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?

Malingerers get too much sympathy these days.

I agree. The NHS is barely functioning and services have been cut to the bone. People are waiting for essential operations and treatments for years while their conditions get worse.

Mental health treatment is a bunch of pills and you can only get support if you reach crisis point.

People are going to hospital with vitamin deficiencies because they're too poor to afford a healthy diet. They're using food banks or they'd starve and a third of children are in poverty.

Children are suffering from poor mental health because of what they're accessing on the internet and child mental health services, barely exists.

Bunch of hypochondriacs - you've nailed it.

I have sort of noticed it but I think it's no wonder. There a lot of poor mental health underlying it, and also, regarding working the from home issue, the extra cost of childcare and travel.

I think we have to have sympathy and empathy for people in this economic climate, not bang on or use stupid words like "snowflake ".

Not a great example but yes we need more resilience. I have a friend who works for herself (cleaning) but continuously cancels her work because she’s ill. So she will say she’s got a migraine. Oh, poor you, what have you taken? Paracetamol. Are you drinking loads of water. Oh I’ve had a cup of tea, but I will have some. Are you getting enough sleep? Well we had a bottle of wine last night so we got to bed late, but Ill try to get to bed earlier…

I agree with OPs main point - that in general we seem now to be prone to a mental overreaction to pretty standard human ailments.

But also we are so at the end of our capacity, that a cold or a pulled muscle or indigestion is simply too much - back in the day, we could take life a bit easier when ill, our grans or dads etc would put us to bed with a lemsip/rub our soreness/be there to help and support for the couple of days of unwellness. But now everyone is at capacity, no one has time or energy to care for another. So a cold can feel like the final straw.

Oh dear yes - every other person seems to ‘have anxiety’ nowadays.
There certainly seems to be a worrying lack of resilience.

I really agree with you. Total sympathy for anyone living with a condition/s BUT - for example - you can barely read a post on this site without someone mentioning they have an illness/condition, big or small. A parcel not delivered? Made worse as I was very ill that day. School sent the wrong jumper home? Made worse as I was recovering from flu. Etc etc!!

Jeez! Chronic vestibular migraine cannot be cured by paracetamols or water. So much ignorance.
Its the difference between a cold and acute bronchitis.

I work with people who have chronic conditions. The vast majority do want to work and can do some aspects of their job. Where they come against problems is when employers can't meet their needs.
Yes, many of us have pain. We do some exercise, we take paracetamol and life is manageable. With chronic pain population, the vast majority already maxed out on opioids and it doesn't touch the sides. What do you do then? You probably won't be able to move very efficiently without exacerbating your symptoms so this excludes any roles which require you to be on your feet or travel between sites. Or even getting up to your office which is on a third floor of a building without a lift. If god forbid, you have to take a couple of days off when you have a bad flareup, you fall under disciplinary fairly quickly.
If you have migraines, you can't cope with sensory stimuli. You also have predrome and postdrome with severe fatigue. It's not just a headache. You may technically be able to get yourself to the office but not then being able to carry out any part of your job. You often can't look at screens and not every employer will provide you with assistive equipment to help mitigate the effects.
So your options become very very limited quite quickly. Not because you can't work at all but because you can't work reliably and the employer cannot/doesn't want to meet your needs.

I think the rise of the internet and social media has led people to believe that anything other than a human having perfect physical and mental health is somehow seriously wrong and somehow exempts them from the duties and responsibilities of life. Most people will develop physical conditions, especially as they age and if they don't look after themselves. People need to realise that this doesn't make you the exception and you have to take responsibility for managing these conditions as best you can as the state and society simply can't shoulder the burden when the majority of the citizens are grappling with such issues.

The same goes for mental health conditions. I believe that idea that most people are Neurotypical and don't struggle at all with their mental health is a fallacy. The science around Neurodiversity isn't as robust as most people assume and the definition of Neurodiversity has now been pulled so wide that scientists and doctors are admitting that there is now a huge overlap between the ND and NT community. Lots of people will struggle with mental health conditions and traits of ASD/ADHD/depression/anxiety etc to the point it has a significant impact on their lives. I would argue that most people will have periods of time where this is the case. We have to accept this is in most cases by definition a normal part of the human condition in the modern world.

This largely sums it up. Our society is very unhealthy. Impossible to get timely medical care for small health issues which means they snowball and become more disabling. Our winter climate is horrible and depressing. The cost of living is high. People generally feel a bit low and defeated which makes it harder to make good choices. We work very long hours and on top of poor health to start with this heaps on more pressure.

I do think that far too many people are using 'poor mental health' as a way of avoiding any work or responsibility. I get fed up sometimes when I'm physically disabled but still dragging myself into work. Then I hear about healthy young men and women on benefits because of their 'mental health'. It's not sustainable.

I really wish my migraine was just aches and pains. I have injections every 3 months. Those injections cause dizziness and are actually quite painful.

And if it really was just a headache, I wouldn't be on daily preventative medication. One of which has left me with hearing loss. My current one affects my sleep which in turn can trigger migraine

I've permanently lost vision because of my migraine.

There’s also a lot of people who self diagnose things. So a bad cold is flu, and a headache is a migraine. I know someone who has ‘fibromyalgia’ self diagnosed. She doesn’t work and posts about ‘spoons’ and being able to not fuction but it doesn’t stop her social life oddly.

My BIL suffers from migraines but they also sometimes turn out to be hangovers but he wouldn’t admit that.
And I know a lot of people who won’t make adjustments to cure themselves, they want a doctor to do it for them, give them a magic pill or something.

I have one friend who always seems to be in pain, yet she spends most her free time sat on her sofa watching telly and rarely goes outside even when the weather's sunny. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I can't help but feel the two things are probably connected in some way.

Hmm but even for someone you consider a friend you don't seem to think it's possible that you've got the causation the wrong way round here?

Absolutely! And everything is "chronic" these days, chronic pain, chronic migraines, chronic coughs and sneezes.

If that's your opinion then ok, you can argue that point. But don't start your thread by saying you don't want to downplay illnesses, when actually the main argument you're making is that the illnesses are not as severe as people say, which is the definition of downplaying.

Thr dramaticness people act around it is what has changed

Have a cold, suggestion is just get signed off for a week

Who suggests that? It sounds like you're the one being a bit dramatic.

Same here I also have Elhers Danlos Syndrome, I left the support groups because I found the majority of the posts were complaining about all the problems they had but if you dared suggest that exercise and building up muscle strength helps they attacked you for being ableist. I took part in a pain management programme followed all the advice and then because I gained strength, improved my health and got back into full time work, started going out and enjoying life again the friends I'd made there dropped me because they would rather I had ended up in a wheelchair trapped at home being miserable so I was like them again. They actually said those words to me. I don't get the woe is me attitude it's like some people just love being ill and don't want to help themselves.

Chronic migraine has a specific definition of over 15 days a month. Diagnosed by specialists.

I had to go to casualty with a dog bite. The waiting room was full but I by-passed everyone. The doctor said I was the first genuine case that morning. He said one person had diarrhoea. When asked how many times, the answer was one. And the person behind me I heard say she had a cold and couldn’t sleep.

As for flu!! Clearly many people have never had flu. It is truly dreadful. You are not going to the doctor’s, you are not going out at all and not even posting on MN!!

But the woman in the article has chronic pain and lifelong conditions and is still working.

Why is that any different to what you’ve got going on? Or is your chronic condition real but hers fake? If so how do you know?

This thread is goady and it’s people with disabilities that will suffer. Or maybe we should try more yoga.

If you think you could work through your migraine, you haven't got one!

@Excourtclerk - you did the right thing for yourself. Congratulations. You are likely to have a happier and healthier and longer life because of what you did. What you did is to be admired. Some people cannot bear that, but their attitude reflects badly on them.

Pre-pandemic it was quite common for the emergency button to be pressed on the tube as a person felt unwell during the journey - it is now quite rare (does anyone know the figures)
Perhaps it is because more of the genuinely chronically sick/snowflakes/less robust people are working from home.
The tube is just as crowded as the service is reduced

People trotting out the same old tired myths about flu crack me up. We have this crap on every single thread where flu is mentioned.

Flu can range from mild to severe and can even be asymptomatic.

It is generally accepted that about 20% to 30% of people will be asymptomatic or with minimal symptoms …,

https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/yahoo-life-why-does-the-flu-make-some-people-sick-but-not-others/

Now obviously you don’t know for definite if you have flu unless you’ve been tested but it is not the case that it can’t be flu unless you’re confined to bed.

I do love the amateur Doctors on Mumsnet.

Chronic pain isn’t ‘aches and pains’
migraines aren’t ‘headaches’

disabled and chronically ill people really can’t win, can we? If we don’t work we’re lazy, if we work from home we’re not working hard enough.

I agree with you. Yes, there are people with debilitating conditions which mean they can’t work or do certain jobs, we absolutely need to support these people. There are many others who seem to think they need to be in 100% health to be able to work and will not push through at all. We cannot have the amount of people we currently have off work. Our services are not good enough and we don’t have enough money coming in to fix it, and it can’t continuously be the same people being asked tor more and more contributions whilst many others are not contributing. This really needs to be sorted out. The resilience of our population is very low.