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The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

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Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#21

Post by searchableguy »

Aeolun wrote: post #17
_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I'm going to go out on a limb and request that people not post this sort of thing here. HNers, I believe, have a higher-than-average rate of anxiety and psychosomaticism (myself included). Articles like this that don't include any real hopeful message or interesting takeaway just cause pointless distress for many of us.

Yeah, I was kind of waiting for the ‘I beat the odds’ message. Only to find that it wasn’t there...

Sometimes it's not and that should be a wake up call that life doesn't always turn out for the best like we always hope it would.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#22

Post by scottLobster »

brianyu8 wrote: post #4

This story is in the same vein as that of the CloudFlare cofounder[1] who suffers from a rare neurodegenerative disease and has had his life pretty much taken from him at far too young an age. This quote in particular gnaws at me: "We had promised each other that in a few years, when the girls headed off to college, we’d work less and travel more. Amy didn’t deserve to lose those dreams, or her companion, just as we…

My attitude to stories like this is simply that you can't live under the assumption that you'll die early from some freak cause. It would be a non-functional state of life, sacrificing all long term objectives.

At the end of the day all any of us can do is play the odds, and sometimes while playing X-Com that 99% chance-to-hit point blank shot by your most experienced soldier with the best equipment simply misses.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#23

Post by searchableguy »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I'm going to go out on a limb and request that people not post this sort of thing here. HNers, I believe, have a higher-than-average rate of anxiety and psychosomaticism (myself included). Articles like this that don't include any real hopeful message or interesting takeaway just cause pointless distress for many of us.

If you or anyone else want to talk, email is in the profile.

On anxious thoughts, I find rationalising them is a better way to cope than trying to distract. Write them down somewhere and go through each labelling the possibility.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#25

Post by ingsoc79 »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I'm going to go out on a limb and request that people not post this sort of thing here. HNers, I believe, have a higher-than-average rate of anxiety and psychosomaticism (myself included). Articles like this that don't include any real hopeful message or interesting takeaway just cause pointless distress for many of us.

I couldn't disagree more. The idea of denying the HN community an opportunity to read a touching and deeply personal story—simply because its ending isn't palatable to you—is incredibly selfish.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#26

Post by grecy »

scottLobster wrote: post #22
brianyu8 wrote: post #4

This story is in the same vein as that of the CloudFlare cofounder[1] who suffers from a rare neurodegenerative disease and has had his life pretty much taken from him at far too young an age. This quote in particular gnaws at me: "We had promised each other that in a few years, when the girls headed off to college, we’d work less and travel more. Amy didn’t deserve to lose those dreams, or her companion, just as we…

My attitude to stories like this is simply that you can't live under the assumption that you'll die early from some freak cause. It would be a non-functional state of life, sacrificing all long term objectives. At the end of the day all any of us can do is play the odds, and sometimes while playing X-Com that 99% chance-to-hit point blank shot by your most experienced soldier with the best equipment simply misses.

> It would be a non-functional state of life, sacrificing all long term objectives.

If your long-term objectives mean sacrificing (or delaying) happiness in the now, then I think you're doing the wrong thing.

It's all well and good to have long-term objectives, and we all hope we beat our life expectancy numbers, but you have to make every effort to be happy now, and not wait for some distant and uncertain future that may or may not become reality.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#27

Post by grecy »

jotm wrote: post #15
kleiba wrote: post #9

So it was weird when my primary care doctor put me on a cocktail of pain killers, nerve blockers, and cortisone shots. I even tried acupuncture. But as my back began to improve in late June, I started to feel off. Sick to my stomach. Weak. Couldn’t sleep. I lost more than 10 pounds. [...] My doctor said I was fit and healthy and that there was no need to run any blood tests. He wondered aloud if this was all in my he…

It's really not exclusive to America.

The figures say otherwise [1]

"Americans are prescribed six times more opioids per capita than citizens in France, despite nationalized medicine in France allowing for easier access to healthcare and more healthcare visits per capita"

[1] https://www.dentalcare.com/en-us/professional-education/ce-c...

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#28

Post by grecy »

_bxg1 wrote: post #11
asveikau wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, many people on HN just like most likely pretty much every human you meet needs to hear something like this in the end blurb: > If I get a soapbox, here’s my short shtick: We are all so fragile. Each day is precious. And the most important parts of our lives are the relationships we invest in. Carpe diem! Do something nice for your loved ones. Make friends with someone you dislike. Go be good to som…

I doubt there's anyone in our society who hasn't heard that adage at one point or another. Not that it isn't meaningful, but I don't think hearing it repeated again justifies the toll on mental health that comes with it in this instance.

I assure you, I've heard it (and said) it tens of thousands of times in my life.

Looking back, I didn't even know what it meant until I lost my Mum a year ago at age 67 to cancer.

Life is damn short, and the most important thing you can do is have happiness right now.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#29

Post by klipt »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

I'm going to go out on a limb and request that people not post this sort of thing here. HNers, I believe, have a higher-than-average rate of anxiety and psychosomaticism (myself included). Articles like this that don't include any real hopeful message or interesting takeaway just cause pointless distress for many of us.

As a child at one stage of my life I was terrified of dying, and every time I learned about a new way to die, I became certain I was in the process of dying in exactly that way.

Then as I learned more about science and statistics I realized that most early deaths are rare, and not only that but evolution guarantees they are rare, because we all descend from people who made it long enough to raise a family.

Of course rare doesn't mean impossible, and if you are truly sick see a doctor ASAP, but otherwise remember you're just an experimental branch on the great tree of Life and enjoy your time in the sun. We all have our time in the light, and we all return to the earth when that time is up.

Re: The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread (2017)

#30

Post by asveikau »

_bxg1 wrote: post #11
asveikau wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, many people on HN just like most likely pretty much every human you meet needs to hear something like this in the end blurb: > If I get a soapbox, here’s my short shtick: We are all so fragile. Each day is precious. And the most important parts of our lives are the relationships we invest in. Carpe diem! Do something nice for your loved ones. Make friends with someone you dislike. Go be good to som…

I doubt there's anyone in our society who hasn't heard that adage at one point or another. Not that it isn't meaningful, but I don't think hearing it repeated again justifies the toll on mental health that comes with it in this instance.

I suspect what you may be describing is that it doesn't resonate with everybody all the time. But I think it's pretty common for some life experience to hit hard and someone realizes that all the corny, hackneyed cliches, as silly and overly simple as they seemed, basically had something to it. Then it clicks.

But I am sorry to hear about the toll on mental health.

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