That says it all, really - hypochondria has always been considered something it’s not. Unsurprisingly, in “On Narcissism,” Freud made a link between hypochondria and narcissism. In other words, us hypochondriacs used to be seen as irrational and beyond help, which doesn’t do a lot for morale. It’s just more recognized as being the anxiety disorder it is, rather than one resistant to psychotherapy. obsessively seeking tests such as blood tests and scansĪccording to a 2009 article, hypochondriasis and health anxiety are technically the same.refusing to believe medical professionals.constantly seeking reassurance from those around you.paying attention to odd sensations such as tingling and numbness.worrying about your health so much it affects your day-to-day life.How do you know if you have health anxiety? Although different for everyone, some of the common signs include: In fact, it can make things much, much worse. I mean, if you don’t advocate for yourself, how are you going to know whether you should see a doctor or not?īut for those with health anxiety, this isn’t helpful at all. In theory, Google is a great tool, especially for those in countries with incredibly flawed and expensive healthcare systems. And trust me, with health anxiety, you’ll go through them all. Once you start searching, you’ll be given a whole host of diseases that one symptom can be. It’s so easy to ask Google: “What are these weird red lumps on my skin?” It’s even easier to type in “twitching abdomen” (as an aside, don’t do this lest you lose an entire night’s sleep focusing on the aortic aneurysm you 99.9 percent do not have). Celebrities and people I didn’t know all hitting the front page of every media outlet in the stratosphere. I was also no stranger to sensationalist tabloids, telling us we were about to see a wave of Ebola hit the United Kingdom, or sharing the tragic stories of doctors ignoring seemingly-benign symptoms that ended up being terminal cancer.Įveryone seemed to be dying of these things, as well. My most-visited websites that summer were WebMD and Reddit communities centered around whatever disease I thought I had at the time. However, the 5 months that I experienced health anxiety were some of the toughest in my life. It was as if a switch had flipped in my mind, one that turned a regular train journey into one seizing my body with anxiety over a disease I’d never heard of - one that introduced me to WebMD and the terrible side effects of Googling one’s health. Even 5 years on, ALS is a disease we don’t know much about.Īs I was reading, a muscle in my leg started twitching and wouldn’t stop.įor whatever reason, however irrational it seemed, I knew I had ALS.
The Ice Bucket Challenge was everywhere in 2014. Google’s response? It was a challenge aimed at making people aware of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Why were so many people - famous or otherwise -throwing ice-cold water over their heads? Curious, I went to Google to read about it. While surfing the net on the train, I saw a few different videos for the Ice Bucket Challenge. There were a lot of exciting things on the calendar, the primary one being heading out of town to see one of my favorite musicians.
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