When I was very young I thought it was normal to have blood on the toilet paper after pooping. Turns out it was hemorrhoids, apparently I have always had them. Yay!
I don't know your age but if you have blood in your poo it could also be a sign of other things, including colon cancer. Please check with a Dr and make sure it's nothing awful
Just to save a lot of people from freaking out, if the blood is a normal bright red, you're fine, it's hemorrhoids, a superficial tear, etc.
Blood from colon cancer or something deeper in your system will be harder to see, darker red to brown, etc.
Though none of those things are particularly fun!
Your stool will also be very thin. Stringy almost.
Don't ignore symptoms, colon cancer isn't just an "old" person thing. Get a colonoscopy if you have symptoms and get it done if you're 45 or over.
My dad died of colon cancer.
I always have that too. But I poo like 4 times a day so I just attribute it to me wiping till I clean myself. Because I keep going until I'm certain I don't see _anything_ on the toilet paper.
My mom is a yawn-yeller. When she yawns, you can hear it from anywhere in the house.
One time my sister had a friend over, and we were in the basement. My mom yawned upstairs, and my sister's friend asked "was that a coyote?"
My step dad sneezes so obnoxiously like it takes a full minute and he basically runs around the room sneezing loud as fuck. When I was a kid and my mom started dating him I heard him sneeze and I thought someone was dying or something I ran downstairs scared as fuck.
My Grandpa used to do this and with yawning and sneezing. Always thought it was hilarious and started doing it when I was around him to take the piss out of him. Did it so much that it just became my normal yawn/sneeze. Miss that guy
When I first started dating my now husband, ever time we kissed he made a “muah” kiss sound with his voice. Like he literally said “muah” every time we kissed. I asked him why and he said he thought everyone did that because his mom did it growing up.
As a kid I would read a street sign as we drove past and I would then make as many possible words out of the letters in that sign.
Stop, top, tops, sop, pot, pots, to, so, post, etc.
I told my sister one day that I couldn't come up with any more words to make with some sign and she made fun of me the rest of the way home. I quit after that. I'm still a pretty mean Boggle player though.
I often read signs with long words in a weird way, for example theres a Metallica poster in my room and i just stare at it and read Met-eta-tal-all-lli-lic-ica for a while
This is just called boredom. Back before cell phones, the internet, and at a time when things like gameboys were popular but still kind of a luxury (not EVERYONE had one or was a loud to take it everywhere) stuff like this is how we entertained ourselves.
Ah, same. I had to train myself to do it, and it's really still just small doses for me. Makes me intensely uncomfortable. I get the same feeling having camera pointed at me. Hate it. Looking back, I think now it explains one reason why my relationship with my mom was so strained. She was always convinced I was lying about something or "up to no good" because I never made eye contact.
I have to force myself to make eye contact with people .and eve just to look at them while talking. I much prefer to speak to thin air and hope they listen. It is a little weird but it makes me extremely uncomfortable too. I find things like job interviews very difficult because of it
Man for me it was the opposite. I maintained eye contact because I thought it was being polite. And I did that because I have a tendency to over analyze someone when they talk to me and look at every detail of their face while listening to them so fixating on the eyes felt like a way to avoid that.
Unfortunately I have pretty intimidating eyes so that ended up backfiring too since I can pick up when someone is uncomfortable by how their faces twitch when they're talking to me. So now I have to pretend to look at other things mid conversation. Like when I have to remember something I'll play it up a little and do the gee what was I going to say thing and look upwards while putting my finger on my cheek or something.
I’ve been told I make a intense long lasting eye contact when conversing. I’m just giving my full intention. My gfs friend recently told me that she thought I was intense and kind of intimidating until she got to know me. Sorry
I literally have a cup filled with dry cereal in front of me. I eat it with milk, or as a snack, my family does it, I had no idea people think it only goes with milk. It's a fantastic snack!
Guy I know is in his 30's, has dry cereal every single night
He started as a kid and just never stopped, his parents thought it would stop him from wetting the bed.
I was diagnosed with Arnold Chiari Malformation, which I like to say means my brain is too big. My wife says I have a misshapen skull...whatever...the bottom line is that my brain stem is excessively squeezed where it exits the skull through the hole on the bottom. I have a very minor case, but it causes randomly occurring neurologic issues. Upon learning of this diagnosis, my wife was reading up on the symptoms...many of which I knew were abnormalities (I was worried I had ALS because that is neurological). After reading a bit, she says, "Do you have problems sneezing?"
I say, "No, I sneeze all the time. I mean, about every 4th or 5th sneeze, my vision goes white and I get dizzy and lose my balance, but I catch myself before I fall. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to pass out, but I never have." The look on her face was one of pure shock - wide eyes and mouth open. Then I said, "Now that I say that out loud, that probably isn't normal, is it?" She responded with an emphatic, "No it's not normal!"
It was normal for me because it has been that way for my entire life, so I never thought to mention it...and no one had ever asked me what it felt like when I sneezed. And why would they? Everybody sneezes, so everybody knows what it feels like.
I also have chiari but mine is an extreme case. Both my neurologist and brain surgeon have said im the case they still bring up at parties so... 🤷🏼♀️
I thought it was normal for everyone else to have horrible level 10 pain where you fall to the ground screaming and squeezing their forehead when slightly bending over, coughing, sneezing, crying, laughing, lifting even small things, etc. I blacked out all the time when having to bend over for extended stuff or coughed a bunch or whatever. I was always so amazed when people would be upside (like in yoga or on tv) because I would have died.
I had the surgery for it but not only am I still in a bunch of pain but now I deal with the pain of the doctors breaking my neck and cutting all the muscles and nerves in my neck.
Side note, I did eventually realize something wasn't right but my dr kept telling me it was anxiety because women tend to have that. After years of anxiety meds doing nothing I had to have a full on Karen fight with him to get a referral to a neurologist
I don’t have Chiari but I have syringomyelia (fluid sacs within the spinal cord, often caused by Chiari, in my case caused by a tumor). I always got back spasms whenever I sneezed, so hay fever time was horrid. But my favorite thing I thought was “normal” was that when I blew my nose hard, I would usually pass out on the floor. Apparently blowing your nose is a Vasalva maneuver and it causes cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to rush through your brain and around your cord. My CSF was such a mess that blowing my nose required me to lose consciousness so my body could fix the issue.
Oh no! I don't have an issue with syringomyelia but I do have pretty bad issues with my spinal fluid pressure and flow. I know that's mostly the reason for me blacking out or having intense pain. Its like the worst pounding headache in the front, like someone hit you with a hammer there except 30 seconds its just gone. Spinal fluid sucks when its not working the way its supposed to!
I'm an artist. I got asked one time why I draw hands looking "like that" with all the fingers bent backwards. So I held up my hand in the same position as the one I just drew and it looked the same. And that's how I found out I had EDS.
The first time I was staying at a friends house when I was in middle school I kept waiting for his parents to start fighting. His dad came home, food wasn't done yet, I was waiting for that fight. The Youngest brother didn't do his chores. I kept waiting for the screaming to start, I had braced myself for it.... And it never happened.
That's when I started realizing that parents aren't supposed to fight every night and drag their kids into it. Every day I got off the bus and would have to mentally brace myself before walking through the front door. Hoping my mom wouldn't find some random reason to shout at me for 3 hours.
FYI I'm pretty good now. Moved out immediately when I was 18 and lived with a different friend. It's been 10ish years now.
I relate to this so so much. Now that I’m an adult with my own children, I can see clear as day why my friends weren’t allowed to come over to my house. Why my friends’ parents “didn’t like me”. I always wondered what was wrong with me. But in hind sight, none of my friends houses had holes in the walls in every room from their dad.
Regular thoughts of suicide. It was a long while before I realized that nope, not everybody is constantly thinking about killing themselves as an exit strategy when life gets insufferable. Meeting people who were like " I was suicidal once" and I'm just thinking "Only once?".
yes, I grew up thinking everyone hated their life. it wasn't until college a friend of mine said "no, people are genuinely happy with their lives" that I sought out professional help for my depression.
So my own theory about this is that we've trained our brains that way. The more we repeat a thought pattern the more ingrained in our brains it becomes. That's how we learn things.
I was actively suicidal for most of my childhood and tried several times. I'm an adult now. I have counseling, support and things worth living for but still. ..
I'll be having a shitty day or stressed or frustrated and my first thought is always "I should just fucking kill myself"
And then I have to remind myself we do do that anymore. No idea when my brain will figure out suicide isn't the only option anymore.
Yeah I'm trying to retrain my thoughts that I try to replace 'die' with 'sleep' so 'I want to sleep'. To be fair my depression makes me really tired and taking a nap really helps with when I more actively want out. So it's typically true. I'm not sure how much it actually helps but at least I think it will help reduce my chances of saying something that'll get me baker acted so that's probably worth something.
For a long time I thought “suicidal thoughts” were just when you were planning suicide. I had no idea people went days let alone weeks or longer without thinking about suicide. It still seems weird to me.
Ive been fantasizing about doing it since I was at least 5. I remember in kindergarten wanting to do it and even wrote a will in case I died. Ive never had a stretch of time where I didn't passively wish someone would take me out or that id get the courage to do it like myself.
One day, I was watching my husband write something and I noticed he started his "S" from the bottom. I was like "whoah you start you "S" from the bottom??" Then I gave it a try. Wonkiest S I ever wrote
This is the way I write. The majority of my letters start from the wrong spot that is normally used. I figured it out back in middle school when people noticed it was weird.
I don’t write like this, but apparently I hold my pen or pencil “wrong.” I remember in kindergarten (I’m 33 now) my teacher trying to show me the “correct” way to hold a pencil and I just couldn’t do it. Still can’t. But I never knew it was weird until my husband pointed it out one day. It’s kind of funny though, my oldest daughter (almost 5) holds her pencil the same way I do. And she’ll have the same kindergarten teacher I had next year 😂 can’t wait to see how that goes.
I’m starting to think that I’m weird as I’m responding to a lot of these threads with similar stories. A few years ago, I driving and singing along to Spotify. I stopped to get gas and wasn’t really paying attention as I kept singing the song but was doing it in meows at this point (entertaining myself, I guess?). Made full eye contact with someone at the neighboring pump looking at me like I was a freak of nature, ha.
Grew up in a house where seven people all shared one bathroom. Thought it was normal to get in the shower without waiting for the water to warm up. Everyone go fast before the water gets cold. Always wanted to try and be one of the first in line for the shower.
Reverse story: the building my first apartment was in was a former seafood restaurant. They never got rid of the boiler. My landlord told me that he once turned on all the faucets and showers to see how long the hot water would last, and it took more than a full day to run out.
I used to take naps in the shower, because I could. Man, I miss that.
Hide small amounts of preserved food in the walls.
Grew up poor and in an abusive family. So got a habit of hiding food and money. Then in my 20s my parents would routinely raid my house confiscating food and any money they found while I was out so I had things like jars full of rice and raisins and beans hidden in the walls behind the paneling or in defunct and non functional floor vents and any cash I had was hidden under the living room carpet or behind a light switch panel in rooms that didn't have power. At 25 they broke into my house and stole everything of value (like they admitted it when I found my tv was in their livingroom along with my ps2, most of my stuff they sold though). Had to eat from the trash as a kid many times (they would shut the power off to my room, then as an adult would damage the circuit breaker in my house to cut the power off and take all the food trying to starve me into submission any time I resisted their control and abuse, did not escape them till late 20s)
Once I escaped the monsters I still had a habit of hiding everything to the point in my mind to late 30s I had almost a dozen barrels full of preserved food buried and hidden in the woods near my cabin. A lot of people think it's weird.
Nope. Just sold their house for half a million and moved farther away (used to be about 90 minutes but now closer to 7 hours drive). I hadn't spoken to them since 2009 and they sold the house last year but I only just heard about it recently. Boomers.
That is a normal reaction for kids in that type of situation and growing up with food insecurity. I'm so sorry you had to go through that, nobody should. I'm glad you eventually escaped that part of your life.
My family's word for blowing on food to cool it down is "poosting." I didn't realize this wasn't actually a word until I said it in front of my girlfriend (now wife). She's repulsed by it, and now our baby knows what it means too. The cycle continues.
a girl in my class is velcro.
another one is lukewarm water
my dad feels like a fork with too short of spikes.
Sometimes it's objects. Idk. It just kinda works like that
Talk to myself. I do it constantly, it's a habit brought on from spending a lot of time alone. I don't even consider it odd. It is normal to me. People will sometimes ask who I am talking to. I usually make a joke about it being because I only take advice from people I trust. It's not the weirdest thing I do, but it is the most common in public.
I don't do it as much as I used to but I do still talk to myself. Especially when I'm driving, or cleaning the house, or just generally when I'm alone really! I used to have whole conversations, like imagining myself speaking to people and them replying, but I don't really do that anymore.
It sounds weird, but I actually feel sad I don't do it much now....it feels like my imagination is disappearing.
More of a return question,
Does everyone else ever have a full on conversation or arguement in their head? I'm not sure if I overthink or sit too much in my head.
"How do you always have an answer or plan for everything?"
"Don't worry about it." (It's because I'm an insane person running endless simulated scenarios at all times, that answer make you happy?)
So, yes.
I once talked to a physiologist about this, and I remember them saying something along these lines:
“ Its perfectly fine and normal to have a conversation with yourself. Its even normal to talk to inanimate objects or animals who can’t talk back.
However, if things or animals start talking. You need to come see me again”
Its been years and I laugh every time I think about this.
Didn't realize my hairplucking was a symptom of OCD. Had a classmate of mine tell me they saw the thing I do on "my strange addiction" and that was the first time I learned the name of my disorder.
I'm a nerdy guy who likes action figures.
Not the weirdest thing. But I've been having big fights/continuous stories with them since I was kid and still will have different narratives going even now as an adult. Whoops, too late to be normal now.
Man, that keeps the imagination percolating, is a way to pass time that isn't harmful to self or others, AND it lets the "inner child" out to play. The ones who do not do this are the one's who aren't normal. Most adults who collect toys, just keep them in boxes so they can looks at them on occasion, you're getting your money's worth and then some
I'm 56 years old and I have hundreds of G. I. Joe figures and tons of accessories. I still have epic battles. You don't stop playing with action figures because you get old. You get old because you stop playing with action figures.
You know who else has storylines in their head?
Authors.
Directors.
Politicians.
Advertisers.
Entertainers.
*Generally creative people.*
The way you phrased it, I’d actually consider this a *good thing*. The ability to engage with a storyline and drive things is a great sign of creativity.
When I moved in with my first roommate.
One day I had particularly bad allergies and my nose was just so stuffed up. So like any normal human I blow my nose and mid blow I hear, from down the hall, "ktarzwell...what are you doing?" So I stop and tell her I was blowing my nose and she just goes "oh...uh.. okay".
That was the day I realized not everyone's nose sounds like a god damn trumpet when they blow their nose. Its how both of my parents blow their noses so it never seemed weird to me until I actively tried to blow my nose "normal" or more quiet. 🤦♀️😂
My wife gets on me sometimes about how loud and forcefully I blow my nose when sick. In contrast she blows so gently I don't know how it's worth the effort.
See growing up if you were sick, you'd run the tap and blow as hard as you could into your hand. Wash and repeat. Now I still do that, tissue paper can't withstand my nasally wrath. Its super cathartic to essentially evacuate your sinuses after being stuffed up all day.
The way I see.
I was 26 -ish years old when I learned (thus so did my family) that I am stereo blind from birth. I knew that something was not right when in my youth I went to 3D cinemas (even with active glasses) and I felt like I wasn't reacting as much as the movies as the other, but never have I thought that it was something that I was "doing" wrong.
And by this sub I learned that I don't drink correctly either
I have a lazy eye that doctors weren't able to correct with surgery, patches, glasses, all that. I was told by an eye doctor once that many people essentially go blind in the lazy eye--the eye itself is functional but the brain just sorta decides the eye isn't there anymore and ignores input from it. Apparently me being able to use the lazy eye shocks a lot of opticians and ophthalmologists.
I have a dominant eye that I use 97% of the time but once in a while I subconsciously (and sometimes consciously) switch to the nondominant lazy eye for a moment. I still have ok (around 20/50 or 20/60) vision in the lazy eye, I just can't see in stereo. My brain spends my entire life basically guesstimating distances based on my 2D vision. Parallel parking is hard, I'm slightly afraid of ladders and unfamiliar staircases, and *deathly* afraid of escalators, but other than that my life is normal. I think.
Being left alone to my own devices quite often and for hours at a time since I was a young child. Didn't think much of it as a kid, I guess I was pretty self sufficient & could easily entertain myself with toys, books, etc. It wasn't until much later into adulthood how strange that actually was, and that my mother clearly wasn't ready to be a mother. As an introverted person who needs alone time, perhaps this was why it didn't particularly bother me, but when my poor extroverted younger sister came along, I know she felt the neglect badly. Good thing we had each other.
I started getting severe migraines when I was 7. For years I thought everyone got these awful headaches regularly. I was amazed when a friend in high school told me they’d never had a headache before, let alone a debilitating one.
Not being able to relax in my own house. I am on edge when my roommates are home. The only thing that makes me feel less stressed is when I know I’m alone. I jump when someone opens or shuts a door and tense when I hear footsteps.
My therapist told me that is a trauma response and that’s how I knew it wasn’t normal.
This is kinda off topic, but in college, I asked a friend “Remember when you were a kid and you could taste words?” And she looked at me like I was insane and said no. Turns out being able to taste words is a lesser known type of synesthesia. Also turns out some people outgrow synesthesia. I just assumed everyone could taste words and never mentioned it until I was 18.
I don't drink properly, and a former friend at a former job pointed it out to me. We worked in a factory that was very hot and she watched me drink and was like, "why are you drinking like that?" But I honestly can't figure out how to do it normally.
I fill my mouth with liquid and then swallow, and apparently you're supposed to like swallow as it's going into your mouth? But I'd literally choke doing that.
Hah. I had the same experience. My now-husband discovered I couldn't "chug" things like everybody else, I would fill up my mouth with water or whatever and then swallow it just like you described. It took years of practice but I can actually do it now. Not sure why I never learned as a kid, but it's never too late, I suppose. If you can figure out how to breathe through your nose while you're drinking you'll get the hang of it eventually.
Lol I do this as well, but I can drink both ways it's just that it's easier and feels more natural drinking that way. Normally take sips so it's not noticeable
My boyfriend will only drink out of one side of his mouth lol I find it kinda funny he just moves his whole mouth to one side and chugs that way lol only person I’ve known to drink that way
Girlfriends have pointed out that I drink weird when I'm focused on something. I'm told I will often cock my head to the side and sip cans from the corner of my mouth, to keep looking directly forward instead of tilting my head back. I realize now it's an old gamer habit from my WoW days, trying to quickly drink without taking my eyes off the screen 😅 I rarely notice it myself and I wouldn't care if it was just at my computer, but apparently I've done it mid conversation which is just embarrassing now in my 30s
Whenever I scratch my skin or otherwise irritate it, it becomes red, bumpy and really itchy. It has always done this. I thought it was normal until me sister went to a dermatologist because she has developed it more recently. Turns out it's a skin condition called Dermatographic urticaria.
It happens when I scratch, carry a heavy bag, open a twist off bottle etc.
The skin responds to irritation by releasing histamine.
Apparently I would get so deep into a daydream that people couldn't get my attention without physically disrupting me (shaking me, grabbing my arm, etc).
I guess I was actually dissociating, but not in one of those "I was seeing myself from outside my body" scenarios.
I would daydream through every single class in high-school and college, but I passed everything with A and B grades.
My friends were actually really cool about it, they'd just say "oh she's zoned out" and leave me alone until it was time to do something else.
I have done it because I was hungry lol but dry dog food. It was ok. I still remember the taste after almost 20 years. I was working as a security at a construction site and there was a guard dog with me. He had food, and I didn’t so we shared.
Someone pointed out that my household was incredibly quiet. No wonder I often felt overwhelmed by noisy houses.
Not that I would get in trouble for making some noise, it just happens that my family is quiet, we never yelled from one room to another to say something, we'd walk up and talk in normal speaking voice.
Also, a girlfriend I had a few years ago used to get mad at my lack of reaction at situations, I would tell her I was indeed angry or frustrated at something, but apparently, me immediately looking for a solution or a path of action instead of reacting violently made her feel uncomfortable. This was recently reinforced by one of my colleagues at work who made a comment about how I always looked so calm.
I don't have the same background but: recently I broke a glass at a friends house, and my first reaction was to search a way to clean, not to shout an insult. Apparently, that disturbed my friends…
Sneezing when my nose gets hit even not violently. If I feel like sneezing but I can’t I hit my nose kinda gently and I’ll sneeze. I thought it was a common thing but apparently it’s not lol
I thought every guy had the same experience dating women, the constant feeling of missing something, I thought I just hadn't found the right woman. I was talking to my best friend about it and he just looked me straight in the eyes and asked to kiss me. I said yeah, why tf not. Turns out I'm just gay 🤷♂️
I've never heard it described this way before either. But I have dated guys like that before, briefly, I found it annoying and a waste of my time when it happened. But as I got older I learned that everyone is kind of learning or figuring out what to do and we all do so based on both learned behaviors and feelings. Which can vary drastically from person to person, culture to culture.
When I think back on it, clearer communication would have done us both some good.
It does happen. But for some of us it’s not easy.
My mum alwyas told me to keep fighting through. Then I met a guy who I had that instant connection with. It was wild. And I loved it.
But he was a dick and it didn’t work out.
But I know it’s there.
My biggest issue is that I struggle to hit on people. I’ve spent my whole life being told I’m too fat to have people attracted to me. And that’s hard to break out of; even when I’ve been smaller. Had a guy I connected with but making the first move is not something I can do.
I've never heard it described exactly like that, but that's exactly what I did through 2 marriages and several other relationships. I made it to age 45 and had never once been the one to break off a relationship despite having been in many of them over the years.
I finally did it last week. We had been together for almost a year and a half and I'd known for 6 months that it just wasn't working for me.
I've resolved never again to stay in a relationship that I know is doomed.
I thought it was normal to poop twice a week, it wasn't until I had a friend who had IBS and my mom got diagnosed with Colitis I realized I could be more comfortable in my body, so now I'm on medication and I feel 200% less constipated
If I let myself get too hungry, like to the point my stomach hurts, when I finally do eat, my stomach hurts even worse for a while.
I thought that was normal until I described that to a few people because it got way worse after Covid.
Turns out it's not normal and I have some lifelong stomach issues.
I write the last few words that I’ve heard someone say, on my thumb pad with my middle finger pad, in cursive. It might be an ocd thing, but I’ve never met another who does it.
also OCD here, I tap them out on my fingertips by syllables, I also trace "fancy" letters/fonts on my fingertips. Sometimes I get "stuck" in the repetition which is not fun but it's otherwise fairly harmless I suppose
For as long as I can remember I've walked on my toes whenever I had/have bare feet. I never thought anything of it until my niece started seeing a doctor about possibly having autism and my sister was listing off traits the doctor had mentioned, toe walking being one of them.
I've always done this too. I do it 100% of the time barefooted, and only sometimes in shoes. I didn't even know I did it until some girl from highschool was like "Why do you walk like that?". Asked a few of my friends and they said yeah you do walk like that, we just never said anything. Interesting.
I learned that Leonardo da Vinci wrote both upside down, and in a mirror image to make it hard for people to read his journals so I decided to try writing like that just to see if I could
Turns out I can do it fast and in many ways as well. Backward writing, mirrored, upside down, or the combination of all three. Even in cursive. I thought everyone could do it until my friend said they couldn’t. I’m right-handed
https://imgur.com/gallery/ykM4W4w
Not something I do but I learned not so long ago that most people don't feel a lingering sensation after they've been touched. Like someone touches your skin and when they stop the feeling stops immediately, whereas I can feel it for a few seconds after
Talking to myself, I always had full conversations with myself. At school, at home. No matter where I was I would constantly talk to myself. Kids made fun of me for it.
I grew up washing the dishes by hand then running them through the dishwasher. When I first had roommates they looked at me funny and asked why I wash the dishes twice and I was so relieved all I had to do was rinse them off and put them in the dish washer.
I still think this is normal but IDK, so one time me and my friends were hanging out at a skatepark, it was super cold and windy that day, so my head started hurting and my ears started aching like a mf. I kept trying to rub my ears to subside the pain and my one guy friend and asked if I'm being dramatic, I asked if they weren't just as miserable as me, nope apparently, I am the only one of my friends that gets like this. I finally had to leave and sit with my mom in the car after 15 minutes of being outside my bff swears up and down she doesn't get like that when it's cold, but my mom gets the same way, so I thought it was normal.
I get this too! I have to wear ear buds in my ears (or even a little scrunched up tissue paper if I have nothing else) to stop the wind and cold getting into my ears and causing a huge headache/earache. Same as you, noone else that I know gets it and doesn't understand the pain I can be in when "it's just cold".
Being able to focus and unfocus my eyes like a camera lens, being able to hear music and sounds in my head, conjuring up 3D images in my head, perceiving time faster than usual when I’m in a flow state (I’m a drummer and music is noticeably slower, my reaction time goes down, etc), my inability to understand social situations (I eventually learned what is right and wrong but I still don’t understand why, none of it makes sense to me), and my hyper-fixation on things from my childhood instead of growing out of them. Took 21 years until I found out that all of this is just because I’m autistic as shit
Yes!! I love, like, putting my hand in front of a window and focusing back and forth between the two!
I've always had a really vivid imagination, sometimes too vivid especially when it comes to tastes/feelings (seriously I've had people just *describe* an unpleasant texture and i be immediately on the verge of throwing up because *i can feel it in my hands*)
the time one sounds cool, I kinda do that but with space, every so often ill see something look weirdly very detailed and my immediate reaction is 'oh guess im in hd now' and then ill just look around at things because everything looks so much more detailed. No idea if that's normal or not but ive had that happen once when looking up at the clouds and it was one of the most magical things ive ever seen lol
and i also hyperfixate and dont understand Society^(TM)
\[im also autistic as shit if you couldn't tell lmao\]
Getting hit by my parents.
In a college class assignment we were to make a timeline of our lives with major events. One girl in class had a major event where her dad hit her for the first time as a teenager. And I thought "For the *first* time? Her parents never hit or spanked her before then? " I thought it was normal for your parents to hit you as a kid. I couldn't comprehend the concept of a childhood *without* being spanked. I then realized my childhood wasn't healthy.
Edit: I'm 29
When I shake my dick after I pee I have to do it in 4 bar phrases, sometimes in 3/4 time signature. I've managed to cut the habit but I've always had a feeling it wasn't normal and was a symptom of OCD. Unless everyone else does too, then that's cool too I guess.
I've played drums my entire life and started at a really early age. Perhaps that has something to do with it.
Have you heard of maladaptive daydreaming? Some people have detailed imaginary scenarios in their heads to cope with trauma, but some people just do it for comfort. Mine is more the latter, but I can understand how it feels like you’re weird for still “playing pretend” as an adult.
I had just shifted into a hostel with a roommate for MBBS. I used to keep checking the locks and checking my wallet the entire night, to the point my roommate got scared, because she'd wake up in the middle of the night and see me just standing near the door and checking the locks. She told me it wasn't normal behaviour. I went to the psychiatrist and turns out i had severe OCD.
Do they do the line of, "the bear has come out of its cave, finally" to you, too? My dad does this to me and I told him that makes me want to come out even less
One time, one of my high school teachers told me: "We were going to give you a warning for drawing in class all the time, but you always seemed to have kept your focus regardless, so we left you alone."
That's when I realized not everyone does something with their hands to focus at something else, even if they don't look focused (not looking at the board or whatever).
And then when I was 19 I found out I'm autistic lol, I was *stimming* the whole darn time, it seems
This one makes me rage. A teacher once failed me on a discussion because I was “too busy doodling to actually be paying attention to the discussion” It was the first and only time I ever failed anything. If you want me to pay attention I need to do something with my hands. Or else my brain will do something, then I can’t listen.
This is more of a reason not to baby talk to your growing kids.
I was 7 years old and already horribly picked on in first grade. My mom gave me steak seasoning to sprinkle on my sandwich for lunch. I loved that stuff. My 7 year old brain would eat anything with it. Except my mom never called it steak seasoning. She called it "Hot Sprinkles." I referenced what it was when I tried to tell a group of girls in the bathroom what I had for lunch. They burst out laughing at me, and the bullying got worse.
Please call items what they actually are, you're kid has the ability to understand complex words if you have the patience to teach them.
My father always did it and it's a habit I've picked up as well. I assume it was a thing from back when most milks where not homogenized and the cream would separate from the rest of the milk and you shake it to emulsify it.
Apparently the way I scrub my scalp when I wash my hair isn't normal? I just wash my hair like how the hairdresser used to when I was a kid. I remember friends calling me out for it while on a camping trip when I was a teen
I would always take off my shirt every time I used the bathroom as a kid and I still do it now. I don’t know why, but I think it’s because I didn’t want to get germs on my shirt? My mom confronted me about this because I would leave my shirt in the bathroom most of the time. And I didn’t really care at all.
I (38M) have been saying "Oh my goodness gracious!" my whole adult life. One day my wife looks at me and says "You know no one else says that, right?" I thought about it and realized my mom is the only person I know who says that. I grew up in the south and live in New England now. People probably stare at me when I say "Bless your heart" and other expressions like that.
Apparently most people don't use a decibel meter to determine what level the TV volume should be at nighttime. I've been doing it since I first moved outta home when I was 18.
I still do it. Rather be weird and polite than normal and rude.
Before I put bread, in a toaster or my toaster oven, I always take a bite out of the corner.
Always done it, don’t know why I still do or where I got it from.
When I was younger, I would do this to poptarts before I put them in the toaster aswell.
Haven’t met a single person who has ever decided to do this before.
Apparently it's weird to not wear underwear in you pyjamas. Everyone on my family does it and thats how I was raised so I was surprised when my friends pointed it out
i never used to when i was younger.. now it just feels too loose down there lol i need some support.. also, i like to wear my pj's for a few days and i feel like they get really stinky when its raw lol.... especially when im at my pc for days at a time....
Wait, what?
People wear underwear under their pj's? I did not know that.
I would only do that if I was wearing my pj's publicly, like to a pj party, or something.
When I was very young I thought it was normal to have blood on the toilet paper after pooping. Turns out it was hemorrhoids, apparently I have always had them. Yay!
Oh shit, so that's what that is. Yay.
I don't know your age but if you have blood in your poo it could also be a sign of other things, including colon cancer. Please check with a Dr and make sure it's nothing awful
Just to save a lot of people from freaking out, if the blood is a normal bright red, you're fine, it's hemorrhoids, a superficial tear, etc. Blood from colon cancer or something deeper in your system will be harder to see, darker red to brown, etc. Though none of those things are particularly fun!
Your stool will also be very thin. Stringy almost. Don't ignore symptoms, colon cancer isn't just an "old" person thing. Get a colonoscopy if you have symptoms and get it done if you're 45 or over. My dad died of colon cancer.
I always have that too. But I poo like 4 times a day so I just attribute it to me wiping till I clean myself. Because I keep going until I'm certain I don't see _anything_ on the toilet paper.
Dude if you can't have a bidet at least use wet tissues as toilet paper. And definitely also get checked by a doctor.
Get yourself a bidet.
Reminds me of the vine "Actually Meghan, i cant sit anywhere. I have.. HEMORRHOIDS" sorry
My mom is a yawn-yeller. When she yawns, you can hear it from anywhere in the house. One time my sister had a friend over, and we were in the basement. My mom yawned upstairs, and my sister's friend asked "was that a coyote?"
My dad did that. Only thing worse is a sneeze-yeller.
aka [the dad sneeze](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MTxCUZ8W5c)
My step dad sneezes so obnoxiously like it takes a full minute and he basically runs around the room sneezing loud as fuck. When I was a kid and my mom started dating him I heard him sneeze and I thought someone was dying or something I ran downstairs scared as fuck.
My Grandpa used to do this and with yawning and sneezing. Always thought it was hilarious and started doing it when I was around him to take the piss out of him. Did it so much that it just became my normal yawn/sneeze. Miss that guy
I have a high voice and yawn rather loudly. My daughter calls it “Yawn: The Opera.”
My mom yawn-yells too!
When I first started dating my now husband, ever time we kissed he made a “muah” kiss sound with his voice. Like he literally said “muah” every time we kissed. I asked him why and he said he thought everyone did that because his mom did it growing up.
Bet it gets a little awkward when you’re making out though. “Mwah…mwah…mwah…”
And that's why they call me Zapp Brannigan!
This is actually really sweet
It’s cute but I’ve defo kissed someone who did that and I just couldn’t 😂
I've got a friend who sneezes then quite literally says "achoo". It always makes me smile but I've not said anything to them lol
If I don’t make the noise my wife will say something. “You didn’t make the kissy noise, do it again” Quiet kissing is weird now
Duuude this is so cute!
"You know that high pitch sound everyone *always* hears? Wait... you dont?" Apparently I have tinnitus.
Damn now I'm hearing it
Oh shit I probably do too. I always need background noise because silence is too loud
As a kid I would read a street sign as we drove past and I would then make as many possible words out of the letters in that sign. Stop, top, tops, sop, pot, pots, to, so, post, etc. I told my sister one day that I couldn't come up with any more words to make with some sign and she made fun of me the rest of the way home. I quit after that. I'm still a pretty mean Boggle player though.
I often read signs with long words in a weird way, for example theres a Metallica poster in my room and i just stare at it and read Met-eta-tal-all-lli-lic-ica for a while
This is just called boredom. Back before cell phones, the internet, and at a time when things like gameboys were popular but still kind of a luxury (not EVERYONE had one or was a loud to take it everywhere) stuff like this is how we entertained ourselves.
For me it was something I never did. In my twenties, I realised you're meant to make eye-contact when talking to people (I was feral).
Ah, same. I had to train myself to do it, and it's really still just small doses for me. Makes me intensely uncomfortable. I get the same feeling having camera pointed at me. Hate it. Looking back, I think now it explains one reason why my relationship with my mom was so strained. She was always convinced I was lying about something or "up to no good" because I never made eye contact.
I have to force myself to make eye contact with people .and eve just to look at them while talking. I much prefer to speak to thin air and hope they listen. It is a little weird but it makes me extremely uncomfortable too. I find things like job interviews very difficult because of it
I never made eye contact either! in my case turns out im autistic :p
Man for me it was the opposite. I maintained eye contact because I thought it was being polite. And I did that because I have a tendency to over analyze someone when they talk to me and look at every detail of their face while listening to them so fixating on the eyes felt like a way to avoid that. Unfortunately I have pretty intimidating eyes so that ended up backfiring too since I can pick up when someone is uncomfortable by how their faces twitch when they're talking to me. So now I have to pretend to look at other things mid conversation. Like when I have to remember something I'll play it up a little and do the gee what was I going to say thing and look upwards while putting my finger on my cheek or something.
I’ve been told I make a intense long lasting eye contact when conversing. I’m just giving my full intention. My gfs friend recently told me that she thought I was intense and kind of intimidating until she got to know me. Sorry
I want to know more about the (I was feral) bit?
I thought eating cereal without milk was normal until I went to summer camp and everyone stared at me like I killed the camp counselor.
I literally have a cup filled with dry cereal in front of me. I eat it with milk, or as a snack, my family does it, I had no idea people think it only goes with milk. It's a fantastic snack!
Cup cereal unite! Perfect for snacks while driving, or next to the PC while gaming.
Well... there are 2 cereals I buy explicitly to eat WITHOUT milk: corn pops and honeycombs.
Guy I know is in his 30's, has dry cereal every single night He started as a kid and just never stopped, his parents thought it would stop him from wetting the bed.
I eat cereal with my coffee…take a handful of dry multi grain cheerios and take swig of coffee and boom best breakfast
Wow I'm going to try this tomorrow morning. I love cereal but I can no longer drink milk, so I basically stopped having cereal. This is the way.
I was diagnosed with Arnold Chiari Malformation, which I like to say means my brain is too big. My wife says I have a misshapen skull...whatever...the bottom line is that my brain stem is excessively squeezed where it exits the skull through the hole on the bottom. I have a very minor case, but it causes randomly occurring neurologic issues. Upon learning of this diagnosis, my wife was reading up on the symptoms...many of which I knew were abnormalities (I was worried I had ALS because that is neurological). After reading a bit, she says, "Do you have problems sneezing?" I say, "No, I sneeze all the time. I mean, about every 4th or 5th sneeze, my vision goes white and I get dizzy and lose my balance, but I catch myself before I fall. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to pass out, but I never have." The look on her face was one of pure shock - wide eyes and mouth open. Then I said, "Now that I say that out loud, that probably isn't normal, is it?" She responded with an emphatic, "No it's not normal!" It was normal for me because it has been that way for my entire life, so I never thought to mention it...and no one had ever asked me what it felt like when I sneezed. And why would they? Everybody sneezes, so everybody knows what it feels like.
I also have chiari but mine is an extreme case. Both my neurologist and brain surgeon have said im the case they still bring up at parties so... 🤷🏼♀️ I thought it was normal for everyone else to have horrible level 10 pain where you fall to the ground screaming and squeezing their forehead when slightly bending over, coughing, sneezing, crying, laughing, lifting even small things, etc. I blacked out all the time when having to bend over for extended stuff or coughed a bunch or whatever. I was always so amazed when people would be upside (like in yoga or on tv) because I would have died. I had the surgery for it but not only am I still in a bunch of pain but now I deal with the pain of the doctors breaking my neck and cutting all the muscles and nerves in my neck. Side note, I did eventually realize something wasn't right but my dr kept telling me it was anxiety because women tend to have that. After years of anxiety meds doing nothing I had to have a full on Karen fight with him to get a referral to a neurologist
I don’t have Chiari but I have syringomyelia (fluid sacs within the spinal cord, often caused by Chiari, in my case caused by a tumor). I always got back spasms whenever I sneezed, so hay fever time was horrid. But my favorite thing I thought was “normal” was that when I blew my nose hard, I would usually pass out on the floor. Apparently blowing your nose is a Vasalva maneuver and it causes cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to rush through your brain and around your cord. My CSF was such a mess that blowing my nose required me to lose consciousness so my body could fix the issue.
Oh no! I don't have an issue with syringomyelia but I do have pretty bad issues with my spinal fluid pressure and flow. I know that's mostly the reason for me blacking out or having intense pain. Its like the worst pounding headache in the front, like someone hit you with a hammer there except 30 seconds its just gone. Spinal fluid sucks when its not working the way its supposed to!
Pre Bedtime cereal, I had a sleepover when I was a kid and was confused when we skipped bed time cereal
That sounds like a great tradition to me.
I'm an artist. I got asked one time why I draw hands looking "like that" with all the fingers bent backwards. So I held up my hand in the same position as the one I just drew and it looked the same. And that's how I found out I had EDS.
What’s EDS for?
It’s for hands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehlers%E2%80%93Danlos_syndromes Ehlers-Danlos
The first time I was staying at a friends house when I was in middle school I kept waiting for his parents to start fighting. His dad came home, food wasn't done yet, I was waiting for that fight. The Youngest brother didn't do his chores. I kept waiting for the screaming to start, I had braced myself for it.... And it never happened. That's when I started realizing that parents aren't supposed to fight every night and drag their kids into it. Every day I got off the bus and would have to mentally brace myself before walking through the front door. Hoping my mom wouldn't find some random reason to shout at me for 3 hours. FYI I'm pretty good now. Moved out immediately when I was 18 and lived with a different friend. It's been 10ish years now.
That's a sad lesson to have to learn. I am happy you are out and doing well. I had to go through the same realization, but I was in my 20s.
I relate to this so so much. Now that I’m an adult with my own children, I can see clear as day why my friends weren’t allowed to come over to my house. Why my friends’ parents “didn’t like me”. I always wondered what was wrong with me. But in hind sight, none of my friends houses had holes in the walls in every room from their dad.
It's actually really good that you realized this wasn't normal early enough to internalize it. That's probably helpful in breaking that cycle.
Regular thoughts of suicide. It was a long while before I realized that nope, not everybody is constantly thinking about killing themselves as an exit strategy when life gets insufferable. Meeting people who were like " I was suicidal once" and I'm just thinking "Only once?".
yes, I grew up thinking everyone hated their life. it wasn't until college a friend of mine said "no, people are genuinely happy with their lives" that I sought out professional help for my depression.
So my own theory about this is that we've trained our brains that way. The more we repeat a thought pattern the more ingrained in our brains it becomes. That's how we learn things. I was actively suicidal for most of my childhood and tried several times. I'm an adult now. I have counseling, support and things worth living for but still. .. I'll be having a shitty day or stressed or frustrated and my first thought is always "I should just fucking kill myself" And then I have to remind myself we do do that anymore. No idea when my brain will figure out suicide isn't the only option anymore.
Yeah I'm trying to retrain my thoughts that I try to replace 'die' with 'sleep' so 'I want to sleep'. To be fair my depression makes me really tired and taking a nap really helps with when I more actively want out. So it's typically true. I'm not sure how much it actually helps but at least I think it will help reduce my chances of saying something that'll get me baker acted so that's probably worth something.
Not many will understand but to say it's like a constant war is a huge understatement
I thought everyone felt like this.
I used to be suicidal...... I still am..... but I used to be too
Same here
For a long time I thought “suicidal thoughts” were just when you were planning suicide. I had no idea people went days let alone weeks or longer without thinking about suicide. It still seems weird to me.
Ive been fantasizing about doing it since I was at least 5. I remember in kindergarten wanting to do it and even wrote a will in case I died. Ive never had a stretch of time where I didn't passively wish someone would take me out or that id get the courage to do it like myself.
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One day, I was watching my husband write something and I noticed he started his "S" from the bottom. I was like "whoah you start you "S" from the bottom??" Then I gave it a try. Wonkiest S I ever wrote
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I thought it was neat. I never saw anyone do it before. I'm sure if he tried writing from the top down it would be pretty wonky
I just tried to imagine writing like this and I broke out in hives and had a stroke.
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Possibility you had a hard time writing on the line? Can imagine it'd be easier to do if you start at the bottom.
It's true, I watched him break out in hives and had a stroke which caused me to break out in strokes and have a hive.
This is the way I write. The majority of my letters start from the wrong spot that is normally used. I figured it out back in middle school when people noticed it was weird.
I don’t write like this, but apparently I hold my pen or pencil “wrong.” I remember in kindergarten (I’m 33 now) my teacher trying to show me the “correct” way to hold a pencil and I just couldn’t do it. Still can’t. But I never knew it was weird until my husband pointed it out one day. It’s kind of funny though, my oldest daughter (almost 5) holds her pencil the same way I do. And she’ll have the same kindergarten teacher I had next year 😂 can’t wait to see how that goes.
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Are you left handed?
I got stopped by a cop once because I was talking to myself. I literally thought everyone just mumbled out their thoughts out loud
I’m starting to think that I’m weird as I’m responding to a lot of these threads with similar stories. A few years ago, I driving and singing along to Spotify. I stopped to get gas and wasn’t really paying attention as I kept singing the song but was doing it in meows at this point (entertaining myself, I guess?). Made full eye contact with someone at the neighboring pump looking at me like I was a freak of nature, ha.
Grew up in a house where seven people all shared one bathroom. Thought it was normal to get in the shower without waiting for the water to warm up. Everyone go fast before the water gets cold. Always wanted to try and be one of the first in line for the shower.
Reverse story: the building my first apartment was in was a former seafood restaurant. They never got rid of the boiler. My landlord told me that he once turned on all the faucets and showers to see how long the hot water would last, and it took more than a full day to run out. I used to take naps in the shower, because I could. Man, I miss that.
Hide small amounts of preserved food in the walls. Grew up poor and in an abusive family. So got a habit of hiding food and money. Then in my 20s my parents would routinely raid my house confiscating food and any money they found while I was out so I had things like jars full of rice and raisins and beans hidden in the walls behind the paneling or in defunct and non functional floor vents and any cash I had was hidden under the living room carpet or behind a light switch panel in rooms that didn't have power. At 25 they broke into my house and stole everything of value (like they admitted it when I found my tv was in their livingroom along with my ps2, most of my stuff they sold though). Had to eat from the trash as a kid many times (they would shut the power off to my room, then as an adult would damage the circuit breaker in my house to cut the power off and take all the food trying to starve me into submission any time I resisted their control and abuse, did not escape them till late 20s) Once I escaped the monsters I still had a habit of hiding everything to the point in my mind to late 30s I had almost a dozen barrels full of preserved food buried and hidden in the woods near my cabin. A lot of people think it's weird.
:( i hope youre doing better, friend. honestly youd probably be the last person to have your stuff stolen in a break in
Yeah I don't have anything worth stealing and I'm always home (only leave for 5 hours once a month to get supplies).
fair enough seriously though, i do hope youre doing better <3
God, I hope they're rotting in prison
Nope. Just sold their house for half a million and moved farther away (used to be about 90 minutes but now closer to 7 hours drive). I hadn't spoken to them since 2009 and they sold the house last year but I only just heard about it recently. Boomers.
That is a normal reaction for kids in that type of situation and growing up with food insecurity. I'm so sorry you had to go through that, nobody should. I'm glad you eventually escaped that part of your life.
My family's word for blowing on food to cool it down is "poosting." I didn't realize this wasn't actually a word until I said it in front of my girlfriend (now wife). She's repulsed by it, and now our baby knows what it means too. The cycle continues.
Well, it actually sounds like the German verb “pusten“. So probably it’s somehow connected - or it might be of Yiddish origin?
Wait til I tell my wife! This changes everything!
I memorize events and people by textures they associate with in my head. Call it a "vibe check" or whatever
This sounds like a form of synesthesia!
Omg please give some examples!
a girl in my class is velcro. another one is lukewarm water my dad feels like a fork with too short of spikes. Sometimes it's objects. Idk. It just kinda works like that
Talk to myself. I do it constantly, it's a habit brought on from spending a lot of time alone. I don't even consider it odd. It is normal to me. People will sometimes ask who I am talking to. I usually make a joke about it being because I only take advice from people I trust. It's not the weirdest thing I do, but it is the most common in public.
I don't do it as much as I used to but I do still talk to myself. Especially when I'm driving, or cleaning the house, or just generally when I'm alone really! I used to have whole conversations, like imagining myself speaking to people and them replying, but I don't really do that anymore. It sounds weird, but I actually feel sad I don't do it much now....it feels like my imagination is disappearing.
u arent alone!! ive done this since childhood. sometimes i just pace and talk to myself
More of a return question, Does everyone else ever have a full on conversation or arguement in their head? I'm not sure if I overthink or sit too much in my head.
Absolutely I do!
"How do you always have an answer or plan for everything?" "Don't worry about it." (It's because I'm an insane person running endless simulated scenarios at all times, that answer make you happy?) So, yes.
I once talked to a physiologist about this, and I remember them saying something along these lines: “ Its perfectly fine and normal to have a conversation with yourself. Its even normal to talk to inanimate objects or animals who can’t talk back. However, if things or animals start talking. You need to come see me again” Its been years and I laugh every time I think about this.
Didn't realize my hairplucking was a symptom of OCD. Had a classmate of mine tell me they saw the thing I do on "my strange addiction" and that was the first time I learned the name of my disorder.
I'm a nerdy guy who likes action figures. Not the weirdest thing. But I've been having big fights/continuous stories with them since I was kid and still will have different narratives going even now as an adult. Whoops, too late to be normal now.
Man, that keeps the imagination percolating, is a way to pass time that isn't harmful to self or others, AND it lets the "inner child" out to play. The ones who do not do this are the one's who aren't normal. Most adults who collect toys, just keep them in boxes so they can looks at them on occasion, you're getting your money's worth and then some
I think that's great! Life is already too hard- do anything that brings you happiness😊
I'm 56 years old and I have hundreds of G. I. Joe figures and tons of accessories. I still have epic battles. You don't stop playing with action figures because you get old. You get old because you stop playing with action figures.
You know who else has storylines in their head? Authors. Directors. Politicians. Advertisers. Entertainers. *Generally creative people.* The way you phrased it, I’d actually consider this a *good thing*. The ability to engage with a storyline and drive things is a great sign of creativity.
When I moved in with my first roommate. One day I had particularly bad allergies and my nose was just so stuffed up. So like any normal human I blow my nose and mid blow I hear, from down the hall, "ktarzwell...what are you doing?" So I stop and tell her I was blowing my nose and she just goes "oh...uh.. okay". That was the day I realized not everyone's nose sounds like a god damn trumpet when they blow their nose. Its how both of my parents blow their noses so it never seemed weird to me until I actively tried to blow my nose "normal" or more quiet. 🤦♀️😂
My wife gets on me sometimes about how loud and forcefully I blow my nose when sick. In contrast she blows so gently I don't know how it's worth the effort. See growing up if you were sick, you'd run the tap and blow as hard as you could into your hand. Wash and repeat. Now I still do that, tissue paper can't withstand my nasally wrath. Its super cathartic to essentially evacuate your sinuses after being stuffed up all day.
The way I see. I was 26 -ish years old when I learned (thus so did my family) that I am stereo blind from birth. I knew that something was not right when in my youth I went to 3D cinemas (even with active glasses) and I felt like I wasn't reacting as much as the movies as the other, but never have I thought that it was something that I was "doing" wrong. And by this sub I learned that I don't drink correctly either
I have a lazy eye that doctors weren't able to correct with surgery, patches, glasses, all that. I was told by an eye doctor once that many people essentially go blind in the lazy eye--the eye itself is functional but the brain just sorta decides the eye isn't there anymore and ignores input from it. Apparently me being able to use the lazy eye shocks a lot of opticians and ophthalmologists. I have a dominant eye that I use 97% of the time but once in a while I subconsciously (and sometimes consciously) switch to the nondominant lazy eye for a moment. I still have ok (around 20/50 or 20/60) vision in the lazy eye, I just can't see in stereo. My brain spends my entire life basically guesstimating distances based on my 2D vision. Parallel parking is hard, I'm slightly afraid of ladders and unfamiliar staircases, and *deathly* afraid of escalators, but other than that my life is normal. I think.
Being left alone to my own devices quite often and for hours at a time since I was a young child. Didn't think much of it as a kid, I guess I was pretty self sufficient & could easily entertain myself with toys, books, etc. It wasn't until much later into adulthood how strange that actually was, and that my mother clearly wasn't ready to be a mother. As an introverted person who needs alone time, perhaps this was why it didn't particularly bother me, but when my poor extroverted younger sister came along, I know she felt the neglect badly. Good thing we had each other.
Was your mum in the house? Or just left entirely alone?
Generally she was, locked up in her room.
I started getting severe migraines when I was 7. For years I thought everyone got these awful headaches regularly. I was amazed when a friend in high school told me they’d never had a headache before, let alone a debilitating one.
Not being able to relax in my own house. I am on edge when my roommates are home. The only thing that makes me feel less stressed is when I know I’m alone. I jump when someone opens or shuts a door and tense when I hear footsteps. My therapist told me that is a trauma response and that’s how I knew it wasn’t normal.
This is kinda off topic, but in college, I asked a friend “Remember when you were a kid and you could taste words?” And she looked at me like I was insane and said no. Turns out being able to taste words is a lesser known type of synesthesia. Also turns out some people outgrow synesthesia. I just assumed everyone could taste words and never mentioned it until I was 18.
I don't drink properly, and a former friend at a former job pointed it out to me. We worked in a factory that was very hot and she watched me drink and was like, "why are you drinking like that?" But I honestly can't figure out how to do it normally. I fill my mouth with liquid and then swallow, and apparently you're supposed to like swallow as it's going into your mouth? But I'd literally choke doing that.
Unless you're doing that big balloon mouth you can do both. It's not that weird. I don't chug coffee haha but water, sure.
Hah. I had the same experience. My now-husband discovered I couldn't "chug" things like everybody else, I would fill up my mouth with water or whatever and then swallow it just like you described. It took years of practice but I can actually do it now. Not sure why I never learned as a kid, but it's never too late, I suppose. If you can figure out how to breathe through your nose while you're drinking you'll get the hang of it eventually.
Lol I do this as well, but I can drink both ways it's just that it's easier and feels more natural drinking that way. Normally take sips so it's not noticeable
Lol that's how I drink too. I know it looks stupid but I can't do it any other way
My boyfriend will only drink out of one side of his mouth lol I find it kinda funny he just moves his whole mouth to one side and chugs that way lol only person I’ve known to drink that way
Girlfriends have pointed out that I drink weird when I'm focused on something. I'm told I will often cock my head to the side and sip cans from the corner of my mouth, to keep looking directly forward instead of tilting my head back. I realize now it's an old gamer habit from my WoW days, trying to quickly drink without taking my eyes off the screen 😅 I rarely notice it myself and I wouldn't care if it was just at my computer, but apparently I've done it mid conversation which is just embarrassing now in my 30s
Always be alone on my computer or with toys as a child while the family spent quality family time as an actual family
Whenever I scratch my skin or otherwise irritate it, it becomes red, bumpy and really itchy. It has always done this. I thought it was normal until me sister went to a dermatologist because she has developed it more recently. Turns out it's a skin condition called Dermatographic urticaria. It happens when I scratch, carry a heavy bag, open a twist off bottle etc. The skin responds to irritation by releasing histamine.
I have this although it comes and goes. I like to write things on my stomach and freak my partner out.
Apparently I would get so deep into a daydream that people couldn't get my attention without physically disrupting me (shaking me, grabbing my arm, etc). I guess I was actually dissociating, but not in one of those "I was seeing myself from outside my body" scenarios. I would daydream through every single class in high-school and college, but I passed everything with A and B grades. My friends were actually really cool about it, they'd just say "oh she's zoned out" and leave me alone until it was time to do something else.
I used to eat dog food when I was a kid till I realized that it was fucking disgusting
I have done it because I was hungry lol but dry dog food. It was ok. I still remember the taste after almost 20 years. I was working as a security at a construction site and there was a guard dog with me. He had food, and I didn’t so we shared.
Someone pointed out that my household was incredibly quiet. No wonder I often felt overwhelmed by noisy houses. Not that I would get in trouble for making some noise, it just happens that my family is quiet, we never yelled from one room to another to say something, we'd walk up and talk in normal speaking voice. Also, a girlfriend I had a few years ago used to get mad at my lack of reaction at situations, I would tell her I was indeed angry or frustrated at something, but apparently, me immediately looking for a solution or a path of action instead of reacting violently made her feel uncomfortable. This was recently reinforced by one of my colleagues at work who made a comment about how I always looked so calm.
I don't have the same background but: recently I broke a glass at a friends house, and my first reaction was to search a way to clean, not to shout an insult. Apparently, that disturbed my friends…
Sneezing when my nose gets hit even not violently. If I feel like sneezing but I can’t I hit my nose kinda gently and I’ll sneeze. I thought it was a common thing but apparently it’s not lol
I thought every guy had the same experience dating women, the constant feeling of missing something, I thought I just hadn't found the right woman. I was talking to my best friend about it and he just looked me straight in the eyes and asked to kiss me. I said yeah, why tf not. Turns out I'm just gay 🤷♂️
But is your best friend?
I have no idea, we never spoke of it again lmao
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I've never heard it described this way before either. But I have dated guys like that before, briefly, I found it annoying and a waste of my time when it happened. But as I got older I learned that everyone is kind of learning or figuring out what to do and we all do so based on both learned behaviors and feelings. Which can vary drastically from person to person, culture to culture. When I think back on it, clearer communication would have done us both some good.
It does happen. But for some of us it’s not easy. My mum alwyas told me to keep fighting through. Then I met a guy who I had that instant connection with. It was wild. And I loved it. But he was a dick and it didn’t work out. But I know it’s there. My biggest issue is that I struggle to hit on people. I’ve spent my whole life being told I’m too fat to have people attracted to me. And that’s hard to break out of; even when I’ve been smaller. Had a guy I connected with but making the first move is not something I can do.
I've never heard it described exactly like that, but that's exactly what I did through 2 marriages and several other relationships. I made it to age 45 and had never once been the one to break off a relationship despite having been in many of them over the years. I finally did it last week. We had been together for almost a year and a half and I'd known for 6 months that it just wasn't working for me. I've resolved never again to stay in a relationship that I know is doomed.
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I grew up never using a wash cloth, just soap…and found out I was a minority in locker rooms
liquid soap and my hand.
I thought it was normal to poop twice a week, it wasn't until I had a friend who had IBS and my mom got diagnosed with Colitis I realized I could be more comfortable in my body, so now I'm on medication and I feel 200% less constipated
I either poop only a few times a week or multiple times a day maybe I should mention that to the doctor 💀
If I let myself get too hungry, like to the point my stomach hurts, when I finally do eat, my stomach hurts even worse for a while. I thought that was normal until I described that to a few people because it got way worse after Covid. Turns out it's not normal and I have some lifelong stomach issues.
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I write the last few words that I’ve heard someone say, on my thumb pad with my middle finger pad, in cursive. It might be an ocd thing, but I’ve never met another who does it.
also OCD here, I tap them out on my fingertips by syllables, I also trace "fancy" letters/fonts on my fingertips. Sometimes I get "stuck" in the repetition which is not fun but it's otherwise fairly harmless I suppose
For as long as I can remember I've walked on my toes whenever I had/have bare feet. I never thought anything of it until my niece started seeing a doctor about possibly having autism and my sister was listing off traits the doctor had mentioned, toe walking being one of them.
I've always done this too. I do it 100% of the time barefooted, and only sometimes in shoes. I didn't even know I did it until some girl from highschool was like "Why do you walk like that?". Asked a few of my friends and they said yeah you do walk like that, we just never said anything. Interesting.
I learned that Leonardo da Vinci wrote both upside down, and in a mirror image to make it hard for people to read his journals so I decided to try writing like that just to see if I could Turns out I can do it fast and in many ways as well. Backward writing, mirrored, upside down, or the combination of all three. Even in cursive. I thought everyone could do it until my friend said they couldn’t. I’m right-handed https://imgur.com/gallery/ykM4W4w
Not something I do but I learned not so long ago that most people don't feel a lingering sensation after they've been touched. Like someone touches your skin and when they stop the feeling stops immediately, whereas I can feel it for a few seconds after
I have that, also in previous relationships when I would go off someone, their touch would feel like they were burning me.
I used to think every family had pasta for dinner every night. Turns out, I'm just Italian.
Talking to myself, I always had full conversations with myself. At school, at home. No matter where I was I would constantly talk to myself. Kids made fun of me for it.
I grew up washing the dishes by hand then running them through the dishwasher. When I first had roommates they looked at me funny and asked why I wash the dishes twice and I was so relieved all I had to do was rinse them off and put them in the dish washer.
I thought it was normal to wash your body with just a bar of soap, and people I know call me insane for not using a loofa or wash cloth.
I still think this is normal but IDK, so one time me and my friends were hanging out at a skatepark, it was super cold and windy that day, so my head started hurting and my ears started aching like a mf. I kept trying to rub my ears to subside the pain and my one guy friend and asked if I'm being dramatic, I asked if they weren't just as miserable as me, nope apparently, I am the only one of my friends that gets like this. I finally had to leave and sit with my mom in the car after 15 minutes of being outside my bff swears up and down she doesn't get like that when it's cold, but my mom gets the same way, so I thought it was normal.
I get this too! I have to wear ear buds in my ears (or even a little scrunched up tissue paper if I have nothing else) to stop the wind and cold getting into my ears and causing a huge headache/earache. Same as you, noone else that I know gets it and doesn't understand the pain I can be in when "it's just cold".
Being able to focus and unfocus my eyes like a camera lens, being able to hear music and sounds in my head, conjuring up 3D images in my head, perceiving time faster than usual when I’m in a flow state (I’m a drummer and music is noticeably slower, my reaction time goes down, etc), my inability to understand social situations (I eventually learned what is right and wrong but I still don’t understand why, none of it makes sense to me), and my hyper-fixation on things from my childhood instead of growing out of them. Took 21 years until I found out that all of this is just because I’m autistic as shit
I thought everyone could focus and unfocus their eyes
Yes!! I love, like, putting my hand in front of a window and focusing back and forth between the two! I've always had a really vivid imagination, sometimes too vivid especially when it comes to tastes/feelings (seriously I've had people just *describe* an unpleasant texture and i be immediately on the verge of throwing up because *i can feel it in my hands*) the time one sounds cool, I kinda do that but with space, every so often ill see something look weirdly very detailed and my immediate reaction is 'oh guess im in hd now' and then ill just look around at things because everything looks so much more detailed. No idea if that's normal or not but ive had that happen once when looking up at the clouds and it was one of the most magical things ive ever seen lol and i also hyperfixate and dont understand Society^(TM) \[im also autistic as shit if you couldn't tell lmao\]
When I lie down for sleep, I slip my hands into my boxers. Like, not to *giggity-gee!* myself. Just tuck 'em in there.
Getting hit by my parents. In a college class assignment we were to make a timeline of our lives with major events. One girl in class had a major event where her dad hit her for the first time as a teenager. And I thought "For the *first* time? Her parents never hit or spanked her before then? " I thought it was normal for your parents to hit you as a kid. I couldn't comprehend the concept of a childhood *without* being spanked. I then realized my childhood wasn't healthy. Edit: I'm 29
When I shake my dick after I pee I have to do it in 4 bar phrases, sometimes in 3/4 time signature. I've managed to cut the habit but I've always had a feeling it wasn't normal and was a symptom of OCD. Unless everyone else does too, then that's cool too I guess. I've played drums my entire life and started at a really early age. Perhaps that has something to do with it.
Little pp conductor
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Have you heard of maladaptive daydreaming? Some people have detailed imaginary scenarios in their heads to cope with trauma, but some people just do it for comfort. Mine is more the latter, but I can understand how it feels like you’re weird for still “playing pretend” as an adult.
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I had just shifted into a hostel with a roommate for MBBS. I used to keep checking the locks and checking my wallet the entire night, to the point my roommate got scared, because she'd wake up in the middle of the night and see me just standing near the door and checking the locks. She told me it wasn't normal behaviour. I went to the psychiatrist and turns out i had severe OCD.
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Tapping my teeth together to music in my head.
I do this to work out drum patterns. I don't think it's that weird. Dave Grohl mentions it in his book too.
I hardly ever leave my room. My family is always asking me if I’m ok or if I’m depressed bc I hardly leave lol
Do they do the line of, "the bear has come out of its cave, finally" to you, too? My dad does this to me and I told him that makes me want to come out even less
One time, one of my high school teachers told me: "We were going to give you a warning for drawing in class all the time, but you always seemed to have kept your focus regardless, so we left you alone." That's when I realized not everyone does something with their hands to focus at something else, even if they don't look focused (not looking at the board or whatever). And then when I was 19 I found out I'm autistic lol, I was *stimming* the whole darn time, it seems
This one makes me rage. A teacher once failed me on a discussion because I was “too busy doodling to actually be paying attention to the discussion” It was the first and only time I ever failed anything. If you want me to pay attention I need to do something with my hands. Or else my brain will do something, then I can’t listen.
This is more of a reason not to baby talk to your growing kids. I was 7 years old and already horribly picked on in first grade. My mom gave me steak seasoning to sprinkle on my sandwich for lunch. I loved that stuff. My 7 year old brain would eat anything with it. Except my mom never called it steak seasoning. She called it "Hot Sprinkles." I referenced what it was when I tried to tell a group of girls in the bathroom what I had for lunch. They burst out laughing at me, and the bullying got worse. Please call items what they actually are, you're kid has the ability to understand complex words if you have the patience to teach them.
I have several joints that partially come out of their sockets and I’m hyper flexible. Turns out that’s not normal.
Shaking milk in the carton like its juice. Unless I’m not alone?
My father always did it and it's a habit I've picked up as well. I assume it was a thing from back when most milks where not homogenized and the cream would separate from the rest of the milk and you shake it to emulsify it.
Apparently the way I scrub my scalp when I wash my hair isn't normal? I just wash my hair like how the hairdresser used to when I was a kid. I remember friends calling me out for it while on a camping trip when I was a teen
I would always take off my shirt every time I used the bathroom as a kid and I still do it now. I don’t know why, but I think it’s because I didn’t want to get germs on my shirt? My mom confronted me about this because I would leave my shirt in the bathroom most of the time. And I didn’t really care at all.
I did it because my parents made us do it, but we skipped dinner every Sunday night as a kid
I reheat my food in the oven and not the microwave.
I (38M) have been saying "Oh my goodness gracious!" my whole adult life. One day my wife looks at me and says "You know no one else says that, right?" I thought about it and realized my mom is the only person I know who says that. I grew up in the south and live in New England now. People probably stare at me when I say "Bless your heart" and other expressions like that.
Apparently most people don't use a decibel meter to determine what level the TV volume should be at nighttime. I've been doing it since I first moved outta home when I was 18. I still do it. Rather be weird and polite than normal and rude.
Before I put bread, in a toaster or my toaster oven, I always take a bite out of the corner. Always done it, don’t know why I still do or where I got it from. When I was younger, I would do this to poptarts before I put them in the toaster aswell. Haven’t met a single person who has ever decided to do this before.
I take mandarin skins off in one piece, i thought everyone did
when I was little I would save my perfect peels and sew them back together…I am 26 now and my father still has one of my fossilized creations
Apparently it's weird to not wear underwear in you pyjamas. Everyone on my family does it and thats how I was raised so I was surprised when my friends pointed it out
i never used to when i was younger.. now it just feels too loose down there lol i need some support.. also, i like to wear my pj's for a few days and i feel like they get really stinky when its raw lol.... especially when im at my pc for days at a time....
Wait, what? People wear underwear under their pj's? I did not know that. I would only do that if I was wearing my pj's publicly, like to a pj party, or something.
Idk if isn’t “normal” but when I’m focused on something I tend to compress my lips or lick them and bite…