I’m dying’: the fear of becoming ill

The fear of developing a disease can lead to health disorders.

Many people live with the sole objective in life of not getting sick.They feel that being ill brings us very close to death, to leaving this world in which they paradoxically "do not live".

We are going to see the possible origins of this problem and the possible evolution of this type of people who have the attention oriented towards themselves, with the fear to fall ill for flag.

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

Possible origins of people with fear to become ill.

The main causes are the following.

1. The activation

The activation of the sympathetic nervous system that arises before any situation of our life.The activation of our mind, which allows us to act in order to respond in a more or less suitable way, and that, according to our way of interpreting these stimuli, we will generate more or less activation depending on the "danger" that we understand that we are about to go through.

Over time, this activation arises unconsciously before any aspect of our environment or any thought that crosses our mind and activates it, as if it were a racing car.

With this way of reacting extended in time, we end up having various symptoms in our body. in our body. Symptoms of anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms, which at first may go unnoticed, because we are busy with what has alerted us at that time. But once the alert has passed and these symptoms manifest themselves in the body, what happened ends up worrying, and much, to such people, to the point of feeling an imminent death in them.

2. Overprotective upbringing

Overprotective parents, caregivers or tutors in childhood are another ingredient (perhaps not definitive, but it does add up), to end up developing hypochondria or fear of getting sick.

If at the slightest sneeze, the slightest fall, the slightest scrape on the knee... the parents, caregivers or guardians react in an exaggeratedly overprotective manner by going to the doctor with a very high level of excitement, this fact can end up generating in the child the idea that not being well is a very bad thing..

This can generate that when they are a little older and have more use of reason, some slight setback such as a slight symptom (such as a slight headache) is seen as something very bad, and what could possibly be an effect of the stress of life, or even tiredness, can awaken the idea of a stroke or tumor.

Biological vulnerability

Having a somewhat fragile physical health can lead some people to perform a somewhat exaggerated self-care for possible problems they may have. for the possible problems they suffer from. Moreover, by comparing their health with that of others and seeing themselves as inferior, initially just because of their health, self-esteem problems can arise.

This generates a general misconception of inferiority: the idea arises that you should be extremely cautious because you can get sick at any time, and consequently die.

4. Traumatic experiences with people close to you

Having a family member who started with a slight lump in the chest, for example, or with Blood in the stool and these kinds of complications ended up triggering a cancer that ended up taking the life of those people, is something that can end up affecting those family membersThe delusions, causing that every time these people feel a slight sensation in the chest (an itch, a tingling...) or see anything abnormal in their stools (too liquid, too dark, too hard...) they think of a fatal outcome of their life.

Types of people with fear of getting sick

What do the behaviors of this type of person usually look like? They are usually of three types.

1. People very worried about their health that at the slightest bodily sensation they think the worst.

They worry excessively about these sensationsTheir body goes one way at one speed and their head (their mind) goes the other way, at a much higher speed (racing thoughts of possible fatal diagnoses).

These are people who frequently visit doctors' offices, different specialists depending on the type of ailment (mild) or sensation, which is known as "doctor shopping". They are people who do not believe that they have nothing, who are not satisfied with what the doctor tells them about the non-existence of the disease, because they have felt something and interpret that "it is not normal that they have nothing".

2. People who do not seek medical help

People who are so, so terrified of illness that they try not to look at anything related to illness. try not to look at anything related to illnesses and ailmentsPeople who try not to go to hospitals or doctors' offices, in spite of feeling ailments, because they are terrified of the whole subject of diseases.

3. People with a mixture of the two previous types

They are people that one season they look at each and every one of the above symptoms and worry excessively (and always with pessimistic ideas about what they have and how it will end) and another season, they are unconcerned in excess, and do not want to know anything about the subject of health. People who worry about some symptoms and are unconcerned about other types of symptoms..

Examples of how this situation can affect them

A.R.A.R., during a routine inspection in front of the mirror, noticed that she had one breast (the left one) a little larger than the other. She palpated both breasts and did not notice any strange lumps; even so, she was not satisfied and made an appointment with her family doctor, who attributed this to a possible effect of taking a certain medicine against stomach acidity. Even with all this, and not considering it a sign of seriousness, he decided to send her for an ultrasound scan, which would be done a week later.

From this point on, A.R. she was invaded by thoughts of a possible breast cancer. This thought generated a kind of nervousness, tingling and anxiety that ran through her whole body at the same time that her heart was easily set to a frequency between 120 and 140 beats per minute, all this daily until the date of the appointment. Every day, she felt strange sensations in her left chest, such as tingling, slight prickling, etc.

She kept searching and asking "Doctor Google" the meaning of all her ailments and sensations. Finally, the day of the ultrasound came, while the doctor was passing the device through her left chest, her heart was pumping so fast for fear of what he might find, that her heartbeat was heard in an exaggerated way in the device, and only when the doctor who was doing the test told her that she had nothing and to be calm, was when she really started to lower her activation levels.

F.P. decided, one day when she was alone at home with a family member, to try a hashish cigarette (known as a "joint" in colloquial language).

As is known, one of the side effects of THC (cannabis) intoxication is a slight tachycardia. F.P. He interpreted this as something very bad, fatal, and his nervousness increased as he became tachycardic, which would create a vicious circle: my heart beats fast and I get nervous, as I get nervous, my heart gets even faster, and as it goes faster the more nervous I get... so he decided to go to the doctor after more than two hours of extreme anxiety due to this type of ideas concerning a possible imminent heart attack.

Signs, symptoms and recommendations

Being afraid of death is normal and natural. By nature we fear the unknown because we do not know what will happen, but to put this normal fear as a way of life; and therefore, to transform it into an irrational and constant fear, delimiting our life, is clearly a sign and a symptom that we have to start working on it in an important way. Extreme anxiety and depression can function as either triggering or maintaining factors of such fear..

Conclusion

By way of conclusion, I would like to refer to a scene that I like very much from the movie "Saw 2".

In that scene, the main character (who has an inoperable brain cancer) and another person talk about the paradox that people who do not have a more or less exact date of death do not really enjoy life, because they think that their time is infinite in this world; however, when a person is told that date and that it is imminent, he tries to savor everything, from a glass of water to a walk in the park.

Someone who constantly diagnoses herself, with the most extreme negative outcomes at the slightest symptom or bodily sensation.The person, who in her daily life lives with her eyes turned inward, constantly looking at any sign or symptom, because of this great terror of dying, does not really live her life, she is really dead in life, because in her head there is only the word "death". Unfortunately, she neither lives nor enjoys her life, because in her head the idea of death is bigger than the idea of being alive today and savoring the present.

In view of this, my recommendation is seek professional psychological helpThe spider's web of fears is so powerful and so big that it is very difficult for one to unhook oneself, when one has been so deeply entangled for such a long time.