Now
that I can relate to. I was recently diagnosed (July) with a degenerative neurological disease, and expect to be unable to walk by 45, and be in pain most of the time.
So from that perspective, yes, definitely, I have been having a hard time figuring out what to do. The whole optimization problem of what to do has changed.
It's always been that my current happiness is a function of my current workload, and that my future happiness is a function of my current work and current happiness and future health, and that my future work is a function of my current happiness and current work, but let's just say... the prefactors for each shift rather dramatically when you can't help but think "if I don't do this now, I will probably never have the chance".
But it's worth considering, at least for me, that my current health will in large part effect my future health. So anxiety in the present will have a concrete quantifiable effect on my future health and therefore my future work.
That problem, I definitely have no answer to. But I do think that you shouldn't overvalue current work relative to current health. Not to trivialize anything (diabetes sucks), but focusing on your health now may well give you a lot more time in which you are able to succeed. The optimization function is not at all clear to me, at least.
For me, stress explicitly will increase the rate at which I lose neurological function. But I doubt it's linear; I mean, much more likely that there is some threshold at which I can operate and not degenerate much faster. So I should be operating at that magic optimization point. But unfortunately, my condition has such large patient-to-patient variability that it's unclear what that optimization point is. Ugh.
So yeah, I can feel the clock ticking too. Heck, I don't even have a decent boyfriend yet. And I want to have kids someday!
I dunno, it's tricky. And I definitely haven't figured it out yet other than to know that I need to make changes to reduce my stress level from that of some undergrad. That's just not healthy. Exercise, sleeping well, maintaining personal relationships, these are not irrelevant in determining your future outlook.
Again, I apologize for probably completely misunderstanding your worries. I'm misunderstanding my own frankly. This is a weird time of my life as well; perhaps we can just be confused together.
