To think we are becoming a country of hypochondriacs?

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.

I think the rise of the internet and social media has led people to believe that anything other than a human having perfect physical and mental health is somehow seriously wrong and somehow exempts them from the duties and responsibilities of life. Most people will develop physical conditions, especially as they age and if they don't look after themselves. People need to realise that this doesn't make you the exception and you have to take responsibility for managing these conditions as best you can as the state and society simply can't shoulder the burden when the majority of the citizens are grappling with such issues.

The same goes for mental health conditions. I believe that idea that most people are Neurotypical and don't struggle at all with their mental health is a fallacy. The science around Neurodiversity isn't as robust as most people assume and the definition of Neurodiversity has now been pulled so wide that scientists and doctors are admitting that there is now a huge overlap between the ND and NT community. Lots of people will struggle with mental health conditions and traits of ASD/ADHD/depression/anxiety etc to the point it has a significant impact on their lives. I would argue that most people will have periods of time where this is the case. We have to accept this is in most cases by definition a normal part of the human condition in the modern world.

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.

George Bernard Shaw once said that he never read a medical dictionary in case he died of a misprint. Wise words.

I actually have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (my joints dislocate randomly and I'm hypermobile) along with a few other problems due to it, and I agree with you.

It's because people eat shit, drink shit, don't sleep well and then wonder why they feel shit and rather than address the problem head on look for something else to blame rather than fix their diet.
Obviously not everyone is like this, but the majority yes.

@soupyspoon the issue is when people mistake that all health issues are improved by diet/exercise or that they can offer some advice you would never(!) have thought of

I've had
"What about some vitamins"
"Have you tried paleo"
"I get heat rash too"
Everyone gets period pain"
"You're always ill" (funny that, my immune system is non existent so yes I tend to not be well)

Mine are mostly autoimmune conditions so just bad luck, I started with the first one age 11 and just collected them as I got older

The suggestion that most people are disabled due to diet, lack of exercise and not going outside is disgusting.

If I wasn't disabled, I'd have a better diet because I would be able to eat the things my bowel condition won't accept, and I'd be physically able to prepare my own nutritious food.

My lack of exercise is due to my disabilities. I was fit and healthy and exercised daily before I became disabled. My GP and consultants have advised me not to exercise because it makes me very ill.

I can't go outside because if I move, I pass out. I cannot be away from a toilet for more than a couple of minutes. I can't walk, nor self propel my wheelchair. Do you honestly think I want to be trapped in four walls?

Mumsnet gets worse by the day.

Agree. I had years of chronic migraines (hormone related) and could have one for 3 to 5 days, where I would often go into work dosed up on co-codamol and migraine drugs but then burn out and crash - I also have CFS. Add to that a then 3 year old DS. I had to have help from homestart as I was too exhausted to look after him safely.

Thanks to a very supportive employer who supports those with disabilities, I have managed to retain my job since I got ill in 2014. Which is a good job really as DWP didn't want to know. PIP rejected, the person interviewing actually made stuff up, I got the transcripts she typed up. I probably could have done mandatory reconsideration but I was too ill to go through it and challenge the decision.

I actually think more people struggle than we know. Yes, I am aware there may be some making noise about not much but there are also a lot of people unseen with chronic conditions like Long Covid which can decimate your life. And a lot of people who suffer in silence but going on working as they have little choice.

I don't see anyone I know complaining and giving up on work.life due to trivial health reasons. Most soldier on, in fact a bit too much - coming to work sick and infecting all and sundry.

My lifestyle choice to contribute to my health condition was birth 😂.

You'd be surprised how many people have said diet and exercise would help. Not sure how that would help my skeletal deformities, dural ectasia, non cancerous tumours developing on nerve endings or underdevelopment muscles behind my eyes all present since birth. Not sure how eating more fruit and veg would help.

You have the right to disagree with anything I say of course, and that's fine.

As to your comment about this country not being rich, would you care to explain why that is? And what your definition of rich is? How is there money for multitudes of inquiries, think tanks, vanity projects etc etc but none for infrastructure? How are so many bad financial decisions being made? But that's OK, we'll just make the worst off even poorer and even sicker and what? Hope they quietly die off? Well, that's happening already, just obviously not fast enough for some people's taste.

I've just seen a story in my local rag. Funding is being withdrawn from a local Marie Curie hospice. Better get that Assisted Dying bill through at all costs eh? Because good palliative care is too much of a drain.

I'm sick of the way things are going with demagogues encouraging division and pure spite and hatred in the name if money. We invented money, we control money. This overarching love of it is definitely the root of all evil.

Im not 'healthy' as in I have a number of health conditions, however are you in dispute that we as a nation dont have a problem with lifestyle health problems?

You're deluded if so

@MistressoftheDarkSide
I fundamentally disagree with almost everything you have written.

Our society is infinitely 'kinder' than any era in our history. You don't need to look too far back in history to see how we literally did let the weak, disabled and poor die or be institutionalised in workhouses. I don't say this because I want to go back to those times but just to remind you that there is no inalienable entitlement to a welfare state that meets all your needs in a way you see fit. The welfare state exists due to public consent and if you lose the support of the people then it will inevitably be scaled back and eventually removed. This is how democracy works and why we are in such precarious times. Personally I would rather reform the system and most importantly be realistic about what we can afford to stop the whole system being dismantled and the vulnerable being in an even worse situation.

You may think money is some fictitious entity but the reality is that money allows us all to be something other than subsistence farmers trading goods and services. It is how we are able to even begin to have the concept of a welfare state where people are supported without being able to offer any goods or services in return.

You seen unable to believe that we might just not have the resources (and yes money) to be able to run the health system in the way you would like. More human oversight costs money. People aren't going to work for free. I think a sense of entitlement has grown where people genuinely cannot believe that we can't have every state service and benefit we want. They just can't accept it. They have to blame the government or mismanagement rather than accept that we aren't that rich of a country and we don't have enough people able and willing to pay into the system to pay for everything.

A lot of healthy people are developing horrible autoimmune conditions and cancers. It's wishful thinking to imagine that only the lazy and greedy get sick and we can just avoid it through virtuous behaviour.

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.

You're right about accessing health care but another poster has it right, we are sick because we eat shit, dont do exercise and spend too much time staring at screens

There's a loss of resilience psychologically for sure but there also seems to be a genuine uptick in physical illness. Perhaps because GPs are so hard to access at an early stage. Perhaps there's something environmental happening.