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?!

Perfectly said. And to add, we actually do not know the cause of his death yet.

They are not that old these days but sure you have to be careful as you age but also not give into ageist people who think u are too old to do anything.Theres also more to life than seeing kids marry or have kids.he helped people not just his family.

I could have written exactly that, leaves you with a feeling of unease

Would you trot out heartless shit like this later this year when the inevitable people will die swimming in rivers, canals and lakes in the UK?

And they will, on the first hot day.

I have really bad anxiety around death, especially sudden death, and after a lot of medication and therapy I've (kind of) found a way to push most of the thoughts away.
Basically, I tell myself that this year I don't need to worry. This year I need to live. Go on the holiday. Take the boat around the dock. Travel to see friends. When I start feeling anxious I tell myself "I can deal with this in 2025." As each year passes, I change the date to the next year, and so on.
This usually works for me, and when it doesn't it's normally when I've been forgetting my meds 🙃

I don't feel more anxious for me. I feel less anxious now for someone close to me who is one who cannot sit on a beach and will always go off for a wander because they have sat up and taken notice of this. Tim Spector wrote today about MM. "He was upset that the BBC and Channel 4 had said he couldn’t do any more cold water stunts because the insurance was becoming too high. Our last ski trip together he was as usual, going far too fast and crashed hurting his back but after a brief rest was back on the slopes, as eager and energetic as ever" Must be very hard to love someone like this, knowing they take risks, but they wouldn't be who they are without that.

As for the poster who said he took other people's ideas, I don't find that fair. I always heard him credit the researchers where he took his ideas from and he was always saying it was his wife with the real clinical experience on diabetes management, "just one thing" interviews the people who have done the work on the idea - he never presented it as his own. The general public tend to remember and credit him though because he was the one presenting it and lazy newspaper articles also often don't reference where the idea comes from whereas he would when presenting his own material. Lots of doctors and academics are paying respects to him on social media from what I've seen.

@crackofdoom we should all have someone that wants to know we get home safely.

I'll be your person 🌻

I feel anxious about this too op. Mainly because so many people that my friends and family know have been struck by tragedy and I've become quite sensitive to news stories.
But now I figure that we all have to die at some point and if the worst happens, then we'll just have to deal with it, like many people do and come to terms with it.
What else is there?

I have actually found your post very helpful OP because I am feeling exactly the same and the fact that currently 56% of people think you are NBU should reassure you somewhat. So thank you for writing your feelings down like this, because some of the replies that have included strategies for dealing with the intense anxiety you are feeling, have been very useful. The last few days have been very unsettling for all the reasons mentioned throughout this thread, and it’s not surprising that some of us are experiencing increased anxiety.

Apparently he took a wrong turning and went in the opposite direction. This was a much more difficult path than the one he should have taken, hence how he got into trouble. So probably more unlucky, rather than irresponsible.

But I do agree that older men often mistakenly feel like they’re still physically invincible (more so than women do, I think, maybe because we are generally more aware of our physical vulnerabilities)

I agree with this, women go through menopause and all the massive changes to our minds and bodies this causes, our bodies literally tell us we are getting old, men however can delude themselves they are Peter Pan, not sure who has it better actually!

It’ feels closer to home when it’s someone we’ve seen on tv .. someone who appeared the picture of health , advising us how we can become better healthier versions of ourselves .someone whi you certainly wouldn’t assume would be dying anytime soon ... I had recently downloaded his deep calm podcast as I’ve been suffering terrible anxiety since my father quite literally dropped dead two months ago .
His voice had a calm and reassuring manner ..
it seems inexplicable that a healthy man in his late sixties who should in theory have had many years left .. can due in such a tragic way so I do understand that awful feeling of “bloody hell if it can happen to him , it can happen to anyone “

I read in the Telegraph that it was confirmed he died of heat exhaustion this evening.

I want to turn this around.

I’ve seen parents and loved ones have agonising and unforgiving deaths (Lewy Bodies Dementia anyone? Hallucinating murderous armies outside your care home?), or many years of bad health and surviving really shit stuff. The human body doesn’t give up easily.

its a given we all have to go somehow. I for one would prefer a fabulous holiday with loved ones, feeling healthy and happy, and dropping dead before I even knew it to the endings I’ve seen.

I think it’s very fitting because the ‘just one thing’ idea is to stay as happy and healthy in your life as long as possible.

I’m sad he was relatively young for that, but if you’ve seen relatives lose their ‘selves’ during long years of decrepitude you might see it differently.

Yes, definitely. I'm gutted about Michael's death. I had a cry about it when it was confirmed.

Yes, it has rocked me. Life is precious. He was taken too soon :(

@Rockschooldropout - so sorry for your loss and of the other previous posters that have lost loved ones suddenly, recently or longer ago.

I think it’s most awfully sad and although Claire said they drew comfort from the fact he so nearly made it - for me the thought of my loved one so close to help and lying undiscovered for so long would tear me up. I wish them well in the months ahead. I lost both my parents relatively young but never a sudden death which I think is really really sad.

There are unavoidable deaths - the wrong place at the wrong time. But the thought of an avoidable element to it is awful and certainly on the face of it, poor MM’s death seems to have some level of avoidability. I don’t think it’s in bad taste to feel that.

I totally agree with you. I thought I was the only person who was thinking why on earth would a obviously very intelligent man,who's a doctor and should know the risks,go for a walk in 40+ degree heat,without a phone and a minimal water supply?

this is a good take on it. One other thing to mention is that even in his death he has taught us all something about what not to do - I imagine a lot of people will reconsider a walk in the heat, or remember to take their mobile with them - due to the publicity around this. It's not the same as him being around any more, and as terribly sad as it is, it is fitting that even in death we are learning from him! I hope that doesn't sound weird, it's not meant to be a criticism and is hard to find the right words, but it is fitting that he is still teaching us even at this point after this tragic event!

But I do agree that older men often mistakenly feel like they’re still physically invincible (more so than women do, I think, maybe because we are generally more aware of our physical vulnerabilities)

I agree with this, women go through menopause and all the massive changes to our minds and bodies this causes, our bodies literally tell us we are getting old, men however can delude themselves they are Peter Pan, not sure who has it better actually!

I really disagree with this. As a woman coming ( hopefully) to the end of my menopause I still do many things that others of my age see as risky and dangerous ( I'm 59) and snowboard, hike in mountains, usually alone, mid week, mountain bike etc. I don't see what the problem is but my mum despairs of me. I'm not feeling old yet. I know im not the only one. I have plenty of female friends that travel off the beaten path solo in different countries, women who cave , heck I've even got friends that road cycle ( now that is dangerous, the fools!)
Better to die happy rather than boredom.

Then women's bodies go the other extreme during menopause and make them anxious and paralyse themselves with fear.

It's that slap in the face reminder of how frail we actually are as humans.

A couple of years back, a colleague died suddenly, after falling down her stairs.Just that- no heart attack, no stroke, nothing like that and stone cold sober. Just lost balance, fell and hit her head. Her husband, in another room, never even heard the fall.

That shook me up for months, and I couldn't help but start thinking of my own impending death- and I just thought, I know I'm going to die, but please, let it not be in an accident of some sort. Particularly if the accident was kind of down to my own stupidity!
Not that I'm suggesting that there was any stupidity involved in my colleagues accident, but I'm almost sure that if it was me falling down the stairs, a level of stupidity would be involved 😂 I'd be two wines in, or not have my slippers on properly, or get spooked by a non existent spider that was actually a fluff ball, or trip on my dressing gown belt. It really made me think.

Also want to be clear that I'm not saying stupidity was involved in Michael Mosley's death either. I thought he was a lovely man, and so sorry for his family right now.

Some years ago, maybe nearly 20 years ago, a grandfather and toddler/very young child went missing after supposedly going for a walk, there was a huge amount of press reports indicating the grandfather had abducted his grandchild, lot of negative reporting and no consideration of alternatives: turned out they had gone on a walk, in an area with lots of bracken in full growth, the grandfather had had a heart attack and collapsed into the bracken which hid both of them, but thankfully the child was heard crying and was rescued.
We don't know why MM made the choices he did that day and we are unlikely to ever know, so unless someone has a recording of him saying 'I'm off for a dangerous walk in the blistering heat without water and phone and sod the consequences' I don't think it's fair on him or his family to draw the conclusion that he was intentionally reckless, however posters feel it looks to them. The one person who could tell us, can't.

The really daft this is that he walked past how many cafes’? Even if he didn’t have enough water with him, I’m sure he could have purchased some more or just asked them to fill his bottle from the tap.

Also, I have done the fast 800 with the intermittent fasting and I often felt light headed or dizzy during the fast. Maybe that added to his confusion, the man has seemingly been on a diet for 20 years

Just to clarify I don't believe in my last statement. It was to show it is unhelpful to generalise about older men and women's bodies.

Menopause did not make me anxious. I felt the same in terms of risk appetite but older and wiser.