To think we are becoming a country of hypochondriacs?

I'd like to know this to

Ok let's have a discussion about race, religion or sexuality and see how long that stays up for and how long it is until you touch a nerve. But you won't because you know it's not ok to target groups of people who are different to you its only disabled people that you can say your faking it, just a bunch of snowflakes there's nothing wrong with you your just attention seeking.

Yep agree. WFH for some is a scam

Good to see you are still here!

A question or two for you. Did you join MN in order to start this thread or did you name change? And in both cases, why?

Offices are often big, bright, noisy, and full of issues that don’t arise when WFH. Like, ooh, migraine triggers?

I do think this post is slightly ironic on MN.
Mn posters routinely urge parents to take mildly ill children to A and E with increasing horror stories about the time a child died or nearly died with similar symptoms. They invariably post that they are back home after a very long wait, and just given advice to self treat.

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.

or the injections that most people had....

I understand your concern, but I disagree. You call the GP when you have a baby with chickenpox, it seems to be getting worse, or a child is getting concerning symptoms. Getting sepsis from chickenpox is very rare. You had to see the Dr because you got sepsis.

Yes, I'd love to know how we can be resilient and push through when we literally can't see, but you know, just a headache!

This, good post.

Exactly this, I get them too - though not quite as bad as you describe. I get a blinding headache and just cannot look at night (and I get the aura beforehand which pretty much leaves me blind for half an hour). Also occasionally get numbness down my life side. All of this means that when I have a migraine, there's no physical way I can work.

I am self employed WFH so am lucky enough to be able to make up my hours when it's gone - sometimes up to 3 days later, meaning I have to work evenings and weekends. But a lot of people don't have that flexibility and get them much more regularly than I do - so yes, they may well not be able to hold down a job.

Trust me, I know there is A LOT of BS around these days and everyone seems to have a medical condition. But there are some that seriously do (and always have) impact on your ability to work.

Inequality has been shown in countless research to increase physical and mental ill health. The inequality in Britain has widened dramatically over the last few decades.
There have been countless threads on MN with people arguing that growing inequality does not matter. Well it does, and you are seeing the impact now.

Actually when DD1 had chickenpox we did call the GP and see if they wanted her to come in. They did, but we stuck to their procedures - waiting outside, coming in a different door straight to the GP's office.

I had chickenpox when I was 7 (which led to the sepsis I mentioned upthread, and it was extremely serious, I was very ill from the infection and could have died). I was ill for the entire summer holidays and missed the first term of Y3. So I wasn't messing about with DD1 and wanted to confirm it was in fact chickenpox.

Fortunately both DDs had it much earlier than I did and it was a mild dose, but I think you sometimes do need to confirm the diagnosis, particularly with your first and when you might not know what you are looking for.

I think that this doesn’t apply to anyone that is feeling pain, no matter how big or small and they are being ignored.

And it does not apply to people who are managing diagnosis.

This is what I think is happening. I know plenty of people from my parents generation who are in pain, who have health diagnosis but they get on with it. I knew two older people who ran a community shop - one had sever arthritis in the winter and the other was developing Parkinson’s. I guess they are from a generation where you keep going (a majority of the time). I have an aunt who is partially blind and you would never ever know! She has an amazing social life and does her best.

BUT I don’t think it’s 100% healthy to be like this all the time but I respect people that can.

Now we have a generation of people who cant get help for preventative medical issues and there are too many stories of minor symptoms being unnoticed and turning into something more serious.

HOWEVER I am noticing more people that overplay their issues. It seems some downplay what’s wrong with them. Whereas now, I remember a colleague really making things difficult for needing “additional access” requests but for the sake of argument, and then not turning up for work and we wouldn’t know why. There is a difference between following protocol and taking the time off you need - no need to disclose ins and outs, vs feeling like everyone else has gone at your service.

We just seem to be sicker - and it won’t surprise me if it’s linked to all of the radiation we take, obsessions with screens and minimised socialising.

It's a difficult subject to discuss because for every person with a made up condition you got someone else who's really suffering. That's what medical professionnals are for. But with cases of long covid and ME the science hasn't always been helpful. I know people who are really struggling for "valid reasons"; medical reasons MH included. I also know people who listen to themselves far too much (my dh for ex) which is highly irritating.

Great post.

i stopped reading the OP at 'resilience' (tbf she didn't use it until near the end of the post...). There's a broad misconception - saw it on another thread this morning about a Y7 child suffering at a bootcamp secondary - that 'resilience' = 'toughing it out'. It really doesn't. One academic definition of resilience is 'using one's resources to maintain wellbeing'. If those resources are denied or frustrated (as in the post I quoted above), people can't develop resilience.

I don't wish to downplay illness or disabilities - visible or hidden - at all.

She says...proceeding to call having chronic pain and chronic migraines the same as having aches and pains or headaches from time to time.

My God, the level of cognitive dissonance here is quite astounding.

My sister is like this. She gets obsessive over it. She said I had to take DD to the doctor's when she had chicken pox. Me- why do I need to take her? We know she has chicken pox there's nothing the doctors can do unless she gets really poorly. Taking them to the doctor's will just risk spreading to other people.Her-Oh don't you need to let them know? Me no.

If someone gets an illness she says I've had that or I think I've had that. Nobody could possibly be suffering as much as her.

The impact will be very different though depending on age and circumstances . I understand what the poster means. Lockdown rules about testing and a legal framework for people to stay at home for two weeks, even if they only had a sniffle (plus the panic that that sniffle will magnify and result in hospitalisation or killing their elderly relatives) will have a much bigger impact upon someone who went through this as a young teen compared to an adult who already had years of resilience to build on.

I get sick of listening to the same people whinge about their health when they don't take any responsibility for it. I know people who eat utter shite, don't leave the house for days, do no exercise, smoke and drink, then talk about how awful they feel and how they think they are depressed. And of course they feel that way, anyone in that situation would. But they don't want to change any of it, they just want to whine and moan.

I'm just sick of people blaming "the pandemic" on their ailments/life. Staff who worked in A&E and the wards fucking lived it.
I don't know any of my colleagues who blame the pandemic for their life as it is today.
Aside from the younger kids who missed so much of their formative years learning/socialising and the minority of people who were left with illness as a result of catching coved.

Am getting ready!!

You should be blaming the food industry producing cheap, addictive foods. And you should be blaming poverty and the sense of hopelessness.

Also the constant cancer awareness stuff...that's a terrible thing for people prone to health anxiety...I personally think it does more harm than good.

That said, I think it is unwise to identify too strongly with any sort of diagnosis. There has to be a balance. I'm autistic and have GAD and awful health anxiety but I don't tend to talk about it much because it just reinforces it. I have to give myself permission to pace myself and forgive myself for my anxiety because my nervous system is very over-active. But if I dwell too much on all this it isn't helpful.

But I don't think it's up to you to judge because you have no clue what it's like. That recognition comes with age and experience. Twenty years ago I didn't have a clue how messed up my brain and body would be so you need to be a bit more self aware and realise that you're saying all this from your own perspective and don't really have a clue how others are feeling.