Hypochondriacal children, tricks to avoid their obsession with health
Worrying about health is something we all do. But you have to know how to differentiate between showing interest in well-being and living in constant state of alarm for what might happen. To think that anything is capable of causing harm or causing an illness is the situation that people with hypochondria and that it alters its rhythm of life.
In the case of children it can even cause them not to develop properly because they can leave aside activities such as playing or practicing some physical activities because of their hypochondria. Besides, the hypochondria causes in the children an atypical stress in their age and that of course must be controlled to avoid that anxiety takes over them.
How is a child with hypochondria
From the Real academy of the Spanish language, hypochondria is defined as "A condition characterized by a high sensitivity of the nervous system with habitual sadness and constant worry and anguish for health". For its part, the World Health Organization, WHO, also affects the fact that the person with this problem lives in a constant state of concern about what may happen to their health.
From both definitions it is extracted that the hypochondriac person is someone who lives in constant preoccupation by his state of health even when Does not exist a serious danger to them. From the Child Mind Institute these symptoms are indicated to determine if a child:
- Constant concern for his state of health and thinking that anything can cause him harm, something that makes him live in a state of permanent anxiety.
- Fear of situations that do not correspond to a real danger, such as playing in the park for fear of an infection.
- Changes too big in your mood.
- Autorevisions of your state of health and surveillance of possible anomalies that indicate illness, including the invention of symptoms.
- Invention of ailments or excessive attention to symptoms that do not respond to anything.
How to help the hypochondriacal child
All these symptoms make the child live in a situation of constant stress that does not benefit him at all. It is up to the parents to help them to remedy their situation. These are some tips that are given from the Child Mind Institute For this end:
- Do not provoke situations that may make you feel insecure or that cause some kind of pain. Do not resort to the old topic of "fear is overcome by fear."
- Give importance to your ailments but without overdoing it. A cold should be treated and because the child is a hypochondriac one should not underestimate his symptoms, although without elevating them to a level that does not correspond.
- Betting on communication, in the example of the cold you have to remember the last time you went through and how quickly it was cured without much relevance.
- Check if behind the hypochondria no other reason is hidden because in some cases the invention of illness can hide a fear of going to school for a case of school bullying. For this, nothing better than investigating the situations in which this behavior manifests itself: before a trip, on the mornings of the school day or on the night before.
- Encourage little by little to dare what you fear. Gradually parents must ensure that their child plays in the park and check for himself that nothing will happen to these activities or any other that previously terrified him.
- If the anxiety causes the child to alter his daily rhythm, it is best to go to a specialist to start a treatment.
Damián Montero
