The newest research tells us that this is a learned behavior. Most hypochondriacs had parents who over-reacted to their childhood illness. Recent studies have shown that the more attention you give your pain, the worse you’ll feel. If you ask people having their teeth extracted to rate their pain every twenty minutes, they’ll say they’re in more pain than if you ask them to rate their pain every couple of hours. Another interesting experiment compared men walking on a treadmill and listening either to their own breathing or to traffic sounds, through earphones. Those who listened to their own breathing were more likely to complain of headaches and racing of the heart. I realize that it’s sometimes difficult to decide if a symptom is serious enough to warrant consulting a doctor. But if the researchers are right, it seems that the more we concentrate on that symptom, the worse we’ll feel.
I’m reminded of the time my mother brought home a copy of the Merck Manual, a book that describes most of the major diseases known to medicine. Every time we looked up a symptom in it, we were sure that some family member had a horrible disease. When we finally threw it out, we all felt healthier.
Now, I’m not trying to tell you to ignore your body. But you do have to accept that you’ll have many minor discomforts for which medicine doesn’t have an easy explanation. In an era when everyone is working to keep medical costs down, the privilege of running to a doctor for every ache can’t last long. In the meantime, true hypochondriacs can be taught meditation, relaxation exercises, and other methods of focusing on the body in constructive ways.
