Hypochondria or hypochondriasis, as it is sometimes called, is where an individual has an unrealistic fear of death due to physical or medical symptoms. These individuals often center their lives on their physical health concerns. For instance, a pain in the stomach to a “normal” person is just a pain in the stomach probably related to a pulled muscle or common stomach flu. To a person with hypochondriasis that pain is suddenly a possible indicator of some vicious form of cancer or disease. The word Hypochondria was created by the Greeks to describe illnesses or sickness in the upper abdomen. The break-down of hypochondria is “hypo”, which means below, and “chondros” meaning breast bone cartilage. This later became known as a sickness without a specific cause. Symptoms, causes, diagnosis and treatment will be further explained below.
Symptoms of hypochondria vary by patient and can vary in degree. In extreme cases, people with this anxiety or phobia obsess about checking vitals, making unnecessary dr. check-ups or by researching symptoms on the internet. In less severe cases, a problem will arise such as a bump on the arm. This person is more likely to focus on the bump only for a brief period of time and the anxiety slowly fades away, until the next bump, when the cycle starts over. Once a cycle starts, is hard to make it stop. Hypochondriacs do not purposely make up symptoms; they simply aren’t unable to control the fear that overcomes them. Sometimes people that search on the internet will read about different symptoms and self- diagnose. Internet symptom searching has taken on a nickname known as “cyberchondria”. Statistics show that eight in ten Americans will use the internet to find health related information. One of the problems with internet searching is that most cites are unreliable and can cause panic for no reason. In extreme cases internet searching can also cause somatic symptoms. Somatic symptoms are physical symptoms such as pain, nausea,...