What is your life like if you have no health problems?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I went down a mad mental rabbit hole wondering about this! I have had type 1 diabetes since 11, I do remember a carefree childhood before that but it is so long ago now. I am constantly scanning my body (and, as of lately, my medical tech that gives me info) for feelings and clues to keep myself safe, and constantly analysing where I'm going/ what I'm doing to make sure I have contingency plans for all eventualities.

What is it like to live with no health issues? Can you describe that?

What is it like to live in a body that works in a straightforward fashion? Do you ever think about it, or no?

Would be very interested if anyone can offer explanations of what their lived experience of a 'healthy body' is!

It's great and I feel incredibly lucky. I also feel guilty that I am overweight, drink too much and don't eat as healthily as I could. I'm lucky enough to be healthy, I need to stick to my side of the deal.

I think very very few people make it to even say mid thirties without either a physical or mental health problem of some kind. If not health, then they'll have other issues, i.e. financial, relationship, work.

Having said that I am in similar boat to you. I have epilepsy. It sucks.

I genuinely never think about it except when I’ve had a rubbish day and pull myself up by ‘counting my blessings’. I know logically that I’m very lucky.

Bad analogy but maybe like when you’re so bunged up with a cold you can breath or sleep properly. Then the cold clears and you have a couple of days blissfully happy that you’re no longer snotty. And then forget all about it.

I think very very few people make it to even say mid thirties without either a physical or mental health problem of some kind. If not health, then they'll have other issues, i.e. financial, relationship, work.

Well yes, I agree that absolutely every human being will face a range of difficult issues in their life!

I asked about health though in this case, because I'm interested in what it feels like to not have to consider your ill health on a daily basis. I think there are lots of people who are still very healthy in their mid thirties? I mean I know most people will have had childhood illness like chicken pox or tonsillitis, or a broken bone or appendicitis, but many recover well from these things and don't become chronically ill in a way that means they have to factor it into their daily lives forever.

Plenty of us chronically ill floating around too though, of course!

Health is one of those things, where you don't really appreciate what you have until it's gone.
I wish I'd made better use of my body when I was fit and healthy.

Ooh, thank you, OP. I need this thread just now.

I'm caught in a game of mental pingpong where I oscillate between:

a) this is perfectly normal, everyone's life has some variation of this, I'm just making heavy weather of things other people deal with easily;

and

b) my situation is outrageously crap and I'm actually making quite a good job of things, given the shitty circumstances.

(I'm largely housebound, struggle to prepare food, can't concentrate for more than 10 mins TV at a time, live alone and don't speak to anyone most days. Crap or normal? You tell me – I can't remember.)

I often wonder what it’s like to piss like a normal human. My bladder hasnt worked for 9yrs.

Health is one of those things, where you don't really appreciate what you have until it's gone.

Yes, I think it is meant to be like this though. It is the not having to focus on it that allows you to free up energy for the rest of life.

Once you're forced to pay attention to it, you can't every really forget about it again, if it's forever.

I feel very grateful. I had a knee injury last summer that temporarily limited what I could do physically (although I was still mobile, just couldn't do the variety of gym classes I normally do) and it made me a bit more conscious of what it must be like to have a physical disability, although of course I can't claim to really understand what that would be like.

I think more than I should about how much I weigh, how much I eat, how much I exercise etc so I am very aware of my body, but I do feel lucky that I am fit and able to be as active as I like.

I can't really remember a time without depression. I don't mind the depression. I mind the anxiety. I find it completely exhausting. What I'm struggling with are my food allergies. I have only recently started with them in any life changing way. I can't eat soya, dairy, vanilla and pineapple. But chocolate gives me migraines. I'm intolerant of onion. That is pretty much any take away, ready meal or pudding. It's not life threatening but very uncomfortable and snotty... All pudding replacements have soya in them. Soya and dairy are in most biscuits. Infact something was in my tea that didn't agree with me because I'm itchy. I would love to just see food I like the look of and be able to eat it.

No idea. I’ve had bladder problems since I was13. I can’t remember what it’s like to be able to not leak and empty the bladder fully. Its ruined my health, affected my sleep etc. I feel as if I didn’t even have the chance to appreciate my health.

Actually I think has helped me appreciate how many people of my age (or stage in life) actually are living with chronic physical or mental illness. I knew some people were unlucky enough to get seriously ill iyswim but uou tend not to realise the range of not as serious but very debilitating illnesses such as anxiety.

I'm late 40's and (hopefully) in robust good health. Just went for a general checkup and all is good, I feel very well, but I always have.

Unfortunately I think it's only something you think about when it's gone. It occasionally flits across your mind to appreciate it, but as it's been a constant state, the alternative seems remote.

It's a 'non-issue' in your head I guess would be the best way to describe it, it's part of you in the way your hair colour or accent. An accepted constant. But one that you know on a hypothetical level won't always be the case. Although as none of us know what will go wrong one day (as it will for us all), it seems pointless to wonder what that will be.

So I suppose that is enjoying physical and mental good health feels like.

That sounds extremely hard, @PerkingFaintly.

I've had serious health problems over the years and as a result I cherish good health and see it as one of the most important things in life. One thing I've noticed about friends who have great health, and have never experienced a serious problem, is that they take it completely for granted. They literally don't give it a moments thought. Whilst I obsess about my health concerns they obsess about other stuff like work, relationships etc.

I doubt that people who don't have health problems could describe what it feels like tbh - it's hard to describe the absence of something you've never had. It will just feel like normality to them. The only ongoing thing I have is borderline high blood pressure. I'm permanently on medication for it, but it's not exactly an illness and doesn't impact on how I feel or what I can do.
So I very much doubt that the sense of freedom you associate with the idea of good health is something that well people actually experience. There will be other non-health-related problems restricting freedom for many of them.

Ah now, pissing I can do.

I do just take it for granted most days – like all the bits that work. But I do remind myself every now and then to be grateful.

Like everyone, occasionally I have to follow a hasslesome, time-consuming medical routine for a particular problem. I'm very grateful for every day which doesn't have one of those! Much sympathy to the bladder-, gut- and insulin-challenged.

Huge sympathy for living with type 1, OP. Very tough. I can offer a bizarre perspective ... I’m 51 and incredibly healthy. Haven’t been ill since 2013 (tonsillitis). Don’t get colds or anything.

However ... I have a massive genetic timebomb. I’ve got a genetic fault that makes lethal skin cancer very likely. I’ve had 15 (yes 15) malignant skin cancers removed. All taken off safely. Any of them could have resulted in death.

To add to the fun, I’ve also got a different gene fault that makes breast cancer and ovarian cancer a huge risk. All me relatives have died from either skin cancer or breast cancer before 40. So I never planned to live this long. I made minimal pension provision and planned my career around probably dying at 45.

Now I’m still here I’ve had to radically (and gratefully) replant my life, tentatively thinking I may live long enough to retire.

But I am acutely aware that each day is a precious bubble and it may not last ... I could be pitched into a totally different world. Anyone who has experienced cancer but is now healthy must feel the same. Any good times (half an hour, a day) is so precious. I feel for what you’re going through as it’s totally different and must feel quite relentless.

I don't know many people with no health problems at all. I have to consider whether to run or not with weak pelvic floor. I have low iron, don't sleep well, and have suffered backache from a young age. But day to day my work and social life isn't affected. I guess it feels like freedom.
Someone once said to me that you never have all 3, so enjoy each one you have: health, wealth and time.

Thank you, SparklingLime. I shall give myself a pat on the back for coping with the difficult stuff – while remaining grateful for my pissing skills.

Definitely agree that depression and anxiety and all mental illness can massively impede and curtail someone's life, and very much shape their experience of living, even when things are going well.

I should have been more clear when I asked about 'health' that I'm talking about mental or physical health. Chronic mental ill-health (whether it's caused by an illness that arises for no clear reason, or whether it's more like injury caused by trauma) is located in the brain (and gut) which is still the body.

I was thinking this very thing today! I have epilepsy and it's constantly on my mum's especially after having a seizure after 9 month's if freedom. I suppose I had started to let my guard down a but and feel like 'hmmm this is what being normal and having nothing to worry about feels like'. I can't comprehend what it must be like to never have to have your guard up constantly. It's the medication side as well, knowing I'll more than likely be on it for decades to come and having to factor it in to everything. I do count myself lucky though, it could always be so much worse so try to think of it like that instead

Mind* not mum!

I appreciate my good health a lot more since having a scare a few years ago, and I do try and take good care of myself. I think this comes with age, Im 40s.

For me its knowing Im lucky to be healthy but also knowing it could all change in the blink of an eye.

When I think back to when I was younger I really didnt have any regard for my health and did some really wreckless things.

I'm really healthy and just recently I've started to appreciate it more.

I have two disabled children and without my good health and fitness levels, I literally wouldn't be able to look after them.