It’s All in Your Head

The Rise of Hypochondria
Parade’s HealthyStyle*March/April 2010

Hypochondriasis or hypochondria as it is commonly known as, affects many Americans. They believe that they are seriously ill no matter how small their symptoms are. A simple headache can trigger a hypochondriac that they have a brain tumor.

With the use of the Internet’s medical web links, a new strain of hypochondria has been called “cyberchondria.” A major problem has erupted that has caused the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund a five year study to compare the effectiveness of treatments, because people affected by this disorder cannot really focus on anything else. With this study they hope the results will eliminate the billons of dollars that is currently being wasted on unnecessary doctor visits and tests.

This article states that you can develop hypochondria through a childhood illness or from the death of a loved one. A hypochondriac hears the test results are negative and cannot believe what is being relied to them. Whereas a normal person hearing that the test results are negative, would believe their doctor. In other words, the hypochondria would hear the negative results (if you can convince them) and a few days later would come back complaining of something else. Treatments have been medication and cognitive therapy to teach patients how to put that energy into other thoughts. Have the patient write down different ways that the pain/illness could have happened thus slowing down the pattern of obsessive impulses. Even with medication and cognitive therapy it may not be enough.

In Chapter 14, page 571 Hypochondriasis is mentioned as a Somatoform Disorder. A person that has this type of disorder worries constantly about being sick or getting sick. They are convinced they have some sort of disease and focuses on those symptoms. The symptoms can be real and exaggerated and unimportant to the point they are imagined. They waste doctors’ time looking for a medical explanation of some dreadful disease they do not have. The people are called hypochondriacs!
My husband had an aunt that complained about every little thing and always had some sort of ailment to back it up, but in the long run she did not. She always was worried sick about a pain or illness that was not there and no doctor would help her. She was a HYPOCHONDRIAC!
In Chapter 15, pages 610 and 611, one approach in cognitive therapy focuses on getting the patient to change their way of thinking and to try and get that person to not think about the behavior itself, but to think of ways to overcome the problem and to think more logically and rationally.

Do you know anyone that fits this description? Could it even be you? Have you ever had a tendency to believe the worst?