To think we are becoming a country of hypochondriacs?

[YellowTulips25]

Firstly, let me preface this by saying that I entirely sympathise with people who have to live with serious long-term medical conditions. I don't wish to downplay illness or disabilities - visible or hidden - at all.

However, does anyone else feel like we're rapidly becoming a country of hypochondriacs, where an increasing number of people let seemingly minor health issues dominate their life?

For example, an article on the BBC this week features a woman who talks about having 'chronic pain, migraines and travel sickness' as reasons why it's impossible for her to work in an office. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp9x0819417o

I think most of us suffer from aches and pains and headaches from time to time? What'd happen if we all started using this excuse?

And I know plenty of friends who always seem to have some ailment or other troubling them, whether it's being in pain, being tired, having a cough or cold, etc etc. It seems almost as if constantly being ill is part of their personality, a badge of honour?

I know I'll probably get flamed for this, but surely I can't be the only one to feel like rolling my eyes at some people's lack of resilience?

Chronic pain and migraines are really serious, and yes WFH would make them easier to manage. Daily motion sickness for a couple of hours would be absolute hell, if you really try and empathise. What a mean, mean thread. Lots and lots of people have hidden disabilities which are made easier to manage by WFH. Are you jealous or do you write for the Daily Fail?

OP, are you a headline writer for the daily mail? 🤣

So you think chronic migraines don’t exist? You think migraines are just a “bad headache” but you don’t want to downplay genuine illness?

You’re really showing your ignorance.

But it's migraines vs chronic migraines. There is a difference. I get migraines from time to time, they suck, sometimes I can work through (at least the start of one) and sometimes I can't. My family member gets CHRONIC migraines. She cannot work. It's not just the migraine, but the fatigue of constantly dealing with it. She's absolutely wiped.

I get pains from time to time, I actually have a chronic condition that will cause pain, but thankfully the pain itself isn't chronic (everything else bloody is though lol) . I am part of a support group where many of the members DO have actual chronic pain. It's not just the pain itself, again it's the fatigue and weight of dealing with it constantly. They cannot work.

Ditto depression. I feel depressed and down sometimes, it's really intense as I have mental health conditions anyway... But I don't have chronic depression. I used to work with people who had chronic depression, as a support worker... And jesus, it's a different beast. These people are really struggling.

And there are plenty of people with the exact same symptoms I do get, who actually do not work because of them. I often think they have it right, because whilst I can work... literally all of me goes into working. I have nothing left in the tank for joy or pleasure in life. I work, struggle to eat, struggle to sleep, work, repeat . I don't see family or friends. I don't go out anywhere. Because I can't. Because work has used up every bit of my energy. This is not a life anyone should have. It's not a life.

Oh look "migraine is just a headache".

I also have chronic migraine and have recently had the RTO conversation with my manager. I absolutely refuse to do it.

WFH gives me complete control over my exposure to lighting, scents and temperature. I can also take my abortive medication for an attack without being unable to then drive home (due to side effects). I also have access to my ice packs, sickness medication and a clean and private toilet to vomit in repeatedly should that medication fail.

Migraine is totally disabling for many of us. Before covid, I was working through 25-27 days of migraine per month and barely surviving. I was suicidal and pale as a sheet. My preventative medication wasn't working.

Since covid and WFH, those days went down to 15 and a new medication took it down to 12.

I'm now on yet another medication and guess how many days of migraines I have per month? 1-4.

Guess WHEN I get those attacks? Every time I have to into the badly lit, flickering lights, broken desk and chair, overheated office in the basement of my employer (as they closed the only other location I could go).

I work alone in that basement 95% of the time and still can't do most of my usual work there as it's a co-working space and I'm not permitted to do it there as my work is heavily compartmentalised.

WFH for those of us with chronic conditions, disabilities and medical needs has been life changing.

I've taken two days off sick in 4 years. Before that it was every month and I was on warnings and more.

Have you ever tried going to the gym with a migraine, or even gone for a walk with one?

I did agree with you on the vote BUT I have two young adult dc and they have definitely both suffered with the long term effects of covid. They are always coughing, have fatigue, chest infections and always seem to be ill and under the weather when they were perfectly fine before with just the odd normal childhood illness. One has been diagnosed with long covid and the GP said she herself has it.

My one dc panics when she gets a sore throat as she knows she will get a chest infection then antibiotics then ill for two weeks and then absent from their course. She admits she has health anxiety but she does seem to be ill a lot.

One dc has had covid four times and the other probably more than that.

Next up.
OP will tell depression sufferers to just cheer up a bit and carry on..

Chronic pain is very different from occasional aches and pains when you have overdone it at the gym.

This type of thread is really not helpful because it just pushes the right wing media agenda that people with long term disabilities and/or health conditions are faking it...

I guess this simplistic type of view is easier to hold than addressing the real issue:

• crumbling NHS and social care services
• poor diets and lack of exercise
• long working hours which mean people have little time left to exercise or cook healthy meals
• high level of mental health issues after Covid, cost of living crisis and poor access to mental health services due to underfunding
• dinosaur employers who won't accept that WFH is a godsend for people with disabilities and help them stay in employment.

I guess it is much easier to just say that people are now 'snowflakes' than acknowledge and try to fix the root causes.

Yes, but the OP was knocking a woman with migraines and chronic pain, not someone who just had a simple cold!

There’s evidence around the impact of the pandemic, impact of lengthening NHS waiting lists, chronic poverty, lack of access to dental care, on the nation’s health. Physical and mental. Go and look it up OP. Then come back to us and tell us what you found. We aren’t here to do the work for you. 🙄

Your friend is staying at home when she's in pain? Wow, that's nuts!

I agree that some people can over diagnose themselves, and that perhaps people in general are less resilient than in the past.

However I do think there is more stress in modern day living, as well as environmental and societal factors, which have led to an increase in genuine chronic illnesses.

As for the migraines - as some PPs have said, if you have a migraine it can be impossible to work. Mine affect the whole body, and cause neurological symptoms as well as a headache, sickness and flu like symptoms. I literally can barely walk to the bathroom let alone work.

I think the problem is that some people who've never had a migraine hear the word migraine and think "Oh that's just a headache, I get those sometimes, just take an aspirin and get on with it" which unfortunately is very far from the truth of having a migraine.

nobody thinks they don't exist.

its just that PERHAPS not every time you get a headache you have a migraine ...

I don't think it's a lack of resilience; I think it's a high level of constant stimulation and life today being extremely unhealthy. Road noise, for example, is shown to cause health issues, even if you think you block it out.

I'm autistic and can see the general population displaying more and more autism-like behaviours, like in the run up to a big meltdown.

I also think that we know too much about illnesses and their symptoms, now. We're told that half of us (now just under half of us) will get cancer - how is that helpful? It's manipulative and cruel.

Having chronic pain isn't the same as having aches and pains now and again, by the way. Maybe you could swap some of your resilience for empathy. 😅

Yes, but she doesn't know whether the woman in the article she posted just has a headache or has serious migraines, does she? She's just decided that the woman is at it.

I think it's a reasonable point; which is coming to a head because of benefits and the number of people claiming them. I expect Labour to make it harder to obtain them, but also expect employers to show flexibility in managing medical issues.

Having a poor diet will not help matters, no, but look at how many posters are in denial about the amount of rubbish food that they consume.

I bet a fair few people claiming migraines aren’t like this PP with actual migraines.

a headache can be brutal - but not every headache is a migraine!

Migraine is a neurological event that manifests in a similar way to a seizure. You get a prodrome, aura, event and postdrome, some skip the aura stage.

Migraine is a severe and debilitating condition that is more than just the pain stage.

Maybe, but the OP has posted a link with a woman who suffers with terrible migraines, then said we all have headaches from time to time, and it's no big deal, implying that people (like the woman in the article, are at it).

Several of us have pointed out that migraines can cause serious symptoms like blackout, vomiting, vision loss, limb weakness - just for starters - and she has conveniently ignored all that.

How did you decide that this poster was definitely telling the truth, but all those other people are definitely lying? I'd love to have access to your magical remote lie detector test!

It is true. It might not be true in this instance but it’s a massive problem. People saying they have the flu with a cold cracks me up, if you have the flu you’re in bed for multiple days.