It isn’t really at the “needs counselling” stage yet, but the amount of lethal diseases I have been convinced I’m suffering from is getting a bit silly and all the ensuing worrying is getting to me a bit. The internet is both a friend and an enemy here. I can look up symptoms so I don’t have to bother my doctor all the time, which I am really trying not to do. Then I again, I have a tendency to pick out the most lethal out of a list of hundred possible causes for any symptoms as well as promptly acquiring symptoms I see listed.
Do I have any fellow sufferers on the Board? Just knowing there are will help a bit, but if you have any tips on you deal with this sort of thing, well that would be really cool. If I survive long enough to read your post, that is.
I think it’s fairly easy for people to become convinced they have some sort of disease. With all the saturation marketing for various drugs, it’s almost a given that people will research some of these treatments for a multiple of vague symptoms and say “OMG!! This is me! I have Type II Diabetes! I have go get to the doctor immediately!”
For starters, stop looking at all these medical sites and perusing diagnoses. It only reinforces your feeling that there’s something seriously wrong with you.
If you think there is something wrong with you, go see your doctor. Explain you’re feeling anxious, and you’re aware that you may be going overboard. Doctors are willing to help; it’s what they’re there for. You just have to ask and tell him/her why you’re feeling there’s something wrong.
Also, a true hypochondriac wants to have a disease. It’s a cry for attention. Most people like being taken care of. It starts at an early age; you get sick, your mom takes care of you, props up your pillows, feeds you soup, checks your temperature with the back of her hand, makes you feel better. Some people develop the need to have that all the time.
I hope there is a cure because I thought I was bad until I met my husband. He’s got anxiety which is brought on by taking one small symptom and blowing it up in his mind until it’s cancer. He was really bad this weekend and I had to take him to the ER because he was having a panic attack.
Mine is more of an underlying worry, without the anxiety attacks. Currently, I’m obsessed with a dull ache behind my knee and I just know it’s a tumor (insert obvious Arnold Schwartzenegger line here), but it hasn’t worried me enough for the past three months that I should go to the doctor.
I’m not sure it’s attention-getting for everyone, although the percentage of attention-getters is probably high. I heard someone on a TV show say to someone else, “You’re addicted to suffering”. I’d say that’s where I fit in. I don’t want attention, but maybe I want to have something different about me. Who knows?
For me, my tendency towards hypochondria is a direct result of my parents not taking me seriously when I was sick. I’d be miserable, but not running a fever, so they’d act like it was no big deal. It would build up until I was seriously sick - running a fever of 102-103, strep throat sort of stuff - and then I would get to stay home.
It wasn’t until I was in college that I found that when I would accurately describe my symptoms, the doctors and nurses were almost always more sympathetic than my parents had been. It got to where no matter how sick I was, I would feel better when I got to the doctor’s office, because I knew I’d be taken care of.
So there’s a little piece of me that actually likes to be sick now, wants to be sick. Messed up? Yeah. Of course when I’m working, I don’t have time to be sick, so it balances out.
I still struggle with it, but it is much better now and I haven’t had a panic attack in four years.
First thing: do not look up symptoms on the internet! This will not help! It will only convince you you have some horrible OTHER disease you’ve never heard of.
You say it’s not at the ‘needs counselling’ stage, but that doesn’t mean that counselling can’t be of help. My counselor more or less ignored the psychological underpinnings and taught me behaviours when I feel myself spiralling toward hypochondria and/or panic attack. This is more useful when you are convinced that you are having a heart attack or whatever right now rather than if (like a dear friend of mine who is flying from London to the Mayo Clinic today) you are convinced you are slowly dying of cancer.
So, there may not be a cure, per se, but it is not something that need take over your life, or even be a big part of your life. It’s a cliche, but realising that it’s a mental problem, and not physical diseases, is the first step.
I agree that the internet can really exacerbate the problem. I’ve discovered syndromes I’d never even heard of when checking out some symptom or other. I’ve found that 2 things help me feel better about my health:
Get whatever general checkups you really should have regularly.
Try to add some positive steps toward gaining/regaining your health and fitness: Add more exercise, take some reasonable supplements, add stretching and weight training, improve your diet, etc.
Related to #2, really try to notice when the above methods start making you feel healthier.
Now, it’s possible to go overboard on #2 as well. There are endless theories and ways to tweak your diet and the pills you take. But as long as you are aware of that and discuss any major changes with your doctor, you may avoid the pitfalls.
I forgot to say that I generally avoid reading anything in the media about health related issues (like SARS a few years ago) because it will trigger my bad thoughts; I always regret it when I test this little rule (like reading about bird flu - not a good plan, Daph!). This might help to get the thoughts out of the front of your mind, or not, but it tends to work for me.
WHen I felt trapped in a bad situation I had bad hypochondria, but its mostly gone now. I guess it was just an expression of an underlying feeling of dread. I’ve heard of a few other people who had hypochondria as a result of feelings of dread, I fixed those and it largely went away for me.
Thanks everyone. It does really help to read everyone else’s thoughts.
And I don’t think I want attention, nor do I actually want to be sick (so I’m not a true hypochondriac then), I really really dread it. In fact, I will often NOT go to the doctor or talk about “symptoms” because I’m afraid they will tell me I have something horrible and I don’t want to know. When I do go to the doctor’s it’s usually a huge relief.
I think it’s just paranoia more than anything else, probably brought on by not having too much of a healthy lifestyle, some history of ill health in the family plus way too much horror stories in the media, though luckily medicin ads are not the done thing here in Ireland.
Also, it just struck me that by the real definition of hypochondria (wanting have a disease) I don’t have it. I was just imagining I was suffering from it!
Get sick!
When I was a student nurse, I had everything I studied.
Then I got Epstein-Barr (Mono) I had a fever of 101?F every day for 5 weeks. I couldn’t stay upright for more than 10 minutes at a time. I had to see the doctor twice a week for 5 weeks. They thought I had leukemia.
I haven’t been sick since. (even when I am sick, I deny it)
I think I expressed myself poorly.
I don’t think you are looking for attention, either. But then, I don’t think you’re really a hypochondriac (DISCLAIMERI don’t think I could be wrong ;)). I was pointing out that “real” hypochondriacs are hypochondriacs because they desire attention, and a disease is guaranteed attention.
Unfortunately, the older you get, the easier it is to find things that you might have, because of all the assorted aches and pains that comes with getting older. Nothing like laying awake wondering if you have tuberculosis because you could swear you just heard a crackle when you were breathing. :eek:
No, I didn’t think you were implying it about me but ended up considereding it for a moment because that might have been my motive without being consciously aware of it. But I think I can honestly say that isn’t it. Just paranoid.
So in Fighting Ignorance mode I wonder if there’s a term for being paranoid about having caught horrid diseases but not wanting them, since hypochondria doesn’t fit.
I think Dire Straits wrote a song about it. Industrial Disease.
In all seriousness, I could slap whoever thought giving drug companies license to advertise their products was a good idea. Better living through pharmacology, my eye.
This worked for me. Especially doing something physical. Now, after a long bike ride or a good work out, I can really feel my body. Feeling the burn or feeling the good ache the next day really helps me distinguish between “real” symptoms and ones mostly imagined.
Kind of like picunurse said about getting “really” sick (which I also did last year, spending some time in the hospital). It helps to get some perspective.
