Hypochondria

The sad reality is that hypochondriacs already have the debilitating disease they are so afraid of. This is tragic irony at its best (or worst, however you want to look at it).

While spending hours daily worrying about cancer, heart attacks, food borne-illnesses or anything else, the person is already suffering under a terrible weight. It can sabotage a person's life as they are afraid to go out or to partake in activities. Even if they don't cancel plans because of it, their hypochondria still saps precious time and energy and will undoubtedly leave a negative impact in terms of lost opportunity somehow, someway. Just think of what you could have done instead of being consumed in these worries.

Its a difficult web. You can't just declare that someone is well or not. As I have often said in the past, "even hypochondriacs get sick for real sometimes." That is true, and you do have to take care of your body and go see a doctor when you have a concern. But don't let a normal occurrence of illness in your life be some kind of proof to your fears. Wait around long enough and anyone will get sick, that doesn't mean all the fears day after day, year after year were justified.

So what is going on with hypochondria? When someone is worried they are sick, what they are doing is trying to tell the world--"Look, something is wrong here." Something in their spirit is sick. Something demands attention. Something in the life, or their memory, or their lifestyle has a "sickness" to it. Emotions are unresolved, pains are festering. They want care, they need healing, they want to be public about it.

They have probably spent years rationalizing that their unresolved issues do not need to be addressed. That is understandable, as it can be one of life's hardest missions to confront those who have hurt you or be honest about feelings you have tried to cover up. The truth is that whether we want to or not, if something needs to be addressed then it needs to be, and no amount of shoving it under a rug will make it go away. Hypochondria is the language of the subconscious bubbling up to say, "There is something wrong here and I need to do something about it!".

Sometimes going to a medical doctor can help you calm your fears, but keep in mind this is a treatment of symptoms and rarely a cure. As soon as you stop worrying about one illness, you may have another one to take its place. Yoga and the Egoscue excises can help immensely, too. Ultimately, a counselor can help you discover what needs to be addressed and then come up with a plan to deal with it--step by step, in manageable doses. The good news is that once you deal with it, you can really get through to the other side.

What is "wrong" is not the cancer or other illness they are afraid of. However, you can look at the object of their fears for a clue as to what the source is. "Cancer" is something that eats away at the body from the inside--like a person keeping a secret that needs to be shared. Food is something you internalize to sustain your life, so fear of food poisoning may be related to this--maybe a lack of trust in the outside world influencing you in some way--whatever is outside is bad, keep it out. Consider what the "disease" you are worrying about is saying to you metaphorically. These are suggestions, only you can know for sure whether they apply to you or not.

As you can tell, I think there are emotional roots at the source of this psychological condition. I am not denying that hypochondria can spin out of control, far more than the initial issues seem to suggest. It can take a life of its own. I realize that people can often get outrageously mad when someone suggests than a "mental illness" may be related to an emotional source rather than some random disease they contracted no different than getting the flu. The level of anger may betray the fact that there is some truth there, however. I am not claiming to diagnose everyone and there may be some exceptions, but I will predict this: Rare is the person who cannot improve or even cure their hypochondria by healing these festering wounds on their soul.