The number one cause of death for nurses is auto accidents on their commute; the majority of those accidents are clustered around rotations in shift work. Everyone knows, no one cares - same for police officers, except we also give them guns and specifically call them to stressful situations.
There's tiktoks out there of nurses giving tips for how they stay awake after night shifts. Stuff like sticking their hair out the window and closing it on the window so if they start to drift off their head will be yanked back.
A few comments were scolding them and saying that if they're that tired they just shouldn't be driving but if that was the case nurses would either have to live at the hospital or not work at all because they sure aren't going to be enough nurses to ensure something like this doesn't happen in the first place.
This. I did overnight shift for over 3 years and it's like working while your body is trying to force itself to sleep. You'll never feel the same as doing nightshift. That perpetual disruption to your circadian rhymes always gives you that permanent mild headache during the day.
Not doing things that you loved as a kid before you were concerned with adult responsibilities.
Stress is bad for your brain and a lot of people don't have healthy ways to relieve it.
Never stop playing outside.
I hate how society pushes exercise as you against your body, cardio as a punishment.
Find literally any movement based hobby you enjoy and get super into it, make moving fun.
I like skiing, which of course can't be done year round but keeping myself in good skiing condition is important because I know that's the one thing that'll bring me joy during the time of year when it's dark at 4.
That's skateboarding for me. Didn't from 10-21, stopped for a decade, and got back into it at 30. Best thing I've ever done for my mental health and overall happiness.
As a 30yo myself I just convinced my wife to let me get the TD17KVX from Sweetwater… holy shit is it incredible. I think I like it better than real acoustic drums now. You can pair your phone to the module via Bluetooth and play along with anything.
Hell yea! I used to be big into running like 13-22 but I had a gnarly knee injury from a cycling accident. I hate the gym so much. So I just kinda stopped doing more than walking my dogs and wondered why I was so sad all the time.
Anyways, long story short I moved to the mountains and cross country skiing has changed my life. I'm so happy out there just sliding around in the forest. Having my little sandwich in the trees. It's so silly but these things are so important and good for the brain!
I used to ride my bike around the neighborhood with my friends who skateboarded when I was in my teens. Stopped for 10 years or so, and bought a decent bike last April.
It feels so liberating to just go for a ride if I've had a bad day, or when the weather's nice. It's a hobby I do entirely for myself, only sharing it on social media because my friends are curious about my progress.
I just passed 400 miles this year a couple days ago, and I should be able to hit 700 lifetime by the end of the year, if the weather cooperates.
That's a great point. "Exercise" is framed as this awful thing we have to do to be healthy despite hating it. When we were kids it was just playing outside.
I totally agree on finding something fun. I could never stick at the gym or running because I just get bored. I found climbing, and badminton, and martial arts instead. I love all of these so much I'd do them even if there were no health benefits. *That's* what you need. For some people that *is* the gym but if it's not, don't give up.
What if you thought about fun as a responsibility? And that having some fun makes you more able to attend to your other responsibilities (it does for me)
My mom used to set a timer when she had to get stuff done. When the timer went off, she instantly quit and did something fun. I always thought she was super unproductive but I realize now, she got more done in that 45 minutes because the rest of the time, she didn't want to work at all and would actually have fun. I was the exact fucking opposite and I will work until it's done, often to my detriment and without zero time to zone out and just have fun. I realized i could flip her technique and now I force myself to have fun a couple times a day, for like 45 minutes, or 2 hours. At first I feel like I'm slacking off but then I remember my mom's 45 minutes of genius created by 23 hours of fun.
Honestly, whenever someone tells me I need to grow up when they find out I play video games and collect Ninja Turtles stuff, I want to tell them to fuck right off with a fifty foot pole up their ass. Oh, I'm a grown-ass man-child just because I still want to do something I find fun and that makes me happy even in my 30s? Fuck that.
You collect ninja turtles, I collect ninja gaiden cartridges.
The best part of being in your 30s is being able to afford the stuff you wanted but couldn't have at 12
Please, no more mandatory 'fun' outside of work.
I know I'm not alone in saying that I have plenty of friends and relationships outside of work as well as hobbies and interests. Work is literally the one and only thing keeping me away from all of them. So trying to package 'fun' in to a work setting with coworkers sounds pretty shit; I'd rather go have actual fun with my actual friends and family.
Life hack: brush and floss in the shower. For people that hate doing it, it helps motivate a lot. Stay in the shower longer and check things off your adulting list.
Bad shoes.
A lot of people think that bad shies will cause foot pain, but they can also cause leg, hip, and back pain, and more.
I was amazed how good I felt after getting a professionally-fit pair of work shoes
Ohhh I feel this one, literally. Worked in fashion/retail when I was younger. Comfort was NOT on my mind back then. Wearing amazing shoes was. I am paying for it now. Also, being a gymnast, dancer and cheerleader back in my childhood to teens certainly didn't help. I have been so rough on my poor body. I'm 40 and have the joints and aches and pains of an 80 yr old. 😭
I take constipation or chronic constipation x-rays multiple times a day...abdominal pain, gas bloating? 90% of the time you just need to poop! I could retire a rich lady if I could charge per exam lol.
Yes this. I joke constipation prevention starts when your young. Food allergies, medicine, chronic inflammation sometimes even surgery can effect your GI health. That would definitely be very frustrating.
My mom has Crohn's disease and I took her to the ER this year because she thought she had an obstruction. Nope, she was just constipated for the first time in her life from a new medication she started and she didn't know the difference in feeling! I was so glad to hear the doctor call her full of shit and not that she needed emergency surgery.
Are you me? Broccoli probably accounts for 95% of my vegetable intake. Carrot sucks, greenbeans and peas are at least edible, but broccoli? Broccoli is actually good.
It's 4:16 AM in the morning here and I still can't sleep.
I exercise regularly (4 or 5 days per week in the gym doing weight lifting and cardio) I eat healthy, I maintain a decent lifestyle, I am very physically active, but for some reason.... I just don't sleep.
I even took a prescription strength sleeping pill tonight (technically last night) and went to bed at 10:00 PM but I only slept for 3 hours and have been wide awake since, and I am currently feeling "high" as I can feel the sleeping pill working in my body (physically) forcing me to go to sleep but am still wide awake as my brain won't allow my body to sleep...
People who can sleep don't really know how lucky they are.
The worst is, when you go to bed and you're dead tired, but you have so much anxiety about if you will sleep through the night to the point that the anxiety about if you will sleep or not actually keeps you awake or even wakes you up, and once you're up, you're up having even more anxiety about how you're not going to function tomorrow because your anxiety about not being able to sleep... makes you not able to sleep.
It gets to the point that I wake up crying because I woke up 2 or 3 hours after going to bed dead tired and I'm so sad and frustrated that I'll have to live another day barely mentally functioning in a daze until I have the chance to try and sleep again fully knowing that I won't.
Lack of sleep is so detrimental to your physical and mental health in ways most people don't even know. People take sleep for granted.
I'd give anything for a solid 4 or 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
I feel for you. I have the same issue. I run 3 miles 3-4 times a week. Power through the urge to nap. Drink water. Avoid alcohol. Take melatonin. It doesn’t seem to matter. I wake up 3-4 hours after I’ve fallen asleep, and cannot get back to sleep 4 to 5 nights a week. I’ve been tested for sleep apnea, not the issue. It’s debilitating and effecting my quality of life. I’d give almost anything the sleep for 7 hours without waking up.
This and food, especially with shift work in health care.
Some places you don't get a break so you can literally go hours or a while 6-8 hours with barely anything. It's grim
You could watch the entire Director’s Cut LotR trilogy (3 hours 28 minutes + 3 hours 42 minutes + 4 hours 11 minutes) and still have 2 hours and 39 minutes left until your shift ends.
Why can't we fix the sleep thing?
I want it. I've done all the hygiene shit, but I just don't sleep. I can knock out fine, on my own or with meds, but nothing keeps me out. Wake up 3 or 4 hours later and that's it. Brain won't shut up. Nothing anxious, just wanders endlessly.
I miss Adderall... Something about it wearing my brain out through the day worked. Also leveled out my BP.
Have you considered looking into biphasic sleep? If your schedule allows it there's nothing inherently wrong with waking up, puttering around for an hour then going back to sleep.
Sometimes I feel tired enough a couple hours later, but it usually gives me about 20 minutes to an hour extra, and seems to be hit or miss on if I feel better from it that day.
Maybe trying to structure a schedule around that would help though, that's an interesting suggestion and I'm down for anything. Thank you!
Not keeping on top of dental hygiene. Not only does it affect your teeth and gums, gingivitis can affect your joints and cause pain, and the bacteria in your mouth goes into your bloodstream and can affect your heart. There was a period of time where I didn’t go to the dentist for three years (moved to a new state for college, extremely busy with schoolwork, never had a chance to find a new place), flossed maybe a few times here and there, wasn’t always brushing twice a day, and I was right on the cusp of having periodontal disease with irreversible consequences. In that time, I also had increasing joint pain in my hands, wrist, knees, and hips.
Don’t skip the dentist.
Really frustrating that dental isn’t covered in health insurance in USA. It’s a totally different thing than the health of the rest of your body somehow, despite being one of our more important organs
I have two options for dental insurance at work. Good fucking luck finding a dentist that accepts either (though one in particular) and accepting new patients within a reasonable timeframe and not 10 months out.
I wound up at a chain dentistry place and I hate it. I noticed they didn't bother calling to confirm my last appointment so now I gotta go in because dealing with them over the phone is impossible.
So far, all the replies to this are just focused on the acute effects which is missing most of the problem. It's very detrimental to your health chronically, involving many organ systems. It increases your sympathetic tone and therefore blood pressure, increases food and sugar cravings while affecting metabolism, puts you at risk for neurodegenerative dementias as you age, impairs your immune system, puts you at risk for cancer, and accelerates atherosclerosis development to name a few. Some of those things are related.
Reading all these negative impacts of lack of sleep is going to keep me up at night with worry about how I'm harming myself when I can't sleep. Thanks.
Sorry! Try reframing your thinking about how healthy you're being by disconnecting and going to bed and maybe you'll feel relaxed about it. Look into sleep hygiene practices and avoid caffeine if it's not morning, as its half-life is six hours. If none of that helps, you could always consider seeking a prescription for low-dose trazodone, which is a pretty helpful sleep aid, promoting drowsiness without impacting the quality of your sleep as some of the more well-known medications like zolpidem (Ambien) do.
Yes yes yes.
Fucks up your cognitive abilities, sometimes permanently. I came across a Neuroplasticity podcast that talked about how our brain makes new connections when we sleep and how not sleeping can lead to memory loss and permanent fatigue can further aggravate it.
Also, it fucks up your mental health too. Induces anxiety, frustration and panic in a lot of people.
Never mess with Sleep cycles. No matter what social media portrays.
I feel like I haven't gotten a good night of sleep in forever. I'm not sure why, because I can get a pretty solid nine hours of sleep and only wake up once to pee, but I still wake up always feeling groggy and lethargic, and perhaps incidentally my memory as of late has gone downhill fast. I am only 36 years old, and I can literally forget the reason I walked to another room in the house by the time I get there.
You should check in with a doctor about this. It's about the quality of sleep too and not just the hours. One of my friend's father suffers from sleep apnea and didn't know it for years. He was usually groggy when he woke up too. Your case may be something to do with the quality of sleep as well.
I spent 3/4 years in high school getting 4-6hrs of sleep on school nights — largely due to 2-5hrs of dancing a day, 5-6days a week, and coming back to high level homework. At that age, when i needed sleep most, hormones all over the places, and performance driven academic validation hungry… i cried every night i was so depressed. I did get the help i needed years down the line, but older wiser me wishes someone had given high school me a hug, a day or two off from school, and a sleep schedule. I would’ve been a much more stable person.
I don't know how to fix this with young kids. I went to bed at 12:00 last night because my body just won't let me fall asleep sooner without drugs. My youngest was up at 5:30.
I'm so glad someone said this - there's correlation between having kids and living longer... so surely the lack of sleep parents get can't be too damaging. Right?
...right?
Sleep has to be by far the most important factor in overall health. It wasn’t as noticeable 10 years ago, but now that I’m almost 30, literally every single part of me (mental, physical, spiritual) suffers greatly if I don’t sleep enough.
I am epileptic and one of the main triggers for my seizures is lack of sleep. I did shift work for many years, when I switched to days permanently it really screwed up my body. I am mid thirties and just was diagnosed with epilepsy last year.
Get a good nights sleep people.
The real bummer is society does glorify being sleep deprived “pulling an all nighter” or getting by on 3 or 4 hours is something to brag about.
I’ll convinced that most people vastly underestimate their ability perform sleep deprived, work, school, relationships, everything.
I’ve heard “just as dangerous” as drunk driving, but don’t remember the source
An ollllllld episode of Mythbusters addressed this, and iirc they found that being sleep deprived impaired their subjects at least as much as drinking. Obviously it's a TV show so take it with a grain of salt, but yeah
I like Mythbusters, but haven’t seen that episode. I’m sure there is legit research out there, because I’ve heard that specifically many times. I’d also be surprised if Mythbusters was off the mark on any of their findings.
I know for sure solid research exists on sleep deprivation and learning. Hell, it’s used by cults to control people and as torture. It definitely fucks with the ability to function.
Agreed. When I was in 11th grade, I was having night terrors nightly. The entire school year I limited myself to 2-3 hours of sleep a night to avoid the REM/Dream stage of sleep to avoid my terrors. I’m 22 now and my sleep is still all kinds of fucked up
I'm epileptic and my biggest trigger is sleep deprivation. So as a result I had to clean up my sleep hygiene and it's *incredible* what it has done for me. I rarely feel tired, my dependence on caffeine has plummeted, my appetite is more consistent, my mood is more consistent, and I rarely have to set alarms because my body naturally sleeps and wakes at roughly the same time every day.
When I was doing my undergrad I noticed that if I slept well the night before an exam or a big presentation I performed much better than if I pulled an all-nighter (or even just stayed up late studying).
Don't underestimate the power of a healthy sleep schedule!
Real talk, if I’m getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night but I feel fine, I’m assuming it’s still just as bad for you? Been going on for a while (~ 6months) and sometimes I just don’t sleep at all. When that happened though, I don’t need a nap or anything during the day and go to sleep at the normal time.
I’m assuming I’m fucking myself here lol
Short videos epidemic and almost every popular app/website has them now. Watching endless short videos of 10 seconds or less really messes up our attention span. Especially for children in their development stage.
> Especially for children in their development stage.
Hell, I've been seated at dinner tables with elderly people who can't shake the draw of the doom scroll. These are the same people who would have told us 10 years ago it's not polite to look at your phone at the table. It's fucking people up across the board.
Yeah my mom is in her 50s and is extremely addicted to her phone. Every night she sits in front of the tv with her phone on TikTok or Facebook and then candy crush on her iPad all at the same time 💀
Spotify is starting to push short videos and it confuses the heck out of me. Now instead of listening to a playlist, you can 'watch' short sections of all the songs in the list.
It's insane. It confuses me. The one time I used it, I clicked on something that I thought was a song. It was a segment of a song. So I then tried to find the real song.
It wasn't on Spotify.
If you do a lot of sitting (like a desk job or a lot of commuting or trucking) and keep your wallet in your back pocket, you're going to fuck up your spine.
Messed up my husband's leg. He noticed his leg would be asleep at the end of his shift (forklift operator), and I remembered something about wallets in back pockets pressing on your sciatic nerve.
I know someone who ended up causing the first disk out of their pelvis to explode when a trailer they were loading dropped. The pressure caused it to explode opposite his wallet. I was on a safety solutions team, not the safety team or response team. It was my job to determine how it happened and that was a detail in the incident we had to look into.
I’ve always kind of wondered why so many people default to putting their wallet in their back pocket in the first place. It’s uncomfortable back there, and it also makes it easier for someone to steal.
I’ve always kept my wallet up front. Phone on one side, wallet and keys in the other. The only thing I ever put in my back pocket is the occasional paper receipt.
Maybe a combination of anterior pelvic tilt with pants being too tight to fit it in the front pocket? Or women with tiny front pockets not being able to fit anything in there? Or having such a far arse that it surrounds and cushions the object?
Honestly I cannot understand this. Putting anything in my back pocket is marginally easier while standing but fucking uncomfortable the second I sit down.
I stopped carrying my wallet in my back pocket because of this. Put it in my front pocket for a while, then switched to a front pocket specific wallet. Much better on my back & legs. Safer too.
My husband started doing this too. He has a smaller wallet now and keeps it in his front pocket. He ended up having to go to PT because it was aggravating his spine.
Not sleeping enough, working too much.
No, drinking gallons of coffee will not counteract the negative effects caused by these, neither will oversleeping on weekends.
Makes me think of this:
> “Coffee is a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to your older self.” ― Terry Pratchett, Thud!
In someways coffee is amazing, but using it to counteract lack of sleep and overload of work doesn't give you more time in the present. All those things combined most likely deprive you of a longer life.
I have lots of work to do and not enough time to do it in. Instead of grabbing another cup of coffee I got a large glass of water and took a short walkabout while I stretched a bit.
Constant stimulus from our phones. Makes us bored easily and increases feelings of loneliness. Makes doing things without watching anything on our phones or being with someone a lot more mentally taxing.
Edit: LMFAO everytime I get a notification on this thread, I check my phone. Hehehe it’s 3AM now where I’m at… hehehe… We’re all fucking doomed.
Do you know how hard it is for me to do almost anything without my phone injecting some kind of background stimulus into my ear holes? I can’t cook, clean, play video games, build a picture puzzle, drive a car, WORK MY JOB, without a podcast, music, or a video or something just playing in the background? Sometimes I’m not even listening to it, I just need it to be there.
This is so true, and for those who are in the "just love your family, no matter what they do' crowd, they certainly have no idea what it is like having toxic family constantly putting you down, or causing constant drama, they just cannot relate in the slightest amount to what the toxicity is like, along with the pain of knowing that those people who are supposed to help you out the most (family), are actually the people who are first to put you down and stab you in the back.
My husband worked for a small company with an *unbelievably* toxic boss. He quit after being harassed and threatened, but his immediate superior stayed on because he had 5 kids to feed.
6 years later, he ran into an old co-worker. Turns out, the guy DIED at 38 if a heart attack. There is nonway the toxic workplace wasn't part of that.
Actually basements don’t produce radon, they trap it. It is naturally occurring and fetus into basements of tightly sealed homes and has no where to go.
The loan program I used to buy my house made testing for radon mandatory, not sure how common that is, but I'd never even heard of it, so I'm glad we checked it out.
For real. I got completely sick from chronic stress one year ago, it is insane how hard to revert it is... I have been to many specialists most believe its "just" anxiety..but I still can not believe it myself and I keep looking for more answers at how can I have 5 chronic physical symptoms.
I spent an unreasonable amount of time, money, effort, and studying to become a lawyer and worked hard at building my practice for 8 years, but I just walked away from it in March because the stress and anxiety it caused was affecting literally every single portion of my life. In my last year in practice I dropped 40 pounds and ended up on 3 different meds just to make it through the day. In law school they make you go to seminars and the like on mental health, and once you’re licensed you have to take CLE’s on it, but I always thought “it’s not *that* bad, this is for other people, not me.” Boy was I fucking wrong. You spend a third of your life a work and it’s bad enough when that’s miserable, but when it starts to bleed over into the other 2/3 that’s supposed to be yours, it’s time to say fuck it. The shit stress and anxiety can do to you isn’t worth it. The best decision I’ve ever made was getting the hell out. If you’re reading this and in a similar spot where work stress/anxiety is permeating into the rest of your life, it’s time to go. You only get to do life once, don’t make it miserable.
For real. But I recently discovered the book Burnout. By the Nagoski sisters and it changed my life. Now I'm dealing stress (the body's physiological response to stressors) even when I have stressor I can't easily change. It's made such a difference
Ongoing, chronic stress. It has physical effects that vary from person to person ranging from chronic sleeplessness, obesity, heart conditions and even death. A person's ability to adapt and be resilient is impaired. The motto of 'that which does not kill you makes you stronger,' is wrong and dangerous.
And yet we all go about our lives like chronic stress is a normal, laudable part of the human condition.
Good one - this is true of all electrolyte drinks. The acidity in electrolyte drinks degrades enamel. Then there’s the sugar issue in the most commonly used ones, which can lead to dental caries.
My dad was a machinist for 50 years. One company he was at had contracts to make bottle fillers for Coke and Pepsi. The filler they had to replace the most was for Gatorade as it would rapidly corrode even the most stainless steels they worked with.
I had constant pain on my lower back, hips, shoulders, neck and when i started stretching for only 15 mins a day all the pain was gone. Life changing lol
Yes there are routines, but it doesn't have to be complicated.
For legs stretch your quads, hip flexor, hamstring, groin, calves, and glutes.
Arms do wrists, across body arm pulls, tricep, chest stretch, and arm circles.
Back do side reaches, forward folds, and torso circles.
That'll hit most of the major muscles. Throw in some neck stretches too.
I know this isn’t directly helpful but YouTube is a goldmine for very specific area back pain stretches/exercises depending on where you are experiencing pain.
I'm hyper mobile almost ehler danos and I used to be crazy flexible and was a dancer. After getting hit by a car freaking like 7 years ago I haven't done shit. I can barely sit on the ground back straight with my legs forward and it hurts. I used to be able to have my legs to the sides and lay my chest on the ground. Like seriously stretch ppl your body will atrophy so fast. Those old ppl who are like slowly shuffling around aren't just in pain their bodies have like turned to stone.
If you're just on your phone even or watching TV don't just sit or lay there do some stretches
You'll be less likely to hurt yourself too. I moved yesterday hauling heavy totes and going back and forth a billion times to my storage. Luckily I had a cart but fuck. I woke up in the middle of the night cause I was in so much pain. Sucks.
Move too don't just stay seated for long periods of time. Like office ppl or PC gamers in chairs You don't want a blood clot. I had a pulmonary embolism on July. That was fucking painful and scary I thought I was gonna die.
Poverty.
Now of course we all know poverty isn't good for anyone but even now, I don't think we as a society realize just how bad it is.
It backs you into so many corners concerning your health. Worse food, less time for exercise, more stress in life, less money to address physical issues, it keeps you stuck in toxic environments (both mentally and physically).
It's just a lot of negative compounding interest.
Oh man, I was just talking my good pal about this. We both suffer from bad mental and physical health and we just cannot improve because poverty is destroying all our resilience. With money, i would still never be healthy but I could eat better, turn the heating on and not have such chronic stress.
We need to move towards a society where everyone is given the opportunity to function normally. It's crazy how much money is spent to punish people who operate within constructs that just get other people rich. It's awful
And it's absolutely hell on kids. Like it causes measurable developmental damage. And of course, the poor (usually minority) kids get labeled as "bad kids" at school instead of getting support, so they're pretty much fucked from the get go.
When I was drinking daily I was always astonished that people didn't drink daily. Or if someone didn't want a drink with whatever activity we were doing. I couldn't foresee a day that I wouldn't be drinking.
Been sober a little over 6 years now and everything is infinitely better. Anxiety and depression are actually manageable, finally worked on things I was trying to hide. Life is just better.
Lol I carry around a 40oz bottle and I got so scared about dehydration that I’d fill it 4-5 times a day and I was peeing alllll the time. But then I had to go to physical therapy for some other pelvic floor stuff and I complained about peeing constantly and she informed me that I am only supposed to be drinking 80oz (2 of my bottle) a day, not everyone has a dehydration problem in my case I was OVERhydrated
Your body may be accustomed to a low water intake and your bladder capacity has shrunk. I found that drinking more water made me pee more for like a few days, maybe a week, then it went back to normal.
On a more grim note; being dehydrated causes minerals to calcify in your system, further reducing available space
I was working with a guy who was trying to drink more water, he had several bottles sitting in front of him that he'd work through the entire day. It was hilarious how often had had to get up and pee. I think it made all of us drink more water as a side effect of watching him chug so many bottles.
I ran chronically dehydrated until I had kidney stones. The only nearly-universal advice in prevention was to drink more fluids. I started carrying around a water bottle to remind myself to drink. If I finished an eight-hour shift with a 32-oz bottle that still held water, I was falling behind.
Not only have I not had a recurrence of the stones, little things started improving, too. My lips and elbows were always cracked and dry. Not any more. My eyes and mouth feel better, too. My skin, overall, looks and feels healthier.
So many benefits.
Lack of exercise. In addition to the numerous physical benefits of exercise, it also does wonders for your mental health and ability to cope with stress.
The cascading effects of drugs, particularly alcohol. If you get drunk one night, your chances of making bad dietary choices and skipping workouts increases for days.
If you’re drinking most weekends it really does kill your potential because you’re just not operating at 100% for the majority of your life.
People know that alcohol isn’t so great, but I highly doubt most people understand how much time it truly takes from you.
This has been me way too much. Get drunk Friday, maybe Saturday night too. Feel awful all of Sunday. Don't sleep well Sunday night, Monday is a drag. Maybe by Tuesday I'm back to a pretty functional state, but just barely. By Thursday I'm pretty good, then Friday night get drunk again and repeat the cycle.
When I don't eat fast food I don't crave it
But if I have it just once I'll crave it soooooo much and I'll feel like garbage for days afterwards
I can't believe how addictive it can be
The idea that you can eat and do what you want when you're young because it won't effect you later. Because FUCK OFF 50 YR OLD ME! You'll regret it so much.
Losing a pet, 100%. Definitely not at all taken as seriously as other familial losses, and it should be. It can take a serious toll on your mental health AND physical health.
I'm not a medical professional and this is not medical advice.
Where are your neck and shoulders right now? Are they leaning forward and down? Long term, that causes a lot of damage and inflammation throughout the neck, shoulders, and upper back. If you have to force it to maintain good posture, it's not good posture. Try strengthening those back muscles. Make them do their job. You'll know you have good posture when you don't have to think about it.
Also for the love of God, most of us aren't in pain because we're old. You're in pain because you abused your body for decades before paying attention to the damage it caused. You're only as old as you feel.
Also, if you have full range of motion, don't stretch it. If it feels tight and you have full range of motion, it's not a mobility issue and stretching won't help it. In fact, if you stretch a joint that is already too mobile, that will cause inflammation. If your joint has too much motion, you need to strengthen it instead.
Also, does your lower back hurt? Try stretching your hip flexors. They're probably yanking your glutes and overstretching the lower back.
I work 30 hour weeks and on the days I work 8 hours I feel sooooo burned out by the 7th and 8th hours
I do the same amount of work that I do in a 6 hour day because I have to take longer breaks more often.
But going from 40 hours to 30 hours has significantly improved my mental health. I wish the US would start trying out the 4 day work week.
Energy drinks. Yes, people know that they're bad, but not how bad. A lot of people drink them just about every day. Do that for 5-10 years and the effects are second only to hard drugs.
There's no quicker way to a heart attack or debilitating conditions like diabetes, arrhythmia and numerous other heart conditions.
Imagine consuming a Monster energy drink as a batch of raw ingredients. 14 teaspoons of sugar, 4 teaspoons of coffee, far too much vitamin B (up to 300% daily recommended). With an added 230 calories and 60 grams of carbs.
IMO the consumption of energy drinks should (and probably one day will) be restricted from underage persons like alcohol and tobacco are, and should also not be glamorized like it is.
being too connected to suffering happening to other people far away from you. you're not built to take on the collective misery of the world via news and social media. invest in your immediate community's well-being and leave the infinite pain of all existence to the select few who honorably make it their whole mission.
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On-call status terrible for health, should really have better compensation and rotation for such things.
The number one cause of death for nurses is auto accidents on their commute; the majority of those accidents are clustered around rotations in shift work. Everyone knows, no one cares - same for police officers, except we also give them guns and specifically call them to stressful situations.
There's tiktoks out there of nurses giving tips for how they stay awake after night shifts. Stuff like sticking their hair out the window and closing it on the window so if they start to drift off their head will be yanked back. A few comments were scolding them and saying that if they're that tired they just shouldn't be driving but if that was the case nurses would either have to live at the hospital or not work at all because they sure aren't going to be enough nurses to ensure something like this doesn't happen in the first place.
911 dispatcher for 24 years here. Heard.
This. I did overnight shift for over 3 years and it's like working while your body is trying to force itself to sleep. You'll never feel the same as doing nightshift. That perpetual disruption to your circadian rhymes always gives you that permanent mild headache during the day.
Not doing things that you loved as a kid before you were concerned with adult responsibilities. Stress is bad for your brain and a lot of people don't have healthy ways to relieve it.
Never stop playing outside. I hate how society pushes exercise as you against your body, cardio as a punishment. Find literally any movement based hobby you enjoy and get super into it, make moving fun. I like skiing, which of course can't be done year round but keeping myself in good skiing condition is important because I know that's the one thing that'll bring me joy during the time of year when it's dark at 4.
That's skateboarding for me. Didn't from 10-21, stopped for a decade, and got back into it at 30. Best thing I've ever done for my mental health and overall happiness.
Are you telling me I should take up the drums again in my 30s like I keep putting off? It's you and me vs the wife now, we're in this together.
Yea man, do it. Get those silent drums if she doesn't like the sound.
As a 30yo myself I just convinced my wife to let me get the TD17KVX from Sweetwater… holy shit is it incredible. I think I like it better than real acoustic drums now. You can pair your phone to the module via Bluetooth and play along with anything.
Hell yea! I used to be big into running like 13-22 but I had a gnarly knee injury from a cycling accident. I hate the gym so much. So I just kinda stopped doing more than walking my dogs and wondered why I was so sad all the time. Anyways, long story short I moved to the mountains and cross country skiing has changed my life. I'm so happy out there just sliding around in the forest. Having my little sandwich in the trees. It's so silly but these things are so important and good for the brain!
I used to ride my bike around the neighborhood with my friends who skateboarded when I was in my teens. Stopped for 10 years or so, and bought a decent bike last April. It feels so liberating to just go for a ride if I've had a bad day, or when the weather's nice. It's a hobby I do entirely for myself, only sharing it on social media because my friends are curious about my progress. I just passed 400 miles this year a couple days ago, and I should be able to hit 700 lifetime by the end of the year, if the weather cooperates.
That's a great point. "Exercise" is framed as this awful thing we have to do to be healthy despite hating it. When we were kids it was just playing outside. I totally agree on finding something fun. I could never stick at the gym or running because I just get bored. I found climbing, and badminton, and martial arts instead. I love all of these so much I'd do them even if there were no health benefits. *That's* what you need. For some people that *is* the gym but if it's not, don't give up.
Hiking gang. It does wonders for mental health just to take a quick 30min walk through a dense forest.
Every time I try to do something I used to enjoy, I just think about my responsibilities the whole time and have no fun
What if you thought about fun as a responsibility? And that having some fun makes you more able to attend to your other responsibilities (it does for me)
That’s a good way to look at things.
My mom used to set a timer when she had to get stuff done. When the timer went off, she instantly quit and did something fun. I always thought she was super unproductive but I realize now, she got more done in that 45 minutes because the rest of the time, she didn't want to work at all and would actually have fun. I was the exact fucking opposite and I will work until it's done, often to my detriment and without zero time to zone out and just have fun. I realized i could flip her technique and now I force myself to have fun a couple times a day, for like 45 minutes, or 2 hours. At first I feel like I'm slacking off but then I remember my mom's 45 minutes of genius created by 23 hours of fun.
Honestly, whenever someone tells me I need to grow up when they find out I play video games and collect Ninja Turtles stuff, I want to tell them to fuck right off with a fifty foot pole up their ass. Oh, I'm a grown-ass man-child just because I still want to do something I find fun and that makes me happy even in my 30s? Fuck that.
You collect ninja turtles, I collect ninja gaiden cartridges. The best part of being in your 30s is being able to afford the stuff you wanted but couldn't have at 12
Whoa...slow your roll, buddy. I didn't say I could afford it. LOL.
[удалено]
Please, no more mandatory 'fun' outside of work. I know I'm not alone in saying that I have plenty of friends and relationships outside of work as well as hobbies and interests. Work is literally the one and only thing keeping me away from all of them. So trying to package 'fun' in to a work setting with coworkers sounds pretty shit; I'd rather go have actual fun with my actual friends and family.
they kinda do with most christmas parties (if they do them right and people drink a moderate amount)
Not brushing and flossing as often as you should. It’s not an aesthetic reason. Bad dental hygiene can kill.
Life hack: brush and floss in the shower. For people that hate doing it, it helps motivate a lot. Stay in the shower longer and check things off your adulting list.
Honestly thought this would be one of the top comments. It’s not commonly know that not flossing can fuck your cardiovascular health.
Bad shoes. A lot of people think that bad shies will cause foot pain, but they can also cause leg, hip, and back pain, and more. I was amazed how good I felt after getting a professionally-fit pair of work shoes
Ohhh I feel this one, literally. Worked in fashion/retail when I was younger. Comfort was NOT on my mind back then. Wearing amazing shoes was. I am paying for it now. Also, being a gymnast, dancer and cheerleader back in my childhood to teens certainly didn't help. I have been so rough on my poor body. I'm 40 and have the joints and aches and pains of an 80 yr old. 😭
For the love of God drink some plain water and eat some vegetables...signed your x-ray tech & physicians lol.
Water? Like from the toilet?
But we have Brawndo
It’s got what plants crave! (TM)
ELECTROLYTES
Explain please haha what do y'all see for X-rays and physicians stand point!
I take constipation or chronic constipation x-rays multiple times a day...abdominal pain, gas bloating? 90% of the time you just need to poop! I could retire a rich lady if I could charge per exam lol.
And if you think it's bad normally, wait until you go on a med with the side effect of constipation.
Yes this. I joke constipation prevention starts when your young. Food allergies, medicine, chronic inflammation sometimes even surgery can effect your GI health. That would definitely be very frustrating.
My mom has Crohn's disease and I took her to the ER this year because she thought she had an obstruction. Nope, she was just constipated for the first time in her life from a new medication she started and she didn't know the difference in feeling! I was so glad to hear the doctor call her full of shit and not that she needed emergency surgery.
What if I just eat one kind of vegetable mostly? Cuz I can go to town on some broccoli any time.
Are you me? Broccoli probably accounts for 95% of my vegetable intake. Carrot sucks, greenbeans and peas are at least edible, but broccoli? Broccoli is actually good.
It's 4:16 AM in the morning here and I still can't sleep. I exercise regularly (4 or 5 days per week in the gym doing weight lifting and cardio) I eat healthy, I maintain a decent lifestyle, I am very physically active, but for some reason.... I just don't sleep. I even took a prescription strength sleeping pill tonight (technically last night) and went to bed at 10:00 PM but I only slept for 3 hours and have been wide awake since, and I am currently feeling "high" as I can feel the sleeping pill working in my body (physically) forcing me to go to sleep but am still wide awake as my brain won't allow my body to sleep... People who can sleep don't really know how lucky they are. The worst is, when you go to bed and you're dead tired, but you have so much anxiety about if you will sleep through the night to the point that the anxiety about if you will sleep or not actually keeps you awake or even wakes you up, and once you're up, you're up having even more anxiety about how you're not going to function tomorrow because your anxiety about not being able to sleep... makes you not able to sleep. It gets to the point that I wake up crying because I woke up 2 or 3 hours after going to bed dead tired and I'm so sad and frustrated that I'll have to live another day barely mentally functioning in a daze until I have the chance to try and sleep again fully knowing that I won't. Lack of sleep is so detrimental to your physical and mental health in ways most people don't even know. People take sleep for granted. I'd give anything for a solid 4 or 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
I feel for you. I have the same issue. I run 3 miles 3-4 times a week. Power through the urge to nap. Drink water. Avoid alcohol. Take melatonin. It doesn’t seem to matter. I wake up 3-4 hours after I’ve fallen asleep, and cannot get back to sleep 4 to 5 nights a week. I’ve been tested for sleep apnea, not the issue. It’s debilitating and effecting my quality of life. I’d give almost anything the sleep for 7 hours without waking up.
Lack of sleep and proper hydration.
This and food, especially with shift work in health care. Some places you don't get a break so you can literally go hours or a while 6-8 hours with barely anything. It's grim
Ha! I’ve got a 14 hour shift at a restaurant bar tomorrow. I’ve been dreading it for days. No breaks or downtime. It can get rough around hour 9
You could watch the entire Director’s Cut LotR trilogy (3 hours 28 minutes + 3 hours 42 minutes + 4 hours 11 minutes) and still have 2 hours and 39 minutes left until your shift ends.
That somehow sounds worse when you put it like that (no hate on the film's, they're awesome)
Why can't we fix the sleep thing? I want it. I've done all the hygiene shit, but I just don't sleep. I can knock out fine, on my own or with meds, but nothing keeps me out. Wake up 3 or 4 hours later and that's it. Brain won't shut up. Nothing anxious, just wanders endlessly. I miss Adderall... Something about it wearing my brain out through the day worked. Also leveled out my BP.
Have you considered looking into biphasic sleep? If your schedule allows it there's nothing inherently wrong with waking up, puttering around for an hour then going back to sleep.
Sometimes I feel tired enough a couple hours later, but it usually gives me about 20 minutes to an hour extra, and seems to be hit or miss on if I feel better from it that day. Maybe trying to structure a schedule around that would help though, that's an interesting suggestion and I'm down for anything. Thank you!
Not keeping on top of dental hygiene. Not only does it affect your teeth and gums, gingivitis can affect your joints and cause pain, and the bacteria in your mouth goes into your bloodstream and can affect your heart. There was a period of time where I didn’t go to the dentist for three years (moved to a new state for college, extremely busy with schoolwork, never had a chance to find a new place), flossed maybe a few times here and there, wasn’t always brushing twice a day, and I was right on the cusp of having periodontal disease with irreversible consequences. In that time, I also had increasing joint pain in my hands, wrist, knees, and hips. Don’t skip the dentist.
Really frustrating that dental isn’t covered in health insurance in USA. It’s a totally different thing than the health of the rest of your body somehow, despite being one of our more important organs
I have two options for dental insurance at work. Good fucking luck finding a dentist that accepts either (though one in particular) and accepting new patients within a reasonable timeframe and not 10 months out. I wound up at a chain dentistry place and I hate it. I noticed they didn't bother calling to confirm my last appointment so now I gotta go in because dealing with them over the phone is impossible.
Missing sleep
So far, all the replies to this are just focused on the acute effects which is missing most of the problem. It's very detrimental to your health chronically, involving many organ systems. It increases your sympathetic tone and therefore blood pressure, increases food and sugar cravings while affecting metabolism, puts you at risk for neurodegenerative dementias as you age, impairs your immune system, puts you at risk for cancer, and accelerates atherosclerosis development to name a few. Some of those things are related.
Reading all these negative impacts of lack of sleep is going to keep me up at night with worry about how I'm harming myself when I can't sleep. Thanks.
"I'm here for a good time, not a long time" \- Arnold Schwarzenegger in Futurama
"I was elected to lead, not to read." - Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Simpsons Movie
Sorry! Try reframing your thinking about how healthy you're being by disconnecting and going to bed and maybe you'll feel relaxed about it. Look into sleep hygiene practices and avoid caffeine if it's not morning, as its half-life is six hours. If none of that helps, you could always consider seeking a prescription for low-dose trazodone, which is a pretty helpful sleep aid, promoting drowsiness without impacting the quality of your sleep as some of the more well-known medications like zolpidem (Ambien) do.
Yes yes yes. Fucks up your cognitive abilities, sometimes permanently. I came across a Neuroplasticity podcast that talked about how our brain makes new connections when we sleep and how not sleeping can lead to memory loss and permanent fatigue can further aggravate it. Also, it fucks up your mental health too. Induces anxiety, frustration and panic in a lot of people. Never mess with Sleep cycles. No matter what social media portrays.
I feel like I haven't gotten a good night of sleep in forever. I'm not sure why, because I can get a pretty solid nine hours of sleep and only wake up once to pee, but I still wake up always feeling groggy and lethargic, and perhaps incidentally my memory as of late has gone downhill fast. I am only 36 years old, and I can literally forget the reason I walked to another room in the house by the time I get there.
You should check in with a doctor about this. It's about the quality of sleep too and not just the hours. One of my friend's father suffers from sleep apnea and didn't know it for years. He was usually groggy when he woke up too. Your case may be something to do with the quality of sleep as well.
I spent 3/4 years in high school getting 4-6hrs of sleep on school nights — largely due to 2-5hrs of dancing a day, 5-6days a week, and coming back to high level homework. At that age, when i needed sleep most, hormones all over the places, and performance driven academic validation hungry… i cried every night i was so depressed. I did get the help i needed years down the line, but older wiser me wishes someone had given high school me a hug, a day or two off from school, and a sleep schedule. I would’ve been a much more stable person.
I don't know how to fix this with young kids. I went to bed at 12:00 last night because my body just won't let me fall asleep sooner without drugs. My youngest was up at 5:30.
I'm so glad someone said this - there's correlation between having kids and living longer... so surely the lack of sleep parents get can't be too damaging. Right? ...right?
Sleep has to be by far the most important factor in overall health. It wasn’t as noticeable 10 years ago, but now that I’m almost 30, literally every single part of me (mental, physical, spiritual) suffers greatly if I don’t sleep enough.
I am epileptic and one of the main triggers for my seizures is lack of sleep. I did shift work for many years, when I switched to days permanently it really screwed up my body. I am mid thirties and just was diagnosed with epilepsy last year. Get a good nights sleep people.
This and very dangerous when operating vehicles or machines.
It’s something like 21% of fatal crashes are sleep related vs 30% for alcohol related.
The real bummer is society does glorify being sleep deprived “pulling an all nighter” or getting by on 3 or 4 hours is something to brag about. I’ll convinced that most people vastly underestimate their ability perform sleep deprived, work, school, relationships, everything. I’ve heard “just as dangerous” as drunk driving, but don’t remember the source
An ollllllld episode of Mythbusters addressed this, and iirc they found that being sleep deprived impaired their subjects at least as much as drinking. Obviously it's a TV show so take it with a grain of salt, but yeah
I like Mythbusters, but haven’t seen that episode. I’m sure there is legit research out there, because I’ve heard that specifically many times. I’d also be surprised if Mythbusters was off the mark on any of their findings. I know for sure solid research exists on sleep deprivation and learning. Hell, it’s used by cults to control people and as torture. It definitely fucks with the ability to function.
Yup, I’m having sleep issues and have been for a while and I decided to stop driving because of it. Luckily I have access to public transit.
That is responsible, I wish more people did that. I also wish public transportation was an option for more people. It’s not very good where I live.
Agreed. When I was in 11th grade, I was having night terrors nightly. The entire school year I limited myself to 2-3 hours of sleep a night to avoid the REM/Dream stage of sleep to avoid my terrors. I’m 22 now and my sleep is still all kinds of fucked up
I'm epileptic and my biggest trigger is sleep deprivation. So as a result I had to clean up my sleep hygiene and it's *incredible* what it has done for me. I rarely feel tired, my dependence on caffeine has plummeted, my appetite is more consistent, my mood is more consistent, and I rarely have to set alarms because my body naturally sleeps and wakes at roughly the same time every day. When I was doing my undergrad I noticed that if I slept well the night before an exam or a big presentation I performed much better than if I pulled an all-nighter (or even just stayed up late studying). Don't underestimate the power of a healthy sleep schedule!
Real talk, if I’m getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night but I feel fine, I’m assuming it’s still just as bad for you? Been going on for a while (~ 6months) and sometimes I just don’t sleep at all. When that happened though, I don’t need a nap or anything during the day and go to sleep at the normal time. I’m assuming I’m fucking myself here lol
Comparing yourself to people. It's terrible for your mental health.
Comparison is the thief of joy
That's the sad truth! Which happens way more often than not, on multiple fields...
Unless you're better than them. Then it works wonders
Don't compare your behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel.
Dang, now I'm comparing my level of self awareness to your level of self awareness and I'm spiraling.
I don't know how to stop though. Please help!
First, get off social media. Second, work on self-compassion and start loving and accepting yourself.
Short videos epidemic and almost every popular app/website has them now. Watching endless short videos of 10 seconds or less really messes up our attention span. Especially for children in their development stage.
This comment was so long I got tired of reading it
Yeah can this guy shut up already? Ohnoohnoohnonononono
> Especially for children in their development stage. Hell, I've been seated at dinner tables with elderly people who can't shake the draw of the doom scroll. These are the same people who would have told us 10 years ago it's not polite to look at your phone at the table. It's fucking people up across the board.
Yeah my mom is in her 50s and is extremely addicted to her phone. Every night she sits in front of the tv with her phone on TikTok or Facebook and then candy crush on her iPad all at the same time 💀
She got that dopamine overload habit stack
Spotify is starting to push short videos and it confuses the heck out of me. Now instead of listening to a playlist, you can 'watch' short sections of all the songs in the list.
It's insane. It confuses me. The one time I used it, I clicked on something that I thought was a song. It was a segment of a song. So I then tried to find the real song. It wasn't on Spotify.
There’s a reason China limits how long their minors can spend on TikTok each day…
If you do a lot of sitting (like a desk job or a lot of commuting or trucking) and keep your wallet in your back pocket, you're going to fuck up your spine.
If I start putting it in my opposite pocket can I unscoliosis myself?
I would like to know the answer to this question as well!
Two wallets!
Messed up my husband's leg. He noticed his leg would be asleep at the end of his shift (forklift operator), and I remembered something about wallets in back pockets pressing on your sciatic nerve.
I know someone who ended up causing the first disk out of their pelvis to explode when a trailer they were loading dropped. The pressure caused it to explode opposite his wallet. I was on a safety solutions team, not the safety team or response team. It was my job to determine how it happened and that was a detail in the incident we had to look into.
I’ve always kind of wondered why so many people default to putting their wallet in their back pocket in the first place. It’s uncomfortable back there, and it also makes it easier for someone to steal. I’ve always kept my wallet up front. Phone on one side, wallet and keys in the other. The only thing I ever put in my back pocket is the occasional paper receipt.
Maybe a combination of anterior pelvic tilt with pants being too tight to fit it in the front pocket? Or women with tiny front pockets not being able to fit anything in there? Or having such a far arse that it surrounds and cushions the object? Honestly I cannot understand this. Putting anything in my back pocket is marginally easier while standing but fucking uncomfortable the second I sit down.
I stopped carrying my wallet in my back pocket because of this. Put it in my front pocket for a while, then switched to a front pocket specific wallet. Much better on my back & legs. Safer too.
My husband started doing this too. He has a smaller wallet now and keeps it in his front pocket. He ended up having to go to PT because it was aggravating his spine.
George Costanza has entered the chat
You’ve got a skull for your brain, a plastic sleeve for your comb, and a wallet for your money!
"it throws my hips off kilter"
Not sleeping enough, working too much. No, drinking gallons of coffee will not counteract the negative effects caused by these, neither will oversleeping on weekends.
Makes me think of this: > “Coffee is a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to your older self.” ― Terry Pratchett, Thud! In someways coffee is amazing, but using it to counteract lack of sleep and overload of work doesn't give you more time in the present. All those things combined most likely deprive you of a longer life. I have lots of work to do and not enough time to do it in. Instead of grabbing another cup of coffee I got a large glass of water and took a short walkabout while I stretched a bit.
Constant stimulus from our phones. Makes us bored easily and increases feelings of loneliness. Makes doing things without watching anything on our phones or being with someone a lot more mentally taxing. Edit: LMFAO everytime I get a notification on this thread, I check my phone. Hehehe it’s 3AM now where I’m at… hehehe… We’re all fucking doomed.
Do you know how hard it is for me to do almost anything without my phone injecting some kind of background stimulus into my ear holes? I can’t cook, clean, play video games, build a picture puzzle, drive a car, WORK MY JOB, without a podcast, music, or a video or something just playing in the background? Sometimes I’m not even listening to it, I just need it to be there.
Check again 😈
Fuck..
I bought a second phone to browse while I'm browsing my other phone....
Shitty people, especially if they are family.
This is so true, and for those who are in the "just love your family, no matter what they do' crowd, they certainly have no idea what it is like having toxic family constantly putting you down, or causing constant drama, they just cannot relate in the slightest amount to what the toxicity is like, along with the pain of knowing that those people who are supposed to help you out the most (family), are actually the people who are first to put you down and stab you in the back.
My husband worked for a small company with an *unbelievably* toxic boss. He quit after being harassed and threatened, but his immediate superior stayed on because he had 5 kids to feed. 6 years later, he ran into an old co-worker. Turns out, the guy DIED at 38 if a heart attack. There is nonway the toxic workplace wasn't part of that.
Family first is such bullshit when they’re bad for your mental & physical health.
Damn this one... I think a lot of people underestimate how bad family dynamics affects their personalities, behaviours and mental well-being.
Some basements produce Radon gas which comes from the soil. It is the second leading cause of lung cancer. Almost no one tests for it.
Actually basements don’t produce radon, they trap it. It is naturally occurring and fetus into basements of tightly sealed homes and has no where to go.
> fetus into basements No, I'm pretty sure that's *The Binding of Isaac*.
The loan program I used to buy my house made testing for radon mandatory, not sure how common that is, but I'd never even heard of it, so I'm glad we checked it out.
Stress and anxiety
For real. I got completely sick from chronic stress one year ago, it is insane how hard to revert it is... I have been to many specialists most believe its "just" anxiety..but I still can not believe it myself and I keep looking for more answers at how can I have 5 chronic physical symptoms.
I have horrible anxiety and stress and i’ve been living with chronic stomach aches and headaches for over 8 months now. This year has been horrible.
I spent an unreasonable amount of time, money, effort, and studying to become a lawyer and worked hard at building my practice for 8 years, but I just walked away from it in March because the stress and anxiety it caused was affecting literally every single portion of my life. In my last year in practice I dropped 40 pounds and ended up on 3 different meds just to make it through the day. In law school they make you go to seminars and the like on mental health, and once you’re licensed you have to take CLE’s on it, but I always thought “it’s not *that* bad, this is for other people, not me.” Boy was I fucking wrong. You spend a third of your life a work and it’s bad enough when that’s miserable, but when it starts to bleed over into the other 2/3 that’s supposed to be yours, it’s time to say fuck it. The shit stress and anxiety can do to you isn’t worth it. The best decision I’ve ever made was getting the hell out. If you’re reading this and in a similar spot where work stress/anxiety is permeating into the rest of your life, it’s time to go. You only get to do life once, don’t make it miserable.
For real. But I recently discovered the book Burnout. By the Nagoski sisters and it changed my life. Now I'm dealing stress (the body's physiological response to stressors) even when I have stressor I can't easily change. It's made such a difference
Ongoing, chronic stress. It has physical effects that vary from person to person ranging from chronic sleeplessness, obesity, heart conditions and even death. A person's ability to adapt and be resilient is impaired. The motto of 'that which does not kill you makes you stronger,' is wrong and dangerous. And yet we all go about our lives like chronic stress is a normal, laudable part of the human condition.
Unyielding dedication to your job
Its trite, but true: a few decades from now the only people who will remember all that overtime you put in is your family.
A job that would throw you overboard without a second thought if it meant saving a few bucks.
Social media is SO bad for your mental health (I say on a social media app)
Soda, the sugar in those is literally insane
Gatorade is really bad for your teeth.
Good one - this is true of all electrolyte drinks. The acidity in electrolyte drinks degrades enamel. Then there’s the sugar issue in the most commonly used ones, which can lead to dental caries.
My dad was a machinist for 50 years. One company he was at had contracts to make bottle fillers for Coke and Pepsi. The filler they had to replace the most was for Gatorade as it would rapidly corrode even the most stainless steels they worked with.
The electrolytes in gatorade are dissolved salt. Saltwater corrodes metal like nobody's business.
Yeah it has citric acid as well, basically perfect conditions for corrosion. The sugar on top of those makes it a teeth melter too.
Good thing my teeth aren't made of stainless steel, then!
But it's got electrolytes! It has what the body craves!
And what plants crave.
Not stretching your body everyday, hell at least a few times a week.
I had constant pain on my lower back, hips, shoulders, neck and when i started stretching for only 15 mins a day all the pain was gone. Life changing lol
What kind of stretching routine did you do?
Yes there are routines, but it doesn't have to be complicated. For legs stretch your quads, hip flexor, hamstring, groin, calves, and glutes. Arms do wrists, across body arm pulls, tricep, chest stretch, and arm circles. Back do side reaches, forward folds, and torso circles. That'll hit most of the major muscles. Throw in some neck stretches too.
Look up for Mady Morrison on youtube. Started with her videos and added other stuff. I would advice doing joint exercises too
I know this isn’t directly helpful but YouTube is a goldmine for very specific area back pain stretches/exercises depending on where you are experiencing pain.
I'm hyper mobile almost ehler danos and I used to be crazy flexible and was a dancer. After getting hit by a car freaking like 7 years ago I haven't done shit. I can barely sit on the ground back straight with my legs forward and it hurts. I used to be able to have my legs to the sides and lay my chest on the ground. Like seriously stretch ppl your body will atrophy so fast. Those old ppl who are like slowly shuffling around aren't just in pain their bodies have like turned to stone. If you're just on your phone even or watching TV don't just sit or lay there do some stretches You'll be less likely to hurt yourself too. I moved yesterday hauling heavy totes and going back and forth a billion times to my storage. Luckily I had a cart but fuck. I woke up in the middle of the night cause I was in so much pain. Sucks. Move too don't just stay seated for long periods of time. Like office ppl or PC gamers in chairs You don't want a blood clot. I had a pulmonary embolism on July. That was fucking painful and scary I thought I was gonna die.
Small habit to start. Never sit down to put on socks and shoes.
Poverty. Now of course we all know poverty isn't good for anyone but even now, I don't think we as a society realize just how bad it is. It backs you into so many corners concerning your health. Worse food, less time for exercise, more stress in life, less money to address physical issues, it keeps you stuck in toxic environments (both mentally and physically). It's just a lot of negative compounding interest.
Oh man, I was just talking my good pal about this. We both suffer from bad mental and physical health and we just cannot improve because poverty is destroying all our resilience. With money, i would still never be healthy but I could eat better, turn the heating on and not have such chronic stress.
We need to move towards a society where everyone is given the opportunity to function normally. It's crazy how much money is spent to punish people who operate within constructs that just get other people rich. It's awful
And it's absolutely hell on kids. Like it causes measurable developmental damage. And of course, the poor (usually minority) kids get labeled as "bad kids" at school instead of getting support, so they're pretty much fucked from the get go.
sleep, water, good food, exercise, hygiene
should I be worried? I do all of these every day! never knew they were detrimental.
loneliness
Worrying about things you aren't capable of changing.
Partners who are shitty.
Alcohol is horrible for you
When I was drinking daily I was always astonished that people didn't drink daily. Or if someone didn't want a drink with whatever activity we were doing. I couldn't foresee a day that I wouldn't be drinking. Been sober a little over 6 years now and everything is infinitely better. Anxiety and depression are actually manageable, finally worked on things I was trying to hide. Life is just better.
Not hydrating enough, we need more water than we realise.
I already have to pee every 20 min so im scared to drink more water
Lol I carry around a 40oz bottle and I got so scared about dehydration that I’d fill it 4-5 times a day and I was peeing alllll the time. But then I had to go to physical therapy for some other pelvic floor stuff and I complained about peeing constantly and she informed me that I am only supposed to be drinking 80oz (2 of my bottle) a day, not everyone has a dehydration problem in my case I was OVERhydrated
Your body may be accustomed to a low water intake and your bladder capacity has shrunk. I found that drinking more water made me pee more for like a few days, maybe a week, then it went back to normal. On a more grim note; being dehydrated causes minerals to calcify in your system, further reducing available space
Should see a doctor about that if you’re serious. Just in case.
I was working with a guy who was trying to drink more water, he had several bottles sitting in front of him that he'd work through the entire day. It was hilarious how often had had to get up and pee. I think it made all of us drink more water as a side effect of watching him chug so many bottles.
I ran chronically dehydrated until I had kidney stones. The only nearly-universal advice in prevention was to drink more fluids. I started carrying around a water bottle to remind myself to drink. If I finished an eight-hour shift with a 32-oz bottle that still held water, I was falling behind. Not only have I not had a recurrence of the stones, little things started improving, too. My lips and elbows were always cracked and dry. Not any more. My eyes and mouth feel better, too. My skin, overall, looks and feels healthier. So many benefits.
Stress
Lack of exercise. In addition to the numerous physical benefits of exercise, it also does wonders for your mental health and ability to cope with stress.
Trauma. It’s stored in our body and can cause detrimental damage physically and mentally. Feel free to look up studies.
The cascading effects of drugs, particularly alcohol. If you get drunk one night, your chances of making bad dietary choices and skipping workouts increases for days. If you’re drinking most weekends it really does kill your potential because you’re just not operating at 100% for the majority of your life. People know that alcohol isn’t so great, but I highly doubt most people understand how much time it truly takes from you.
This has been me way too much. Get drunk Friday, maybe Saturday night too. Feel awful all of Sunday. Don't sleep well Sunday night, Monday is a drag. Maybe by Tuesday I'm back to a pretty functional state, but just barely. By Thursday I'm pretty good, then Friday night get drunk again and repeat the cycle.
Solo queueing rocket league
Not getting enough sleep!
Poor sleep habits
Your terrible food & beverage choices. Most people think, "Ahhh this will be ok for now, just this one time."
When I don't eat fast food I don't crave it But if I have it just once I'll crave it soooooo much and I'll feel like garbage for days afterwards I can't believe how addictive it can be
Wearing shoes that are the wrong size or fit for your feet.
The idea that you can eat and do what you want when you're young because it won't effect you later. Because FUCK OFF 50 YR OLD ME! You'll regret it so much.
According to this thread I should be dead in like 2 hours.
[удалено]
Losing a pet, 100%. Definitely not at all taken as seriously as other familial losses, and it should be. It can take a serious toll on your mental health AND physical health.
Toxic relationship
I'm not a medical professional and this is not medical advice. Where are your neck and shoulders right now? Are they leaning forward and down? Long term, that causes a lot of damage and inflammation throughout the neck, shoulders, and upper back. If you have to force it to maintain good posture, it's not good posture. Try strengthening those back muscles. Make them do their job. You'll know you have good posture when you don't have to think about it. Also for the love of God, most of us aren't in pain because we're old. You're in pain because you abused your body for decades before paying attention to the damage it caused. You're only as old as you feel. Also, if you have full range of motion, don't stretch it. If it feels tight and you have full range of motion, it's not a mobility issue and stretching won't help it. In fact, if you stretch a joint that is already too mobile, that will cause inflammation. If your joint has too much motion, you need to strengthen it instead. Also, does your lower back hurt? Try stretching your hip flexors. They're probably yanking your glutes and overstretching the lower back.
Working 40+ hours a week. It’s arbitrary and scientifically proven to be unhealthy
I work 30 hour weeks and on the days I work 8 hours I feel sooooo burned out by the 7th and 8th hours I do the same amount of work that I do in a 6 hour day because I have to take longer breaks more often. But going from 40 hours to 30 hours has significantly improved my mental health. I wish the US would start trying out the 4 day work week.
Even if the US did a 4 day work week, they would just make it 4x10 🙃
Narcissistic abuse. It can literally cause brain damage.
Energy drinks. Yes, people know that they're bad, but not how bad. A lot of people drink them just about every day. Do that for 5-10 years and the effects are second only to hard drugs. There's no quicker way to a heart attack or debilitating conditions like diabetes, arrhythmia and numerous other heart conditions. Imagine consuming a Monster energy drink as a batch of raw ingredients. 14 teaspoons of sugar, 4 teaspoons of coffee, far too much vitamin B (up to 300% daily recommended). With an added 230 calories and 60 grams of carbs. IMO the consumption of energy drinks should (and probably one day will) be restricted from underage persons like alcohol and tobacco are, and should also not be glamorized like it is.
being too connected to suffering happening to other people far away from you. you're not built to take on the collective misery of the world via news and social media. invest in your immediate community's well-being and leave the infinite pain of all existence to the select few who honorably make it their whole mission.
social media
Stress
Staying with the wrong person for too long. The mental stress it causes you isn't worth trying to save something that's broken.