Yes or no..Do you worry about your health?

[ssd]

Yes

I have never worried about my health really but it probably helps to have always had good health (lucky, I know). However now I am very much the wrong end of my 50s, I am more aware that little niggly things may turn into the bane of my later years.

Not generally, no, but if there was something specific concerning me, maybe? I'm also an emetephobe, so get a bit panicky if I hear of a sick bug doing the rounds.

And the secret? I don't know, it's just who I am, but my parents are also, and always have been, low key about health issues, either just living with it, getting over it, or getting it dealt with, and I'm the same. I also caught every cold and flu going when a child (moved continents, so needed to rebuild local immunity), so getting a fever or whatever, doesn't worry me - it'll pass. My parents and I (and DH and now DC) just don't particularly like fuss.

More practical steps - I eat healthily much of the time (but don't deny myself anything), I maintain a healthy weight, I exercise regularly. Thankfully! I'm generally well, and my parents come from good gene stock - lots of long-lived lives.

I have a few friends with health anxiety, and I really feel for them, it sounds so mentally exhausting, must be so difficult.

Yes to the extent I want to make sure I’m as healthy as possible so I can have a lot of fun for a lot of years. I try my best every day to make healthy choices. But I understand that a lot is out of one’s control.

I do and I absolutely hate it in myself. It's such a waste of time and is so negative. However I think it could be symptom of depression in me. I have literally lost weeks through the years worrying myself stupid over things that have turned out to be nothing. I'm someone who always expects the worst and its like im waiting for it to happen. There's no point to it and although I try to keep fit and eat v healthily everyone I know who has died of illness or been very sick have all been very fit and healthy.
Worry is such a wasted , unproductive emotion and I'm really trying hard to overcome this. I didn't worry much pre-kids, its really since having them. I also need to build resilience as shit will come up and then I'll have to deal with it. I also think the Internet is such a curse, it's never once been right for me or my kids were I've thought we /they have had something. Doctors have to train for years for very good reasons...I'd love to be more laid back internally but then there's the voice that says I'm not taking a symptom seriously enough etc... We are bombarded by negative news stories re health too..

Yes. Trying to conceive and although I feel well, I'm worried it hasn't happened for us yet, and as we're 'geriatric' in conception terms I'm worried it never will.

Not about my own health but massively about everyone else's.

@BitOfFun

No. I'm currently at the end-stage of cancer treatment, and clock-watching, so the worst has already happened and I'm still "me". Things couldn't go more wrong, so why worry?

BoF - ignore if my question is too intrusive, but do you think this is down to your personality or is it something you have had to work on since diagnosis?

No. I'm too busy living to think about dying.

Sylvie, I think it's my personality mostly. I'm a Glass Half Full person generally, and I look for the positive. When I was initially given my diagnosis, I made the consultant laugh by saying "So, is it still worth my getting new double glazing?"

No,,

Yes but only in terms of my asthma

all the best to you BoF

I like what you say about still being "me"

Yes but not about covid. I worry every random ache and pain is cancer though I have no medical reason to expect that and I'm only mid-30s. It doesn't help that I have diagnosed anxiety that gives me stomach pains, I worry that I have stomach cancer, so the pains increase... repeat on loop.

Yes. I have health anxiety. . I have given up booze though so I worry a lot less now.

I have health anxiety too, i thought it was normal to worry constantly about my health....

@BitOfFun, brilliant attitude!!

@Northernsoullover

Yes. I have health anxiety. . I have given up booze though so I worry a lot less now.

This!! Since I stopped drinking three years ago my health quality improved so much., mental and physical.

I don't drink, smoke, drink caffeine. I'm vegan. I exercise regularly and eat well. I'm doing everything I can to mitigate against ill health, and am never ill.

OP there's an incredible book called How Not to Die with amazing nutritional advice based on science. There's so much you can do to create good health for yourself. It might help.

I may not worry about myself - but I'm terrible over my children. I never show it to them, obviously, but they are a constant worry to me. Health, their well-being. They are my worry hole!

Yes all the time

no

Yes, I was diagnosed with cancer age 20, 10 years later I still worry it will return, or the chemotherapy could have caused damage

No. I care about my health and i look after myself but I don’t worry.

No , i have a healthy lifestyle and I have so many things wrong with me that there is not much left to go wrong and life is too short to worry about things you can’t do anything about .

Yes.

I am overweight and worry a lot about my health.

Yes, I've spent years worrying about different problems that have been found to be actual fantasy.
Now I do have an actual health issue I wish I hadn't wasted all those years worrying about nothing.