To think we are becoming a country of hypochondriacs?

I didn't trouble the NHS much (apart from them saving my life when I had sepsis as a child) until I had children. Even then I had straightforward pregnancies and births.

Then in my 30s I had pre-cancerous cells removed from my cervix, and at 39 was diagnosed with endometriosis - which until I had surgery to remove a cyst they were not quite sure whether it was ovarian cancer. Fortunately with the cyst removal and ablation, and management with hormones since, I have not had any painful symptoms in ten years.

Endometriosis is rather common but proper management and treatment of it is actually quite rare. I was taken seriously and got treatment straight away, but many women are waved away for years and dismissed, or have a long time to wait for surgery. With the worst symptoms I thought I had a stomach ulcer. I couldn't have worked with the pain at those levels. Two thirds of women with endometriosis have had to take unpaid time off work and one in six women give up work because of it.

I am and have always been a fit and healthy person but endometriosis stopped me running because of the pain and urinary issues. It has also made it hard for me to maintain a healthy weight or lose weight. In the last two years I have been able to do high impact exercise again but before then I always got ill and tired if I did anything but walking and yoga.

I do everything I can to look after myself, and I'm lucky as I have been ok, it hasn't affected my career adversely and I am working and earn a good salary, and coming into menopause I feel super fit and well.

But it has given me an insight as to how other people are not so lucky and are living with chronic conditions that give them day to day pain.

Is it possible that your friend's pain increases when she goes out? And that may be why she doesn't?

What a mean spirited post filled with ignorance. I haven't experience 'x' so therefore all other alternative experiences are invalid.

The thing about chronic conditions is that they can arise at any time in your life. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition in my early 40s which came as a shock. Oh and once you have one autoimmune condition you're more likely to pick up others. It can happen to anyone including people on this post.

there are small parts of this that I agree with, but I have suffered with chronic pain and fatigue for years now and it is nothing like having a few aches and pains and feeling tired. It is absolute hell on earth and it never lets up. Have a think about how you feel at work when you’re coming down with flu - you struggle through the day feeling worse and worse, then go home and collapse in bed and phone in sick for the next few days. When you recover you are back to full health fairly quickly. But when you have a chronic illness it is like that day when you’re coming down with the flu every single day and it never goes away.

I manage to work part time (from home - going into an office would result in me being off sick for weeks afterwards) and I try to get outside every day even if it’s just for a 5 minute walk when the pain is too bad. The willpower it takes to do these two things is enormous and I can see why so many can’t take it any more and stop and rely on benefits because it is no way to live and at least then you can have a tiny bit of a life. My life is work and lying down. I can’t even cook a meal 80% of the time. I can’t drink, go to the pub, go to the gym, go for long walks, I can just about catch up with a friend for an hour if I lie down afterwards. I’m not exactly living the life of Riley and having fun here. I would give anything to be able to live a normal life working full time, seeing people, doing things I enjoy and so on. It’s not a choice to live the way I have to.

Nobody is disabled through their own negligence. How can you take responsibility over something you can't control? You're acting as though disabled people are just sitting at home not doing anything to help themselves. Also, the reason pip claims are "spiralling" is because workplaces refuse to make adjustments and will not hire you if they even have a sniff of any type of disability, also covid, a vascular disease, has left millions of people chronically ill. Maybe if the government intervened in helping disabled people get and stay in work, and actually did something to reduce covid spread, then we wouldn't be where we are now.

Just editing to add, maybe if our society cannot cope with disability, that's a problem with society and it needs restructuring. I am so sick of everything being blamed on the most vulnerable people in a society that doesn't work for us in any way.

Haven't rtft but it's problematic to make these statements when access to healthcare has become so difficult and expensive.

You are basically asking people to triage themselves.

Disabled people can't win. You don't work because a reasonable adjustment of WFH can't be implemented then you are a lazy benefits scrounger. Work full time but from home then you are lazy and a hypochondriac because it's not that bad.

There are millions of disabled people that want to work, why would we not allow them to WFH to enable that? And no OP, migraines are not just a headache.

This thread is unpleasant.

For example, an article on the BBC this week features a woman who talks about having 'chronic pain, migraines and travel sickness' as reasons why it's impossible for her to work in an office.

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp9x0819417o* I think most of us suffer from aches and pains and headaches from time to time? What'd happen if we all started using this excuse?

My dd has chronic pain and chronic migraines and works self employed from home. It means she can at least work as if she had to go to an office or somewhere out of the house, her pain would prevent her from being able to do so and she would no doubt end up losing her job. When something is classed as chronic it doesn't mean general aches and pains, it means long term and debilitating.

I think we have become a nation who:

• Has had its health service run into the ground by the last government
• Can't get a GP appointment
• When you get a GP appointment they don't take you seriously
• When you get a GP who does take you seriously and you get referred to another specialist it can be a long wait.
• When you have seen a specialist it can be a long wait for treatment
• Has a lot of its citizens living in poverty and sub-standard accommodation https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c897d0l97jko
• Has a severe lack of mental health services
• Has a massive health divide between rich and poor

But yeah, continue to blame people for being a bit of a hypochondriac.

Your frustration is misdirected and rooted in a strong belief that the state is responsible for the mess we are in. Are there cases of mismanagement of inefficiency? Absolutely! The more important question is though, do we as a population want to fund the healthcare system to anywhere close to the level you seem to think should exist to provide all the resources, early intervention and care that we currently 'need'? No, we don't and never have done in all our history as a country! This isn't because we are evil or don't care but because so many people are struggling to afford to live right now and simply cannot carry anymore of the tax burden. It currently costs the equivalent of 2/3rds of the NHS budget each year to service our debt. This is because we have been living beyond our means for decades and it is crippling us.

We have to look at things like PIP and the exploding number of people claiming benefits on the grounds of ill health and disability. It is hugely expensive and something we simply can't afford anymore. The rapid spiralling of claims needs to be investigated and the reality is that we need to start to allocate what resources we do have to those that need it most. People need to be encouraged to take more responsibility for themselves and their own health and we need our expectations managed as a nation about what is normal (if suboptimal) human health looks like and how we can't expect the state to step in to resolve all our issues anymore just because things are hard. I know this sounds much more callous than simply being 'kind' and believing what everyone says without any scrutiny or questioning but in the long run we will end up with even more debt that needs servicing and all the budgets (including the health and benefits budgets) getting squeezed further.

IDK anyone who goes to the GP for every minor thing. I do know a lot of people who are struggling with social issues like poor employment conditions or no job at all; insecure, expensive housing; expensive childcare; the cost of living.

Maybe people were more resilient in the old days because the fabric of society felt more stable than it does now.

👏👏👏👏

I'm one of those who doesn't go to the doctors for minor ailments, I treat at home. My very minor ailments turned out to be cancer, if I'd gone to the GP sooner I'd be in a much better place now.
We are being gaslit by the NHS and in turn by people on this thread. We should be getting minor ailments checked and have regular tests. Healthcare should be preventative and not about firefighting. The NHS fails hugely with preventative medicine, despite the fact that it would save money and lives in the long run. We don't have the GP capacity, so people are being blamed for using services inappropriately.
We need to stop putting the NHS on a pedestal. It does not deserve to be there.

The sickness absence rate has jumped post covid back to its 2004 levels. It had been on a downward trend before then. So there is a recent change which needs explaining but it is not a generational thing as it is still much lower than 30 years ago . Sickness absence in the UK labour market - Office for National Statistics

I think this is a far more complicated issue and it's about more than pure hypochondria.

I do think Covid has shot to bits many peoples immunity and health with regards to viruses and they appear to be on the increase and the general problems in society as a whole ( not just a uk thing ) has impacted on many people's ability to plan, be satisfied, take care of themselves and family has caused far more mental health issues and mental health impacts on physical health and the reverse is true too. The ladies on here on multiple drugs and minimum wage and constant pain relief - I would struggle to work at all to be honest- I had a bad neuro reaction to Covid ( possibly the vaccine too - couldn't say) and I must have come over as a hypochondriac to others as I 'looked' ok - but was having buzzing in various places, constant pins and needles, a heady dizziness, neck pain, burning eyes- I was never off Google and did GP for first time in 22 years- plus several rounds of bloods, saw neuro consultants etc - and neuro told me she had seen multiple people with similar - it's hard not to keep bringing it up because the anxiety is through the roof with it.

There are So many with housing issues, , living in areas that feel unsafe , working in stressful places be it sales targets or understaffed places- more pressure on the 'doers' in companies to keep the money coming in - a lot more isolated people due to WFH ( suits many but not everyone depending on your personal situation.

There really is a lot of genuine illness around- physical or mental and a great deal of apathy too I think has sent in because of how difficult it is to get assessed or treated

There sadly is also a smaller bunch of people who have learnt that having some kind of diagnosed condition can keep them in a job a lot easier than just being lazy and crap at the job - or indeed gets them out of having a job at all and enhanced benefits- I wish that wasn't the case but it sadly is and I know a fair few like this . The enhanced benefits isn't the actual draw for the ones I know, it's more the fact they no longer have that drive or confidence to feel comfortable in many jobs and have got out the habit. .

I think you have a general point but I don't think the article you shared is one.

When I had to work in an office, I was having 3 migraines every single month which took me out for 3-4 days per time. Working from home allows me to manage my pain, manage my triggers and I now have 1 migraine a month, maximum, sometimes not even that.

People who get 'the odd headache' do not understand. You really have NO idea. I have a friend who thinks that headaches are 'mind over matter' - because for her they are. For me, I vomit because the pain is so bad.

I think if you're the type of person who can be in the office with no ill effect, brilliant! Go for it - it must be better for you for your mental health and socialising.

But don't assume you understand when you don't suffer from a medical issue.

That was nice of her to offer you so much help with your injury

I have a mate like this, pays for private blood tests after the standard ones from the GP come back clear, always researching stuff and diagnosing not just themselves but their child and their friends. Doctor suggested she might have an element of hypochondria and she was outraged. I pulled a muscle in my back once and she bombarded me with worst case scenarios, how to take pain killers, started researching chiropractors, told me all about her chronic back pain (which was news to me as she had never mentioned it before) and advised me how to plan for a life with mobility issues.

A migraine is not a headache.

There is an ‘illness’ culture in the UK which just isn’t present elsewhere. I’m not from the UK and I am amazed by the sheer number of people with life limiting illnesses I come across. Whether the UK has higher instances or whether it’s just more normal to identify as having these issues I am not sure

You will not have seen it - they just make the announcement " we are being held at this platform as we have a customer alarm on this train/train in front" I have seen it a couple of times over the same 50 years but heard the message at least weekly up until 2020. Twice in one journey even.

Have you ever tried to get help for health anxiety? It’s non existent and what does exist not particularly useful for many sufferers. I’ve paid thousands of pounds to private therapists over the years and have only managed to get my health anxiety down to a manageable simmer. I’ve never had any help from my GP about it. It isn’t as simple as you’re saying.

Such a surprise that an illness that even when mild doubles your risk of a cardio vascular event and disrupts every system in your body would lead to a massive increase in people unable to work. This was entirely predictable and predicted.

I have chronic migraines and still have to work! Migraines are not 'just a headache' and no two people's symptoms are the same. Often I 'have a migraine' without the actual headache, but get all the other symptoms like flashing lights, dizziness, vomiting etc. It's difficult to manage but thankfully there's many treatments to help now.

I get where you are coming from but don’t group chronic migraine in that. I’m a sufferer and it’s hell. I have to take daily anti epilepsy drugs. I’m no snow flake, run my own business and about to publish a book. But it’s a real neurological disease - crept up on me 18 months ago, I was bed ridden! I’ve stopped alcohol and that helps. Migraine is horrendous and its not a headache, it’s a collection of hideous neurological disabling symptoms, very unique to each individual.