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People Describe The Things Hollywood Has Tricked Us Into Believing

People Describe The Things Hollywood Has Tricked Us Into Believing
izayah ramos on Unsplash

Life lesson number one... don't believe anything you see in the movies.

Even biopics are riddled with lies. That's why it's called illusion and entertainment.

I love Hollywood for a lot of reasons, but I stopped believing long ago.

Tim Allen isn't Santa. Star Wars isn't real.

And when your car flies off an embankment, crashes into a tree and is on fire?

You're dead. The end.

Don't hold out hope.

It's good to believe in the magic, that's the fun.

But real life... not so much magic.

Redditorbrotherbrother99wanted to break down all the ways Hollywood has bamboozled us, they asked:

"What are things Hollywood has tricked the general population into believing?"

I mean where do I begin? Sadly I don't believe we can finish our life issues after we've died. I hate that.

ER Issues

"Paramedics are constantly running and push the stretcher into the ER at breakneck speed with doctors and nurses running alongside down the hallways."

Downwhen

"Once the patient is stable in their room though everyone in the hospital appears to turn out the lights and clock out for the night."

myhairsreddit

I Dont Like You Season 3 GIFGiphy

Filthy Truth

"That LA is clean and Hollywood is glamorous (LA is not clean and Hollywood the neighborhood has some of the worst homelessness and after leaving a show on Sunday I nearly walked through piss steaming downhill right off Hollywood boulevard)."

kippers

"LA is gross. When I lived there I remember sitting in a bar one afternoon with my room-mate, and striking up a conversation with a couple of (male) tourists from England who told me they were very disappointed with LA."

"They thought it was going to be like 'Baywatch' (this was the 90's). My room-mate and I were absolutely shocked anyone would think such a thing about a place because of it's depiction on a fictional T.V. show. We laughed about it for years, but it was always tinged with a sadness because of how dumb people actually are."

Librarywoman

Strength Tests

"You can hold all of another person's weight with one arm hanging off a cliff."

WoogzDaBoogz

"And then haul them up! Unless they're wearing a glove, in which case they're dead meat."

Budget-Falcon767

"Me who can barely do 10 pull-ups, and no muscle Ups. Guess I'll die."

Orinslayer

BOOM!!

"You can outrun a giant explosion."

CoolIceCreamCone

"My dad used to be on the state police bomb squad. He said they had one case where a guy in a bomb suit was diffusing a bomb, and accidentally set the bomb off with some static electricity buildup on his hands. The pressure wave quite literally liquified the guy in the bomb suit and they had to scrape what was left of him off of the inside of it."

DoctorWatchamacallit

KO!

"Knocking people out with a blow to the skull or jaw is a harmless way to temporarily incapacitate."

uuuuuuuhburger

Pro Wrestling Sport GIF by ALL ELITE WRESTLINGGiphy

Any hit to the head is a bad idea. Brain bleeds are super easy to fall victim to.

On the Inside

"Air conditioning ducts are an easy way to sneak through buildings."

Artysupport7757

"And without a speck of dust."

incredibleinkpen

bart simpson episode 20 GIFGiphy

It's Over

"That CPR brings practically anybody back to life, no matter what happened to them."

defiantnd

"Yes. If someone’s heart stops, unless they are currently in the hospital, the changes of bringing them back with CPR are almost zero. Not zero, so it’s worth a try, but not very good. This is also true with animals, by the way."

Kayakchica

"And people who need CPR are just instantly stable as soon as CPR is over. No broken ribs, no brain damage, no follow-up needed."

9NotMyRealName3

pop the head...

"Sprinkler head pops easily and the water is clean. As a Fire Alarm Tech, the temperature to pop the head isn’t a low one and the water is usually black and smells disgusting."'

mrnicely876

"People also don't understand the difference between a smoke detector, and a fire detector."

"One is triggered by your popcorn burning. You can reset that one, and not cause any issues. The fire detector goes off with high temperatures, and is wired into the entire building alarm system. You can't reset it. We get so many false alarms in my building because people set off the smoke detector, and then try to reset the fire detector, instead. Then, the FD shows up."

Squigglepig52

"I'm in"

"Hackers that furiously tap on the keyboard for 30 seconds...'I'm in!'"

nestor515

"Yeah, if anyone that primarily does code is typing furiously, they are writing messages of some kind."

"I kinda want that to be part of a movie at some point. Like a hacker pretends to be doing movie hacking because the bad people are forcing them but they are actually secretly sending messages to the good team. Detailed descriptions and useful information, etc."

ak_doug

Perfect Family

"If i’m in high school and my mom or dad makes a huge breakfast to cover an entire dining room table, I’m going to be late to school that day cause ain’t no way I’m choosing school over the once in a lifetime breakfast and just grabbing a piece of toast 'gotta go or I'll be late!'”

thatswhat_shesaid1

Season 8 Nbc GIF by The OfficeGiphy

Grenade for You!

"You can pull the tab off a hand grenade with your teeth, it’s more like the tab of the grenade pulls your teeth out."

Accio_sanity

"This fallacy actually originated during the Vietnam conflict (I think. Might have been Korea). Soldiers would un-bend the legs of the safety pin to make them easier to pull out. Mostly this was so they could throw the grenade with one hand while continuing to fire with the other.""

"It's incredibly unsafe and has been cited as the cause of tons of accidents, but when you're being shot at THAT much, you tend to be okay with taking your chances since the odds are so bad anyways. Same thing with hanging grenades by the pin. One should NEVER do that, but when it came down to defensive fighting, soldiers would do that so they could arm the grenade simply by pulling it off their vest."

brocktavius

In the Sky

"That helicopters can sneak up out of nowhere."

CaseyBoudreau

"While it's an extreme example, we have RAF Chinooks pass over at least twice a week and you can hear them clearly about 10 minutes before they pass. The last minute before they pass the windows will be rattling audibly. As an aviation fan I enjoy it quite a bit but I've seen plenty of complaints on the village facebook group."

StonkDreamer

Pull the Lever

"Fire alarm pull stations setting off the sprinkler system."

Skuddy587

"I want to add to this. I pulled a fire alarm due to a fire, our receptionist had to get on the speaker to inform everyone that it was not a drill and to exit the building. When fire alarms are pulled in a movie, people either panic or calmly leave. The reality I witnessed included people just staring into it like a camp fire and/or ignoring the very loud alarm."

Wolfrost1919

No Rules!

"That mavericks who play by their own rules have a ridiculous amount of job security."

Doodle_Brush·

"This is my biggest pet peeve when I come across it in the real world. The people who think they are super competent so they don’t have to be nice or play by the rules. I refer to it as Sherlock Holmes Syndrome. Most of the time these folks aren’t half as good as they think they are either."

Schorsi

Tom Cruise Goose GIF by Top GunGiphy

Fly By...

"That missiles/RPG rounds are slow and easily dodge-able by a human. RPG rounds fly at 300m per second, you are not dodging that."

amra_the_lion

"When one is coming right at you, it looks slower than it actually is, similar to a train. Aaaand then it flies by and you realize it was hauling a**. Source: near-miss with an RPG, where I just looked at it dumbly."

RedGreenWembley

Gotta Eat!

"If I’m in high school and my mom or dad makes a huge breakfast to cover an entire dining room table, I’m going to be late to school that day cause ain’t no way I’m choosing school over the once in a lifetime breakfast and just grabbing a piece of toast 'gotta go or i’ll be late!'”

thatswhat_shesaid1

Flesh Wound

"Bullets can be shrugged off like a flesh wound."

TheChainLink2

"Except when you’re a bad guy, then you die immediately when shot or stabbed. Unless you’re shot in the head or heart it can take several hours to die."

Trinytis

"You have to rip off a strip of your dirty t-shirt and tie it over it and you're all set!"

EurekaSm0ke

ZOOM

"That’s you can enhance photos despite the grain or pixelation. If you enlarge a photo you will not get a crystal clear image."

raisingambiguity

"Zoom and enhance is my least favorite Hollywood trope. What’s worse is I’ve seen several plots on tv shows resolved using that method, showing that in reality that killer or villain would easily have gotten away since enhancing to Hollywood levels isn’t a thing."

brettmbr

Walk of Yuck

"How glamorous the walk of fame is, Hollywood Blvd is dirty and full of cheap shops selling crap and homeless people."

Horace_P_MctittiesIV

Olivia Newton John Star GIF by Movistar+Giphy

Classic HS...

"Bullying. While classic high school and middle school movie bullying can be seen in real life, it’s realistically and commonly much less direct. It’s more passive-aggressive. Sometimes they even pretend to be nice but you can tell they’re only speaking to you because their friends find it funny, or it was a dare."

"Rarely will you see a jock push a nerd up against his locker. Students, in my experience, will immediately call them out for that. Bullying is a lot more complex, from what I’ve seen."

RafeReddits

Lies, lies and more lies. Hollywood has left us in a world confusion. I love isn't happily ever after...


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hollywood

People Break Down The Craziest Money-Making Schemes They've Ever Heard Of

Reddit user primeiro23 asked: 'What are the craziest ways you’ve heard of people making money?'

green plant in clear glass vase
Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

When I was in seventh grade, I had aspirations to be a poet. I made a Mother's Day card for my mom with a cute (but now, cringe-worthy) poem inside, and a hand-drawn picture of a rose that took me hours to perfect.

A friend saw the card and said they wished they could do the same. Then suddenly, she asked if she could buy the card from me. I said no, since I needed to give it to my own mother, but I said I could make her a copy. From there, my friend got the idea for me to make copies of the card to sell. I went along with it, mostly because I didn't think it would actually work.

Turns out, it did. After making sure people would actually be interested, we went to the library after school and made several color copies of my card for 10 cents each. The next day, we sold each card for $1. Not only did we make enough money so that my friend and I could both afford to get our moms an actual present in addition to the card, but we had enough leftover to put us over the top for the money we needed to buy the matching faux leather jackets we'd been wanting all year.

The next year, many people who bought cards asked me to do it again, so I did. Once again, we made a killing. We didn't try to do it again once we got to high school, but it was definitely fun while it lasted.

When we tell people this story, they think it's a pretty crazy money-making scheme. Maybe it is, but we're not the only ones who ever did anything like this. Redditors know all about crazy money-making schemes, and are eager to share their own stories.

It all started when Redditor primeiro23 asked:

"What are the craziest ways you’ve heard of people making money?"

Tumble Into Business

"In college, I take a class on how to start & run a small business. Prof tells us to think of ridiculous business models for our fictitious businesses as we will get more out of the class that way. Stupid ideas ensue. Selling paperclips door to door, refilling car gasoline tanks in people's driveways, service to read & summarize the newspaper to executives etc."

"One classmate decides he is going to sell tumbleweed."

"Guess who quits college and started a successful business? Tumbleweed guy. Takes a van to the desert, collects tumbleweed and sells them to Hollywood movie & TV studios who need them. Keeps the tumbleweed in a warehouse and since they never spoil, his only costs are gasoline, storage & a website. He eventually becomes the number one tumbleweed provider to studios around the world, shipping tumbleweed globally."

"Made a heap of money selling what millions of people drive by and ignore every year."

– Accomplished-Fig745

Synopses

"I did have a job reading and summarizing newspaper articles to the boss. Literally only task I was hired for."

– Draigdwi

"An actual union job in the film industry is reading scripts and summarizing them in short mean book reports."

– Trixiebees

Jump!

"Heard of crazier, but a guy I know, friend of my mother's, went to Texas 30+ years ago. (we are from Norway), and he noticed every single garden had a trampoline. And it was almost always "jump king" - the circular with blue mat ones."

"So he went to the HQ, bought 10 and took back to Norway. Within days they were sold, and he ordered 50 more, same thing. So he became the only importer and has God knows how many millions to his name today."

– alexdaland

"This IS wild. I went to Norway recently and one of the first things I noticed was that almost EVERY yard had a trampoline in it."

– TrulyMadlyCheaply

Working For A Home

"Back when Dogecoin took off I wrote a guide on recovering old lost wallets and it got so popular I was flooded with requests for further help. Some corrupted wallet files, some lost passwords, etc."

"I have a background in computer science and experience in data retrieval and password cracking, so I started helping people in exchange for a percentage cut (industry standard for wallet recovery). All above board with a contract and everything."

"For a while I was getting new clients every week and making hundreds up to thousands of dollars on every successful recovery (with a fairly good rate of success). The biggest one I ever recovered was a 19 letter long password someone had lost. The work dried up when the price of doge dropped but it got me the down-payment on a house."

– internetpillows

Horsing Around

"A cabbie in Dublin once told me a story about one of his fares who had a brilliant hustle."

"The guy was a sculptor. He would watch horse races, then when a horse won, he'd use social media to contact the owner directly with a digital mockup of a life-sized sculpture of the winning horse. Now, the people who own winning racehorses tend to be very rich - we're talking sheikhs, oligarchs, billionaires. Every now and again, one of these owners would bite, and spend €100,000 euros or so on a statue commemorating their animal's win."

"Dude only did a couple a year, and spent the rest of the time living the good life."

– escoterica

Sweet!

"Richest guy in a rich town near us makes enormous amounts of money buying Hershey bars and rewrapping them with customised retirement celebration designs or corporate logos to be given away at events. Literally just rewraps them in pieces of paper and doubles or triples his money."

"Every time I try to start a company or invent a better product or something, I ask myself why I’m not just rewrapping candy bars."

– perchance2cream

"F**k man, I think I found my new niche."

– LibertyPrimeIsASage

Slightly Used

"I went to college in a capitol C college town. A friend of mine bought an old school bus, fixed it up and took out all the seats."

"At the end of every semester she would drive around the neighborhood that was the fancier side of off campus living and collect whatever the rich kids were throwing out before they moved / went home for the summer. Flat screen TVs, couches, computers, tables, it was wild to see what people would chuck out and replace the next semester rather than having to deal with getting a storage unit or moving themselves."

"Sold it all on Craigslist over the summer or the beginning of the next semester and made a killing."

– sam_neil

Credit Where Credit Is Undue

"When I worked in a really busy, upscale restaurant my coworker would put all of his cash-paying customer’s bills on his credit card and keep the cash which he used to promptly pay off his credit card."

"He did this all day, every day for quite a while and the points started to add up and he was getting free airfare, etc."

"Worked great for a while until management notice a rise in credit card processing fees with an emphasis on one employee and they shut him down real quick."

– blinkysmurf

We Found Gold!

"My buddy worked his way through college by panning for gold. This was in 2009 in California. Most days he made nothing, occasionally he would come home with a couple hundred bucks worth and I think once he found a night worth over $1k."

– discostud1515

"My cousin had a metal detector when he was in HS. He would go every weekend down to the lake and take it with him on vacation. He found all kinds of things. He did find gold jewelry and would sell it online. He made so much money he bought his own car."

– Content_Pool_1391

Sleeping For The Job

"I knew a woman whose job was literally to sleep."

"A local office building owner wanted somebody on-site 24/7 to be the point of contact with first responders if they ever needed to be called. So they hired her to come in to the building in the evening when the maintenance crew was finishing their work. And she would settle up to sleep for the night in a bedroom they'd set aside for her. In the morning she'd hand the building back over to the office employees and go on about her day."

"No first responders were ever called. It's about the least stressful legitimate job I could ever imagine."

– CaptainTime5556

The Secret

"Back in the 90s, I knew a guy who put an ad in the classified section of the newspaper which read something along the lines of, “For $10, I’ll tell you my secret to making easy money. Send $10 cash to (address) to find out how.” People would send him $10 & he would then instruct them to put a classified ad in the newspaper telling people to send $10 & how to make money."

– freudianfalls

Accident Payment

"I was pushed down the stairs by a teen girl who told me to "pay attention and get out of her way" i ripped my dress during the fall and was getting back up when some guy rushed up to me, apologized for his daughter and handed me $500 as compensation."

– thebrilliantcounc

"LOL - years back, I was in a parking lot during a snowstorm. A guy was trying to pull around me, slid on the snow/ice and hit into my passenger side door. It really and truly was an accident. He was all apologies. We exchanged info - he said to get a quote and he would pay for the damage."

"Well, the car I was driving at the time was a crappy old Ford worth maybe $500. But, I went to a body shop, got a quote on the repair and it was $900. I faxed it to him (this was back in the 90's, LOL) thinking he'd tell me to go through the insurance company and just have the car totaled out."

"To my surprise, I had a bank check for $900 from him in my mailbox three days later. Now, I already owned another car, so I pocketed the $900, sold the smashed car for parts for $300 and ended up with $1200 on a car that was worth only $500 before the accident. I was very glad that he ran into me!"

– Deleted User

Only Feet

"I have a friend who sells pictures of her feet. In heels. Barefoot squishing cake. In mud. She charges extra for special requests. Has strict ‘no go’ rules. Never shows anything above the calf so she can’t be identified (no tats). All proceeds go to her kid’s college fund. Has made enough to fund a PhD."

– NotACrazyCatLadyx2

The things people do for money! But, I guess it works for her!

money making schemes

People's Weirdest Hospital Waiting Room Experiences

hospital waiting area
Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash

When we're in pain or scared, we're not on our best behavior.

We've got more important things on our minds than proper etiquette.

Couple our lowered inhibitions with the bizarre amalgam that is the human body and weirdness is bound to happen in hospital waiting rooms.

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life

People Share Signs To Tell Whether A Friend Has A Good Marriage

A pair of wedding rings on the ground
Photo by Zoriana Stakhniv on Unsplash

No matter how good it might be, no relationship is 100% perfect 100% of the time.

On the contrary, there are some relationships that seem pretty doomed to fail, and it's disheartening how many signs we can spot of the relationship coming apart, perhaps even before the couple themselves is aware of it.

But as clear as a sign of trouble might be, it can feel impossible to talk to a loved one about it when it's about their relationship.

Redditor AnitaDeckenme123 asked:

"What are some signs that your married friend doesn't have a good marriage?"

All Joking Aside

"Talking s**t about their spouse, even if it’s in a joking way, is a clear sign to me. I went to a bachelor party with a bunch of guys I didn’t know and they spent the entire time b***hing about their wives, and they all sounded miserable."

- FunctionBuilt

Desperate to Hide the Truth

"They are withdrawn or secretive. If your friend is suddenly withdrawn or secretive, it may be a sign that they are having problems in their marriage."

- LiaRipsx

Weird Gestures to "Mark Their Territory"

"His hang glider now has a full-sized graphic of his spouse holding the cat on it. And he wasn't asked beforehand."

- BarcodeNinja

Hypothetical Divorces

"They talk about divorce hypothetically."

- LaximumEffort

"Okay, but what if, say, I am watching a lot of true crime murder shows, and he tells me we can just get a divorce instead of me killing him? Does that count? Lol (laughing out loud)."

- HopefulKitty

Detached Relationship

"When they don’t care what the other person is doing or where they are. Basically, two people who live separate lives and live like roommates."

- Lucyinthesky

"My friend never says anything bad about her husband, but she also doesn't speak about him much at all. They’ve been married less than a year, but she's said things like not caring what he's up to a couple of times, and it made me wonder if that was normal in marriage. It feels wrong."

- happinessinasong88

Fighting in Public

"I’ve known two different couples that off and on fought a lot around me at certain points, which isn’t obviously a great sign."

"The fighting stopped, but what I realized after a while that may be worse is that they didn’t interact at all unless absolutely necessary."

"I’m mostly oblivious, so it took my wife pointing it out to notice that both of these couples never really talk to each other besides mandatory stuff like plans or the kids."

"No casual conversations, no eye contact, no touching each other; literally no interaction that’s not necessary for the family to function."

"I suppose it’s better than fighting in public, but it’s kind of weird once you notice it."

- non_clever_username

Social Media Cover Stories

"If they're plastering social media with how HAPPY they are, and they're SO IN LOVE, and THEY'RE GOING TO BE TOGETHER FOREVER, that's a sure sign that things are in the process of going sideways."

- wilderlowerwolves

"This confuses me SO much. I have two close friends (women) who have been texting me nonstop about how s**tty their significant others are, like going OFF about them, long voice messages, etc."

"Then between messages, I will open Facebook and see they just made a post about how much they love their partner with a cute picture and tons of hearts and s**t."

"Like... WHAT. I have never called them out, but what the h**l?"

- perfectdrug659

"Gah, my BIL (Brother-in-Law) divorced after a short two-year marriage, and this was the prime indicator of knowing that they were doomed."

"They did this kissy cutesy schmoopy lovey-dovey thing in public, and the worse their relationship got, the more publicly showy they were about showing how in love they were. It was horrific to watch unfold."

- abqkat

Controlling and Jealous Behavior

"In my experience, going out with my old homie that was married, I couldn't ever post us out at the bar or anything. If his wife saw it, she’d blow her top apparently."

"We went out for my 23rd birthday a couple of years ago and merely his elbow was in the video of me sipping on whatever drink I had. In a panic, he urged that I delete it before his wife saw it for whatever reason."

"They’re divorced now."

- jailbreakthetesla_

Mean to Their Partner

"When their identity is the 'person who is mean to their spouse.'"

"I was at a party this weekend and there was a woman who just bad-mouthed her husband and talked about how nice it was to be away from him and the kids for the night. That’s like her shtick… she talks about how her kids and husband are s**tty. It’s such a gross personality, and it’s relatively common. It shouldn’t be common at all."

- SpacemanPete

Flirting Elsewhere

"They flirt a lot. A lot of unhappily married people I know are quick to flirt with anyone who seems interested because they want to feel that spark again."

- FlatulentDwarf

Constant Check-Ins

"When one of them is out and their spouse does not stop calling them."

- BansheeShriek

"I can't imagine living like that. I took a 10-day road trip to the beach alone, and all my husband asked of me was to keep my location turned on in case of an accident, and text a few times a day so he knew I was alive. That's trust."

- HopefulKitty

The Depression or Glow Up Era

"If they suddenly seem really down on themselves or stop taking care of themselves for seemingly no reason, If their outlook on relationships and/or marriage had changed since getting married, If they have nothing good to say about their partner or just don't talk about them..."

"The list goes on."

- Misspent_interlude

"Or reverse, they start glowing up. They lose weight, focus on appearance more, it means they're getting ready to split."

- Alternative-Post-937

Wishful Widows

"When my husband died, some friends admitted that they were a little jealous."

- emmymcd

"My ex-husband responded, 'One can only hope,' and looked at me when he heard someone’s wife died."

- foldinthecheese89

"I would never say this to someone, but I understand the sentiment. I absolutely wished my ex-husband dead a handful of times. It's one of those things where you can't leave because I had very little money of my own and staying meant living with abuse."

- IsThatBlueSoup

Jealous of Working Relationships

"It's bad when you avoid or feel guilty talking about how happy you are or about the nice and thoughtful things that your partner does because you know your friend can't relate."

- anemic_girlfriend

"Yikes. This is how I am with a friend group of mine. They’re always complaining about their husbands, and I stay silent. I don’t want to rub it in that I love my husband and he’s mostly awesome. In the past two years, one has gotten divorced and another is on her way there."

- Nonny70

"It gets weird for me when people are like, 'Must be nice to get away from the wife' if I'm on a work trip or something."

"I don't understand. I sleep better when my wife's next to me, I feel better about the day when I get to see her and talk to her, she makes me smile all the damn time."

"Everybody on the planet is a very distant second on my list of people I want to be around, and even though we do plenty of things separately I don't see time apart as some sort of reprieve from her presence."

- HereToTheSquatch

Wishing They Were Out

"I got married young and a lot of older guys gave me s**t for it, like they resented their wives for settling down too soon. It upsets me when men talk s**t about their wives. If you hate your wife, then leave, she’s probably better off without you."

"My wife is my best friend. Seven years later, our relationship only grows stronger over time. If you love someone and they love you back, be grateful for that and show it!"

- Apprehensive-Hall254

There are many ways to tell that a relationship is in a downward spiral, especially when the relationship is not our own.

But these accounts were intense and ones that we can only hope are less common.

signs of a breakup

People Reveal The Worst Health-Related Advice They've Ever Received

Doctor with arms crossed holding stethoscope
Sasun Bughdaryan/Unsplash

Whenever we feel like something isn't right about our bodies or we're suffering from some kind of medical issues, we want them taken care of straight away.

The problem with that is, that depending on whom we're getting information from, we tend to believe in the initial diagnosis or remedy because we trust the professional sources and we want quick solutions.

But do doctors and health specialists always know what they're talking about?

Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

Strangers online shared their medical horror stories when Redditor Ohyo_Ohyo_Ohyo_Ohyo asked:

"What is the worst health advice you've been given?"

Not doing further research into something that raises eyebrows can be a fatal mistake.

Turns Out It Was Brain Cancer

"i went cross eyed and my primary said 'could be a sinus thing, get some mucinex.'”

"turns out it was glioblastoma."

– Guy_Faux

"Wow, that's an absurdly sh**ty doctor. The same thing happened to my mother and it was quickly determined that it was stage 4 lung cancer. She made it about 3 months after that. She was 48 and I was 18 so the idea that any doctor would ignore that is infuriating to me."

– Frisky_Picker

Second Opinion Saves Lives

"My primary doctor kept telling me that nothing was wrong with my thyroid, and I was a hypochondriac."

"I had been told at 12 years old that I had thyroid issues and she told me that doctor was wrong. I had to see a whole other doctor to get a referral to the endocrinologist because she literally refused to refer me to one."

"The endocrinologist said, I had scarring all over my thyroid, I had Hashimoto’s, and my levels were horrible, and she didn’t know what the doctor was talking about. She said she was glad I advocated for myself."

– littlemybb

Tiny Grandchild

"I was not the recipient of this 'advice' but I had a coworker proudly say how small her new grandchild was when they were born and that her daughter smoked her whole pregnancy to try and have a smaller baby. This was in like 2010, not the 1960s for reference."

"ETA: smoked cigarettes. clarified since that can mean more than one thing."

– Emkems

Unforeseen Ailment​

"Was sick for a year in my late teens. Saw multiple specialists to find the cause. Experimented with diet. Saw a naturopath that did some ‘electric pulse test’ thing that apparently gave indicators of organ health. After a few visits, and months of eating the weirdest sh*t, the test said things were improving (including my gallbladder). Months went on but I was still quite sick. I eventually ended up in hospital and one of my specialists decided to take my appendix out on a whim to see if it might help. Turns out I had something called a ‘grumbling appendix’ and it completely fixed me. Funny thing is, while they were in there, they discovered I was born without a gallbladder."

– Ok_Ear_8848

These are not appropriate remedies.

That's Not How That Works

"When I had an urinary tract infection someone told me to wash my vagina with vinegar..."

– _Puke_Bucket_

"And maybe add some diced onions and tomatoes to make a refreshing Mediterranean salad."

– Bos_lost_ton

Pushing Through

"Just push through whenever you're sick. If you can get to a doctor's office for a doctor's certificate you can get to school/college/work."

– BoyMonday

"My childhood pediatrician told my parents that 'A sick child never smiles.'”

"I tend to laugh/smile when I’m nervous or uncomfortable to self regulate."

– pinotproblems

"A doctor once told my parents that a child who isn’t crying can’t really be hurt. Because of that, it took me days to convince my parents to take me to the doctor after I fell on my arm because I wasn’t crying. It turns out it was broken."

– slowsunslumber

"Ignoring" The Problem Isn't A Solution

"A friend of mine was in horrible pain, and was repeatedly told (by multiple doctors) that she should stop complaining and just get used to it because periods are painful and that’s the way it is."

"After being blown off for years, she finally got a doctor to take her pain seriously- and it turned out she had severe endometriosis. The surgeon said it was the worst case he had ever seen in his career, and was horrified that it had gotten so advanced with no one listening to her."

– sapphireblossoms

Choking On Blood

"The school nurse telling me to tilt my head back for a bloody nose. That was an awful experience."

– hypo-osmotic

"I do like doing this because when I cough up the blood I can pretend I’m in a period drama and I have tuberculosis."

– OrangeTree81

These Redditors discovered that all pain is not necessarily "normal."

The C-Word

"Doctor said certain pain is normal as you get older. Turns out it was cancer."

– REDDIT

"That's a fibrous strip of breast tissue, you're too young to have breast cancer."

"Delayed diagnosis by 6 months. I was 31."

– juniper_max

Thinking Twice About Back Pain

"I got from a doctor, 'everyone has back pain. There’s nothing wrong with you, just use a heating pad.' It was kidney stones."

– 5hrs4hrs3hrs2hrs1mor

"Yikes, I am so sorry."

"I had a kinda similar experience. I went to the doctor for a morning appointment to get some persistent, worsening back pain checked out. Doc asked me where my back pain was, looked me in the eyes and told me I was fine and must have just slept wrong. He shut me down when I tried to advocate for myself."

"That night, I was admitted to the ER due to the crippling pain I was in. Turns out I had a serious kidney infection that was turning septic."

"One of the ER staff who helped me told me if I had waited another 24 hours, my kidneys would have shut down and I very likely would have died from organ failure?!"

"I’ve been dismissed by doctors over and over again in my personal health journey, and it is so frustrating and scary, as they’ve dismissed me for 'being dramatic' when there’s actually something very serious going on with my body."

– Yarr0wFeather

Vitamin D Overdose

"If you have pale skin, get just a little sunburnt every day so that your skin will 'learn' to get a tan. That’s how everyone else does it."

"My Solar Keratosis skin cancers would beg to disagree."

– comfortablynumb15

As much as we want to believe our doctors when they give us a health assessment and assure us we're "fine," you should never ignore your inner voice telling you that something is not right.

Your conscience is there for a reason.

Even if a doctor tells you it's okay to ignore the problem, you should think twice about ignoring your gut feelings.

health