Spidy
06-05-2007, 08:58 PM
Hypochondria is the butt of many a social joke, but is this really very fair? It is in fact a very real and disabling affliction – an extreme form of health anxiety that most doctors and our already overburdened health system aren't well equipped to handle.
Imagine you found a lump in a place where a lump really shouldn't be. Or perhaps you're experiencing unsettling heart palpitations that are keeping you awake at night. Despite every test imaginable, the results consistently return negative. A huge relief, right? No? What if instead of relief you feel disbelief, and you insist on more tests and go from doctor to doctor searching for answers, convinced that you really are ill?
We all worry about our health from time to time, but being told we're a 'hypochondriac' is a prospect that makes most of us cringe. "No I'm not!", is the likely retort.
Hypochondria is the butt of many a social joke, but is this really very fair?
It is in fact a very real and disabling affliction – an extreme form of health anxiety that most doctors and our already overburdened health system aren't well equipped to handle.
"There's this notion that people are actually bunging it on. It's not actually real, that somehow it's all imagined, or that they're doing it in some sort of manipulative way. This stigma is entirely undeserved," says psychologist Professor John Franklin from Macquarie University. "But of course it affects a person's ability to come forward…It blocks them from seeking legitimate help."
It's estimated that between 4 to 7 per cent of the patients who visit doctors' surgeries fall into this category, and that they consume health resources at a rate of 10 to 13 times the cost of the average person. These statistics are certainly sobering, and indicate that the impact of excessive health anxiety is considerably more widespread and serious than is generally understood.
warm regards,
spidy.
Imagine you found a lump in a place where a lump really shouldn't be. Or perhaps you're experiencing unsettling heart palpitations that are keeping you awake at night. Despite every test imaginable, the results consistently return negative. A huge relief, right? No? What if instead of relief you feel disbelief, and you insist on more tests and go from doctor to doctor searching for answers, convinced that you really are ill?
We all worry about our health from time to time, but being told we're a 'hypochondriac' is a prospect that makes most of us cringe. "No I'm not!", is the likely retort.
Hypochondria is the butt of many a social joke, but is this really very fair?
It is in fact a very real and disabling affliction – an extreme form of health anxiety that most doctors and our already overburdened health system aren't well equipped to handle.
"There's this notion that people are actually bunging it on. It's not actually real, that somehow it's all imagined, or that they're doing it in some sort of manipulative way. This stigma is entirely undeserved," says psychologist Professor John Franklin from Macquarie University. "But of course it affects a person's ability to come forward…It blocks them from seeking legitimate help."
It's estimated that between 4 to 7 per cent of the patients who visit doctors' surgeries fall into this category, and that they consume health resources at a rate of 10 to 13 times the cost of the average person. These statistics are certainly sobering, and indicate that the impact of excessive health anxiety is considerably more widespread and serious than is generally understood.
warm regards,
spidy.