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People Explain Which Of Their 'Weird Quirks' Turned Out To Be A Real Medical Issue
As an infant and toddler I was nonverbal. According to my family, I didn't babble or vocalize like most infants.
My Mother was a registered nurse, so she had my hearing tested and my throat examined multiple times to check for hearing impairment or problems with my vocal chords. But nothing abnormal was ever found.
I was evaluated for mental impairments as well, but again, everything came back as normal.
It was just an "odd quirk."
Then one day shortly before I turned two, I started speaking in complete sentences. About 38 years later I was diagnosed as autistic and all of my many "odd quirks" suddenly made sense.
Reddit user minbye asked:
"What did you think was a 'weird quirk' you had that turned out to be a symptom of a mental/physical health issue?"
It Hurts, Period!
"Nearly every period, I would get a terrible pain in my backside, like a stabbing pain which would make me stop wherever I was. I also had a twisting back pain on the left side of my back."
"The doctors dismissed it as 'periods are painful' and 'there's a wide range of normal'. Finally had an MRI in my 30s and I have Stage IV endometriosis with deep infiltrating lesions."
"Adhesions had stuck my bowel to my uterus and also strangled my left ureter so that my kidney couldn't drain properly and was swollen."
"On the mental health side, I got so used to feeling like I was a hypochondriac with a low pain threshold that, to this day, I automatically assumed I'm being melodramatic when I'm ill."
~ Educational-Juice278
Can't Eat If You Can't Swallow
"I didn’t like eating as a very young kid. I was underweight and anemic."
"Turns out my tonsils were huuuuuge and once they got removed, I could eat!"
~ MeanSecurity
On Repeat
"Repeating words in my head since I was a child."
"Then one day I went to the ER, and I was extremely anxious, and the doctor gave me an anti-anxiety pill, and I noticed that ended the repetitive thought and words."
~ CheekiKat
Zzzzzzz...
"My son was snoring since birth, and it was ignored by his doctor. Changed doctors, and they IMMEDIATELY discovered his severe anemia and also referred him to an ENT."
"ENT said my son was breathing through a coffee stir-stick sized passage. After his hemoglobin levels recovered, he had a full tonsil/adenoidectomy."
"Snoring GONE. Appetite shot up. He grew 7 inches and 3 clothing sizes that year."
"And did you know that growth hormones are only released when you're sleeping? If your sleep is interrupted (like from heavy snoring) growth hormones don't get released."
~ cIumsythumbs
Silent Seizures
"Sometimes if I was really tired or jetlagged, I'd wake up and for a few seconds the room would look larger than it actually was."
"Or I wouldn't recognise things that were totally familiar even know I knew they were things I'd seen before (jamais-vu, reverse Deja vu)."
"Turns out I had epilepsy without realising for years. I later developed other types of seizures."
~ Littleloula
Baller
"I would let my friends feel 'the ball in my boob' in high school. One day I told my mom."
"She immediately called the doctor."
"Fast forward the next month and I had surgery to remove a tumor. It ended up being benign."
~ inn3rspe4ker
Good Reason To Cry
"As a kid I wanted to be carried everywhere (like piggyback rides, etc...) for way too long. Like I was an almost 5’ tall 8 year old asking to be carried on vacation."
"My feet hurt after walking more than like, two blocks. I got labeled a whiner and a crybaby very young so no one took my pain seriously."
"My mom took me to a podiatrist to prove there was nothing wrong with me, and it turns out I had severe fallen arches and plantar fasciitis and needed corrective insoles to fix my gait."
"The doctor visit was literally meant to get me to stop complaining and asking to sit or be carried. The shocked pikachu expression on my mom’s face after my examination by the doctor was pretty priceless."
"She took me for ice cream after that appointment."
~ pikachupirate
Say what?
"My parents thought I ignored them a lot because I often 'didn’t listen' as a young child."
"Turns out I had severe chronic ear infections that caused a surge of ear wax to clog up my ears and put pressure on my eardrums so bad that I was practically deaf."
"I had to have surgery to fix it."
~ lkfjk
Sunny Days = Higher Grades
"My grades would drop every winter/late spring."
"I live way north and get severe vitamin D withdrawal."
~ DarrenEdwards
Speak Up
"Periods got heavier as I got older. Just assumed it was part of aging, until my doc ordered an ultrasound."
"Fibroids caused the heavy bleeding."
"It’s such a common yet hush hush issue."
"I have so many relatives and friends who suffered from this, but I was clueless when it happened to me."
"We gotta talk about it more!"
~ Sassy_Praline
Not Psychic
"I thought I could see the future."
"I in fact have bipolar 1 with psychosis."
~ RoutineAlarm2878
"Ayyy BP1 squad 🤜🤛!"
"The doctor gave me two antidepressants and I thought the government took my car."
~ tunatortiga
Nap Time
"Needing constant naps."
"I was already on a stimulant for my ADHD, but my body demanded that I nap for two hours just four hours after I woke up in the morning (after receiving a full ten hours)."
"Turns out I’m narcoleptic!"
~ bl0bbyfish
"My quirk was I could fall asleep anywhere anytime. Noise, light, waking me up purposefully, righto back out again."
"'Be careful, Kase is driving, you know you gotta be awake too'. I took my break during my SAT’s and fell asleep and woke up at the end. Failed hard."
"Warm car and felt comfy, went in a ditch…'That's just Kase, they just, you know'. Middle of a convo, getting heated, 'Kase is just tired…just them being so tired'."
"Go for a sleep study and I fell into REM sleep within 6 minutes, fastest my doc has ever seen. Narcolepsy."
"Without cataplexy even though I question that sometimes because when I am emotional I immediately cry and feel weak to the point I have to sit down, feel sleepy."
~ kctheb
Childhood Memories
"I was a fidgety kid and would do odd things like whisper words under my breath every time I spoke, say certain words a lot, tap things, make sounds."
:I mostly grew out of it, but when I woke up in my 20s with sudden onset motor and vocal tics (by which point I'd almost forgotten what an odd kid I was) I went to a neurologist and it turns out I have Tourette's syndrome."
"It was only when he asked if I had any unusual habits as a child it clicked that I'd had it all along."
~ jesuseatsbees
Hair Apparent
"My previously straight hair got curly in March, the same time I was hit be depression and anxiety."
"No prior issues with depression or anxiety. Fast forward many months that included therapy and SSRI's."
"I get hot flashes and start on estrogen, my Dr tests my hormones and I'm solidly in the middle of perimenopause. I weaned off the SSRI's and have no more depression/anxiety."
"Pretty sure the depression was caused by low estrogen."
"So my curly hair was an indicator of a change in hormones that also caused a cascade of other issues."
~ Schusserfloof
CMT
"All my life when I was growing up I was always uncoordinated."
"I had no balance (I was never able to skate), my coordination was terrible, I had scoliosis, and hearing loss and a hand tremor. My whole body was just 'not right'."
"I fought against all that very hard. I became a bike racer, I’ve done Ironman triathlons, I’ve hiked the Appalachian Trail. Yeah, I am sure I was overcompensating."
"But finally in my 50’s, after a bout of severe foot neuropathy, I was diagnosed with a congenital neuromuscular disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth or CMT which demylenates the peripheral nerves and really screws with the body’s biomechanics."
"I was fighting a huge uphill battle the whole time."
~ overlyattachedbf
Have you ever had an "odd quirk" that was a symptom of a medical issue?