Thoughts On Being Young With Osteoarthritis, and Why Jokes About Arthritis & Aging Annoy Me
From 2021
I absolutely hate when people (often people my age) make jokes about how the pain in their legs makes them feel like an old person getting arthritis, or how the closer they are to age 30 (as if 30 is even “old") the more at risk they are for getting arthritis. I hate any joke that associates arthritis with aging.
Yes, just about everyone who gets old will get at least a bit of Osteoarthritis, or "wear and tear" of the joints, even if they never get symptoms.
I know these jokes aren’t done maliciously, or meant to be taken very seriously, but they are said without consideration for how they might make someone who got arthritis (especially Osteoarthritis) at a young age feel.
I happen to have Osteoarthritis early, at age 28. I found out at age 27. It was surprising. It doesn’t affect me enough yet that it’s constantly a problem, but I do get some pain in my neck because of it. I have stretches a physical therapist taught me.
Arthritis isn’t just a part of aging. It is a part of life. People get it from accidents, from autoimmune diseases, from hypermobile joint syndromes like Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Children get it, teenagers get it, adults of all ages get it.
When we associate it with aging only, we make life harder for younger people who get it. We make it harder for them to be listened to when they say they have it or think they have it. We make it harder for them to accept that they have it, because having an illness that "only affects older people" makes them feel abnormal or like they did something to cause it, such as not taking good care of themselves or stretching properly or having the right posture.
Also, why do so many people only talk about or seem to care about arthritis, a painful chronic illness that affects so many people of all ages, when they are talking about the aging process that most people go through? Why do they not care about rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile arthritis, osteoarthritis, and so on - why is arthritis only in their vocabulary when they can make some joke about how they feel old now that they've reached age 25 or 30 and their joints crack sometimes?
The truth is, more people are at risk of developing arthritis than just older people - even if we try to deny that fact. And it shouldn't just be considered a part of aging. It is, like all chronic illnesses, another part of the human experience that many of us have to live with.