Hypochondria attack!

[AdamAndWill]

(Adam) I work in a large hospital, and today at lunch one of the ER nurses was telling me about a patient who came in, convinced that he had Ebola because he's been in Atlanta on a business trip. He was nowhere near Emory and obviously had no contact with the doctor who has Ebola, but he reeled off a list of symptoms that were a perfect match to Ebola. And yeah, he had googled "Ebola symptoms" and by the time his flight from Atlanta landed in Boston, he had a headache, stomach pains, felt weak and feverish...the power of the human mind is just incredible.

[Aike]

I used to get terribly hypochondriac some years ago and it still pops up sometimes (although, fortunately, rarely!). Try thinking about what triggers it. In my case it's stress. It really helps knowing the trigger because you're able to take some distance from your immediate health concerns.

[Anonymous]

"(Adam) I work in a large hospital, and today at lunch one of the ER nurses was telling me about a patient who came in, convinced that he had Ebola because he's been in Atlanta on a business trip. He was nowhere near Emory and obviously had no contact with the doctor who has Ebola, but he reeled off a list of symptoms that were a perfect match to Ebola. And yeah, he had googled "Ebola symptoms" and by the time his flight from Atlanta landed in Boston, he had a headache, stomach pains, felt weak and feverish...the power of the human mind is just incredible."

It wouldn't let me quote the regular way.

But really, tell me about it. I once ended up in the ER because I convinced myself that I couldn't breathe. Turned out that it was all in my head, but it felt so real.

[AdamAndWill]

Will: "But really, tell me about it. I once ended up in the ER because I convinced myself that I couldn't breathe. Turned out that it was all in my head, but it felt so real. "

That's the thing --- it's like your mind creates the symptoms in your body and you feel them and experience them. People get the wrong idea, like you're "making up" your symptoms, but that's in no way true. My mom always told me I was allergic to strawberries - and I swear to God, if I ate one by accident I would actually break out in hives. Food allergies can be really bad, so Adam got concerned and made me go to an allergist for testing, and it was entirely negative. So then he got sneaky and fed me strawberries disguised in other food, and as long as I didn't know I was eating them, I had no reaction at all. So yeah, I can totally empathize with what you're going through.

[Anonymous]

That's interesting... I've had pains in certain parts of my body that often go unexplained when I'm having these episodes, maybe that's why.