Thursday, 1 November 2018

Profiles of people who hate to drink water

In my opinion, people drink too much water. Imagine a time traveler from the 1970s looking at all the people walking around carrying canteens. They'd wonder what happened. On the flip side, there are people who hate drinking water (and other liquids) so much that they end up in emergency rooms. Quinn Meyers of Mel investigates this odd breed of hydrophobes.

I can only drink it when I’m about to seriously dehydrate. I can’t describe the taste, but I dislike it so much that when I know I should be drinking it, I have to force myself or convince myself I need it. If I do drink it, I almost have to shoot it so I don’t taste it — like I just try to get it over with.

Moreover, I put all sorts of stuff in it to make myself drink it, like Emergen-C, Crystal Light and other flavored hydration tablets, because I can barely force myself to drink it plain.

Even if there are absolutely no other options, I usually just opt to not drink anything, which is how I’ve gotten myself in trouble hydration-wise — I’ve ended up in the ER three times over the past 20 years from dehydration! The first time, I was at the gym and should have been hydrating while working out but didn’t. My heart started racing, and I got really lightheaded and got rushed to the ER.

The second time, I had a really bad cold and wasn’t hydrating. The third time, I went into a full-on panic attack because I couldn’t breathe. All three times were terrifying, and I didn’t know what was wrong until I got to the hospital and hooked up to an IV, which cured everything. I needed liquid.