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Hypochondria

aimosan

I was just wondering if anyone else here experiences hypochondria.  I use that word but it may not be the correct one.  As I notice every little thing that is happening within my body, and being nervous about change, I get on edge everytime I notice something different within my body.  Growing up I was always at the doctor with a pain, or something else, and it was always put down to puberty, growing pains, IBS, etc.  But, everytime I notice a change in my body it sends me into an anxious mess until someone can explain why it has happened.  Everytime there is a pain in my head, a swollen gland,  unexplained bruise on my leg, sore joint, I keep looking for answers as to why it has happened.  But, you can't have an answer for everything  :/

I just don't know how to tell the difference between what is normal, or what should be reported on.  At the moment I've become anaemic and my glands are swollen and sore and the doctors just keep saying 'take your iron tablets and you just probably have a virus'.  But I don't have a temperature.  The uncertainty of 'probably just some sort of virus' just puts me over the edge.  It's the same if I'm sick (vomiting), because I don't know why it's happened, when it will stop, when it will happen, but then being nervous about it makes me feel worse!

When I see my usual doctor I feel better around her, but of course I can't spend my life round a doctor.  The doctor says it doesn't help that I don't have friends I can go visit or talk to, to discuss my anxieties.  Anyone else relate to this?

Parents

  • I can so relate to this! I was a complete hypochondriac as a child. Read about illnesses in magazines, and convinced myself I had anything from leukemia to MS. And still remember the joy at discovering the melanoma on my leg was just an insect bite encrusted with black sock fluff. By 10 I was challenging other kids with names of rare diseases to defend my place as the school "spelling champion" - otherwise known as how to win friends and influence people Wink

    The most annoying this is that just because you are a hypochondriac it doesn't mean you aren't ill. I have been plagued all my life with gut problems and what I now recognise as sensory issues. And ironically I do now have a potentially fatal rare disease. As part of this karmic joke it is one I had never heard of and wouldn't have known how to spell. 

    However my ability to spend hours on end researching it online, cross referencing medical papers, making associations with other diseases and devising alternative treatments has come in very handy indeed, as so far I have managed to keep myself pretty well physically. The downside is that I can quickly fall into a black hole of being obsessed with every little symptom and bodily sensation - and can find myself poisoned by stress. Which is what has led me to look into AS. 

    I haven't had a diagnosis yet so of course this might just be something else I am being hypochondriac about...

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  • I can so relate to this! I was a complete hypochondriac as a child. Read about illnesses in magazines, and convinced myself I had anything from leukemia to MS. And still remember the joy at discovering the melanoma on my leg was just an insect bite encrusted with black sock fluff. By 10 I was challenging other kids with names of rare diseases to defend my place as the school "spelling champion" - otherwise known as how to win friends and influence people Wink

    The most annoying this is that just because you are a hypochondriac it doesn't mean you aren't ill. I have been plagued all my life with gut problems and what I now recognise as sensory issues. And ironically I do now have a potentially fatal rare disease. As part of this karmic joke it is one I had never heard of and wouldn't have known how to spell. 

    However my ability to spend hours on end researching it online, cross referencing medical papers, making associations with other diseases and devising alternative treatments has come in very handy indeed, as so far I have managed to keep myself pretty well physically. The downside is that I can quickly fall into a black hole of being obsessed with every little symptom and bodily sensation - and can find myself poisoned by stress. Which is what has led me to look into AS. 

    I haven't had a diagnosis yet so of course this might just be something else I am being hypochondriac about...

Children
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