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In this era of modern days, people tend to work themselves off without realizing that they need time off for a moment to stop and look at the world. I did. I looked at and realized that i have never looked at the world out there never as before. Things that i didn't stop by too look in the walkway because of rush hour, assignments, schedules etc looked beautiful. From the environment, people, architecture etc looked stunning and meaningful.
We all should need some quite time and some peace alone. I felt so much better. Practicing silence help a lot in terms of mind, body and soul. Never neglect that. If you do, putting a lot of pressure, sense of achievement, honors and etc would lead to social health problems.
Increasing cases of anxiety now happens here. Paper nowadays are also increasingly focusing on anxiety disorder which we Malaysian tends to say "Xiao, i'm not a mental problem." This time around, i would like to educate my readers about this problem.
Anxiety has a lot of forms but i would like to pay to this particular attention to this type of disorder because it is for someone that i knew are having this disorder.
hypochondriasis
The primary feature of hypochondriasis is excessive fear of having a serious disease. These fears are not relieved when a medical examination finds no evidence of disease. People with hypochondriasis are often able to acknowledge that their fears are unrealistic, but this intellectual realization is not enough to reduce their anxiety. In order to qualify for a diagnosis of hypochondriasis, preoccupation with fear of disease must cause a great deal of distress or interfere with a person's ability to perform important activities, such as work, school activities, or family and social responsibilities. Hypochondriasis is included in the category of somatoform disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM-IV-TR ), which is the reference handbook that clinicians use to guide the diagnosis of mental disorders.
The fears of a person with hypochondriasis may be focused on the possibility of a single illness, but more often they include a number of possible conditions. The focus of the fears may shift over time as a person notices a new symptom or learns about an unfamiliar disease. The fears appear to develop in response to minor physical abnormalities, like fatigue, aching muscles, a mild cough or a small sore. People with hypochondriasis may also interpret normal sensations as signs of disease. For instance, an occasional change in heart rate or a feeling of dizziness upon standing up will lead a person with hypochondriasis to fears of heart disease or stroke. Sometimes hypochondriacal fears develop after the death of a friend or family member, or in response to reading an article or seeing a television program about a disease. Fear of illness can also increase in response to stress. Individuals with hypochondriasis visit physicians frequently; and when told there is nothing physically wrong, they are likely to seek a second opinion since their fears are not soothed.
Their apparent distrust of their physicians' opinions can cause tensions in doctor-patient relationships, leading to the patient's further dissatisfaction with health care providers. Physicians who regularly see a patient with hypochondriasis may become skeptical about any reported symptom, increasing the danger that a real illness may be overlooked. People with hypochondriasis also run the risk of undergoing unnecessary medical tests or receiving unneeded medications. Although they are usually not physically disabled, they may take frequent sick days from work, or annoy friends and family with constant conversation or complaints about illness, reducing their ability to function effectively in some aspects of life. In order to receive a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of hypochondriasis, a person must meet all six of the following criteria:( means criteria to fulfill it)- The person must be preoccupied with the notion or fear of having a serious disease. This preoccupation is based on misinterpretation of physical symptoms or sensations.
- Appropriate medical evaluation and reassurance that there is no illness present do not eliminate the preoccupation.
- The belief or fear of illness must not be of delusional intensity. Delusional health fears are more likely to be bizarre in nature— for instance, the belief that one's skin emits a foul odor or that food is rotting in one's intestines. The preoccupations must not be limited to a concern about appearance; excessive concerns that focus solely on defects in appearance would receive a diagnosis of body dysmorphic disorder.
- The preoccupation must have lasted for at least six months.
- The person's preoccupation with illness must not simply be part of the presentation of another disorder, including generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, separation anxiety, major depressive episode, or another somatoform disorder.
- elaboration from last point: it means that, it is difficult for the patient's doctor to determine whether the anxiety preceded the physical condition or followed it; sometimes people develop generalized anxiety disorder after being diagnosed with a chronic organic health problem. In other instances, the wear and tear on the body caused by persistent and recurrent worrying leads to physical diseases and disorders. There is an overall "vicious circle" quality to the relationship between GAD and other disorders, whether mental or organic.
