There is nothing wrong with feeling a little off-colour.

It could be anything from a headache, or runny nose, to a dose of the ‘can’t be arsed to get out of bed’s’. None of which is what I would call a proper illness.

Which is why I am bemused when people desperately seek an ailment to which they can themselves when they are feeling less that 100%. It appears that it has become completely unacceptable to be a little bit ‘poorly’. Without the appropriate illness, your sickness remains unvalidated.

The Interweb can take its fair share of blame for this. If you Google a random set of ailments, it will take just seconds to convince yourself that your headache is a brain tumour, or your runny nose is Bird flu.

With the aid of Dr Internet, a simple stomach-ache soon becomes Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The “Can’t get out of bed’s” becomes Seasonal Affected Disorder and a midnight puke instantly becomes Gastroenteritis.

It is all getting a little bit silly.

Everyone knows that there are some minor sounding illnesses that are, in reality, seriously life threatening. Illnesses like Man-flu. But mankind is fortunate that these harmless-sounding killers are few and far between.

All this crying wolf over exotic sounding diseases is only serving to create problems for when you really are ill, because nowadays you need more than a note from your Mum to get a day off work.

No tags