Hypochondria is a real and entirely treatable disorder. If you recognize any of the symptoms listed above, help is available to you. Consider speaking with a therapist to help work through these medically-based anxieties.
The exact cause of hypochondriasis is not known. Some of the causes include: Disturbance in perception such that normal sensations are magnified. Having learned apparent benefits of being sick, such as receiving attention.
The main symptom of hypochondria is excessive worrying about health. Causes may vary, and could be related to other legitimate health conditions. For most people, it is a temporary experience. The term as defined by the DSM-5 manual is somatic symptom disorder.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): Hypochondria is often characterized by seemingly irrational beliefs or concerns about a health symptom or condition. CBT helps people identify those beliefs and replace them with more rational and realistic thoughts.
Illness anxiety disorder is a chronic mental illness previously known as hypochondria. People with this disorder have a persistent fear that they have a serious or life-threatening illness despite few or no symptoms. Medications and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) can help.
Hypochondria is a type of anxiety disorder. It is also known as health anxiety, or illness anxiety disorder, or hypochondriasis. It is normal for people to worry about their health now and again. But people who experience hypochondria get very worried that they are seriously ill, or are about to become seriously ill.
If left untreated, this condition can lead to an obsessive preoccupation with the idea of being unwell and it can interfere with person's daily life. Hypochondriasis is not about the presence or absence of illness, but the psychological reaction towards it.
Scrupulously controlling for as many variables as possible, this research team found that individuals who complained about their health were three times more likely to die in the next 30 years than those who perceived themselves as more able-bodied and hearty.
Hypochondria can trigger symptoms associated with anxiety including: stomachaches, dizziness, headache, dry mouth, muscle tension, fatigue, increased heart rate, sweating, shortness of breath, and a frequent urge to use the bathroom.
The term is one of the oldest medical terms and used to describe disorders believed to be situated in the hypochondrium, which is the area under the “khondros,” the cartilage, ribs, especially stomach, spleen, and liver.
Being preoccupied with having or getting a serious disease or health condition. Worrying that minor symptoms or body sensations mean you have a serious illness. Being easily alarmed about your health status. Finding little or no reassurance from doctor visits or negative test results.
Don't dwell on illness. Encourage them to verbalize fears about their health, but don't join in. Be supportive, but don't show too much concern and try to stay neutral in your answers. Express that you understand their struggle, without encouraging their obsessive thoughts.
Because it's a part of your being, anxiety won't go away completely. But you can lessen its grasp through understanding and self-awareness.
It may also be inherited genetically. Hypochondriacs many times have been cautious, anxious, or fearful of diseases all of their lives. It is just a condition that they are born with. Other times it can be brought on by a traumatic event in a person's life that leads them to feeling unsafe.
But here's the irony: People who are overly worried about their health are also more likely to actually develop some serious health problems, according to a large new study out of Norway, published this month in the journal BMJ Open. Sometimes being right does indeed suck.
Contrary to the idea that "hypochondriacs" are simply looking for attention, the origins of someone's illness anxiety are often highly specific. "There's often a trigger," says Helen Tyrer, a senior clinical research fellow at Imperial College London and author of the book Tackling Health Anxiety.
Bipolar disorder, clinical depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), phobias, and somatization disorder, panic disorder are the most common accompanying conditions in people with hypochondriasis, as well as a generalized anxiety disorder diagnosis at some point in their life.
Aches in the body: This is a common symptom of hypochondriacs. They seem to perpetually be suffering from headaches, stomach aches, or whole-body aches. Most often, these are subjective complaints, although some patients may really have pain.
Excessive fear of death appears to be an important characteristic of hypochondriasis (Starcevic, 2001). Patients with this disorder often report distressing thoughts and images of death and dying. In addition, fear of death has been linked to hypochondriasis both psychodynamically and philosophically.
Hypochondria is itself a form of mild psychosis. The hypochondriac has a deep and ungrounded worry about having or developing a serious mental illness. Paranoia and suspiciousness are classical traits of psychosis but they can be subtle.
Conclusions. Bipolar disorder, especially BD II, is associated with greater hypochondriac concerns, which relates to personality disorder functioning styles and concurrent affective states.
While some people's obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) focuses on their health, health anxiety (sometimes called hypochondriasis) is not a form of OCD, and OCD can involve thoughts and anxieties that aren't related to illness. If you're experiencing OCD, health anxiety, or both, effective treatments are available.
Hypochondriacal paranoia is an important subset of paranoid conditions, which should not be overlooked in patients with persistent hypochondriacal complaints. It is rare, in contrast to illness anxiety disorder or body dysmorphic disorder optionally with insufficient insight.
People who have hypochondria actually believe they are ill, but do not manipulate test results. People who malinger pretend to be ill to gain some sort of benefit, such as avoiding military duty or trying to obtain compensation.