Warning: This article discusses suicidal ideation.

Sometimes, we don’t realize that something we are doing or experiencing is different until others tell us. So Reddit user u/anna-lena-breiert he asked: “What is something you always thought was normal until you realized that other people don’t experience it?” More than six thousand people told their stories. Here are some of them below.

1.“When I was a kid, I walked to school. When it was cold, I’d come home and my mom would say, ‘Why are you wheezing?’ “I shrugged because I thought it happened to people in cold weather. A few years later, I found out that I had exercise-induced asthma and that cold weather was my main trigger.”

2.“It took me a while to piece together that most people realize they’re hungry before it starts to hurt.”

—you/mugofsoul

3.“Ever since I can remember, I’ve been having strange, sparkly things periodically in my field of vision. Rainbow-coloured, jagged, circle-like things that slowly got bigger until my head looked like it was ‘passing’ ‘through’ the circle, then faded away. It’s always happened. I’ve always had really cranky, achy things afterwards.” and I would be tired. It always happened when my mom took me shopping for clothes or shopping (she would get very angry when I wanted to leave the mall 10 minutes later). When I was in my twenties, I mentioned in passing: ‘Oh, wait, I have the sparkly thing because I hate these now I’m going to get a headache. . My mom said ‘Wait, WHAT?’ “Yes, I have chronic migraines with aura and fluorescent light is the primary trigger.”

4.“Not trusting your parents and being very careful not to share any details of your personal life because they will use it against you. I thought everyone did that.”

—u/MsFlippy

“Yes, I thought everyone was afraid/distrustful of their parents until I saw a friend who joked with their parents like a friend. Protecting our mental health and having boundaries means having to exclude them from our personal lives or push them away. Build very high walls between us and them.”

—u/I_love_pillows

5.I grew up with some pretty questionable dental care that was free through my father’s tribal health services. I had a lot of dental problems, probably caused by my mother giving me apple juice in a bottle and my tooth enamel never developing properly. My brother and sister never had a cavity during their annual dentist trip, but I always had four to five or more. So the visits were pretty awful. I would complain about the procedures and how painful they were (I was 6), but my parents were ‘tough’ and ‘tough loving’ people. Therefore, my complaints were treated as whining. What was worse was being told I deserved it for not brushing my teeth better. So I stopped complaining. During my 5th root canal 27 years later, I was shaking, nervous and sweating. The dentist kept asking if I was okay, as he always did. “I said, ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ as I always say.”

6.“I used to think that having random moments of déjà vu was completely normal for everyone, but then I learned that some people actually never experience it. It seemed so ordinary to me that I was surprised.”

—u/AmberRoseExclusiveOF

“I’ve had this for years, then I realized that’s actually what it’s called déjà reve. This is where you have seen something before and it happens again but it is from a dream state. I find the whole concept fascinating.”

—u/EbonyTempest

7.“I used to think that everyone had a vivid internal monologue that described their day, but then I realized some people don’t have one. It blew my mind when I realized it wasn’t a common occurrence.”

8.“I apologize all the time, even for things that aren’t my fault. It seems like not everyone feels the need to say ‘I’m sorry’ all the time.”

—u/Hijastronaut

9.“Since I was little, I would often feel my heart flip-flop and pound. I thought it was normal until the doctor noticed it during a routine physical exam. He asked if I was nervous about going to the doctor, and I told him my heart does that all the time. Apparently I have a lot of it.” Premature ventricular contractions. “My cardiologist said these are very common, but most people don’t actually feel them all the time.”

10.“I’m constantly counting in my head. It turns out it’s a symptom of OCD. I didn’t realize it until I was an adult. I’m constantly counting everything.”

—u/JournalistShot1501

“Absolutely. I’ve been diagnosed with OCD, and the urge to count is incredibly boring. I can’t read a book without counting the numbers in sentences to see if they’re odd or even, or counting most of them to make sure I understand whether they’re right or not. It makes reading take forever.”

—u/TaraCalicosBike

11.“When I’m in a room with other people, part of my brain is paying attention to every conversation my ears can pick up at once. In particular, it’s paying attention to the emotional tenor of each conversation in case someone suddenly starts talking at a bad time. It seems like most of you only listen to one conversation at a time. My style is actually As a result of growing up with an explosive parent, I don’t want anything to happen that would lead to an angry person. This also explains why I have a hard time in groups of more than 10, when there are so many voices having different conversations, I feel vulnerable and vulnerable and overwhelmed. Things spiral downward from there.”

12.“We rehearse arguments in the shower like it’s a courtroom drama. Apparently, not everyone wins imaginary arguments.”

—u/Ambitious_Mia

13.“PMDD. Every month I kept quiet about my symptoms because I truly thought that everyone who had their period was also extremely angry, exhausted, hopeless, and couldn’t stop thinking about wanting to kill themselves and everyone around them. I missed an incredible amount of school and was fired from my job for not being able to work about two weeks out of every month. After seeing someone describe PMDD online, I realized I had a problem. I use birth control constantly now, so no periods or hormonal changes for me! “I received full sex education, but they never talked specifically about which symptoms are mentally normal during menstruation and which are not.”

14.“Constant intrusive thoughts and imagining scenarios of possible horrifically traumatic events.”

—you/brinncognito

“I have this and it’s terrible. It steals the joy out of almost everything. For example, yesterday my husband and I went to a photo shoot. He was taking beautiful photos. I was so engrossed in his photos that I took some photos too. This is what I’m going to use for his funeral, Where did this idea come from? My daughter is not in college and every day I dream about something happening to her, Mother Mary, I don’t know what to do to stop it and yes, I am in therapy.”

—u/HauntingChapter8372

15.“I thought it was normal for certain fabric textures to make people feel physically nauseated and intensely disgusted when touched – this is called autism.”

Is there anything you’ve done or experienced that you’ve noticed is actually not normal? Tell us what it is in the comments below.

National Alliance on Mental Illness The hotline is 1-888-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries that supports harm reduction efforts in therapy.