I know someone who seems to have exaggerated judgments about negative physical bodily characteristics. Here’s what I mean.
If someone has some white lines on their toenails, this person judges that they look like they are fungally infected.
Similarly, some small calluses on the knuckles, appear to this person no different from when a person has corns on their toes.
This person sees a picture of themselves which is, to all other viewers, perfectly normal, even pleasant, but the person describes the picture using the sentence “It looks like I have a stroke” because of a slight asymmetry in the smile in the picture.
Dry elbows? Diseased.
This person constantly – I would say obsessively, in the normal everyday English sense – picks at their nails, not just the end of the nail but all around the edges, scratching at every perceived imperfection.
I don’t get the impression that this person is exaggerating their judgments intentionally–it seems like they really do see slight imperfections as appearing horribly diseased or terribly abnormal.
Is there a name for this?
Loaded question but… is something like this possibly a clinical issue?
Seems like a combo of hypochondriasis and hypochondriasis by proxy (which is better than Munchausen by proxy, but only just)
Well, I’m not going diagnose somebody online, but if they’re doing it to other people it sounds like Body Dysmorphia Disorder by proxy.
Thinking you’re sick when it’s actually a mental disorder is not super common, but it’s not uncommon either. They’re psychosomatic conditions and they range from Morgellons (people think they have microscopic bugs or filaments imbedded in their skin) to some ‘chronic fatigue’ conditions that are actually depression or anxiety but the person is unwilling to bear the stigma of having that official diagnosis.
Pathological? I know there’s a ‘slangy’ use for that term, but it does sound like they’re putting medical diagnoses onto situations/appendages that don’t deserve them.
Catastrophizing is another possibility. Always taking things to the worst possible interpretation.
If they’re actually hurting themselves with the picking or with unnecessary medical procedures, or if they realize this is unusual behavior and it distresses them but they still can’t stop, then yes, it would be clinical at that point.