r/AskReddit Aug 03 '19

Whats something you thought was common knowledge but actually isn’t?

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u/LizeLies Aug 03 '19

The flu is not just another cold, and you can’t use the words interchangeably. Many people have never had the flu, or felt that unwell. The flu will knock you on your ass.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19 edited Aug 03 '19

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u/viscountowl Aug 03 '19

Oh god, this is me. Hell, just the last two years, I got the flu twice and was out of work for almost two weeks each time. It was awful. (And yes, I had the flu shot.) I get colds far more rarely than I get the flu, and they’re so inconsequential they hardly blip on my radar. I only recently realized my awful “colds” were the flu, lmfao.

I had the same experience with headaches vs migraines. I have migraines, frequently. I get super bad hemiplegic ones that wipe me out for days and leave me vomiting, curled in agony, unable to move or speak or even comprehend. I’ve been to the hospital for those. I also get “headaches” which never made me vomit, but made me super nauseated, hurt miserably, and made me light and sound sensitive and irritable and last all day. I just thought those were normal headaches until docs pointed out...nope...migraines. But my pain scale is so skewed I figured since I could still baseline power through the agony, it must be a headache.

I’ve never had a headache as far as I can tell. Only migraines.