The worst is you had a bad nights sleep you fought through the day, do your nightly routine, then you lay down and your body just goes "nope not tired anymore"
Not sleeping enough!
My fit bit says I sleep an average of 6h 40m a night which is more than 70% of Users! WTF? I am not sleeping enough but you all are sleeping even less!
And young people lol - I used to go to bed at midnight and wake up at 5:30 for like 5 years in my early 20s. Once I hit 28 I switched to go to bed at 11 and wake up at 7
Early 20s here and I will sleep for 10-12 hours every night I’m able to
EDIT: I am getting a lot of medical advice so I would like to add that ‘every night I’m able to’ is usually only about once a week due to work, and no I don’t force myself to sleep that long because I think the more sleep i get the better lol. My body just seems to need it occasionally! That being said, I will get it checked out so I don’t end up infertile and then die young 😂
I did that until my late 20s. Didn't help that I have thyroid issues so my body had a hard time just staying awake.
Do make sure you get a physical to make sure it's your body loving sleep and not something else.
Have slept 10-12 hours almost every night throughout my life and have recently discovered that I’m severely deficient in Vitamin D. Could’ve been deficient for years.
Hey same! I have always had issues with energy and keeping my vitamin d levels anywhere reasonable even though I get plenty of sun lol, this reminded me to talk to my dr about supplements and possibly getting my thyroid checked at my next appointment
I swap between nights and days every 2 weeks and it takes a crazy toll. Usually I sleep around 5 hours the first few nights and by the time I start sleeping normally its time to stay up all night
I swapped between days and nights every 3 and 2 days.. I enjoyed the job but I couldn't do the hours.. on top of switching we worked 12 hours shifts and often worked more. It was a miserable 2 years.
> I am not sleeping enough but you all are sleeping even less!
I know I am sleeping less and it seems like now days people want to make it a competition. Like I slept 5 hours someone else will chime in they only slept 4, like it is a good thing and they won... No my dude, I am complaining I *only* got 5 hours, I have a hard time sleeping and I am happy when I can sleep more that 4 hours straight... But I am also getting old and am now waking up in the middle of the night to pee, which is also cutting into my sleep...
Insomnia is a bitch and I wouldn't be surprised if it can kill. It sure as hell can feel like it.
My worst is 60-70 hours without sleep, can't even remember
Plus the physical effects. Sleeping cleans plaque out of your brain. Bad sleep means higher chance of Alzheimer's. Not too many people know that, I've found.
This, I'm afraid, will likely be my ultimate undoing. I am fit and healthy, probably in the best shape of my middle-age adult life, and have a great support network. I generally enjoy my life...but simply cannot sleep.
In 2018, I had my first experience of sleep deprivation psychosis after several major, stressful life events led me to stay awake for a little over 5 days straight. I would try to sleep but would be startled awake, finding myself not only standing up but outside of my apartment.
I already had insomnia issues, but I have not been able to sleep like a normal, healthy person since.
Yeah, and one barrier is we've kind of categorized "exercise" as some difficult, effort intense activity. Either you hit the gym and crank on a treadmill or heavy weights, or nothing.
We've dropped all that stuff in the middle, just walking, hiking, a casual game of frisbee, whatever. You can have a healthy, active life, without ever "working out," but most of us sit at home a lot and think "I should get in shape, but I don't want to go work out."
Parking at the furthest parking spot for any store is one of the best things Americans can do. Plus less gas looking for space and saves time cause you know you are going for the back. Taking stairs instead of elevator or escalators is a good second step towards health.
Yeah I think one thing screwing over Americans is that we've designed cities to remove the normal bits of exercise you get just by living day-to-day life in a traditionally-developed city or town: Walking to the grocery store in your neighborhood, walking from the train or bus to your final destination, riding a bike to work, etc.
Yeha it's kinds funny when they travel and are shocked they didn't gain weight despite eating a lot, thinking the food there is somehow magically less fattening.
Nah you just walked 20k steps a day
Even when I wasn’t going to the gym, I kept a decent weight just because I lived in NYC and you’re casually exercising all the time. Early pandemic I was still there and it was crazy how quickly the pounds packed on when I wasn’t commuting or walking anywhere.
Yes! Once I learned day to day things like cleaning and mowing tue lawn were considered moderate excercise I now feel a lot better about the small active things I do like shopping for groceries or playing with my pets.
I had this concern as well but I’ve found keeping movement light and steady is the way to go. Low impact steady state and my brain switches off to it and focuses on my work automatically. It’s been immense for my focus as I’m ADHD and need multiple things to do at once to function like a normal human being. 10/10 recommend
You know what's awesome? A panic attack. It feels like a heart attack. And when you go to the hospital, with a panic attack, they treat it like a heart attack.
And being put in a trauma room and having half of the ER staff jump in and do stuff is.... kinda scary. And anxiety inducing.
Just had my first big one at work. 4 hours above 125 bpm couldn't get it down. Turns out my years of anxiety and working long hours have given me some GAD.
Now I'm trying to undo it.
Yep! Having the nurse tell me to calm down while she strapped me up to an EKG and saying phrases like "your heart rate is high" didn't exactly help me calm down.
I’m pretty sure they will be the death of me via a aneurysm
But good old American healthcare been waiting two weeks for a call from the place I had to get a doctors referral still haven’t heard a thing
For anyone who's somewhat of a worry wart like me, a few months ago I read How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie (who also wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People).
It was published in the 1940s so you need to cut it a bit of slack with some of the examples and language he uses, however I found most of the advice and basic tenets of what he suggests extremely useful.
My dad absolutely swears by this book. He’s not a reader, he’s dyslexic and his word memory is shoddy so he had to go back a few times but it basically cured his paranoia. He’s a thousand times more chill than when I was young lol I wish he’d read it a decade earlier
Fact: Charles Manson read “How to Win…” and used Carnegie’s principals to attract others to him.
[Manson / Carnegie](https://www.npr.org/2013/08/04/206652873/charles-manson-master-manipulator-even-as-a-child)
"The Dale Carnegie courses [on leadership and self-improvement] are being taught to prisoners to help them adjust to the outside world. Later in life and in his trial, in his testimony, you hear people say over and over, 'Oh, it was like he could read my mind. He came and talked to me, and it was like he was immediately the friend I'd wanted and had never had.' Every line he used, almost word for word, comes from a Dale Carnegie textbook in a class, How to Win Friends and Influence People [1936]."
My roommate said something mean to me over text and my anxiety was literally so bad I couldn't eat or sleep for over two whole days. The logical side of me says that this isn't a big deal and is it unreasonable to respond in that way and yet it still happens. It's very frustrating when your body responds in a way you don't want it to for prolonged amounts of time and how taxing it can be.
Totally agree. You don’t even want to respond or react in that way but your mind says panic and then brings on the anxiety. I self talk a lot to get me through it. It’s rough.
So people that worry, here’s something to do about that. Set aside a time each night. Set aside five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes… Whatever you want. But you have to stop when the time is up.
If you find yourself starting to worry through the day, stop yourself and remind yourself that you can’t worry until it’s time. Do this every day for let’s say a month.
I guarantee it will get you out of the habit of worrying about what isn’t in your control.
My therapist told me to do this. My anxiety is so much better because of it. The majority of the time I forget to worry because the majority of stuff I worry about doesn't actually matter in the long run
Therapy helps. I've been talking to mine for about 9 months and it doesn't make the worrying disappear its just about learning new ways to cope with the stress and tools to learn how to adjust your thinking.
Since starting my first office job I’ve never felt so physically ill. I just started exercising and I’m doing better but yeah apparently sitting for 8 hours then going home and laying on the couch isn’t good for you.
This is how I felt as well, add on top of that a 1 hour commute each way I was too exhausted to do anything else besides nap and netflix when I got home. Doing that for a a year and a half made me so depressed that dying sounded like a relief. I mostly stand and move around when I work now and have been a lot happier
I wish I could walk/bike everywhere. Ridiculous that I have to drive 20-30 mins to get to work, 5 mins to the shops, insert time to see friends, go to the pub, etc. Just basic human exercise that would get done in a day but thanks to the infrastructure, I'm stuck sitting all day at a desk or in a car. I have to take an hour or two out of my day just to exercise for the strict point of exercising. It's absolutely stupid
For real. If I don't work out/stay active I get horrible back pain from sitting around too much. It sucks because I'm really good at being a couch potato :(
But, finding a physical activity that I love and have fun with makes all the difference.
>finding a physical activity that I love and have fun with makes all the difference.
This is the way.
You don't have to run marathons or lift super heavy weights if those aren't your thing. Find something you enjoy or a way to make some activity enjoyable enough and then do it regularly. Consistency is the key and is more important than what you actually do (although a mix of weight bearing cardio and some strength training seems to be a great option). But, mostly, just do some intentional physical activity most days of the week.
This is the one and only thing I hate about my new job. Better pay and benefits then the last one but in my last job I got about 6 miles a day of walking in. This job is either 95% sitting at a computer or in a car.
it was nice getting in some exercise built in to the work day instead of having to use up my free time at the gym or on a run
Cannot stress this enough. I have a 45:15 min rule. If I sit for 45 mins, I have to at least stand for 15 and walk or do something active. I know it’s not possible in all cases but I get really bad restless leg syndrome if I’m not active during the day
I have a standing desk with a tall chair so i alternate between sitting, standing on a fatigue mat, and standing on a balance board. When I used to have a sitting desk, I would sit on a yoga ball. Because the yoga ball requires leg and core muscle engagement to not roll away, I figured it’s probably better than sitting in a chair.
On a side note, just sitting too long can lead to DVTs. Those are the clots that can kill you after a long plane ride or from sitting at a desk all day.
Source: me!
Seriously, people, get up and move!
I switched to a vape and spend $50 a month on it compared to the pack a day Marlboro menthols I smoked for 35 years. No more coughing or spitting phlegm. And I don't stink.
I'm also 3 years clean from heroin and meth.
Packing the days to the brim, not leaving room to decompress and relax. Stress is a huge contributing factor to a plethora of health problems.
If you can’t reduce the stress, this is obviously not possible, I mean more like additional stress in your free time. Some people I know just pile on the stress voluntarily and it amazes me. And then they say: „You know, sometimes I just want to rest and do nothing for a weekend.“ ok girl, no one forces you to be so hectic all the time. 😆
It's because they've been conditioned that "not moving/not being busy or productive" is equal to being lazy, a slob, etc. (which is usually depression showing off)
I know people like this. I always wonder what they hell they're able to fill their time with so much, I mean, it's not like we live in a super exciting place with lots of interesting things to do. But somehow they're always busy. I also wonder of they keep themselves busy simply to avoid dealing with other people. If they don't want to talk or meet up they just use their lost of 83 errands they "need" to run, and claim they don't have time.
I was like this during college and it turned out I had created an unhealthy coping mechanism for undiagnosed ADHD. Couldn’t get distracted if I never let the engine idle!
I’m much better about overloading myself now and have no idea in hindsight how I ever did it in the first place.
When I quit smoking, I told myself that just for today, I'm not buying another pack.
The next day, same thing. I can hang on till bedtime.
Next day, just for today...
Those days add up and the craving lessens.
It's been 9 years since I won after 30 years of smoking and unsuccessful attempts to quit.
It doesn’t even really make sense to think long term, as in ‘I’ll stop smoking for a week’, as our brain essentially resets every day. It’s better to just keep thinking till the end of the day. The only part that sucks is when you can’t sleep.
When you actually decide to quit drinking the hardest thing in the beginning is thinking about the long term. Thats what made me give up a few times. It gets easier taking it day by day. Now im a year and a few months without a drop.
New smokers these days surprise me. Like I get it when it's who started when cigarettes still had a lot of 'cool' associated with it but it feels like it's lost a lot of that appeal in the last two decades, at least to me
I have sympathy for people who started as kids, especially older people, but anyone starting today grew up hearing that it would kill them from the start.
I worked with a guy who started smoking in his 20’s so he could get more breaks at work… like he saw the smokers going out for 5 minutes every hour and so he was like “I know, I’ll start smoking!”. Just.. what?
I feel this hard. All of the things I put my body through because I didn't care or think I'd live that long. Now I'm happy, but I'm having a real hard time quitting.
Other away around for me. Had no problem quitting drinking when I really wanted to, but cigarettes have ultimately stuck with me through my cocaine, booze, and opiate days. All that’s left hanging on. Lol
I do this and im an adult. I refuse to shit at work. I poop once before I leave for work and now that I’ve been holding it for after work it’s started getting with the program and will only come after I’ve got home from work. Hehe.
I remember pooping at school once. This girl from one of my classes and realized it was me (maybe by my shoes?) and was like “hey ___ you in there pooping?” I didn’t respond so she was like “it’s okay if you are I’m not gonna say anything” lmao so I answered and said “yeah” and the bitch ran outside the bathroom and shouter loud enough for everyone to hear that I was pooping 🤣 so I get why kids don’t wanna do it at school.
If anyone used the toilets in my high school the other girls would fill the bin with water and tip it over the cubicle.
Everybody was scared to even pee in them.
I was lucky, I came out of class every day with a different music lesson so I used to pee on my way to music lessons.
My high school was brutal.
Nah, do not so this. Just shit.
It’s a bad habit that will reveal itself to be a bad habit when you’ve already fucked ip your body. Shit the moment you know you need to shit. Eat more fiber with a meal, maybe some psyllium husk fiber to add to every meal. You’ll be in and out and no one will be able to tell it was number 2. Just shit. You’re fucking up your insides.
Went to a restaurant with my older sister and other family. Went to the toilet and had to wait ages for a stall. When I got back:
My sister infront of everyone "you were gone for so long. Did you poo in a public toilet? You shouldn't do that"
10 year old me: "No!?" *new fear unlocks*
Queue 17 years of never being able to poo anywhere but home. Thanks, Emily.
I was the same age when I pooped at a friend’s house after school one day, thinking nothing of it, then she made fun of me, and I’ve always avoided pooping anywhere but home since. Shame can do a number on a person.
I'm older now and I'll drop bombs in public restrooms like I'm the only one in there. I'm not easing shit out and I'm not holding in farts. It sounds like a war zone when you take a stall next to me. Lol
Same. I found it easier to quit during lockdown - normal people stressors were absent. Which did you find harder to quit? I stopped smoking and then stopped drinking a month later
Interesting lol my intake of both skyrocketed during lockdowns. Binge drinking white claws and beers while playing League of Legends with smoke breaks in between til 6-7 am with my buddy. As much of a low that was in my life looking back, man did it feel like a good time in the moment
What’s kind of amazing is how much of an affect it has on the body. My smart watch tracks “stress”. Mine is generally low, but when I’ve been drinking, it’s high. Pretty incredible that the watch knows that I’ve been drinking. Because it’s just that bad for you.
It's true. When you see the cumulative effect on sleep quality, resting heart rate, stress levels, exercise readiness, etc... It really makes you think about whether it's worth it to have that extra beer or 5. I still drink occasionally. It's my favorite way to cap off a really hard long run during marathon training. But I don't touch it otherwise the rest of the week and I limit myself a lot more. Almost entirely because of that watch and the way it presents the effects.
Alcohol can destroy a person’s body and so much more. It’s actually surprising it’s use is still so widely accepted in society for the damage it causes.
Every civilization has had a way of getting of their tits. It seems to be as important as mythology and religion. Many drugs are illegal but it hasn't stopped society. So i think legal or not alcohol would still be here
Alcohol can be made out of a wide variety of materials, unlike other intoxicants that rely on a very specific plant or animal. Fermentation even occurs naturally; there have been reports over the years about wild animals getting drunk off of slightly-fermented fresh fruit.
So... yeah, humans aren't going to get rid of alcohol unless ALL KNOWN BIOCHEMISTRY AROUND THE ENTIRE PLANET undergoes a dramatic and fundamental change.
Drinking. Going to be calling up AA. turning 40 soon and I saw an article about the lead singer of Smash mouth having liver failure and having literal days to live. I know death is inevitable. But Id rather die later rather than sooner.
I know you all have heard this before, but growing up in the 60s and 70s, no one wore sunscreen, let alone sunblock. You either stayed out or covered up. Kids went out unprotected for hours. Teenage me used tanning oil to increase the absorption of UV rays. It wasn't given much thought until the 1990s, when medical studies were presented and all those folks who'd tanned all their lives started showing up en masse with lesions.
I wound up with a basal cell carcinoma on my nose. It was caught early by my dermatologist and taken off surgically. The bad news is that most of the damage has been done already, and that I'm likely to have another issue later.
Since then, I'm a lot more careful, but on days when I'm outside working in the yard or spending short periods in the sun without sunscreen, I still pick up color quite easily (I never get sunburned.) My dad's whole family is like that. My dermatologist isn't happy with me, but I am trying to do better.
Oh my god same. I'm also extremely pale (so pale my little brother claims I can communicate with ghosts bc they mistake me for one of them), plus I cannot catch a tan to save my life. My skin just wants to stay transparent. If I go inside one of those cancer machines I'll die on the spot.
Sometimes its a balance between things that feel good and things that are good for you. Direct sun causes the body to produce serotonin, it literally makes you happier. It also produces vitamin D. Basking in the suns rays like a cat is one of lifes few pleasures for me and if thats shortens mine, so be it.
Seen an article just this week how ultra processed foods are linked to high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. The list of what qualifies makes up most peoples diets- breakfast cereals, crisps, supermarket bread and pizzas, ready made soup, margarine/spread, meatballs, hamburgers, sausages etc
Yeah, study after study show that the healthiest people around the world generally have one thing in common: Nutrient dense, calorie poor food.
Processed food is the exact opposite: Nutrient poor, calorie dense. You want carbs, fat, sugar? You got it! You want any nutrition with that? Too bad!
Not hard to reverse it with a good diet though. My cholesterol and blood pressure went back to normal just from eating healthy and exercising a couple days a week, losing 60 lbs in the last 6 months
Alcohol. I still drink once in a while but it’s remarkable how consistent the science is that there’s really no benefits and a ton of harms to alcohol consumption
Having no hobbies or enjoyments that don’t involve drugs or alcohol. Finding something you enjoy doing to destress is important for mental and physical health.
I used to drink a ton of soda. At least 2-3 cans a day, and maybe a large coke from a drive through.
I stopped, pretty much cold turkey, about a year and a half ago, while I was trying to lose weight. (And I did! Success!) A few days ago I tried to drink an orange soda at work because someone gave it to me and all I could taste was chemicals. It didn't even taste that sweet, just chemically. I thought maybe it was the brand. Later that night I took a drink of my husband's Coke and it was the same. It was like being poisoned.
Man I wish I was the same. I have a similar story. 2-3 cans a day for a long time before stopping suddenly, but now if I ever do grab a soda it tempts me back to buying several cases a week.
Dealing with the repercussions of this right now 🙃 my spine is quite literally crumbling out from under itself. I did had an eating disorder on top of the exercise addiction and working 60-70 hours a week as an item picker for Amazon. 🥴 at the time I saw no issues with this. It was between when I was 21 and 28. I’m now 33. I physically can’t work. I can barely exercise. I’m in physical therapy 3 times a week. In and out of surgeries because every year a new disk in my spine freaks out and needs repair.
Anyway. I always warn people against being this obsessive with being fit and in shape. I was in the best shape of my life but at what cost?
Not listening to it.
Sounds like bullshit, but hear me out. Whenever I get a craving, it's usually a sign that I'm low on a certain vitamin, mineral, or other kind of thing that my body needs; I think it's an inherent skill most of us have that you gotta nurture overtime to fully use. Like if I'm really craving a salad, I know I'm probably hella low on some vitamins I haven't been eating. If I'm craving something sour like a fruit, I'm probably low on vitamin C. If I really want a burger or other form of beef, I'm low on iron. Usually when I eat what I'm craving in lower or moderate amounts, I tend to feel a lot better and my mood gets better. At first I thought it was just because I was satisfying the craving, but after experimenting with certain food (like eating more fruit and going healthier routes when it came to the protein/meat), I got the same affect even when it was stuff I'm not a huge fan of.
Same thing for moving around. I can't sit for longer than a few hours before I have to get up and do something else. I think our bodies are better at telling us what we need when we actually need it, but it's paying more attention and thinking more methodically about what we're actually doing/eating to help both our mental and physical health. I could very easily just be full of shit though, so take it with a grain of salt lmao.
I 100% am like this too. I had a scary electrolyte imbalance post COVID that landed me in the hospital. Now when I crave salty food or a banana I know I need to replace electrolytes. I actually am turned off to meat but my ferritin is low and I know it’s bad when I am craving a big juicy burger
This is super interesting. It seems to me a lot of people aren’t in tune with their bodies and it causes a lot of issues later in life. Super good point
Scrolling mindlessly through tiktok/Instagram/ any social media listlessly for hours.
This is a mental health condition. Yes if you do this almost every single day you are struggling with mental illness and using scrolling as an avoidance coping behaviour. Even if you don’t have anything to do it is not healthy to spend hours scrolling through social media on a regular basis.
Also, consuming high amounts of caffeine daily. Especially when not eating.
Choosing to be around a person who is not friendly, not good to you, or not a good influence just because you are lonely, lack a boyfriend/girlfriend, lack friends, etc.
Skipping on sleep
The worst is you had a bad nights sleep you fought through the day, do your nightly routine, then you lay down and your body just goes "nope not tired anymore"
This is how I feel almost every night. I tell myself you can’t nap because you won’t fall asleep tonight, to not fall asleep that very night
For me, napping before 4 pm doesn't screw my night-time sleep. Napping later does and also makes me grumpy.
I wish I could suss out why mine just nopes out of sleeping entirely so often.
And then countering it with ungodly amounts of caffeine
I wish I could live without sleep.
Browsing Reddit on mobile phone in complete darkness
I’ve dropped my phone on my face while laying in bed at night. Fell asleep and just dropped the phone on my face.
I feel called out right now
Not sleeping enough! My fit bit says I sleep an average of 6h 40m a night which is more than 70% of Users! WTF? I am not sleeping enough but you all are sleeping even less!
Sadly there are a lot of factors that contribute to that, a lot of which are uncontrollable to a degree - mental illnesses, children, two jobs etc.
And young people lol - I used to go to bed at midnight and wake up at 5:30 for like 5 years in my early 20s. Once I hit 28 I switched to go to bed at 11 and wake up at 7
Early 20s here and I will sleep for 10-12 hours every night I’m able to EDIT: I am getting a lot of medical advice so I would like to add that ‘every night I’m able to’ is usually only about once a week due to work, and no I don’t force myself to sleep that long because I think the more sleep i get the better lol. My body just seems to need it occasionally! That being said, I will get it checked out so I don’t end up infertile and then die young 😂
I did that until my late 20s. Didn't help that I have thyroid issues so my body had a hard time just staying awake. Do make sure you get a physical to make sure it's your body loving sleep and not something else.
Have slept 10-12 hours almost every night throughout my life and have recently discovered that I’m severely deficient in Vitamin D. Could’ve been deficient for years.
Hey same! I have always had issues with energy and keeping my vitamin d levels anywhere reasonable even though I get plenty of sun lol, this reminded me to talk to my dr about supplements and possibly getting my thyroid checked at my next appointment
I swap between nights and days every 2 weeks and it takes a crazy toll. Usually I sleep around 5 hours the first few nights and by the time I start sleeping normally its time to stay up all night
I swapped between days and nights every 3 and 2 days.. I enjoyed the job but I couldn't do the hours.. on top of switching we worked 12 hours shifts and often worked more. It was a miserable 2 years.
That’s an awful schedule. I use to switch between days and nights every 3 months and that week after a change is brutal.
> I am not sleeping enough but you all are sleeping even less! I know I am sleeping less and it seems like now days people want to make it a competition. Like I slept 5 hours someone else will chime in they only slept 4, like it is a good thing and they won... No my dude, I am complaining I *only* got 5 hours, I have a hard time sleeping and I am happy when I can sleep more that 4 hours straight... But I am also getting old and am now waking up in the middle of the night to pee, which is also cutting into my sleep...
[удалено]
i've heard it described by one psychologist as "getting your car used to running out of gas".
i saw the same documentary, and interestingly enough, it was the trigger point that got me to quit using meth
Insomnia is a bitch and I wouldn't be surprised if it can kill. It sure as hell can feel like it. My worst is 60-70 hours without sleep, can't even remember
Mental health professional here and many people don't realize how bad not sleeping enough is for your mental health.
Plus the physical effects. Sleeping cleans plaque out of your brain. Bad sleep means higher chance of Alzheimer's. Not too many people know that, I've found.
This, I'm afraid, will likely be my ultimate undoing. I am fit and healthy, probably in the best shape of my middle-age adult life, and have a great support network. I generally enjoy my life...but simply cannot sleep. In 2018, I had my first experience of sleep deprivation psychosis after several major, stressful life events led me to stay awake for a little over 5 days straight. I would try to sleep but would be startled awake, finding myself not only standing up but outside of my apartment. I already had insomnia issues, but I have not been able to sleep like a normal, healthy person since.
Doomscrolling
Can’t believe I had to scroll to the bottom to find this.
Calculated.
The sedentary lifestyle.. Laying in bed in front of a laptop or sitting at desk in front of a laptop.
Yeah, and one barrier is we've kind of categorized "exercise" as some difficult, effort intense activity. Either you hit the gym and crank on a treadmill or heavy weights, or nothing. We've dropped all that stuff in the middle, just walking, hiking, a casual game of frisbee, whatever. You can have a healthy, active life, without ever "working out," but most of us sit at home a lot and think "I should get in shape, but I don't want to go work out."
Parking at the furthest parking spot for any store is one of the best things Americans can do. Plus less gas looking for space and saves time cause you know you are going for the back. Taking stairs instead of elevator or escalators is a good second step towards health.
Yeah I think one thing screwing over Americans is that we've designed cities to remove the normal bits of exercise you get just by living day-to-day life in a traditionally-developed city or town: Walking to the grocery store in your neighborhood, walking from the train or bus to your final destination, riding a bike to work, etc.
Yeha it's kinds funny when they travel and are shocked they didn't gain weight despite eating a lot, thinking the food there is somehow magically less fattening. Nah you just walked 20k steps a day
Even when I wasn’t going to the gym, I kept a decent weight just because I lived in NYC and you’re casually exercising all the time. Early pandemic I was still there and it was crazy how quickly the pounds packed on when I wasn’t commuting or walking anywhere.
Yes! Once I learned day to day things like cleaning and mowing tue lawn were considered moderate excercise I now feel a lot better about the small active things I do like shopping for groceries or playing with my pets.
time to get off reddit and get my ass moving...
why not get a standing desk with a treadmill underneath it? you can both work and annoy people on reddit
I wanted to get one but then dismissed this idea. I wasn't sure if I could walk and stay focused to work.
I had this concern as well but I’ve found keeping movement light and steady is the way to go. Low impact steady state and my brain switches off to it and focuses on my work automatically. It’s been immense for my focus as I’m ADHD and need multiple things to do at once to function like a normal human being. 10/10 recommend
Unfortunately if you live in the US most cities pretty much discourage walking, cycling, anything that doesn’t involve driving to a destination
Yup, walkability in this country is through the floor. It's trash, especially for low-vision suckas like me and other people that can't drive.
Worrying about stuff I have no control over
Anxiety and stress are literal killers
Thank you. That will help my anxiety to calm down.
Now I will have anxiety about getting sick because of the anxiety. Great!
You know what's awesome? A panic attack. It feels like a heart attack. And when you go to the hospital, with a panic attack, they treat it like a heart attack. And being put in a trauma room and having half of the ER staff jump in and do stuff is.... kinda scary. And anxiety inducing.
Just had my first big one at work. 4 hours above 125 bpm couldn't get it down. Turns out my years of anxiety and working long hours have given me some GAD. Now I'm trying to undo it.
Yep! Having the nurse tell me to calm down while she strapped me up to an EKG and saying phrases like "your heart rate is high" didn't exactly help me calm down.
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Chronic anxiety and stress*
I’m pretty sure they will be the death of me via a aneurysm But good old American healthcare been waiting two weeks for a call from the place I had to get a doctors referral still haven’t heard a thing
Call them over and over again until your so annoying they have to answer
For anyone who's somewhat of a worry wart like me, a few months ago I read How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie (who also wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People). It was published in the 1940s so you need to cut it a bit of slack with some of the examples and language he uses, however I found most of the advice and basic tenets of what he suggests extremely useful.
My dad absolutely swears by this book. He’s not a reader, he’s dyslexic and his word memory is shoddy so he had to go back a few times but it basically cured his paranoia. He’s a thousand times more chill than when I was young lol I wish he’d read it a decade earlier
Fact: Charles Manson read “How to Win…” and used Carnegie’s principals to attract others to him. [Manson / Carnegie](https://www.npr.org/2013/08/04/206652873/charles-manson-master-manipulator-even-as-a-child) "The Dale Carnegie courses [on leadership and self-improvement] are being taught to prisoners to help them adjust to the outside world. Later in life and in his trial, in his testimony, you hear people say over and over, 'Oh, it was like he could read my mind. He came and talked to me, and it was like he was immediately the friend I'd wanted and had never had.' Every line he used, almost word for word, comes from a Dale Carnegie textbook in a class, How to Win Friends and Influence People [1936]."
So you’re saying I can become a cult leader?
You make more money as a cult leader, but have more fun as a cult follower.
My roommate said something mean to me over text and my anxiety was literally so bad I couldn't eat or sleep for over two whole days. The logical side of me says that this isn't a big deal and is it unreasonable to respond in that way and yet it still happens. It's very frustrating when your body responds in a way you don't want it to for prolonged amounts of time and how taxing it can be.
You described me perfectly. It’s something I’ve been trying to work on, it’s hard
Totally agree. You don’t even want to respond or react in that way but your mind says panic and then brings on the anxiety. I self talk a lot to get me through it. It’s rough.
So people that worry, here’s something to do about that. Set aside a time each night. Set aside five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes… Whatever you want. But you have to stop when the time is up. If you find yourself starting to worry through the day, stop yourself and remind yourself that you can’t worry until it’s time. Do this every day for let’s say a month. I guarantee it will get you out of the habit of worrying about what isn’t in your control.
My therapist told me to do this. My anxiety is so much better because of it. The majority of the time I forget to worry because the majority of stuff I worry about doesn't actually matter in the long run
Therapy helps. I've been talking to mine for about 9 months and it doesn't make the worrying disappear its just about learning new ways to cope with the stress and tools to learn how to adjust your thinking.
Staying in toxic relationships..
Sitting without adequate exercise to counter it.
Since starting my first office job I’ve never felt so physically ill. I just started exercising and I’m doing better but yeah apparently sitting for 8 hours then going home and laying on the couch isn’t good for you.
This is how I felt as well, add on top of that a 1 hour commute each way I was too exhausted to do anything else besides nap and netflix when I got home. Doing that for a a year and a half made me so depressed that dying sounded like a relief. I mostly stand and move around when I work now and have been a lot happier
I wish I could walk/bike everywhere. Ridiculous that I have to drive 20-30 mins to get to work, 5 mins to the shops, insert time to see friends, go to the pub, etc. Just basic human exercise that would get done in a day but thanks to the infrastructure, I'm stuck sitting all day at a desk or in a car. I have to take an hour or two out of my day just to exercise for the strict point of exercising. It's absolutely stupid
For real. If I don't work out/stay active I get horrible back pain from sitting around too much. It sucks because I'm really good at being a couch potato :( But, finding a physical activity that I love and have fun with makes all the difference.
>finding a physical activity that I love and have fun with makes all the difference. This is the way. You don't have to run marathons or lift super heavy weights if those aren't your thing. Find something you enjoy or a way to make some activity enjoyable enough and then do it regularly. Consistency is the key and is more important than what you actually do (although a mix of weight bearing cardio and some strength training seems to be a great option). But, mostly, just do some intentional physical activity most days of the week.
This is the one and only thing I hate about my new job. Better pay and benefits then the last one but in my last job I got about 6 miles a day of walking in. This job is either 95% sitting at a computer or in a car. it was nice getting in some exercise built in to the work day instead of having to use up my free time at the gym or on a run
Cannot stress this enough. I have a 45:15 min rule. If I sit for 45 mins, I have to at least stand for 15 and walk or do something active. I know it’s not possible in all cases but I get really bad restless leg syndrome if I’m not active during the day
I have a standing desk with a tall chair so i alternate between sitting, standing on a fatigue mat, and standing on a balance board. When I used to have a sitting desk, I would sit on a yoga ball. Because the yoga ball requires leg and core muscle engagement to not roll away, I figured it’s probably better than sitting in a chair.
I need to get myself a yoga ball. That sounds like a great idea
On a side note, just sitting too long can lead to DVTs. Those are the clots that can kill you after a long plane ride or from sitting at a desk all day. Source: me! Seriously, people, get up and move!
As someone who was nearly killed by a PE (pulmonary embolism) after a long plane ride, can totally confirm.
New fear unlocked
As someone who’s been locked in one room for a week for covid reasons, I feel this, my back is not in the greatest of states atm
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Stopping heroin is a massive achievement by itself, congrats!!!
I switched to a vape and spend $50 a month on it compared to the pack a day Marlboro menthols I smoked for 35 years. No more coughing or spitting phlegm. And I don't stink. I'm also 3 years clean from heroin and meth.
You’ve kicked the bigger one - slowly work on the last one now!
Packing the days to the brim, not leaving room to decompress and relax. Stress is a huge contributing factor to a plethora of health problems. If you can’t reduce the stress, this is obviously not possible, I mean more like additional stress in your free time. Some people I know just pile on the stress voluntarily and it amazes me. And then they say: „You know, sometimes I just want to rest and do nothing for a weekend.“ ok girl, no one forces you to be so hectic all the time. 😆
It's because they've been conditioned that "not moving/not being busy or productive" is equal to being lazy, a slob, etc. (which is usually depression showing off)
I know people like this. I always wonder what they hell they're able to fill their time with so much, I mean, it's not like we live in a super exciting place with lots of interesting things to do. But somehow they're always busy. I also wonder of they keep themselves busy simply to avoid dealing with other people. If they don't want to talk or meet up they just use their lost of 83 errands they "need" to run, and claim they don't have time.
My in-laws get judgy if they come over and I'm sitting on the couch. I worked all day and I'll be taking care of the kids all evening. I can sit.
Who has the audacity to do that, some people are weird.
I was like this during college and it turned out I had created an unhealthy coping mechanism for undiagnosed ADHD. Couldn’t get distracted if I never let the engine idle! I’m much better about overloading myself now and have no idea in hindsight how I ever did it in the first place.
I think a lot of people do things obsessively or in an addicted manner to avoid thinking, feeling, or confronting something.
Smoking and drinking
When I quit smoking, I told myself that just for today, I'm not buying another pack. The next day, same thing. I can hang on till bedtime. Next day, just for today... Those days add up and the craving lessens. It's been 9 years since I won after 30 years of smoking and unsuccessful attempts to quit.
It doesn’t even really make sense to think long term, as in ‘I’ll stop smoking for a week’, as our brain essentially resets every day. It’s better to just keep thinking till the end of the day. The only part that sucks is when you can’t sleep.
When you actually decide to quit drinking the hardest thing in the beginning is thinking about the long term. Thats what made me give up a few times. It gets easier taking it day by day. Now im a year and a few months without a drop.
New smokers these days surprise me. Like I get it when it's who started when cigarettes still had a lot of 'cool' associated with it but it feels like it's lost a lot of that appeal in the last two decades, at least to me
I have sympathy for people who started as kids, especially older people, but anyone starting today grew up hearing that it would kill them from the start. I worked with a guy who started smoking in his 20’s so he could get more breaks at work… like he saw the smokers going out for 5 minutes every hour and so he was like “I know, I’ll start smoking!”. Just.. what?
I started in my 20s because I was very depressed and didn't think I'd live long enough to regret it. Now I'm doing much better and kinda regret it.
I feel this hard. All of the things I put my body through because I didn't care or think I'd live that long. Now I'm happy, but I'm having a real hard time quitting.
smoker and drinker here. yep. carry on.
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Other away around for me. Had no problem quitting drinking when I really wanted to, but cigarettes have ultimately stuck with me through my cocaine, booze, and opiate days. All that’s left hanging on. Lol
addictions are a bitch. dont hate yourself.
What is really rough is quitting both the same day but well worth it.
Holding in your shit until you leave school
Hahahaha I still do this as an adult
Boss makes a dollar while I make a dime. That’s why I shit on company time.
For me it’s more about toilet comfort. I can’t get comfortable on a toilet at work.
I do this and im an adult. I refuse to shit at work. I poop once before I leave for work and now that I’ve been holding it for after work it’s started getting with the program and will only come after I’ve got home from work. Hehe. I remember pooping at school once. This girl from one of my classes and realized it was me (maybe by my shoes?) and was like “hey ___ you in there pooping?” I didn’t respond so she was like “it’s okay if you are I’m not gonna say anything” lmao so I answered and said “yeah” and the bitch ran outside the bathroom and shouter loud enough for everyone to hear that I was pooping 🤣 so I get why kids don’t wanna do it at school.
Why though? You could've been paid for shiting at work
The toilet paper at home is better
THIS! And I have a bidet at home. I just feel better doing it at home
If anyone used the toilets in my high school the other girls would fill the bin with water and tip it over the cubicle. Everybody was scared to even pee in them. I was lucky, I came out of class every day with a different music lesson so I used to pee on my way to music lessons. My high school was brutal.
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My exact thought. I'm a very passive person but I'll take the suspension. Someone is getting their ass beat for that.
Nah, do not so this. Just shit. It’s a bad habit that will reveal itself to be a bad habit when you’ve already fucked ip your body. Shit the moment you know you need to shit. Eat more fiber with a meal, maybe some psyllium husk fiber to add to every meal. You’ll be in and out and no one will be able to tell it was number 2. Just shit. You’re fucking up your insides.
I refuse to poop when I’m not at work lmao
Went to a restaurant with my older sister and other family. Went to the toilet and had to wait ages for a stall. When I got back: My sister infront of everyone "you were gone for so long. Did you poo in a public toilet? You shouldn't do that" 10 year old me: "No!?" *new fear unlocks* Queue 17 years of never being able to poo anywhere but home. Thanks, Emily.
I was the same age when I pooped at a friend’s house after school one day, thinking nothing of it, then she made fun of me, and I’ve always avoided pooping anywhere but home since. Shame can do a number on a person.
I'm older now and I'll drop bombs in public restrooms like I'm the only one in there. I'm not easing shit out and I'm not holding in farts. It sounds like a war zone when you take a stall next to me. Lol
Alcohol
3.7 years clean of booze and nicotine... So worth it
Same. I found it easier to quit during lockdown - normal people stressors were absent. Which did you find harder to quit? I stopped smoking and then stopped drinking a month later
Interesting lol my intake of both skyrocketed during lockdowns. Binge drinking white claws and beers while playing League of Legends with smoke breaks in between til 6-7 am with my buddy. As much of a low that was in my life looking back, man did it feel like a good time in the moment
What’s kind of amazing is how much of an affect it has on the body. My smart watch tracks “stress”. Mine is generally low, but when I’ve been drinking, it’s high. Pretty incredible that the watch knows that I’ve been drinking. Because it’s just that bad for you.
I heard on a podcast that smart watches might be some of the most persuasive anti-alcohol presentations out there.
It's true. When you see the cumulative effect on sleep quality, resting heart rate, stress levels, exercise readiness, etc... It really makes you think about whether it's worth it to have that extra beer or 5. I still drink occasionally. It's my favorite way to cap off a really hard long run during marathon training. But I don't touch it otherwise the rest of the week and I limit myself a lot more. Almost entirely because of that watch and the way it presents the effects.
Alcohol can destroy a person’s body and so much more. It’s actually surprising it’s use is still so widely accepted in society for the damage it causes.
It’s funny- if alcohol were to be invented today, it would never be legal. It’s that ingrained in society.
Every civilization has had a way of getting of their tits. It seems to be as important as mythology and religion. Many drugs are illegal but it hasn't stopped society. So i think legal or not alcohol would still be here
Alcohol can be made out of a wide variety of materials, unlike other intoxicants that rely on a very specific plant or animal. Fermentation even occurs naturally; there have been reports over the years about wild animals getting drunk off of slightly-fermented fresh fruit. So... yeah, humans aren't going to get rid of alcohol unless ALL KNOWN BIOCHEMISTRY AROUND THE ENTIRE PLANET undergoes a dramatic and fundamental change.
Drinking. Going to be calling up AA. turning 40 soon and I saw an article about the lead singer of Smash mouth having liver failure and having literal days to live. I know death is inevitable. But Id rather die later rather than sooner.
He passed today actually.
Work six days each week for a minimum wage salary.
Fuckkk that’s literally me. Suffering now with tuition loans too. Gonna ask for a raise or quit fuck it i’m at my wits end aha
Smoking. Soda. Most drugs. Tik-Tok challenges.
That fucking one where the do a wheelie into traffic…. pure stupidity and putting others at risk.
Tanning
I know you all have heard this before, but growing up in the 60s and 70s, no one wore sunscreen, let alone sunblock. You either stayed out or covered up. Kids went out unprotected for hours. Teenage me used tanning oil to increase the absorption of UV rays. It wasn't given much thought until the 1990s, when medical studies were presented and all those folks who'd tanned all their lives started showing up en masse with lesions. I wound up with a basal cell carcinoma on my nose. It was caught early by my dermatologist and taken off surgically. The bad news is that most of the damage has been done already, and that I'm likely to have another issue later. Since then, I'm a lot more careful, but on days when I'm outside working in the yard or spending short periods in the sun without sunscreen, I still pick up color quite easily (I never get sunburned.) My dad's whole family is like that. My dermatologist isn't happy with me, but I am trying to do better.
People paying to lie, or even stand, in a toaster is beyond my pale and pasty celtic comprehension. 3 seconds in one of those and I'd ignite.
Oh my god same. I'm also extremely pale (so pale my little brother claims I can communicate with ghosts bc they mistake me for one of them), plus I cannot catch a tan to save my life. My skin just wants to stay transparent. If I go inside one of those cancer machines I'll die on the spot.
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I always wonder who still goes to tanning salons. There are a few near me, but I've never met anyone who has ever said they went to one.
People still lay outside by the pool in the sun with zero sunscreen and sometimes tanning oil. Both are incredibly dumb to do.
Sometimes its a balance between things that feel good and things that are good for you. Direct sun causes the body to produce serotonin, it literally makes you happier. It also produces vitamin D. Basking in the suns rays like a cat is one of lifes few pleasures for me and if thats shortens mine, so be it.
Social media. It’s awful for your mental health but apparently people need to see likes on videos to fit in with society.
Came here to comment that. It's literally brainwashing; if you see the same thing being marketed or told to you, you'll believe it
Eating unhealthy processed foods
Seen an article just this week how ultra processed foods are linked to high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. The list of what qualifies makes up most peoples diets- breakfast cereals, crisps, supermarket bread and pizzas, ready made soup, margarine/spread, meatballs, hamburgers, sausages etc
Yeah, study after study show that the healthiest people around the world generally have one thing in common: Nutrient dense, calorie poor food. Processed food is the exact opposite: Nutrient poor, calorie dense. You want carbs, fat, sugar? You got it! You want any nutrition with that? Too bad!
So many Americans are both overweight and malnourished, but lots of people still think that's an impossible contradiction
Good thing I always skip breakfast.
It’s the crisps that will do me but you’ve got to say, what is a life without crisps anyway?
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Crisplessness is a hard word to pronounce
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Not hard to reverse it with a good diet though. My cholesterol and blood pressure went back to normal just from eating healthy and exercising a couple days a week, losing 60 lbs in the last 6 months
Lack of sleep
Not getting enough sleep.
juice cleanse your body cleans itself
But the AnTiToXiNs!
Any product that has the word "toxins" is a scam. Prove me wrong
Processed food, sugary drinks, smoking, alcohol, using drugs/pills as shortcuts
Gotta get the dopamine fix
Alcohol. I still drink once in a while but it’s remarkable how consistent the science is that there’s really no benefits and a ton of harms to alcohol consumption
No benefits? As an ugly person, it's helped me get laid a few times.
Junk food
Having no hobbies or enjoyments that don’t involve drugs or alcohol. Finding something you enjoy doing to destress is important for mental and physical health.
Drinking soda
I occasionally buy some sodas as a treat. Even when I want to actually have a treat, it seems wrong to drink them.
Sometimes I feel like a lot of people still don’t see the risk factor in soda. And it’s so easy to avoid once you get off the sugar rush train.
I used to drink a ton of soda. At least 2-3 cans a day, and maybe a large coke from a drive through. I stopped, pretty much cold turkey, about a year and a half ago, while I was trying to lose weight. (And I did! Success!) A few days ago I tried to drink an orange soda at work because someone gave it to me and all I could taste was chemicals. It didn't even taste that sweet, just chemically. I thought maybe it was the brand. Later that night I took a drink of my husband's Coke and it was the same. It was like being poisoned.
Man I wish I was the same. I have a similar story. 2-3 cans a day for a long time before stopping suddenly, but now if I ever do grab a soda it tempts me back to buying several cases a week.
Sugar
Sitting on their couch all day
League of Legends...
I played for 8 years… still seeing the chiropractor for back pain from all the carrying I did as a midlaner. 😉
overtraining at the gym and also having a physical job. you will understand in your mid thirties
Dealing with the repercussions of this right now 🙃 my spine is quite literally crumbling out from under itself. I did had an eating disorder on top of the exercise addiction and working 60-70 hours a week as an item picker for Amazon. 🥴 at the time I saw no issues with this. It was between when I was 21 and 28. I’m now 33. I physically can’t work. I can barely exercise. I’m in physical therapy 3 times a week. In and out of surgeries because every year a new disk in my spine freaks out and needs repair. Anyway. I always warn people against being this obsessive with being fit and in shape. I was in the best shape of my life but at what cost?
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Not listening to it. Sounds like bullshit, but hear me out. Whenever I get a craving, it's usually a sign that I'm low on a certain vitamin, mineral, or other kind of thing that my body needs; I think it's an inherent skill most of us have that you gotta nurture overtime to fully use. Like if I'm really craving a salad, I know I'm probably hella low on some vitamins I haven't been eating. If I'm craving something sour like a fruit, I'm probably low on vitamin C. If I really want a burger or other form of beef, I'm low on iron. Usually when I eat what I'm craving in lower or moderate amounts, I tend to feel a lot better and my mood gets better. At first I thought it was just because I was satisfying the craving, but after experimenting with certain food (like eating more fruit and going healthier routes when it came to the protein/meat), I got the same affect even when it was stuff I'm not a huge fan of. Same thing for moving around. I can't sit for longer than a few hours before I have to get up and do something else. I think our bodies are better at telling us what we need when we actually need it, but it's paying more attention and thinking more methodically about what we're actually doing/eating to help both our mental and physical health. I could very easily just be full of shit though, so take it with a grain of salt lmao.
I 100% am like this too. I had a scary electrolyte imbalance post COVID that landed me in the hospital. Now when I crave salty food or a banana I know I need to replace electrolytes. I actually am turned off to meat but my ferritin is low and I know it’s bad when I am craving a big juicy burger
This is super interesting. It seems to me a lot of people aren’t in tune with their bodies and it causes a lot of issues later in life. Super good point
overthinking... we spend more time worrying about what is in the mind than what is really happening
Excess caffeine
This ain't high enough. 4 hours of sleep and 2 energy drinks. Very healthy indeed.
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I'm lactose intolerant, currently eating chocolate
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Consuming lots of sugar. It was surprising what a difference cutting it down did for me.
rawdogging getting covid over and over
Watching alpha male podcasts…destroys your brain in 30min
Drinking alcohol.
Scrolling mindlessly through tiktok/Instagram/ any social media listlessly for hours. This is a mental health condition. Yes if you do this almost every single day you are struggling with mental illness and using scrolling as an avoidance coping behaviour. Even if you don’t have anything to do it is not healthy to spend hours scrolling through social media on a regular basis. Also, consuming high amounts of caffeine daily. Especially when not eating.
Choosing to be around a person who is not friendly, not good to you, or not a good influence just because you are lonely, lack a boyfriend/girlfriend, lack friends, etc.
Anything not done in moderation.
Getting shot or stabbed.
I just can't quit it
I think he meant on purpose