Do you get sick much more than average?

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Question to fellow Aspies: do you tend to get sick easily and/or regularly? Looking back at my history, I can honestly say the answer is YES..like you wouldn't believe. On average, I get cold or flu about 4 times a year, and one of those episodes will go for about a month - the rest will last a week or two. So about 1/6 of my life is being sick. I'm fortunate that it's never been anything serious though, like anything that required hospitalization or surgery. Occasionally people have told me it's hypochondria (including my wife) but I know it's definitely not, you don't imagine yourself running to the washroom to be sick!! !

It's not a genetic thing, b/c everyone else in my family rarely gets sick. They are all NT and have much more relaxed personalities, ostensibly, b/c matters of street-smarts come to them naturally. Corollary to that is I believe that much of my sickness stems from constantly not knowing if I responded right to this or that, or what will certain people think of me, etc. It's what's helped me maintain a good career and family so far though (I'm in my late 30s now).

In my earlier years, notably between the ages of about 11-14, I got sick regularly and took more sicks days from school than average, but you know why - it was because of the relentless bullying. No surprises there! In the workplace I got sick from bullying at a previous job that I left and it diminished since but still higher than average.

All of which to say is, some sources of sickness can be mitigated or eliminated, some can't.

Yeap. Severe asthmatic, allergic to a lot of stuff, including oak pollen (which is microscopic and it sucks when you live in an area COVERED in different variations of oak trees). Yeah I get sick a lot, especially if they are respiratory illnesses.

Yes (am sick right now in fact!). I will catch every single bug going around, always have I hate it, it really interferes with my Life!

Is there a link with our immune systems and AS? I thought I read something about that.. ?

I only get injured, these days. Have only been sick every now and then since my early childhood, rarely since then, and never severely. Those injuries, though... they've been bad.

I've got to say when living in Nottingham, London and to a certain extent Swansea I tended to get sick more often than people around me and simple things like flu hit me hard whilst some of the more serious things (that should have required treatment/hospital) I've managed to recover quickly. I always put it down to growing up in the country side (also generations of my family) where we come into contact with less strangers/disease where as city kids are exposed all the time. Growing up though I was as healthy as an ox, apart from one infection which damaged the muscles/nerves in my leg.

Living in small town USA and Devon I find I get ill a lot less than I did before and get sick less than a lot of people. You are definitely right though there must be a stress component (it reduces the effectiveness of the immune system) and I find city life very stressful compared to life here. Also when I'm very I'll I can veg alone in bed with a book (DE-stress) and so I get better faster than when I'm sitting there worrying if I'm not sick enough to call in sick.

I know that one, as a sufferer myself you have my deepest sympathies. I was wondering if you had yours as a kid or got it later in life (mine I developed at 21 walking past a tree in the Meadows area of Nottingham).

PS have you tried local honey? or http://stuffem.wordpress.com/2008/05/09 ... t-therapy/ I know it sounds odd but a guy in my lab got one and it worked for him, I laughed and said it was the placebo effect, so he got me one. Have to say it worked on my pollen allergies, just not my mold one.

I haven't been sick in years, mainly because I avoid situations where bugs might be cultivating amongst large groups of people.
I do get bad asthma, though, but that's controllable with inhalers.

No, but colds REALLY cause problems for me...

I'm known as being the only woman who not only suffers "man flu" but surpasses it. It was worse for me when I was a smoker, especially as they'd leave me with sometimes very serious chest infections. I have no problem in saying that when I have a cold nothing gets done, I whinge and whine like a baby, because colds really floor me...and in me they last weeks or even months...

Last edited by Bloodheart on 03 Aug 2012, 8:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Get more exercise.

I only get curled-up-waiting-to-die sick every 3 or 4 years, but I do get chronic headaches and more than my share of cuts, burns and bruises

Less.
I just realised that I haven't had a cold yet this winter .

Nope. I'm almost at the end of winter without getting the flu. And everyone in my house has had it. Isolation plus being prepared for the sickness to hit and staying warm have made me keep it off.

I think some people just don't know when it will come. One advantage is I feel every slight change in my body and take the steps necessary to stay in perfect health. The people I'm with they go out and party, get sick, recover, go out and party and then get sick the next day. And they wonder why they keep getting sick? Some people just think they're invincible.

I have MCTD which is a combination of auto-immune diseases. So I am always feeling bad. My immune system hates me.

Regarding illnesses like the cold or flu, I catch them very easily and usually am sick several times a year; recovery taking several weeks. I have not been sick in the past year though because I have been isolated a LOT due to unemployment. Basically, if I am around it, I WILL get it. Even though I make desperate attempts not to.

During childhood, I constantly had painful ear infections and sore throats. I remember not being able to swim because of it.

G.

Totally. I have asthma (getting better at it though) and tend to get allergies more often than not.

I don't get sick all that often, aside from the occasional cold. I've developed nasal allergies over the last 2-3 years, though.

When I was still in factories breathing that obnoxious and polluted air where I had to breath it all day long always caused me respiratory problems with some being serious enough to cause me to go to the doctor. And when I go shopping and around sick people I have sinus problems and get sore throats. But, as long as I stay home it is rare that I get sick. But, I have to admit this severe drought we are having has been causing me a lot of respiratory problems.