31 People Share The "I Didn't Know This Wasn't Normal!" Things Their Bodies Do, And As A Chronically Ill Person, It's So Relatable

Every month , I ask BuzzFeed readers like you to share the seemingly "normal" things your bodies do that...uh...actually aren't as normal as they thought. As someone with a famously perplexing body that has puzzled doctors and specialists alike, I know first-hand that it can be a pretty isolating experience. So, I started this monthly series as an online safe space for people to share their stories and perhaps even find names for things they've been experiencing their whole lives. So, here are 31 "Wait, not everyone's body does that???" experiences — as well as stories from previous editions of this article — that people shared. I'll start:

1. "I have PCOS or polycystic ovary syndrome. Growing up, I had really, really heavy periods and super unpredictable cycles, which is a key symptom of PCOS, amongst other things. My understanding was that periods were painful for everyone, so I just assumed I was being dramatic. It wasn't until I was diagnosed and started asking my friends about their periods that I realized we were having very different experiences. Like, I was going through two or three times as many pads as they were. Or, like, when they were talking about their periods being late, they meant a couple of days, whereas late for me meant a week or two or no period at all. My uterus, seemingly, does not own a calendar."

2. "I have first bite syndrome . One day I was in the kitchen with a friend and I took a bite of chocolate and that very familiar pain spread across my mouth. I've asked my friend, 'Don't you hate it when you take a first bite of chocolate and it hurts like hell?' He informed me that that was not normal. I asked a ton of doctors since and not one has heard of it. There are only a few research papers that have been written on it. Fast forward a decade later, and I ended up dating a guy who experiences it too. People normally develop it from either cancer or surgery, but he and I have just always had it."

— deadpanchicken93

3. "I don’t have a sense of smell. I’ve never been able to smell, and I didn’t really realize it until I was maybe 9 or 10. My mom asked me if I liked the smell of a certain candle that she picked up in a store, and I thought there was no smell to it. I always get asked a lot of questions when I’m talking to someone new. A lot of the questions are about taste and what I can/can’t taste. I can't taste a lot of foods very well — it has to be spicy or really sweet for me to taste anything. But even with really spicy things, I can’t get the full taste because I think the spicyness takes over the flavor. I don’t like any sodas because they just taste like 'spicy' water to me. I put ketchup on a lot of things (even mac 'n' cheese, sorry 😭) because the ketchup helps to give it flavor while not being too overpowering."

— redprincess20

4. "I have hyperaphantasia , which is overactive imagery in my mind. When I close my eyes, I can't see darkness or nothing at all. There are always color splashes, forming images, or stories 'playing' when I try to clear my mind. I also always vividly dream."

— ali_oopsy

5. "I faint when I have a bad coughing fit. It's called a cough syncope . It's documented but still rare among the general population. It means that when I cough a lot, I might lose consciousness and quickly come to."

— tawecakeman

6. "Thought I had great vision until I tried glasses and found that everything was so much sharper and more vivid! Apparently, my left eye has a vision defect, but my right eye learned to compensate so I never realized!"

7. "I have a thing where sometimes I literally cannot tell if I need to sneeze or vomit. 90% of the time, the sneezy/pukey hybrid sensation is a sneeze-to-be, but the other has happened on occasion."

— allierowling

8. "I can generally tolerate alcohol, but I lose my vision after one alcoholic drink when I’m flying. It’s happened to me multiple times on a plane, and my vision doesn’t come back until I throw up. It also happened to me once at a bar after having a vodka Red Bull, and it didn’t come back until I went outside and got fresh air. I’ve told numerous people throughout my life and realized it’s not common like I thought because no one I’ve encountered has experienced this."

— yid85

9. "I have cataplexy — I lose the ability to grip/hold things, chew, sometimes even stand when laughing. Basically, my muscles shit the bed whenever I start laughing too hard. Me, my sister, and my dad have it. My sister has even dropped her children because of it (don’t worry, it's more of a gradual release than a full blown drop, and no one was hurt). I grew up thinking it was entirely normal, and my mind was blown when I found out it was not. I asked the next 10 people I saw — my friends, coworkers, drug dealer — if they got weak while they were laughing, and they looked at me like I had three heads."

— u/MesciVonPlushie

10. "I always get numbers mixed up. I would explain it to people by saying it’s like dyslexia but with numbers, not letters. I decided to Google it one time and realized it’s actually a thing. It’s called Dyscalculia . Anyway, I felt a sense of relief knowing it exists and that I’m not the only one who has this issue."

11. "I basically went my entire life, including adulthood up until I was 30, thinking that everyone’s jaw clenches and throat tightens from drinking lemonade. I thought it was a normal thing for everyone, and I always wondered why people acted like it was so thirst-quenching. Naw, I was just allergic."

— happyorca36

12. "I have a spot on my forehead where, if I have to sneeze and it won't come out, I just scratch that spot and release the sneeze! I can also sneeze on command the same way. It's a real, legit sneeze. Everyone thinks I'm faking, but it feels so good to let it go!"

— freshsunflower30

13. "I cannot vomit. I will heave so deeply that my ab muscles are sore, but nothing has ever come out. Many, many years ago, I was given activated charcoal at the hospital. I told them it wouldn’t work, and the nurses laughed it off and told me it was not possible. Guess who was right? Me."

— angela2lock

14. "I learned while I was pregnant with my oldest that I have a retroverted uterus, meaning my uterus is facing backward. It's not super rare — it occurs in roughly 20% of women — but it certainly helped because I didn't show until I was five months along with all three of my kids. Back labor is way worse, but the visible recovery was great... I was able to wear normal clothes almost immediately since everything was leaning back into my body."

15. "I almost always control my dreams. I’ve been extremely interested in dreams since I was little, so I’ve kinda trained myself to fully remember them and be in control. It’s essentially like playing a video game when I dream. They’re extremely detailed, as well. The downside is that I’m worried I’m not getting enough restful sleep because of this. My default now is to control my dreams, so I’m wondering if my brain is working too hard when I’m sleeping especially because I remember a good portion of my dreams, too. Not sure if being unable to NOT lucid dream is rare and potentially bad for me??"

— nathanvh

16. "I have a photic sneeze reflex . It's genetic, and everybody in my family has it, so I legit thought sneezing was just a part of going outside. I also sneeze when my blood sugar is low —two quick sneezes, and I instantly feel better."

— brittanyangellem

17. "I have exploding head syndrome . It started about 15 years ago. Sometimes, when I go to bed, and right before I fall asleep, I hear a loud BOOM, like a cannon. I don't know what triggers it, and it is very random when it happens. But it scared me for a long time before I found out what it was!"

— ericaf4da49a96b

18. "I have histamine intolerance , which basically means I’m allergic to being allergic. My body doesn’t metabolize the histamines that bodies typically release and metabolize regularly, so if I consume a food that causes histamines to be released, I have an allergic reaction. This was discovered after a skin prick test turned up negative for everything but latex, so I had a bunch of bloodwork that showed that I have abnormally high levels of histamines in my blood."

— sidneyalenec

19. "My sister and I both experience synesthesia , only ours is more color-related. Words, sounds, letters, and numbers all have associated colors, which can be especially frustrating when our colors are not the same. 'She'll be like, 'Well you know August is yellow,' and I'm like, 'Uh no? It's purple?'"

20. "I learned I have aphantasia a few years back. I never knew that when someone said, 'picture an apple,' that people could actually visualize the apple. It's all just blackness to me. It makes me kind of sad. I feel like I've been missing out on a wonderful experience."

— annab1953

21. "When I was pregnant with my daughter, I had excessively hot feet. Not swollen, hot . I had to buy ice-pack socks, and they’d melt in minutes!"

— armchairexpertcatmom

22. "I was getting in-depth testing for a chronic illness, and one of the questions they asked was if I ever get sharp shooting pains down my limbs that dissipate after a few minutes. I nonchalantly said, 'No more than most people.' I genuinely thought it was normal; it's always happened to me. The three doctors and my mother all looked at me like I had three heads, and eventually, my mom had to break it to me that it wasn't normal."

— l4b8a7d01f

23. "I have Dermatographia and chronic hives (urticaria)! It's a fun mix. Some days, it doesn't bother me at all. Other days, I break out in hives if my socks are too tight or if my pants seams dig in."

— yeknom

24. "I can taste words. For example, if someone says three, an image of a cupcake immediately comes to mind, and I sometimes will start salivating. The same word has always had the same food association. It’s called Lexical–gustatory synesthesia ."

25. "I don’t have a typical sternum. When you are a child, your sternum is made up of a few small bones, and as you age, they begin to fuse together to form one solid bone to protect the heart and chest. For some reason, mine never fused together, so I still have a few small bones. Apparently, I have a few other parts of my body that never 'grew up,' too. I have thought about doing a genetic test to see if this runs in the family and what else I should know."

— happyhomemaker29

26. "I have visual snow syndrome . I constantly see what looks like TV static in my vision (like a very opaque TV screen). When I was younger, I always told my mom I could 'see the air' and she ignored me. Turns out it's a real thing!"

— rockstarrsam15

27. "I've never had hair on my arms, legs, or underarms. When I went away to college, I was shocked to see my dorm mates shaving their legs and underarms. Later, I was diagnosed with a genetic blood condition called hemochromatosis , or iron overload. It's mostly found in Irish and northern Europeans. Excess iron accumulates in the body instead of being excreted. It's easy to treat by occasionally donating blood and avoiding high iron foods...but one sign is the absence of arm and leg hair. Plenty of hair elsewhere, however."

— angelagweber

28. "One or both of my ears randomly turn red and feverish, and I always get a migraine at some point within an hour or two afterward. This has happened for about 30 years. I recently learned it’s a rare condition called Red Ear Syndrome ."

29. "If I laugh too hard, I will vomit. I thought this was normal until I was in high school."

— madibowsher

30. "I have Arnold's Cough Syndrome . It's annoying as fuck. I once asked a couple people, 'Isn't it annoying? The coughing spasms from cleaning your ears? I always end up gagging so hard from how hard I cough.' A friend and my ex both looked at me like I had three heads."

"I saw this on a similar list here last year, looked it up, and discovered that's what it is. I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia since and am on a heavy dose of gabapentin, which is the medication they suggest for Arnold's Cough Syndrome as well. I haven't talked to my doctor about it yet, but I've noticed the coughs aren't nearly as bad now."

— ali_oopsy

31. "I was having a dance party with my bestie one night when we were, like, 30. We were having an absolute blast dancing it out, and after a bit, I asked, 'Don’t you just hate it when your knees get hot?' She kept dancing and said, 'What? My knees are cool as a cucumber!' I stopped dancing and had her touch my knees. They were hot to the touch, and she and I were both shocked to find out that my knees were not normal. That was the day I found out that other people do not get hot knees. :)"

— araeosunshine

Does your body do any unusual things like these? If so, tell us about them in the comments below! You can read more stories like this here , here , here , here , and here .

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.