What is hypochondria? Also known as hypochondriasis, this is when someone excessively worries about their health. I know this because I suffer from it myself, unfortunately.
What happens is that the person will notice what they believe to be a symptom and then exaggerate it out of all proportion, often only seeing the worst case scenario.
An Example
An example for me are moles on the body. We hear all the time about the need to be vigilant with any disease or cancer and the media actually do not help anyone as I will reveal to you shortly why.
So I might look at a mole and see something slightly irregular. Actually, there is no such thing as the “perfect mole”. My brain will rack about all the possible risk factors: did I get burnt when a child, do I get too much sun now?, how many moles do I have on my body, what skin type do I have etc.
Warped Logic
The brain of a hypochondriac works in a strange way. Prevalence of illness in anyone is due to many factors and doctors can assign a probability range. But hypochondriacs like myself will always see the worst case scenario and adopt the most conservative stance.
Another problem that I sometimes have is that I wonder if seeing a symptom and then deciding not to pursue it because I think I am simply exaggerating, is the wrong course of action. Maybe I am not exaggerating? This can cause a “tug of war” in the mind!
Does Vigilance Save Lives?
The reason that the media make this problem worse is that with many illnesses, there is little proof that vigilance saves any lives. In fact, doctors are finding that people who are not vigilant probably have the same survival rate as those who are. This is because it is only normal for someone to notice something that is not right and then follow up with their doctor and there is therefore perhaps no need to educate widely. Obviously, there are some exceptions where educational health awareness campaigns have saved lives but this cannot be said across the board for all diseases.
Treatment Options For Hypochondria
What about treatment options? Is there anything out there that is helpful? Speaking from a personal point of view, I tried cognitive behavioural therapy but it did not work because I disagreed with everything that the therapist said. Antidepressants may help.