To think we are becoming a country of hypochondriacs?

Thanks. I remember the GP who referred me saying oh you'll be back after you've done the course like everyone else complaining it doesn't work and looking for more painkillers. I asked him if he had actually looked at my medical record because he would see I have never been prescribed pain medication in my life I refuse it everytime it's offered as I don't like taking meds for no reason. The course was the best thing I ever did it gave me my life back taught me how to work through my condition and most of all accept it. I might not be able to do everything I used to do but I've learnt that I can do most things just in a different way to how I used to and still be able to enjoy it. Some of the others on the course had already walked in with a this isn't going to work attitude and so it didn't work for them.

I have zero disabilities or illnesses, as it happens. I am pretty damn healthy. I havent missed a day of work in years.
But I can recognise that others aren't as lucky.

Is it any wonder when our national health service is so incompetent?

My mil was told she had IBS (for a full year) when in fact she had a small bowel tumour which killed her.

My 4 year old niece had a brain tumour, that was an ear infection according to her GP.

My own 30 year experience with dreadful gynae issues was 'just one of those things some women experience' according to my gynae of 13 years. Well those issues have actually turned out to be deep endometriosis.

We hear these stories all the time. It's no wonder people are worried about their health woes especially when they become long standing and no medical professionals will take them seriously.

My darling grandad did exactly the same thing back in the 80's

Some bright spark gave him one-and within the hour,he had everything from acne to green parrot disease

Thank god he died before the Internet came along because if he'd learnt to Google symptoms,he would have driven himself insane-he was bad enough as it was

He was the type of person that if there was a food scare,he would never,ever eat that food again

He refused to eat eggs and beef til the day he died

Part of the problem is the Internet,self diagnosing ourselves,not helping ourselves to stay healthy but expecting the nhs/work etc to take accountability

My rule of thumb is that if I can get up, get washed and dressed, and keep down a cup of tea, I am well enough for work.

I have two wedged vertebrae, severe osteoporosis (six beaks in six years), take 112.5 mcg of levothyroxine due to hypo arising from Graves. Fortunately I have little pain but suspect that's due to regular pilates and being mindful about lifting. If I have paun, I take the drugs

I have had five days off work in the last five years. The ability to work from home has been a great help. I had a chest infection before Xmas for which I needed ABs. Working from home for two days limited a sickness absence to one day.

I still pull a 50/55 hour week. At 64, I'm not sure I could still without parking at work and wfh a couple of days a week.

Our diet is good and I have always been active without doing sport.

On the whole I tend to agree with the OP.

I don't know about "nation of hypochondriacs".
An illness in some cases seems almost like a coping strategy, switch off for a while and not worry about the outside world.
I don't have sympathies with the young generation, mainly because I wasn't taught that - nobody had sympathy with us (45 yo, former Communist country), however, I understand the pressures on these people.
Wouldn't want to be young and "look for my place in society" ever again myself.
The ill health is a sign life is not good in general, too much pressure, social media, shit food, expectations...and as a wise PP said, the young were sacrificed to the old during the dreaded lockdowns.
Wish I had an answer for a better life, rather than just shutting the door to most people and scaremongering news!
Edited to say - this all creates a massive lack of motivation.
😕

The thing is that none of us live in other bodies so how can we make judgements?

I have chronic issues (going on 27 years now so I think that may qualify as chronic?) but I do push myself every day because I have no choice, I hate living with my health issues but there is no other option but to learn to live with them. I wouldn't comment on anyone else's health issues because I don't walk in their shoes.

And as others have pointed out, the difference between a migraine and 'we all get headaches from time to time', is the difference between chalk and cheese. My normal headaches don't stop me but my aura migraines leave me with limited vision, complete confusion, numb hands and sometimes I can't even recall my own name, I have no choice but to lay down when I have these.

Judging by the huge number of health anxiety posts on Mumsnet - yanbu!

We could if the billionaires stopped hoarding wealth and shared a bit more. But sure, it’s disabled and chronically ill people who are the issue.

Op I’m very lucky to be in my 40s with no real issues except a bit of asthma that just means I shouldn’t get carried away. I rarely get sick but when I do I’m a ‘woe is me’ nightmare! More man flu than the worst man!!! I can’t imagine my life being all about aches and pains and trying to manage an invisible illness when people secretly judge me. How does it honestly really impact you? People on disability are hardly loaded- they’re not rich from it!

I agree with you. Yes, there are people with debilitating conditions which mean they can’t work or do certain jobs, we absolutely need to support these people. There are many others who seem to think they need to be in 100% health to be able to work and will not push through at all. We cannot have the amount of people we currently have off work. Our services are not good enough and we don’t have enough money coming in to fix it, and it can’t continuously be the same people being asked tor more and more contributions whilst many others are not contributing. This really needs to be sorted out. The resilience of our population is very low.

Chronic pain isn’t ‘aches and pains’
migraines aren’t ‘headaches’

disabled and chronically ill people really can’t win, can we? If we don’t work we’re lazy, if we work from home we’re not working hard enough.

People trotting out the same old tired myths about flu crack me up. We have this crap on every single thread where flu is mentioned.

Flu can range from mild to severe and can even be asymptomatic.

It is generally accepted that about 20% to 30% of people will be asymptomatic or with minimal symptoms …,

https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/yahoo-life-why-does-the-flu-make-some-people-sick-but-not-others/

Now obviously you don’t know for definite if you have flu unless you’ve been tested but it is not the case that it can’t be flu unless you’re confined to bed.

I do love the amateur Doctors on Mumsnet.

Pre-pandemic it was quite common for the emergency button to be pressed on the tube as a person felt unwell during the journey - it is now quite rare (does anyone know the figures)
Perhaps it is because more of the genuinely chronically sick/snowflakes/less robust people are working from home.
The tube is just as crowded as the service is reduced

@Excourtclerk - you did the right thing for yourself. Congratulations. You are likely to have a happier and healthier and longer life because of what you did. What you did is to be admired. Some people cannot bear that, but their attitude reflects badly on them.

If you think you could work through your migraine, you haven't got one!

But the woman in the article has chronic pain and lifelong conditions and is still working.

Why is that any different to what you’ve got going on? Or is your chronic condition real but hers fake? If so how do you know?

This thread is goady and it’s people with disabilities that will suffer. Or maybe we should try more yoga.

I had to go to casualty with a dog bite. The waiting room was full but I by-passed everyone. The doctor said I was the first genuine case that morning. He said one person had diarrhoea. When asked how many times, the answer was one. And the person behind me I heard say she had a cold and couldn’t sleep.

As for flu!! Clearly many people have never had flu. It is truly dreadful. You are not going to the doctor’s, you are not going out at all and not even posting on MN!!

Same here I also have Elhers Danlos Syndrome, I left the support groups because I found the majority of the posts were complaining about all the problems they had but if you dared suggest that exercise and building up muscle strength helps they attacked you for being ableist. I took part in a pain management programme followed all the advice and then because I gained strength, improved my health and got back into full time work, started going out and enjoying life again the friends I'd made there dropped me because they would rather I had ended up in a wheelchair trapped at home being miserable so I was like them again. They actually said those words to me. I don't get the woe is me attitude it's like some people just love being ill and don't want to help themselves.

Chronic migraine has a specific definition of over 15 days a month. Diagnosed by specialists.

Thr dramaticness people act around it is what has changed

Have a cold, suggestion is just get signed off for a week

Who suggests that? It sounds like you're the one being a bit dramatic.

I have one friend who always seems to be in pain, yet she spends most her free time sat on her sofa watching telly and rarely goes outside even when the weather's sunny. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I can't help but feel the two things are probably connected in some way.

Hmm but even for someone you consider a friend you don't seem to think it's possible that you've got the causation the wrong way round here?

Absolutely! And everything is "chronic" these days, chronic pain, chronic migraines, chronic coughs and sneezes.

If that's your opinion then ok, you can argue that point. But don't start your thread by saying you don't want to downplay illnesses, when actually the main argument you're making is that the illnesses are not as severe as people say, which is the definition of downplaying.

There’s also a lot of people who self diagnose things. So a bad cold is flu, and a headache is a migraine. I know someone who has ‘fibromyalgia’ self diagnosed. She doesn’t work and posts about ‘spoons’ and being able to not fuction but it doesn’t stop her social life oddly.

My BIL suffers from migraines but they also sometimes turn out to be hangovers but he wouldn’t admit that.
And I know a lot of people who won’t make adjustments to cure themselves, they want a doctor to do it for them, give them a magic pill or something.

I really wish my migraine was just aches and pains. I have injections every 3 months. Those injections cause dizziness and are actually quite painful.

And if it really was just a headache, I wouldn't be on daily preventative medication. One of which has left me with hearing loss. My current one affects my sleep which in turn can trigger migraine

I've permanently lost vision because of my migraine.

This largely sums it up. Our society is very unhealthy. Impossible to get timely medical care for small health issues which means they snowball and become more disabling. Our winter climate is horrible and depressing. The cost of living is high. People generally feel a bit low and defeated which makes it harder to make good choices. We work very long hours and on top of poor health to start with this heaps on more pressure.

I do think that far too many people are using 'poor mental health' as a way of avoiding any work or responsibility. I get fed up sometimes when I'm physically disabled but still dragging myself into work. Then I hear about healthy young men and women on benefits because of their 'mental health'. It's not sustainable.