Hypochondria – causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment

Proven content

On various occasions we wish each other health, believing that this is the most precious thing we have. Is it any wonder then that someone is afraid of the condition of their body and pays a lot of attention and care to this fear? After all, François Rabelais said: “Without health, life is not life; life is not to be lived. ” However, when this fear begins to paralyze our everyday life and keeps us awake at night, it ceases to fulfill its function.

What is hypochondria?

One of the most famous and characteristic hypochondriacs has become Woody Allen and most of his film heroes. In addition, the inseparable hint of his black humor made it his positive, sympathetic image. Allen likes to mention hypochondria alongside his professions as director, screenwriter, writer, comedian, and musician.

However, the words hypochondria and hypochondriac are often negative, disrespectful to us. It seems to us that someone is completely unjustifiably inventing his ailments and devoting his full attention to them. In addition, it involves other close people in it, communicating to them their fears and concerns about their health condition or symptom.

Hypochondria, however, is an anxiety disorder like any other, like all kinds of phobias, panic attacks, fear of flying, of heights, etc. In this case, it is fear for health. A person affected by this interprets many of his ailments that occur in every healthy person, and sees them as a serious somatic disease. And many of us happen to see a doctor because of the symptoms that disturb us. However, most people feel reassured by their doctor’s reassurance that there is no need to worry.

For a person with a hypochondriacic disorder, this is not enough. She will think that the doctor may be wrong, she will insist on another examination or go to another specialist. However, it is difficult to answer the question what kind of test and what assurances that she is okay with it could reassure her.

Such patients, before going to a psychiatrist or psychologist, most often first go through a long and tiring journey as part of visits to all possible doctors who come to their minds or to whom they will be sent – says Dr. Dariusz Wasilewski, psychiatrist from the Center for Psychoprophylaxis and Therapy in Warsaw . I remember a patient who came to me, as it were, out of despair, because she was exhausted by constant fear. It started with a common cold, after which she continued to feel weak. Anxiety with prolonged malaise turned into anxiety about potential diseases. Miscellaneous – heart disease first, then muscle disease, and even multiple sclerosis.

If the doctor did not confirm the diagnosis, she went to another one. She searched handbooks, books and the Internet. According to her, everything was in line with her symptoms. She herself began to ask for specific tests to be performed. Some minor symptoms from a few years ago began to form a logical whole and turned out to be harbingers of alleged current diseases. It was all about having something ailing her that would result in death or disability at best, and there is no help anymore.

This is exactly what hypochondriacs live in. They listen carefully to their body. Too exact. As a result, many signals from the body that are normal to others become a problem, become a signal of a disease. And even a momentary increase in heart rate caused by exercise or stress can be evidence of this.

Also check: Neurosis – Symptoms and Treatment

Hypochondria – causes

It is difficult to clearly define why some of us react with such fear and others do not under the same conditions. It seems that the previous experience of one’s own illness or someone else’s, perhaps a loved one, may contribute to the development of health anxiety as a serious disorder and problem. This leads to specific anxiety beliefs and assumptions about symptoms and diseases.

This may be influenced by both early own experiences, information provided by the media, and, for example, unsatisfactory medical care. It has also been suggested that overprotection of parents, frequent illnesses and hospitalizations of the child may shift the anxiety from the caregivers to the child, who may grow up fearing for his own health. Examples of erroneous assumptions passed on in families include the information: “everyone in our family has had heart problems” or “you have had weak lungs since childhood.” They can lead to selectivity in receiving information about your health.

A well-known phenomenon is the so-called the disease of students of the third year of medicine, when those who start learning about specific diseases, notice the symptoms of each of them. A similar situation occurs when, for example, in the face of an influenza epidemic, the media warn against the threat. At such a time, many people will equate any type of infection with the presented danger.

At the same time, focusing on these perceptions and ailments causes anxiety to increase, and it becomes harder and harder to tame it.

– It turned out that a few months before the appearance of my patient’s symptoms and the commencement of the trip to the doctors, a loved one died due to complications from the flu – continues Dr. Wasilewski. It was an extraordinary surprise for the whole family, especially since the death took place at a young age. And the seed was sown. The patient began to believe that the same thing could happen to her.

It seems that hypochondria is similar in nature to obsessive-compulsive disorder, where fear for one’s health and belief in an existing disease takes the form of intrusive thought and obsessive search for confirmation of the alleged disease. Hypochondriacal thoughts also sometimes have the characteristics of a depressive disorder, when a depressed mood deprives patients of hope that they can actually be healthy. Convinced of the severity of their alleged disease, they do not start treatment because, according to them, it is too late for that anyway.

We also recommend: Histrionic personality disorder – what it is, what the symptoms and causes are, and how you can deal with it

Hypochondria – symptoms

Hypochondria, like any other descent, probably has its own symptoms, among which several factors can be mentioned.

Fear of the normal functions of our body – for a person with hypochondria, normal body functions such as heartbeat, sweating and bowel movements may appear to be symptoms of a serious illness or medical condition.

Fear of minor irregularities – runny nose, slight swelling of the lymph nodes or slight pain may seem like serious problems.

Checking the condition of your body – regularly checking the body for signs of disease.

The focus on hypochondria varies from person to person:

1. Some people’s attention may be focused on one specific organ, such as the lungs,
2. some people may only focus on one disease, such as cancer
3. or they may fear one disease after another.

Talking about the disease regularly – somatic disorders can cause people to talk excessively about their health.

Medical visits – people struggling with hypochondria can visit their doctor frequently.

Constant search for symptoms – people with hypochondria can spend a lot of time searching the Internet for symptoms of possible diseases.

Research results do not meet expectations – if the tests are negative, the person will not calm down at all. In fact, negative test results can worsen the situation as this is when the patient’s fear that no one believes him or her grows and that the problem may never be successfully diagnosed and treated.

Avoiding the doctor – some people with the disorder avoid medical attention for fear of being told they have a serious illness.

Avoiding contact with other people or the environment – can avoid people, places and activities which they believe may be hazardous to health.

An overwhelming fear of illness that lasts longer than 6 months may be a sign of a somatic disorder.

Also check: What is dysmorphophobia?

Hypochondria – diagnosis

People diagnosed with hypochondria can be classified as having:

1. anxiety disorder, when a person has no physical symptoms or only mild symptoms
2. somatic disorders, especially when a person has symptoms that are perceived to be distressing or if he or she has multiple symptoms.

To make a diagnosis that you have hypochondria, your doctor will perform a physical examination to rule out any health problems you are worried about. If the person is healthy, the doctor may refer them to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist’s management is likely to be as follows:

1. conduct a psychological assessment that includes questions about symptoms, stressful situations, family history, worries and problems affecting the patient’s life.
2. asking for a psychological self-assessment or questionnaire,
3. asking about taking drugs, alcohol or other substances.

We also recommend: Psychosis – types and symptoms of the disease

Hypochondria – concomitant mental disorders

Many patients suffer from other psychiatric disorders related to anxiety related to the disease. As many as 40 percent suffer from depression, which can occur primarily, but also as a result of illness. Up to 20 percent suffer from so-called somatic disorders, that is, physical symptoms without organic causes.

Hypochondriac fears lead to sickness behavior, limited physical activity, follow-up visits to the doctor and tests. Searching for answers on the Internet on your own can add to your anxiety even more. Despite the fact that family and friends continue to cheer the person with hypochondria, unfortunately, in the long run, this exacerbates the impact on anxiety. The sick person is never XNUMX% symptom-free, and the anxiety-free phases become shorter and shorter.

Hypochondria – treatment

It is a difficult situation for a doctor – explains Dr. Dariusz Wasilewski. How to reduce anxiety in such a patient and convince him that the symptoms are psychological? Order him further tests to confirm that he is fine, and of which he already had plenty? The patient will think, as he thought before, that “if the doctor orders so many procedures, it means that there is something wrong with me and he is trying to detect it in this way, because he would not do it if he did not suspect that something is wrong with me … but it will probably be he hid from me… ”. So there is a vicious circle.

So the most important thing is to establish good contact and create an atmosphere of trust. And because anxiety is a very unpleasant symptom, it is usually not difficult to persuade the patient to take medications that will lower the anxiety level.

Few patients go to a psychiatrist or psychologist. People with hypochondria “wander” around internists and it is they who often have to show great delicacy, patience and the ability to convince. When anxiety is high and affects normal functioning during the day, any physician may include antidepressants with simultaneous anxiolytic effect, e.g. those from the group of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

It brings good results in treatment cognitive behavioral therapy. This is the primary treatment for anxiety disorders. In the case of hypochondria, it requires first and foremost a common understanding of the underlying problem with the patient. However, this is often difficult to achieve when the person is convinced that he or she has cancer or heart disease. He demands medical help, somatic treatment, not psychotherapeutic treatment.

Hypochondria therapy does not eliminate the perceived symptoms and signals from the body. However, it modifies these symptoms by bringing them down to the level experienced by most people who do not exhibit this type of anxiety. This process requires recognition that the symptoms experienced by the patient do exist, and the therapy is aimed at explaining them and changing the patient’s assessment of them.

Dr. Dariusz Wasilewski adds:

– The woman came to the psychiatrist, persuaded by her husband, but she did not defend herself very much. After many months of living in fear, she was already very tired, she also saw the suffering of her relatives. We started pharmacological treatment and then psychotherapy. It was known that this fear of disease would not disappear right away. The patient came for subsequent visits and although she admitted that she visited her family doctor, it happened less and less. The fear was diminishing and at some point she began to find it unfounded and even though she was still concerned about her health, it stopped sleeping and made it impossible for her to function in everyday life. Today she only regrets that she came to the psychiatrist “so late”.

Also read: The splitting of the dissent – what goes on in the head of a schizophrenic?

Hypochondria – how to deal with the disease?

1. Indicate the evidence

Take a step back and try to look at your situation objectively (or you can try to imagine that you are advising a friend who has strange symptoms). Ask yourself: what is the evidence for this thesis (insert here e.g. brain tumor, Zika virus, SARS etc.) You will probably realize that all “symptoms” can be logically explained and they do not actually mean you have any serious illness.

2. Close Google

Perhaps the best thing experts say is to stop searching for symptoms online. Even if you find 30 websites that say you have nothing to worry about, the one that suggests you have something serious will get stuck in your head and give you no rest.

3. Find a doctor who can help you

If your symptoms really are bothering you, it’s never a bad idea to go see your doctor to have them checked. However, it should be added that you should be able to leave the office with the feeling that everything is fine, and that means establishing a relationship with a doctor who you can talk to and trust.

4. Look at it from a different perspective

We take risks every day, but most of us don’t get in the car and worry about a collision or getting hit. We accept a lot of other down-to-earth uncertainties. You will never know for sure if your health is perfect, so you have to learn to live with this uncertainty as we do with all the other unknowns in our lives.

5. Get professional help

If your anxiety about your health continues, consider seeking the help of a therapist. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most popular treatment for hypochondria. It covers both education (learning about your body) and exposure therapy (this is an effective therapy for other anxiety disorders – you will focus on facing your fears by triggering them through experiences such as visiting a hospital or reading a book about an illness you you are afraid).

6. Stop checking your body condition all the time

Are you obsessively monitoring your pulse? Blood pressure? Temperature? Put away home medical devices. Focus on something other than your body – it’s much healthier and more productive.

7. Join a support group

Connect with other people who share your concerns. You can exchange knowledge and coping strategies, and answer mutual questions. It is important to know that you are not alone.

8. Be active

Exercise can help relieve stress, depression, and anxiety. Of course, there is no need for the exercise to be intense, it can be activities such as walking the dog, swimming or gardening. Stress makes sufferers feel more anxious, and it can also aggravate symptoms they already have.

Hypochondria – a common method of self-diagnosis

The most common method used to diagnose hypochondria is completing the questionnaire. People who think they may be suffering from hypochondria can complete a self-assessment questionnaire. The structure of the questionnaire reveals four factors – obsession with health, the need for behaviors to calm the fear of death, and the fear of illness.

There are several associations that develop these questionnaires (such as the American Psychiatric Association and the OCD Center of Los Angeles) to enable people to self-assess their condition before visiting a doctor. Typical questions included in the questionnaire include:

1. Are you often concerned that you have a serious illness or medical condition?
2. Do you have feelings about different aches and pains (such as headaches, stomachaches) or symptoms that you consider to be a medical condition or condition?
3. Are you constantly checking your body for signs and symptoms of disease or medical conditions?
4. Do you ever look for signs of illness in others (such as parents, friends and family) and ask them to check for signs of yourself?
5. Have you ever wanted or even bought medical instruments to analyze your body (e.g. blood pressure cuff or stethoscope)?
6. Do you spend a lot of time with family and friends discussing health issues?
7. Have you ever asked your family members to make sure they don’t have any disease?
8. Do you have a habit of bathing or washing yourself frequently to make sure you are suffering from an illness or illness?
9. Have you ever avoided certain things, places or people for fear of getting sick?
10. Do you spend more time online looking for signs of illness or ailments?
11. Have you ever avoided watching TV, listening to the radio, or even reading books to avoid some medical reports or medical articles?
12. Have you ever visited your doctor frequently to make sure you weren’t sick?
13. Have you ever doubted that your doctor made a false statement or failed to identify your illness?
14. Have you ever felt depressed or distressed when you thought about your health problems?
15. Do your health-related thoughts get in the way of your daily activities?

The questionnaire consists of 60–100 questions. The more “yes” answers you have, the more likely you are to have problems with hypochondria. It should also be added that all other common physical symptoms that are caused by anxiety or fear, including changes in heartbeat, blood pressure, breathing, and even saliva levels, are common and are considered harmless. The problem only arises when a person misunderstands them considering another serious medical condition.

You may be interested in: The greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century on the border between genius and madness

Hypochondriasis to urogenia

Hypochondria is a medical condition involving excessive concentration on one’s own health while maintaining a state of high anxiety about one’s own health and misinterpreting common ailments such as hoarseness or itching in a given place on the body. A person suffering from hypochondria seeks contact with doctors because they constantly suspect ailments. When the doctor, after the examination, determines the absence of any disease in such a person, the patient with hypochondria will claim that the doctor has made a mistake and will look for another specialist who will confirm his suspicions.

In the case of delusional people what a particular disease is all about their strange and often absurd beliefs about their own health. When observing such people, it is very easy to see it, because from sick people you can often hear statements such as, for example, “My heart has not been beating for years”, or that their “stomach has not been functioning for years”. These types of very strange statements result from specific experiences that the patient experiences, e.g. hallucinations.

Imaginary diseases are symptoms of disturbed thinking. The patient is convinced of his illness despite the fact that it is contrary to the facts. In addition, it is worth noting that people struggling with imaginary diseases can be identified by certain personality traits, such as distrust, high level of hostility or excessive suspicion.

Additionally, they are very often single people who have big problems with establishing relationships with others. Unfortunately, such people are not able to help themselves and need the help of a psychiatrist, because strange statements and beliefs of these people are closely related to mental disorders such as, for example, paranoid schizophrenia. When it comes to treating such people, it is very difficult, because it results from the belief system of patients that they have built for years and is often very consistent for them.

Also check: Today psychosis is mainly associated with the Internet, television and cameras

Cyberchondria

The Internet has become an unlimited but uncontrolled source of information. Also about health. On internet forums, some patients respond to each other, consult each other, advise and diagnose. They become experts. Then they come to the doctor with this knowledge, obtained online. The problem with this overload of information is that there is no selection in it. On the Internet, headache is as often a symptom of cancer as it is, for example, of stress, it does not matter if someone is already suffering from something, what drugs are taken, or has other symptoms. However, this is not the case in life and in the doctor’s office.

Can an overabundance of information do more harm than good? Scientists named this phenomenon cyberchondria – that is, anxiety about one’s own health and the alleged symptoms of the disease, which arises on the basis of information found on the Internet. This is not an entirely new phenomenon. There was always news about various diseases and ailments in the available media. However, the Internet has overcome all boundaries related to, inter alia, with the availability of this information or specific groups of recipients.

The unlimited access to health information must certainly not be discredited either. It is a powerful weapon used, for example, to encourage prevention or raise awareness of certain diseases.

There is one thing to remember – hypochondriacs do not simulate the disease, they do not lie about their symptoms. Their ailments are real and the problem is chronic, involving many people. They need help and treatment just like any other patient.

Husband’s health under his wife’s magnifying glass – read more

Content from the site medTvoiLokony they are intended to improve, not replace, the contact between the Website User and his doctor. The website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Before following the specialist knowledge, in particular medical advice, contained on our Website, you must consult a doctor. The Administrator does not bear any consequences resulting from the use of information contained on the Website. Do you need a medical consultation or an e-prescription? Go to halodoctor.pl, where you will get online help – quickly, safely and without leaving your home.