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Hypochondriasis is a disorder where
someone fears developing, or believes she already has, a dreaded disease and
repeatedly seeks medical attention. She is preoccupied with her health and
commonly misinterprets harmless bodily sensations as indicative of serious
illness. In her mind, something is really wrong with her, and the doctors keep
missing the problem. She continues to pursue appointments with physicians to
increase the chance of “getting to the bottom of the matter,” and she hates to
be called a hypochondriac. Despite the accumulated evidence suggesting no
dangerous illness, the hypochondriac doesn't consider her beliefs to be
irrational or unreasonable. Most individuals with hypochondriasis are so
focused on the idea of having a severe medical problem that the other matters
in their life take a back seat. The vocational, romantic, family, and
recreational aspects of their lives are often in shambles, and they don't
recognize it.
Whereas patients frequently visit
their doctors to feel better, hypochondriasis actually persists because of
repeated medical examination and reassurance. People seek temporary relief
strategies that ultimately keep them from disconfirming their incorrect,
unhelpful, exaggerated illness beliefs. Getting better means learning alternative
explanations for bodily sensations and practicing believing more accurate,
realistic explanations related to one's health. Additionally, it is essential
to decrease the “safety behaviors” (e.g., looking on the internet, reading
medical texts, taking blood pressure and temperature) and reassurance-seeking
(e.g., visiting a doctor, calling the doctor's nurse) that actually maintain
the excessive worry over time.
Source: The Anxiety Answer Book by: Laurie A. Helgoe, PhD, Laura R. Wilhelm, PhD, Martin J. Kommor, MD
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