To think we are becoming a country of hypochondriacs?

I think covid is true also. We all had it in September, I have recently stopped coughing finally and have suddenly been feeling much better. DD a has had a stomach issue which the GP says is not uncommon with covid and goes on for months.

Socialising is quite different from working. I can leave social event at any point, I can wear tracksuit bottoms and comfy shoes, I can chose where, when and with whom to socialise, I can sit in a group of people and just observe without needing to communicate at all, I can lie down on my friend's couch, I can socialise once a week or once a month for 30 minutes or for three hours. Which job do you think will provide me with the same flexibility? Can I tell my employer that I only have enough "spoons" to work 30 minutes this week and I might still need to leave early if my symptoms become too severe?

But we’re not working more than in pre-Covid, despite WFH. There used to be 1 million people in the UK chronically ill and unfit to work, now it’s 3 million (a 200% increase in 4 years).

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?

I think when you have to present your argument dishonestly in order to make your point, you need to be questioning why.

The lady has chronic pain and migraines. But when stating your opinion, you talk about "aches and pains and headaches". Why is that? Migraines and "headaches" are not the same thing. Chronic pain and "aches and pains" are not the same thing.

The fact that you've changed the language to try and dismiss her disability is very telling. You know that your point does not stand if you describe it accurately.

Do we all have chronic (long term) pain? Do we all suffer from migraines? I certainly don't. I don't think that describes a typical state of being at all. And neither do you, which is why you couldn't say it and you had to change the wording.

@User757373 you clearly have no idea what POTS is! Could you manage fainting every time you got up and moved around? I think not.

It's that elephant in the room, covid.

It affects multiple systems in the body, and will be the cause for a lot of this is a few ways:

• long covid
• effect on immune system, dampening it down extremely effectively for months, if not years, so people catch every damned thing that's going round that bit more easily
• and within that, dysregulation of a part of the immune system that is very relevant to cancer

The language you use is so inaccurate. Your misusing the word hyperchondriac (health anxiety) for starters. Chronic is a medical term for a condition that lasts over a certain period of time.
Unless you have a disability and or a chronic condition you have no right to have an opinion on this.

I agree completely. What I find more frustrating is that people don’t seem to have any common sense and can’t make a simple decision themselves. A poster the other day had received house sale information which wasn’t for her and started a thread on what they should do with it. I mean, phone the number on the letter and let them know. So annoying!

Agree. People look overweight, pasty, faces like a slapped backside, far too much vaping, shoving UPFs and convenience food down their necks, going from work to sofa. No wonder the NHS is on its knees

I have ME and I am offended. It is a serious neurological condition.

The government and the media really don't help. The media catastrophise everything the NHS lecture and infantalise us. I've just had yet another letter from some department making me yet another appointment for the COVID jab.

We buy an over the counter remedy that's worked for years. Some university does a study on rats and the remedy is withdrawn. Big pharma wants us swallowing their new improved patented medicine.

When we watched USA TV on holiday the adverts for drugs were relentless, ditto treatments.

People are eating the wrong food, which causes obesity, diabetes and other illnesses. The UK eats more ultra-processed foods than anywhere else in Europe. Mental health services have been practically non-existent for decades. We've just had a pandemic and now thousands or probably hundreds of thousands of people have long covid, and mental health has become even worse as a result of the pandemic. governments over decades have underfunded the NHS, so doctors do not have the resources to treat people within a reasonable time frame or even at all, so people get sicker while they are waiting. It's not surprising we're in a mess.

Obviously some people go off sick when they aren’t really but that’s not what I’m talking about. The point is that flu does not have to be severe to be flu. It’s a tiresome myth that it does and I wish that people would stop perpetuating it.

1. An over abundance of ultra processed foods in our food chain, manufactured by business who do not care abot the health impact and allowed by governments who need the tax money more than they need a healthy population (presumably).
2. A chronic lack of prioritisation on getting good, plentiful sleep. e.g businesses that want 24/7 on call or long days or that ask relatively juinor/low paid roles to shoulder far more stress than they used to etc.
3. Living through a pandemic with the all the longer term impacts on health that caused (mental health, physical heath etc).
4. A health care system on its knees that just does not have the time or money to get ahead of the game and help people with health issues before they build to a level so bad it disrupts and ruins their lives

I am lucky enough to experience good heath - and almost always have. But even I can see how the modern world is making everyone very unwell indeed.

If you work in HR you will come across people who have ‘flu’ frequently’ they clearly don’t. It’s a shorthand for a lot of people for ‘waking up feeling a bit crap’ and then they are back in the next day absolutely fine.

I agree, it's as though those who enjoy good health see it as some kind of badge of honour which they can use to trump anyone with health issues.

And I don't like the way health anxiety is mocked on here. It's a mental health issue which is as valid as a physical one.

I strongly believe that a huge proportion of the chronically ill community are undiagnosed neurodivergent adults who have a hyperfixation on bodily symptoms. They most likely have sensory or MH issues which distort or magnify symptoms and possible autoimmune disorders that are comorbid with ND.

Virtually all the people who make a big deal over having conditions like long-covid, ME, POTS, fibromyalgia & co have extremely similar mannerisms and appearances. Just like the woman from the article. It's too much of a coincidence that all these conditions randomly strike a small subset of people who look and talk the same way. It's more likely they have personality traits that make them more susceptible to chronic health issues, hypochondria or psychosomatic symptoms.

But that's part of the problem, isn't it? The system works really well in an emergency - if you've ever had the misfortune to be admitted or to be accompanying someone who is having a heart attack, "red phone" trauma, etc you see world-class emergency care. And of course people should be aware of the symptoms of stroke, heart attack, sepsis, anaphylaxis, etc in the community so they can act quickly and get help. The problem is it's not joined up. So rather than every child learning coherent, situation based first aid and every adult being able to access a first aid course, we get campaigns about key issues without providing any holistic knowledge. So people panic and assume the worst rather than making a calm, training-based assessment.

Personally I think every child who is capable of understanding should do some sort of first aid course as part of citizenship education -starting in reception with how to call 999 and building up from there to more advanced topics as they get older. And every adult should be able to access a free first aid at work course, with the entitlement to 2 paid days off work to access the course. Every pregnant parent/couple should also access a paediatric course on the same terms.

Dr Google and UP food has a lot to answer for.
It is becoming harder and harder for GPs to filter out the genuinely ill from the worried well.
I see more and more people who have self diagnosed from the internet, you are drawn into a conversation only to find out they have no formal diagnosis.

Self employed wasting time waiting for 30 min epoxy glue to dry 😉

This kind of posting needs to be seen in the context of what is happening in the US.

Affordable healthcare for the poor and middle classes cancelled. Basic communications around food product recalls cancelled - exposing people with allergies to unnecessary risk. Infectious disease surveillance cancelled - the biggest epidemic of tuberculosis happening in the US right now and alarmed doctors trying to spread the word.

All because millionaires and billionaires want to pay a little less tax.

There’s a narrative that tries to say that people are just malingering and are not worth saving. Yes take personal responsibility for your health - if you can afford it, stop buying junk food, exercise, look after yourself. But we need the infrastructure to support public health including a functioning NHS - do not fall for false narratives like this thread trying to paint a picture that the UK are a bunch of hypochondriacs. It simply isn’t supported by fact.

On the flip side of that..had it not been for the internet and me self diagnosing and insisting on a referral I’d be dead. I had a huge soft tissue sarcoma that my GP insisted was a lipoma. I losT my leg at the hip and had to have 6 months of chemo and radiation but I’m alive.

I've also not been back to a dr for over 9 yrs other than my normal NHS health check I get invited to attend.

I have chronic pain and chronic migraines. Lots of people have long term illnesses from covid. I wouldn't be able to work at all if I couldn't work from home. I'm disappointed in this attitude honestly, it just shows how people still refuse to accommodate people with disabilities and carry on labelling us as fakers.

10 36 am on Mumsnet. Hands up, who is skiving today?