I[29m] have some chronic health issues that I only see getting worse with age.
I follow the typical advice of working out/eating clean and dedicate about 12-15 hours a week and in the end I just about keep my head above water in terms of health. A very large part i know is genetic as all men in both sides of my family died in their 50s/60s.
This has severely limited my career growth. I simply find it difficult to work over 40 hours a week or take on more responsibilities (aka stress) without worsening health issues. (bad sleep, brain fog, sky high cholesterol, diabetic issues etc). There was an excellent oppuritnity I had that I had to turn down cause I realistically didn’t feel like I could do the hours and travel without my health imploding.
Similarly I can’t imagine having a family/active social life and maintaining health. Something always breaks.
I don’t know how you guys 40+ who are planning to live past 60 do it.
Comments
Please do not delete your post after receiving your answer. Consider leaving it up for posterity so that other Redditors can benefit from the wisdom in this thread.
Once your thread has run its course, instead of deleting it, you can simply type “!lock” (without the quotes) as a comment anywhere in your thread to have our Automod lock the thread. That way you won’t be bothered by anymore replies on it, but people can still read it.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I’m 50 and am on dialysis 3 times a week. My health began to decline when I was around 38 or so. I lived a fast life and food, drink, and women were my drug of choice.
Diet and exercise are imperative to keeping things in check. Don’t let a physician administer meds for you to an early grave. Do your own research for the symptoms you are having and try a food based or/and a homeopathic approach.
I’ve had small fiber neuropathy the last 3 years and its robbing me of my sense of touch, taste, and smell + severe fatigue/nerve pain episodes.
I fell back into a less stressful job and don’t know how I would do much else with my career now, I miss at least 1 day every couple weeks and get flare ups when I take on projects.
Most of it is just letting things go when I need to, “why juggle the hot potato when I can put it on the table til it cools down” type mentality has gotten me the furthest
Additionally – the thought that “This too is part of the human experience”, to be in this spot is very humbling, but also very human.
There’s nothing out-of-bounds wrong with us – simply the cards we are dealt. Enjoy the good days, and be kind to yourself on the bad days
Well career is non-existent. By the time I’m done with basic everyday tasks, there’s not a lot of time left for a career. Doesn’t help that I don’t drive in one of the most car-dependent places in Oz, a lot of places straight-up refuse to hire you if you don’t have a car.
Social life is an odd one. There’s some things I can’t participate in, which is obviously limiting, but most people who work 5 days a week have given up and don’t want to leave the house or do much anyway, so in some ways they hold me back.
I’m patiently hoping the heart issues take me out before the dementia that runs in the family kicks in.
Odds are not looking good despite my best efforts to decrease heart health.
I am classed as severely disabled (by physicians and the government). I work full time in the state level civil service.
I do not have lofty career ambitions but with a government job with disability and LGBTQ protections and a union, I hope to stay employed for the rest of my career.
Socially, I live with family members, not alone (and am widowed), and I try to get together with friends 1-2 times a month, on a weekend day.
I am trying to get a better medical team together to address my general exhaustion better in the hopes of more social time. However, the fact that I can work is of a much higher priority than being social.
I have a degenerative disease. Don’t expect to make it to 60. Risk of heart attack and strokes are high.
I don’t think about it too much. I’m married, I work on 2 businesses I started. I work hard, I don’t sleep well, I work out and I put socializing with my friends and parter above other things.
I’m not rich but comfortably making 6 figures. It gets tiring, and as I get older it gets more tiring and more painful to be me. I invested in a gym at home to try and keep my body moving.
When I pass my wife will get a decent sized house that will put her up for retirement if she wants to.
When I feel down, I think how lucky I am to have lived the life I lead.
Poor sleep is starting to harm my career. Since turning 50 (now 54) I have to get up in the night frequently to pee, and often can’t get back to sleep again. One poor night is bad enough, but when it happens multiple nights in a row I have to take time off sick from being too exhausted to work. I feel this is only going to get worse so eventually I’ll be unemployable.
I’m 34 and I have MS, ulcerative colitis (had my colon and large intestine removed) and primary sclerosing cholangitis.
I’m lucky that everything is pretty well handled at the moment but I know it can and probably will get worse.
It’s made me realize that… why do we feel the need to work more?
I guess some industries, including mine (finance) normalize it, but I think we need to push back and say that working 50+ hours a week isn’t right.
I don’t work excessively late anymore. Maybe I’ve put a soft cap on my career, maybe I’ve slowed my promotion opportunities, but I already miss enough of my daughters’ lives just working roughly normal hours. I won’t ever be compensated enough for missing out on even more time with them.
Being part of my daughters’ lives is priority 1. Staying healthy is 2. Working enough not to get fired comes somewhere after those.
I have an inner ear condition called menieres disease that causes hearing loss, periods of imbalance, acute vertigo attacks and tinnitus and pressure in my ears. I’ve had it since I was in my 20’s but it didn’t really constantly affect me til the last 10 years. I’m 46 and have had opportunities come and go that I did not pursue or had to bow out of because my condition would have made it nearly impossible to do that job. I have a good paying job in my field but I don’t manage new stress well and stress is a trigger for me. The thought of advancing into a less physical and more managerial role feels double sided. I don’t have the pool of energy that I had to switch from task to task or juggle multiple projects at a time.
So I stay in a position that is taking a physical toll on muscles and joints but allows me to leave at the end of my day and still have some energy to be a partner and parent.
Every new ache becomes an existential crisis. Every change in my constantly variable condition makes me question if I can still keep doing the only thing I’ve been good at for the last 25 years. It’s scary.
Degenerative spine isn’t as serious as many things I been reading in here but holy shit does it suck and it’s only getting worse. I’m guessing by my 60’s the pain will cause to me walk like I’m 80.
I think you will find some things in life are not fair, and your own personal mountain will be deciding how you process that.
I’m an executive at a Mag7. I have a chronic autoimmune condition. Last year I had cancer caught at stage 1. This year I’ve had symptoms rearranging themselves and I’m additionally being worked up for Crohn’s.
I’m currently in the middle of a business trip. My (Crohn’s?) symptoms began flaring just before the flight here. I made the call to come anyway. I’m surrounded by a Game of Thrones cast of executives, and I am not able to be my best self.
It hampers me, surely. And the stress does make it worse. A number of years ago I promised myself “I will never make a decision not to do something hard or important only because of my health,” but of course reality catches up, and every year it’s harder to draw the line between psychologically challenging and physically dangerous or unrealistic.
I think everyone in this thread sharing their story knows the truth – of course everyone wants to be healthy, but few people without chronic illness understand that health is everything. A healthy man has a million wishes. A sick man has but one.
Only you can figure out without yourself how important it is for you to strive against the current. But it will be hard. Much harder than for those around you. And you will need to become ok with that.
So I knkw you have a chronic health issue, but people seem to think that working out is the be-all and end-all of health. Fitness is. Fitness will benefit you far FAR more than working iut. Working out has it’s place, but Fitness will bring infinitely more benefits. That will help you far more as you get older
I’m nearly 40. I’m fortunate in the fact that I’m self employed and make decent money. I’ve definitely had to cut back on work to an extent, but I am extremely fortunate in that I can control how many clients I take on and how many hours I work. It would be VERY hard for me to work your typical 40 hour a week office job and survive with my sanity intact.
Social stuff is the biggest issue. It’s getting better, but there are definitely sacrifices that come with it, and it’s been very important to find people who are understanding and tolerant of any limitations that come with having health issues. That is by far the most challenging aspect for me.
It’s a struggle. I’m currently underemployed but it’s got insurance and I have my side gig in arts for extra money here and there. I’ve had to really divorce myself from the idea that career success is success.