Do you know anyone with this disease? I’m sure we all have run into one or two in our lifetime. The problem is…..do they know it’s them?? Do they know that we all try to avoid all the talk about their aches and pains? Do they know that we are inwardly cringing when they seemly turn every conversation into a session regarding their latest doctors appointment?
How can they get so animated and excited when telling you about their gallbladder and feet problems for the umpteenth time? If it weren’t so pitiful, it would be hilariously funny!! What a miserable way to live!
I have often wondered, what motivates a person with ‘Hypochondriasis? Is it attention seeking, or merely an extremely negative personality? Do these same people find their self complaining about everything? It’s too cold, it’s too hot, it’s too loud, it’s not loud enough….?
We have watched a girl in our church go through 4 years of stage 4 Cancer. She has had endless sessions of chemo, and radiation. A Stem Cell Transplant, and 3 brain surgeries, and 1 hip surgery later, she is a beaming light of joy and optimism. I have noticed that she would much rather talk about other things. Why? Because she knows what it REALLY means to be sick and to suffer. ‘Real’ illness is not ‘glamorized’ in her mind, for she has truly experienced the ‘shadow of death’ and unthinkable pain. If anyone had rights to complain or be consumed with ‘sickness’, this girl would. But she doesn’t.
If you are reading this, God has so graciously given you the gift of life. In fact today, God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds! He also fearfully and wonderfully made YOU. Instead of being so fascinated with the negative and infatuated with sickness, why don’t you take a deep breath, smile as wide as you can, turn on some high-steppin’ music that gives glory to your incredible creator, and just simply sing…..Thank You.
Thank you for each new morning with its light, for rest and shelter of the night, for health and food, for love and friends….for everything Thy goodness sends.
Here’s my prescription,…..Thankfulness!!
4 comments:
I LOVE this post!!! My brother is the same way about his sickness with ALL, NEVER focuses on it!!!
No, I'm sorry. I can't agree with this post and of course, it's because I AM a hypochondriac.
I get absolutely no pleasure out of telling people I think I'm sick. I'm incredibly ashamed of feeling the way I do. I have a difficult time differentiating between what might be real symptoms and worth a doctor's visit or imagined symptoms. I glamourize absoltuely nothing. There is nothing glamorous about thinking I have cancer or worrying my headache might be an aneurysm. I'm not fascinated and I'm not infatuated. I live in absolute fear of my own body.
It isn't attention-seeking, nor is it a "negative personality trait." The people who do this may also exhibit attention-seeking behaviour separately and use hypochondrasis as a vehicle for their behaviours, or maybe hypochondriasis and their attention-seeking co-exist? Just because a person is a hypochondriac, it does not automatically make them an attention-seeker.
Why not attack people with other mental afflictions? OCD (of which I'm quite sure hypochondriasis is a form)? People with eating disorders? Are these just people with negative personality traits/who are seeking attention? Or are they people with actual mental problems?
I'm not going to try comparing my plight to a girl with stage 4 cancer, but we don't all fit into your tiny little box.
I feel great shame knowing there are people out there with real problems and I spend most of my time worrying over imaginary illnesses.
And FTR, I've been to the doctor's maybe five times in the past few years... all for REAL illnesses and not because I love medical attention.
What you are describing does not sound like hypochondriasis. My father is the exact type of person you're describing and he is just an attention seeker no matter the circumstances. It has nothing to do with his hypochondrasis.
Hypochondrasis is motivated by anxiety and is much harder to get over than just turning to a God they may not believe in or "thinking positive." Positive thinking is not a treatment and people like you are the reason we all feel so ashamed - hypochondrasis is stigmatized. We are not munchausen's.
Dear Anonymous….
Thank you for stopping by my blog. (I’m curious how you found it. I have ignored it for quite some time, and this was a very old entry. Are we acquaintances?) I will say, it is somewhat disconcerting communicating with a nameless face, however I will try my hand at it and hope to be somewhat effective.
My writings are simply from my perspective…. ‘meetings’ with people in MY life. We live in a BIG world, and I know that my perspective is quite minuscule…quite the ‘little box’ when considering the big picture, however, my perspective is all that I have to offer. I am offering dialogue ONLY regarding what I have personally seen and experienced, so, please consider this when reading.
As I again read my blog entry, (as it is 10 months old-and I couldn’t remember details), I noted that I purposed one whole paragraph to posing questions. “What motivates a person with Hypochondriasis? Is it attention seeking? Is it merely a negative personality? Do these same people find their self complaining about everything?”..... I certainly don’t pretend to have all the answers, and I’m sure nobody really does.
You are quite possibly right when you say that maybe the person I am describing is not a person with ‘hypochondriasis’ --although ‘society’ as a whole refers to this ‘type’ as a ‘hypocondriac’. Either way, I meant no harm.
In all sincerity, I very strongly and unashamedly believe that God indeed is the answer to EVERYTHING. He is able to heal all manner of diseases, whether it be physical or mental.
I wish you all the best, and sincerely apologize for any offence you experienced.
what an interesting piece. my point is, at what point can one be said to be hypochondriac? since one often find people complaining of the same kind of health problems every now and then. at what point can the complaint be seen as an abnormality?
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