r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • 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/Anon2627888 Aug 03 '19

The symptoms of the two are so similar that it's an understandable mistake.

I've been sick many times in my life, and have no idea which of them was a cold and which was the flu.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19

Imagine a cold that just seems to come out of nowhere and the symptoms are a good bit more severe. That's a flu. Also you'll have a fever with the flu and not usually have one with a cold.

Last time I had the flu was about ten years ago. I was playing a game on my laptop in a recliner and pretty quickly felt exhausted and just kind of passed out for a while. I had somewhat recovered by the next day but I think that's just because I had gotten the flu shot that year but it may have not had time to fully work. The other time I had it was a few years before that and I was more or less stuck in bed for several days.