by Sometimes, the things we grow up with feel so ordinary that we assume everyone else has the same experiences. But as we step out into the wider world, we often discover that our “normal” might not be so normal after all.
Skipped Beats
U/MsAnnThrope: “Ever since I was little I would frequently feel my heart kinda flop around and skip beats. I always thought this was normal until a doctor noticed it during a routine physical exam.
He asked if I was nervous about being at the doctor and I told him my heart always does that. Turns out I just have a lot of premature ventricular contractions. My cardiologist told me they’re very common but most people don’t actually feel them all the time.”
Numb Relief
U/AdhesivenessCold398: “I’m strawberry blonde. For kicks, there is a genetic quirk that redheads are harder to numb/anesthetize. I have poor quality teeth and always thought that pain was just normal at the dentist because even when I told them it still hurt only my entire face would end up numb, but not my teeth.
At age 40 I went moved and went to a new dentist. I said ‘I’m a redhead and hard to numb up’ he said “oh cool, I know about that and how to do it”. Every visit since, when having a filling fixed, I’d end up crying— not from pain, but from the relief of NOT having pain.”
Blurry Clues
U/Irradiated_Apple: “I found out I needed glasses when I was 12 and had to take a physical to go to Boy Scout Camp. My vision test showed my distance vision was pretty poor. My mom asked me why I never told her. I was like, how would I know?! This is literally the only way I’ve ever seen.
Looking back my parents and teachers missed a lot of signs. I always wanted to sit on the floor in front of the tv, never on the couch. I always wanted to sit in the front row at school, straight up telling my teacher I couldn’t see the overhead projector if I sat further back.”
Overheard Guard
U/gameryamen: “When I’m in a room with other people, part of my brain is paying attention to every conversation my ears can pick up, all at once. Specifically, it’s paying attention to the emotional temper of each conversation, in case someone suddenly starts having a bad time.
Turns out most of you just listen to one conversation at a time. My way is actually a consequence of growing up around an explosive parent, deep down I don’t want anything to happen that will lead to an angry person yelling at us. This also explains why I have a hard time in groups bigger than 10 or so, there tends to be too many voices having different conversations, and I get overwhelmed processing it all. If I can’t keep up, I feel vulnerable and exposed, and things cycle downward from there.”
Level of Confidence
U/NoSpaghettiForYouu: “I’m 37 and we had friends over recently — we were all hanging out in the pergola/outdoor kitchen and I came back inside for something. My friend’s 11 year old was also in the kitchen and he started talking to me, asking me questions, volunteering thoughts and it blew me away. I couldn’t fathom that level of confidence being normal.
I grew up in a ‘children should be seen and not heard, don’t speak unless you’re spoken to’ household and I’m still terrified to speak to an adult first. I’m secretly jealous of that 11 year olds childhood. 😅😅 After the fact, I’m realizing he’s not possessed with some superhuman level of confidence, he just is growing up in a household where he is valued as a person and encouraged to actually speak and be himself. Which blows my mind.”
Endless Ache
U/ApolloOfThe_Pines: “I thought it was normal to have headaches nearly daily till I brought it up to my former psychiatrist when I was 18. He asked me if I was in any pain because I kept grimacing because my head was hurting so much.
He referred me to neurology, it took years but I finally have the headaches mostly under control thanks to medication, PT, and trigger point injections. We also recently found an abortive med that actually works without major side affects”
Starburst Vision
Also, I see double when I look really far to the right or left. Turns out I had a nerve damaged when I was born due to forceps. It’s not uncommon in people my age due to how forceps were used during childbirth at that time, but I thought that happened to everyone.”
Mind’s Blind Eye
U/Celestial608: “I never knew that people actually see things in their head when they visualize something. Like, I think of an apple, I know what it looks like, but I don’t actually SEE anything, and it blew my mind that people actually do see things in their head.
It never occurred to me! I just thought that we knew what things looked like when we imagine things, but as it turns out, I have aphantasia.”
Thinking in We
U/jtaulbee: “When I think to myself, I often use ‘we’. If I’m getting up to get some coffee, I’ll think ‘let’s go get some coffee.’ It’s not a split personality thing…
I think I distinguish between the parts of me that does/feels/thinks things and the meta part of me that observes myself. I saw a Reddit post about this a few years ago, and I realized that a few people do the same thing, but most people think it’s very weird.”
Late Night Dinners
U/anna-lena-breiert: “my answer : I always thought it was normal for people to have dinner as late as 9 or 10 PM. Growing up, my family would eat really late because my parents worked long hours, and it just became part of our routine. It wasn’t until I started having dinner with friends or staying over at their houses that I realized most families eat around 6 or 7 PM.
I remember being so confused like, Wait, you guys eat this early , Now that I think about it, we probably got a lot of weird looks from neighbors for having dinner so late all the time!”
Tides and Turns
U/Narissis: “I grew up in a house overlooking the Saint John River. It never occurred to me that it was unusual that the river would sometimes be flowing in one direction, and sometimes in the other direction.
I thought all rivers did that and it was normal. (The tides in the Bay of Fundy are so high they cause the lower end of the river to reverse direction for awhile at high tide).”
Quiet Retreat
U/Kater-chan: “Mirroring other peoples behavior and making a ‘personality’ fitting for them. Results in me being super stressed when I meet new people because I don’t know how to behave. Social contact also costs a lot of energy. Turns out people don’t think of that and just kinda go as themselves. However that’s supposed to work.
Also genuinely enjoying being alone. I told a friend that I will just lock myself in my flat for a few days to relax and he said that’s a ‘bit extreme’. For me it’s really nice and relaxing. I need my alone time and don’t ‘miss’ social contact as fast as other people”
Echoes of Music
U/Radioactivejellomold: “I used to hear a full symphony in my head when I lay down at night. Most of the time it’s mellow with beautiful violins, oboes, French horns… It slowly builds and can be quite moving. It’s never songs I’ve heard or know.
I have zero musical talent so in my head it all stays. I say ‘used to’ because once I developed tinnitus the ringing has taken place of the music. Pretty c—– trade off.”
Crabby Clarity
U/Hyacinth_hybrid1999: “I didn’t realize I was probably mildly allergic to shellfish until I was about 21. I was having a sushi bowl in college and was telling my girlfriend that I love shrimp and crab, but I always get a nauseous headache whenever I eat it. She had to tell me that wasn’t normal and I probably had an allergy.
Realized that probably made sense bc several of my fam members had shellfish allergies. Since childhood I have been eating shrimp and crab and feeling funky afterwords. I literally just thought eating crab gave everyone headaches.”
Redefining Dad
U/bingusbongus888: “being afraid of your dad. like my dad wasn’t a monster who did awful stuff to us but he was just kinda mean and strict and shouty and cold.
My best friend when i was a kid had a similar relationship with her dad, and my first girlfriend too; i was in my early 30s when i had the epiphany that ‘scary’ wasn’t a defining feature of ‘father’ for lots of people (he died when i was 20).”
Absent Roots
U/kuuups: “Grew up with extremely absent parents. Father was at work 90% of the time. Mother was always busy with something else (meaning, anything you can think of that’s under the sun. Hobbies, friends, her siblings or her parents. everything, except her kids). I grew up under the impression that this was just how things were.
During my teen years and started to hang out more and more at my friends’ homes I was totally shocked how much of a ‘normal person’ their parents were. They were just like grown up kids – they hung out with their kids, casual talk etc.”
Endless Daydreams
U/DeepResearcher1122: “Maladaptive daydreaming. If I hear any song I can imagine myself in a music video, and imagine people watching it on my channel/website. 🤦🏻♀️ I’ve had this ‘thought process’ since I was about 10? 11? I used to walk MILES a day maladaptive daydreaming to music, to the where I’d walk 4-6 a day. Not just around my neighborhood in circles, but a PATH pacing back and forth in my own yard. Now I just do it while I’m in the car, taking a quick walk, or doing housework.
I also daydreamed so much as a kid. I’m horrible at math because of this. I had a teacher once write ‘warning: daydreamer’ to my future teacher, I accidentally seen the note on her desk!”
Painful Humor
U/tibiapartner: “I thought everyone got a really sudden and intense headache when they laughed really hard. Turns out my Chiari malformation (my cerebellum developed incorrectly so the bottom of my brain pushes down on the base of my skull) causes a sudden and intense spike in intracranial pressure sometimes that results in the headaches,
and one rare but well documented trigger is mirthful laughter. My friends now know that if I’m clutching my head for a few seconds that I’ve really genuinely enjoyed their jokes 🤣”
Tune by Ear
U/Xaphhire: “From a young age, I could play any tune on any instrument I knew how to play. I thought that was normal, and people just did not know the instrument. To me, humming a tune or whistling a tune is the same as playing a tune on a piano or flute.
If I know the song well enough to hum, I can play it. I only learned that was unusual when I started playing in a band. It earned me some free meals playing piano in a bar in college 😄”
