There's no way to keep track of all the weird stuff we've gotten up to over the past 5000 years of recorded history. Some of these stories are heartbreaking, some are creepy, some are downright outrageous. All of them have one thing in common they're pretty darn unbelievable. Thankfully I've added sources at the bottom of each story, so you can see for yourself. Enjoy!
The 1904 olympic Marathon was definitely one of the weirdest events in history.
The first runner to arrive at the finish line was Fred Lorz. He was hailed as the winner, had his photograph taken with Alice Roosevelt (the daughter of the U.S. President at the time, President Theodore Roosevelt), and was just stepping up to get his gold medal when ....wwwwwwaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt just a gosh darn minute!
As it turns out, Fred Lorz had gotten a little tired midway through the race, and had hailed himself a ride back to the finish line. He actually intended this to be his self-disqualification (or, dropping out of the race), and was waving at fans and spectators along the ride. However, the car broke down at the 19th mile, and Lorz hopped out and jogged across the finish line. When they told him he had won, he decided to go with it.
After the scandal came out, Lorz said he had been joking. The AAU wasn't laughing they banned him for the competition for life. Turns out, they gained a sense of humor the next year and lifted the ban.
Okay, so what about the real gold medalist?
Thomas Hicks, from Britain (who ran for the US), won the event, though it was under extremely bizarre circumstances that definitely wouldn't be okay today. Hicks was 10 miles away from the finish line, and in the lead, and he wasn't feeling so great. It turns out, his coach had been giving him small doses of strychnine sulfate a common rat poison, which stimulates the nervous system in small doses mixed with brandy. At that point, Hicks had started hallucinating and stumbling, barely able to hold himself up. So what did his support team do? They gathered around him and held him up, and two others moved his feet back and fouth as if he were still running, for the rest of the race. The man was literally almost blacked out, and was being propped up by a team of ill-prepared coaches. The judges (somehow) decided that this was still acceptable, and awarded him the gold.
So what happened to poor Thomas Hicks? He had to be carried away from the track, couldn't accept his medal, and nearly died, but thanks to immediate medical treatment from nearby doctors, his life was saved. He never ran professionally again.
But wait. It gets even better.
The fourth place winner was a man who wasn't even supposed to run in the race. He was a Cuban postman named Andarn Carvajal, who decided he wanted to "try out the race" after he had lost all his money in New Orleans. He thought maybe the marathon would be a shot to earning some money. So, what did he do? He hitchhiked to St. Louis, but forgot his running shorts, so he cut off the legs of his trousers to make them look like shorts. Oh, he also had forgotten to eat before the race. In fact, he hadn't eaten anything in the past forty hours, because he had run out of money, so part way through the race he spotted an apple orchard and decided to take a snack break. Well, it turns out the apples were rotten, which made his stomach churn. Despite all this, he finished fourth.
This marathon was also the first Olympics that allowed Black Africans to compete. Len Tau (Len Tauyane) and Yamasani (Jan Mashiani) weren't actually supposed to be competing that day. In fact, they had been brought to St. Louis as part of the Boer War exhibit. They finished 9th and 12th, though this was a huge disappointment to a lot of people, who believed that Len Tau probably would have finished 1st if he hadn't been chased for a mile in the wrong direction by a pack of dogs.
Seriously. Why isn't this a movie, yet?
Some time around the year 400, an ex-Christian monk named Simeon the Stylite (the Greek word style means "pillar") decided he had had enough with contemporary society. He went to great lengths to shut himself off for the world, but people sought him out for spiritual advice, which kind of cramped Simeon's hermetic lifestyle. He tried a couple of tactics:
First, he secluded himself in a hut for a year and a half. During this time, he went for the entire 40 days of Lent without eating or drinking, which was hailed a miracle, upon his emergence from the hut. This didn't do well for Simeon as it positioned him as a kind of spiritual leader that people turned to for advice. Simeon wanted to spent time on his own devotions, though, so he climbed up to the top of Sheik Barakat Mountain, and chose to live in a teeny tiny space less than 20 meters in diameter.
But, alas, he couldn't deter the pilgrims. They invaded his mountainous seclusion in search of advice or prayer. Still, Simeon wanted more time for his own devotions. He needed to take it to a new level. It has been stated that, as he seemed to be unable to avoid escaping the world horizontally, he may have thought to attempt to try to escape it vertically.
Simeon found a pillar that had survived among ruins in Telanissa (modern-day Taladah in Syria). It stretched fifty feet into the air, and was less than one square meter in diameter, and wrapped with a banister. Simeon, in his near-obsessive search for the perfectly hermetic location, decided to climb to the top of this tall and tiny pillar, and make it his new home.
Then he proceeded to live there for the next forty years.
He asked boys from the nearby village to bring him food and water, which he may have pulled up in buckets via a pulley system.
When the monastic Elders heard word of Simeon on the tower, they thought it would be a good idea to determine whether these extreme feats were due to humility and asceticism, or in pride. In other words, was Simeon just doing this to be famous? They decided that they would order him to come down from the pillar. If Simeon didn't obey, they would drag him down. If he was willing to submit, they would let him stay. Well, Simeon was completely compliant, so they let him stay where he was.
Edward Gibbon in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire describes Simeon's life as follows:
In this last and lofty station, the Syrian Anachoret resisted the heat of thirty summers, and the cold of as many winters. Habit and exercise instructed him to maintain his dangerous situation without fear or giddiness, and successively to assume the different postures of devotion. He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude, with his outstretched arms in the figure of a cross, but his most familiar practice was that of bending his meagre skeleton from the forehead to the feet; and a curious spectator, after numbering twelve hundred and forty-four repetitions, at length desisted from the endless account. The progress of an ulcer in his thigh might shorten, but it could not disturb, this celestial life; and the patient Hermit expired, without descending from his column.
So, how did this plan work for Simeon's hermetic aspirations? It didn't exactly deter the people. In fact, the new pillar attracted crowds from near and far people who wanted to see him for spiritual guidance, as well as people who just wanted to come see the guy who lived on the pillar. Simeon seemed more open to the idea, though, because he was able to restrict when people could visit. He made himself available each afternoon to talk to visitors, who could ascend to speaking distance by climbing a ladder. He also wrote letters, instructed disciples, and lectured to the crowds below.
Looks like it worked out for Simeon.
In 1054 AD, there was a supernova a massive star dying in a fiery explosion at the end of its life which they referred to as a "guest star." This particular supernova was extreme. "The star shone roughly four times brighter than Venus. It remained visible in the night sky for 653 days."
At its brightest, it lit up the whole sky during the night for a month.
Supernovas in our galaxy are very rare we haven't seen one since 1604, which was before the invention of the telescope.
What's really incredible about the supernova in China, though, is that astronomers in the 1920s realized that the Crab Nebula is actually the remnants of that exploded stars.
There has been a lot written about the WWI and WWII. The accounts that often fail to reach the surface, are the first hand accounts written by people who were down in the trenches at the time. Many of these men didn't make it, but their writing outlived them, and provides a stark look into the horrors of the time. The following are excerpts from some of these accounts:
In no-man's-land...
"The sun swelled up the dead with gas and often turned them blue, almost navy blue. Then, when the gas escaped, the bodies dried up like mummies and were frozen in their death positions... sitting bodies, kneeling bodies, bodies in almost every position, though most lay on their bellies or on their backs."
In the trenches...
"The crows pecked out the eyes and rats lived on bodies that lay in abandoned dugouts. These rats were very large and quite fearless, their familiarity with the dead having made them contemptuous of the living. One night one fell on my face in a dugout and bit me."
"Where we fought several times over the same ground bodies became incorporated in the material of the trenches themselves."
Dealing with all the death...
"They were putrid, with the consistency of Camembert cheese. I once fell and put my hand right through the belly of a man. It was days before I got the smell out of my nails."
"Even worse was that each one was crawling with maggots and covered inches deep with a black fur of flies which flew up into your face, mouth, eyes and nostrils."
"No one could expect the men to handle these bodies unless the officers did their share. We worked with sandbags on our hands, stopping every now and then to puke."
Their surroundings...
"Churches, houses, woods, and hedgerows had all disappeared. The distance was shrouded by rain and mist, from out of which the boom of gunfire came distant and muffled."
Check out more personal accounts from the war here.
The story of H.H. Holmes is an incredibly haunting part of American history more specifically, the history of Chicago. Buckle up for this one, folks, because it's about to get creepy.
In the summer of 1886, a man named Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as either Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H.H. Holmes, moved to Chicago. When he arrived, he went into Elizabeth S. Holton's drugstore at the southwest corner of South Wallace Avenue and West 63rd Street in Englewood, to apply for a job. H.H. Holmes scored the job, and proved himself as a hard working employee to Elizabeth Holton. He remained an employee there for a while, and eventually bought an empty lot across the street.
H.H. Holmes started construction of a three-story, mixed-use building, complete with apartments, retail spaces, a new (competing) drug store, and a hotel. During the construction of the building, H.H. Holmes constantly replaced workers, rotating people in and out, and firing them halfway through jobs with the claim that they were "insufficient." This served two purposes one, he didn't have to pay for as much labor, because he constantly told people they weren't good enough. Two (and here's where it gets creepy), he wanted to ensure that no one caught wind of his master plan: murder. The bizarre hotel was filled with stairways that led to nowhere, doors that opened onto brick wall, and doors with perplexing locks that could seal a person inside.
Every bedroom was soundproofed. Some were equipped with gas lines that were controlled from the other side of the wall. One of the rooms was sealed up, and could only be entered through a trapdoor in the ceiling. Some doors were rigged with alarms to track the movements of guests. One secret room on the second floor was deemed the "secret hanging chamber" by Holmes.
Yep. H.H. Holmes was building a murder castle.
One of Holmes' earliest known murders was that of Julia Smythe. Julia Smythe was the wife of Alex Conner, but was also acting as mistress to Holmes on the side. Conner had moved into Holmes' building and got a job at the pharmacy's jewelry counter on the first floor. After he found out about Smythe's affair, he moved away, leaving behind not only Smythe, but their daughter, Pearl. Smythe remained in the hotel, taking care of her daughter, and continuing her relatinship with H.H. Holmes. That Christmas, both of them disappeared. H.H. Holmes claimed that she had died whilst receiving an abortion, though most people agree that they were H.H. Holmes' first ever victims.
Whether or not this is true, there is no denying what H.H. Holmes did next.
Emeline Cigrade began working in the building in May 1892, and disappeared that December. Edna Van Tassel entered the building and was never seen again. Over and over, people went into the Murder Castle, and were never seen again. This serial killer wasn't seeking people out they were coming to him. "In was into this labyrinth that Holmes lured his victims. He would asphyxiate them, hang them, even seal them up in vault-like chambers to let them die of starvation or thirst. Their bodies were placed in a dummy elevator or dropped down a secret metal chute that led to the basement."
In his basement, Holmes would then examine and dissect the bodies. He would sell their bones and organs to the medical communities, and dispose of their remains using a combination of lime pits, acid baths, and giant furnaces. This murder castle was rigged to the nines.
When he was caught, H.H. Holmes confessed to 27 murders, though some sources have speculated there were more than 200. When authorities raided the house, they had a hard time finding victims, as all their bodies had been disposed of very thoroughly. Here is some of the disturbing stuff they found:
- A maze of torture chambers
- Secret chutes (for bodies)
- The dissection area in the basement
- A mound of human and animal bones, including bones of children
- A pile of bloody women's clothing
- A gold chain
- A women's shoe (found inside a large stove on the third floor)
H.H. Holmes was hanged on May 7, 1896. He requested, before his death, to be buried in a coffin encased in cement, and buried 10 feet deep. Ironically, he had a fear of being dissected.
Pope Gregory IX lived from 1145 to 1241 AD. He was born Ugolino di Conti, but took the name Gregory when he became Pope, at age 80.
Pope Gregory had a thing against cats, most specifically black cats. So, as one of his first orders of business, he created a public degree, known as a "Vox in Rama", that condemned any form of devil worship. In that document, he included cats, stating that they were the animals of the devil.
He then had cats exterminated in droves.
Well, it turns out that cats are pretty darn useful, especially in a time where rats, mice, and other rodents ran rampant in the streets and in homes. It wasn't a huge deal until...
About 50 years later, the Black Plague broke out in Eurasia. It was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, snatching the lives of 75 million to 200 million people across Europe and Asia. To put that into perspective, that meant that about 50% of the entire population of Europe died. If you didn't die, half your family and friends did.
One of the leading theories of the carriers of said plague? Rats. Well, to be more specific, fleas that travelled on the backs of travelling rats.
In the fifty years following the reign of Pope Gregory IX, people everywhere started hating on black cats. It was incredibly common to kill all black cats, as a "service" to the community, because, as Pope Gregory would have it, these were devil cats.
So, by the time the rats started spreading themselves all over Europe, carrying the Black Plague, there were no cats to keep them away or kill them.
Obviously, there is no way to directly link Pope Gregory IX to the spreading of one of the most horrifying diseases of all of human history, but there is pretty strong evidence to suggest that he had a strong hand in how far and wide it spread.
Who knows... maybe Pope Gregory was right all along, and black cats are the devil. After all, starting the Black Plague would have been a pretty great revenge.
Thanks for reading!
Married People Explain How They Tactfully Initiate Sex With Their Partner
Positive emotions are high among people in the blossoming phase of relationships.
Everything seems more romanticized for people in love due to the amorous joy in their hearts–which also influences their desire to frequently get it on under the sheets–or any other daring location in the heat of the moment.
But for those who've declared "'til death do us part," devoted couples may find that they are not always on the same wavelength sexually compared to when they first met.
Curious to hear how people keep their passion alive, Redditor Rude_Phone6841 asked:
"Married people, how do you initiate sex with your partner?"
When verbally articulating isn't enough...
Let The Book Dictate When
"There is a book called 'How to Subtly Tell Your Partner You Want More Sex.' If you sleep on the right side of the bed, you can casually open it up and your spouse will see the giant printed title on the front. Sometimes, I’ll just get the book out and leave it on his side of the bed. Once he was messing with me and acting like he was oblivious to my not-so-subtle hints, so I threw the book at him. The book is effective and hilarious."
"ETA: Sadly, we haven’t found the book since we moved. Fortunately, we’ve started communicating with our words instead. Words are just as effective."
– Flaky_Finding_3902
Save The Date
"I send her an outlook calendar event and if she accepts, IT'S ON."
– Dawn_Piano
The Signal
"You know when I’m down to my socks it’s time for business."
– SEA___BEAR
These couples find that verbal cues are best.
Now's The Time
"Honestly when we have the time one of us usually bluntly says 'let's go have sex right f'king now before we can't' and we go do it. Lol"
– brie1305
Option A Or B
"I have a 2 month old and a 2 year old. Some of the best sex we had was because I said 'after 2 year old goes down and if 2month decides to sleep do you want to meet in the basement' well she decided to sleep and damn that was good."
– Ahkmedjubar
End Of Day Reward
"We just ask each other tbh. We’ll bring it up earlier in the day so we build up the anticipation with each other throughout the day, flirt with each other, gas each other up. All that. Then when it’s finally time at the end of the day, we usually fall asleep cause we’re so tired."
"But the cycle continues the next day!"
– supermariobruhh
People continued offering their wisdom.
Afternoon Hanky Panky
"The trick is to initiate sex during the day. We are both too tired at the end. Plus hanging out all day after is somehow more rewarding."
"Same goes for dates. Have sex at the beginning the date, then go enjoy your time together without any pressure."
– drneeley
Kids In The Equation
"This literally happened today with my wife and me. We have two toddlers so we’re extra exhausted. Earlier today we had the sexy initiation of 'hey, we both showered today, want to have sex after the babies are asleep?' 'Sure.'"
"Then when the kids were asleep, and my wife and I were getting settled into bed, she asked if I still wanted to. I said if she wants to I’m down, but I’m pretty tired and would be fine without it. She said she was also tired and could do without it. So we kissed each other good night and she went to sleep. I’m just winding down on Reddit for a few minutes before I also fall asleep."
"I know this is boring. I didn’t write this to tell an exciting story. Just to share what married life is like for me and probably the large majority of married couples, especially parents of young kids."
– MolotovCollective
Shadow Puppet Technique
"Use my phones torch to shine a shadow of my member up against the bedroom wall."
"Kinda like a bat signal of sorts."
– SchoonerOclock
Mood Lighting
"Turn off the lights and switch on the red lamp beside the bed."
– SuvenPan
Reliable Visual
"Walk by him while taking my top off. He follows me wherever I go and it's been 30 years and counting."
– LisaBooHigh
Every couple is different, and usually establishing a strong communication bond makes everything else in the relationship–including sexy time–falls in line effortlessly.
I knew a couple who made a game out of foreplay and agreed that whoever got home first from getting off work at the same time got to choose the sexual position that night.
They may no longer be together, but I remember them recalling how that technique was fun for them at the beginning stage and it took the pressure off of establishing when they were going to have sex.
Don't take get too anxious about it. It's just sex, and it's fun.
There are a number of things people partake in spite of the known possible ramifications they have on their health and safety.
Up to and including smoking, bungee-jumping, recreational drug use, or simply bike riding without a helmet.
Indeed, even though they know that doing any or all of these things could possibly lead to their death, they do it anyway.
Sadly, even though many people go out of their way to avoid doing these things for that very reason, that still doesn't mean they keep themselves completely out of danger.
Sadly, there are a surprisingly large number of things that lead to an even more surprising number of deaths each year.
Frighteningly, these are things that the majority of the world's population does on an almost daily basis.
"What causes death more than people realize?"
When In Doubt, Call Your Doctor!
"Untreated infections."
"Your body will become septic, in which it essentially kills itself trying to kill off whatever infection one has."- cacarrizales
"Infections that are left untreated."- raptor-99
Tread Carefully. Seriously.
"Tripping."
"On average around 17k people a year in the US die from injuries incurred after tripping and falling."- EdithWhartonsFarts
When In Doubt, Don't Drive.
"Driving while sleepy."- latchkey_adult
The Handrail Is There For A Reason.
"Stairs."
"20 million severe injuries each year and at least 200,000 death from consequences of the fall."
"Both my grandparents died because of a fall."- OnTheGoodSideofLife
They Happen To The Best Of Us
"Fall accidents."
"Especially among the elderly, a fall can create a cascade of events that results in death, even if it seems minor at first."-AdmiralBofa
Never Rush Chewing
"Mozzarella sticks."
"Statistically the most choked on food."- SpecSanders
Never Skip A Check-Up
"High Blood Pressure."
"It sneaks up on you and you don't know about it or don't care but it's the underlying cause of so many deaths."- Fear51
Never Underestimate The Importance Of Self Care
"Stress."
"Your body can only handle so much of it and it’s labeled the 'silent killer' for that reason."
"With your high blood pressure and the 5 hours of sleep a night because of the stress, It will creep up on you sooner than you think."- DroppedDonut
Don't Forget To Floss!
"Untreated dental problems."
"A cavity left untreated can lead to heart attacks and strokes."- Lastalmark
Flu Season
"Influenza."
"Just regular old flu."
"Many people ignore it thinking it'll go away on its own."
"Globally the number per year is usually between 300k and 500k."
"In the US it can be anywhere from 12k to 50k per year."- PhreedomPhighter
Don't Feel Ashamed If You Need A Break
"Shoveling snow."
"I have two family friends pass from heart attacks associated to shoveling the snow."- JD054
There Are People Who Will Help You
"Alcoholism causing liver failure and it's on the rise in the USA."- Interesting_Drop8236
"Peruse your County ME’s records."
"The amount of people who die from alcohol is astounding."- hockenduke
Sometimes, It's Just Best To Mind Your Own Business
"Street fights."
"You watch some Hollywood blockbusters and some MMA fights and you think you can do it too."
"I've seen stories of a guy minding his own business and gets rocked on the side of his head. It disconnected his spine and he was dead before he hit the ground."
"There was another story maybe a year ago of a scuffle where a guy was stabbed in the neck and bled out to the point of being unable to stand within 10 seconds."
"Stop f*cking around, it's not worth your life."- Choiceofart
We never know when our number is up or how we'll end our days.
However, with a little bit of care and good judgment, we can at least likely avoid falling victim to all of the above.
When Americans visit a foreign country, they tend to notice immediate cultural differences from the minute they step off the plane.
Unique bathroom designs, how you might have to be more specific when ordering coffee in Australia, how many businesses in Spain tend to shut down for a few hours to take a siesta.
Needless to say, this goes both ways, as when people from all over the world visit the United States, they tend to be surprised and amazed by a number of things.
Ranging from the amusing, such as portion sizes and ineffective tea brewing (at least for the Brits) to the truly baffling (HEALTHCARE).
"Non-American people, what’s a thing that you don’t understand about America?"
You Mean, People DON'T File Their Own Taxes Elsewhere?!?!
"Does every worker have to file their own taxes or am I just confused?"- ThePencil67
"Why they make you calculate your own taxes, if they know what you owe."- redder2023
Flagrant Commercialism...
"So, why do you buy politicians' merchandise? "
"Shirts, caps, banners, stickers, etc."
"They're public servants, not rockstars."
"Also, usually the more boring they are, the better."- akashyy
Work/Life Balance
"Scottish person here but the work/always available for work culture."
"Minimal vacation time, minimal maternity/paternity leave and the fact you can pretty much just be let go."
"It makes me sad to think about it!"
"But I do love that you guys cram so much into your time off - you guys love a road trip!"- Frosty_Dragonfly_682
Definitely Something To Consider...
"What is up with Homeowner Associations?"
"Why would you pay to let a nosy neighbor dictate what you can and can not do on your own property?"
"I understand living in an apartment block and paying maintenance fees etc, but in a suburban home?"- Skoodledoo
There Are Some Good Observations
"The amount of National Parks!"
"My dream came true in 2017 to make an RV trip southwest off USA."
"Yosemite blew my mind away."- Independent-Ad9787
HAHAHA
"How you can say the word 'mirror' without the use of any vowels."
"Mrrrrrr."- Otto1968
I Ordered A Small!
"Why everything is just SO damn supersized."
"My first time in America I went to get ice coffee from Dunkin Donuts, I ordered a large and my friend is like, 'are you sure you want large'?"
"Yeah no biggie, in the UK a large is not overwhelming I feel so I was expecting the same kinda thing."
"Oh my god it was like a god damn bucket of coffee."
"I think maybe a small would have been equivalent to a UK large, lesson swiftly learnt."
Some People Are Lucky To Just Have One Roommate...
"How you have to share a room with some complete rando when you go to college."- ChoppingOnionsForYou
Some People Just Can't Stop Talking
"The culture of just talking to people, strangers you don't know and just up and start a conversation with them or join a conversation."
"I'm British, and we go through great lengths to not talk to people, let alone open up and pour our hearts out to a random person."- MrGlayden
In Other Words: Severs Deserve to Be Paid More!
"The tipping culture is so foreign to me, I would be so scared to make a mistake or not tipping enough if I ever go to America because it's not something which is common here in Denmark."- Cupsuu
The Commercials, Maybe?
"I’m American but I’ve worked with a lot of people who aren’t."
"The one thing they always wonder is why Americans are so obsessed with the NFL."
"They think it’s a boring sport."
"They explained 'you wait for 30 seconds, they hike the ball, you get about 5-10 seconds of action, then you wait another 30 seconds, another 5-10 seconds of action, then commercial break'."- yougotthesilver12
School Is No Place To Have Fun!
"My mom is from Moscow during the Soviet Era, and she is confused why there is no teacher-student hierarchy."
'She thinks it's weird when teachers participate in school plays or speak to students informally."
"She also DOES NOT GET pajama day."
"To her, it's just the weirdest thing in the world."
"In Russia, there is an important distinction between 'clothes for home' and 'clothes for outside'."
"They have a concept of 'home clothes', like your cozy or ugly clothes, that you are supposed to change into after school or work."
"At bedtime, you change out of your 'home clothes' into pajamas."
"As a result, pajamas, for both adults and children, are considered extra-extra private in Russia."
"My mom perceives pajama day as something extreme like wearing only undergarments to school."
"That's how private pajamas are considered to be in Russia!"- racheltolmach2022
A Debate Which Will Likely Never End
"MM/DD/YYYY"- SuvenPan
Living in America comes with a number of advantages and a number of detriments.
Speaking personally though, had I known I wouldn't have to file my own taxes in Australia, I would have expatriated long ago...
People Explain How They Realized Something They Do Frequently Wasn't Actually Normal
We've all found ourselves annoyed by the ticks or habits of others.
Some of these are fairly common, such as chewing with your mouth open, cracking your knuckles, or whether or not they pronounce the "T" in often.
Some habits are a bit more unusual, though.
Only the people guilty of possessing these habits might not realize that they're unusual until they are told by someone else that practically no one, or literally no one, else does them.
It's an eye-opening, sometimes humiliating discovery.
"What made you realize that something you always did wasn't normal?"
Undiagnosed Medical Condition
"'You know that high pitch sound everyone always hears? Wait... you don't?'"
"Apparently, I have tinnitus."- FarAmphibian4236
Hard To Imagine It Never Occurred To Them...
"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!"- SuperevenDuper
And, Exhale...
"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?'"- ViolaWPeyton
Sweet Or Disturbing?
"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."- thti87
Unusual, But Pretty Cool...
"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."- Limited_turkey
Whatever Helps You Sleep...
"Pre Bedtime cereal, I had a sleepover when I was a kid and was confused when we skipped bedtime cereal."- Mre64
There Are Worse Offenses
"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."- spoilerdudegetrekt
It's Only Polite
"For me it was something I never did. In my twenties, I realized you're meant to make eye-contact when talking to people (I was feral)."- wys15wyg
Who Hasn't At Least Once...
"I got stopped by a cop once because I was talking to myself."
'I literally thought everyone just mumbled out their thoughts out loud."- azuresegugio
Unlikely Source of Inspiration
'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."- koinadian
The Bradys Can Certainly Relate
'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."- littleflower0929
Gesundheit!
"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."- TroubledWaterBridge
Heartbreaking
"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."- Wesley_Otsdarva
If the worst thing you might be doing is getting on someone else's nerves, it doesn't really matter whether or not what you're doing is "normal."
But if you're worried something might not be normal about your health, probably best to call your doctor immediately.