Hypochondria - What is it? How to fight it and how to soften it's symptoms

 Hypochondria is an anxiety about health, or more precisely, a persistent belief in having or developing a disease despite the lack of medical justification.

Hypochondriacs tend to exaggerate harmless symptoms, which are usually natural responses of the body to certain stimuli, such as:

• A headache caused by stress or fatigue might be perceived by a hypochondriac as a fatal brain tumor.
• Stomach pain from eating something heavy might be seen as stomach or colon cancer.
• Numbness in toes from an awkward sitting position might be taken as the first symptom of multiple sclerosis, and so on.

If left untreated, this condition can literally destroy one's life, making it impossible to think about anything other than the certainty of having a fatal illness. Living in constant stress, one cannot fully enjoy life. To start fighting this condition, two steps need to be taken:

1. Realize that your suspicions are absurd and are based solely on your obsessive thoughts about them.

Think back and honestly ask yourself, how many allegedly fatal illnesses have turned out to be nothing? On what basis do you believe that this time it is DEFINITELY something serious?

Remember, if you convince yourself of a symptom, you will pay more attention to it. Something entirely natural, unnoticed by someone without disorders, will become a cause for concern for you. Examples?

Example 1: Focus on your throat right now and swallow. When we focus on this, we "feel" it more than in normal circumstances. You might feel a slight tingling or think that swallowing should be smoother, which for a hypochondriac can already be a reason for suspecting a serious illness, but it's just an illusion. You swallow saliva on average 1000 to 2000 times a day, and every previous time was the same as now, with the only difference being that now you focused on it.

Example 2: Suppose you felt a slight twinge near your heart, which happens to everyone. If it is not regular, it usually means nothing serious. A person without disorders will soon forget about it, and the symptom will subside. However, a hypochondriac will start thinking about it intensely, which will actually speed up their pulse. Then they will measure their pulse, and if it is too high, they will panic even more. This leads to other symptoms like sweating, a headache from stress, etc. Almost out of nothing, a person with the disorder can convince themselves of a whole spectrum of new illnesses, while a person without the disorder has long forgotten about it and is enjoying their life.

2. Realize how negatively this condition impacts your life and answer the following questions:

• What would my life look like without it?
• How does it affect my relationships with loved ones?
• What is it holding me back from?

You will surely notice how much this disorder is ruining your life, which should motivate you to take action and fight it. Below are some tips that should help.

What must you do to alleviate/cure your health anxiety?

• Seek psychotherapy. If you are a hypochondriac, this is the best advice I can give you.
• Stop checking symptoms online. After psychotherapy, this should have the most beneficial effect on alleviating your anxiety. Almost every, even the most trivial symptom found online, will be presented as a potential symptom of a fatal illness. You won't find anything online that could help you in any way. If you are a hypochondriac, you know that even if you read that your symptom is 99% nothing serious and only 1% could be cancer, that 1% will be enough to keep you up at night.
• Practice diverting your thoughts/be busy. Whenever you feel anxiety about a symptom, try to immediately occupy yourself with something and fully focus on that activity.
• If you belong to the group of hypochondriacs who, instead of over-examining themselves, avoid check-ups out of fear of what they might hear, you must change this immediately. Such an approach is the quickest way to ensure what you fear the most, a serious illness. Remember, even the worst diseases can be effectively treated if detected early enough.
• Get regular check-ups, once a year should be enough. This way, you will always have some idea about your current health status and will be able to react appropriately if needed.
• Start exercising and eating healthier. This alone can protect you from many potential illnesses. With regular exercise and healthy eating, the number of potential symptoms that might worry you will surely decrease.