Illness anxiety disorder is not different from mental health issues that one experiences. However, there are key characteristics that make it stand apart. The condition is popularly known as hypochondriasis or health anxiety.
Popular movies and novels have mentioned this condition (like many other mental health issues that plague human life.) Just like other mental health issues, illness anxiety disorder also has physical manifestations. This means that it can show up as sensations that you feel in your body.
A long-term condition, illness anxiety disorder is a condition that can make the individual uncomfortable. The condition has recently been removed from the DSM-5 as a diagnosis and placed within illness anxiety disorder.
This article dives into the disorder and breaks it down to understand it better.
Hypochondriasis Or Illness Anxiety Disorder: What Is It, Symptoms and Causes
Illness anxiety disorder can show up at an early age or even teenage years which can be one of the most crucial stages to detect the condition. The condition may or may not show physical symptoms. The condition starts mild and can become exceedingly difficult to control. This is one of the reasons why it is important to detect the signs early on.
One of the most important ways to detect the condition at an early stage is noticing the signs. There may be extreme anxiety and body sensations in association with specific illnesses that may also be serious.
This is one of the major reasons why you may want to read the article to know about the symptoms that can show up. The condition may have several fluctuations that can in turn increase the severity.
If you have come across movies or books that mention this condition, you would recognize that individuals with the condition may display an obsession with staying clean. This is related to the unexplained fear of contracting a disease.
This can be explained with the help of possible causes that can lead to a person developing this disorder. There may be childhood trauma related to the condition, witnessing someone else suffer with an infectious disease, trauma related to a disease among several other reasons.
Let us look at the symptoms:
- Preoccupation with developing a serious condition or disease.
- Being alarmed with any abnormal sensation in the body even if it is temporary
- Constant worry about contracting an illness so much so that it interferes with your daily activities
- Doctor’s appointments and clear reports do not put you at ease
- Excessively worrying about developing a condition that is prevalent in your family
- Being constantly fixated on signs of illness in your body
Additional Signs of Illness Anxiety Disorder
The condition can also look like:
- Avoiding medical care in fear of receiving a diagnosis for a condition
- Frequent visits to the doctor
- Avoiding social gatherings, people or places fearing health risks
- All your conversations revolve around your health and health issues
- Always being on the hunt for causes of possible illnesses or symptoms.
Severe anxiety can lead to a lot of distress for the individual. This is when you know you will need to intervene and consult or suggest professional help for the person who is experiencing this.
Sometimes, before medications for such intense anxiety, you can also expect significant help from professionals such as mental health experts. They are trained in handling situations where the individual often faces difficulty in controlling their thoughts. This is known as spiraling which may not be the best way to describe a symptom as the individual may feel triggered.
Risk Factors And Causes Of Illness Anxiety Disorder
There may be several reasons why an individual develops the condition, some of those are:
- Family history of illness anxiety disorder. If an individual witnesses a parent or parents worrying about their health in a chronic fashion, they are more likely to develop the condition.
- The condition is more likely to develop in an individual who has had a past illness. The severity of the condition caused them significant distress, such that even the slightest similarity to the symptoms can cause physical sensations.
A noteworthy cause of this condition is that you may have trouble tolerating unusual body sensations. This can lead to your misinterpretation of body sensations. Thus, this leads to you actively seeking evidence to prove you have a serious illness. Other risk factors include:
- History of abuse as a child can lead to the development of illness anxiety disorder.
- Personality traits that make you prone to develop this condition. For example, you may have a personality trait of being a worrier, naturally putting you at risk of becoming a hypochondriac as an adult.
- Excessive exposure to health-related content. It may be through exposure to information on the internet.
A recent motion picture revolves around this condition. The movie called Hypochondriac centers around the experience of a son who has grown up with an abusive mother. This shows how individuals with childhood trauma can develop serious mental health issues such as hypochondria.
This is just one example of motion picture depicting serious mental illness on screen for the audience to experience even a small percentage of what a person with the illness undergoes.
The point of this is to show that childhood trauma plays a crucial role in its development.
How Can I Prevent Illness Anxiety Disorder?
Illness anxiety disorder is a type of mental health issue that can develop in an individual without any one reason. There are risk factors and causes as shown above that can increase the chance of someone developing the condition.
It is also well now known that a person who has recently undergone a traumatic experience (specifically those related to a health condition) can develop it. However, there are some ways to prevent the condition:
- Seeking professional advice if a person is facing challenges with anxiety or signs of hypochondria as mentioned above.
- Recognizing signs of the condition well in time can also help control how the signs affect you.
- Preventing relapse is key to controlling the extent of your signs. You can achieve this by sticking to your treatment plan. One of the reasons why you experience worsening of your symptoms is if you do not adhere to your treatment plan.
Diagnosis And Treatment of Illness Anxiety Disorder
Diagnosis of mental health issues usually does not completely rely on tools or tests that can give an accurate diagnosis. However, an expert can help in diagnosing mental health conditions. A primary diagnosis can be made by a general physician who can recommend consulting a mental health professional.
Your mental health professional will:
- Conduct a proper evaluation that can give them a psychological summary. It will include your symptoms, any triggers that you may have, past experiences and family history. You can also expect to have an in-depth discussion about your experience of the condition,
- Conduct a psychological self-assessment for you.
- Get a complete social history, which includes your drinking and smoking habits.
- Examine if an underlying mental health issue is causing these symptoms. There is a chance that your illness preoccupation can be due to another mental health condition.
These steps taken by a mental health expert will help in determining what the treatment plan will include. By considering all these factors, your treatment will not just focus on treating illness anxiety disorder but also taking care of any underlying condition.
Treatment
The treatment plan will be curated based on the diagnostic findings by your mental health expert. The following is what your treatment plan will include:
- Medications
Medications are now being used with other non-pharmacological treatment options. This implies that you can expect treatment alternatives to medications in your treatment plan. This can depend on how you respond to medications. Usually, prescribed medications for mental health issues may show side effects that can be detrimental for the individual.
Thus, as per the doctor’s perspective it is always better to balance medications with alternative treatment options.
- Psychotherapy
Also known as talk therapy, psychotherapy is one of the most common treatment alternatives for mental health conditions. Especially for anxiety or other mood disorders where the symptoms can be difficult to manage.
Psychotherapy is an umbrella term for all the different therapy types that can support management of these symptoms. For example, Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT is one of the most popular therapy options.
This helps in managing the physical sensations of the condition. The emotional distress that health anxiety causes can be overwhelming for the individual. CBT helps in:
- identifying the beliefs and fear about serious medical conditions
- Learning the different ways, you can view your body sensations by reflecting on unhelpful thoughts.
- Identifying how your worries affect your behavior
- Changing your response to symptoms and body sensations
- Learning skills that are helpful in coping with health anxiety and stress.
- Reducing avoidance of situations based on physical sensations. This also helps in reducing the avoidance of activities (something that you would have otherwise enjoyed.)
- Lifestyle modifications
Lifestyle modifications help in controlling your exposure to triggers. This is an important step in controlling how you perceive your environment and how well you can respond to external stimuli on your own. This can be done in collaboration with your health care provider. In other words, collaborate with your mental health expert to find the best way you can manage your symptoms.
They will be able to devise a plan that has:
- Techniques that help you relax and manage your stress
- Suggest physical activities that will be good for your physical functioning while also managing your anxiety and stress.
- You are participating in activities such as those related to your work, family and social activities. This will help you get the support that you need.
- A healthy habit where you are not abusing substances such as recreational drugs or alcohol.
- A healthy way for you to control your urge to search the internet for possible diseases. One of the reasons why you feel your symptoms worsening is because of the various sources that you get information from when you are on the internet.
Wrapping It Up!
In conclusion, illness anxiety disorder is a mental health condition where an individual can experience health anxiety. This causes them immense stress that is overwhelming, so much so that they can experience physical symptoms.
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