35 Things People Assumed Were Normal About Their Bodies Until Someone Pointed Out Otherwise

Not me, but one of my brother's friends in high school.

This friend was a goober; always making silly but friendly jokes that make families laugh as a whole, all and all a genuinely funny person.

One day he took my sister's glasses and was "acting like her" only to pause for a moment and then say "wait...is this how things are supposed to look?"

My man needed glasses and found out from f****n around. I'm glad the universe leaned towards him in a positive way as far as that went!

A random sharp pain above my right ear and my tongue curling slightly. I thought it was just old age. Doc recognized it instantly as something wrong with my tongue. The cancer has been cured for seven years.

Depression. Apparently losing all hope and being numb to joy isn't just a part of growing up.

It took my lungs collapsing at 17 years old before doctors realized I wasn’t breathing in deeply enough to expand the bottom half of my lungs for basically my whole life. They asked why I never complained about shortness of breath. I never knew breathing was supposed to be easier than what I was experiencing.

When I was about nineteen, I randomly heard on NPR that it takes the average person around 20 minutes to fall asleep and I went "oh s**t" because apparently my bar for having sleep issues was way, way too high. To me, a good night sleep meant I fell asleep within two hours of going to bed and it wasn't "trouble" until I hit three hours. And once I communicated this to my doctor and was finally able to treat my crippling insomnia with medication, my depression and anxiety suddenly got way more manageable as well.

I thought I pulled a muscle playing with my dogs one day. One week later I finally go to the hospital because the pain is getting worse. Turns out I suffer from a genetic blood clotting condition and had a two foot log clot in my leg and multiple pulmonary embolisms on my lungs. Doctor was legit surprised I was alive.

General stomach pain that I dismissed as perhaps constipation, but which would - every few years or so - send me to emergency worrying that it was my appendix. I was kicked out of emergency departments at different hospitals multiple times, because it was not.

I moved to a new city and was lucky enough to score a decent family doctor who took it seriously. She told me she was rather impressed with the amount of "referred pain" I was having and that I should go straight to emergency. I replied that there was not a hope in hell I would subject myself to that kind of humiliation again. No way.

She sent me for a CAT scan and lo and behold, it WAS my appendix. She referred me to a surgeon, and on the day of my surgery no one in the hospital seemed particularly interested in my condition, I think most of the medical staff thought I was having unnecessary surgery though, curiously, they were MUCH nicer to me afterward. I recall a lot of people standing over me in the recovery room.

The surgeon called me to come in for a meeting a couple of weeks later, and when I walked into his office he had an odd expression on his face. He told me my appendix was many times the normal size, probably because it had been infected and healed over the years, building up scar tissue. He asked me if I minded if he wrote it up in a medical paper or a textbook (I can't remember exactly which - he taught at the university). I gather at the time "grumbling appendixes" were a bit of a unicorn and there had been much debate over whether they were real. So I guess my appendix settled that argument in the medical community once and for all.

After 40+ years it turns out I'm not just weird or liked things most didn't. Finding out you have Autism that late in life is hard. Knowing that 40+ years of life could of been easier if I only knew is very upsetting.

My family told me I would randomly “space out”, although I never remembered, all thought it was normal. Turned out, I was having “absence seizures”. We only found that out at a routine doctor’s appointment, just conversing with the doc, when I guess I just came to and the doctor said she wanted to get a bunch of tests done. Been an epileptic for almost 17 years now. Edit: I was shocked, tbh to see how many of has or had what I have. Unfortunately, my Epilepsy has evolved into tonic-clonic seizures, I rarely have absences anymore, but had one focal back in November. For anyone who has friends and/or family who has seizures and Epilepsy, thank you for being there for them. Just know, that we appreciate you all. For all that HAVE seizures and Epilepsy, UNITE!!! 

That it was completely normal to have about 10 to 20 or so mostly creative hobbies that one purchases a bunch of tools and supplies for and randomly dabbles in on and off for several years if not the rest of one’s life, or completely drops out of sudden disinterest. After all, my great great grandparent potentially did it, my great grandmother did it, my grandpa did it, my parent does it, and I do it.

Turns out the ADHD runs *very strong* in my family.

My mom convinced me as a kid that I was always just being a “big baby” about my period cramps. I’m talking like curled up in the fetal position on the floor crying type pain. Then when I had an ACTUAL baby, and the contractions weren’t as bad as some of my worst cramps, I finally realized she was just a dismissive POS.

As a kid I had anxiety and my heart would race. Fast. It felt like a hummingbird in my chest and would abruptly pause and resume a normal pace after a few minutes. At age 23 I had a bad reaction to a tricyclic antidepressant called imipramine and was rushed to the hospital. They ran an EKG and that rapid heart rate was a congenital defect known as Wolfe Parkinson White syndrome. Basically I had an accessory or 2nd electrical system in my heart that would cause a “short circuit” occasionally and my heart rate would skyrocket. It was cured via a procedure using radio waves to form scar tissue around the accessory node because the impulse could not conduct through the tissue. No problems since.

Losing weight suddenly got a little easier, and I assumed it was due to my efforts. Happy with my success, I buckled down harder (funny how it's easy to keep "being good" when you're actually seeing results). I lost more! It actually got to be almost easy. I thought I was doing such a great job! Turns out it was cancer. I guess I should have known something was up, but I honestly thought I was just doing a really great job with my diet and exercise. Had 4 surgeries and treatment and I'm doing well. Now I'm on meds with all kinds of side effects, including weight gain. Yay. But I'm alive, and so much better off than many others. I've only gained a little bit back, despite working really hard not to.

Had a slightly sprained ankle that just blew up in a day and split the skin. Turns out, not a sprain but Pyoderma gangrenosum, a rare skin inflammation condition that acts like gangrene. Nobody could tell me what it was that made my ankle flesh explode.

Within a week they were talking to me about amputation. Then Nurse Molly came back from vacation and identified it as she’d seen it once before. Still have both my feet and nearly full mobility.
Grateful for teaching hospitals that draw professionals from all over like Nurse Molly ❤️.

Not sleeping or eating for days but still feeling great and having more energy than your average athlete. Turns out you're bipolar!

Sharp, excruciating pain in my hand. Thought it was arthritis, it runs in the family.

Nope. Bone tumor, thankfully non-malignant, slowly eating its way through my hand.

Two surgeries (one to remove the tumor, one to get bone graft from my femur) done at once, some cadaver bone, lots of excruciating physical therapy and a gnarly scar later—no more pain!

Inattentive ADHD. Got diagnosed at 54 and my life all suddenly made sense.

It was like riding a bike with a flat tire and wondering why peddling appeared to be so much easier for everyone else. Being told I'm sometimes too lazy or a dreamer, etc. Then learning at age 54 the existence of tire pumps and being able to keep up. Game changer.

Still annoys me that all along, this medication was available and could've helped decades ago.

Massively heavy periods in my 40s. I thought it was just perimenopause. Turns out it was adenomyosis.

Until I was 16 I thought everyone got stomach cramps a few times a day. Turns out I'm lactose intolerant. .

You know how you get all congested after excercising, and wheeze for a bit before everything settles down again? No? Yeah, that’s because most people don’t have excercise induced asthma. I was in my 30s before I knew that was a problem and not normal.