13 KiB
I'm writing a story and the protagonist is allergic to water and cannot drink a sip of water without going into shock. Is this realistic?
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Author: u/None *
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URL:
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Score: 0
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Created: 2018-10-02T15:16:16
Post:
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Comments:
u/DrainageCity [+5] (25 minutes later)
Is this a shitpost? Even if there was a community that'd be interested in this idea, and maybe there is, r/rational is not it. This is the least rational and logically consistent idea I've heard in a while. The human body is composed of up to 60% water, so good luck surviving if your body is actively trying to tear itself apart. Even if there was some milk based diet (ignoring that milk is also mostly water) that they could live on, how did they survive through infancy? Did their parents know instinctively that they were fatally hydrophobic? The only way I could see this being rational is if this character is from a universe with completely different physics and chemistry, maybe a magical hell analog. While we don't know for sure that water is necessary for life, it's pretty hard to avoid. We used to think that earth is the only planet in the solar system with water, or at least liquid water, but we now know that water, or water ice at least, is pretty much everywhere. Point is, this is not a story that's easy to write rationally, not unless you're okay with spending tons of time on worldbuilding.
u/Rebuta [+1] (8 hours later)
This guy has like 6 ult accounts and all he does is post about this woman constantly.
u/elmanchosdiablos [+5] (25 minutes later)
I was going to suggest you post this in a biology subreddit, checked your post history to see if you had and... wow, you are determined to get this question answered.
As people have pointed out to you, it's possible for her to be allergic to minerals commonly found in water but not the H2O molecule itself. You don't seem satisfied with this.
The case of Heidi Falconer is interesting, but doesn't fit the parameters of your story:
This condition is called aquagenic pruritus, and it is a very rare skin condition characterized by severe intense itching when the skin is exposed to water for more than a very short period of time. Water consumed internally is not an issue. A presumably related disorder is aquagenic urticaria where skin contact with water produces raised welts or hives. In both cases, individual reactions can vary from the mild to the severe. Ms. Falconer appears to fall into the latter category.
Neither of these disorders is believed to be a true allergy (not that that provides sufferers with any ease) as there is no evidence of the histamine reaction that characterizes allergies, but in neither case is the mechanism well-understood.
From quora (Emphasis mine)
Honestly, the fact that this allergy is an interesting concept that sounds somewhat plausible and is only one step removed from a real condition is enough to justify it in a story. I wouldn't worry so much about justifying it as 100% true to medical science.
It's an interesting idea, now just go and write it.
u/alexanderwales [+6] Time flies like an arrow (an hour later)
This is the fourth account I've banned for spamming this question to the subreddit. Two of the others have been suspended, likely for ban evasion. I've reported this one to the admins too.
/shrug
u/None [+3] (2 hours later)
WOOT!
u/None [+0] (29 minutes later)
[deleted]
u/elmanchosdiablos [+2] (an hour later)
A lot of replies to your other (similar) posts are saying you keep getting banned for reposting the same question and switching usernames. Your post history also includes these two posts where you claimed a suspected case of rabies (incubated for 7 years) and pretended you never drink water and don't know what saliva was. And you're asking these probing questions about where saliva comes from in your body...
What's your angle? Are you really writing a story or is this just an icebreaker so you can argue with people about Heidi Falconer? Cos this is a weird way to go about researching your short story.
EDIT: Holy shit your history just gets weirder. Apart from asking people to explain saliva and where it comes from, theres this comment:
(click for context) The comment is followed by this post:
What is the common thread? What is going on here?
u/elmanchosdiablos [+1] (33 minutes later)
Ok? My point is it's a plausible enough concept to justify writing about it. You don't need to prove it as fact to the whole world before you write the story.
Go write the story, I'll actually be interested in reading it when you do.
u/None [+3] (13 minutes later)
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u/ArgentStonecutter [+1] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (3 hours later)
Huh, the previous supposed fiction called her "Heidi Falconer" and described thieves stealing and trashing her "spacesuit".
So this story from 1996 has a "Heidi Falconer" with a special raincoat that got stolen and trashed by thieves.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/thieves-shatter-allergy-girls-life-1317690.html
Huh. How about that.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+3] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (26 minutes later)
Only in Discworld, where they have dehydrated water.
This is like homeopathy, like her body detects some magic supernatural memory in the water. Don't do it.
Edit: unless you're Terry Pratchett, but you're not because he died recently and you probably didn't.
She could have a reaction to water if it's too pure because of some kind of osmotic problem with the mucus membranes of her throat or something, but saline of the right strength would be a pretty solid solution to that.
u/None [+3] (2 hours later)
You are one of several alt accounts, including: /u/Busy_Barnacle , /u/Jimmy-ligger , /u/Shruborb , and /u/PM_ME_NERDTHIGHS , all of which were created in mid- to late-September after all of your other alts were banned. Those alts included: /u/ButtButtaFace , /u/LegaladviceSam , /u/Confessthrowaway3444 , /u/Due_Personality , /u/tooafraidthrowa , /u/StandardStudy , and /u/yourbrainonmuffinz .
Why were they banned? Because you keep spamming reddit with nonsense about a supposed "water allergy".
u/TrebarTilonai [+2] (11 minutes later)
I'd say this is not realistic on a couple of different levels. How/why is she allergic? Tap water, pure water, saline all cause a potentially fatal reaction? There's humidity in the air. If she's that sensitive to water how can she breathe? Has she managed to avoid ever getting rained on or getting hit with a sprinkler or mister? Has she never taken a bath or a shower?
I guess if you're saying it's some kind of immune system thing, that would allow for incidental contact with water. I'm not sure "antibodies against water" actually makes any sense, but if it did then why can't she swallow water? Something going through your digestive system isn't going to immediately cause an antibody reaction. Blood is largely composed of water, so why is she immune to blood?
From a story standpoint, if "a sip of water can instantly kill her" then how did she survive a saline drip?
u/sparr [+2] (21 minutes later)
Milk is 90% water.
Apples are 90% water.
Steak is 30% water.
You can't be allergic to H2O and survive. An alien can't be deathly allergic to H2O and survive on earth, especially eating earth food and earth drinks.
u/Charlie___ [+2] (35 minutes later)
You literally posted this a few months ago. So maybe don't?
u/best_cat [+1] (20 minutes later)
I'd do a magical realism story: There's a small child who warps reality so that things work exactly as described by science journalism.
You'd have a scientific revolution every week, cancer-curing strawberries, and poison water.
u/IDKWhoitis [+1] (20 minutes later)
This is sounding like an alien, because water makes up a significant portion of our bodies.
~60% of of our body is actually water, the H2O molecule is omnipresent in all cells and the space between our cells. This includes blood, sweat, spinal fluids. The antibodies you speak of would be going haywire constantly. H2O is a major component of cell processes and the environment our cells live in.
Also note: there is water present in the air (there's always a little bit of H2O vapor in the air) and in milk (it's actually a solution that has both fats and water, mixed together uniformly).
If the character has a problem with a little bit of water, then there's no way they can 1. Be human, 2. Live normally on Earth.
u/None [-1] (23 minutes later)
[deleted]
u/IDKWhoitis [+1] (an hour later)
So a lot of people are responding to you, so maybe I'll be touching similar points. I will treat you like someone who wants to write a story.
Evaluating Heidi (the allergic girl) **[You can skip this, the story suggestions are below this wall of text]**
1.) People will claim all sorts of allergies to things that don't make conventional sense, examples being Wi-Fi and other EM spectra. The medical community has largely debunked these claims with actual experiments. The thing is, people will lie (to get attention) or misunderstand phenomenon (notice a change and find correlations that are not true).
2.) People are unreliable, Heidi is the only person to have this condition to this extreme, this makes the story unlikely. Most people with similar conditions only experience discomfort. If there is a condition, it's very likely that Heidi herself doesn't understand her condition, and is just running on what her parents have told her (it's not hard to find the news story, the one from 1996). The fact of the matter, is that Heidi likely does have a small allergic reaction, but overall her body chemistry is "normal". The lack of scientific research and the abundance of click-bait news stories make this ultimately a hoax to attract attention and little else.
3.) The little medical evidence I can find of disorders such as the one above, only show hives on the surface. It should also be noted, that Body sensors cannot tell the difference between purified water and water in milk. Yet she admits to drinking water based products.
If you want to write a story, You have a choices:
**Realistic**
*(I would advise you to either learn about allergies and this specific condition well if you are to embark on this path, the pedantry corner of the internet will never let you rest otherwise)*
*(If you don't want to deal with constant skeptics, I would advise against trying to rationalize the phenomenon in question from the beginning. Unless you have an ironclad understanding of what is going on and are able to make each skeptic with access to the internet happy.)*
- a sane person who is misunderstood (don't be angered if the readers call shenanigans, its on you the writer to make them believe)
- a questionably sane person with an actual condition but who takes it to extremes (my bias is showing here)
- an alien who is adapting badly to earth's environment
** Fantasy**
- a fire elemental who just cannot fathom why living beings would drink water
- a witch or mage who by in world magic rules cannot drink or interact with "pure water".
- a cursed individual who was cursed with forever denied "pure water".
- a normal person who is allergic to water, and everyone is trying to rationalize it in ways that won't work (would a arch-wizard know what the hell histamine is?)
u/xland44 [+1] (13 minutes later)
jesus you're back
if you're not a troll, just add magic to the world. magic solves everything