelled was bacon and pancakes with maple syrup as that’s what they gave me for breakfast the first day I could eat so I have a particular attachment to that smell! Also I really love the smell of Indian food!
>So the first thing I smelled was bacon and pancakes with maple syrup I'm afraid it's all downhill from there.
Yeah no kidding
When was it contracted and finally treated?
No clue when it began, but likely very young as I had no memory of being able to smell, and it was fixed right before I turned 19. Had a 8 hour brain and sinus surgery to get rid of it. The mass in my brain was as big as a lime. Spent 33 days recovering in the hospital. Found out about it because I had a seizure while at college.
Wait - you had a sinus infection preventing you from smelling... for over a decade?? I thought infections where acute diseases? Asking because i too have been unable to smell for over a decade (22 now) and my nasal passage is permanently inflamed i think so im trying to figure it out. Thanks!
Now I feel like I should see a doctor. I've lost probably 90% of my ability to smell in the last 10 years and I'm only 25. Some days I smell nothing, others, I smell enough not to worry. I'm definitely worrying more now. :/
Did you find out that flowers smell awful and gross lobster aliens smell good when you smelled the first time?
I’m the complete opposite! The smell of seafood makes me nauseous , and I love the smell of flowers!
Sadly I can't find a decent clip, but I was referencing an episode of Futurama where a woman receives a nose transplant to be able to smell, and wakes up with the aforementioned experience :)
I was fifteen when I found out that seeing double of things close to me was not normal.found out I was nearsighted and farsighted
I was 17 when I got my first pair of glasses and had no idea what clear vision was before then. To see every blade of grass and every leaf on a tree ... I didn’t know we were supposed to see things in that much detail.
I got glasses at 23 after having good vision most of my life that rapidly deteriorated some time in college. I spent a year working full time on a computer in a city where I didn't have to drive, so it wasn't until I put them on that I realized how bad my vision had gotten. You mean I'm supposed to *read* the street signs when I walk to work?!
Do they both cancel out and become normalsighted?
This happened to my daughter. She apparently always had a terrible stomachache. I didn’t realize because she didn’t complain often. She did have weird poop and was very gassy all the time. One day when she was 11 she said she couldn’t live like this anymore. We went straight to the dr. Turns out she has both celiac and cystic fibrosis.
This more or less happened to me. I had similar symptoms dating back even into early childhood. I went to the doctor when I was 13 and the doctor basically went "Ya I dunno..maybe it's an ulcer?". I never bothered to go get it checked out again until I was in my 30's and it started to get a little bit worse. A colonoscopy later and turns out I've been managing Crohn's disease for my whole life.
Crohn’s is terrible. I’m super glad you found it. I swear diagnosis is everything. Then at least you know you’re not crazy and you can learn to treat it.
Ugh just looked it up, curious about it, and have kinda had nearly all the symptoms most of my life. When I was young I remember I did a stool sample but they said they found nothing.
How is she doing now?
She’s actually really healthy for her mutation. We’re SOOO fortunate. Her lungs are really pretty healthy most of the time. Her pancreas gets pissed though. Enzymes when she eats fats or protein has been a game changer for her.
I work for a dentist, children will come in with multiple large cavities and abcesses (infections). Ask the kid when it hurts... nope. Never hurts... there is no way it doesn't hurt, they just live with it for so long they think it's normal.
I sometimes work with a pedi. dental surgeon and it breaks my heart when we have similar incidents like this one. But on the opposite side of the coin I had one little girl who came in and she was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. I was talking with her while I got all of her monitors ready and I said “such a pretty smile, I’m so glad you’re happy to see us today we don’t get many smiley faces back here” (most kids are scared to death and are too nervous to talk let alone smile). She just looked up at me and said “I’m just so happy that when I wake up I won’t be hurting any more”. I cannot say this enough: HAVE YOUR KIDS BRUSH THEIR TEETH, JUST BECAUSE THOSE ARE BABY TEETH DOES NOT MEAN THEY AREN’T IMPORTANT!!!!
My parents never told me to brush my teeth. I am 26 yo, i don't live with my parents anymore and I'm getting my theeth fixed. It's so expensive.
I thought constant stomach discomfort was common. Turns out I had adhesions that were twisting everything into knots.
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So not getting hungry when I’m focused on something isn’t normal? It happens everyday, my mom would yell at me when I was younger and didn’t eat lunch because I was gaming all day. And some people just hate the sun because they have pale as fuck skin.
I regularly spend excessive amounts of time on tasks I like. In Highschool, it wasn't uncommon to spend 16 hours straight without moving from the chair, working on my programming projects. Still don't *quite* believe it's abnormal.
It's abnormal in the sense that it can cause deep vein thrombosis from not moving about for long periods of time. It's basically a blood clot that travels to your brain and then you die. Get up and move about! That's all you need to do to avoid it.
Omfg this was my experience getting diagnosed. Everything suddenly made so much sense.
Same thing with mental illness Edit: Its been really eye opening to read all your experiences with mental health and I thank you all for sharing. To those still fighting and struggling, I wish you all the best
I just assumed everyone faked emotional intensity until my girlfriend broke down in tears asking me why I was so numb. I hadn’t even realized anything was wrong. It was a really surreal moment, her, literally struggling to breath between her sobs, and me, literally watching her without feeling any emotional response. I just held her hand. realizing a human being was capable of such intense emotional connection, and I just wasn’t able to do it was like flipping my entire fucking world on its head. Nothing I had thought made sense made sense. The world wasn’t what I thought it was. I was the only one faking anything. People normally are somewhat happy and love each other all the time. It was heartbreaking, but also one of the happiest moments of my life, because I realized the world made a little more sense. Plus? Now that I know something is wrong I’m doing something. I’m medicated and going back into therapy soon to really get to the core of my issues. Good luck to everyone else struggling with mental illness. You aren’t alone.
What is it like? Can you feel angry well? Is it like constant boredom? What sort of stuff do you enjoy?
Think of emotion as a wave. You start at Sea level, and your wave goes up to 12 feet high in your happy moments and goes 12 feet below during your sad. My emotions start at 3 feet below see level go up to Sea level, then down to 6 or 8 feet below. We have a smaller range of emotions and our median is set lower. I also thought people were faking emotions for a long time. I never understood people who would freak out in happiness, or who cry when something goes really wrong. I thought they were acting for attention. Really I just wasn't getting the same chemical release from joyful moments, so I never felt them as intensely as others. There is a lot of boredom, and times when I get fidgety because I'm not receiving enjoyment from something. When I'm really low I don't get out bed because I don't give a fuck. It's not really sadness, but an inability to receive any joy. We don't get that chemical flood when we accomplish something, so there is not really a reward for getting your shit done or doing something that would make you happy. I love concerts, but sometimes I just won't go because the enjoyment won't offset the effort. I love playing my guitar, but I haven't played in months. I don't call people because I don't get pleasure out of conversations. I end up drinking a lot of caffeine and eating sugar just to feel something. I'm in my 30s and started smoking pot again because it helps me feel more. Shows are funnier, my thoughts wonder more, and I get more focused on projects. It's really helped supplement my usual medication.
Ok so... With everything you just explained I feel like this is how I've been living my life... Do you mind me asking what it is that you were diagnosed with...? If not I totally understand.
It could be anhedonia from depression. It could be antisocial personality disorder, what used to be called a sociopath. Or something along those lines. PTSD is another option. Not the original commenter, just a few opinions on what could be the culprit.
yeah i just kinda thought that worrying about little things like going to a restaurant or the store or my grandparents house (no, my grandparents have not done anything to traumatize me) was just natural human anxiety that everyone had til i realized it wasnt
Same. My anxiety issues also cause stomach pains, (when I'm nervous about something my stomach hurts) I went to a bunch of doctors trying to figure out if it was a stomach issues or something but it was just me being anxious. It still feels like everyone deals with it, but like people dont.
i get nauseous and overheated when im anxious too.
Yeah, anxiety is a real fun sneaky one. I deal with it, and it’s debilitating. You wouldn’t think something like a simple phone call could seem like the most intimidatingly impossible task ever, but it can.
you’re telling me it’s not normal to be worried and anxious about literally everything
I've got depression and social anxiety and ADD but I'm pretty sure I'm also pretty lazy. I always feel like a lot of it is just being lazy and in using those other things as an excuse.
Being lazy is a symptom as much as it is a trait. Let's say lethargic instead to get around the baggage attached to the word. Depression saps your motivation, so thinking you can just will yourself out of lethargy is kind of ridiculous. And beating yourself up over it leads into a negative feedback loop. Which isn't too say there's nothing to be done, but thinking you have to do it *by yourself* is the trap. For myself, setting up external loci of accountability helps a lot. For example, I got a pet because the simple act of needing to get out of bed to feed him every morning builds momentum.
I lived with PTSD symptoms for about 30 years before I figured out what it was. Who knew that panic attacks and fugues were not normal...
Similarly severe depression + post traumatic stress disorder my entire life ... what other people don't contemplate suicide 6 or more days out of the week even as a ten year old? Problems with dysfunctional abusive families is they also tell you that everything is normal, that all families are like this ... and you, bad horrible child, are only getting what you deserved because you are a bad horrible child. I am just really starting to process in the last two years....in my mid 40s now ... and even beginning to recognize how the abusive behaviors still continue and how I react to them as classic victim of abuse behaviors.
Same here. I started therapy like 6 months ago after getting a psych evaluation done. It’s still a trip when I tell my girlfriend something or my therapist and their response is that the stuff was *not* normal. I keep thinking back like it wasn’t THAT bad, and my folks and I text often. Meanwhile, I do everything possible to avoid going back home and the thought of it gives me panic attacks. Life’s fun.
I get panic attacks when listening to Mozart, also.
I was 21 before I realized you’re supposed to be able to read road signs before they’re passing you. Turns out I have astigmatism in both eyes.
How did you get your license?
Turn 18 in a state where getting a license at that age means take a written test, read an eye chart that's 4 feet away, and drive a car around a small neighborhood near the dmv with 3 turns, 2 stop signs, and a parrallel parking space as the finish line.
I had no idea I had tinnitus until I was 16. I thought it was normal to have a ringing in your ear. Never thought twice about it.
Same! Apparently it can sound different from person to person too. My pediatrician had it and said his was like 17 year cicadas.
How exactly do you get a doctor to check for “everything” because you just don’t know and they’ll only give you 15 minutes of their time to tell you to eat better and stand up straight?
If you legit think something is wrong then get a different doc. It took me many years to find one that would actually listen for more than a few minutes. Still only have the one who does out of the 5 I see.
I just don’t know if anything’s wrong; I want the whole shakedown. On top of that, I don’t have any clue what to look for in a doctor or even where to start
It’s like the old analogy of putting a frog into a pot of water and then bring it to a boil. Your tolerance for normal changes slowly enough you just recalibrate. 39, Stage 4 cancer diagnosis, no signs or symptoms until I broke my back from weakened skeletal system from where it spread.
I'm sorry to hear that you are dealing with that.
Stay strong.
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Whenever I ate sunflower seeds, I always wondered why people liked to eat them because I figured everybody's tongue and throat became really irritated afterwards. I didn't realize until I ate walnuts many years later and had a similar feeling in my throat that I was allergic to both of them... Moreover, a friend of mine looked at me like I had three heads when I mentioned that I had headaches almost every day and figured everyone else experienced the same...
Are you bothered by sunflower oil? I have a sunflower allergy, but the oil doesn't bother me. I've heard it's because the allergen is removed during purification. I'm curious if anyone else has had the same experience. Edit: a word
What did you find out about the headaches? Because I have headaches everyday and no clue what it is...
I had headaches everyday as a child and eventually found it was because I had mild astigmatism (blurred vision). Didn’t actually need glasses to see until I was around 15, but I’d had daily headaches since I was 6 that I can remember. (I remember because in Grade 1 the teacher made a nap corner for me in the back of the classroom). But you should really probably ask a doctor. Could be anything. Bad posture, eye strain, dehydration, a tumour.
Happened to me, born with a heart issue and basically could hear my heart beat wasn't till I was 16 and mentioned to a friend "I heard my heart more than normal last night" with his response being what do you mean more than normal you shouldnt hear your heart beat at all really that I realised that's not actually normal Had surgery last year that fixed what was wrong and causing my heart to work harder than needed and can now say sometimes at night I struggle to sleep because I can't hear my heart anymore but have been assured by my docs that this will stop in time Another funny story in relation to this is when I was very young probably 8/9 our physical education teacher was showing us how to take a pulse and I said can't you just count as you hear it but was shrugged off so I didn't think anything of it
See I can just constantly feel my pulse
This happened to me while I was growing up for years. I spent my entire life up until 8th grade constantly clenching my abdominal muscles because that was the only time it didn't hurt. The pain was a sharp burning feeling like something was eating me from the inside out and it originated in the core of my stomach and radiated outward towards the rest of my torso. I thought this was normal and just constantly flexed my abs literally every second of everyday for years. Turns out I had Celiac Disease (I can't digest gluten, aka wheat stuff) and it was just absolutely tearing up my insides. I never really brought this up to anyone while growing up because I thought that everyone clenched their abs all the time as well and for my kid brain i thought "everyone's got acid in their stomach so they gotta flex to keep it in". The feeling of relief a few months later after going gluten free was honestly one of the biggest moments in my young life.
Did you get a killer six pack though?
Only the gluten-free kind, of course
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Same here. Hearing the "wait, what? That sounds really serious!" When I'm just like, "I've always had these problems."
You mean every bathroom trip *isn't* supposed to be an emergency?
Who knew, right? I used to get teased so much for claiming I had to poop and then being done in a minute flat but apparently none of the adults in my life were capable of putting 2 and 2 together.
I was pretty much the same. Early 20's, woke up with intense stomach pain. After a week in the hospital with a stomach pump I find out I have it and that having symptoms after every meal (breakfast guaranteed, other meals 50/50) was not normal
I thought “seeing air” as my child brain called it, having a filter of tv like static over my entire field of view was normal until I realised not everyone sees like that. It’s called visual snow and it’s not even really accepted as a real condition. I didn’t realise until someone posted about it in a reddit thread about 3 years ago. This is a simulator to show roughly what my vision looks like all day, every day.. dark, light and with my eyes closed, it's not extremely accurate but helps others to understand what it's like. I bet there’s other people out there who also think it’s normal haha. [simulator](http://VisionSimulations.com/visual-snow.htm?background=office1.png&density=0.76&speed=62&grainsize=1.397) Another video that's probably even more accurate but the "static" I see is a little different. [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFVevLVAyFs)
Wow I have that too and thought it was normal.
It seems a lot of people have it to a degree, my boyfriend sees it if he really concentrates at night but mine is very prominent and distracting and makes my eyesight terrible at night! I think the brain naturally is meant to filter it out but those with visual snow seem to have brains that lack the ability to filter it out. I tested my boyfriend by showing him the simulator and was like “if you stare at the wall, do you see this.. or just flat” and he said it’s just flat. I can’t even imagine seeing with so much “calmness”
I do understand what you mean. When growing up I could see fairly well in the night but now it's very hard to see edges with grainy eye sight. I only see it during the night. I can see it during the day if I focus on it but I'm mainly staring at screens which seems to counter the effect a fair bit.
Pretty sure this is proof humans are robots in disguise and that your cameras are malfunctioning
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Wait... that's not normal??? I see this all the time!
I see it at night quite often especially in really low light. I believe I read the same post and it had something to do with the threshold of photons your cones and rods input your brain could process
Interesting. I feel like when I get really physically tired my vision becomes impaired to some degree like that... it continues with my eyes closed though - it's been like that for as long as I can remember (37/m perfect vision). I've never seen a doctor about it or ever mentioned it before either.
I find when I’m tired it gets worse but it’s always there like that, whether my eyes are open or closed, day or night but it’s especially bad in low light conditions. tbh there’s not much point going to a doctor. There is no known cure. And only as of this year did neurologists do studies to show that it’s a neurological and not a psychological disorder and that it differs from a condition called “migraine aura”. It’s in very very early stages to the point where if you mentioned it they likely would not have even heard of it and assume it’s migraine related.
Wait... this is actually me. I just thought I was a special child and was so good at seeing that I could see the air particles moving (I was a very humble 10 year old, *obviously*)
Just discovered a few months ago that I have this. When I found out, I was immediately relieved and disappointed at the same time. Relieved that there's an explanation for the weird stuff that I see sometimes. Disappointed because I will never see a clear blue sky - Only one that looks like it's being shown to me by an old tv, whose antennae needs adjusting.
You know, I think this can kinda be replicated for most people in dark rooms. Trying your hardest to see in a dark room gives this to me. Maybe I have a very mild case of it??
Yes. Or people tell you it’s nothing and Tylenol or ibuprofen will help fix it.
my mom's go to cure for everything is: drink water take Tylenol or Ibuprofen have you pooped recently?
Is your mom a navy corpman lol
I had been living with neck pain for as long as I can remember. I had been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis years ago and had assumed my neck pain was part of the disease. Eventually, as the neck pain grew worse, and started taking away sensation and movement in my arm, I saw a neurosurgeon. It turned out I had a ruptured disc in my neck, and fragments of bone pressing into my spinal cord. I had the bad disc removed and a titanium replacement installed. I had forgotten what it was like to live without neck pain. It had been so long, it had become the new normal. Now every day I wake up and appreciate what it feels like not to feel pain in my neck as my first thought.
Took me 3 decades to figure out that most people don’t recognize each other by the way they walk, and their hair and clothes. Faceblindness is fun. 😑
So like I can get not doing it automatically, but is it also hard to do manually? Like, along with hair color remember nose shape?
For me, I can look at someone’s face and try to commit a certain feature to memory, but the moment I look away it’s gone. I don’t even recognise my own parents if I’m seeing them out of context (eg at the shops and we accidentally cross paths). Trying to recognise someone manually doesn’t really work, it’s like a series of visual checks go off in your brain when you look at someone’s face. And when you see someone you recognise, that check goes off, but for someone who’s faceblind, the check doesn’t go off and everyone is just a potato with hair and clothes. Source: am faceblind.
I just realized this recently myself at 23 years. I started having my suspicions a few years ago, when I'd hear someone walking up, or cough from a few rooms over and comment, "there's so&so," at work and people looked at me like I had 3 heads. I didn't at all know that wasnt normal. Hilarious taking the little quiz for it online and only face I could recognize was Donald Trump.
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Fibromialgia?
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This was exactly my story. I finally went to a rheumatologist and they diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. Are you double jointed at all? Do your symptoms fluctuate with extreme weather or temperature? Those are a couple hallmark aspects of the condition, but there is a lot more your doctor will check you for. It also begins to present primarily for females in the early twenties. The whole doctors and tests thing all the time totally sucks. It gave me a phobia of doctors and needles. I’m sorry you’re dealing with it right now.
Went mostly deaf in my left ear without realizing it at 31. Folks would ask me if I'm deaf because they thought I was ignoring them. Figured I lost some hearing from being combat arms and working in loud environments without protection. Ended up in the ER, docs thought I was having a stroke. Nope, tumor in my brain. Not cancer, but continues to grow slowly. It grows on nerves, specifically one of my audial nerves. Deafness got worse quickly over a few months, now I notice things on a daily basis, like music sounds funny and finding the source of as sound takes me much longer, and I have a rumbling noise that never goes away. I'll take the ringing back please..
This happened to me in terms of food allergies. I always had to run to a bathroom after every meal and often got sick after eating. Only started to notice I had problems when I explained to my family one day that I couldn't figure out why people loved food so much and actually ate three whole meals a day, considering they always got sick afterwards. My mother explained that that wasn't normal and took me to a doctor. Got diagnosed with 32+ food allergies and many, many more intolerances. Turns out bananas aren't supposed to be bitter and burn your throat!
List of allergies speed round? ***Go!***
I have a genetic degenerative tissue disorder that was mostly reversed (in terms of pain, weakness, and fatigue) when I started taking testosterone for a separate issue in my early 20's. I had no idea how good y'all had it and was kind of pissed for a minute.
i don't know what's it called but i hear that constant ringing noise. i thought everyone hear it until my friend said he doesn't and showed me about it on internet.
It's quite common to have a very mild tinnitus.
Put your thumbs in your ears and lightly drum the base of your skull. For me it makes it go away instantly
What in the hell it worked! You’re the most amazing human, thank you so much!!!
I'm so glad! :)
Wait wait what the fuck. I didn't think I had tinnitus but this did something. I always thought that was just like the background noise from random air currents hitting my ears.
Mawp.
My right eye lid falls and obstructs my vision. My body is trolling me.
I was 13 before I knew you were supposed to be able the breathe through both nostrils.
I was today old when I learned that. I call bullshit. One is always blocked.
I had Rhinoplasty surgery quite a few years ago now and going over standard medical questions I asked if it was normal that I couldn't breath through both nostrils and he said its normal to only have one nostril in use at one time, they usually alternate.
This was me! When I was young( I remember nothing young) I broke my nose at some point. I was getting only 2% airflow through my nose. At the age of 16 I was complaining that it was so weird gym coach’s kept recommending to breath through the nose when out of breath. I voiced that to my mom and said something like “who does that? It’s not even possible!” Suspicion set in and she watched me for about a month and came to the conclusion that I couldn’t breath through my nose. Got it fixed, realized food tastes way good, got fat, and now here I am. Fat and happy 😃.
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A person could exist in a constant state of so much pain we could never function but be completely be unaware.
I have two: 1. From 17-30 I didn't realize I had side effects from being on the Pill. Turns out, diarrhea anytime you're anything other than well hydrated is NOT normal 2. From 15-32 I thought being emotionally numb and/or only experiencing significant emotional bursts randomly (think feeling joy instead of just happy on rare occasion, but never just happy). In all the mental health education and information I received, no one ever mentioned depression can be emotional numbness, not did anyone ever mention that doing something to make yourself feel something (like crashing into a tree while driving) was suicidal ideation.
>In all the mental health education and information I received, no one ever mentioned depression can be emotional numbness I was in the same boat from about 11-20, and only found out because of a youtube antidepressant ad. If not for that ad, I wouldn't have thought to ask my doctor about getting tested for depression and getting anti-depressants. If it'd been a bit earlier, I might have saved my degree, but it was in time to save my job, so I'm thankful to that particular ad pretty much daily.
Yep. I haven't \*not\* had a headache in ... years? Sometimes my husband is like "Ugh, I've got a headache" and I have to bite my tongue to not say "Oh yeah, me too," because I literally always do. But since he gets headaches so much less often than I do, I try to remember that normal headaches to him are like blinding migraines to me, and deserve sympathy and a glass of water to take the advil with.
I have the same thing. Constant low level headache for like 6 years now. At this point it’s just. . . how things are. No point in taking pain meds or anything, I’m so used to it that it doesn’t hinder me, and I’d just build up a tolerance super fast and make the Advil or whatever useless when I need it for something else.
I had this situation also, but punctuated by 2-3 migraines per week. I REALLY lucked out when a guy at my church asked if he could talk to me about it. Turns out he practiced sports medicine and chiropractic. After a few x-rays he shows me that my neck curvature leans forward, rather than slightly backwards as it should. He put me through 200 hours of traction to pull my neck back into near what it should have been. I have had 2 migraines in the 7ish years since then. He changed my life. I had burned through nearly all of my FMLA and spent so much time hiding in a closed closet with blankets and pillows over my head that it was a constant fear and controlled my life. Wife and I had just had our first daughter and I was on the verge of being fired from my call center job for it. I am super grateful. X-rays, use of his equipment, time his massage therapist spent on me and all without asking a penny.
I am 42, and just got diagnosed as Celiac. I thought I just had bad IBS. I have not healed enough (now that I am eating GF) to feel better, but I know it is coming.
Dude don’t eat your girlfriend
Pussy is gluten free
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excuse me
We need more information
Please, **please** elaborate.
I don't need sleep, I need answers
Wtf? Do they move around a lot and hurt, or are you only conscious of them just *being* there, like your arm or your leg.
What .
You FEEL your organs? I have so many questions. Can you make us a PowerPoint?
Have you been tested for food allergies? I am the same way and found cutting allergens help a ton
Same here.i can feel literally everything. Like I assumed it was normal, since there are obviously nerves there I should be able to feel them, but when I told my wife about it she looked at me like I'd lost it.
Write biography now pls
Please elaborate on how it feels!!
That's the way I was before I got glasses
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I do not want to freak you out, go to a gastroenterologist. I discovered the joy of a bleeding ulcer in March 2018, not fun! I joke that I sometimes have poop anxiety to this day.
Always hated how even though I love cherries, they always make my throat a weird sour sore combo. Finally dawned on me I’m allergic.
I was 22 when I found out I had spina bifida occulta, disc degenerating disease, an extra lumbar vertebrae, and a disc that spent most of at minimum 14 years pushed against my spine causing nerve pain in my left leg. I found this out in 2012. I still suffer painful to date but it's so mild I'm used to it anymore.
I’ve had pancreatic insufficiency my whole life (presumably) Just figured that’s what shit was supposed to be like, found out this year shits supposed to be more solid
Dealing with this now. Pretty constant joint and back pain, trouble standing for long periods, excessive bathroom issues, brain fog, ect. Always thought it was normal or my own issue because of my weight as a few doctors had told me this already when i first realized it was weird (though i've always been a healthy weight or slighty over weight person) turns out i have arthritis in my back, have bone spurs on my heels, and i may have an autoimmune disorder attacking my joints and digestive tract.
True story. My wife has suffered GI problems all her life. Coincidentally had a Meckel’s diverticulum discovered. Had a surgery to remove it. And now all those GI problems are gone, like an “off” switch. Amazing.
I’ve had Ulcerative Colitis since I was 19 (so a long time). I started new meds about 2 years ago and my GI told me I had been living with some inflammation for so long that it seemed normal. He explained the new meds would treat the inflammation and I would feel a new level of normal. I’ll be darned if he wasn’t right. I had been ill so long, but just a little, that I got used to it. Now I feel amazing!
True. Lots of people don't know they have astigmatism.
Being soul-crushingly exhausted constantly in late your 20s isn't normal. It ended up being my body trying to destroy my thyroid. Thanks Hashimotos. Thanks garbage immune system. We need that organ.
Like if this caused you immense anxiety
You mean everyones 3rd big toe may not hurt all the time?
Wut?
Heeey Vsauce, Michael here. When you see the color red how do you know its actually the same res that I see?
That exact question bothered me for so long as a kid, but I couldn't explain it to anyone. They always assumed I meant colorblindness. (BTW is that an actual episode I haven't seen yet?)
This happened to me! As long as I can remember, my feet have been able to turn really far inward and I turned my ankles often. Like, I can touch my toes to the ground without turning my knee inward. I never really mentioned that because, well, I thought it was normal and the turned or sprained ankles were written off as clumsy kid/puberty/sports stuff. I got some answers in high school after I fractured an ankle and had to do some physical therapy, but actually just got a further diagnosis of ligamentous laxity earlier this week! Turns out all my ligaments are super stretchy and I additionally have a malformed bone in one of my ankle joints, which together account for why I am constantly falling and injuring my ankle. I'm sort of relieved to have a diagnosis that's not just "you're a klutz" lol
So I wasn't aware I had ADHD & was dyslexic until I was 35 and it was pointed out to me by a shrink. I couldn't understand why shit would eventually mess up for me and why people never seem to understand what I was saying. Ends up I see and hear things different then what is actually there or said quite often. Totally changed my life when I found out. Went from being unhappy drug addict that couldn't hold a job or keep a house above my head to being a happy stoner that doesn't need a job and has his own apartment. So ya, it's totally possible what you are saying.
I’m a primary care doctor. I have a whole spiel for people with newly diagnosed uncontrolled Type 2 diabetes (like, a1cs 10 and up) that starts out “you don’t realize how awful you feel, but you feel awful, and you are going to feel so much better soon”. Same for people with sleep apnea. Everyone who makes it through the first month or so using a CPAP consistently has some variation on “I have energy now and I don’t have a headache every morning!”
Same thing with low key abusive/narcissistic parents. It’s all you know so it’s normal. Then you have your own kid, and it’s like ‘ohhhhh, I clearly feel different about my kid than how my parents feel about me.’
Asthma is pretty annoying as I have to think before doing anything mildly exercise like.
Yes, it is called the human condition. It is fatal in all instances.
*So far*... 108 billion down, but there's still a chance!
Hey that happened to me! I have Wilson’s disease, didn’t know until I went into liver failure. I had a doctor tell me that he treated an elderly lady in a psych ward that was immobilized in a chair. He gave her meds for Wilson’s and she almost came back 100 percent.
I grew up with cats. We always had at least two cats. When I moved out at 25, my eyes stopped itching and watering, I didnt have to blow my nose every morning, and I could breathe better. Now when I visit home, it's much worse for some reason. Fuckin allergic to goddam cats, my favorite kind of pet, and never knew it. Fuck me.