hypochondriacs

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Know any? Are you one yourself? Can you deal with hypochondriacs or do they work your last nerve?

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2000

Answers

My mother is. A few years ago, she was convinced she had MS even after two doctors told her she didn't. She used to always think I had menegitis (sp?) when I was kid. She is always at the doctor. We asked her once why she's like that and she said because her mother never took her to the doctor when she was a kid and also because of being afraid to die.

The plus side of her being one is we have decent health insurance.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000


I keep thinking my husband is a hypochondriac, and then the doctors say that he's actually sick. They still haven't figured out what his mystery eye pain/intense headaches are caused by, but that's nationalised health for you.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000

I don't think I'm a hypochondriac... exactly. Mostly I keep my fears to myself, but my doctor hears it all. "I have a mole here... would you say this is cancerous? Precancerous? What does hammer toe look like? Is halitosis a sign of gingivitis? Sometimes when I'm in a room that's a certain shade of yellow I smell lemons. Is there an existing medical condition that covers that?" He always has a big old fake smile plastered on his face when he walks into the room. "Oh God, it's her." Ah well, I make Doctor man earn his keep.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000

Woo, Jackie, I had a very odd moment reading your message just now, because I've been getting mysterious eye pain/intense headaches too. The doctors can't diagnose me either. It's right behind my left eye and they tell me it's a headache but it hurts when I move my eye and lingers for up to a week.. what's up with that? Personally, I'm starting to think it's a form of migraine, as it seems to happen with bad weather.

I get accused of hypochondria because I catch every virus on the go, but I don't imagine I have ailments. My mother does, though. If I had a nickel for every imaginary ailment she's had, I wouldn't have to dig for prescription money for my own.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000


My stepmother is a hypochondriac. Her current condition is fibromyalgia (it used to be "undiagnosed lupus"). This is a real disease and lots of people have it, but not her. I mean, the disease affects your muscles (it makes you ache like you have the flu all the time). This woman is a power-walker, a real estate agent and regional president of a major charity and she *never* misses a day work or any events. It only comes out when she doesn't want to do something or when she wants my dad to stay home and take care of her. Strangely, it seems to affect her most around holidays and any other time when I'm in town to visit..

We do not like each other.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000



I've had my hypochondiacal moments. It used to happen when I was depressed. I knew something was wrong with me and that I felt awful, but I guess I couldn't deal with the idea that something was wrong with my mind. So I was always going to the doctor trying to figure it out. I thought I had mono for a long time. Once in the middle of the night I even went to the emergency room. My leg was sore and I was *convinced* that I had a blood clot due to birth control pills and smoking. I just had a pulled muscle is all.

I read somewhere that besides being somewhat hypochondriacal, depressed people tend to injure themselves more than others. Does depression just make you clumsy? Or does it make you hurt yourself "accidentally" on purpose?

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000


I think my Dad's one. He is always afraid that he has spinal cancer (he said his Mother died of it. I have no idea if that's true.) I think he just lifts too much and then hurts his back. Since I'm not an "enabler" I just change the subject when he starts. Maybe I'm just not sympathetic...

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000

Susan, that is odd. The problem here is that his eye doctor doesn't want to make a diagnosis, so passes him back to his GP, who passes him back to his eye doctor...lather, rinse, repeat.

He's also been suffering from what he thinks are the beginning symptoms of MS (his mother had it quite badly, and was totally incapacitated for the last thirty years or so of her life). Even though children of MS sufferers only have an increased risk of about 4% of getting the disease, that's the only thing to which my husband can/will attribute his symptoms, which have been getting more severe over the past couple of years. The doctors tell him the symptoms are real, but they don't know what they're being caused by, yet.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000


I'm not a hypochondriac, but I have been psychosomatic about one thing a long time ago. I had a chronic cough. It's not completely gone now, but it rarely bothers me or flares up like it used to. I finally got it checked and discovered I have mild coughing asthma, which explained a lot. Anyway, I noticed that I would cough when under pressure or in a situation where I was uncomfortable or anxious/nervous. The diagnosis of coughing asthma couldn't account for those situations, which was the main way I figured out it was "in my head" as well as my lungs. ;-)

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

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