Hypochondria: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Taking care of your health is normal. It is abnormal when this concern transcends rational boundaries and becomes an obsessive idea of ​​possible existing diseases. A person begins to invent illnesses for himself, and after a while he actually feels all the symptoms of serious diseases. Such people are called hypochondriacs or imaginary patients.

Hypochondria (Hypochondria Syndrome) is called pathological state of the human psyche, in which he is irrational, worries excessively about his health. And all would be nothing if this concern was limited to taking vitamins, adequate prevention and hand washing. The hypochondriac is not enough - he is literally sure that he has one or several rare, fatal diseases, which for some reason remain unnoticed by doctors.

The hypochondriac complains of a variety of symptoms, and he is not deceiving, because he really feels almost everything he describes. The fact is that the usual sensations to which we do not pay attention to the hypochondriac gain strength, power and significance. In each rumbling of the abdomen, he can see convincing signs of a serious illness.

The name hypochondria received from the Greek word ὑπο-χόνδριον, which translates as "hypochondrium". The ancient Greeks were quite sure that it was somewhere in the hypochondrium that the source of the hypochondriac's suffering was located. Most often, people with such a mental disorder complained about pain in this area.

Over the long history of hypochondria, it was called the most different neurotic, mental statesuntil the formulation has narrowed down to a concrete and understandable meaning - an imaginary illness in which a person is convinced. The International Classification of Diseases, operating today (ICD-10), refers to hypochondria to somatoform-type mental disorders. For the disease is fixed code F45.

Hypochondria is widespread: Experts say that up to 15% of all those who go to polyclinics and hospitals for medical care suffer from this disorder to one degree or another. It is difficult to determine gender characteristics, some experts are sure that the disorder is more characteristic of men, others argue that this mental disorder occurs with the same frequency both among the representatives of the stronger sex and among women. But it is noted that in men the disease usually starts after 30 years, and in women after 40 years.

Is hypochondria dangerous? Most likely, yes, because it is stronger than other mental disorders affects the physical state, so-called psychosomatic mechanisms are involved (thinking about the disease, a person eventually creates a disease). The psychology of hypochondriacs does not change much: after learning about the real diagnosis, many people say something like “I knew it!”. Since hypochondria is known to mankind for more than 2 thousand years, in history there are many names of great people who suffered from this disorder.

• Writer Edgar Alan Poe he repeatedly wrote letters to his relatives with reports that he did not have long to live, his death was inevitable, because he was mortally ill. He really was sure that he had only about two weeks to live, but the doctors found Edgar Allan Poe quite healthy.
• Artist Edwin Henry Landseer - one of the most beloved painters of Queen Victoria - was convinced that he was sick, and deadly. He tried to “kill” the disease with alcohol and opium, which in fact destroyed him. As a result, he ended up in a lunatic asylum, but he could not be cured.
• Writer Charlotte Bronte (The author of the legendary "Jane Eyre") as a child survived a series of deaths of loved ones, as a result of which she was afraid to die and suffered from hypochondria throughout her life (this illness in Victorian England was called "the dark enemy of humanity"). Most of all, Charlotte was afraid to die from tuberculosis. Presumably, she died from him (the exact cause of the writer's death was never established).
• Famous reformer, public figure and Florence Nightingale's sister of mercy, for which the military hospitals of the Crimean War became the second home, fell ill with the Crimean fever. This convinced her that she must die soon. As a result, Florence, at the age of 38, threw everything and got into bed, where she spent most of her life (she lived to 90) - she was afraid to get up so as not to provoke a recurrent attack of fever.
• Evolution scientist Charles Darwin after the expedition to the Galapagos Islands, he returned with the conviction that he suffered from an incurable and terrible disease that causes abdominal pain, headaches, fatigue and vomiting. With the certainty that a strange tropical disease would surely kill him, Darwin lived for 40 years. He kept a diary, describing observations of his symptoms, including flatulence. Doctors already then suspected that the author of the theory of evolution was a hypochondria.

Psychotherapists have been monitoring hypochondriacs for a long time and concluded that this mental disorder can exist in three different forms.

Obsessive hypochondria is peculiar to overly vulnerable and impressionable people, usually occurs on the background of strong stress, experiences. Hypochondriac - a person with a very rich imagination. A frustration arises easily, even the carelessly abandoned words of a doctor who did not mean anything “such”, the stories of friends or acquaintances about the disease, as well as reading the medical literature or watching relevant films and programs can provoke him. It is noteworthy that this form often develops in people who have a particular relationship to medicinestudents of medical universities, and therefore hypochondria are often referred to as the "third-year ailment."

A passion for reading medical books can also lead to a mild form of hypochondria. (A person, if he wishes, finds in himself the symptoms of almost all diseases from the directory of the therapist - this is a proven fact). It is not difficult to distinguish such hypochondriacal disorder: it almost always manifests itself by sudden attacks of strong anxiety over its precious health. The hypochondriac is afraid of catching a cold, poisoning, getting infected. But at the same time he understands and realizes that he is able to avoid the disease.

Hypertrophied health care. No, everything around is clear, everything looks very logical - a person wants to stay healthy, but the prevention itself is deliberately ambitious: the hypochondria has to make a lot of effort to achieve the state of health that he wants. Measures of prevention of a disease are in the nature of a galactic operation and cover all spheres of life. For example, a person is extremely concerned about the prevention of oncology and in order not to get sick with cancer, he constantly studies the development of scientists, the advice of traditional medicine, drinks urine and aviation kerosene at the same time, eats fresh tomatoes in kilograms just because someone said that it helps cancer.

It is also easy to distinguish such a hypochondriac - this person is the dream of any healer, healer, as well as manufacturers of homeopathic medicines and nano-devices that “should help from everything”.

An overvalued hypochondriac always has several pseudoscientific theories in stock that explain the benefits of frog legs, kerosene and tomatoes. If there are no such theories, the hypochondria will invent them. For such hypochondriacs, the most important thing is their health, and they are ready to practice it all the time to preserve and strengthen it. Family, work, friendship, communication, hobbies - everything goes into the background.

All the money goes to frog legs and kerosene, to consult with healers. Often at this stage families collapse - it is very difficult to live under such a roof with such overvalued hypochondriacs.

This form of disorder based on the pathological findings and beliefs of the patient. The conclusions of the hypochondriac are illogical, in a conversation he can connect what is impossible to put together ("God's gift and scrambled eggs"). Hypochondriacs also talk about their terrible disease in the same illogical way, suspecting doctors of hiding an accurate diagnosis. Such hypochondriacs are looking for everything and always for indirect confirmation of my illness (“my house is built of hazardous materials, I have cancer, neighbors are left on the left, neighbors on the right also have someone who is sick, which means we are intentionally infected, I am also sick” ").

Attempts to dissuade such a hypochondria are initially doomed to failure - he will listen suspiciously and immediately accuse you of deception, collusion with the government, the mafia of doctors. When a denial of treatment or surgery is received, for a delusional hypochondriac, this is proof of its impending doom (“they don’t go to hospital because it is too late to heal”).

In connection with the development of the Internet and its accessibility for the population, psychiatrists have entered into the register of diseases an accompanying disorder in which a person tries to make diagnoses for himself and to be treated by publications on the Internet. it cyber chondria (synonym - informational hypochondria). This symptom can occur in any of the three main types of clinical disorder.

Why such a mental disorder develops is difficult to answer unequivocally - there are several opinions and hypotheses about this. First viewed genetic theory - A person can inherit from his parents mistrust, impressionability, rich imagination, a high level of anxiety, sensitivity. This is not only character traits, but also features of the organization of the nervous system.

It is obvious that people with hypochondria mistakenly perceive the signals of their body, they are not interpreted and interpreted in the wrong way. Even a slight tingling in the limbs can be regarded as pain. It is obvious that there is an error either in the work of the brain, which incorrectly recognizes the signal, or in the peripheral nerves, this signal is incorrect. This question is still open.That is why even the most innocent sensations in the body are so important to them and are perceived as certain signs of pathology.

Affect the likelihood of developing hypochondria childhood diseases - If a person at a tender age has had a long and serious illness, the installation on them can last forever. Overly caring parents, who are very worried about the health of the child, can make the child a hypochondriac, and at every banal scratch they make such a fuss with calling the doctor and buying a lot of medicines that for a child the health issues simply cannot be different - only super significant.

Grateful soil for the development of hypochondria is considered a prolonged depressive state, experienced severe stress, neurotic state. When a person is in such states, his psyche is exhausted, and he literally at the physical level begins to feel weak, vulnerable. A large proportion of psychiatrists consider the hypochondria syndrome to be excessive, hypertrophied self-preservation instinct, and also an extreme degree of manifestation. thanatophobia (pathological fear of death).

It is noteworthy that hypochondriacs often deceive their own brain: they do not know how to hurt, although they try to do it.

Hypochondriacs complain. Everything hurts, nothing helps - it's about them. And complaints can be on pain in different organs: today the heart hurts, tomorrow - the head, in a week - the kidneys. Some (savvy) come to the reception to the therapist with a ready diagnosis and treatment regimen, and the doctor is expected to approve and confirm suspicions. If the doctor establishes another diagnosis or says that the patient is healthy, this causes displeasure, a feeling of dissatisfaction.

Often this patient expresses doubt in the preparation of the doctor and goes to another specialist. And so on until the patient's name becomes known to all doctors in the hospital or in the city. The main symptom that should alert the experienced therapist - inconsistency. At one reception, the patient confidently says that he has “exactly intestinal cancer”, and at the next, he with the same convincingness says that he has intestinal obstruction.

Most often, hypochondriacs complain about the work of the heart and blood vessels, kidneys, bladder, stomach, intestines and brain. In second place in terms of frequency - infectious diseases (hepatitis, HIV), as well as oncological diseases.

Hypochondriac pains are very interesting: they usually do not fit into the clinical picture of a single disease. This is most often paresthesia - tingling, numbness. In second place in popularity is psychalgia (pain that is not related to the work of organs and their condition, it is often difficult for a person to show exactly where it hurts). Often there are also senestalgia (pains are very fanciful - it burns, twists, shoots, turns out). Some patients generally find it difficult to describe how it hurts, just indicating that they are experiencing severe discomfort.

Reflects the presence of hypochondria and the behavior of a person, on his interaction with others. In men and women, suspiciousness increases, they become egoists. Own "sores" become more important than the interests of the family, loved ones, children. They require the participation of relatives, harassing them with demands for care, guardianship, and empathy. If relatives try to keep the illusion of peace with their last strength, this is certainly perceived by the hypochondriac as signs of dislike, indifference, which immerses them even more into a state of depression and doom.

The classic behavior of the hypochondriac is unreasonable accusations against loved ones in the absence of attention. The hypochondriac is not happy, it is impossible to captivate him, to pull him out of his thoughts and efforts for the benefit of his own health. Gradually, hypochondriacs come to the conclusion that the world is inhabited by callous, indifferent people (relatives, doctors) who do not want to take their problem seriously.

Because of this, the frequency of social contacts is reduced, a person becomes isolated, refuses to work, from marriage, since these aspects of life can take away from them the “remnants of their precious health”. Justification most often sounds like this: "I can live, maybe two Mondays left."

Even if the general practitioner is quite sure that a hypochondriac is sitting in front of him, he is obliged to prescribe the necessary examinations and tests in order to exclude the somatic (bodily) causes of pain. A fairly wide range of research is conducted - laboratory, instrumental.

If the disease is not detected, the person is recommended to visit psychiatrist. This specialist conducts tests to distinguish hypochondria from depression, schizophrenia and other diseases or to detect associated mental illnesses.

Where the treatment will take place - at home or in a psychiatric hospital - the doctor decides. In severe hypochondria associated with suicidal thoughts, inpatient treatment is recommended. In other cases, this question is completely left to the discretion of the doctor. Hypochondriac drugs are considered undesirable. The fact is that the very fact of prescribing pills or injections causes an additional conviction in patients of their serious illness.

Hypochondriac should take medications under the supervision of medical personnel; otherwise, dosage overruns, refusal to take in favor of frog legs and other methods of self-treatment cannot be ruled out. The main way to cure hypochondria is psychotherapy. A rational technique is applied, which helps to convince the patient of the fallacy of his opinions.

Well proven gestalt therapy, family therapy and cognitive behavioral psychotherapy. The task of the doctor is to create for the patient new, positive attitudes that will help him more critically to treat himself, his attitudes and beliefs.

Is it possible to completely cure a person? It is possible, but on the condition that he himself will be interested in this. Without a proper level of motivation, all the efforts of the psychotherapist will be useless and ineffective.

It is with motivation that the main difficulty usually arises - a hypochondriac is not against treatment, but not from what they want to be treated for, but from imaginary cancer or AIDS. The treatment projections are therefore ambiguous: according to statistics up to 25% of patients with hypochondria have been relapsed for a year - Thoughts about the alleged disease come back.

Few hypochondriacs are puzzled by this question. But the probability of curing a person at home is of great concern to his family and relatives. First of all, it should be clearly understood that Hypochondria is a mental illness, and this group of human ailments usually does not respond to home treatment.. Get rid of obsession and delusions of folk remedies, to cope with an obsession to engage in cancer prevention with the help of the soul and massage is impossible. Therefore, a psychiatrist should be involved in treatment.

But in the strength of relatives and the hypochondria itself to help this specialist to defeat the disease. And the first measure of self-help is the proper organization of your life. It is necessary to leave as little time as possible to think and to occupy as much as possible with things (home, public, hobby). Very often, psychotherapists note that the state of the hypochondriac becomes better if relatives or friends give him a pet - a cat or a dog.

Experts also ask relatives or comrades of the patient to do him a big favor - to collect and hide away all medical books - reference books, encyclopedias, as well as all numerous copies of Our Health magazine or similar publications, for which people suffering from hypochondria have long been signed.

Therapy will go much faster if the patient sees positive examples for example, learning about the stories of people who have healed from cancer lives happily and fully with diagnoses such as HIV, AIDS, autoimmune diseases. There are enough such examples, today there are cycles of TV programs, books, films about them - make a selection. It is important to devote enough time to sleep at night, eat well, to exclude from the patient's life all of his kerosene and frog legs that he tried to take (this must be done after the psychotherapist gives his permission for such an action).

A person must learn to relax - to practice meditation, yoga. The help of relatives is also needed in order to more often bring a hypochondria into the light - to the cinema, to exhibitions, to concerts. For him, in the process of treatment, new impressions are very important, which have nothing to do with medicine and disease.

It is impossible to put pressure on a hypochondria, to demand it to gather its courage and finally overcome its own problem. He can't do that. For him, this attitude means fighting with oneself, and for this reason self-help in the hypochondriac syndrome must be reasonable and coordinated with the attending psychiatrist.

Mental diseases are quite difficult to prevent, because all the factors that may affect their occurrence have not been studied, much is not obvious to physicians and scientists. In the case of the hypochondria syndrome, preventive measures should be taken in childhood.

• Do not scare the child with terrible diseases (“Take off the scarf - catch a cold and die”, “pick a finger with a needle - you will bleed out or become infected with a dangerous disease”). The child’s attitude towards disease must be adequate.
• Do not frighten if the child has been bruised or bruised. - they do not die of it, but they easily become hypochondriacs on the background of constant parental neurotic concern for the health of the child.

Adults should not get involved in self-diagnosis of books, the Internet or medical films. Self-diagnostics still did not bring anyone to good. If a person is very impressionable, then even the pictures in the medical encyclopedia can trigger the initial stages of hypochondria in him.

If a person was previously treated for hypochondria, it is important to visit a psychologist or psychotherapist as necessary - after each episode of the appearance of an obsessive thought about a possible disease. Very often there is a need for preventive treatment (prophylactic) and it, like the main treatment, is not based on medication, but on psychological work.

The following video will tell you about the symptoms and causes of hypochondria.