If you think you're a hypochondriac, then are you one or not?

good question. you know my mom always made me belive that i was a hypocondriac-until i got older and realized that my mom was neglectful and i really did have problems that she "self" medicated with out my really knowing. So sometimes her voice in my head still tells me I am. But if you really have something wrong with you-then your not. Now being a germ-a-phobe is completely different. I am a germ-a-phobe!

I have a sister in law that always says, stuff is wrong with her. For instance:
IF i say, I have a headache, she has one. IF I say I need to see a doctor for appendicitis, she need ot see on efor the same thiing. If My brother said he broke a bone in his leg 7 years ago, then YEP, she broke hers the same time and its the same leg too. She watches tv to get ideas and ends up with saying the cures she learned from tv is what her doctor gave her. When I say something runs in our family, well it runs in hers too. LOLOL I am for real she is really bad! She is the reason I think Hypocondriacs ARE SELF made....

I think sometimes we can think we are hypochondriacs because we haven't been properly diagnosed. I had a bad foot. I finally got to the point I could hardly walk. The primary care doctor did an ultra sound to look for blood clots. After that he told me to take Prozac and get the stress out of my life and my body wouldn't hurt. It took me three years to go to a bone specialist. It was my foot. I wore a brace and that was the end of the foot pain. That's been 5 years now. From time to time I put the brace back on at night and that takes care of the pain when it does rarely come back and my days are fine. So much for hypochondria. As well, I kept having chest pain in the 80's. It turned out to be gall bladder. So, if it hurts decide it is real.

I think sometimes the people who accuse someone of being a hypochondriac, are hypochondriacs themselves. I also believe that some people are prone to sympathy pains, especially when it comes to someone they are close to. Whenever I was sick periodically during my last pregnancy, my son ended up getting sick. For a while I thought he was faking, but then I realized there was more to it.
The question you raise sounds funny, but it is a good one. I actually do not think that you are if you are aware enough to ask that question. There are psychosomatic illnesses that tend to make someone sick frequently. Stress can do a lot of damage to someone's body, and should not be taken lightly.

If you think you are one, you usually are not. I have not met a hypochondriac that is aware that they are creating their own illness. My mother is one and she always tried to make my sisters and me think we were ill in even a worse case than a normal hypochondriac. I spent 2 months in bed once with "strep throat" and missed school, I do not remember being sick other than the first week with a cold. I think I was about 9 or so.
In any case, I know the disease well, know 4 people suffering it. You can tell them over and over what it is they do have and that they do not have illness X that they create, and they still do not believe you.

If you think you are a hypochondriac, you definately are not. People with this characteristic have absolutely no insight into the phenonenon. If they did, they could realistically assess their concerns related to the myriad somatic symptoms that are troubling them. Those of us who can do this are not hypochondriacal.

Got accused of it, then spent 6 weeks in the hospital with a blood infection. Lynn's right, if it hurts assume it's real.

Then we have a certain family member of mine who gets deathly ill everytime someone disagrees with her. Her blood pressure actually goes up, and she gets ill. We've noticed the pattern, but she refuses to see it.

I complained over three years of severe pain, kept being told it was nothing- it turns out it was my galbladder. It was so diseased the surgeon told my husband he didn't know how I wasn't sicker. I have many pains and discomforts that are always being dismissed by my Dr- it is all in your head....then down the road it turns out those pains were caused by a real event.

Your one only if you go to the doctor for anything but a broken bone or some other physical wrong. Think about it---you got to the doctor, he make money, you keep coming back and he make more money and when he feels he has run just about every test there is and finds nothing, you go home wondering if he missed something so it is off for a second opinion. All this time if you just eat the right foods and get good exercise you will live to be 100.

Probably not -- the hypochondriacs we know are able to laugh at the drama they create around their health, but incapable of changing the pattern. There are also relatives who realized, for example, that symptoms one family member was experiencing were similar to their own -- and realized that they had a brain tumor too. Hypochondriacs have everything and will insist that they are overexcited and hyper one day and complain they are fatigued and have no energy the next, and I have to think they might actually feel those things, because they seem to really be experiencing what they think is wrong with them. I'm one to put off dealing with a physical problem until it is so acute that there is no way - at least in my mind - to go on without help. Usually a bone breaks or last year I was really dizzy - to the point that I was getting sick, like I was on a carnival ride. I was diagnosed with Meniere's, then soon after three people I know were also diagnosed - but when I was being diagnosaed, Drs hadn't seen it in a while and were unsure why I was so dizzy. So Drs also have biases that cause them to treat more rare conditions with contempt.

Ron, I used to think like you do - that Drs were for dying people and broken bones. But then my child died; I gained weight inexplicably, my hair started to fall out, I began having severe chest pains, I began to bruise easily, then I had such severe spine pain that I could barely walk, at the end I had gained 120 pounds... I went to the Dr because I knew it was something serious and I too got anti depressants, which made me feel crazier (and turns out some of them cause people to crave sweets and carbs - perfect for someone freaked about gaining weight, huh?) but of course my problem was not emotional it was something REAL and they missed it due to whatever make a Doctor treat a human being with so much arrogance and cruelty.
Long story short? Two surgeries. Permanent damage to my intestines and bowel. Septecemia (that was a biggie) and permanent nerve damage. An undiagnosed case of Hashimoto's was the originator of the weight gain, but it went untereated EVEN IN HOSPITAL. A lousy 14 dollar test was never run, because the Drs ASSUMED certain facts and did not listen to us. And the malignant tumor wasn't exactly helpful.

If I hadn't told myself it was "in my head" and if I had demanded a second or third or fourth opinion - would I be fine? I'll never know - but I do not take chances with my children's health. They go to the Dr if they injure their eyes now for example, instead of employing "folk" medicine and seeing a Dr every five or ten years the way I did. I refuse to allow them to suffer. They will see Drs regularly every year so that when they get sick someone listens to them and knows they are not hypochondriacs!!

(I also bring photos of myself when I was feeling great to the Drs now, photos when I began to gain and have baldness issues, when they found my tumor, etc so Drs can see the clear truth of how I used to look, move, etc. They can see how much you underplay it (or exaggerate if you ARE hypochondriac) In our case, my meds were changed immediately when I was able to document in photos the condition of my health just a short eight years ago.

great question.

Hypochondriacs are often hard to understand. Are they looking for attention? I don't think you are a hypochondriac because you go to the doctor when you aren't feeling well. I'm not talking about a simple head cold or stomach flu. Like Jeanine says your health condition can change and if you don't have regular check ups you won't know how you are doing. I have the problem of not going enough. I never feel like I have the time or the money (I do not have health insurance).

My sister is just like Marsha's sister-in-law. She thrives on being ill. I'm not just talking the common cold or a headache. I had a severe spinal cord problem about 10 years ago. Had 2 surgeries and still have a condition called Clonus because of it. My sister called and asked how I knew I had a problem. Wouldn't you know it, immediately she started having symptoms and said she went to the doctor and was diagnosed with the same thing. She has had breast cancer, cervical cancer and MANY other diseases, or so she says. Nothing is ever done to cure these diseases, she's just lucky and self cures or some miracle happens and the problem just disappears. She's had one doctor tell her flat out that she needs to see a therapist because her problems aren't health related they are mind related. She was furious. My brother died of AIDS in 93. She lived in Texas he lived in Illinois. After he died, my sister went to the doctor and was checked for AIDS because she thought she had some of the symptoms. She took tiny sand or bits of gravel to the doctor when my dad was suffering from kidney stones. She told the doctor these were actual kidney stones she had passed. He's the one that said she needed help.

It's sad when there is nothing you can do to convince someone that they are not really sick. My brothers and I just ignore her comments more than listen to them. But there are people that actually think she's crazy.

I truly believe this is a family trait. We have several people in our family that are exactly the same way. Our family reunions are very interesting especially, if they are all sitting together, you could write a medical book on the problems, diseases, and symptoms they've all had. Hypochondriacs want the attention but I think it's negative attention they end up getting. Who would believe them if they ever did get something serious?

I'm with you Joe, don't have the time, the money or the energy to get sick. Plus, I don't like being sick.

P.S. When I went to the doctor for the spinal cord thing, I told him I thought I was going nuts. I couldn't go down steps or inclines, my legs were shaking and my hands were shaking. I stated that 'maybe I was a Hypochondriac'. He laughed and said "If you think you are one then you're not!" So there you have it in a nutshell from a doctor. Ha!

Jeanine H. - that is a scary story. I have the same experiences
and feelings about the medical industry, but fortunately as yet
have not needed them terribly much or gotten sucked into their
vicious cycles. Best of luck.

I have this feeling that as Americans we are subject to this mental
isolation and the implatation of these fantasies about everything
from politicians, detectives, war, doctors and it is very profitable to
have people living in the center of all these myths with all the experts
around them with what they "need" ... but these experts are
not what we believe they are.

Some people really do have things wrong with them and people think they are faking. For seven years I felt extreme fatique, head aches and mood swings, kept gaining weight even though was walking 2 miles a day and caring for four small children. Doctor's said I was over worked, not getting enough sleep, not getting enough exercise and other things. Finally I was started feeling weak to and snapish all the time. People said I was a hypocondriac and making up things. I wasn't. Then my grandma had me go see her doctor a woman doctor, she looked at my skin, my hair and fingernails and asked four or five questions. She said your heart beat is way to low and your near heart failure. She took a blood test it came back negative but she said I should all the symptoms of hypothyroidism and put me on a small dosage for six weeks. I came back and my color had improved, I had energy and my headaches had gone away. My mood swings had evened out. She took another blood test and this time it came back positive. She told me I was one who's blood tests did not always show I had a thyroid problem If she had not caught it when she did. She said I would have been dead of heart failure within less than a year. I have been on Thyroid med's ever since and that was 22 years ago now. So no your not always a hyporcondriac even though other's might think you are. I did not think I was but others did until they found out I really did have something wrong with me.

When I first saught medical advice about Colitis, I was told that it was probably all in my mind. After several surgeries, lots of nasty reactions to prescriptions that almost killed me...and almost ten years of trying to live with this disease...I can firmly state that the problem was in an area FAR removed from my mind.

Wow, Jeanine. That's scary. I also had a doctor who dismissed my concerns. I was having terrible pain trying to urinate, was running a fever for several days and generally felt horrible. I thought I might have a kidney stone as I was prone to kidney infections as a child. My doctor bascially patted me on the head like was a 5 year old and gave me prescription for diflucan. (difulucan! what an idiot). A couple of days later I ended up at the emergency room when the kidney stone completely blocked my urinary tract. I had damage to my bladder (though nothig like what you went through, poor girl) and a nice bill from the hospital.

I do think sometimes that the medical professionals do have a racket going on. Why, after being diagnosed with a condition do we have to go back every three months. I dont have insurance either and this cost , you have to pay the doctors fee, if blood work needs to be done, there is another fee. I can see maybe, every sixth months.

Isn't hypochondria a medical condition? I'm sure it is in the DSM.

Vickey, your recall schedule really does depend on the condition and what side effects can be caused by the medication. I would rather have my doc call me back to often and catch something important than ignore the potential until it was too late.

As for the rest. Doctors are only human even though they think they are gods. I have noticed that doctors who have ben in practice for 10 years or so tend to be a lot more patient friendly than the older ones that didn't get the same patient skills training when they were in med school. If you really hate your doc, or s/he doesn't listen, try a younger doc - you may be pleasantly surprised.

For some reason this article isn't appearing. The comments are there, but the article isn't. Perhaps it's just a glitch with Gather at the moment. The title caught my attention because I have a friend who always thinks she has every disease in the book. I'd love to read what you have to say about it to see if I can come up with a new approach on how to deal with her warped little brain. Yeah, I love her, but sometimes she drives me crazy with her obsessions.

I don't FEEL like a hypochodriac but I do have these achy legs at night, migraines and lower back pain that have consistanly been cronicled in my medical charts for the past twenty five years...

A poignant question

If you know you're a hypochondriac then you're not. You're just neurotic. OK so I'm just neurotic. If I have a headache, I think it's a brain tumor, or at the very least an anyeurism. Hey- if it's so bad I can't spell it- I have it. This is actually partly grounded in fact. I have never had the flu. I have never had strep. I rarely get colds. But I've had hemolytic uremic syndrome. I was one of the first people to have HUS. This was in the early '80s. Today we call it e-coli.
Also in the early-mid '80s: I had this rash on my leg. It looked like a bullseye target. We went to dermatologists and every kind of ologist there is. They were clueless. No one will probably be clueless now,when I tell you we were living in Connecticut at the time. Lyme disease.
So in truth, there probably is something horribly wrong with me, aside from obvious things like the fact that I have asthma and I smoke. But by the time medical science discovers it I'll have either thrown it off, or I'll be dead.
My husband is a true hypochondriac. He honestly believes his problems are physical and they aren't. There's plenty wrong with him, believe that, or he wouldn't be my husband, but he's in better physical condition at 37 than most people are at 27, or even 17.

Nanci- it's in the DSM, but it's not called that. I don't have an actual DSMIV. I used to have a DSM IIIR when I was in high school. It was my step-mom's. That was not a good book for me to have at all. I would read things like Histrionic Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality disorder and look at my friends and think Yeah! OMG! You're freakin' textbook! Literally. In truth all of my friends were diagnosed with the same things I was diagnosed with: adolescent adjustment disorder. I'm sorry, is it just me? When you hear the word "adolescent"
isn't the rest of it just implied?

ever since my youngest son was born, I get migraines at a certain time every month. the first time, speaking of hypochondria, I went to the ER. I'd never had a headache like that and I figured something really terrible had to be wrong.

This will sound really flaky- but there's this herbal stuff I found at Rite-Aid. I can't remember what all is in it but I know iris, belladonna (yes, at rite-aid) gelsemium. Some other stuff but it does work- well, nothing really works but it gets me to where I can tolerate it if I avoid light and especially- noise. And I do other hippy-dippie stuff- I have an aunt who was really really into all of that and had headaches. She'd make like a tea out of mint leave, rosemary and lavender and then get it cold and dip a washcloth in it to put on her head. It kind of works- or it works as much as anything./ And then I have this whole list of foods I avoid- I'm lucky because I know when it's coming, for the most part. red wine, anything with sulfites or a ton of salt, anything with red dye in it.

Not that I have anything against painkillers, but when it first started I was breatfeeding, so I was stuck with tylenol and mint leaves!

I had never known what a hypochondriac was until now. And I've got some revision on my manuscript to do since one of the protagonists, well, I have to take some parts out.

Once you've had cancer or a life-threatening illness that has a high risk of recurrance, it's easy to fall into the "hypochondriac" stereotype. It's easy to look at any little thing wrong with your body and wonder if it's back. You can easily think you're sick all the time.