"As a child, my mother often said to me: 'Put on your hat, otherwise you will get head flu!' No idea how that expresses itself – I preferred to put my hat on."
Alina, 32
"My ex-husband had all kinds of serious illnesses: brain tumors, heart attacks … He went to the X-ray, into the CT tube and at the weekend to the emergency room – I always had to go with me. Otherwise: lying on the sofa and suffering. Disgusting! We have been divorced for ten years. And he's still in great health. "
Catalina, 46
“I wanted to find out from an orthopedic surgeon why it clicks in my right groin during a certain movement. For example when I get off the bike or get out of the shower. It's not a real pain, but it feels uncomfortable and sounds creepy. The doctor could not find anything. I said, "But there has to be something, on the other hand I don't have it." And he:, Then let the movement stop on the right. ""
Georgina, 48
"When I was ten, I was convinced that I had a fatal heart defect – what else should the occasional heart beats mean? Because I didn't want to burden my parents with this information, I trusted myself to a friend of the same age. But she had the same symptoms – great, so we would both die. ”
Miriam, 35
“My son had bad discoloration on his big toe. I thought: internal bleeding! Nail fungus! The pediatrician let him take a foot bath, gently squeezed the soaked toe, went under the nail with a chopstick and then said, "Look, that's just dirt."
Irina, 37
“I had stiff feet when I got up for months. I couldn't breathe while jogging and I was dead tired every night. I was convinced I had some serious illness and eventually went to the doctor. He listened to this and then said: 'Get used to it. It's called age. ""
Thorsten, 51
“In my family we talk almost exclusively about illnesses. I would say that's the glue that holds us together. How are you? Everyone always answers in diagnoses or with anecdotes from the treatment room. To outsiders, it may sound as if we were hypochondriacal. But we're going to be very sober, in fact. Honest."
Ann-Kathrin, 47
Diseases we fear most:
1. Cancer
2. Alzheimer's / dementia
3. Accident with injuries
What to do if the partner thinks a headache is a brain tumor? Dr. Gernot Langs, chief physician in the psychosomatic center at the Schön Klinik in Bad Bramstedt, knows:
“First of all: as a partner or relative of someone with health concerns, you are not the therapist. And you are not the doctor either. Therefore, do not make any diagnoses. So don't say, 'There's nothing there, you just have a psychological problem.' Say, 'I'm worried because you're afraid of serious illnesses. Let's go to the doctor again and discuss what we can do. ‘General practitioners are now trained to recognize people with health concerns. They usually know how to get the patient on board and convey to them that their problems are probably stress-related and cannot be solved on a physical level alone. And they also know that it saves them more time to have a longer conversation than to treat someone pro forma again and again who is always at their door. ”
Fear facts:
An estimated 15-30% of general practice patients complain of physical symptoms without the doctor finding an organic cause
On average, 7 years pass before hypochondria is treated
Bromosis, also known as “self-odor craze”, is the idea that you would stink
If you actually feel symptoms after reading a leaflet, this is called the nocebo effect
Researchers at the University of Zurich found out whoever feels constantly sick dies earlier
9% of Germans believe they are intolerant to gluten – 0.5% of them are right
In the UK, a hypochondriac was banned across the country. Among other things, he had pretended to have AIDS and Ebola