being ill

When I was little, I used to think that the ONLY way that a person could get AIDS is if they had sex with someone who had it. Then I started to see a lot of charity promotions that said things like, 'Help young children with AIDS - donate today!' and I would be like, EEW!

I'm very glad I found out the truth.

Catherine

I used to believe that when people said they'd 'split their head open' they'd cut it right down the middle and your brain and blood and stuff hung out until the nurse hoisted them all back in and sealed your head again!

ani

I have always hated going to the dentist and when I was smaller and would wait in the waiting room, I would hear the sound of drilling and used to think the sound was too drown out the patients screaming.

WelshGirl

When I was 6, I needed 2 teeth out and had an aneasthetic injection in my hand to get me to sleep ( I hate the things! ). They told me that the stuff in the injection was 'butterfly milk' for some reason and I believed them so everytime I saw a butterfly, I was worried that if it landed on me I might get this 'butterfly milk' on me and fall to sleep.

The butterfly effect

i used to think if u got a cut on your body all of your blood would pour out.

Jay

My dad has a permanent stroke so he doesn't understand when he eats he needs to wipe his mouth, so my brother told me that stuff coming out of his mouth was cancer and then i thought my dad had cancer. He also had a bowl he ate out of a lot and i got so scared to eat out of that bowl cuz i thought i'd get cancer. I called it the cancer bowl. I was scared up until i was 10 or 11 to eat out of that bowl and even know i still get grossed out eating out of that bowl.

Fear of cancer bowl

When I was ill as a child, generally a 24-hour bug or something, my mother would give me some of her "secret" medicine. It was clear and slightly sparkly, and had a very unpleasant taste, but sure enough, I tended to feel better after taking it.

Naturally, I came to believe that the "secret" medicine could cure anything, since I always got better when I took it instead of having to go to the doctor's. Therefore, if you made enough of it, you could cure everybody in the world and there wouldn't be any need for hospitals any more.

I was eleven and helping look after my brother when I finally got disillusioned. The so-called "medicine" was water with sugar and salt in it... I still don't know if it actually had any beneficial effect, or if she was just trying to trick me into feeling better.

silverstar1809

When I was five, I took a sick day from school. I was taking my temperature, and my mom happened to be doing the housework at the time and was trying to sweep under where I was sitting. She told me: "Stand up". So after that, for many years, I believed that taking my temperature required standing up.

Jilly Bean

When I was about 6 or 7, I believed that when you vomited, your spit would turn green. Ah, may a time I spent waiting for my spit to go green while I vomited in the toilet.

Mike

I had a yeast infection when I was little. I'm told that I was given a sandwich, and I started crying and screaming "I'm never eating bread again and you can't make me!!!," sure that that was the source of the infection.

Anon

i used to think that after you got out of the hospital, like from having surgery, or being sick or whatever, that it changed the way you looked. this is because i used to watch the tv show Rescue 911, and there would be actors who would reenact the the accidents, and then afterwards the real person who had the accident would talk about it. i figured out it wasn't true in 3rd grade when i broke my arm and had to go to the hospital, and came out looking the same.

Kelly

When I was in elementary school I had to get my first hepatitis shot. So I asked my mom about hepatitis and she told me about how you're liver wouldn't work and your skin and the whites of your eyes would turn yellow. Some days I would feel sick so I'd run to the mirror and check to see if I had turned yellow. I was really deathly afraid of contracting hepatitis, A B C D E F G H I J....etc. (It came it EVERY letter of the ABCs for me, not just B or C)

Amber

When I first learned how to read for some reason I checked a book out from the library about a little girl who had diabetes. I cried when I read it and for YEARS afterward I thought that if I ate too much sugar, or too much in general, at a given time I'd get diabetes and die. I read about the symptoms somewhere too, and if ever I thought I went potty too much I'd get scared and wait outside crying until my dad got home. I'd tell him "daddy, I think I have "dee-a-betty's"

I couldn't pronounce it until I was in middle school. I got over this fear sometime, I guess.

Amber

when I was young my mom told me that Santa's elf had given her neosporin(the stuff you put on cuts and whatever), and that it was "magic medicine". everytime I got hurt I would ask her for my "magic medicine" and it instantly felt better when she put it on. Ahh, placebo effect!

lauren

When I was six and my sister was 4, she got a urinary tract infection. All I remember was that there wsa this gigantic poster of a fly zoomed in at the emergency room, and my sister was put into this big machine that my dad told me "it will look at her insides" My sister was crying because she thought it was a monster. As soon as she gto inside it, I asked the doctor "So, are you going to see the mushed up green apples Lauren had for breakfast? (stemmed from the "looking at the insides" part) My mom and my dad broke out in laughter and the doctor wasn't any better. Then they explained it to me, and I thought they were kidding.

Kaitlin

I thought that germs were tiny people and when i was sick, a war between the good germs and bad germs was raging, so i felt all crazy when i was sick.

poisen

when i was about 3 to 5 i belived that heart attacks were other hearts were attacking you

james

When my godmother was very ill with cancer (I was 5 at the time) I remember my Mum explaining that it was something that grows inside you. For years I imagined cancer as being a Yucca tree that grew inside and got so big you couldn't breathe anymore and that's why you died from it. I must have been at least 10 when I discovered that wasn't the case at all and the Yucca trees in our house weren't taking over!

Lynn

When I was little and I heard of someone that had 'broken' their arm I always assumed it mean that their arm had fallen off, because when you break things they usually fall off or something.

Cree