Checklist: 10 signs that you have hypochondria
Text: Gayana Demurina, Olga Lukinskaya
We all know that health needs to be monitored. - and not only in the popularity of healthy lifestyles, but also in a common sense: in time the detected problem is easier to treat. But sometimes, trying to protect ourselves, we get carried away and no longer see the difference between a real disease and its projection that occurs in the head.
Hypochondria, or anxiety about a possible disease, in one form or another, according to some sources, occurs in 9% of the population and is considered a mental disorder. Our checklist will help to figure out in which cases too much care about health is harmful and indicates, rather, concern.
1
Any discomfort seems like a sign of a serious illness.
In a situation with hypochondria, even a small deviation from the norm is perceived as a precursor of the apocalypse. Continuing after a common cold cough pulls on inflammation of the lungs, frequent headaches seem to be the first symptoms of a brain tumor, and a clear heartbeat is an indispensable sign of a heart attack.
If at the same time you forget that overwork, stress, allergies and many other states can manifest themselves in a similar way, it's time to think about how objective your idea of your own health is.
2
You are trying to diagnose yourself with the help of the Internet
The fact that you regularly google potential diseases may be a sign of a started hypochondria. Interested in information about health and the body, of course, is normal - it is worth sounding the alarm when the disorder begins to progress.
For example, a situation when you are not a doctor, you visit medical portals and certain Wikipedia pages more often than social network accounts, and adjust your own feelings to a list of symptoms for a specific diagnosis, can say about loss of control. At the beginning of the two thousandth, the search for symptoms of the disease on the Internet received a separate name - cyber chondria. According to a Google report, in 2016, about 1% of all user requests were due to signs of various diseases.
3
You go to the doctor more often than you need
If it constantly seems to you that doctors are inattentive, do not prescribe the necessary examinations, ask the wrong questions, or ignore the causal link that is obvious to you - it looks like you have hypochondria.
Sometimes the desire to listen to a second opinion is quite reasonable, but often for finding more and more new specialists lies the inability to believe that your body is really healthy. In addition, hypochondria can go hand in hand with the desire to find a "magic pill" when the patient is confident that the doctors recommending to change their lifestyle and diet are the wrong doctors.
4
You avoid doctors in every possible way.
And the endless search of specialists, and the complete refusal to visit them - these are manifestations of distrust towards doctors. A person with hypochondria may feel that he understands his condition much better - after all, all the symptoms coincide with those described on the Internet, and the treatment is also described there.
Recall that self-diagnosis and self-treatment can lead to disastrous consequences, and the ability to search for information on the web can not be compared with the fundamental knowledge of a doctor. The main thing that is taught in a medical college is clinical thinking and a comprehensive understanding of the processes occurring in the human body.
5
You are very concerned about hygiene.
It is one thing to wash your hands before eating and after going to the toilet, another thing is to constantly think that the handrails in transportation are non-sterile, and the hand dryer spreads bacteria. Constant treatment of hands with antiseptics is one of the manifestations of hypochondria. He, like the general craving for sterility, is often associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder, but, as a new study shows, these conditions are not identical.
Of course, regular hygiene procedures are important, but after a certain limit they do not bring additional benefits and can cause harm - for example, the endless disinfection of hands contributes to dry skin and the appearance of cracks on it.
6
You are afraid of contact with colds.
It is perfectly normal to avoid contact with children and adults during the period of acute infection — for example, postpone visiting friends when their child has chickenpox. But worrying about the residual coryza of a colleague who left the hospital is a bust.
When the acute phase with a high temperature is over, you will most likely not catch a cold - but even if it does, it’s not the end of the world. Light colds work like a vaccination, boosting the body's immune defenses - which is why children usually get sick often, starting to go to kindergarten, and stop doing it after the first year.
7
You have a huge travel kit
For people with hypochondria, travel fees cause panic, because you need to prepare a first-aid kit without forgetting anything. Long lists include everything from rare antibiotics to dressings in case of injury.
In fact, a basic travel kit should include anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, allergies and diarrhea, as well as your usual medications such as contraceptive pills. Better not spare the money for good insurance - and don't worry about anything.
8
Would you like to remove an appendix for prevention?
Do not take the appendix or wisdom teeth as a time bomb. Appendicitis occurs only in one person out of ten thousand a year, and this process of the cecum itself is not at all a useless organ, it plays an important role in the work of the body's immune system.
As for wisdom teeth, for many people they quietly perform their function and they never have to be treated; you only need to pay attention to them when cleaning, choosing for this the most convenient toothbrush. Love your body and do not suspect parts of it in the machinations against you.
9
Are you sure that the hereditary disease is about to develop?
If all or many blood relatives suffered from similar diseases, you may indeed have a genetic predisposition. The good news: most of these conditions are determined not only by genetics and are quite preventable.
Although heart failure or diabetes mellitus of the second type has a genetic component, first of all these are lifestyle diseases - which means their prevention is based on a healthy diet and physical activity. If we are talking about risks such as breast cancer, then we need to discuss this issue with the oncologist - it is quite possible that they will not find you in high-risk genetic analysis.
10
You think you're dying
Hypochondria is characterized by almost uninterrupted thoughts that everything is very bad and will be even worse - there may be an obsessive confidence in the presence of undiagnosed cancer, HIV infection or Ebola.
Often, hypochondriacs turn to a doctor with a variety of symptoms (sleep disturbance, breathing problems, muscle pain, etc.), which are mistaken for the development of a serious illness. But in most cases, the reverse principle applies: malfunctions in the body's work are provoked by constant anxiety, and not what you read about on the web.
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