# Anxiety Disorders > Hypochondria (Health Anxiety) >  >  A different perspective on hypochondria

## Kacie

Sometimes I think we need to step back and take a look at our hypochondria from a different perspective. The medical profession has taken the view that hypochondria is a neurosis, related to anxiety, and often associated with depression, and sometimes with OCD. I have no argument with that perspective. Hypochondria is anxiety related and coupled with depression for most if not all of us.

The different perspective I have is that I think hypochondria is also associated with an inability to distinguish fantasy from reality, and logic from emotion. These inabilities also drive other anxiety related syndromes like agoraphobia, panic states, and fears of bridges, flying, water, etc. We find these other anxieties intermingled with hypochondria to the point where many of us suffer from GAD.

In hypochondria the fantasy is that an untrained individual can diagnosis complex disease states without the benefit of blood work, imaging studies, or a knowledge of human anatomy and physiology. Normal changes in skin, mucous membranes, and respiration are interpreted as abnormal by hypochondriacs. Muscle pain becomes myocardial pain, tension headaches become brain tumors, muscle twitches become ALS, MS, Parkinsons, etc. The fantasy is further perpetrated by the delusion that the doctor has misread the test results, ignored a mass in an imaging study, and is incapable of discovering obvious disease states. We let emotion switch off our logic, and the experts become idiots.

Logic hides itself in the face of todays malpractice adverse medical environment. Doctors who have even the slightest suspicion of cancer will order dozens of studies to rule out the possibility that they may have overlooked a life threatening and practice killing disease. Law suits against physicians increase every year, and practice managers spend a lot of time counseling doctors on the importance of thorough diagnostic procedures. Yes, sometimes the doctors do miss things. But they rarely miss brain tumors on CT scans, or colon cancer during a colonoscopy. Our emotion leads us to believe that the one out of 1,000,000 misdiagnosed patients with serious illness is looking at us from the mirror.

So, we suffer from a lack of logic, coupled with delusional thinking. It's not that we weren't skilled in logical thinking prior to developing our neurosis, many of us have scientific, and even medical educations. The problem is that we have forgotten how to use the logical skills we possess.

Perhaps we need to retrain our brains to recover their logical spheres. Instead of googling symptoms we don't have the capacity to understand perhaps we should be playing Sudoku online. Find methods or games to reawaken the part of your brain that suppresses your emotions. With logic in control you'll believe the doctor when she says, " Your tests are negative, you have nothing to worry about."

Playing the "what-if" game is anxiety food.

Now, if you can't regain your logic, there may be a medical reason, you're chemically depressed. Depression is still a mystery to some, but most professional studies have proven a chemical link to depression. If your depression has lasted for several months chances are that your brain chemistry needs a tune up. SSRI's and other classes of anti-depressants can often restore your brain chemistry in a relatively short time. In my case I've discovered that the SSRI's help me feel better in as short as three weeks. I know I'm better when I wake up and don't examine myself in the mirror. I stop using the magnifying mirror to look at my throat, and I stop feeling for lumps and bumps. Within two months I realize that I haven't been to my doctor in over a month. Six months later I don't even think about my health. I can watch House and other medical shows on television.

Logic will prevail if you give it a chance.

And my last bit of advice, The first step is to ask for help, and take the advice your doctor gives you. Take the medication if it's prescribed for you, and go to counseling if you can afford it. The only thing you can't do is sit there googling symptoms, and worrying about your health.

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## millielaura

Thank you this was really helpful  ::):

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## walsit

Very helpful

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## Fearfulalways

I wish this site was more active

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## Wishie

> I wish this site was more active



Hello there and welcome to the site  :Welcome:  The more threads and post everyone makes the more active it'll be because it's more likely someone will google something similar to what you have experienced. Why don't you make a thread about your anxiety?  ::):

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