being ill

At one point during middle school for unknown reasons, I started to feel my forehead quite often. I noticed that, most of the time, it seemed hot and feverish. It concerned me a little, even though I felt perfectly fine. I was sitting in class feeling my forehead up until highschool when I mentioned this strange phenomenon to a friend. She casually informed me that it was because my hands were cold.

Actually Healthy

one day, in the third or fourth grade, our teacher told us about AIDS and the methods by which it was transmitted. it was the usual methods--unprotected sex, unsafe blood transfusions, iv drug use and tattoos, if the needles were unsterilized. apparently, i thought all tattoos resulted in AIDS, because i came home in hysterics, thinking that my mom, who had two tattoos, was going to die of AIDS. it took her half an hour to calm me down enough to explain that there were safe ways of getting tattoos done...

serephym

When I was younger my dad was talking to me about cancer (I don't know why, i think I asked what it was but I really don't remember). When he started talking to me about scientists looking for cures, his laptop, which was on the table near us, shut off and the screensaver (the colorful ball thing that changes shapes) came on. For the longest time I thought that the screensaver thingy was a computer program that scientists made to look for the cure for cancer.

C

I use to believe that you would get ill because you were naughty

Ríoghnach

This is somewhat bizarre: I used to believe that my mother would be able to remove the solid matter from my vomit and that I'd be able to use the resulting liquid as brown paint.

Anon

I used to believe as a child that there were little men with cranks who ran my body. And when they broke down, I would get sick.

Sara

I used to believe that the shaking done by people with parkinson´s disease was down to being nervous. Only this belief carried on right up to the 1996 olympics when Mohamed Ali appreared shaking, before lighting the flame. Thanks to my dear friend Daniel for explaining this small detail to me.

The Brazilian one

A friend of mine is afraid of chickens because of her grandmother swinging a live chicken over her head when she had chickenpox. Her grandmother believed it would help the chickenpox to go away.

Anon

I used to believe that if I threw up too hard my brain would explode.

Tammy

My cousin came in we were young and announce that HE had pulled his cervix. Connfusing that with his cervical vertebrae. He was ina lot of pain, but that was really funny

Austin

I used to think that, when people were talking about "Alzheimer's," they were actually saying "Old Timer's." I used to think the official medical term for the disease was "Old Timer's." Heh.

Darrin

When i was 5 or so i thought that if someone had brain surgery they would go in and sit down on a chair like at the hairdressers and someone would just slice their head open and fix whatever was wrong. i believed this subconsously until i was 12.

Robbie Pine

Once I was watching T.V. with my aunt, uncle and brother. a comercial came on about getting help with erectile difficulties. My brother (who had no idea what the heck he was talking about) said "i think i have that" my uncle laughed and convinced him that "reptile" difficulties were when a lizard was sick he believed him untill he was 11.

Anon

In America there used to be a cold remedy called Vicks Vap-o-Rub. It was a mentholated gel to be rubbed on the chest of a congested person. As a child, I thought it worked because overnight, the gel got absorbed directly into my lungs, right through the skin, muscle, organs and bones. The next morning I could breathe clearly!

Dufus

I used to believe that you would get chicken pox if you touched a chicken.
One day I asked my mom and she said that you don't.

Joe

I used to believe that cancer as disease was a real little cancer with claws crawling somewhere in stomach. How stupid!

catherine

Before I learned that pneumonia had a silent "p", I used to believe it was actually two sicknesses: there was neumonia, which was what you got if bronchitis got worse, and then if that got even worse, you ended up with PENumonia.

Miriam

I read the book "The Velveteen Rabbit" when I was a child. It's a story about a young boy who contracts Scarlet Fever, set in a time when they didn't know much about diseases. They ended up having to burn all of the boy's toys, bedding, and stuffed animals -- including his favourite, his velveteen rabbit. I was terrified for years, even into college, of getting Scarlet Fever. I couldn't bear the though of my favourite teddy bear and pillow -- which have been with me my whole life -- being tossed into a bonfire. Scarlet Fever is still one of my biggest fears,

Scarlet

When I was a kid, I thought you threw up when the food in your stomach had collected up to your throat and needed to be emptied.

Anon

My sisters once told me if I blinked too much I would get cancer.

How mean... D:

Budster