I too struggle with hypochondria. It's hard, because I'm a cautious person by nature, especially when it comes to health, and I think that's a good thing. But like anything in life, too much of a good thing can be a terrible thing!
I think one thing that makes it a lot tougher is that in our society, the healthcare profession and the internet both make it very easy to worry, and hard not to. For example, if you get a prescription drug, and if you're like me, you want to read all the fine print because you want to make sure you follow the right directions and don't do something dangerous or stupid, like an obvious drug interaction. But once you've read the long list of side-effects, even if you just read the more serious warnings and ignore the rarer ones, it's pretty scary to actually take the damn thing...and then you're going to be worried when you get some sort of harmless side effect like getting a little bit sick at your stomach or maybe a bit tired or...any number of things that you might have totally ignored if it had happened on any other day.
It's hard, because from a psychological perspective, the way the mind/body connection works, all the warnings are actually priming you to be more likely to be paranoid and actually have a bad experience. And yet...in a sense the medical profession wants you to respond this way, because they're trying to cover their rear end from a liability standpoint.
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I think for me, one thing that has really helped has been, instead of adopting the "problem-focused" approach that western medicine seems to take, to focus on the "holistic health" thing. If you're spending a lot of time thinking about health problems, you're going to end up with health problems.
On the other hand, if you spend a lot of time thinking about eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, getting plenty of exercise, and being overall healthy, you're probably going to end up being a lot better off...you're no longer worrying and stressing (which harms your health) but rather, directing your mental energy towards motivating yourself to do positive things that will improve your health.
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I too struggle with hypochondria. It's hard, because I'm a cautious person by nature, especially when it comes to health, and I think that's a good thing. But like anything in life, too much of a good thing can be a terrible thing!
I think one thing that makes it a lot tougher is that in our society, the healthcare profession and the internet both make it very easy to worry, and hard not to. For example, if you get a prescription drug, and if you're like me, you want to read all the fine print because you want to make sure you follow the right directions and don't do something dangerous or stupid, like an obvious drug interaction. But once you've read the long list of side-effects, even if you just read the more serious warnings and ignore the rarer ones, it's pretty scary to actually take the damn thing...and then you're going to be worried when you get some sort of harmless side effect like getting a little bit sick at your stomach or maybe a bit tired or...any number of things that you might have totally ignored if it had happened on any other day.
It's hard, because from a psychological perspective, the way the mind/body connection works, all the warnings are actually priming you to be more likely to be paranoid and actually have a bad experience. And yet...in a sense the medical profession wants you to respond this way, because they're trying to cover their rear end from a liability standpoint.
---
I think for me, one thing that has really helped has been, instead of adopting the "problem-focused" approach that western medicine seems to take, to focus on the "holistic health" thing. If you're spending a lot of time thinking about health problems, you're going to end up with health problems.
On the other hand, if you spend a lot of time thinking about eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, getting plenty of exercise, and being overall healthy, you're probably going to end up being a lot better off...you're no longer worrying and stressing (which harms your health) but rather, directing your mental energy towards motivating yourself to do positive things that will improve your health.
February 18, 2010 - 1:11pmThis Comment
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