I was just wondering, with all the articles on colds and allergies that I'm sure a lot of us have read over the years, do any of you ever fear that all the stuff you know and have memorized is NOT common sense?

For example...

When my friend told me yesterday that when her cat scratches her, the scratches puff up and itch, and since I notice how she sneezes all the time about the new cat...I want to tell her that I think she could be allergic to it.

When my friend in middle school told me that she always sneezes in the bright sun and doesn't know why...I wanted to tell her that she's photic.

And when my cousin told me that she doesn't understand why she has allergies since she never had those problems before...I wanted to tell her that the logic is faulty...and it can happen at anytime in life, especially now that she was pregnant.

But I'm always afraid to tell people these things but I'm sure they'll probably be like "How do you know all this?" Well...I just habitually read articles that relate to sneezing...and have almost all of my life...that's all. No reason.

Has anyone else ever been afraid of telling people what they know?

Oh I'm not afraid. You see, I am an insufferable "know it all" and I'm always spouting out random facts about anything and everything so I don't think the sneezy facts would get noticed in amongst all that stuff.

In fact I'm sort of a "sneezy snob"! Our family, for no particularly good reason except perhaps to provide ME with hours of entertainment had two sets of medical encyclopedias and I used to read about allergies and colds and all that other good stuff all the time when I was growing up. And it irks me somewhat when people get things wrong. I mean, I'm not a doctor and I don't know everything but even I know that ingesting food that one has a food allergy to does NOT make one sneeze, it brings about a more serious reaction. If that were true, all those people allergic to peanuts would just be worried about sneezing alot and not, y'know...DYING.

And I have no hesitation in pointing that out.

Or random stuff when somebody says "I'm coming down with a cold. I better go to the doctor to get some antibiotics" I cannot refrain from saying "You know antibiotics don't work on colds, right?" But dear god, when people answer back to me "Well anything is better than nothing" I want to hit them. Oh, or when people believe that cold medications kill cold germs I feel I MUST point out to them that they do nothing of the sort, they merely mask symptoms.

Oh dear, I have a severe "know it all" problem!

I know exactly what you mean! Sometimes I wonder if people use the word "fit" or if they are aware of photic sneezing. There are so many terms and descriptions we use when you think about it and who knows if they're known only by fetishists and maybe some doctors. But even if I wonder about this...I never talk about sneezing in front of people anyway, so...

Yeah that's me. My head is so filled up with fairly disconnected meanigless junk, that no one's really surprise when I throw some odd fact about god knows what out there. I actually get asked about a lot of wierd stuff just 'cause people figure I might know something about it.

I usually blame the internet, but it's really because I'm an engineer.

Honestly, I just don't care anymore. My oldest daughter even asked why she sneezes in sunlight, and I explained what I knew about the photic sneeze reflex. For people who don't know about this fetish for me, I blame it on the internet.

lol! My s.o. had to completely embarrass me once while he was talking to his parents he was telling them all about how he found out that he is photic. Ok... he didn't tell them ALL about how he found out... but they didn't question him at all... they just figured that he read it somewhere and that was it. LOL!!

I think if you actually have allergies, it's good cover for knowing a lot about allergies. But mostly I don't bring up my knowledge often because I don't want to find myself in an uncomfortable conversation.

Nope, and I do it all the time (as much as possible, of course ). And I have two great excuses for knowing lots of factoids about allergies (and other medical conditions): (1) I work in a healthcare field, and I read this stuff all day, pretty much every day, for my job; and (2) I developed allergies late in life and had to educate myself all about my condition.

So if I give some advice re: allergies and anyone asks me, "How do you know that?" I have two ready-made answers. No one, but no one, would ever suspect me of having a sneeze fetish. They might suspect me of being a know-it-all (which is possibly true ), but not a fetishist.

I am fairly certain that no one would ever suspect (even remotely) that I am anything other than an insufferable know-it-all.

And I am, indeed, an insufferable know-it-all, so there's really no harm in anyone else thinking as much.

And I don't think I could say it any better than that. Thank you!

Abyssinia,
Barrie

I am a bit cautious about sneezy talk, but less so as time goes on; but mostly sneezy knowledge seems to fall into the category of general useless information that people have heard somewhere, so it isn't suspicious unless you devote too much time to it [aand anyway no one will remember]

I mean, it's not as bad as talking about Gregory of Tours's account of Merovingian royal customs, now is it. I suppose I must be a know-all; my mother called me it when I was little.

Based upon the last couple of responses here, it sounds like we may have to start a new thread re: how many sneeze fetishists are know-it-alls?

I wouldn't be really afraid to say anything like that .. but i don't talk much anyway .. so i would most likely say nothing unless it would be one of the few people i actually speak with .. (wow that DOES sound weird ).

But while my general "common knowledge" isn't nearly as good as that of some other people i know quite some stuff people never expect me to know and if i get my mouth opened i can actually cause a surprise quite often (i mean from about what i say not that i say something ).

One of those would put me on a problem though .. "photic" .. because I've not the slightest idea what would be the German word for that . It could be the same .. but i doubt i would say something so "English-sounding" just out of the blue .

photisches Niesen ??? Sonnenniesen??? Niesen beim Blick in die Sonne ...??? In French it's réflexe photosternutatoire, and that's something no one could make up!

Like i said I've no idea .. "Niesen beim Blick in die Sonne" would just be "sneezing when looking in the sun" i doubt it would make much sense to say that if someone told you that he sneezes when he looks into the sun . "Sonnenniesen" .. well maybe .. I've never heard it though and it sound more like energy fluctuations from the sun .. like "sun-winds" or such. And last photisches Niesen .. honestly .. i don't know if we even have the word photisch at all i know we have Fotosynthese .. (stupid new spelling reform ) but then to make a "fotisches Niesen" I dunno .. i somehow doubt it .. so i'll just keep my mouth shut about that one .

I have all ways been terrified to tell people about my "theories". I know you feelings are normal for this situation.

excellent question! (*she said and skipped what everyone else had to say about it*). I never shy away from the bizarre there's something a little fun about getting weird looks from my friends I remember this one time I mentioned photic sneezing (in apparently great detail, including the little story/hypothesis about it originating from primal reflexes meant to wake the male hunter when he leaves the cave and make him alert...) and getting a group-staring that was well worth the tale I say sing it loud sing it proud! and worse case scenario saying "I saw it on telly somewhere... or I think I read that somewhere..." normally covers your tracks

In certain places people think so very smart, so if I'm there or with people who think that, I'm in the clear. So people think I'm the retarded I won't mention my dad's name ... There are only a couple of people who I have to be careful not to know it all around the subject of sneezing...

If I come out with a fact around the subject of sneezing, and I'm not with the people who think I'm a genious (which I'm definitly NOT), and they ask, "How do you Know that?" You could always say what I say, "I don't know." or "I don't remember." I would never say," Because I'm a sneeze fetishists, and read way to much online."

Or you could say "someone told me that" and if they ask who, just be like, "I don't remember."

In this subject, just knowing something doesn't make you a fetishist. I seem to know to much about "taking a dump" and people ask how I know, I just (actually don't remember how I know) so I just say," I don't remember". No one gave another thought to it. I am definitly not a Coprophiliac (person who gets turned on by poop ).

Holy thread revival Batman! I have that "know it all problem" and I also quite frequently correct peoples' incorrect "facts" about sneezing and stuff. What annoys me to no end is the huge amount of people who think your heart stops when you sneeze, or that your eyes will pop out if you don't close them. Ugh! If I try to say, "No way man, that's mumbo jumbo!" they look at me like, why are you spoiling our fun? Luckily, I quash plenty of urban legends like that about all sorts of topics, so I'm not suspected, it's just when I go into photic sneezing that I feel self conscious. I just feel like allowing people to go on believing things that are not true is a crime, like I have to educate everyone to make the world more knowledgeable. Even if it exposes me. What's funny is when someone will go on about one of these ridiculous myths and I'll just turn to my friend who knows about my "thing" and say "That's not true. I would know." *threadjack'd*

I can relate to this, as I have also read and memorised sooo much stuff about sneezing, colds, allergies, etc. As a rule I'm not afraid to tell people what I know, but I'm careful not to say too much in case they think I'm weird! Fortunately for me, having allergies myself is a good back-up (so of course have had to read up on them and educate myself, etc). Most people who know me know I'm an internet junkie anyway, and full of useless information (I'm always researching stuff I'm interested in). A case in point is where last year, I helped a friend of mine (who had similar symptoms to mine...waking up all bunged up, sniffling, coughing and sneezing) to work out that she had a dust allergy, same as I do. I think she was grateful for the help....I'm not an expert by any means, but like most of us on here, I know quite a lot of stuff and like to share it with others when I can. For stuff like telling people who sneeze in sunlight that they are photic, I would probably just tell them I saw something about it on telly or in the paper (as you do!)...and antibiotics not working for colds, well...every doctors surgery or hospital I go into seems to have a poster of that nature on their noticeboards, so I think most people who don't have the fetish would know that anyway. And I happen to know someone who sneezes random fits when they get chills (from going from a warm environment into the cold or vice versa), so there is always some kind of cover to be used

This is an interesting thread, sadly I have nothing interesting to add to our tidbits here.

talk about a blast from the past! lol




Ermmm... not to sound like a know it all, but that is not exactly true, in fact it can depend upon the severity of the food allergy and the method of exposure.

For example, if I accidentally eat pistachio nuts, within minutes of doing so I get the following symptoms:
- nose starts itching and running profusely
- eyes start itching, watering and get swollen
- a bright red histamine rash develops across my chest
- my wrists start itching
- and risk of death is caused by the asthma attack that ensues

Now, that allergy hasn't quite reached the stages of my going into anaphylactic shock yet but it is headed in that direction! But, what happens if I'm in the same room as someone eating pistachio nuts? Well in the first couple of years after developing the allergy my eyes would feel a bit itchy, but I now know from recent incident where my partner was sat eating a small bag of pistachio nuts three metres away from me that I break out in a rash, my eyes start itching, i start sneezing and my chest starts feeling tight and I have to use my inhaler.

Also, anaphylactic shock isn't the only type of response to food allergy that exists. There is something called oral allergy syndrome which results in a hayfever like reaction to raw fruits and vegetables, which to put it simplistically is caused by the immune system mistaking the proteins of certain foods for the proteins on the surface of the pollen types that the sufferer is allergic to. How do I know this, well I happen to be one of those unlucky people whose body does this! So, for me, I get a severe hayfever reaction (including asthma) if I eat raw courgettes (zuchini) and pineapple at any time of year, although the reaction is milder during winter.

Well now that I sound like a know it all.... bye!