Results for "Hypochondria" in Psychology & Mental Health

Hypochondriasis is a mental disorder characterized by a preoccupation with the fear or belief that one has a serious physical disease based on the incorrect and unrealistic interpretation of bodily symptoms. This fear or belief persists for at least 6 months and interferes with social and occupational functioning in spite of medical reassurance that no physical disorder exists. These symptoms are characterized by high health anxiety and health-related preoccupations but that occur either in the presence of significant somatic symptoms, or in the absence or with minimal evidence of such ...

Anxiety is a very serious issue and especially the fear of illness is a real ordeal for many sufferers. But fear is also a feeling that every human being carries within him or her, which is vital or essential for survival and is stronger or weaker in each person depending on their personality. Fear drives, inspires, mobilizes one's own forces, leads to success, but can also make you sick - so sick that life becomes hell. Hypochondria - as the fear of illness is specifically called - is a phenomenon of completely exaggerated fears that can push sufferers to their limits.

Drawing on Crampton’s own experience of surviving a life-threatening disease only to find herself beset by almost constant anxiety about her health, A Body Made of Glass explores part of the landscape of illness that most memoirs don’t reach: the territory beyond survival or cure, where body and mind seem locked in a strange and exhausting kind of dance. The result is both a fascinating cultural history of hypochondria and a moving account of what it means to live with this invisible, elusive and increasingly widespread condition.