According to statistics, up to 25% of patients who go to general practitioners are hypochondriacs. And about 60% of the symptoms voiced by patients have no organic causes. But one thing is to monitor health, and another is to harass yourself with invented pain. How to recognize a hypochondria and distinguish it from the desire to live healthy? Why hypochondria psychotherapy? If the life of the hypochondriac and his family becomes unbearable, then it's time to deal with this ailment.
What is hypochondria?
Hypochondria is when a person is obsessed with his health, afraid to get sick or be infected with a deadly disease. And the fear is so great that a person ignores the advice of doctors, sets himself diagnoses and self-medicates. According to the ironic conclusion of the medical profession, a hypochondriac feels good only when he feels bad. But seriously speaking, a hypochondriac believes in the existence of the disease so much that it suffers from real physical symptoms.
Hypochondria manifests itself not so much in the confidence of the diagnosis as in the constant expectations that the effect of the “fulfilling prophecy” will work and the imaginary symptoms will become real with time. Anxiety and fear for their health do not disappear even after a full-fledged medical research and the conclusion that health is normal. Hypochondriacs are always treated.: buying dietary supplements, vitamin complexes and herbal preparations. They keep the pharmacological industry and doctors profit.
Hypochondria are often treated with irony - it is perceived as a reason for jokes and teachings. Hypochondriacs are often called simulators or whiners. But it is not. The hypochondriac does not just complain of painful symptoms, he really suffers. According to statistics, the disorder occurs in 10% of the population. Hypochondria often affects people aged 30 to 50 years. Invented pathology relate to the brain, heart, genitals. The most common diseases that hypochondriacs invent are AIDS, cancer, allergies, and heart attack.
Evolution of the concept of hypochondria
Like every disease, hypochondria has its own biography. In the current reference book of diseases, it refers to somatomorphic disorders. But hypochondria is not a disease or a sign of severe mental disorder. Bodily symptoms are not associated with organic disorders, but accumulated psychological problems.
But at the time of Hippocrates it was believed that the disease lies in the hypochondra - upper lateral parts of the abdomen. Interesting, but the name comes from the Greek word Hypochondrion - hypochondrium. According to ancient canons, it was there that the soul was located, which hurts, makes a person sad and pensive. From the sick soul did not help any diagnoses or advice of doctors.
Difficult and contradictory symptoms manifested in all parts of the body, from crown to heel. Physical manifestations were accompanied by insomnia, obsession with nonsense. Accordingly, the treatment was varied: one prescribed a strict diet, the other - outdoor games in pins, the third - the practice of creativity or cultivation of flowers. But with the discovery of nerves, the disease migrated to the discharge of nerves. Hypochondriacs were considered schizophrenic and treated in specialized closed institutions. For a long time, hypochondria was considered a "male" manifestation of "female" hysteria.
Along with Internet addiction, panic attacks and various phobias, hypochondria are considered a misfortune of the 21st century. The invention of tomographs and digital ultrasound machines does not help to make a correct diagnosis. Waiting for an illness poisons the life of an imaginary patient and his relatives. And to get an obscure fear easier than ever: the flow of information, the lack of movement, smoking and alcohol constantly check the psyche for strength. But it sometimes takes years to cure an imaginary disease.
Hypochondria is not a sentence. Famous Hollywood stars, for example, admit that they panic about health for no reason. Jennifer Lawrence and Megan Fox told in an interview that they like to make a diagnosis on the Internet. Genius director Woody Allen has been in a state of paranoia and hypochondria all his life. Among the writers of world renown, there are also quite a few hypochondriacs. This is Edgar Allan Poe, Hans Christian Andersen, Charlotte Bronte.
Today in the treatment of hypochondria developed techniques and psychotherapeutic approaches. It is important to understand that hypochondria is not a set of symptoms, but one main symptom. And you need to treat it, and not hands, legs and stomach.
Hypochondria in the body: what happens in the body?
Hypochondriacs are very suggestible. Any information about the disease can cause a whole range of discomfort from mild anxiety to panic attack. In such a state, the pulse quickens, the heart beats stronger and more often, hands sweat. Sometimes the feeling of fear covers with head.
Unclear symptoms push hypochondriacs to search for more information. For information, they turn to the Internet, to friends, to medical directories, which increases the focus on health. In response to the experiences the brain gives rise to physical symptoms that mimic the disease. The pain intensifies, sometimes it becomes just unbearable.
If traumatic events (divorce, exams, real relative illness) occur in the life of the hypochondriac, the hypochondria increases. Panic attacks, asthma attacks, allergic reactions with a real rash can occur. Fear of ill poisons his life and his relatives, makes it impossible to communicate with others. Fears for their health do not stop even when the hypochondriac stays at home alone with himself.
This vicious circle becomes the personal hell of the hypochondriac. Everybody scares him: dirty hands, headache, aching joints, runny nose. Treatment begins with a simple tincture of motherwort, but can go into a long-term use of tranquilizers. The medical record becomes thicker than the encyclopedia volume.
Doctors take this disorder seriously. After all, the human psyche and somatic are closely intertwined, as two parts of one whole. Problems of the emotional sphere result in real physical illness. For example, constant stress provokes not only insomnia, but also digestive disorders or an ulcer. And anxiety leads to spasm of blood vessels, pressure surges and heart disease.
Causes of Hypochondria
Doctors call the causes that provoke hypochondria:
- Postponed serious illness. It happens that after a stroke, heart attack or a complicated operation, the patient is afraid of a repetition of the situation.
- Heredity. After an illness or death of a close relative, a person develops similar symptoms.
- Cyber chondria. The cause for concern is Dr. Google or voluntary advisers from the Internet. Netizens misinterpret the described symptoms and attribute imaginary diseases to themselves.
- Global epidemics. Reports of epidemics of the disease in another locale are pushing people to look for the same symptoms in themselves.
- Organ hypersensitivity. Irritation of overly sensitive receptors of internal organs is perceived by the psyche as a real disease.
- Light suggestibility. Emotional instability of a suggested person increases after viewing an advertisement of medical preparations, news about new diseases, mentions of serious diseases in the media.
- Anxiety disorder. Sometimes, general anxiety is not associated with a specific event. That is, a person “worries at all”, and he sees manifestations of anxiety (palpitations, sweating, hand trembling) as manifestations of serious illnesses.
- Microsocial environment. Hypochondria sometimes affects medical students, but after graduation, symptoms disappear. A visit to the clinic or to the hospital also adds disturbing experiences.
- Genetic predisposition. In primitive tribes there were warriors, guardians of the hearth, and guards who warned their relatives about the danger. According to one of the theories, hypochondriacs are precisely the guards who are used to looking and experiencing.
But sometimes doctors themselves make us hypochondriacs: they treat non-existent diseases, prescribe tests and endless examinations. It turns out an amazing phenomenon: the patient seems to be treated, but does not recover. But it does not die. If a person is inspired, the treatment "just in case" will continue forever.
Psychological causes of hypochondria
The habit of suffering for any reason is formed in childhood. Once upon a time, when a character was being formed, a child’s habit of suffering was laid down. For example, the baby received attention and care only when he was sick. Later during the illness, you could avoid kindergarten or school. The habit gradually formed: to get sick whenever you want love, caress, attention. Having mastered this type of behavior in childhood, a person will unconsciously look for a disease in himself. Often, people who were called painful in childhood and were constantly referred to as doctors became hypochondriacs. Or, on the contrary, it is forbidden to show signs of weakness - crying or complaining.
In gestalt therapy, there is the concept of retroflection, when a person uses his energy against himself. Healthy retroflection is needed for self-control. Ideally, it is intended for cases when a person has encountered a problem, remembered it and next time acted differently. Pathological retroflection sometimes turns into masochism. Fear to experience unpleasant sensations in the body, makes a person constantly listen to himself, every minute to track the signals of the body. He is looking for information in panic, finds confirmation of the symptoms and this causes a new wave of fear.
Hypochondria
A separate type of disorder is "hypochondria of health". This is the desire to preserve health by any means and prove that their way of life is the only correct one. They are jogging fanatics in any weather, walruses, opponents of gluten and salt, followers of breathing practices, dousing with cold water and walking barefoot.
They devote all their free and official time to proper nutrition, breathing, exercise and promotion of healthy lifestyles. They pester relatives, acquaintances and strangers, buy supplements and miraculous drugs like mummy and ginseng. Sometimes, in pursuit of eternal health, they excessively overload and destroy the body.
There is another type of hypochondria - excessive attention to their illness. For example, in case of mild arrhythmia, a person every minute stops, listens to the heartbeat, measures pressure. When changing the weather does not leave the house - just in case. In the doctor’s office, such patients themselves start giving advice or arguing about the prescribed treatment. The pharmacy scrupulously studies the instructions and takes the medication strictly by the hour.
Hypochondria Checklist: How to Determine Your Fear
Does something bother you, but does not interfere with living? Despite a bunch of examinations there is no diagnosis? Are you treated with dietary supplements and vitamins? It makes sense to include critical thinking and ask the question "Am I not a hypochondriac?".
For self-diagnosis, you can ask yourself questions:
- You are constantly studying yourself in search of new symptoms.? Any sensation is treated as a new symptom: cough after a cold - pneumonia, shortness of breath after walking - a heart attack. As a keen music lover who spends his free time looking for new melodies, the hypochondriac listens to the news from the bowels of the body.
- Any disease you "try on" yourself? Immediately after reading a book about brain cancer, a trip to an oncologist follows, a story about angioedema causes spasms in the throat, low pressure is considered the first symptom of immunodeficiency.
- Do you go to the doctor not often, but very often? Sometimes visits to the doctor happen twice a day, and vacation turns into another trip to the offices in the clinic. The opinion of one doctor and the results of tests are not credible.
- Are you too afraid of getting sick? It is perfectly normal to avoid contact with a cold friend or to be vaccinated before traveling to an exotic country. But to sit down from a child with a cold or not to go anywhere at all is an occasion to think.
- You find symptoms every time in a new place.? Hypochondriacs go to different rooms and each doctor describes different symptoms: from dizziness to intestinal problems. Sometimes they go to the doctor with one symptom "I am dying."
- Are you constantly being treated? Each new diagnosis ends with a trip to the pharmacy. Side effects after uncontrolled medication are treated as new diseases.
- Are you always in a bad mood? Permanent pessimism is another point that distinguishes an experienced hypochondriac. Still, all his diseases are deadly, so a good mood simply has no place to take.
- Your hobby is viewing a medical card? All conversations with a hypochondriac necessarily roll into the topic of his health. This is followed by a detailed list of symptoms, regret about the inaction of doctors.
The more items are relevant to you, the more likely you are a hypochondriac. Unfortunately, in such cases conversations with friends do not help. But there is a solution: stop flipping medical reference books and look for a good psychotherapist.
Why hypochondria disease?
If a person causes the symptoms of the disease, then he needs it. This is called secondary benefit. The first step in introspection is to find a secondary benefit in order to break the painful chain.
Benefit number 1. Avoid communication problems
Fear of intimacy, rejection or rejection by others is easier to muffle if you have an explanation for it. There is such an explanation for a hypochondria: I am sick. Therefore, people do not want to communicate with me / make friends / meet.
Benefit number 2. To draw attention
The desire for attention and the neglect of the feelings of another person are signs of narcism. The life of such people is devoid of communication, so they are engaged in themselves and their bodies. Sometimes elderly mothers invent their own illnesses, throw up hysterics, increase the feeling of guilt in children.
Benefit number 3. Prepare for an attack
When one's own hostility is projected onto others, the person is constantly awaiting attack. With hypochondria, an attack is expected not from external enemies, but from internal ones - microbes, tumors.
Hypochondria: psychotherapy treatment
In most cases, psychotherapy is indicated for hypochondriacs. After all, disturbing reflections are the result of protracted internal conflicts. Working with a psychotherapist helps the client to understand the cause of internal tension and the groundlessness of anxiety. The main goal of psychotherapy is to find the motivation for change. The course can last from several months to a year. Therefore, it is important to find a specialist whom the hypochondriac will trust more than doctors and analyzes.
Extreme forms of hypochondria are considered a mental disorder or neurosis. But there is no special medicine for this ailment. Some drugs reduce anxiety, help sleep, or improve mood. In such a neglected state of self-treatment can not be considered. Medicines must be prescribed by a doctor. But medication treatment will help relieve symptoms, but will not eliminate the internal conflict with oneself and with people.
Sometimes, instead of medicines, placebo, massage and acupuncture are prescribed to hypochondriacs. At the same time, they conduct a kind of educational program, explain to the patient the structure of the organism, the causes of the occurrence of diseases. If you are not yet ready for psychotherapy, doctors recommend daily practice pleasure, exercise, communication and achievement. All items need to be done every day. Required.
Findings:
- Hypochondria is a fear: to get sick or get infected.
- Hypochondria is not a suspiciousness or a bad mood, but not yet a mental disorder. This is a reversible process for which psychotherapy is indicated.
- Varieties of the disorder - hypochondria of health or hypertrophied attention to his illness.
- The behavior of the hypochondriac becomes simultaneously a soothing ritual and a source of internal tension.
- At the beginning of therapy, it is necessary to detect the secondary benefit that the imaginary patient receives.
- To defeat a hypochondria, it is important to find a doctor who will be able to combine the treatment of imaginary diseases with psychotherapy.
- Famous people of the present and the past were hypochondriacs, but this did not prevent them from creating.
