{"id":10199,"date":"2018-06-06T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T10:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=10199"},"modified":"2018-06-03T05:50:15","modified_gmt":"2018-06-03T09:50:15","slug":"hypochondriac-ask-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/06\/hypochondriac-ask-questions.html","title":{"rendered":"Hypochondriac? Ask These Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"woman-3351794_1280\"We have a relative that we jokingly\u00a0refer to as\u00a0hypochondriac. She isn’t\u00a0diagnosable. We just like to tease her\u00a0when she\u00a0begins to worry about her\u00a0health.\u00a0\u00a0I mean, everyone worries about their health now and then. But, we probably should not tease about this since a number of people \u00a0do struggle with a\u00a0type of disorder known\u00a0as Illness Anxiety Disorder, formerly known as\u00a0hypochondriasis.<\/p>\n

For the hypochondriac, medical testing doesn’t usually find anything wrong, but the person\u00a0is\u00a0convinced they have a serious illness. \u00a0Usually there are numerous\u00a0body \u00a0symptoms accompanied by high anxiety and alarm around health. For example, a running nose indicates a serious sinus problem. Or dizziness means a brain tumor. Multiple doctors are\u00a0seen to try and figure out the health issue. All along, the\u00a0person feel\u00a0hopelessness and despairing, often engaging in catastrophic thinking. They are in their right mind, but preoccupied with illness. This excessive worry continues for at\u00a0least 6 months and cannot be explained by another mental health disorder.<\/p>\n

If you are concerned this might describe\u00a0someone you know or even you, answer these questions. If you say YES to most of them, you might need to see a therapist.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I become afraid when\u00a0minor things that go wrong in my body–e.g., sneezing, cough, occasional headache, sore throat, etc.<\/li>\n
  2. I check my body for signs of sickness often and regularly.<\/li>\n
  3. I focus on a specific organ in my body or look for a specific\u00a0disease like cancer.<\/li>\n
  4. I frequently talk about illness.<\/li>\n
  5. I make lots of doctor visits.<\/li>\n
  6. I spend time searching the Internet for diseases and symptoms.<\/li>\n
  7. Even when I have a medical test and it is negative, I feel no relief.<\/li>\n
  8. I avoid certain places and activities for fear that I might contract something or be exposed to an illness.<\/li>\n
  9. I think any pain in my body indicates a serious problem.<\/li>\n
  10. People in my family feel the same and talk a lot about illness.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A type of therapy that works with Illness Anxiety Disorder is exposure therapy.\u00a0The idea\u00a0is to reduce the physical and emotional distress associated with a particular object, situation, thought, or memory concerning health. Exposure therapy usually requires you\u00a0to relive a painful health experience, confront the fear involved and deal with the thoughts that are amplifying anxiety. Over time, the exposure takes away the fear and reduces anxiety. You don’t have to live with constant health worries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We have a relative that we jokingly\u00a0refer to as\u00a0hypochondriac. She isn’t\u00a0diagnosable. We just like to tease her\u00a0when she\u00a0begins to worry about her\u00a0health.\u00a0\u00a0I mean, everyone worries about their health now and then. But, we probably should not tease about this since a number of people \u00a0do struggle with a\u00a0type of disorder known\u00a0as Illness Anxiety Disorder, formerly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[925],"tags":[4224,4225,944,4222,4223,4221],"class_list":["post-10199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mintle-mentions","tag-excessive-health-worries","tag-excessive-worry","tag-health-worries","tag-hypochondriac","tag-illness-anxiety","tag-illness-anxiety-disorder"],"yoast_head":"\nHypochondriac? 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