How do you know if you are being a hypochondriac or not.

I am having some health problmes, and I can't stop obsessing about them. My husband agrees they are real symptoms, but does this mean I'm a hypo? I have had problems with hypo in the past, and now I am not sure if I trust myself?

I'm with you, Rose_thorn98. I would spend hours surfing WebMD to diagnose my symptoms. At different times I believed I had: a heart attack, AIDS, a brain tumor, throat cancer, and lung cancer. I've been in ambulances, emergency rooms, and even admitted overnight once for observation.

Finally, I found a doctor who actually understands anxiety and he put me through the works: EKG, MRI, all the blood tests and all the urine tests. He wanted me to see that everything would came back negative so I would KNOW that I'm physically o.k.

Knowing that I'm physically o.k. takes the fear away from my aches and pains. Those twinges in my chest muscles are NOT a heart attack. The stress headaches are NOT brain cancer. Now that I'm not afraid of the aches and pains I don't have the "I'm dying" panic attacks any more.

Hang in there (and stay away from WebMD)

Hey i know what u mean i set here every night researching every sypotoms i have and then set at work and worry that maybe i have it iam the type of person that if i do have it i can get help in time so i know what u mean

John, I know what you mean about WebMD and diagnosing. The physical symptoms feel SOOO real though it is frightening. I had a physical a month ago and everything came back normal, yet I still don't believe that I am physically healthy. I wish I had a doctor that understood, they just say don't panic it will be ok, but I still want that reassurance. I am just wondering what tests I can take to make sure i am 100% healthy, not because I really think i have all these diseases I have, but just to make me calm down and for an ease of mind. I have to see to believe.

I agree with everyone on this subject. I have seen every specialist under the sun and have had every test under the sun from MRI's to blood work to CT to upper GI's. My doctor tells me everytime I see him that my problem is all stress and that I have got to find a way to stop stressing. I still have lots of anxiety due to worrying about being sick and all of my symptoms are stemming from anxiety. I know there is nothing wrong with me I just have to continue to convince myself of that. I am also a nurse and have access to all the medical information you can imagine. So for a person like me that is not a good thing. I drive the doctors I work for crazy asking them questions all the time.

Man I totally feel what you guys are saying. Exept my anxiety is so bad that is hard to hold a job. I cant think strait for very long. I always think that I have some wierd horrible diseas. The bad thing is that I dont have a job. that is bad news for me because I have no money to see a doctor. So day after day I suffer. I dont know what to do at all.

I can relate to all of you. I am 58 now and have been going through the worry about "dying", having a "tumor", etc. for years. The doctors would let me know that they felt I was a hyprcondriac, (is that spelled right?) by their actions and attitudes. So many times it was not anything real, but now I am going through real diseases. I have reflux, diabetes, irritable stomach disorder, my heart races and today I was told that my blood pressure is too high. It was found when I went to get my eyes checked. I didn't know that they could see it in your eyes. I has me so scared and i have been imagining the worst, like I am on the verge of having a heart attack. I have been reading everything in the disease section and it helps to see that I am not alone and that my problems are small compared to some of the others. It is good to have a doctor that is not judgemental and can help with the real problem of anxiety. I was finally lucky enough to find one when I went to get my heart checked. She said I need to get control of the anxiety, so I started looking for help. Good luck to all of you, because I am just not trying to get ahold of my fear of diseases.

As a fellow hypochondriac I can sympathize. However for all those like me who think you have heart problems, brain tumors or whatever here is my advice. Unless you collapse from physical pain, blood starts gushing out your ears or you throwup your organs, then your probably just obsessing. It took me a loooooong time to realize that everytime my stomach hurt or my head felt funny or hurt, that it was not a tumor. If your really sick, then truly your body will let you know with very unambiguous signs.

*Laughing* I have probably been a hypochondriac since I was very little. When I was around seven or eight, I became interested in reading the medical encylopedia that my family had in the house at that time. Actually, I am still very interested in the medical field and learn avidly about vitamins, minerals and diseases (and I probably take too many vitamins and supplements for this reason :-)).

One of the most memorable diseases that I thought I had when I was only eight or nine years old (and I walked around the house trying to convice my mom that I had it one day before leaving for school) was lock jaw/tetanus. I was worried that my headache and tight jaw muscles were tetanus, as I had just stubbed my toe on the metal door jamb in the entry of the house. I begged my mom to take me to the doctors to make sure that it wasn't tetanus because I was afraid that I might die if I didn't get my tetanus shot. She actually had to show me a record of my last tetanus shot to reassure me, and she kept calling me "her little hypochondriac." I also remember worrying that I had cut an artery in my index finger (how silly, I know), when I was about that age, after I thought that I had gotten a paper cut from some paper that I was drawing/writing on. I kept pushing on the little veins (the ones at the joints in your fingers) and worrying as they would darken again that they were bleeding. I walked around pressing them, showing them to others, as my brother and dad laughed in amusement at me. I would probably think that I was cute, too. My niece had a fear of shiny floors when she was only three or four...

I don't really worry much about diseases these days, though I think taking the vitamins and supplements might alleviate some of this. Of course, now that I'm insured again, I want to have a complete physical done and have tests done for standard issues like Diabetes, osteoporosis, etc. I did have one night while in my bed, not too long ago, where I inexsplicably became overwhelmed with the fear of dying. I'm not sure what prompted that sudden panic attack.

Right now, I'm now worried I have been sharing too much of myself on here...yeesh! ;-P

Is there anyway to get over this? I am so freaking out about everying right now. Can this ever go away? I think my doctor is fed up of me. Especially because I will not take ANY medication for anxiety.

Hi fellow hypochondriacs! My name is Kim, and I just started the program this month. I am so releived to find this message board about this stuff cause Im going through it big time. I find it comforting that many of us have chest pains and think we're having heart attacks, and have been to the ER a few times!


Over the past 2 months I've been to the ER twice thinking I was having heart trouble or gallstone trouble. WEll as it turns out the first time was a panic attack, but I just had to make sure I was ok. The second time was one heck of an Acid Reflux attack causing esohpagitis, though they did a thorough cardiac eval on me and EKG and labs were normal. My doc says that perhaps gallstones was giving me GERD, yet I've never heard of that happening before. I do have stones, but they've only bothered me 2 times. One time was 8 years ago and the other 5 years ago. They're floating around in there, but not blocking anything and my gallbladder, spleen, liver, kidneys and aorta all look fine after an ultrasound 2 weeks ago. That was a relief, yet my analytical mind worries something could be missed. Being a hypochondriac is exhausting!

So Im taking Nexium for the acid reflux and irritation and Lexapro for the anxiety. I have to admit, getting that anxiety under control helps the hypochondria quite a bit! My anxiety and depression is lifting quite quickly only being on it 1 week.

Im having alot of pain in my shoulder joints, under my arms, elbows, ribs, and breasts and sometimes my breast bone. Scared me yesterday, but it goes away with advil,rest, and getting warm if it's cold! And baby it's cold outside! So of course what do I do? comb WEbmd too much!! Ha Ha Ha. Gosh it's so nice to know Im not the only one that does this. My mom was a nurse, and I too have an interest in the medical field and have too many medical books to read!!

I do believe in my rational mind I possibly could have Fibromyalgia. I've had signs of it for years, and been reading lately and have alot of the signs too. Does anyone else here have Fibrymyalgia? Would like to compare notes if so.

This is great to hear these stories!!!

I've had every disease twice in the past five years, and thought I was pregnant once. (i'm a guy)

WEB MD is the devil!

Oh how I had t0o laugh - especially at Lilly Light's post re: being a young child looking at the family medical books - I did the SAME thing!!!!!!!!! My mother evens tells the story about how I was young and found a disease in those books and swore up and down to her that I had "prostate" problems (I am a female.)

I, too, find everything wrong - and what I don't find on the internet, I can really work up the ol' imagination!

It doesn't help to have genuine medical issues. You are always waiting for the other "shoe to drop."

Hi, Kimmygirl,
I had GERD when my gallstones were giving me trouble. I recently read that people with gallstones do better to get the gallbladder removed sooner rather than later. I had a lot less trouble with reflux after having mine removed. Those stones won't go away, and if you get the surgery that'll be one less thing to worry about. What does your doctor say?

I, too, enjoyed this thread, especially since you're all still alive!

And here I thought I was alone searching all these symptoms on google... being very careful NOT to clear the history incase I died... then people would have a clue as to what killed me.

Geeze, I feel better already!