Essay - Hypochondriasis: an Overview Part I: Description of Hypochondria You're Such...

Hypochondriasis: An overview

***** I: Description of Hypochondria

You're such a hypochondriac!" The symptoms of hypochondriasis, the formal diagnostic term for hypochondria, have entered the popular vocabulary to ***** a degree th*****t the condition has become the punch line of jokes, and is not seen as a serious, diagnosable medical disorder. To some degree, the illness is both fodder for Woody Allen films as well as a ***** ailment, because the ***** to which someone is be excessively worried about his or her health without being 'mentally ill,' can be highly subjective. Some degree of vigilance about one's ***** is ***** only n*****mal, but beneficial ***** necessary, and when such a preoccupation has ***** overwhelming and counterproductive rather than a p*****rt of a healthy lifestyle must be de*****ined on a c*****se-by-case basis.

According to the traditional definition, a ***** is suffering from ***** "soma*****form d*****order," a "mental illness in which a person has symptoms of a medic*****l illness, but the ***** cannot be fully explained by an actual physical disorder" ("Hypochondriasis," The Cleveland Clinic, 2008).In o*****r w*****ds, a ***** m*****y be so worried about getting an *****, they may unconsciously exhibit symptoms of the illness, but unlike sufferers of Munchausen Syndrome *****y do not deliberately create a charade, like shaving their head to simulate going through chemotherapy. Hypochondriacs genuinely believe they are ill and do ***** feel they need to pretend. Sometimes they are just very worried about getting a disease, such as the per*****n who washes his or her hands over and ***** again ***** avoid getting a cold, or they may believe ***** have a disease, even after medical tests indicate ot*****wise ("Hypochondriasis," ***** Cleveland *****, 2008). Obsessive-compulsive disorders, anxiety, and depression, as is evident ***** these descriptions, may be linked to hypochondria.

Hypochondriacs often m*****interpret minor health problems or n*****mal body functions as symptoms of an illness, like tiredness is seen ***** anemia, hypothyroid, or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Another example ***** a hypochondri*****c is the person with *****aches ***** fears he ***** she has a brain tumor. The ***** most often manifests itself during young adulthood, and, as with many anxiety d*****orders, is often accompanied by a stressful event in his or her life, or a life ch*****nge. A doctor may suspect his or her patient is a hypochondriac if a patient ***** a reputation f***** "***** swapping" or when doctors refuse to confirm the ********** self-perception ***** an individual afflicted serious ***** ("Hypochondriasis," The Cleveland Clinic, 2008). One of the difficulties in treating a hypochondriac as a physici*****n or a therapist is the patient's conviction that it is he or she who is 'really ***** while the supposedly sane doctor ***** 'crazy' or unsympathetic to deny the illness.

***** receive a diagnosis, the conviction on ***** part of the patient that he or she is ill ***** not be "of delusi*****al intensity (as in Delusional Disorder, Somatic Type) and is not restricted ***** a circumscribed concern ***** appearance (***** in Body Dysmorphic Disorder). The *****