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balto
839 Posts |
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Back2-It
USA
438 Posts |
 Posted - 11/10/2011 : 21:13:50
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When I signed on with my new PCP doc, somebody said, "Oh, you're going to the "doctor to the stars".
Say what?
Turns out, this doc is the official doc of two different large entertainment venues, and many of the stars that play there also seem him. And they seem him out of choice.
On his wall, I saw pictures of him with rock and pop stars, politicians and even Bill Clinton. Not sure if Clinton was a patient, though. But some of these name-brand stars fly in to see
him.
When I asked the doc if a lot of stars were hypochondriacs, he said that many --in fact, most-- were.
He was the one allopathic doc that agreed that my disc herniation was probably not the reason for the pain and that anxiety was probably the reason.
He is the only doc I've ever been to that says good-bye by saying, "Keep the Faith". I think he understood my reason for pain and how I was dealing with it with TMS work and calming anxiety.
Now, if only I were a star...
"Bridges Freeze Before Roads" |
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kesh2
United Kingdom
32 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2011 : 10:06:53
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| It's very difficult to diagnose people as hypochondriacs when they're long dead. And medical science wasn't what it is in Darwin's or Hans Christian Andersen's day. |
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Back2-It
USA
438 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2011 : 13:41:30
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quote:
Originally posted by kesh2
It's very difficult to diagnose people as hypochondriacs when they're long dead. And medical science wasn't what it is in Darwin's or Hans Christian Andersen's day.
It is still difficult to diagnose people as hypochondriacs or with having the effects of health anxiety. But... I think that it shows that many "creative" or "sensitive" type people are those who may suffer with hypochondria more.
The origin of the word "hypochondriac" is very interesting and, it's main symptoms, pain under the chest and cartilage effects many today. I know, I am one of those true "hypochondriacs", in name and in pain. And.... a search on the internet (god I did thousands of those) shows many people with it going through test after test and not getting any diagnosis or any cure.
Very few doctors will even admit to emotional causes of pain and other problems.
See below:
Hypochondriac comes ultimately from the Greek word hypokhondria, which literally means “under the cartilage (of the breastbone).” In the late 16th century, when hypochondriac first entered the English language, it referred to the upper abdomen.The upper abdomen, it turns out, was thought to be the seat of melancholy at a time when the now-outdated medical theory of the four humors (blood, phlegm,yellow bile [choler], and black bile [melancholy]) was accepted as a basis for legitimate health practice. In the 17th century, hypochondriac referred to people who suffered from “depression and melancholy without cause,”
"Bridges Freeze Before Roads" |
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pan
United Kingdom
173 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2011 : 14:50:42
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From my understanding hypochondria and health anxiety are pretty different beasts. I was always under the impression that a modern diagnosis of hypochondria within the somatisation spectrum is very much dependant on the absence of physical symptoms but with still having a preoccupation/obsession with illness and disease often coupled with the conviction of having specific illness/disease despite no symptomology or medical evidence.
With this criteria in mind I think that it pretty much discounts anybody on here as having hypochondria as it is the worry of the very symptoms that brings us here in the first place. Having said all that when you read some posts on here it is blatantly obvious that people are displaying classic signs/symptoms of health anxiety and other somatisation disorders.
Wake me up with your amphetamine blast
Take me by the collar and throw me out into the world
Rock me gently & send me dreaming of something tender
I was brought here to pay homage to the beat surrender
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Edited by - pan on 11/11/2011 14:53:58 |
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Back2-It
USA
438 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2011 : 18:29:44
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Pan... I pretty much agree with you, but many use HA and hypochondria interchangeably.
I wasn't trying to make a point other than artists, writers, and others who have a currency in emotions seem more subject to worrying about their health and also acquiring physical symptoms.
I for one did have the classic hypochondria. I had a pain under my chest and effecting my cartilage. The whole deal radiated out to my back. I found in searching this "mystery" symptom that there are literally thousands of people who have it and post on various forums, have multitudes of tests and never get conclusive results. Sometimes they are dumped into the category of "chostrochondritis", which is no disease at all.
I do believe, however, that a person can be both a hypochondriac and have health anxiety. I have been a hypochondriac at times in my life and have suffered from health anxiety. This makes me a faux medical disaster. 
This was a response to a lighter, off the topic post. That's all. Not trying for learned science here.
"Bridges Freeze Before Roads" |
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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2011 : 19:34:51
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I think hypochondria and health anxiety are interchangeable. It seems to me the newer term, health anxiety, is a bit more socially acceptable; fewer negative connotations.
Pan, I strongly disagree that you won't find true hypochondriacs here. I'm one, and I've seen several others claiming to be on here. And I also disagree that hypochondriacs don't have real symptoms, but only imaginined ones. Those people would be hysterics, according to Sarno's definition. Anyway, I can vouch for the fact that, yes indeed, hypochondriacs do have real symptoms. For example, I have an arm soreness that has waxed and waned for almost a year now. |
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pan
United Kingdom
173 Posts |
Posted - 11/12/2011 : 04:00:19
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quote:
Originally posted by wrldtrv
I think hypochondria and health anxiety are interchangeable. It seems to me the newer term, health anxiety, is a bit more socially acceptable; fewer negative connotations.
Pan, I strongly disagree that you won't find true hypochondriacs here. I'm one, and I've seen several others claiming to be on here. And I also disagree that hypochondriacs don't have real symptoms, but only imaginined ones. Those people would be hysterics, according to Sarno's definition. Anyway, I can vouch for the fact that, yes indeed, hypochondriacs do have real symptoms. For example, I have an arm soreness that has waxed and waned for almost a year now.
But the point is must true hypochondriacs don't actually have symptoms in the first place and therefore the causallity is never in dispute. The fact the person worries about symptoms themselves be them organic or somatic in nature points to a health anxiety disorder. I do totally agree that hypochondria and health anxiety are probabaly not mutually exclusive just as Pure OCD in surely a huge part of the mix within health anxiety.
@Back2-it....yeah, sorry if my post came across as trying to change the tone of what is a lighthearted thread. I did actually debate that in my mind before I posted but thought that the whole hypochondria/health anxiety difference was an interesting thing to discuss. Point taken this was probably not the right thread to shoehorn it in..
Wake me up with your amphetamine blast
Take me by the collar and throw me out into the world
Rock me gently & send me dreaming of something tender
I was brought here to pay homage to the beat surrender
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 11/12/2011 : 08:54:51
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Thanks for that list Balto, it's interesting to see that the eminent scientist Charles Darwin was a devotee of the fart:
"The famous scientist also kept meticulous records of his own flatulence."
Maybe I wasn't far afield in my ode(or) to it in a recent thread:
"They've made a disease out of something that is as natural to our bodies as breathing. You can look at FARTING as an internal spiritual breath, that you contribute to the collective planet's Bio-Breath."
Cheers and toots,
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Edited by - tennis tom on 11/12/2011 18:19:00 |
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famous hypochondriacs
