Hypochondria

Diagnosis Date: Early childhood

Do I Actually Have It: Yes

Severity: 2/10 (earlier in life, 8/10)

Hypochondria, you probably already know, is basically when you think you have a sickness but you actually probably don't. It can get bad enough that even your body will start to show symptoms, but that still doesn't necessarily mean that you've got it.

Hypochondria was a problem for me growing up because it would annoy other people. I constantly didn't feel good and complained to everyone about it, parents, friends, etc. This would have been when I was in elementary school, way back in the day. Eventually teachers got sick of putting up with it and made me go see the school nurse about it.

The nurse led to a doctors office, doctors office led to being told I've got it. 

The thing about hypochondria is doctors have no idea how it is caused. It's presumed to be caused by mental trauma or inherited from family, maybe even seen or heard about it and triggered, but that still doesn't explain all cases. I didn't grow up in a broken home, there's no huge history of anxiety disorders in my family, and I'm not sure what could have triggered it. I just woke up one day and kind of... had it. 

Which is strange, because a few years later, as quick as it came into my life, it just kind of stopped. I quit panicking about diseases and illnesses I might have had and started panicking about other things. It was very strange.

In my findings, the best support for hypochondria is two things: support and time. Anti-anxiety medicine probably helps but I don't know, I didn't take my medication for hypochondria because it was already gone by the time my anxiety started getting bad, but I do remember just asking people to try and be lenient (I probably didn't word it like that, I was like 12 at the time) and try to deal with it.

After awhile I just kind of grew out of hypochondria, but I know for some people it is incredibly chronic and can last a long time. I wish I knew how to help people who have it bad, but I'm not even sure where to begin with the disorder, just that support from peers really helps. If you have hypochondria, I'm sorry, I wish I could help you out and give you some chocolate.

But remember: everything is gonna be fine.