Human beings have a lot in common, from the need for meaningful relationships to the innate drive for creativity. Even our biology is similar. Or is it? Sure, our hair and eye color might differ, just like our height and build. But sometimes the differences go far deeper—and unnoticed for a very long time.
Redditor u/amistakewasmadehere turned to their fellow internet users with an intriguing question. They asked everyone about the things about their body that they thought were completely normal but turned out to be quite the opposite. We’ve collected the most interesting tales to share with you, Pandas. Scroll down to have a read.
#1
I have bad ankles. I once asked my mom if bad ankles run in our family. She told me that nothing runs in our family. I asked her “because of the bad ankles?”
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256points
#2
I thought everyone had the same hearing I did. Then the pandemic hit and suddenly my hearing got worse. Turns out I needed hearing aids and the reason my hearing "got worse" was because I could no longer read people's lips due to the masks.
238points
#3
The first year of menstruating I had intensely painful periods and severe constipation. The periods would last two weeks, with two weeks in between each one. Everyone told me things would calm down and even out. Then one night, at a friend’s sleepover, I was in so much pain that I was sobbing on the bathroom floor. My parents rushed me to the hospital. Everything I was describing, pain-wise, made it sound like I was in labour. But I was 14 and still very much a virgin.
After a week of tests and painkillers, they finally figured out the issue; I then had surgery to open up my second uterus and cervix, which had been sealed shut by a membrane. I had been having periods for a year and had built up like 2 liters worth old blood in my sealed second uterus. So once that was drained out and I was put on major antibiotics, I got to go home and tell all my friends that I had two uteruses.
I was also born with one kidney. Not sure if that’s related, but I sure am a mess down there lmao
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227points
Biological oddities occur due to random mutations. Some of them can be responses to a particular environment, increasing an individual’s chances of surviving and thriving there. Other abnormalities, however, offer no clear advantage over anyone else. However, a few can be quite a disadvantage if they cause pain or make the person constantly feel uncomfortable. There’s also the fact that others can ostracize you due to these differences to consider.
For instance, having 16 wisdom teeth instead of the standard set of 4 might make someone extremely uncomfortable due to growing pains. Meanwhile, the person’s peers might think that this is immensely weird and might even bully them. On the flip side, they find it super cool and take an even bigger liking to them. You can’t always control how people react to you and your body.
#4
That your brain never stopping is not normal. It’s actually a sign of hyperactivity.
The first time I took meds and I only thought of one thing at a time? Overwhelming.
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189points
#5
Aphantasia or the absence of a mind’s eye. When I found out that people can picture stuff in their head I was amazed.
I was also 45.
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177points
#6
Since I was kid I was aware of the running commentary in my head. My mind is consistently thinking about one thing and then bouncing off to something else, "talking" over something that happened last week or running through an interaction I expect to have tomorrow. I will zone out mid-conversation and have even been in meetings where I miss chunks of things because my mind has gone off on what I need to do when I get home.
I asked some friends and family if they experience the same and they gave me a side eye. Apparently an inner voice narrating your day is not normal. I can't imagine what it is like to have a quiet mind when people say they can just sit there and have nothing going on inside.
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176points
However, what you can do is change how you react to how people treat you. A large part of thriving in society comes down to emotional resilience. It’s about loving yourself, knowing your worth, and loving yourself independently of whether the rest of the world adores or abhors you.
You ought to strive to accept the things about yourself that you cannot change and then focus on cultivating healthy habits. Not to sound too cheesy, but you have to be your biggest cheerleader and supporter. Far too often, we give into negative self-talk. This saps our confidence and leaves us doubting ourselves. The world’s far too big and diverse for us to be doubting ourselves just due to a handful of genetic quirks.
#7
The way that my eyes see car headlights at night. I thought everyone saw it that way, but apparently it's not normal, and is due to astigmatism. Check [this](https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/health/2019/4/1/1_4360754.html) out to see what I mean.
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174points
#8
When I'm around a large group of people, I have a hard time remembering everything that happened when I get home and I'm alone. This is without drinking. Thought that was normal. But I mentioned it to my friend.
Turns out I have horrible social anxiety and essentially, I mentally check out in settings where I'm uncomfortable.
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160points
#9
Feeling the compulsion to sneeze when seeing the sun.
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146points
Body image coach Jessie Barnes told Forbes that body confidence is the ability to “feel at home in your body,” no matter your size or shape. “It's the understanding that your appearance is simply not the most important feature of who you are as a person and that there is no such thing as a 'perfect' body,” she explained.
“When you live with body confidence, you free up a tremendous amount of energy that you can then focus on your goals, your mental health, and on connecting with the people you love. On the surface, it may seem like it’s about wearing a bikini confidently (and that part is fun!) but the real benefit comes in allowing you to live a life aligned with your true values.”
Cultivating this body confidence might take some effort. For one, you have to separate your idea of self-worth from your appearance. You have to begin seeing yourself and others as people who have a lot more going on in their lives and far more to offer than just how they look at this particular moment.
#10
I thought I was bad at running because my throat would seize up and get painful whenever I ran for more than a minute. I mentioned this to my doctor when I was 30. Turns out I have asthma.
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142points
#11
Had an online friend who seen a IRL photo of me and messaged me asking if I had a speech impediment. When I asked why, he said I have a weird shaped chin/jaw (obviously less bluntly, didn’t come across as offensive). He then randomly asked me to send him a pic with my tongue sticking out.
That’s how I found out I’m tongue tied. Nobody in my family/life ever acknowledged my speech impediment or extra short tongue until some random guy on the internet said I have a weird chin and diagnosed me. Wtf.
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141points
#12
For a long time I figured that everyone felt horrible after every meal, and that I was just a huge baby for complaining about how badly my stomach hurt all the time.
Turns out, I was just a severely lactose-intolerant child born into a very credulous family at the height of the 90's "kids must have a giant glass of cow milk with EVERY SINGLE MEAL or they'll die of rickets or end up in a gang" craze. To this day my mom forgets (or "forgets", I'm not sure) about this every time I go back home to visit, and will make some dairy-heavy meal/dessert and then act like I'm choosing not to eat it just to hurt her feelings. Like, no, sorry, I already spent a dozen years medically underweight due to being violently ill after every meal, I don't feel any urge to return to that state of affairs now.
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139points
#13
Dermatographia. I have really sensitive skin with an overactive histamine response. When I’m gently scratched with a blunt object, I get a hive in the shape of the scratch. I can write my name in hives on my forearm.
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135points
#14
That I had 8 wisdom teeth grow into the extra space in the back of my jaw (two for each side, top and bottom) that all grew in just fine after 20... Only to find out on my last trip to the dentist that I have 8 more growing in sideways...
The normal amount of wisdom teeth is 4. Not 16.
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123points
#15
Cataplexy, I lose the ability to grip/hold things, chew, sometimes even stand when laughing. Basically, my muscles s**t the bed whenever I start laughing too hard. Me, my sister, and my dad have it. My sister has even dropped her children because of it (don’t worry more of a gradual release than a full blown drop and no one was hurt) I grew up thinking it was entirely normal, and my mind was blown when I found out it was not. I asked the next 10 people I saw, friends, coworkers, drug dealer if they got weak while they were laughing and they looked at me like I was crazy.
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113points
#16
I can taste words.
For example, if someone says three, an image of a cupcake immediately comes to mind and I sometimes will start salivating.
The same word has always had the same food association. It’s called [Lexical–gustatory synesthesia](https://www.livescience.com/1141-insight-people-taste-words.html)
The same word has always had the same food association. It’s called [Lexical–gustatory synesthesia](https://www.livescience.com/1141-insight-people-taste-words.html)
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109points
#17
I have a double uvula. That little hangy thing in the back of your throat... Mine looks like a ballsack. I thought that's just what they looked like cuz like, how often do you look in people's throats? I remember seeing cartoons as a kid where they'd zoom in on a character's mouth when they are screaming or something... And I just thought the artists were lazy, drawing a simple droopy line. But no, that's what most people's look like.
When I was in my 20s I went to the doctor for something unrelated and she checked my throat and just said "huh you have a double uvula. Neat!" I went home and told my roommates and they all had to look in my mouth. I thought they would think the doctor was the weirdo but they were all shocked... I'll never forget one saying "you've got balls in your throat!"
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106points
#18
“Sharp” poops. (This got lengthy. TL;DR at the bottom.)
I’d never had regular daily bowel movements. At best, a couple times a week, but not multiple times every day, and when I would go, I was in and out in under 2 minutes. When I was younger, I just thought everyone else was weird. By the time I was a teenager, I thought I was just odd or chronically constipated. Went to the pediatrician, and they found nothing wrong. “Eat more fiber, drink more water.”
In my 20s, I’d gone to a new doctor to see about it, and they’d always suggest increasing fiber, trying a stool softener, and drinking more water.
Mid 20s, I started having “sharp” poops. I’d feel a sharp, almost dragging sensation and would eventually have a bowel movement later in the day or the next day. I figured they were just hard turds or I was dehydrated again.
Over time, I’d started to notice blood on the tissue. I brought it up to another doctor again and was told more of the same, and after a small exam (finger and glove), it was suggested I might have internal hemorrhoids or be pushing too hard. More fiber, more water, stool softeners.
Late 20s I’d developed the unique talent to know whether the overwhelming urge to go after the sharp poops would actually be a real poop or just on-the-toilet meditation. Asked a doctor, same story.
By my early 30s, instead of meditation there’d be blood floating in the toilet; sometimes liquid, sometimes sort of like collagen. (It actually describes as similar to red currant jelly)
I went to the doctor for what I thought was intestinal blockage and mentioned I thought I had ibs-c or something and she referred me to a gastroenterologist.
He thought things were weird enough to schedule a colonoscopy which was early for my age but they got my insurance to cover it, so I went.
Turns out, I had stage 1 colon cancer. There was a huge, pedunculated (attached to a stalk, like a mushroom), polyp that would dip into my r****m and retract back up into my sigmoid colon. It was bleeding at the head and had caused my intestine to telescope in on itself. They found it and removed it while I was under for the colonoscopy. Apparently the cancer started at the top of the polyp and was working its way down the stalk. It was about 1 cm away from the base when they found its and removed it. It probably wouldn’t have been the same if it wasn’t found then.
TL;DR- it was colon cancer.
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105points
#19
I get itchy as soon as I get overheated. Like an all over body itch. There's no rash that pops up, I just get very very itchy.
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102points
#20
I guess regular people don’t practice facial expressions for specific emotions in the mirror? How they didn’t diagnose my autism until I was 36 is a mystery.
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100points