by Jacquline Singer

Created on: March 25, 2007   Last Updated: March 02, 2009

Hypochondriasis is by definition, a condition which causes preoccupation with normal body functions and interpretation of minor abnormalities as harbingers of major medical problems. No amount of reassurance by physicians, friends or family will alleviate the patients anxiety.

I have known three hypochondriacs in my life. The first was a young girl who lived in the same neighborhood. Both parents worked outside the home, and a large amount of household responsibilities fell upon her. If she rebelled or failed to complete her chores, she was punished severely. However, when she was sick, it meant having a day off, lounging in bed, talking on the phone and watching television. Being an only child, there was no sibling to tattle on her and what started as a way around responsibility turned into a lifetime of imagined illness. She has spent the last thirty years in bed, in a near catotonic state, with no real diagnosis. Her mother who is approaching 80, has lived in and been responsible for her household, including raising her children, all of which she has been unable to accomplish from bed. The very fact that she was able to conceive and bear children clearly proves that she was not catatonic, but being a nurse, she knows all the signs and symptoms of major disease, and she has used it to her benefit. Her mother moved out last year, and she was forced to recover so to speak as her world was collapsing around her.

The second, pretty much used illness to get out of anything that she didn't want to participate in. It was easier for her to be sick than say no. She has been my friend since the sixth grade, so I can honestly say this. At thirty, she went to nursing school and gained a whole new arsenal of symptoms. I am not saying that in all those years she did not experience real bouts of sickness or disease, I am just saying that the majority were not real. For twenty years, she has experienced more major illnesses than everyone else I know combined. By the time she was forty-nine, she could not find a general practioner to treat her because she would walk into the exam room, lay out her symptoms, diagnosis and treatment plan and fully expect them to take her advice. At one point, she was red flagged at the doctor's office and the pharmacy, with strict orders not to put drug information sheets in with her perscriptions because she developed all the side effects within 48 hours of taking the meds.

About a year ago, a small group of friends decided to agree with her

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