How to help a hypochondriac? 7 useful tips

Several tips on how to help a person with hypochondria.

Hypochondriasis is the frequent preoccupation with one's health, experiencing exaggerated sensations of possible physical symptoms leading to much alarmism and worry.

Hypochondriacs are very worried about suffering from an illness, which leads them to visit the doctor a lot or, quite the opposite, not to go for check-ups for fear of what they might find.

Knowing how to help a hypochondriac is not an easy task.But there are many ways to reduce their psychological discomfort and avoid wearing down their inner circle. Next we will see some ways to obtain it.

• Article related: "Hypochondria: causes, symptoms and possible treatments".

Hypochondriasis, an increasingly common problem

The hypochondria is the frequent preoccupation to the health, experiencing alarming thoughts about symptoms that may have no medical significance. This syndrome has been aggravated in the age of the Internet, since with free access to medical information, there are many people who believe they are manifesting symptoms where there are none, or exaggerating sensations and relating them to very serious medical conditions.

It is also because of the Internet that the population has access to unreliable sources of information posing as truthful, which can induce them to take inadequate health measures. People fall into the trap of self-diagnosis by reading these media, interpreting their state of health without really knowing how to do it or whether it is even necessary to give more importance to certain symptoms.

Whatever the cause of hypochondria may be, the fact is that because of it the person suffers physical symptoms, chronic Pain without real organic cause and mood disturbances. Excessive health-related behaviors can lead to the person having health-focused conversations or feeling, almost immediately, some of the symptoms they have read about or heard about.

As a result the patient visits the physician many times to find the diagnosis that justifies their alleged symptoms, and to understand their suffering. When the doctor rules out the disease, the patient is relieved, but after a while, he or she is back to the same old ways.. The opposite can also happen, where excessive worry about the disease leads the person to avoid doctors for fear of confirming it.

How to help a person with hypochondria?

There are several ways in which we can help people suffering from symptoms of hypochondria.

1. Encourage him/her to ask for psychological help

When we try to reason with the person about what is happening to him/her, we run the risk of entering into a psychological game that wears us out and does not help him/her either. a psychological game that wears us out and that does not help him/her either..

Knowing how to overcome hypochondria is no simple task, and it is quite likely that we feel a little distant from the solution when we interact with our hypochondriac acquaintance.

In this case, the best thing to do is to encourage him or her to ask for help, the best thing to do is to encourage you to seek psychological helpIn this case, the best thing to do is to encourage them to ask for psychological help, so that a therapist can apply the appropriate treatment and manage to reduce their symptoms, treating their fear and obsession with illnesses.

2. Understanding and patience

Among the main keys to help hypochondriacs the important thing is to be empathetic and patient. People who suffer from excessive concern about their state of health the last thing they need is to see their family and friends turning away.. This can cause them more stress, which can make their psychological condition even worse.

Stress and anxiety have a direct effect on sensitivity to the slightest symptoms, increasing their perceived seriousness and fueling fear and worry. The best we can do is to be patient and understanding, offering positive appraisals.

In most cases patients suffering from hypochondria feel that they are misunderstood and judged for engaging in behaviors that others may find exaggerated..

3. Not making negative evaluations

Another symptom of hypochondriasis is that patients tend to magnify their discomfort, which leads their environment to make negative assessments of their own discomfort. Comments such as "you exaggerate" or "it's nothing" do not help.

We should try to be empathetic and understand that their manifestations are the result of how they feel, and that they experience their worries as something that they are not aware of.The patient's worries and concerns are a matter of life and death.

4. Avoiding overprotection

Sometimes it happens that the close environment falls into the trap of exaggerating the patient's symptoms, and feeding their concern and thinking that they really suffer from a very serious medical condition, thinking that they can do something for such an imaginary disease.

It is necessary to understand that we can indeed influence the health of our circle, whether or not they havewhether or not they have a real health problem. If you do, it is best to see a doctor or psychologist when necessary. If not, the best thing to do is to avoid falling into their game, but, as we have said, avoid judging them.

You should also avoid overprotection if you have a real medical condition. There are things that do not depend on us, but on the progress of the disease itself.

5. Distraction

One of the main characteristics of hypochondria is the constant and obsessive preoccupation with any physical sensation. The person cannot take his or her focus off any physical problem he or she feels, exaggerating its seriousness.

It is for this reason that a good way to reduce their problems is to distract him/her with hobbies, such as readingsuch as reading, playing sports, cooking, watching series, listening to music.... The goal is to do something that breaks their obsessive thinking about illnesses.

6. Follow expert and official sources

One of the problems of the Internet era is overinformation. This can come in different ways, such as websites, instant messaging chains where hoaxes are posted, or simply abusing and misinterpreting information from reliable sources.

Firstly, reliable information should be consulted on the Internet and, secondly, the family member should be accompanied during this search in order to find reliable information, accompany the family member during this search in order to relativize the seriousness and realism of such symptoms.. Understand that, if you are not a doctor, what is on the Internet is only information that can be interpreted by professionals, and that searching for it and reading diagonally is of no use.

7. To accompany him to the doctor

As we have already mentioned, hypochondriacs usually go to the doctor's office. The best thing to do in these cases is to accompany you and, once the visit is over, highlight what the doctor has told you, indicating why the professional is a reliable and realistic source of your health condition.

The diagnosis given by the doctor is the confirmation or refutation that you are suffering from a medical illness.. Obviously, it may happen that the doctor has committed negligence, but for these cases you can go to a second medical opinion, who will refute or confirm the first diagnosis.

Bibliographic references:

• Berrios GE (2001) Hypochondriasis. History of the Concept. In Starcevic V & Lipsitt DR (eds). Hypochondriasis. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 3-20.
• Avia MD, Ruiz MA (2005). "Recommendations for the Treatment of Hypochondriac Patients". Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy. 35 (3): 301–13. doi:10.1007/s10879-005-4322-3
• Kring AM, Davison GC, Neale JM, Johnson SL (2007). Abnormal Psychology with Cases (10th ed.). Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-71260-2.