View Full Version : This came up on my Facebook... Health anxiety
https://www.facebook.com/146505212039213/posts/6056952110994464/
Thoughts? I thought it trivialised HA, especially the comments x
Catherine S
04-04-19, 21:59
Just had a read but for me personally, i'm not offended by the comments. I think we have to look at HA from all sides, and sometimes we have to make light of it ourselvesn in order to cope with it. Yes it's scary and yes it's a serious issue to those of us who live with it daily, but having a giggle about it sometimes helps to put it into perspective....:sofa::buttkick::lisa:
ankietyjoe
04-04-19, 23:02
Yeah it's humour.
Not even worth thinking about.
Kinda....so what?
Typical SM "entertainment" :lac:
I use humour as a huge part of my dealing with HA, I'm not saying we shouldn't. I just felt it was a case of what I used to see a lot of in media with ocd etc, 'oh yeah I'm so OCD!' which isn't a case of someone being mildly concerned with cleanliness or neat lines, real ocd runs your life like a physical illness, you know what I mean? There's slightly more awareness of that now.
Same with HA, it's like, oh god I'm such a health freak! Well you aren't, you don't spend years of your life in fear of an illness or days poking or prodding to the point of making yourself sore or poorly.
It bugs me there's no real awareness of it in the media. I'm having a bad bout of it at the moment so seeing that article wound me up. Wouldn't see it about a physical illness, be hell on. And again, I'm the first to laugh with my friends about being health obsessed and Google etc, but I just don't feel it's discussed enough in terms of it severity in daily life.
Good reply though anxiety Joe :/ was just intended to raise some questions/discussion.
Typical SM "entertainment" :lac:
Agreed KK77! X
WiredIncorrectly
05-04-19, 00:06
Typical SM "entertainment" :lac:
agreed
WiredIncorrectly
05-04-19, 00:08
Woah, we posted agreed at the same time. That's crazy because when I posted KK77 was the last poster. That made me laugh IRL lol.
MyNameIsTerry
05-04-19, 01:52
There's an easy test isn't there? Replace it with "cancer" and see if people laugh, feel outraged or be quiet.
It doesn't bother me because these are the demotivators we see that poke fun at many things. It's humour. Comedians who have mental health issues poke fun at it in very trivial ways, Jon Richardson is a case of this over OCD, and sometimes it annoys me but mostly I just think so what. Comedy does this and it's very subjective. Someone dies and the jokes come, someone can have a terrible disease and the jokes come. Whether you cause offence depends on your audience so you are usually very careful but on the internet that's not going to happen.
What I would take issue with is trivialising mental health in a more serious article. And obviously the celebs who find it trendy to have some labels when they have nothing at all. They set it all back in terms of stigma as any false claimant does.
What are the boundaries, I'm not sure. And there is a danger of going too far the other way with Mary Whitehouse clutching her pearls.
WiredIncorrectly
05-04-19, 09:47
That's a good observation Terry.
You're right about replacing it with the word Cancer. The responses would have been completely different. I also dislike the actions of those people that support a cause of Facebook by leaving a comment or a like and they live under the false impression that they're helping to change the world. I got angry like never before when Facebook rose back after all it's scandals. I was hoping that'd be the end but it's so sad to see the world still supporting that monster. I shouldn't let it bother me, but it does. I hate Facebook with so much passion for so many reasons.
Yeah, I think had the article said something / anything remotely serious, as in HA is a mental health condition and some background, it wouldn't have annoyed me, but it just sounded very light hearted. It's just the awareness of HA is so small. Which is odd, because it's clearly an epidemic! You just have to look at who's viewing which forum on here. OCD has 3000ish, HA has a crazy 57, 000. Yet people in general think of those who have it as hypochondriacs who love Google and are a bit whacky.
I do tag friends etc in memes about 'when you Google and have X disease' and I do get tagged as well and it is funny. But, just feel if she genuinely does have HA and wants to make a song and dance about it she should at least raise awareness of how awful it is to have.
WiredIncorrectly
05-04-19, 10:39
Yeah, I think had the article said something / anything remotely serious, as in HA is a mental health condition and some background, it wouldn't have annoyed me, but it just sounded very light hearted. It's just the awareness of HA is so small. Which is odd, because it's clearly an epidemic! You just have to look at who's viewing which forum on here. OCD has 3000ish, HA has a crazy 57, 000. Yet people in general think of those who have it as hypochondriacs who love Google and are a bit whacky.
I do tag friends etc in memes about 'when you Google and have X disease' and I do get tagged as well and it is funny. But, just feel if she genuinely does have HA and wants to make a song and dance about it she should at least raise awareness of how awful it is to have.
In this instance it's likely garbage and fake. UniLad is a for profit page. Their posts are posted to generate traffic causing people to click their links to their website where they make money from advertising revenue. These pages do not care for anybody. All they care for is clicks which equals money for them. They will post anything that causes high engagement. UniLad use Facebook advertising to pay to get their posts visible to its users. They pay money, to make more money back. That's how online advertising works.
If you want to see how desperate they're getting ... they're almost bankrupt: https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/04/unilad-on-the-verge-of-bankruptcy-owing-more-than-6000000-8006049/
This is why I tell people to delete Facebook. Nothing on there is done for your interest, or the interest of those in need. It's all for money. Everybody, but the user, is making money. I worked in social media marketing, I made quarter of a million from social media marketing. I'm not rich ... anymore at least. I had business partners involved. But social media ... it's deadly, nasty, and poisonous.
Violet Blue
05-04-19, 15:26
This is an interesting one. I also don't have HA, but I have a sense of humour about anxiety which I do have. I get very riled though when people try to say anxiety sufferers can do more than they actually can, that they should just pull themselves together and get on with it.
However, the cancer comparison is, even in this context, crazy. You can actually die from cancer, but you can't from anxiety, and by definition, you can't die from HA.
But I don't know, maybe someone with really crippling anxiety would swap their condition with cancer given the choice.
MyNameIsTerry
05-04-19, 16:06
This is an interesting one. I also don't have HA, but I have a sense of humour about anxiety which I do have. I get very riled though when people try to say anxiety sufferers can do more than they actually can, that they should just pull themselves together and get on with it.
However, the cancer comparison is, even in this context, crazy. You can actually die from cancer, but you can't from anxiety, and by definition, you can't die from HA.
But I don't know, maybe someone with really crippling anxiety would swap their condition with cancer given the choice.
I just meant most wouldn't try to even go there with something like cancer unless they are a Frankie Boyle type. I could change that to many disabilities or other physical disorders to make the same point because it was about mental health not being seen as the same as physical health. Obviously, having a laugh about piles wouldn't be on that list though!
MyNameIsTerry
05-04-19, 16:09
That's a good observation Terry.
You're right about replacing it with the word Cancer. The responses would have been completely different. I also dislike the actions of those people that support a cause of Facebook by leaving a comment or a like and they live under the false impression that they're helping to change the world. I got angry like never before when Facebook rose back after all it's scandals. I was hoping that'd be the end but it's so sad to see the world still supporting that monster. I shouldn't let it bother me, but it does. I hate Facebook with so much passion for so many reasons.
I'm with you on Facebook. My mind was made up on it when my employer announced they had Facebook monitoring for comments that could be construed as misconduct so they could raise disciplinaries. A saw several get sacked over that early on.
They seem to have bucked the trend of newer services edging them out but who knows as Zuckerberg gets his legs slapped more & more by the politicians.
Having seen a fair few anxiety "cure" sites in my time I have seen how so many of them are fakes. Trace them back to their website registrations and you can find they are companies. They get ad revenue and referral payments.
Violet Blue
05-04-19, 17:24
I just meant most wouldn't try to even go there with something like cancer unless they are a Frankie Boyle type. I could change that to many disabilities or other physical disorders to make the same point because it was about mental health not being seen as the same as physical health. Obviously, having a laugh about piles wouldn't be on that list though!
I've heard that people with severe depression who go on to need chemotherapy for cancer say that as horrific as chemo is, it's easier to bear than the depression. So I do think severe depression, OCD, ED, agoraphobia type anxieties are really not funny, unless it's the sufferers who crack the jokes. Basically, let's not be cruel to others' afflictions!
MyNameIsTerry
05-04-19, 17:29
I've heard that people with severe depression who go on to need chemotherapy for cancer say that as horrific as chemo is, it's easier to bear than the depression. So I do think severe depression, OCD, ED, agoraphobia type anxieties are really not funny, unless it's the sufferers who crack the jokes. Basically, let's not be cruel to others' afflictions!
Agreed. I've heard that before too. Trisha Goddard once commented the same because the support for cancer patients is excellent but for depression it's so poor.
I suspect much the same can be said for other non life threatening chronic disorders. The charities pick up a lot of the slack from the NHS.
I think it's fine to use humour but you have to know the boundaries. Laughing at yourself can be positive. A few of us on here having a chuckle about our odd thoughts the same. But with people you don't know you just can't go there as you don't know if it will offend or otherwise add to what they are already struggling with.
More kindness can never be a bad thing.
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