Well, I just had to look this up, and the first answer I got was a bit of a surprise:
'The saying “laughter is the best medicine” is believed to have originated — albeit now in a snappier form —from Proverbs 17.22 of the King James Bible.'
Bunk. I don't trust the psychiatric diagnosis of hypochondria. Any illness not yet identified and recognized will get you a hypochondriac label from the medical community. It was a very common occurrence with MS before they started using MRIs, happens all the time with hard to diagnose autoimmune conditions. This post is just more victim blaming - perhaps these people are dying because they're actually sick.
I too am very leery of psychiatric diagnoses. And I'm fully aware that people with syndromes comprised of diffuse symptoms, such as CFS and fibromyalgia, have been mislabelled as hypochondriacs in the past. But having been in practice for nearly 30 years, I can attest that some people experience chronic health anxiety which causes them to be hypervigilant to every slight change in their physiology, and to engage in catastrophic thinking. Many of my clients have described the experience of hearing about someone else's illness (even on TV) and then manifesting the symptoms of that illness, and then becoming fixated on the notion that they have that illness, and hence engaging in repeated doctor visits and diagnostic testing which reveals nothing. Then that set of symptoms resolves, and another arises to take its place. This is an anxiety disorder, and the fact that CBT works indicates that there is no underlying organic disease.
I too am very leery of psychiatric diagnoses. And I'm fully aware that people with syndromes comprised of diffuse symptoms, such as CFS and fibromyalgia, have been mislabelled as hypochondriacs in the past. But having been in practice for nearly 30 years, I can attest that some people experience chronic health anxiety which causes them to be hypervigilant to every slight change in their physiology, and to engage in catastrophic thinking. Many of my clients have described the experience of hearing about someone else's illness (even on TV) and then manifesting the symptoms of that illness, and then becoming fixated on the notion that they have that illness, and hence engaging in repeated doctor visits and diagnostic testing which reveals nothing. Then that set of symptoms resolves, and another arises to take its place. This is an anxiety disorder, and the fact that CBT works indicates that there is no underlying organic disease.
Medical professionals who do this are misapplying the diagnostic label, as you'll clearly see if you go back to the article and read the definition of hypochondriasis: "Hypochondriasis, also known as health anxiety disorder, is a prevalent psychiatric disorder1 characterized by persistent preoccupation about having 1 or more serious and progressive physical disorders.2 The preoccupation is accompanied by hypervigilance and a catastrophic interpretation of bodily signs, resulting in repetitive and excessive checking and reassurance-seeking behavior or maladaptive avoidance."
I couldn't believe what I was reading, and kept reading to be sure I was understanding it right. But by about half way through I was so shocked I slipped into skim reading to find the "out" - the point at which she made the point that calling syndromes hypochondria is not just wrong, it is seriously harmful - harmful enough to be shortening our lifespans. I guess she will remove these comments, and if she is wise she will remove this article. Glad to have met you.
I will certainly not be removing this article. I advise you to read it properly, and go to the original study, rather than passing judgment on something that you've failed to understand.
I can't believe you've bought into this. Hypochondria is what we have when the doctors are too dumb and too brainwashed to diagnose what is wrong with us. I have had Fibromyalgia since I was 14 - that's since 1964. And doctors have been able to do nothing at all with my symptoms for all of those years. Instead they treated me as mentally deranged. Even once FMS was officially recognised, all individual doctors, completely beaten by the syndrome, treated every individual with it as mentally deranged. So I agree with your other commentator, Sida, that the diagnosis of hypochondria is a cop out for finding out what is really wrong with the person, and in these days of long covid I cannot grasp why anyone in the field is just not "getting it". These are all toxicity diseases, and medicine is utterly incapable of diagnosing or curing toxicity diseases. Of course we are dying earlier than we should. We are poisoned!
I'm fully aware that people with syndromes comprised of diffuse symptoms, such as CFS and fibromyalgia, have been mislabelled as hypochondriacs in the past. But having been in practice for nearly 30 years, I can attest that some people experience chronic health anxiety which causes them to be hypervigilant to every slight change in their physiology, and to engage in catastrophic thinking. Many of my clients have described the experience of hearing about someone else's illness (even on TV) and then manifesting the symptoms of that illness, and then becoming fixated on the notion that they have that illness, and hence engaging in repeated doctor visits and diagnostic testing which reveals nothing. Then that set of symptoms resolves, and another arises to take its place. This is an anxiety disorder, and the fact that CBT works indicates that there is no underlying organic disease.
Thinking more about this, perhaps in your article you could start with a disclaimer of just who you are calling a hypochondriac and what proof you are accepting that they have NO underlying but un-diagnosed physical condition. At least that way, you let the rest of us off that lethal hook that we have spent our lives dangling on. Those of us with one of the syndromes know that we will get a different diagnosis from every single doctor, and that we will still be told we are malingering by most, so you will have to forgive us for having little faith in medical diagnosis.
But you are right to have called my attention to reading what you have written more thoroughly. I had not picked up from your original article, which I admitted to skim reading because I felt so abused by it, that you are saying definitively that you can diagnose a hypochondriac by them appearing to recover with CBT (Cognitive behaviour therapy) treatment? Perhaps you can elaborate in your definition of a hypochondriac, just how you are using the CBT treatment to diagnose it. Are you using it to treat the "imaginary disorder" itself, or are you using it to convince them they are imagining they have any disorder at all other than hypochondria? How does CBT treatment work as a diagnostic tool?
And that said, can you be convinced that your "hypochondriacs" are not fixating on a series of different symptoms in an ill advised but desperate attempt to get some level of help given they really do feel like shit?
I quoted the study authors' definition of hypochondriasis in the article: "Hypochondriasis, also known as health anxiety disorder, is a prevalent psychiatric disorder1 characterized by persistent preoccupation about having 1 or more serious and progressive physical disorders.2 The preoccupation is accompanied by hypervigilance and a catastrophic interpretation of bodily signs, resulting in repetitive and excessive checking and reassurance-seeking behavior or maladaptive avoidance. The symptoms are clearly disproportionate and cause significant distress and impairment.3 Hypochondriasis is thought to be severely underdiagnosed due to the condition not being properly recognized or taken seriously by health professionals as well as to the negative connotations associated with the diagnostic label.4,5 However, as a symptom, health anxiety is highly prevalent in health care settings6 and is associated with a substantial use of health care resources.1,4 Hypochondriasis is widely regarded as a chronic disorder, with a low probability of remission without specialized treatment.7,8"
"The essential feature is a persistent preoccupation with the possibility of having one or more serious and progressive physical disorders. Patients manifest persistent somatic complaints or persistent preoccupation with their physical appearance. Normal or commonplace sensations and appearances are often interpreted by a patient as abnormal and distressing, and attention is usually focused on only one or two organs or systems of the body. The feared physical disorder or disfigurement may be named by the patient, but even so the degree of conviction about its presence and the emphasis upon one disorder rather than another usually varies between consultations; the patient will usually entertain the possibility that other or additional physical disorders may exist in addition to the one given pre-eminence.
Marked depression and anxiety are often present, and may justify additional diagnosis. The disorders rarely present for the first time after the age of 50 years, and the course of both symptoms and disability is usually chronic and fluctuating. There must be no fixed delusions about bodily functions or shape. Fears of the presence of one or more diseases (nosophobia) should be classified here.
This syndrome occurs in both men and women, and there are no special familial characteristics (in contrast to somatization disorder). Many individuals, especially those with milder forms of the disorder, remain within primary care or nonpsychiatric medical specialties. Psychiatric referral is often resented, unless accomplished early in
the development of the disorder and with tactful collaboration between physician and psychiatrist. The degree of associated disability is very variable; some individuals dominate or manipulate family and social networks as a result of their symptoms, in contrast to a minority who function almost normally.
Diagnostic guidelines
For a definite diagnosis, both of the following should be present:
(a) persistent belief in the presence of at least one serious physical illness underlying the presenting symptom or symptoms, even though repeated investigations and examinations have identified no adequate physical explanation, or a persistent preoccupation with a presumed deformity or disfigurement;
(b) persistent refusal to accept the advice and reassurance of several different doctors that there is no physical illness or abnormality underlying the symptoms."
...and who gets to play god and determine the reality of physical symptoms and where they started? Everyone with one of the syndromes is anxious because life gets too Hard and no-one around them gets it. Then the symptoms are blamed on the anxiety which gets increasingly worse as life becomes increasingly impossible. Eventually anxiety becomes the easiest excuse for saying no, given that no other reason is accepted , so even we get in on the game of blaming anxiety. I mix with syndrome people all the time as we are the only people who get it and I have never met a hypochondriac.
Physical symptoms are ALWAYS real. If a person experiences something, it's happening to them. The question is, is the symptom arising from an organic cause (e.g. a disease process, deficiency or toxicity) or from a non-organic cause? IBS is an excellent example of a syndrome in which symptoms may arise from an organic cause (post-infectious IBS, which is driven by an autoimmune reaction against cytolethal distending toxin which cross-reacts with cells involved in peristalsis) or a non-organic cause. In the latter case, the IBS responds astonishingly well to gut-directed hypnotherapy, which is aimed at correcting the miscommunication between the enteric nervous system and the central nervous system. I have seen many clients whose decades-long IBS virtually vanished after a 6 week course of gut-directed hypnotherapy. Almost invariably, they have a childhood history of abuse and/or neglect. These adverse childhood experiences affected their gut-brain axis, causing the symptoms of IBS. They frequently have other anxiety and mood disorders, unsurprisingly.
Robyn, what you're overlooking is this MAJOR point below.
Most people labeled "hypochondriac" are no such thing. They ARE ill. And these folks do die younger; because they ARE ILL!. You, being a thinker, well - this post surprised me.
Do you realize most (95%) vaccine (all vaccines) slaughtered folks are labeled "hypochondriac" or "hysterical" or whatever. You know this right? If not, why not? It's in the arsenal of every doctor on the planet; when a med/vaccine/chemo goes bad, which they often do, blame the patient. AND, label them psych or hypochondriac. Honestly, you don't know this?
Quick example. But (big but), not extrapolating anything from this ONE (of now thousands) example.
Leaving out zillions of details because it would take up 100 factual pages that I can back up (the last hospital she was at was UCSF. I have all records).
40 years ago. Sister. 1.5 yrs older than me. Started feeling horrific when she was 19 (left home and married right after high school).
• Started with severe weakness and fatigue for 6 weeks. Couldn’t get up off a couch w/o massive weakness and fatigue. Quit her job.
• Progressed into throwing up many hours a day. SEVERE, gruesome throwing up (I saw/heard it), as if her CNS was trying to expel ‘something’ from her body
• Went to emergency 3 straight nights. Every time she was told she was a hypochondriac and “DON’T COME BACK TO EMERGENCY, you crazy person!!!!” (Really)
• Leaving out sheer horror and fast forwarding many YEARS, she’s still sick as a dog. Now over 20 doctors have seen her and they ALL came back with “this is impossible. Not happening.” And tagged her with the condition: “Hysterical Female Syndrome” (“hysterical” my left butt cheek. She was TOO docile. TOO calm. And something else, way too good looking. I THINK this does play a part, at least in her death – can’t go into detail, because it would add another 50 pages)
• 6 years or so later, My ex and I walked into our parents house (1/2 way between sisters house and our house).
• She's still sick as a dog and can’t get up off couch.
• BUT, her skin has now turned a greyish/yellow’ish color. The rest of my idiotic family is OBLIVIOUS to this and ignore her.
• Next year. We all meet up again and her skin is even more ‘gray’ and/but, now her eyes are turning an orange color.
• EVERYONE but me and my ex, ignore her yet again. She cannot stay upright but for seconds/minutes. AND, orange'ish eyes. Remember this.
• Fast forward 2 more years. She’s ‘at the end’. She calls me in tears: “I can’t go on”. And checks herself into the local hospital and they immediately throw her into psych. Why? Because for the previous 8 or 9 years ALL doctors said ‘what she is describing is not happening ("impossible"!!), therefore, she’s a nutjob’ (HYSTERICAL FEMALE SYDROME)
• Oops, ONE doctor out of the 5 that examined her (the other 4 deemed her hypochondriac) that day she checked herself in said: “something ain’t right here” and ordered a scan of her stomach.
• Whoops again. Came back with a tumor on her pancreas that was the size of a large grapefruit. Never before seen (they sent her case out all over the country). Slllooowww growing tumor. Now the size of a grapefruit.
• Magically, ALL the doctors disappeared, like cockroaches.
• Whoops again. They ‘operated’ (actually, they gutted her with a non-sensical operation) the next day and then another surgery a week later). What did they find? Cancer throughout her body. Massive cancer. They knew it as soon as they cut her open. Literally everywhere. Pancreas (never has anyone seen a tumor that size on a pancreas – they estimated it to be 10-15 years old – she’s only 29 at this time), liver, stomach, lymph, lungs and everywhere else including brain?. Cancer everywhere. She died 3 months later (at age 30). Died as a Hysterical Hypochondriac Female.
Robyn, please re-think this article. There are MANY others out there, maybe not this severe, that are labeled “Hypochondriac” and yet, they are not. They are damaged human beings. Vaccine damaged, med damaged, poisoned, or just ‘nature’ (“nature” – very doubtful in this and most other cases like this).
Medical professionals who engage in the behaviour you've described are misapplying diagnostic labels, as you'll clearly see if you go back to the article and read the definition of hypochondriasis: "Hypochondriasis, also known as health anxiety disorder, is a prevalent psychiatric disorder1 characterized by persistent preoccupation about having 1 or more serious and progressive physical disorders.2 The preoccupation is accompanied by hypervigilance and a catastrophic interpretation of bodily signs, resulting in repetitive and excessive checking and reassurance-seeking behavior or maladaptive avoidance."
Touchy subject, yes? :-) No worries. Thanks for your 2 replies.
One thing, I’m not young anymore and yet I don’t think I’ve run into a person that you described (maybe I have and just didn't know it). But, can’t come to any conclusions just from that, I understand. Maybe these people lining up for their 21st? booster are similar/same to what you described? And the ones who panicked when they couldn’t wear a mask 24/7, loved the lockdowns and distancing etc etc What do you think?
Whereas I’ve never known what you described, I’ve known a boatload of people who were labeled Hypochondriac (or whatever) and yet they were far from it. They were ill; or slaughtered by something or other, often due to Doctor instructions or prescriptions.
This needs to stop within medicine. Too many doctors use the ‘it’s all in your head” or it’s only anxiety, depression, or even some crazed Hysterical Syndrome. In other words, they use it as a weapon to beat their patient(s) into submission. Stop with this crap. But they won’t. Because? it works on the majority of humans. No fight. No spine. Very submissive to the White Coats amongst us.
Whatever, I have copy/pasted your post and sent out to a few folks .. with very mixed results. I'll try more tomorrow.
I'll bet you've encountered people who suffer from panic disorder, eating disorders, hypochondriasis, somatisation disorder and all manner of manifestations of severe anxiety, and you wouldn't know that they endured these conditions. Most people who experience such quality-of-life destroying conditions aren't keen to talk about it to all and sundry, for easily understandable reasons. I have a client who suffers severe panic disorder which results in severe limitations in how far she can drive, but virtually no one who knows her is aware of it, and she holds a highly responsible position in a health care-related field.
As a health practitioner, people tell me things that they don't reveal to others because they are afraid of being judged. Someone whose life is consumed with intrusive thoughts that they have cancer, no matter how many times they've been tested for it and found to be free of it, is well aware that what they're experiencing is not normal. They don't want to be thought of as crazy or neurotic by their friends and family, so they mostly keep it to themselves.
I do think that the manufactured COVID crisis gave people prone to hypochondriasis a rather unique opportunity - they could be 'out and proud' about their intense fear of COVID (and subsequently, their conviction that they had 'long COVID', even before the clot shots came out) and rather than being dismissed or mocked, they were celebrated for it. These sad individuals still congregate in weird corners of Twitter, and for reasons I don't understand, the Twitter algorithm sometimes feeds me their tweets. As a practitioner who has had plenty of encounters with highly anxious people, I instantly pick up on their hallmark language patterns. These people need help!!! Some of them are vax-injured, for sure, but some are 'just' virtually crippled by health anxiety.
It is certainly the case that many people with health conditions that could not be diagnosed or treated with standard Western medical approaches, have been dismissed as hypochondriacs, but if you read the ICD-10 entry, you'll clearly see that this is a case of doctors being intellectually lazy and dishonest. The problem is, it takes time, empathy and communication skills to gain the trust of an individual who is tortured by anxiety, and to have them walk you through what is going on in their head. That's the only way you can determine whether they have an undiagnosed medical condition, or an anxiety disorder (and even then, there's always a chance of getting it wrong). Doctors are not trained to do this, they're not paid to spend the time required to do it, and most lack the personality characteristics to even get interested in learning how to do it.
I too am very leery of psychiatric diagnoses. And I' m fully aware that people with syndromes comprised of diffuse symptoms, such as CFS and fibromyalgia, have been mislabelled as hypochondriacs in the past. But having been in practice for nearly 30 years, I can attest that some people experience chronic health anxiety which causes them to be hypervigilant to every slight change in their physiology, and to engage in catastrophic thinking. Many of my clients have described the experience of hearing about someone else's illness (even on TV) and then manifesting the symptoms of that illness, and then becoming fixated on the notion that they have that illness, and hence engaging in repeated doctor visits and diagnostic testing which reveals nothing. Then that set of symptoms resolves, and another arises to take its place. This is an anxiety disorder, and the fact that CBT works indicates that there is no underlying organic disease.
Apologies - this comment is a bit all-about-me, but that study really touched a nerve.
I have have had so many tests and scans and scares, and despite all that - not been diagnosed with anything fatal. I've had numerous biopsies, -oscopies, and lumpectomies. I'm sure my health insurance provider regrets ever taking me on. I am very aware of it, and quite embarrassed.
Sometimes I ignore a new lump for ages before succumbing to panic and booking an appointment. I recently spent three months on morphine for a prolapsed disc. I've had many weeks of horrific pain with burst ovarian cysts. Multiple miscarriages and gynae disorders. A few years ago I started to feel every heart beat and all the ectopics, and it has tormented me ever since (though I pass every cardiovascular exam). Currently tossing up whether to proceed with a contrast scan for recurrent blood in urine.
There's always something, and I absolutely feel like a hypochondriac. I live a super healthy life - I'm fit, trim, and muscular. I exercise daily and eat real food and have meaningful relationships. All the good things. I don't have depression - even when terrible things happen to me. It drives me crazy that I can't get on top of this. I was somewhat heartened to see that the strength of the relationship between being hypochondriac and early death was insignificant when anxiety and depression were accounted for. But nonetheless - I feel like I might be one. I also feel like 'hypochondriac' might possibly be a misnomer for people who have a bunch of wonky stuff going on that doctors are incapable of figuring out.
(Weirdly - my physical health and energy improved significantly right after my one and only bout of covid in early 2022. Did this happen to anyone else?)
Your experience of all those gynaecological issues suggests strongly to me that you have an undiagnosed illness. Hypochondriasis is a form of anxiety. It's certainly the case that people with undiagnosed illnesses can develop significant anxiety as a result, but having seen quite a number of people with hypochondriasis in my clinical practice, I would say that it's qualitatively different from anxiety that arises from having symptoms of an undiagnosed illness.
My tip for anyone with persistent health problems that haven't been resolved by healthy living is to do a medically-supervised water-only fast. All sorts of maladies respond to fasting. If you're in the US, go to TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, CA: https://www.healthpromoting.com/
Thanks so much Robyn. I’ve done a fair bit of fasting. I worked my way slowly up to three day fasts over about a year. I loved them. Was in mild nutritional ketosis much of the time. But over that time my HBA1c got higher and higher until I was pre diabetic and developed a neurological issue in my hand. Paradoxically, the only thing I could do to keep my blood glucose down was to eat regularly. HBA1c and blood G normalised when I gave up fasting. I get very anxious about my weird heart stuff, and sometimes about the lumps, but I don’t feel like I have anxiety as a condition. It’s been going on since I hit puberty decades ago - so I have long given up hoping to figure out why things are wonky, and have started to question whether there is an element of psychosomatic illness. I’m learning to meditate. Might as well try everything.
So-called nutritional ketosis is a total disaster. Ketosis is an emergency state that the body resorts to when food is unavailable. It is not a natural state for humans to remain in on a permanent or semi-permanent basis - see my previous article https://robynchuter.substack.com/p/ketogenic-diets-part-2-is-ketosis.
A medically-supervised fast is the furthest thing in the world from the total bollocks about fasting that you find all over the internet. Give TrueNorth a call - they offer a free initial consultation to discuss whether they think they can help you. You'll be interested to know that prolonged fasting (again, must be done under qualified supervision) resets the autonomic nervous system, restoring parasympathetic tone - so even if there is an element of psychogenic causation to your symptoms, you'll still benefit from a fast.
Having said all that, I 100% back your meditation practice. If you find that your health problems improve after regular meditation, you'll have solid evidence that there has been a significant psychological contribution to your physical health problems.
That’s an amazing article. Lots for me to think about. Thank you so much Robin. I didn’t really go low-carb, but I did window-eating each day, and that was enough to throw me into mild ketosis. I wasn’t trying to go keto - it just happened as a side effect. It makes sense that it is not natural to stay in it. I’m learning that it is very individual. We put my dad on a keto diet for his rapid-onset dementia, and it was incredible to see it brought him back (for now, at least) - we have a biomedical doctor supervising us. Not so great for me though!
At Hypochondriacs Anonymous....
The first step is admitting you don't have a problem. Late Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year Robyn.🇦🇺👍
Boom boom! Although I would qualify that by saying that the problem isn't what they think it is!
Who said "Laughter is the best medicine" ?
Well, I just had to look this up, and the first answer I got was a bit of a surprise:
'The saying “laughter is the best medicine” is believed to have originated — albeit now in a snappier form —from Proverbs 17.22 of the King James Bible.'
Fantastic and fascinating article Robyn. Thank you 🙏🏻
Check the thread on your neck, if it's leaning left, (which I very much doubt) you're stuffed.😄
Bahahahaha!
I suffer from governmental/ political hypochondria, all of it makes me sick. I believe it's catching.👍😄
Oh jeez, I think I've caught it from you ;-). Should I get tested for it?
Bunk. I don't trust the psychiatric diagnosis of hypochondria. Any illness not yet identified and recognized will get you a hypochondriac label from the medical community. It was a very common occurrence with MS before they started using MRIs, happens all the time with hard to diagnose autoimmune conditions. This post is just more victim blaming - perhaps these people are dying because they're actually sick.
I too am very leery of psychiatric diagnoses. And I'm fully aware that people with syndromes comprised of diffuse symptoms, such as CFS and fibromyalgia, have been mislabelled as hypochondriacs in the past. But having been in practice for nearly 30 years, I can attest that some people experience chronic health anxiety which causes them to be hypervigilant to every slight change in their physiology, and to engage in catastrophic thinking. Many of my clients have described the experience of hearing about someone else's illness (even on TV) and then manifesting the symptoms of that illness, and then becoming fixated on the notion that they have that illness, and hence engaging in repeated doctor visits and diagnostic testing which reveals nothing. Then that set of symptoms resolves, and another arises to take its place. This is an anxiety disorder, and the fact that CBT works indicates that there is no underlying organic disease.
Oh, I was so relieved to see your post. Seriously, how can anyone in this day and age think that an unidentified illness is hypochondria!
I too am very leery of psychiatric diagnoses. And I'm fully aware that people with syndromes comprised of diffuse symptoms, such as CFS and fibromyalgia, have been mislabelled as hypochondriacs in the past. But having been in practice for nearly 30 years, I can attest that some people experience chronic health anxiety which causes them to be hypervigilant to every slight change in their physiology, and to engage in catastrophic thinking. Many of my clients have described the experience of hearing about someone else's illness (even on TV) and then manifesting the symptoms of that illness, and then becoming fixated on the notion that they have that illness, and hence engaging in repeated doctor visits and diagnostic testing which reveals nothing. Then that set of symptoms resolves, and another arises to take its place. This is an anxiety disorder, and the fact that CBT works indicates that there is no underlying organic disease.
Yes, and you know what they call the "vaccine" injured - hypochondriacs ☹️
Medical professionals who do this are misapplying the diagnostic label, as you'll clearly see if you go back to the article and read the definition of hypochondriasis: "Hypochondriasis, also known as health anxiety disorder, is a prevalent psychiatric disorder1 characterized by persistent preoccupation about having 1 or more serious and progressive physical disorders.2 The preoccupation is accompanied by hypervigilance and a catastrophic interpretation of bodily signs, resulting in repetitive and excessive checking and reassurance-seeking behavior or maladaptive avoidance."
I couldn't believe what I was reading, and kept reading to be sure I was understanding it right. But by about half way through I was so shocked I slipped into skim reading to find the "out" - the point at which she made the point that calling syndromes hypochondria is not just wrong, it is seriously harmful - harmful enough to be shortening our lifespans. I guess she will remove these comments, and if she is wise she will remove this article. Glad to have met you.
I will certainly not be removing this article. I advise you to read it properly, and go to the original study, rather than passing judgment on something that you've failed to understand.
I can't believe you've bought into this. Hypochondria is what we have when the doctors are too dumb and too brainwashed to diagnose what is wrong with us. I have had Fibromyalgia since I was 14 - that's since 1964. And doctors have been able to do nothing at all with my symptoms for all of those years. Instead they treated me as mentally deranged. Even once FMS was officially recognised, all individual doctors, completely beaten by the syndrome, treated every individual with it as mentally deranged. So I agree with your other commentator, Sida, that the diagnosis of hypochondria is a cop out for finding out what is really wrong with the person, and in these days of long covid I cannot grasp why anyone in the field is just not "getting it". These are all toxicity diseases, and medicine is utterly incapable of diagnosing or curing toxicity diseases. Of course we are dying earlier than we should. We are poisoned!
I'm fully aware that people with syndromes comprised of diffuse symptoms, such as CFS and fibromyalgia, have been mislabelled as hypochondriacs in the past. But having been in practice for nearly 30 years, I can attest that some people experience chronic health anxiety which causes them to be hypervigilant to every slight change in their physiology, and to engage in catastrophic thinking. Many of my clients have described the experience of hearing about someone else's illness (even on TV) and then manifesting the symptoms of that illness, and then becoming fixated on the notion that they have that illness, and hence engaging in repeated doctor visits and diagnostic testing which reveals nothing. Then that set of symptoms resolves, and another arises to take its place. This is an anxiety disorder, and the fact that CBT works indicates that there is no underlying organic disease.
Thinking more about this, perhaps in your article you could start with a disclaimer of just who you are calling a hypochondriac and what proof you are accepting that they have NO underlying but un-diagnosed physical condition. At least that way, you let the rest of us off that lethal hook that we have spent our lives dangling on. Those of us with one of the syndromes know that we will get a different diagnosis from every single doctor, and that we will still be told we are malingering by most, so you will have to forgive us for having little faith in medical diagnosis.
But you are right to have called my attention to reading what you have written more thoroughly. I had not picked up from your original article, which I admitted to skim reading because I felt so abused by it, that you are saying definitively that you can diagnose a hypochondriac by them appearing to recover with CBT (Cognitive behaviour therapy) treatment? Perhaps you can elaborate in your definition of a hypochondriac, just how you are using the CBT treatment to diagnose it. Are you using it to treat the "imaginary disorder" itself, or are you using it to convince them they are imagining they have any disorder at all other than hypochondria? How does CBT treatment work as a diagnostic tool?
And that said, can you be convinced that your "hypochondriacs" are not fixating on a series of different symptoms in an ill advised but desperate attempt to get some level of help given they really do feel like shit?
I quoted the study authors' definition of hypochondriasis in the article: "Hypochondriasis, also known as health anxiety disorder, is a prevalent psychiatric disorder1 characterized by persistent preoccupation about having 1 or more serious and progressive physical disorders.2 The preoccupation is accompanied by hypervigilance and a catastrophic interpretation of bodily signs, resulting in repetitive and excessive checking and reassurance-seeking behavior or maladaptive avoidance. The symptoms are clearly disproportionate and cause significant distress and impairment.3 Hypochondriasis is thought to be severely underdiagnosed due to the condition not being properly recognized or taken seriously by health professionals as well as to the negative connotations associated with the diagnostic label.4,5 However, as a symptom, health anxiety is highly prevalent in health care settings6 and is associated with a substantial use of health care resources.1,4 Hypochondriasis is widely regarded as a chronic disorder, with a low probability of remission without specialized treatment.7,8"
There is more helpful detail in the ICD-10 (https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/classification/other-classifications/9241544228_eng.pdf, pp. 164-165):
"The essential feature is a persistent preoccupation with the possibility of having one or more serious and progressive physical disorders. Patients manifest persistent somatic complaints or persistent preoccupation with their physical appearance. Normal or commonplace sensations and appearances are often interpreted by a patient as abnormal and distressing, and attention is usually focused on only one or two organs or systems of the body. The feared physical disorder or disfigurement may be named by the patient, but even so the degree of conviction about its presence and the emphasis upon one disorder rather than another usually varies between consultations; the patient will usually entertain the possibility that other or additional physical disorders may exist in addition to the one given pre-eminence.
Marked depression and anxiety are often present, and may justify additional diagnosis. The disorders rarely present for the first time after the age of 50 years, and the course of both symptoms and disability is usually chronic and fluctuating. There must be no fixed delusions about bodily functions or shape. Fears of the presence of one or more diseases (nosophobia) should be classified here.
This syndrome occurs in both men and women, and there are no special familial characteristics (in contrast to somatization disorder). Many individuals, especially those with milder forms of the disorder, remain within primary care or nonpsychiatric medical specialties. Psychiatric referral is often resented, unless accomplished early in
the development of the disorder and with tactful collaboration between physician and psychiatrist. The degree of associated disability is very variable; some individuals dominate or manipulate family and social networks as a result of their symptoms, in contrast to a minority who function almost normally.
Diagnostic guidelines
For a definite diagnosis, both of the following should be present:
(a) persistent belief in the presence of at least one serious physical illness underlying the presenting symptom or symptoms, even though repeated investigations and examinations have identified no adequate physical explanation, or a persistent preoccupation with a presumed deformity or disfigurement;
(b) persistent refusal to accept the advice and reassurance of several different doctors that there is no physical illness or abnormality underlying the symptoms."
...and who gets to play god and determine the reality of physical symptoms and where they started? Everyone with one of the syndromes is anxious because life gets too Hard and no-one around them gets it. Then the symptoms are blamed on the anxiety which gets increasingly worse as life becomes increasingly impossible. Eventually anxiety becomes the easiest excuse for saying no, given that no other reason is accepted , so even we get in on the game of blaming anxiety. I mix with syndrome people all the time as we are the only people who get it and I have never met a hypochondriac.
Physical symptoms are ALWAYS real. If a person experiences something, it's happening to them. The question is, is the symptom arising from an organic cause (e.g. a disease process, deficiency or toxicity) or from a non-organic cause? IBS is an excellent example of a syndrome in which symptoms may arise from an organic cause (post-infectious IBS, which is driven by an autoimmune reaction against cytolethal distending toxin which cross-reacts with cells involved in peristalsis) or a non-organic cause. In the latter case, the IBS responds astonishingly well to gut-directed hypnotherapy, which is aimed at correcting the miscommunication between the enteric nervous system and the central nervous system. I have seen many clients whose decades-long IBS virtually vanished after a 6 week course of gut-directed hypnotherapy. Almost invariably, they have a childhood history of abuse and/or neglect. These adverse childhood experiences affected their gut-brain axis, causing the symptoms of IBS. They frequently have other anxiety and mood disorders, unsurprisingly.
Robyn, what you're overlooking is this MAJOR point below.
Most people labeled "hypochondriac" are no such thing. They ARE ill. And these folks do die younger; because they ARE ILL!. You, being a thinker, well - this post surprised me.
Do you realize most (95%) vaccine (all vaccines) slaughtered folks are labeled "hypochondriac" or "hysterical" or whatever. You know this right? If not, why not? It's in the arsenal of every doctor on the planet; when a med/vaccine/chemo goes bad, which they often do, blame the patient. AND, label them psych or hypochondriac. Honestly, you don't know this?
Quick example. But (big but), not extrapolating anything from this ONE (of now thousands) example.
Leaving out zillions of details because it would take up 100 factual pages that I can back up (the last hospital she was at was UCSF. I have all records).
40 years ago. Sister. 1.5 yrs older than me. Started feeling horrific when she was 19 (left home and married right after high school).
• Started with severe weakness and fatigue for 6 weeks. Couldn’t get up off a couch w/o massive weakness and fatigue. Quit her job.
• Progressed into throwing up many hours a day. SEVERE, gruesome throwing up (I saw/heard it), as if her CNS was trying to expel ‘something’ from her body
• Went to emergency 3 straight nights. Every time she was told she was a hypochondriac and “DON’T COME BACK TO EMERGENCY, you crazy person!!!!” (Really)
• Leaving out sheer horror and fast forwarding many YEARS, she’s still sick as a dog. Now over 20 doctors have seen her and they ALL came back with “this is impossible. Not happening.” And tagged her with the condition: “Hysterical Female Syndrome” (“hysterical” my left butt cheek. She was TOO docile. TOO calm. And something else, way too good looking. I THINK this does play a part, at least in her death – can’t go into detail, because it would add another 50 pages)
• 6 years or so later, My ex and I walked into our parents house (1/2 way between sisters house and our house).
• She's still sick as a dog and can’t get up off couch.
• BUT, her skin has now turned a greyish/yellow’ish color. The rest of my idiotic family is OBLIVIOUS to this and ignore her.
• Next year. We all meet up again and her skin is even more ‘gray’ and/but, now her eyes are turning an orange color.
• EVERYONE but me and my ex, ignore her yet again. She cannot stay upright but for seconds/minutes. AND, orange'ish eyes. Remember this.
• Fast forward 2 more years. She’s ‘at the end’. She calls me in tears: “I can’t go on”. And checks herself into the local hospital and they immediately throw her into psych. Why? Because for the previous 8 or 9 years ALL doctors said ‘what she is describing is not happening ("impossible"!!), therefore, she’s a nutjob’ (HYSTERICAL FEMALE SYDROME)
• Oops, ONE doctor out of the 5 that examined her (the other 4 deemed her hypochondriac) that day she checked herself in said: “something ain’t right here” and ordered a scan of her stomach.
• Whoops again. Came back with a tumor on her pancreas that was the size of a large grapefruit. Never before seen (they sent her case out all over the country). Slllooowww growing tumor. Now the size of a grapefruit.
• Magically, ALL the doctors disappeared, like cockroaches.
• Whoops again. They ‘operated’ (actually, they gutted her with a non-sensical operation) the next day and then another surgery a week later). What did they find? Cancer throughout her body. Massive cancer. They knew it as soon as they cut her open. Literally everywhere. Pancreas (never has anyone seen a tumor that size on a pancreas – they estimated it to be 10-15 years old – she’s only 29 at this time), liver, stomach, lymph, lungs and everywhere else including brain?. Cancer everywhere. She died 3 months later (at age 30). Died as a Hysterical Hypochondriac Female.
Robyn, please re-think this article. There are MANY others out there, maybe not this severe, that are labeled “Hypochondriac” and yet, they are not. They are damaged human beings. Vaccine damaged, med damaged, poisoned, or just ‘nature’ (“nature” – very doubtful in this and most other cases like this).
Medical professionals who engage in the behaviour you've described are misapplying diagnostic labels, as you'll clearly see if you go back to the article and read the definition of hypochondriasis: "Hypochondriasis, also known as health anxiety disorder, is a prevalent psychiatric disorder1 characterized by persistent preoccupation about having 1 or more serious and progressive physical disorders.2 The preoccupation is accompanied by hypervigilance and a catastrophic interpretation of bodily signs, resulting in repetitive and excessive checking and reassurance-seeking behavior or maladaptive avoidance."
Robyn,
Touchy subject, yes? :-) No worries. Thanks for your 2 replies.
One thing, I’m not young anymore and yet I don’t think I’ve run into a person that you described (maybe I have and just didn't know it). But, can’t come to any conclusions just from that, I understand. Maybe these people lining up for their 21st? booster are similar/same to what you described? And the ones who panicked when they couldn’t wear a mask 24/7, loved the lockdowns and distancing etc etc What do you think?
Whereas I’ve never known what you described, I’ve known a boatload of people who were labeled Hypochondriac (or whatever) and yet they were far from it. They were ill; or slaughtered by something or other, often due to Doctor instructions or prescriptions.
This needs to stop within medicine. Too many doctors use the ‘it’s all in your head” or it’s only anxiety, depression, or even some crazed Hysterical Syndrome. In other words, they use it as a weapon to beat their patient(s) into submission. Stop with this crap. But they won’t. Because? it works on the majority of humans. No fight. No spine. Very submissive to the White Coats amongst us.
Whatever, I have copy/pasted your post and sent out to a few folks .. with very mixed results. I'll try more tomorrow.
I'll bet you've encountered people who suffer from panic disorder, eating disorders, hypochondriasis, somatisation disorder and all manner of manifestations of severe anxiety, and you wouldn't know that they endured these conditions. Most people who experience such quality-of-life destroying conditions aren't keen to talk about it to all and sundry, for easily understandable reasons. I have a client who suffers severe panic disorder which results in severe limitations in how far she can drive, but virtually no one who knows her is aware of it, and she holds a highly responsible position in a health care-related field.
As a health practitioner, people tell me things that they don't reveal to others because they are afraid of being judged. Someone whose life is consumed with intrusive thoughts that they have cancer, no matter how many times they've been tested for it and found to be free of it, is well aware that what they're experiencing is not normal. They don't want to be thought of as crazy or neurotic by their friends and family, so they mostly keep it to themselves.
I do think that the manufactured COVID crisis gave people prone to hypochondriasis a rather unique opportunity - they could be 'out and proud' about their intense fear of COVID (and subsequently, their conviction that they had 'long COVID', even before the clot shots came out) and rather than being dismissed or mocked, they were celebrated for it. These sad individuals still congregate in weird corners of Twitter, and for reasons I don't understand, the Twitter algorithm sometimes feeds me their tweets. As a practitioner who has had plenty of encounters with highly anxious people, I instantly pick up on their hallmark language patterns. These people need help!!! Some of them are vax-injured, for sure, but some are 'just' virtually crippled by health anxiety.
It is certainly the case that many people with health conditions that could not be diagnosed or treated with standard Western medical approaches, have been dismissed as hypochondriacs, but if you read the ICD-10 entry, you'll clearly see that this is a case of doctors being intellectually lazy and dishonest. The problem is, it takes time, empathy and communication skills to gain the trust of an individual who is tortured by anxiety, and to have them walk you through what is going on in their head. That's the only way you can determine whether they have an undiagnosed medical condition, or an anxiety disorder (and even then, there's always a chance of getting it wrong). Doctors are not trained to do this, they're not paid to spend the time required to do it, and most lack the personality characteristics to even get interested in learning how to do it.
I too am very leery of psychiatric diagnoses. And I' m fully aware that people with syndromes comprised of diffuse symptoms, such as CFS and fibromyalgia, have been mislabelled as hypochondriacs in the past. But having been in practice for nearly 30 years, I can attest that some people experience chronic health anxiety which causes them to be hypervigilant to every slight change in their physiology, and to engage in catastrophic thinking. Many of my clients have described the experience of hearing about someone else's illness (even on TV) and then manifesting the symptoms of that illness, and then becoming fixated on the notion that they have that illness, and hence engaging in repeated doctor visits and diagnostic testing which reveals nothing. Then that set of symptoms resolves, and another arises to take its place. This is an anxiety disorder, and the fact that CBT works indicates that there is no underlying organic disease.
Apologies - this comment is a bit all-about-me, but that study really touched a nerve.
I have have had so many tests and scans and scares, and despite all that - not been diagnosed with anything fatal. I've had numerous biopsies, -oscopies, and lumpectomies. I'm sure my health insurance provider regrets ever taking me on. I am very aware of it, and quite embarrassed.
Sometimes I ignore a new lump for ages before succumbing to panic and booking an appointment. I recently spent three months on morphine for a prolapsed disc. I've had many weeks of horrific pain with burst ovarian cysts. Multiple miscarriages and gynae disorders. A few years ago I started to feel every heart beat and all the ectopics, and it has tormented me ever since (though I pass every cardiovascular exam). Currently tossing up whether to proceed with a contrast scan for recurrent blood in urine.
There's always something, and I absolutely feel like a hypochondriac. I live a super healthy life - I'm fit, trim, and muscular. I exercise daily and eat real food and have meaningful relationships. All the good things. I don't have depression - even when terrible things happen to me. It drives me crazy that I can't get on top of this. I was somewhat heartened to see that the strength of the relationship between being hypochondriac and early death was insignificant when anxiety and depression were accounted for. But nonetheless - I feel like I might be one. I also feel like 'hypochondriac' might possibly be a misnomer for people who have a bunch of wonky stuff going on that doctors are incapable of figuring out.
(Weirdly - my physical health and energy improved significantly right after my one and only bout of covid in early 2022. Did this happen to anyone else?)
Your experience of all those gynaecological issues suggests strongly to me that you have an undiagnosed illness. Hypochondriasis is a form of anxiety. It's certainly the case that people with undiagnosed illnesses can develop significant anxiety as a result, but having seen quite a number of people with hypochondriasis in my clinical practice, I would say that it's qualitatively different from anxiety that arises from having symptoms of an undiagnosed illness.
My tip for anyone with persistent health problems that haven't been resolved by healthy living is to do a medically-supervised water-only fast. All sorts of maladies respond to fasting. If you're in the US, go to TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, CA: https://www.healthpromoting.com/
Thanks so much Robyn. I’ve done a fair bit of fasting. I worked my way slowly up to three day fasts over about a year. I loved them. Was in mild nutritional ketosis much of the time. But over that time my HBA1c got higher and higher until I was pre diabetic and developed a neurological issue in my hand. Paradoxically, the only thing I could do to keep my blood glucose down was to eat regularly. HBA1c and blood G normalised when I gave up fasting. I get very anxious about my weird heart stuff, and sometimes about the lumps, but I don’t feel like I have anxiety as a condition. It’s been going on since I hit puberty decades ago - so I have long given up hoping to figure out why things are wonky, and have started to question whether there is an element of psychosomatic illness. I’m learning to meditate. Might as well try everything.
So-called nutritional ketosis is a total disaster. Ketosis is an emergency state that the body resorts to when food is unavailable. It is not a natural state for humans to remain in on a permanent or semi-permanent basis - see my previous article https://robynchuter.substack.com/p/ketogenic-diets-part-2-is-ketosis.
I'm not surprised that you developed insulin resistance whilst practising nutritional ketosis, as that is exactly what diet that restricts carbohydrates in favour of fats induces (see https://robynchuter.substack.com/p/ketogenic-diets-part-4-diabetes).
A medically-supervised fast is the furthest thing in the world from the total bollocks about fasting that you find all over the internet. Give TrueNorth a call - they offer a free initial consultation to discuss whether they think they can help you. You'll be interested to know that prolonged fasting (again, must be done under qualified supervision) resets the autonomic nervous system, restoring parasympathetic tone - so even if there is an element of psychogenic causation to your symptoms, you'll still benefit from a fast.
Having said all that, I 100% back your meditation practice. If you find that your health problems improve after regular meditation, you'll have solid evidence that there has been a significant psychological contribution to your physical health problems.
That’s an amazing article. Lots for me to think about. Thank you so much Robin. I didn’t really go low-carb, but I did window-eating each day, and that was enough to throw me into mild ketosis. I wasn’t trying to go keto - it just happened as a side effect. It makes sense that it is not natural to stay in it. I’m learning that it is very individual. We put my dad on a keto diet for his rapid-onset dementia, and it was incredible to see it brought him back (for now, at least) - we have a biomedical doctor supervising us. Not so great for me though!