[badpenny]

A few things. I got diagnosed with osteoarthritis about a year ago, not long after I'd started weightlifting in an attempt to improve my confidence and wellbeing, and it was working. The doctor I saw before the diagnosis was a patronising asshole who made me feel like an idiot for weightlifting. The doctor who gave me the diagnosis did so via SMS with the corresponding level of empathy and interest.

I live in the United Kingdom and there's a very palpable sense that quality of life has nosedived over the past few years.

My comment was quite flippant. My life isn't that bad, especially compared to a lot of people, and I don't go around feeling sorry for myself, but I'm definitely not hopeful or excited about the future, and I've developed a degree of contempt for, and distrust of, people that is probably unfair, unattractive, and isn't very pleasant to feel.

[kennyadam]

I'm also in the UK and there's a very real decline as the level of inequality grows.

I used to be able to book appointments using the NHS app to see my GP before the lockdowns. Now the app just says appointments aren't available to be booked that way and everyone just has to call at 8am and hope they're lucky enough to get through. People who don't need to be at work can go and queue up physically too at 8am, but that doesn't help people who aren't mobile enough.

Food prices are going up and up and I can often see prices change between each visit.

Energy price cap is coming down, but standing charges are going up, so I'm paying less per KW/h but actually paying more each month because I use as little electricity as possible.

Potholes are everywhere and when they do get repaired it lasts weeks, not even months.

Local library opening hours are shrinking.

I could go on and on about the decline I can witness around me.

[arethuza]

The road near where I live was repaired recently and I swear it has more potholes now than it did before!

I volunteer at a charity and was appalled to speak to someone last week who had tried (and failed) to remove some of his own teeth because of no access to an NHS dentist. :-(

[bdjsiqoocwk]

Oh speaking of which....

A few month ago I was told that I should remove a wisdom tooth. The waiting list on the NHS is 6 to 9 months...

[kerrsclyde]

We need change.

Big business seems to call the shots, look at what is going on with UK Water Companies.

I'm not sure are current political structure will deliver that change though.

[kennyadam]

It's just crazy to me that water (water!) was privatised. How do you look at something so basic and essential and think that what it needs is a layer of people added who are trying to extract as much profit from it as possible? I mean, the answer is obvious, but it's so depressing that it just happened without the streets being filled with people protesting.

https://www.ft.com/content/91a2779a-4077-11e7-9d56-25f963e99...

"Consumers in England are paying £2.3bn more a year for their water and sewerage bills under the current privatised system than if the utility companies had remained in state ownership, according to research by the University of Greenwich."

It just seems so obvious to me that for basic necessities, you don't want them owned by people trying to get away with doing the bare minimum, charging the most they can get away with and weaselling their way out of repairing, maintaining and improving the system.

[bdjsiqoocwk]

Where are you? I'm in London.

100% agree on the mood right now. I don't think it's imaginary.

[badpenny]

Aberystwyth in Wales.

[nonameiguess]

I don't know if this makes any difference, but I'm also 43 and experienced some pretty bad shit in my mid to late 30s. Read my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40156553

At one point, I needed three spine surgeries and two other nerve transplacement surgeries in my left arm, all in the span of 16 months. I was walking with a cane for a few years, a walker at times, and sometimes I couldn't walk at all. My spine surgeon thought I was insane wanting to lift again after all of it, though he said I was only the second stupidest patient he'd had, with the stupidest being a guy who started skydiving again only a month after getting a disc replacement.

I also felt much the same way about decline in the US. This all started happening in 2016 when Trump was elected, and I'm ethnically Mexican. My niece's father is a "dreamer," an undocumented immigrant who was brought here as a child, lived in the US nearly his entire life, but never given citizenship. The climate felt pretty damn hostile to me and my family. I walked in a few protests, entirely peaceful affairs, hobbling down the street with a cane, not saying anything, not even holding a sign, and had MAGA counter-protesters throwing beer bottles at me, the police who were supposed to be escorting us ignoring it and doing nothing.

But hey man, here I am. I stopped watching the news, got off of social media, and got back out there anyway. Life is a whole lot of ups and downs. Being in a down doesn't have to mean that's the end. The same is true in the opposite direction. I'm well aware at this point that my future may be far worse than my present. Bad things can and do happen. But I'll take what I can when I can and cherish the good times when they come. As long as you're still alive and continue trying, more good times should come at some point.

[badpenny]

It does make a difference and I appreciate you taking the time to write it.

I do intend to get back on the horse, it's just hard work trying to overcome the social anxiety of starting to go to the gym all over again, especially when I have all these extra negative voices in my ear and no positive/supportive ones. I go walking (5-10km) pretty much every day and I'm down to a healthy weight, which does help with self-esteem, but I'd much rather be and look strong than thin.