To find what’s happened to Michael Mosley quite anxiety provoking

[Glasto73lover]

It’s that idea of never really knowing what’s going to happen- the idea that we walk such a fine line in life. If you think too much about it, you probably wouldn’t leave the house.!

A close family member died suddenly and tragically a decade ago - literally dropped dead at home age 48 - something went pop in their head. So you genuinely don’t know when your time is up.

It’s that idea of a chain of consequence that can go so horribly wrong too- people always say ‘oh but you could get hit by a bus’ - stuff like this actually makes me really anxious. So many what ifs.

For Michael Moseley - a chain of probably inconsequential decisions may have led to his death- not having a phone on him, choosing to undertake a walk that in the U.K. is nothing but in that heat, was devastating and probably caused his death.

It makes me anxious that I won’t know if I am making those decisions - am I making sense? I think as I have got older, I have become more anxious and risk averse (thanks menopause) and as a result, you could end up not leaving the house. How do you choose a sensible approach? Not too much risk but some!

But I also want to live my life too!! I guess I find incidents like this quite difficult!

I guess always having a phone, not undertaking walks in intense heat in an unfamiliar place etc are the common sense points that will come out of this tragedy.

Aibu to find it anxiety provoking tho?!

I feel absolutely the same today - a series of decisions which individually may give no cause for concern but put together in the wrong circumstances can lead to such tragedy. It’s been messing with my head today too. Also the fact that he was so close to safety when he collapsed. What an awful situation.

I had a therapy session today and talked about exactly this. I think MM’s death has brought home how we don’t have as much control over our lives as we think. it’s definitely anxiety provoking.
I know someone who was severely injured in an RTA and whose life changed irrevocably a few years ago - such inconsequential decisions lead to catastrophic outcomes.
And then MM wanting to live to a ripe old age - he could’ve been gorging on pizza and chocolate all this time and the outcome would’ve been the same. Maybe that’s a bit flippant, but it’s more should we torture ourselves over our health as we could die tmw in a freak accident.

Poor man. He certainly won't have meant to get into the mess he did and end up dead. He was intelligent, astute and loved his family. It is so easy to make a poor decision in heat like that- he may have been ok all the way along the edge of the sea where the boats were and was then faced by a decision. He made the wrong choice, that's all . Who knows how affected he was already by the heat.

It isn't actually a huge climb- the 'hill' is only 60 metres high. I think he underestimated the heat- which was actually 10 degrees hotter at the top of the slope according to The Guardian earlier on, because of the exposure and there was no protection. The way was stony and difficult once he reached the top and I think he must have quickly become overwhelmed and very badly affected - dehydration, over-heating- including his decision-making. By then it was as far back as to go on.He may have thought if he reached the beach resort he could shelter, cool down, have a drink and get a boat taxi back to the village. Unfortunately, the path became even rougher. Look what happened when one of the rescuers stumbled yesterday- he broke his leg.

It's very sad and a salutary warning. We all make poor choices and usually get away with them because not everything conspires against us. In this case, unfortunately for this very intelligent, usually sensible, health professional and scientist, everything conspired against him.

No point in being angry with him or criticising him.

Your posts are getting very distasteful. Give him a break and have some respect for him and his family. We don't need to know you superior knowledge on the matter. Don't follow his advice if they don't suit you.

Whatever he did, anything could happen to anyone at any time. It's hardly like it was entirely due to his "stupidity" or not having a phone or whatever. That area he was in doesn't have mobile coverage anyway. He could have just as easily fallen down the stairs in his house and broken his neck or slipped over and landed on a knife in the dishwasher like in Eastenders. When it's your time, it's your time, but at the same time it's only in the news because it's rare.

We don't know what killed him yet, let alone whether it was impacted by his nutrition, age or genes.

But if he took a wrong turn it makes no difference if he said where he was going.

It was an accident, a series of circumstances that together conspired against him horribly.

Lots of ifs and buts- they don't matter, it happened.

Many of you are being over harsh applying hindsight and whys to an innocuous decision that unfortunately went wrong
He evidently thought it was a difficult but achievable climb, and undertook it. Perhaps underestimating how arduous to was, after all exhaustion is cumulative. The heat, the arduous conditions etc

He was relaxed on holiday. Professionally and personally inquisitive, he went off on a wander. That was his demeanour. He wasn’t a stay at home and worry kinda man. So all this why?why?why did he go for a walk. Misses the point spectacularly

It is really poor taste to suggest he purposefully chose to make his wife a widow, or die prematurely. Unfortunately he experienced a health emergency. Let’s not apportion blame or engage in pointless handwringing about what-ifs. Curiosity about a new terrain piqued his interest, he went walking. That doesn’t make him stupid or selfish. So show some respect and refrain from the distasteful comments

It is entirely natural when someone dies to ruminate the what ifs and reflect your own mortality. The trick is to not become moribund or overwhelmed. Take positive risks, don’t be scared of the day you’ve never seen

Questioning whether fasting is healthy is not "distasteful"! It's an important question. Don't be ridiculous.

Hi OP, I hope you are ok ❤️ I've had a great deal of life changing things related to my health over the past decade: head injury and post concussion syndrome, then being injured further by an off label antipsychotic which gave me a neurological involuntary movement disorder called tardive dyskinesia... all of this is/was life changing and I'd never have predicted any of it.

I'm nnot going to lie, it's just shitty and still affects me a lot but the most powerful and positive thing that I've taken from it is the feeling of total gratitude for all my blessings. As clichéd and cheesy as it sounds, I truly do appreciate the very small things so much more and have immense gratitude fot my freedom, family, love, home, genuine friends, and people who truly care.

It's taught me to really appreciate every single day and be happy with what i have now. Life can change so much in an instant and it's so true when they say 'never think it won't happen to you". There but by the grace of God go I. I'm not religious but this makes me think a lot when I say these words.

Sending hugs ❤️

Yes it's sad. He was a good egg.
But he lived a great life and he liked to push the envelope in some ways.

He didn't die young. So he wasn't continually reckless. He made it to 67
He may have just had a heart attack which could have happened any time .

Nailed it @Zone2NorthLondon

100% get what you are saying OP. It's the butterfly effect, how each decision you make in life however small impacts the rest of your life.
Very sadly my neighbour died a couple of months ago, she was only in her 20s. She was in a car accident, a passenger and it was absolutely no fault of the driver, they were just simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's devastating and it's really shook me. You read things like this in the papers but to have it happen to someone you know, who lives next door is really hard to get your head around. I can see how you can easily talk yourself out of leaving the house for a fear of what might happen, however what sort of life would you live never leaving the house? Imo it's worth taking the risk and living the life you want to live.

Haven't read the full thread but with regards to your anxiety, I think humans have evolved to be frightened of death, of sudden death in particular. But have also evolved not to think about it all the time. If we weren't worried about death we'd all be more likely to take lots of risks or even kill ourselves through depression and adversity. But if we thought about it all the time we'd never do anything.

I think one of the keys to good mental health is to be in a position to get the balance right.

Death is the last taboo. Every now and then stories like this have a good look at that taboo. And it's disturbing.

My Dad was 56 and had a freak cardiac arrest at work with no preceding symptoms in December. He received immediate, high-quality CPR and defibrillation on scene with paramedic arrival in <10 mins. He still didn’t make it due to the brain injury he sustained while he was down and we let him go 3 weeks later. It’s definitely made me anxious (and I’m a nurse), I started grief counselling but I didn’t find it overly helpful as didn’t gel with the counsellor. I think I will revisit it though when it’s a bit less raw.

I haven’t followed the MM story too closely as it’s too fresh for me, but I feel desperately sad for his family from the snippets I’ve seen as he might have had a chance if he had been seen by someone, or if he’d taken a phone with him. But who knows, maybe he didn’t have any symptoms either and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m glad my Dad got a chance, and the immediate care he got let me have him back for 3 precious weeks. My Dad could just as easily have been MM as he was fit, healthy and active and would usually go for an early morning run on holiday in Greece. I can’t imagine how the pain I felt and still feel could be any worse than it is, but I know it might have been if he wasn’t at work, surrounded by people and I had to wait five days for him to be found. Would I have taken comfort that he was doing something he enjoyed in a place he loved? Would I be angry with him for taking such a risk? I honestly don’t know, and my heart aches for MM’s family.

Sorry this is a bit jumbled, I wrote down what had happened so many times for so many people at the time, but haven’t had to do it for a couple of months and still struggle to organise my thoughts on it.

What an utterly bizarre and unpleasant thread this has turned into. If I were harbouring this much anger, blame and desire to publicly condemn someone in the public eye who died, for the circumstances of their untimely death, I’d be asking myself what was really going on in my head.

So what I mean is your anxiety protects you to a degree and is a natural feeling

This isn’t the thread for it.

As far as I'm concerned he was a man who thought he knew it all on health and I don't mean to say that in a nasty way. He had got a bit too full of himself and as many older men do, refused to accept his ageing and limitations. So off he marched and paid the price. Or rather his family will now pay the price.

Equally it’s a relief that he didn’t suffer for days.

Exactly. Most of us don't know how close we have sailed to the wind. As an Erasmus student, I regularly cycled home, no helmet, no lights through a city and onto my unlit country road at 3 and 4 in the morning. Completely stupid and if something had happened me people would have thought so but.. it didn't.

TBH I have the same anxiety at times, but I think we need to appreciate that freak accidents occur all the time which can lead to death, but also people have accidents that should have probably killed them, and survived.
Most of these things are out of our hands, best to not do completely stupid things buy also remember that our time is our time. Atleast for me, that belief keeps me fairly happy and stops me viewing life as they film final destination.

I’m finding all the coverage, and particularly videos, really quite awful. Apparently there is one at the end of his ‘walk’.

What do you mean, at the end of his walk?

I think there needs to be more awareness of the risks of vigorous or extreme exercise particularly in men over 40

Why just men?

And some do very well.why are you wishing loneliness on her?

It is. I found out that my mil died some hours before her own daughters did. And then, some years later, that my fil died before my Dh and another sister and had to call Dh at work and tell him. Both times I felt irrationally bad that I knew before them. Although I'm sure it happens quite often like that.