Hypochondriacs: how to stop living obesity due to diseases

Nobody wants to be sick, the disease is not a dish of good taste and surely at some point in our lives we have all been concerned about our health and that has made us more aware of ourselves, our body, our sensations etc. And all the worries have vanished the moment we feel better or we go to the doctor and he tells us that we are healthy.

However, what about people who are constantly worried about their health? What do you really believe are sick? How can it be that these people never stop worrying? The answer is because they suffer from a psychological disorder called hypochondria.


What does it mean to be a hypochondriac?

A person suffering from hypochondria she has a high conviction that she is sick, that is, that she truly believes that she is suffering from a serious or potentially fatal illness.

This belief of being really sick arises from a misinterpretation of the symptoms they feel, such as coughing, having a wound, strong and rapid heartbeats ... In view of all these symptoms, hypochondriacs they interpret that they are or may be sick and scared, they immediately seek to be safe, and for that they can take some medication, get checked to see that they have nothing, look for information about what they feel, go to the doctor ... However, even though hypochondriacs go to the doctor or have evidence that nothing is wrong, they do not believe they have no disease.


The essential characteristic of hypochondria is the worry and fear of suffering, or the conviction of having a serious illness, based on the personal interpretation of some bodily sensation or other sign that appears in the body.

As expected, all areas of the life of the person suffering from hypochondria are affected. This disorder affects family members, personal relationships, work, etc. Since on the one hand the hypochondriacs suffer and feel misunderstood, since no one understands what is happening to them, everyone tells them they have nothing and on the other hand, the people around them do not know how to help them, because the hypochondriac does not believe everything in what they say.

How to know if I am a hypochondriac?

The person who suffers from hypochondria is overly afraid of having a disease which leads him to be constantly worried about whether he suffers from it and even comes to the certainty that he has the disease.


Some of the symptoms presented by hypochondriacs are:

1. Excessive anxiety for fear of suffering from the disease.
2. Control and attention of one's own body, the person is constantly checking that he has nothing, or paying attention to the sensations he feels and interprets as symptoms of the disease.
3. They speak to acquaintances and not known of their ailments and symptoms focusing all conversations around health and illness.
4. They look for information to be able to confirm that they are sick, they ask other sick people, they look on the internet, they read ...
5. Increase in visits to doctors and specialists the relationship with them deteriorates more and more, because they do not finish trusting in what the experts tell them.

What can I do if I am a hypochondriac?

The best thing in these cases is that you have the help of a health professional who can help you correctly interpret the signals and can give you tools to control your anxiety, worry and restore all areas of your life that have been affected.

However, some of the guidelines that you can start to perform to combat hypochondria are:

1. Change the focus of attention. Try to stop looking at all the sensations you notice and the terrible consequences that could result from suffering the disease and focus on those healthy sensations of your own body, seeking more realistic interpretations of health and disease.

2. Learn relaxation techniques. In this way, we reduce anxiety and all the symptoms it causes, thus reducing discomfort and generating pleasant and rewarding sensations.

3. Stop talking about diseases, look for information, etc. Talking about what happens to us or looking for more information is a way to alleviate the discomfort that causes us in the short term, but it is worse for a long time because we are constantly making it present.

4. Contrast your concerns with the evidence. Surely you have gone to the doctor many times, you have done tests and the result has always been the same: you're fine.

Rocío Navarro Psychologist Director of Psicolari, integral psychology

Video: The Most Common Disease You’ve Never Heard Of | Shannon Cohn | TEDxUniversityofMississippi


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