Many people live with the sole goal in life of not getting sick.by feeling that being sick brings us quite close to death, to abandoning this world in which, paradoxically, “they do not live.”
We are going to see the possible origins of this problem and the possible evolution of this type of people who have their attention oriented towards themselves, with the fear of getting sick as their flag.
Possible origins of people with fear of getting sick
The main causes are the following.
1. Activation
The activation of the sympathetic nervous system that arises in any situation in our lives; It allows us to act to respond in a more or less ideal way, and that, depending on our way of interpreting said stimuli, we will generate greater or lesser activation depending on the “danger” that we understand we are about to experience.
Over time, this activation arises unconsciously before any aspect of our environment or any thought that crosses our mind and activates it, as if it were a racing car.
With this way of reacting extended over time. we end up having various symptoms in our body. Symptoms of anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms, which at first may go unnoticed, since we are busy with what has alerted us at that moment. But once this alert passes and these symptoms manifest in the body, what happened ends up worrying these people a lot, to the point of feeling imminent death in them.
2. Overprotective education
Overprotective parents, caregivers or tutors in childhood are another ingredient (perhaps not definitive, but it does add up), to end up developing hypochondria or fear of getting sick.
If, in response to the slightest sneeze, the slightest fall, the slightest scrape on the knee… parents, caregivers or guardians react in an exaggeratedly overprotective manner, going to the doctor with a very high level of excitement, that fact It can end up generating in the child the idea that not being well is something very bad..
This can mean that when you are a little older and have more use of reason, some slight setback such as a slight symptom (such as a slight headache) is seen as something very bad, and which could possibly be an effect of the The stress of life, or even fatigue, may raise the thought of a stroke or tumor.
3. Biological vulnerability
Having a slightly fragile physical health can lead some people to perform somewhat exaggerated self-care for the possible problems suffered. And even more so, when comparing your health with that of others and seeing yourself as inferior, initially only because of your health, self-esteem problems can arise.
This generates a mistaken idea of general inferiority: the idea arises that extreme caution must be taken since at the slightest chance one can get sick, and consequently, die.
4. Traumatic experiences with close people
Having a family member who started with a slight lump in the chest, for example, or with blood in the stool and these types of complications ended up triggering cancer that ended up taking the lives of those people, is something that may end up affecting said family memberscausing every time these people feel a slight sensation in the chest (an itch, a tickling…) or see anything abnormal in their stools (too liquid, too dark, too hard…) they think of a fatal outcome of their life.
Types of people afraid of getting sick
What are the behaviors of these types of people usually like? They are usually of three types.
1. People very concerned about their health who, when faced with the slightest bodily sensation, think the worst
They worry excessively about these sensations; His body goes one way at one speed and his head (his mind) goes the other way, at a much higher speed (rushed thoughts of possible fatal diagnoses).
They are people who frequently visit medical consultations, various specialists depending on the type of ailment (mild) or sensation, what is known as “doctor shopping”. They are people who do not believe that they have nothing, who do not agree with what the doctor tells them about the non-existence of said disease, because they have felt something and interpret that “it is not normal that they have nothing.”
2. People who do not seek health help
People who are so, so afraid of the disease, that They try not to look at anything related to illnesses and diseasespeople who try not to go to hospitals or doctor’s offices, despite feeling ailments, because of the terror that this whole topic of diseases produces in them
3. People with a mixture of the two previous types
They are people who, one season, look at each and every one of the above symptoms and worry excessively (and always with pessimistic ideas about what they have and how it will end) and another season, they become excessively unconcerned, and do not They want to know nothing about health. People who worry about some symptoms and don’t worry about other types of symptoms.
Examples of how this situation can affect
A.R., in a routine inspection in front of the mirror, realized that she had one breast (the left one) a little larger than the other. He felt both breasts and did not notice any strange lump; Even so, she was not satisfied and made an appointment with his family doctor, who attributed this to a possible effect of taking a certain medicine against heartburn. Even with all that, and it did not seem like a sign of seriousness, he decided to send her an ultrasound that would be done a week later.
From here on, AR was invaded by thoughts about possible breast cancer. This thought generated a kind of nervousness, tingling as a result of anxiety that ran through his entire body at the same time that his heart easily reached a frequency between 120 and 140 beats per minute, all this daily until the date of the appointment. Every day, she felt strange sensations in her left breast such as tickling, slight stinging, etc.
He spent his time searching and asking “Doctor Google” the meaning of all his ailments and sensations. Finally, the day of the ultrasound arrived, while the doctor was passing the device over his left chest, his heart was pumping so fast for fear of what he might find, that his heartbeat could be heard exaggeratedly in said device, and only when The doctor who performed the test told her that she had nothing and that she should be calm, that’s when her activation levels really started to drop.
FP He decided, one day when he was alone with a relative at home, to try a hashish cigarette (what is known as a “joint” in colloquial language).
As is known, one of the side effects of THC (cannabis) intoxication is a slight tachycardia. FP interpreted this as something very bad, fatal, and his nervousness increased when he saw himself with tachycardia, which would create a vicious circle: my heart beats fast and I get nervous, when I get nervous, my heart gets even faster, and when I get nervous, my heart gets even faster. The faster I go the more nervous I get… so I decided to go to the doctor after more than two hours of extreme anxiety due to these types of thoughts regarding a possible impending heart attack.
Signs, symptoms and recommendations
Being afraid of death is normal and natural. By nature we fear the unknown because we do not know what will happen, but putting that normal fear first as a way of life; and therefore, transforming it into an irrational and constant fear, delimiting our life, is clearly a sign and symptom that we must start working on it in an important way. Extreme anxiety and depression can function as either triggering factors or maintaining factors of said fear..
Conclusion
By way of conclusion, I would like to refer to a scene that I really like from the movie “Saw 2”.
In that scene, the protagonist (who has inoperable brain cancer) and another person talk about how paradoxical it is that people who do not have a more or less exact date of their death do not really enjoy life, because they think that Your time is infinite in this world; However, when a person is told that date and that it is imminent, he tries to savor everything, from a glass of water to a walk in the park.
Someone who constantly diagnoses herself, with the most extreme negative outcomes at the slightest symptom or bodily sensation., who in her daily life lives with her eyes turned inward, constantly looking at any sign or symptom, due to that great terror of dying, she does not really live her life, she is really dead in life, because in her head there is only the word ” death”. Unfortunately, she does not live or enjoy her life, because in her head the idea of death is bigger than the idea of being alive today and savoring the present.
Given this, my recommendation is seek professional psychological helpsince the spider web of fears is so powerful and so large that it is very difficult for one person to disengage themselves, when they have gotten involved quite deeply for so long.
