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 ever been called a Hypochondriac?
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kether

62 Posts

Posted - 08/16/2006 :  09:09:58  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I've been thinking lately about this. TMS causes SO many symptoms that seem to make no sense, are totally erratic and usually do not show up on diagnostic testing. bring the "symptom imperative" into the picture & wow. insert the doctor frustrated by the annoying patient who always has something wrong with her. the aunt who is always complaining about something. the kid who can never fall asleep or always has a tummy ache at night....

there are probably zillions of TMS'ers out there in the world floating around being treated like crap over this. they just don't know what is really going on. I know my mom called me a hypochondriac until they put "a name" on my stuff. It drove me nuts! It's horrible to suffer & not know what's going on with you, let alone have your friends, family, doctors treat you like a total reject too.

I'll bet at least 50% of "hypochondriacs" have TMS (equivalents).
I wish I could help all those people somehow. did any of you ever deal with this? thoughts?

h2oskier25

USA
395 Posts

Posted - 08/16/2006 :  09:20:29  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Wow, Kether, you really hit on something close to all of us, here.

Yes, the dispassionate doctor's don't help our self esteem at all. To open up to somebody, a professional no less, only to have rebuff your issues is truly hard indeed.

I went through it for years.

Nice post.




Beth
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miche

Canada
283 Posts

Posted - 08/16/2006 :  16:17:20  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I am middle aged, a woman, was diagnosed with fibro, of course I have been labeled a hypocondriac, the biggest reason doctors want to hand out antidepressants to fibro patients is because they feel that we need a mental cure, the fact that such meds do not do anything for this condition does not stop them from getting their prescription pads out.They also like to look down on you while they are doing this, it covers their sense of inadequacy.....
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wrldtrv

666 Posts

Posted - 08/16/2006 :  23:42:52  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Kether,

I openly label myself a hypochondriac. But I must say, I have been making progress in resisting it the past several months. I think the reinforcement I get from this board helps a lot; seeing that so many of the things I previously assumed were real physical problems probaly aren't. Of course, there's a technical difference between viewing a symptom as TMS vs hypochonriacal. With TMS, there is a physiologial change in the body, eg o2 deprivation causing pain, numbness... With hypochondria, presumably the problem is strictly of the imagination, magnifying normal symptoms and adding others through anxiety. For me, it doesn't seem to matter which is the case. Simply making the attempt to look at physical symptoms in a different way makes all the difference.
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art

1903 Posts

Posted - 08/17/2006 :  05:04:49  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
wrld,

I've seen you come a long way. Like you, I was a terrible hypo, though normally it wasn't some horrible disease I was worried about so much as sustaining yet another over-use injury that would prevent me from running.

I went from someone who was never, or very rarely injured, to someone who always had at least a little something going on...Some of it was TMS, and some of it just plain hypochondria...

Either way the cure for me was to just keep running...So far I haven't once had cause to regret that///
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miche

Canada
283 Posts

Posted - 08/17/2006 :  10:00:59  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Kether, under the list of tms thread, you state:
had every test imaginable, they were always completely normal.
even the breathing tests, when I couldn't breathe....

I get this at times, my tests are also normal, it occurs mostly in the morning and starts with spasms in my upper back, pretty soon I feel like I can't breathe, so scary. I blamed it on reflux, allergies, fibro. Your list of symtoms is so close to mine, thank you for posting it , it gives me hope that I can get on top of this , I think that when the back muscles tighten I switch to shallow breathing and put myself in a hyperventilation state, whatever brings on the feeling of suffication is horrendous and probably the worst aspect of my tms symtoms. Nice to know you have accomplished what I have not been able to do so far, which is to deny the physical, so hard to do when one has this many symptoms, I am working on it, success stories such as yours are a definite help to me, so thank's again.
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Michele

249 Posts

Posted - 08/17/2006 :  10:59:35  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I've never been called a hypochondriac, but went to the doctor ALOT for various things in the couple years before I discovered TMS. Then I stopped going, except for my annual exam. In fact, after I learned about TMS and shortly after went to an exam, I told the doc I didn't want to see him until next year. And I didn't see him until the following year!!
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miche

Canada
283 Posts

Posted - 08/17/2006 :  15:21:15  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Good for you Michele!
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