Imagine having an unbearable and excruciating pain deep in the pit of your stomach. You know that you are dying. However, no one believes you. The doctor, your family, friends, and loved ones continuously tell you that you are ok. Diagnostics tests and lab results all come back negative. You refuse to believe what everyone is telling you. Almost day in, and day out, this dilemma is revisited, and you experience déjà vu all over again. This issue persists for months, even years. This is a glimpse of the life of a hypochondriac. Nicknamed, “illness without a specific cause,” hypochondria is a health anxiety disorder that often times is chronic. It is also known by the name hypochondriasis. “When you have hypochondria, you become obsessed with the idea that you have a serious, or life-threatening disease that hasn't been diagnosed yet, and there's no clear medical evidence that you have a serious health problem (Mayo Clinic, para. 1, 1998-2014).” The cause of hypochondria is unknown. Hypochondriacs do not make up their symptoms on purpose. The severity in which a person pe...
A physician has an unenviable position; he is closest to man approaching a god-like stature. And despite the demise of 'doctor knows best', we still need to trust his diagnosis-something that is increasingly difficult in a world where information is widely available, and Google substitutes for a doctor. In the case of psychiatry the issue of trust is amplified since diagnosis is based on a patient's expressed thoughts and overt behaviours rather than solely on biological phenomena. And these thoughts and behaviours are influenced by the patient's environment-a mix of his social, cultural and technological experiences.
According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), it defines mental illness as Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses are associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities. (What Is Mental Illness? (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2016, from https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/what-is-mental-illness). Mental Disorders are a wide range of mental conditions that affect mood, thinking, and behavior. There are a lot of different psychological disorders here is a list of the major psychological disorders and their definitions:
In the case of my aunt who I’ll call Bertha for the sake of anonymity she believes that she has multiple sclerosis (M.S.). She has claimed to have had it for as long as I can remember but shows no symptoms to the disease. One of the symptoms she claims to show is the intolerance for heat; this all changed when she desired to go Israel and her M.S. was miraculously cured. When my mom twisted her ankle my Aunt Bertha faked a seizure. We could tell it was fake because Aunt Bertha would stop seizing long enough to put more food in her mouth. She has gone to three licensed doctors who all said she needed to receive psychiatric help because she was showing no signs of M.S. My Aunt Bertha then found a all natural doctor who doesn’t use modern drugs or tests who confirmed her diagnosis of M.S. The doctor then proceeded to prescribe pills to my Aunt saying that they were the cure to M.S. that she had created herself.
The nature of the disorder makes it difficult to treat, since patients are convinced that they suffer from a real and serious medical problem. Indeed, the mere su...
“Nosophobia and hypochondriasis in medical students”. Wikipedia, encyclopedia. 20 May 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosophobia. Web. 15 Ap 2014.
When patients are labeled with a mental illness they start to believe they actually have that illness. In more severe cases, misdiagnosis can result in the patient’s death or simply taking their own life. According to Dr. Mercola “Diagnostic errors are just one type of error that occurs in the medical field, and you might be surprised at just how common errors occur. While the 1999 IOM report blamed 98,000 deaths a year on hospital errors, a 2013 study in the Journal of Patient Safety projected that medical errors now account for 210,000 to 440,000 US deaths annually”. To better understand the severity of misdiagnosis, imagine a close family member getting diagnosed with a mental disorder that he or she doesn’t have and from that they decide to take their own life due to unnecessary treatment that is harmful to their
What is hypochondriasis? “Hypochondriasis is the excessive worry that you are or may become seriously ill, says Mayo Clinic.” Hypochondriasis is known to be an illness anxiety disorder. Hypochondriasis, when diagnosed to a person, is known as being a hypochondriac. Mayo Clinic also says that “It is not just worrying every so often that something might be wrong with a person, but it’s that the person is constantly worrying about themselves.” It will cause them to think the worst about them being ill and monitor their own body and expect something is wrong with themselves all of the time. (Carolyn Steber) Here are some symptoms, causes and treatments for hypochondriasis.
Schildkrout, Barbara. “Unmasking Psychological Symptoms: How Therapists Can Learn To Recognize The Psychological Presentation Of Medical Disorders”. n.p.: Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley & Sons, c2011., 2011. USMAI Catalog. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
One kind of anxiety disorder is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This disease can ruin a person's life because it causes them to have repetitive thoughts and behaviors towards certain things. Life can become very difficult because this way of thinking and acting is very difficult to overcome, especially since the obsessions have no point and are stressful for the person. It begins to interfere with the person's school, work, and/or home.
Anxiety is a monster that most people have to deal with on a daily basis. Even though anxiety is not actually a monster it still torments thousands of people every day, leaving them weak and scared. Anxiety defined means “distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune” defined by Dictionary.com. In the epic poem of Beowulf, one could say that the townspeople had anxiety when it came to Grendel because they feared what he could do to them.
Anxiety disorder is a type of abnormal behavior characterized by unrealistic, irrational fear. These types of disorders are diagnosed two as often in women as in men. Although these disorders can be very chronic and serious, they are easily treatable. Generalized anxiety disorder is when people experience fear and worry that is not focused on one specific aspect; nevertheless, they suffer greatly with headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations, and insomnia. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, better known as OCD, involves persistent, unwanted, obsessions and irresistible urges to perform compulsions in order to relieve anxiety. Unlike other anxiety disorders, OCD consists more of anxiety and worry rather than fear itself. Many people who experience OCD are aware that there is no motive behind their actions, however their anxiety is heightened when they try to ignore the compulsions. People with such anxiety disorders often experience sensitivity to other people’s views as well as worry over their surroundings.
PubMed Health:Psychosis. U.S. National Library of Medicine., Bethesda, MD, 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
The uncertain nature of chronic illness takes many forms, but all are long-term and cannot be cured. The nature of chronic illness raises hesitation. It can disturb anyone, irrespective of demographics or traditions. It fluctuates lives and generates various inquiries for the patient. Chronic illness few clear features involve: long-lasting; can be managed but not cured; impacts quality of life; and contribute to stress. Chronic illnesses can be enigmatic. They often take considerable time to identify, they are imperceptible and often carry a stigma because there is little sympathetic or social support. Many patients receive inconsistent diagnoses at first and treatments deviate on an individual level. Nevertheless, some circumstances require
The uncertain nature of chronic illness takes many forms, but all are long-term and cannot be cured. The nature of chronic illness raises hesitation. It can disturb anyone, irrespective of demographics or traditions. It fluctuates lives and generates various inquiries for the patient. Chronic illness few clear features involve: long-lasting; can be managed but not cured; impacts quality of life; and contribute to stress. Chronic illnesses can be enigmatic. They often take considerable time to identify, they are imperceptible and often carry a stigma because there is little sympathetic or social support. Many patients receive inconsistent diagnoses at first and treatments
Some believe that involuntary treatment for those with mental illnesses is sometimes necessary and in the best interest of the patients. Due to their specific illness, some individuals are unable to make proper judgment about their need for treatment. People with schizophrenia, for example, may have anosognosia, a lack of awareness of their mental illness, or have delusional beliefs and suspicions towards medication. Those with depression or bipolar disorder might also have impaired insight of the severity of their mental illness. Studies have shown a strong association between lack of awareness and medical nonadherence (Nose, Barbui, & Tansella, 2003). Furthermore, disorders that are ego-syntonic, or those in which the patient believes the disorder is part of their identity, impair insight into the extent of the disorder. Individuals with anorexia nervosa might resist receiving treatment because they are proud of their slight physiques and fear the weight gain involved in treatment.