Hypochondria, also called fear of illness, can have an unpleasant influence on your daily life. But why is it that chronic hyperventilation often causes hypochondria? And how do you maintain your chronic hyperventilation due to hypochondria? That’s because of the circle you live in, and you want to get out of it, right?
Hypochondria
Unfortunately, people who have chronic hyperventilation are also often victims of hypochondria. This unpleasant condition, also called fear of illness, often starts with doubts about your body. It can start with something small and turn into a very big problem. As a hypochondriac, you are so focused on your body that everything you feel makes you think more deeply. Your brain is capable of strange things. You can focus strongly on a specific pain in your body and your brain can amplify this pain. The statement “your body receives what your mind believes” is very appropriate here.
A hypochondriac can turn a headache into a brain tumor, a spot on the skin into skin cancer, and a twinge in the chest into heart disease. Your brain gets used to these doom thoughts and makes it a daily activity. Slowly it becomes an obsession and before you know it you are a hypochondriacal.
Chronic hyperventilation vs hypochondriasis
People who have chronic hyperventilation often die from physical complaints. They move on from one complaint to another. From palpitations to tingling, to muscle complaints, and everything in between. It is therefore not surprising that you are becoming increasingly insecure about your body. Chronic hyperventilation is often discovered too late, sometimes it takes years. This is an attack on your body. Other conditions can now also develop as a result of the complaints and uncertainty all these years.
A new condition that has a good opportunity to do this and that will also occur in many chronic hyperventilation patients is hypochondria. You don’t just tell people with hypochondria that there is actually nothing wrong with their body and that they are simply healthy. After all, they haven’t felt well for years. It would be easier if such a person believed that tension can actually produce a lot of physical symptoms, because then the complaints would disappear like snow in the sun. Instead, the person continues to believe that there is something wrong with their body and the complaints become the source of the tension. Chronic hyperventilation has now also developed a mental complaint, hypochondria. This condition causes you to no longer think realistically about your body. When hypochondria enters your life, the circle is complete: You get fear/tension about a complaint, then you get thoughts of disaster/doom, which leads to more fear/tension, and you often unconsciously overbreathe (hyperventilate). This then strengthens the complaint you are anxious about.
Typical characteristics of someone who suffers from hypochondria are:
- Check your heart rate often
- Constantly worrying about your body
- Feeling every pain
- Doom thinking
- Often going to the doctor looking for reassurance or confirmation
- Insecure
- Search the internet for recognition
Fears
Going to a doctor often only provides temporary reassurance, because someone with hypochondria can easily come up with something new. Almost everyone who suffers from hypochondria has a major impact on their daily lives. Some people even barely function anymore. Panic attacks and intense fears follow. If you live in constant fear, your chemical metabolism will go completely out of whack. That causes a lot of annoying complaints. Chronic hyperventilation is different from an anxiety disorder. However, people who suffer from chronic hyperventilation for a long time often develop several anxiety disorders, including hypochondria. What is important is that it has to go away, because it is debilitating to go through life like this.
Staff
Things you can do that are easier said than done:
- Make sure you start trusting your body again.
- Try not to focus on aches and pains and other complaints.
- Recognize that your fears cause and maintain your complaints.
- Make sure you read in black and white what fear does to your body, don’t search the internet, just read this.
- Try to speak positively to yourself and repeat positive things in your head.
It is clear that it is very rare if you can get out of this without help. So don’t hesitate to ask for help. You earned it and you owe it to your body and yourself. Consider, for example, a psychologist, an anxiety center or someone specialized in the treatment of chronic hyperventilation and anxiety disorders. Your doctor can help you further with this. You can see the step towards help as the first step towards your old self.
Medicines and approaches
GP
If complaints persist, see your doctor. They can recognize physical symptoms of tension very well, and if in doubt they will refer you for further examination. People with hypochondria often wonder how a doctor can determine with a few actions whether or not they have a life-threatening illness. If you continue to have doubts despite all the reassurances from your doctor, a problem arises and it can become an obsession. Hypochondria is born. You need more help now.
Anti-depressants
There are medications that can be prescribed for hypochondria. For example, consider anti-depressants. These medications should only be used on the orders of a doctor. They not only help with depressive symptoms, but also help reduce your fears and in some cases the fears even disappear. Remember, it is the medications that suppress your symptoms. You’re not better yet. So you must also tackle the core of the problem before you stop, otherwise the complaints will return.
Sedatives
Tranquilizers can also be prescribed by your doctor, you will become calmer and can resume your daily life. These drugs are addictive and you cannot continue taking them forever. So it also applies that in addition to the medication, you also have to tackle the core of the problem.
Relaxation exercises
Hypochondria can also be treated in another way. Relaxation exercises are often used. Meditation or learning to breathe calmly is also recommended. You will also immediately tackle your chronic hyperventilation. You learn to control your fear. Because fear and tension always go together, but fear and relaxation do not go together.
If you think, after reading this article, that you belong to the group of people who always fear being ill, then this was step 1, the recognition that you have hypochondria. Now on to the next step, get help!
