You’re about to learn how to finally overcome your Hypochondria and free yourself from all the pointless worry of convincing yourself that you’re sick, ill or even dying.
I know the pain of this problem. I went through it myself for most of my life. Here I’ll be showing you how to naturally and effectively overcome your Hypochondria and put this terrible worry to rest. Let’s get to it!
Hypochondria tends to be somewhat of an afterthought when it comes to treating anxiety. Afterall, aren’t we supposed to worry about our health? Isn’t it good to stay on top of our bodies and be alert for any alarming “symptoms”?
If you suffer from Hypochondria, then you probably know otherwise. Personally, I used to TORTURE myself with thoughts of illness at even the slightest abnormality.
Every time my glands swelled up, I swore it was a tumor in my lymph nodes. Every time I had a sharp pain, I was convinced it was an early sign of stroke or aneurism. Each gas pain obviously signaled the start of a heart attack. Any kind of experience with night sweats convinced me that I somehow contracted HIV.
All of this worry over my health and this was happening at the age of 27 no less! 27 – when the body is at its absolute peak performance and I was inventing magical ways to convince myself I suddenly had HIV.
I remember, any kind of sexual experience (of course it was protected) I had during the height of my hypochondria was followed by days if not weeks of worry about how I must have contracted a sexually transmitted disease in some freakish, accidental way.
I would lose sleep over the worry until I finally cracked and visited a doctor about my concerns.
Really, I’m not being honest enough here. I had my doctor on speed dial.
Every dry patch of skin was suspect. Each time my eyes would become red or irritated, I swore my eyes must be deteriorating. Any new freckle was inspected for days under magnified mirrors. Heaven forbid I had a cold that lasted longer than a few days – it had to be pneumonia…duh!
Does any of this sound familiar?
Hypochondria can really impair your day to day living because it completely immerses your brain with worry. You have no real scientific data backing your medical concerns but suddenly YOU know more than any doctor out there.
You MUST be dying right? I mean, you just FEEL IT right? You just know and you can’t get rid of this feeling like SOMETHING has got to be wrong with you. Why can’t you shake this worry away once and for all? Ughhhh!!!
Stop Carrying Around Your Worry
Stop Carrying Around Your Worry
The definition of hypochondria is “an excessive preoccupation with one’s health”. That definition always stikes me as a little humorous. Really, it just doesn’t depict the severity of this problem.
Having Hypochondria is like carrying around your worry everywhere you go. It weighs you down and steals your attention. You can’t focus because you’re so consumed with whatever life-threatening disease is around the corner.
Put Your Worry Down!
The fact is, you’re probably going to live for a VERY long time. More than likely you’ll live to an average age of 80 and life will be fortunate to you every step of the way. The world is filled with billions of people and if you find any comfort in statistical data, know that the chance of you catching some obscure disease or health problem is miniscule so long as you’re not putting youself in the position in the first place.
Actually, people with high levels of anxiety are the MOST meticulous about taking care of themselves, seeing a doctor once a year and taking steps towards improving their health. Just you reading this article alone is enough to tell me that you care about your own well-being.
Strategies for Overcoming Hypochondria
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you have nore cognitive strategies for hypochoriacs to employ?
U r a great guy.Same thing happens to me.When my heart pounds when I m at rest ,I search the web,and it’s full of nonsense.I went to the head of the cardiology for this and he said,it is only psychological,then I went to my psychiatrist,he increased my dose and now I m fine.These guys on the internet show you the worst case scenario.I don’t konw why?
yes i use to go on the web and go to the GP for test and i thouth that i was a hypochoriac until i found out what i had panic and anxiety i am fight it with panicawy
I had this little yellow streak in my eye,which looked like some film was on top of it. I went to some medical online forums, they all told me it was jaundice/liver problem. I bought so many special veggies , fruits, drinks to get rid of it. I went to the doctor and the problem with my eye was it was really dry. Then I went to an eye doctor site where they actually have the picture of the dry eye I have.
Secondly, I am 27 and I had a small pain that felt like a strain in my lower abs. I thought it was appendix and I was dumb enought to go online where everyone tells me thats what it is. It was only a small strain that lasted about a few days.
Thanks for the site!
Thanks again, Jason. I recently had 2 stents placed in my heart. April 2010 actually. Every little pain is another heart attack. It’s terrible. It’s actually anxiety, according to my doctors. Your site has been so helpful. I can’t thank you enough.
thank you very much for writing this, i am a young man, and i am ALWAYS convinced that i have something wrong with me, imm constantly asking my parents “have i always had this mole?” or “does this look bad, can you please set me up an apointment?” and now that ive read this i feel better and i realize, that, i am perfectasly healthy, and there really is no reason to worry. and if you do notice something, and you cant stop worrying about it, you can bring it up to a parent, or reliative. dont bring it up to a friend because theyre more than likely to know that you freak out about everything and try to jokingly make it worse. its not fun. but i do feel alot better after reading this. thank you very much.
I agree wholeheartedly about not looking up symptoms online. We anxious people tend to focus inward on our bodies anyways. I do best by focusing outwards and not googling symptoms.
Bingo! i knew i had everything from brain tumors to heart failure and some freaky intestinal thing. i used to see a spot in my vision, a bright small light if you will and knew it was the end. the more i worried, the more i saw it. finally someone else who suffers from panic and anxiety told me they got the same thing and was told it was anxiety driven. as soon as i locked that into my brain the light went away….overnight!
Everything you say is bang on, my father recently got diagnosed with lung and I’m worried that I’ve got it cuz it seems I’ve pot every symptom going every ache every pain I’m checking out on the internet, think a trip to the doctor and kick up my backside will help. Thanks
But then again if i didn’t check the internet i wouldn’t of found this site so its not all bad ha ha, thanks again
Hi. I am a major freaking out person. My main problems are with cancers. And my parents are fed up with me freaking out about diseases so they kinda just ignore me when i talk about being sick. Which doesn’t seem good because what if something really is wrong…AHHHH my stupid freaking outness
At age 24 (I’m 28 now)I had my first panic attack and it pretty much came out of now where because anxiety or hypochondria wasn’t a factor in my life at that time. It started off with chest pain and pressure and when I went to the doctor she told me it was physical symptoms of anxiety and not to worry about anything serous. Well you would think that would be enough for a peace of mind but noooo even after a clean bill of health I had my first attack and for some reason after that I constantly worry about my health. Whats so contradicting is the physical symptom that make me assume I have an illness are simple just from my anxiety (for the most part) My main trigger for me is skin cancer. Every little new thing I assume is skin cancer because I’m fair skinned and i use to go tanning about 5 yrs back. Every time I do show my doctor anything suspicious it “always” turns out to be nothing. The one thing that has helped is being proactive and learning more about my problem and what hypochondria really is. The most easiest things you can do for yourself is NEVER NEVER try to diagnose your own health, I made that mistake and still do from time to time and it only makes it worse. Be proactive and spend more time on whats good and you’ll be fine
Thanx for the info its kinda nice to know that you are not alone when it comes to fears,and anxiety,(i know it sounds selfish) but it helps tremendously! Im going to try exercising,and more outdoor activities,i am currently laid off,and i watch my 5 month daughter,while my wife works.I am used to working, and being home all day is depressing( i love the QT with my little girl) but im bored feeling empty cause im so used to working, so i am getting lazy and worrying about the bad gas and acid reflux im going through atleast my wife tells me it is.But i think different so i am asking and double checking,but im going to spend my time relaxing,exercising,and living, i should know better im a born again christian and worrying is sin,so i am done and asking my lord and savior for forgiveness. But i am not perfect so i went my own way (internet) and got fooled but i like your positive way of thinking and glad i came across this site,cause the others did point out the worst.Thanks again and stay encouraged!!!
Im 19 and I am such a hypocondriact, i think myself into a sick blivian. The drs see nothing wrong, im depressed and i dont knowwhat to do. Help me plz.
I agree about checking symptoms on the internet. It will just drive you to the edge. Just leave the diagnosing to the doctor, they know what to look for when you really feel something is not right with you and never forget to get a second opinion, not all doctor’s are perfect.
Thanks so much for this!!! I was laughing so hard reading this, as it just gave me relief and also made me see how silly my mind is sometimes! I too have convinced myself I have every thing in the book… my family laughs at me for it, and that doesn’t help, just makes it worse.
hey i just wanted to say thanks for posting this site, and all the problems that you had, i read your whole artical and read some of the people’s comments on here and it really helped to know that im not the only one that suffers from this problem. beeing a hypocondriact is not the way to live your life and worrying about everything 24/7 is the worst, after reading this i seem to now realize that i need to stop making things worse then they really are and i need to just go on and live my life as normal, thank you again for posting this artical, it was great help to me and to others that have read this page
thanks you
this website is amazing
every day i learned something new
I have been going through similar problems lately. Last year my father died from a heart attack and now I assume every pain is some how linked to a heart problem. I went to the doctor a little while ago and they said it was just anxiety. I took medication for about a month and that seemed to work fine. The other thing I can suggest for you guys is when its really at its worst go to your room turn the lights off and listen to some relaxing music. About 20 minutes later you will feel alot better. It works for me at least.
thank you. i am a horrible hypo. and i also have chronic anxiety. i’ve always had back pain (though it started out mild), which eventually lead to testicular pain, and always had an idea in the back of my mind that i must have testicular cancer (since i looked it up as a symptom) and always did self exams and tried to convince myself that i felt a growth or lump, but in reality is prob just the simple nature of how your testicles hang. anywho, even today i randomly get the idea in my head that life is worthless for me since i am going to die and it’s just a horrible thing to linger through your head. your article was great, thanks for sharing. please email me other ways to reduce anxieties and convince myself i’m not walking around just to die tomarrow. thank you,
I’m 100 a hypo , I have heart burn or acid reflux. I went to web MD and I thought I had pancreatic cancer or liver cancer , I got blood tests done and I still didn’t belive the docs, it’s a struggle I go through. I’m happy I found this site
oh lord….i thought i was the only nutso one….ok no i didn’t but I felt like it. My husband said I’m weird. Just thank God.
I’m 29. When I was 16 a close friend of mine died from a terminal illness. Freaked me out so bad. I felt sick at the thought of it. Ever since then I thought I was going to die at least 1000 times. My life in and out of hypochondria. Mainly when stresses from work or going through a breakup or even just something I see on the news or read in the paper. It seems normal to me now which I feel deep down I can change this. I know it’s all mental although I seem to be constantly going through physical symptoms. Mainly palpitations which make me believe I have a heart problem and will die and numbness and tingles in hands and feet. I know that it’s all anxiety related but I seem to always obsess over the symptoms which makes me more anxious. I’m actually very fit person. If only my mind would stop exaggerating everytime my heart beats or every little thing. I had unprotected sex recently and before even having an STD test I believed I had an STD. This site helps me see reality and that Im not alone. Still don’t be afraid to talk to family, friends, partner. That is taking focus from the inside and getting it outside. You will fell better knowing your not alone.
It’s all mental! It sucks but believe in it and all will go away. Screw it, we all die sometime just don’t think about it and enjoy life. If possible, learn about the bible and your worries will go away even faster given that you have faith in a resurrection. Much love! Great site! There are many of us out there..
i know how you all feel. it sucks so much, im 25 and my problem started in march with really bad chest pains. i always feel like im having a heart attack and i get a tingle feeling in my hands. and the internet said those all sign of one but i dont i have anxity. everytime one of my close friends co workers or family members are sick i think right away i have what they have. and i freak myself out. and than my thoughts of what ifs and it could be this or that take off. and than i bring my self into a panic. and i dont know what to do or how to fix my problem. but all i know is i wanna stop thinking like this. thanks everyone else for wirting so i can read your stories as well.
I am guilty of trying to self diagnose myself via the internet, I’ve been doing it everyday for a long time now. I’ve also been the doctors quite a lot and also planning to go tomorrow. Hahaha oh god I sound terrible, I’ve just literally realised how bad I actually am by seeing my actions and thoughts in writing! I have always been convinced I’m about to die, and every time I hear of someone dying of a certain disease I then convince myself I’ve got it to. It has got really bad over the last 2-3 weeks. I can’t go 10 minutes without thinking about it. I’m a 22 year old male and by the looks of me you’d think I was arrogant enough to think I was invincible.. Unfortunately that is not the case. Anyway this article has been helpful. thank you.