It is natural to be afraid of illness; Nobody wants to get sick or suffer pain, so some concern for our state of health is logical. But when the fear of getting sick dominates your whole life and when you see every bodily ailment as a symptom of a serious illness, you are a hypochondriac. And the risks of hypochondriasis are many and affect all areas of life.
The imaginary patient
- That health is one of our most precious assets is something we know well; and that sometimes we should take our health more seriously and avoid some of the harmful habits and torments that we subject our bodies to. Hypochondriac people are not well aware of the importance of health, but it creates excessive concern.
- And it is that hypochondriacs have obsessive behaviors dominated by apprehension and are more prone to disorders such as anxiety and depression. The hypochondriac believes that the headache she woke up with is an obvious symptom of a brain tumor, or that the cold she’s been dragging on for a few days reflects lung cancer.
- Anxiety consumes hypochondriacs because of their conviction that they are suffering from a serious illness, while the people around them neither give it importance nor take it seriously. But that constant and obsessive attention to the signals emitted by the body leads the hypochondriac person to distance himself somewhat from society, plunged into the misunderstanding that her situation produces.
Risks of hypochondria
- It is very common to relativize the problem that hypochondriacs have. However, hypochondria can greatly affect your life. Irrational fear generates anxiety and an endless number of phobias, in addition to limiting daily activities enough to avoid possible risks. That is the great contradiction of hypochondriacs, who in their obsession to avoid illness, do not realize that they already have one: hypochondria.
- Hypochondriasis also affects the workplace, since due to its frequent and varied symptoms, these people spend a large amount of time on sick leave. Not to mention the couple problems that can be caused; If living together under normal circumstances is already difficult, living with a hypochondriac can become real suffering.
- Hypochondriasis is a disease in itself that needs psychological treatment to make it disappear. What happens is that it is very difficult to diagnose a hypochondriac, when he is also encouraged by the particularities of modern life. Today, anyone can identify the symptoms of a disease, self-diagnose and, if necessary, self-medicate without leaving home. All this thanks to the Internet.
