by Stephanie Murray

Created on: November 21, 2010

Hypochondria is defined as a mental illness in which a person is constantly afraid of being affected by a disease or ailment. Hypochondriacs are more than just cautious or concerned health nuts; this condition interferes with daily life and relationships. It can alienate people from their loved ones and cause them to miss out on precious opportunities. If you think you might fall into this category, this article is worth the read. (Or perhaps it's worth sending to someone you're concerned about!)

* You're at the hospital/doctor's office six times a year or more for different reasons. If the nurses at your local emergency room know you by name, it may be a red flag.

* You ignore doctor advice to prolong your ailments. This is attention seeking behavior. Let's say a doctor tells someone his blood sugar problems are diet related, and tells him to stop eating candy for breakfast and waffles for dinner. If that person continues to indulge in an abundance of sugary snacks, while complaining about his consequential symptoms to anyone that will listen, he should not be surprised by anyone's lack of sympathy.

* Your family/friends don't seem to care when you get sick. If those closest to you sound annoyed or ignore you when you're feeling under the weather, it may not be because they're just jerks - maybe they've just grown exhausted with constantly pitying you.

* You've been told by several doctors you're fine - but you still don't believe it.

* You're obsessed with medical shows, movies, or books. Hearing a story about someone that was told by multiple doctors that they were ok, only to find out later that they had a serious condition, may be your way of justifying all those doctor visits.

* You miss work or plans due to minor ailments. Eventually, co-workers will get tired of covering shifts for the person who constantly calls in with a headache, backache, fever, stubbed toe, etc. Your friends will also get sick of being canceled on because you have a sudden tummy ache, and they'll inevitably stop making plans with you at all.

* Self-diagnosis: Spending an hour on WebMB doesn't make you a doctor - but it's easy to forget this when you become alarmed that your headache and minor dizziness probably means diabetes, when in fact you're probably just a little dehydrated.

* You immediately rule out minor diagnoses. If you become upset instead of relieved that your doctor tells you your sudden backache isn't a degenerative spine disease, but most likely a result of your

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