What is Hypochondria?
Hypochondria, or as it is popularly known, hypochondria, occurs when a person constantly thinks that he/she has a serious
disorder. These people often go to the doctor frequently and are not satisfied when they say there is no problem. With the slightest symptoms, such as a simple cough or
stomach ache, they quickly panic and start writing disaster scenarios. Frequent visits to the hospital emergency department, distrust of the doctor they see, and searching for new doctors and hospitals may be observed. If a person is absolutely satisfied with an illness, hypochondriac anxieties can
be transferred to another direction. For example, fear of heart attack can turn into fear of brain tumor. These people may be affected by the illness of a
neighbor or someone on the television, and they may worry whether they have it too.
What is Panic Disorder?
Although panic disorder is commonly used as panic attack, they are both. It's not the same thing. Panic attack
is a condition, not a disorder. It usually occurs with anxiety disorders. It occurs with many symptoms such as sweating in the hands, heart palpitations, numbness in the head, tremors, pain in the chest, feeling of not being able to breathe. Panic disorder means having more than one panic attack and the anxiety-provoking situation for the person becomes a panic attack. The person takes various security measures against the attack,
and even shapes his life accordingly. Sometimes these measures can reach the point of not leaving the house or avoiding certain situations (such as not going to theatre, cinema, not being able to enter crowded places).
Why Are Hypochondria and Panic Disorder Confused?
Hypochondria and Panic Disorder have similar symptoms. The purpose of this article is to examine the interaction between panic disorder
and hypochondria and to examine how they can be differentiated
from each other. Often, both disorders show overlapping features, and according to some studies, hypochondriac anxieties may be predictive of panic disorder. Although these two disorders can be easily distinguished clinically
, they also interact with each other and produce similar clinical pictures. They can be seen together.
What are the Similar Aspects of Hypochondria and Panic Disorder?
Health-related concerns are of central importance in both disorders. Patients with both diagnoses are less tolerant to bodily sensations and succumb to their somatic complaints more quickly. Many panic patients are described as hypochondriac
before being diagnosed with panic disorder.
So Which One Do I Have? How to Differentiate?
Clinical findings and observations are meaningful when it comes to differentiating two diseases. While people with hypochondria
have more serious illness beliefs and health-related concerns, people with panic disorder
experience more intense fears during panic attacks. In hypochondria, there is an ongoing
anxiety and it has now turned into a belief, whereas in panic disorder, anxiety is triggered by certain situations and occurs in the form of an attack. If we think of the disorders as two cars, hypochondria can be compared to a vehicle that constantly drives
100 km, and panic disorder can be compared to a vehicle that sometimes drives 30 km and sometimes 200 km. In addition, research results have revealed that hypochondriac patients experience more mental problems and are more medically demanding
than people with panic disorder.
I Have One of These, What Should I Do?
I definitely recommend you get psychological support. If necessary, the client may be referred to a psychiatrist for psychiatric support. Remember, living this way is very difficult and these disorders can be treated
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