Do you react violently to every new case of coronavirus? Do you constantly listen to your body and spend all your free time on medical websites, reading about the symptoms of terrible diseases? Welcome to the club! Esquire has collected tips for you to help you get through difficult times.
Hypochondria is often called a disease of the 21st century; with the advent of the Internet and medical materials freely distributed online, the number of hypochondriacs has increased significantly. But what is hypochondria and how to cope with it yourself?
Hypochondria is an anxiety disorder that involves constant worry about one's health. Hypochondriacs are sure that they are sick, they perceive any unusual sensations in the body as signals of mortal danger and find symptoms of absolutely all diseases, and after the news release they are sure that they are sick with a new virus.
Make sure you are healthy and not in mortal danger
The most difficult and sometimes impossible point of our recommendations. Try to approach the question rationally: if we are talking about an infectious disease, use logic - assess how likely this disease is for you (travel to the epicenter of the spread of the virus, close contact with a sick person, attending mass events, etc.), whether you have obvious symptoms? If not, try not to dive into the topic. If we are talking about a somatic disease, then it is enough to pass basic tests or, if necessary, undergo screening.
Causes of hypochondria
To better understand how to stop being a hypochondriac, you need to know about the possible causes of the disorder. There are many of them, let’s take a look at the most likely ones:
- Vegetative-vascular dystonia . It causes many somatic symptoms and the person begins to feel that he is seriously ill. In this case, all tests turn out to be normal.
- Hormonal imbalances. They can occur due to endocrine diseases, pregnancy, menopause in women, also during adolescence. Hormonal imbalance greatly affects the psyche and leads to various somatoform disorders.
- Frequent stress, overwork. A depleted nervous system also leads to mental disorders.
- Suffered serious illnesses, injuries, shocks. If one day a person had to face a serious illness, fear can remain for a long time.
- Serious illnesses in loved ones and relatives. Seeing that someone around him is faced with a disease, the unfortunate person realizes that he, too, is not immune from this and begins to worry about it.
- Hereditary factor. If there were or are hypochondriacs in the family, there is a high probability of the syndrome occurring in children and loved ones.
- Neurosis . Various types of neurotic disorders very often entail hypochondria and various phobias.
- Anxious and suspicious personality type. Such character is established in virginity. These are very sensitive people who tend to try everything on themselves, believe various information, make mountains out of molehills, and worry about every little thing.
There may be more reasons, but these are the most common.
How strongly the disorder develops depends on the person himself, his character traits and his strength in confronting problems. sometimes loved ones add fuel to the fire, encouraging the sufferer and pitying him.
On a note!
The deepest and most basic fear in hypochondria is the fear of death. This is what many experts recommend to work through without fail. Today, the most effective method of getting rid of the fear of death is regressive hypnosis.
The patient, under the guidance of an experienced hypnologist, is immersed in a trance state and gains access to information about his past lives and what happens between them.
Reviewing the events of the past, a person becomes convinced that death, as such, does not exist and there is nothing terrible in the “other world,” but rather, on the contrary. Previously, such knowledge was available only to initiates and esotericists.
But now hundreds of psychologists and psychotherapists, having mastered the technique of regressive hypnosis and conducting sessions with dozens of patients, are convinced that life is endless and we are definitely more than just biological organisms.
Such sessions have powerful healing powers. They help not only get rid of fears, but also find answers to many exciting questions.
Stop yourself from looking for information about symptoms on the Internet.
If you are an anxious person, you will definitely find them in yourself, which will increase panic moods. Typically, illnesses are indicated by obvious symptoms. If you search for information about every minor ailment, you may draw the wrong conclusions.
For Internet “doctors” who independently diagnose themselves, there is even a special term “cyberchondriac”. In addition, in a doctor’s office, phrases like “Doctor, I read on the Internet that...” are on the list of prohibited items. As soon as specialists hear this, they classify you as anxious and may miss some really important symptoms. In addition, there is a lot of unverified information on the Internet.
If you think you have a disease, make an appointment with a doctor; if not, forget about it.
Symptoms of hypochondriacal disorder
Hypochondria may develop slowly or occur suddenly, following certain factors.
People suffering from this disorder first “find” some kind of terrible terrible disease in themselves, then they try to convince doctors of the existence of the found disease.
They describe the signs of a disease of one organ, supplementing their narrative with more and more new “facts”.
Hypochondriacs tend to change the severity of their own illness. If, after several attempts to prove to a specialist the existence of, for example, liver cancer, they fail, then the disease takes on a new name - hepatitis.
Symptoms of hypochondria are divided into two main types; we will consider each in detail.
Psychosomatic symptoms
A person suffering from a functional mental disorder is able to experience physical (bodily) signs of the disease.
Most often, sufferers are tormented by the following symptoms:
- Weakness, malaise.
- Headaches, dizziness.
- Increased sweating.
- Tremor of arms, legs, weakness in limbs.
- Nausea, stomach upset, dyspeptic symptoms.
- Pain, localized or throughout the body.
- Low-grade fever.
- Numbness in the body.
- Feeling of goosebumps on the skin.
- Breathing problems (shortness of breath, lack of air).
- Tachycardia.
- Pain in the chest and heart area.
- Blood pressure surges.
- Sleep disorders.
- Panic attacks.
These are not all the symptoms of hypochondria; there can be many more. If a person is fixated on a certain organ, for example, on the stomach, then he is capable of experiencing real pain and other painful manifestations in this place of the body.
Medical students often suffer from this syndrome. It can appear in workers of hospices, medical institutions and other areas related to human health.
Quite a few celebrities have suffered from hypochondria. This disease was described by ancient healers, who called it “illness of the soul.”
On a note!
Scientists have found that the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease in hypochondriacs is 40% higher. This is due to constant nervous tension, frequent attacks of fear and despondency. Such factors negatively affect the state of the body and lead to pathological processes.
Psychological and cognitive-behavioral symptoms
A person who truly suffers from hypochondria is quite easy to recognize by the following signs.
- Obsessions. Obsessive hypochondria is a form of the disease in which the patient experiences anxiety associated with a threat to his health. Fear is not associated with any specific disease, but is expressed by general concern and fear of getting sick.
- Super value. Exaggerated concern for health. The individual tries to lead a healthy lifestyle, eat healthy food, is afraid of infections and spends a lot of time on disease prevention.
- Suspiciousness. Literally any sensation causes panic and a new attack of hypochondria. Thus, a headache is interpreted as a symptom of a terrible brain tumor or stroke. At the same time, the hypochondriac diligently ignores the possibility that the cause of the malaise may be a banal change in the weather or something eaten yesterday.
- Selectivity and aggravation . Hypochondriacs strictly filter information about their health and, most importantly, information about their disease. At the same time, everything
- “suitable” symptoms are taken into account, and anything that refutes the “diagnosis” is ignored.
- Crazy ideas . Delusional hypochondria is the most complex form of the disorder, in which the patient is firmly convinced that he has a serious illness. Delusional ideas about the nature and cause of the disease are the product of the patient's conclusions.
For example, the factor that provoked the suspected brain cancer may be the effect of radiation on the patient’s home, which he guessed from a crack in the wall. In most cases, delusions affect only the personality of the patient, so a distinctive feature of hypochondria is the fact that sufferers are confident in the unusualness and rarity of their disease.
With delusional hypochondriacal disorder, patients are most often confident in the incompetence of doctors and the incorrectness of the treatment they prescribe.
Hypochondria has nothing to do with schizophrenia. If a person begins to talk outright nonsense about everything else, here, most likely, we are talking about a mental illness.
Pathological changes in behavior in hypochondria are:
- constant conversations about illnesses, complaints;
- endless checking of the state of the body, absorption in one’s own state;
- avoiding circumstances that could worsen health;
- searching for evidence of the presence of a particular disease;
- attempts to convince others of your illness;
- social maladjustment.
Identify the information source that feeds your hypochondria and limit its consumption
This advice is similar to the one we had under point 3. In fact, the source of hypochondria can be not only the news feed, but in general anything - from a negative person in your immediate environment to a program about celebrities who have died from various diseases. Shut off this source and life will become easier.
Who is a hypochondriac?
Hypochondriacs are people suffering from a functional mental disorder, often resulting from neurosis.
Hypochondria is not a disease, but a condition. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) today describes hypochondriacal disorder (F45.2) as follows:
“The most important feature [of hypochondriacal disorder] is the person's persistent pathological preoccupation with the likelihood of having a severe, progressive disease or several diseases.
The sufferer presents persistent somatic complaints or shows constant concern about their occurrence.
Normal, ordinary sensations and signs are often perceived by the patient as abnormal and disturbing; he usually focuses his attention on only one or two organs or systems of the body.
Significant depression and anxiety are often present, which may explain additional diagnoses. A disorder characterized by excessive preoccupation with one's own health."
In simple terms, a hypochondriac is someone who not only experiences a real horror of diseases, but also constantly looks out for their symptoms.
It has long been known that the processes occurring in our psyche are always reflected in the body. An “advanced” hypochondriac is able to drive himself with his fears to the point that he actually begins to show symptoms of the disease that he fears most.
Those suffering from hypochondriacal disorder are often particularly afraid of serious illnesses, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, tuberculosis and the like.
The unfortunate are prone to endless trips to clinics and doctors. They can donate blood every week, measure their blood pressure every 5 minutes and do an MRI for every “zilch” in their body.
As a rule, such people turn out to be physically absolutely healthy. But doctors’ assurances that all their problems are from the head and they should see a psychotherapist do not work. The hypochondriac does not trust good tests and may even accuse doctors of negligence and incompetence.
On a note!
Hypochondria significantly affects a person's life. From the moment the disease appears, a person stops thinking about anything except how to confirm his illness and get cured. Personal, professional and educational areas suffer.
Health may even suffer due to the fact that a person begins to self-medicate with various medications that will harm him.
Try to change your negative attitudes
The cause of anxiety often lies in psychological and social attitudes that you have acquired throughout your life and personal experiences. For example, you may have the following: “In Kazakhstan they don’t know how to treat”, “There are no normal doctors in our country.” Often people come to such beliefs after real cases, but by generalizing all the disadvantages of Kazakhstani medicine, you create an additional source of stress and anxiety for yourself. Such attitudes make the situation worse.
Get involved in body-oriented techniques
One of the causes of hypochondria is a misunderstanding of body sensations and pain. Misunderstanding or lack of knowledge can cause a person to misinterpret the body's signals and perceive them as more serious. By engaging in body-oriented therapy, you will learn to understand the signals of your body and work through psychological problems.
How is hypochondria diagnosed and treated?
A psychotherapist treats hypochondriacal disorder. But first, the patient must undergo a complete diagnostic examination to detect or exclude possible diseases.
The general practitioner prescribes all the necessary tests. If the initial tests are not enough and they raise doubts, a more in-depth detailed examination is done.
In the absence of real illnesses, the patient is referred to a psychotherapist.
Hypochondria, especially at the initial stage, can be successfully treated. specialists use various techniques, depending on the stage of the disorder and the individual characteristics of the patient.
The most successful methods in treating such disorders are:
- Cognitive behavioral psychotherapy.
- Gestalt therapy.
- Hypnotherapy.
- Psychodynamic therapy.
- Rational psychotherapy.
For severe psychosomatic symptoms that prevent a person from leading a normal lifestyle, the doctor may prescribe certain medications.
If hypochondria is left untreated, it results in a hypochondriacal personality shift where symptoms and problems worsen. A person focuses even more on his illnesses. He begins to run from one doctor to another, looking for the most expensive clinics and prestigious doctors.
Learn relaxation techniques
A great variety of such methods are available to modern people: these are breathing exercises, yoga, auto-training and meditation, progressive relaxation according to Jacobson, various eastern practices aimed at normalizing the mental state (qigong, wushu).
Muscle relaxation exercise:
Set aside 15 minutes of free time. Close your eyes and relax your body. Tighten one muscle group for 5 seconds. Don't push yourself too hard to avoid injuring yourself. Quickly relax tense muscles as you exhale. It is important to feel the difference in sensations between tense and relaxed muscle states. After 15 seconds of relaxation, repeat everything again with another muscle group. Soon you will learn to relax.
Add physical activity
Physical activity helps get rid of unnecessary worries and stress, improves your mood. Add 30 minutes of physical activity per day: vigorous walking, climbing stairs, home workouts. In the future, you can buy a gym membership.
When you start physical activity, you will always have some pain after training (for example, muscles due to lactic acid), but soon you will be able to get used to the unusual sensations and understand that it is normal to feel something in your body, this not a pathology.
How to stop being a hypochondriac on your own
Is it possible to get rid of hypochondriacal disorder on your own? Yes, it is quite! But only if a person was able to realize that all his problems are in his head. It is necessary to change your thinking and rebuild your worldview. This is not an easy job, requiring patience, regularity and faith in the result.
Here are some effective tips from psychotherapists to help you get rid of hypochondria and stop suffering and tormenting yourself about it.
Stop reading about diseases on the Internet
With the development of the Internet and its accessibility in the medical environment, a new term “cyberchondria” has appeared. People, having read articles about all kinds of “sores” and symptoms, begin to look for these signs in themselves.
To attract the attention of the audience, the authors of such articles often exaggerate information and “create horror”. Moreover, more than 70% of medical articles on the Internet are written by non-professionals and people far from this field. They contain a lot of distorted and implausible information.
If you suffer from hypochondria, simply stop reading any information on the Internet related to diseases and symptoms.
Don't self-diagnose
Even if you learned about the signs of a disease from a medical encyclopedia, and not from the Internet, do not diagnose yourself, of course, unless you are a doctor. Experts make diagnoses based on many factors that you simply cannot take into account without being a physician.
Plus, when you know what symptoms to look for, you may actually find them in yourself. People are indeed capable of inducing this or that sensation in themselves (to a certain extent).
Leave this matter to the professionals and stop palpating, examining and observing every gurgle in your body.
Take a break
To stop being a hypochondriac, a hypochondriac should turn his gaze, directed inward, outward. Do new things, sign up for some courses, master what you have long wanted, go to the theater, museum or party.
In a word, distract yourself with pleasant things and focus less on the negative. Stop limiting yourself because of imaginary illnesses and seeing danger everywhere.
Relax
From constant fears and anxieties, the nervous system is exhausted and the body becomes tense. Muscle tension and stiffness appear in it, which causes pain. Blood circulation deteriorates, the brain lacks oxygen and the already unstable mental state worsens even more.
It is very important to master any relaxation techniques and use them regularly. This could be yoga, meditation, autogenic training, or just a walk in the park. It is important to give your head and body rest to strengthen your psyche.
Online appointment with a doctor in any city in Russia
Trust your body
Trust that your body is very smart and can take care of you. It always knows better than you what is good for it and what is not so good.
Recent studies have shown that hypochondriacs care less about their health: they smoke more, drink more and exercise less. Take care of your body, strengthen it and be sure that it is doing everything it can for you.
Stop controlling everything that happens in your body
An excessive tendency to feel and be aware of all the small changes in the body quickly turns into torment. Hypochondriacs pay attention to any pain, muscle tension, or dizziness.
However, the body is a system that regulates everything within itself, and natural, harmless changes occur in it, which are recognized by the psyche. Most of these “messages” remain in the subconscious. Mild pain, rumbling in the stomach and tingling are signs that you are alive.
Hypochondriasis begins when a person decides that all these signals are a sign of disaster, although they actually mean nothing of the kind.
Try to sometimes take on the role of another person.
Psychologists often recommend an effective exercise - to get rid of obsessive thoughts, you need to try to get out of your habitual behavior. Imagine that you are not you, but, for example, an extreme athlete, try to think on behalf of his character all day. Think and think the way you would do in his place in one case or another. By “trying on” someone else’s experience, you will discover a lot of interesting things, and you may even be able to change your usual behavior.
Types of hypochondria
Before we move on to tips on how to get rid of hypochondria on your own, let's learn more about this disorder.
Hypochondria is divided into several types:
- Asthenic . The patient experiences constant weakness, lack of energy and is sure that this condition is caused by a disease that doctors cannot detect.
- Anxious-phobic. The most common form. A strong fear of incurable illness and death prevails. Panic attacks may occur due to fear.
- Depressed . The sufferer falls into a state of complete apathy, hopelessness and despondency. I am sure that I am hopelessly ill and there is no point in existing anymore.
- Obsessive. Subject to obsessive thoughts that he cannot get rid of. Constantly complains of a painful condition and is fixated on symptoms.
