Health is just one of those topics that everyone seems afraid to discuss.
I think a lot of us believe that if we bring it up, we'll jinx ourselves and end up with something that will leave us dead.
But we can't avoid our bodies.
They're all we've got.
So it's time for some adult talk about serious matters of health.
The more you know, the better prepared.
Because sometimes a headache, isn't just a headache.
Redditor FarAsICanTell wanted to discuss medical issues we should know more about, though it may scare us. Knowledge is power. They asked:
"What is a medical condition that is a lot more serious than it sounds/looks?"
In the end, I think the one thing that COVID will teach us, is how much more about staying healthy we need to know.
Gotta Go
poop GIFGiphy"Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn's, Colitis, etc). People hear bowel and think 'Oh, that's just that pooping illness' but internal bleeding, intestinal obstructions, massive amounts of pain, ulcers... it's not an easy ride even for mild cases."
sticks1218
Clusters
"Migraines and cluster headaches. We might look okay on the outside, but it's completely debilitating. I lose a lot of my life to head pain, as I mainly work and lay in bed. I have lost touch with a lot of friends and family members due to last-minute cancelation plans. Some days, it's so bad I want to drill a hole in my head to release the pain. Clusters are worse."
"This is why I'm not a gun owner. It really sucks with this condition; it's really not considered a disability. So I have to force myself to work to live, but forcing it makes it worse, so quality of life really sucks. I have to warn new coworkers that if I start slurring, talking funny, or can't find words, that I'm not drunk and not having a stoke."
"I know there's tons of horrible diseases out there, so I try to tell myself it could be worse. It also really sucks when someone tells you to suck it up because it's just a headache. Ok, sorry, rant over."
turtle-girl420
People stop breathing...
"Asthma. People stop breathing. Tv and movies like to show it as a way of identifying a weakling, but it is a serious, deadly disease. It is also super not fun. Until my mid-20s I was hospitalized at least 2x a year because my emergency inhaler wasn't enough to make me start breathing again. I bought my own nebulizer, and it is the only reason I haven't been hospitalized since."
AtheneSchmidt
It's REAL!!
"The jokes about it never being lupus. It's surprisingly common and can be incredibly disabling."
mimacat
Exactly! 'In fact it’s frequently lupus!'”
"Where I live they have the annual lupus walk fundraiser outside in summer at freaking noon. I mean, if the leukemia and lymphoma society can do theirs at night surely the lupus folks can too! We aren’t supposed to be in the sun you nimrods! Thank you for coming to my TED talk."
"PS: I’m allergic to most sunscreen. It’s awesome."
Faeidal
Bad Moves
Sad A Christmas Story GIF by filmeditorGiphy"Parkinson's. It is a whole lot more than just shaky hands."
electrishian
"Dementia via a movement disorder - it's awful. Almost one of the grimmest things I can think of."
humanhedgehog
Migraines already freak me out. And anything bowel involved gets worse with age. I knew it.
Blurred Lines
"Usher’s Syndrome. It’s a syndrome that affects vision, hearing and balance. I’m a sufferer and I was born deaf, my vision is degrading, and I inherited it from my mother who has severe tunnel vision and a blurry vision in one of her eyes. People often refuse to believe that I’ll be blind later in life. They also refuse to believe my mother is registered blind since blah blah she still can see. It’s an awful syndrome, and limits me from certain activities."
owentattoosdrugz
The Lotion Life
"Eczema is awful. I’ve struggled with it my entire life and it can be rough! I hate it when I get a bad flair up, especially somewhere very noticeable like my face, and everyone and their mother has to comment on it/offer their insane remedy and ask 'have you tried putting lotion on it?!' It gets really hard to be polite after so many comments like that. Eczema SUCKS."
anniepoonannie1988
Flappy Bird
"Type 1 diabetes. I generally down play it to 'I can just take insulin and can eat whatever I want' because it's easier than explaining I'll be playing a game of Flappy Bird the rest of my life where if I get the dosage wrong I can die immediately and without warning, where if I don't have insulin for 3 days I die a horrible painful death, and if I ignore it I can go blind and lose the ability to digest food. And all the freaking beeping devices, all day every day. It's beeping at me right now. Oh, and insulin costs $600 a month, so that's cool."
CrackSammiches
Brutal Effects
"All the autoimmune diseases. The amount of pain suffered is incomprehensible. The medications can be brutal with side effects, and can cause other issues. The impact on families and the mental health of the patients is almost always negative. Most of the diseases are degenerative, and there is no cure for any of them."
mykidsarecrazy
“what are you deaf?”
deaf american sign language GIF by Nyle DiMarcoGiphy"Deaf/HOH backstory: both sides of my family have back hearing backgrounds. My father is deaf and my mom's side just has bad hearing in general. I had good hearing most my like until I was about 14ish. Discovered I have progressive hearing loss and I’ll eventually go completely deaf."
"It just sucks cause It’s so hard to communicate and do most things like a normal person and most people don’t understand that. For example when I ask someone to repeat myself and they say “'what are you deaf?' Yeah I f**king am."
Proper-Type7899
In the Head
"Migraines."
"Edit: I have a combination of vestibular and vascular migraines. Since pain, dizziness, visual aura, photophobia and phonophobia are not visible symptoms, others who have never experienced migraines will never be able to understand why it's to be taken seriously. People have to understand that a migraine can also be a symptom of something worse."
sweettooth_92
Horrible
"Shingles."
Back2Bach
"It can infect your eye and cause blindness. It can cause such severe pain and debility, you require long term nursing care (nursing home). Shingles are horrible."
Secret_Choice7764
"My fiancé's grandmother had it near her eye and it spread to her brain and she died. Awful illness."
Alone-Blueberry
"get stomachaches sometimes"
"GERD. Can't count the number of people who say I just 'get stomachaches sometimes' or 'everyone gets heartburn.' I have esophageal scarring and have a restricted diet just so I don't spend days in agony because I decided to drink a sprite. I had a feeding tube attached to my stomach for years because I couldn't swallow and everything irritated my esophagus."
"My concerns weren't taken seriously by doctors and I spent two weeks in a hospital struggling to convince them I wasn't anorexic. Even my voice is affected, I sound raspy to various degrees all the time."
PeculiarInsomniac
Snooze
seth meyers lol GIF by Late Night with Seth MeyersGiphy"As a narcoleptic: people tend to think it's funny/quirky that I will fall asleep randomly but get all serious when I'm suddenly lying asleep in the middle of a crossroad."
evoli21
Bodily Functions
"Hypothyroidism. People think it just makes you fat, but if your thyroid stops working it can wreck your life. So many bodily functions are controlled by your thyroid. Every weird symptom I had for years can be explained by my thyroid going out, from years long exhaustion to depression to my hair falling out to muscle aches to anemia to shortness of breath to brain fog to intermittent double vision. There are more. Those are just the most prominent ones for me."
PetLemur
under research...
"PCOS. Horribly unpredictable and often painful menstrual cycles, chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression. Keeping to a specific diet works for a week or so and then all of a sudden doesn’t. It’s also horribly under researched so the only guidance from doctors I’ve ever received is 'usually we tell PCOS patients to lose weight but you don’t have weight to lose so idk.'"
megpal426
Adapt Correctly
"Hashimoto‘s or any thyroid disease. The thyroid essentially controls your entire metabolism. The dosage of medication needs to be adapted throughout your life (especially in the beginning it‘s weekly blood tests). And if the dosage is wrong you can have all sorts of lovely symptoms including but not limited to:"
"Not being able to focus, brain fog, being extremely tired/exhausted, weight gain/loss, hair loss, shaking, digestive issues, menstrual cycle issues, etc."
little_mealmaid
Miserable
"How about OCD. People think it just makes them quirky and particular. I've seen it where people end up harming themselves, and can't function in society. Or how about carpel tunnel? It can make your life miserable, but people just make fun of it for whacking off too much."
ooo-ooo-oooyea
restless
assist jimmy fallon GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy FallonGiphy"Restless Legs Syndrome. Yes it is real, and yes it disrupts one's life, especially the ability to sleep. Lack of sleep then leads to a whole host of other conditions."
Mymoggievan
something more...
"Snoring!!!"
lostinrandomworld
"Often a sign of something more serious, like apnea, which can impair cognitive function, cause weight gain, and trim years off your life."
BudgetHero
"If you snore, you may also quit breathing for seconds at a time. Get a sleep study. Sleep apnea causes problems with the cardiovascular system, neurological system, etc. Snoring seems annoying and sometimes funny, but it's not."
711spaceace
Are y'all taking notes. Stay informed... to stay alive.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
