Hypercondriac

Ouch!!!!

I'm not an old battleaxe by any means.... The kids actually think I'm too soft and reasonable and have all said at times they wished I'd be a bit harder with them, cos it winds them up if they are on one and I don't bite back. So trust me, I'm great at the old tea and sympathy where it's needed.... But life is tough and the kids need to realise that mollycoddling won't get them anywhere. they have a health worry? I'll assess it reasonably.... But Kate is a natural moaner and blows things out of proportion all the time. On the few occasions I have grudgingly agreed to take her to the gp, they have only confirmed what I have already told her (other than the appendix thing, but even then they only looked into that as a precaution) I love all my 5 kids in equal measure and would walk over hot coals for any of them, but Kate has always been a drama queen and I refuse to let her education suffer by having time off and nhs resources be taken over unnecessarily. They're ill? They get all the care they deserve... They're making a drama out of nothing? Get on with it! The funny thing is, she wants to be a nurse!!! She freaks out over having a thumbprint blood test lol!!! I just remind her of the boy who cried wolf..... That already happened with her appendix.... You'd think she would have learned by now....

I had this when OH complained of being breathless and had a massive chest ache. I told him to man up. He kept complaining, I made him an appointment with the Nurse (the doctor won't want to be bothered with you pulling a muscle!)

Turns out he had a collapsed lung and had to go to hospital.

I felt like a right witch....

I think I'm quite blunt with patients now after I had a few turning up in A&E asking for letters saying they were too unwell to do their exams. GO HOME!

I can sometimes be a bit of a hypochondriac but I think that it's worse being a doctor as you only ever (well mostly) see ill people so become convinced that everyone with this particular set of symptoms is seriously ill.... It warps your perspective of normal a bit...

Just to expand on my post. I don't go to the doctors simply because I KNOW everything is in my head. I know it might come across as just neurosis and if I looked at it from a different point of view then I might think "oh just shut up" as well towards somebody like me. However hypochondria is not something that you can necessarily snap out of. I wish it were - I hate being anxious and having the thoughts that just overtake my mind. I don't ask for sympathy. P is the only person - and now Hitched OT - who knows how bad it is for me. My parents and best friends don't even know because I'm ashamed of it. I don't sit around all day looking for symptoms of sinister illnesses. When I'm busy and not worried about anything, then I'm fine. I went for ages without visiting "Dr Google" and without obsessing over one cancer after another. But for some reason it's reared its ugly head again, but like I said in my last post, I am getting better at handling it. I don't just sit here and think about what illness to have next. It takes something to trigger it. In the most recent case, it was the death of a friend who was the same age as me. I started to obsess over mortality. And not just mine, but I would worry something would happen to P, to my parents, to my sister ... so unhealthy. Anyway, if I feel myself start to get anxious about things particularly to the point of tears then I take myself off for a walk or for a workout in the gym. Guaranteed to make me feel better.

I wish I could articulate it better than I have done but it's honestly not as easy as to put up and shut up, I really really wish it were. Logic dictates that I should feel fine but it just somehow doesn't quite work out like that. It'd be like somebody telling another person to snap out of depression. Perhaps I'm being melodramatic but it's the closest thing I can equate it to.

This is so perfectly put, Pittabre. P understands that now and I sometimes just have to talk and talk, sometimes just talking will actually get the thought out of my head. Otherwise I can write stuff down. Written down helps me to realise it's all in my head.

Gah, I wish I wasn't coming across as crazy!

In the case of the constipation, it had been going on for three weeks and parents hadn't done anything about it. No speaking to the GP or pharmacist, no lactulose nothing. Just waited til it got bad, and yes I expect the child was in pain, before going to a&e. In the case of the broken fingernail. It was a broken fingernail. Some embarrassed parents came and took their teenager home. I'm not generalising.

I just wonder why some people see a&e as the first port of call rather than their GP or pharmacy? Is it because they genuinely think something is wrong, because they can't get to see their GP, or because they just don't want to wait? People abuse the system, it happens. Just like people who call out an ambulance when it's not needed. We used to get parents who would bring their kids in over new year so they could go out. Free babysitting.

I'm not sure why people are so surprised that people go to a&e inappropriately. Its open to abuse, just like anything.

- nail on head. This is why I don't tell anyone about it.

The difference between these two conditions, regardless of time suffered is that one (asthma) is potentially life threatening (eg an emergency - regardless of being poorly for 3 hours or 3 weeks) as the airways are restricted and could realistically cause death quite quickly, and the other (constipation) is not.

Exactly!

Maybe people go to A&E because they can't get an appointment with their GP or can't be bothered which are other issues...

I have numerous pet hates including people who say they have the flu when they have a cold. As well as people who say they have a migraine when they actually have a headache. Surely people know what the flu and migraines are?! Today l have a bad cold but l know it’s not the flu. I have stuff l need to get on with today so lots of fluids, some Lemsip, soup for lunch and wrapping up warm for me.

Fair enough if you have some random symptoms and you google it, l can see how people misdiagnose themselves.

The people that say they have flu when they have a cold annoy me too. It's different to hypochondria, though.

That's sort of how I feel, although part of me is still clinging on to the hope that the rheumatologist will laugh me out of the office & say I'm fine! My mum was scared sh1tless when first diagnosed but she's gotten her head round it now. She has so many health problems anyway that this is just another to add to her collection!

They are different to hypochondria. The flu thing is exaggeration / malingering!

With my hypermobility issue (which my neighbour's daughter also as) there is a chance of having soemthign else wrong as well. I don't keep immunity for soem reason so wonder with that will be the next diagnoises of sorts for me. But like NDND would be pleased to have a lable to say I'm not making it up.

I have definetely been known to be a hypercondriac. I tend to search all my symptoms on Google and choose the worst option. I used to make a mountain out of a mole hill..

Im not like it so much anymore, but when I was younger (particularly in my high school days) Id turn any minor illness into something major!

I like to think Im not like this anymore, I hope ?

I think some people think I am a massive hypochondriac. I get made fun of for never feeling well but I am in pain every day. My back and hips are agony and the rest of my joints are uncomfortable. I feel dizzy and sick every day and usually have a headache/blurred vision. And I pretty much always have a cold on the go. I don't moan like "oh I'm so ill" but if I mention I'm not feeling well a lot of people will be like "but you're ALWAYS ill" as if they're saying that I'm pretending. Which this past year I have felt more of a fraud than ever!

Although I'm with you on the cold/flu thing. A lot of people are chatting away saying "think it's the flu I feel awful" believe me if you *think* it's the flu it's not. I have had it once and it was horrendous. I couldn't stand up, could read/sit up/drink eat etc. if you don't think you've had the flu, you've not.

Oops that was a bit ranty. Sorry!