Early in my career, a woman came into my office bent over in pain. She leaned on the exam table. "I know it's all in my head," she apologized. "It's just my usual back pain. This time I can hardly stand it."
It didn't take long to figure out that she had a kidney stone. She went home with pain medicine and a device to catch the stone, not counseling.
With our own symptoms, we can get more jumpy. Like many doctors, I've run blood tests on myself, checked my own urine, and performed countless self-examinations to understand symptoms when they pop up. So when patients tell me they think they're being hypochondriacs, I usually confess that I am one too.
And why not?
"Hypochondriac" is a ten-dollar word, probably coined by some well-educated person—perhaps a physician. It's derogatory. All it really means is that the doctor can't solve the patient's problems, or doesn't want to engage themselves in difficult work.
I can think of several situations here.
Unhealthy hypochondria can lead us to use our symptoms to avoid life's challenges. Your loved ones will figure this one out before you do.
Healthy hypochondria is simply self-attention. We are trying to use our symptoms to guide us toward a better understanding of our health and how our bodies work, such as the woman with the kidney stone.