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WebMD Says I'm Dying- Hypochondriasis · Millennial Mental Health Channel

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Apparently Hitler was a bit of a hypochondriac as well.
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  Speaker 1: This is Millennial Mental Health Channel. I'm doctor Justin Romano,
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  Speaker 1: a child adolescent psychiatry fellow.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm Di Koreo, a licensed clinical therapist. Our podcast
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  Speaker 2: is here because we wanted to start a much neater
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  Speaker 2: conversation about mental health.
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  Speaker 1: Our goal is to teach you as much as we
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  Speaker 1: can by sharing our own experiences and interviewing experts in
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  Speaker 1: the mental health field. We will discuss topics like mood disorders,
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  Speaker 1: psychotic disorders, substance use, personality disorders, and many more.
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  Speaker 2: Millennial Mental Health Channel buy Millennials for everyone. We hope
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  Speaker 2: you enjoyed today's episode.
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  Speaker 1: MMHC is a production of Speaker from iHeartMedia.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Mia I Heartmer.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to MMHC. So very nice to have you
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  Speaker 1: guys here. We got an awesome episode for you today,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: like we do every single time, every time we got
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: a shout out for you. Who's our shout out?
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  Speaker 2: Eddie Well, shout out to Uncle Calvin, a huge fan
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  Speaker 2: of the show. He texted us with the show idea
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: and we told him we do it. We're here. I'll
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  Speaker 2: tell you what it is in a little bit, but
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to give him a shout out, and then
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  Speaker 2: I also wanted to give a shout out to Amy
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  Speaker 2: for a super dope card that she made me after
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  Speaker 2: the Piinata incident that I shared in one of our
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  Speaker 2: recent episodes. That was super cool. She sent me a
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  Speaker 2: handmade card to make me feel better for some traumatic
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  Speaker 2: experience I had when I was in elementary school. But
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  Speaker 2: the timing is actually really perfect with Uncle Kevin texting
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  Speaker 2: us about hypochondria, and I gave it away because literally,
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  Speaker 2: like three four days ago. Kevy told me the other
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  Speaker 2: night that she's like, you probably don't have hypochondria, but
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  Speaker 2: you act like it sometimes. And I was like, well,
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  Speaker 2: since the symptoms don't impact my daily functioning, I probably
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't meet criteria. And she's like, she said something to
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  Speaker 2: the fact of like, well sometimes it seems close, which
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  Speaker 2: fair enough. Sometimes I overly just think things like I
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  Speaker 2: don't know, man, and you know what it happens too
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  Speaker 2: when I get stressed, And when I get stressed, I
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  Speaker 2: will like I don't know, I'll feel on edge and
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  Speaker 2: I've probably had like higher cortisol levels for an extended
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  Speaker 2: period of time and I'm not paying attention to it,
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  Speaker 2: and I don't know, I'll get like a random like
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  Speaker 2: you know, when you like catch a crap in your
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  Speaker 2: side when like not even working out, but you just
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  Speaker 2: like catch a crap, or I'll feel like a random
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  Speaker 2: pain here or like adult thing like and I'm just like,
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  Speaker 2: what's wrong with me? So I think that's where it
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  Speaker 2: comes from a lot. I think oftentimes if I really
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  Speaker 2: look back at it, it's related to stress. And then
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  Speaker 2: when I can talk about it, I feel a lot better.
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  Speaker 2: But I just keep it to myself, and then I
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  Speaker 2: don't feel better.
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  Speaker 1: And what you say brings up a really good point
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  Speaker 1: where a lot of times anxiety comes out in our body.
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  Speaker 1: And I know we've talked about the book The Body
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  Speaker 1: Keeps the Score in the past. But some people are
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  Speaker 1: more prone to somatic symptoms, so feeling the symptoms of
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  Speaker 1: anxiety in your body. It's more common in children, but
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  Speaker 1: even some adults and even people with like borderline personality
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  Speaker 1: disorder are more likely to have physical complaints of their
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  Speaker 1: anxiety too. So it's a real thing. And the more
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  Speaker 1: anxious you are, the more likely you are to think
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  Speaker 1: that something's wrong with you and feel these things in
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  Speaker 1: your body.
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  Speaker 2: Especially if it just like doesn't go away. I think
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  Speaker 2: that's where it gets me. And then I just start
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  Speaker 2: this cycle of like, oh shit, something is wrong, like
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  Speaker 2: I am something is wrong with me. I'm gonna die.
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  Speaker 2: Web MD says I'm gonna die, and I just like
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  Speaker 2: I get weared and I get stressed. I think it
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  Speaker 2: was before I got my wisdom teeth out, which I
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  Speaker 2: did as an adult, right, which is like a weird
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  Speaker 2: thing apparently, but like there'd be times before I got
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  Speaker 2: them out, because right right when I did finally get
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  Speaker 2: them out, like a month after month before I got
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  Speaker 2: them out, like I did have some like ah, I
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  Speaker 2: should probably get them out now. But before it would
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  Speaker 2: just be like, oh I felt something twinge, like something's wrong,
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  Speaker 2: and then I would like tell Kevin and she's like
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  Speaker 2: when does that happen? I'd be like, when I do this, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: don't do that anymore, like oh shit, yeah, probably, like
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  Speaker 2: that's a good point, but yeah, I just I think
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  Speaker 2: I am just an anxious person to begin with, and
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  Speaker 2: that's what makes it worse.
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  Speaker 1: And I know you mentioned shout out to Uncle Calvin,
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  Speaker 1: who gave us the idea for this episode. He's been
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  Speaker 1: one of our biggest supporters. I think he's listened to
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  Speaker 1: every single episode. He's also my father in law. Just like,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for being such a huge supporter. Absolutely, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: we we appreciate him so much. We appreciate Kevin.
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  Speaker 2: Just like Dana and Keviy have been rocking with us
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  Speaker 2: when we had questionable sound quality there too.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, rode the wave with us, all right, Eddie,
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  Speaker 1: what illnesses are you most worried about? Man? Why I just.
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  Speaker 2: Added this to the show, not because I saw it
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  Speaker 2: when I logged on. I was like, there's there's the
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  Speaker 2: Google doc line that you just put this in. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, when COVID was going on, I would sit
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  Speaker 2: in my office and take deep breaths and try to
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  Speaker 2: hear if like anything sounded off with my breathing. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: is this sounding okay? That concerned me a lot, especially
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  Speaker 2: in the beginning. Still does, I mean you still still
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  Speaker 2: out there? Anything like head related? Like if headache? I
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  Speaker 2: hate getting headaches. I try to stay hydrated. I just anything. Man,
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  Speaker 2: you just worry me now you got me going.
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  Speaker 1: That's mine too, Like anytime I get a headache, like
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  Speaker 1: and I know a lot of medical students do this
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  Speaker 1: and like a little twinge of a headache, and I'm like,
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  Speaker 1: could be a brain tumor why do I do this everything?
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  Speaker 2: One that gets me too is my chest, Like if
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  Speaker 2: I if we work out and then two days later,
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  Speaker 2: I'm still like sore in a random spot. You know.
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  Speaker 2: There was one time I was I was working out
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  Speaker 2: and I was using like those curled bars for like
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  Speaker 2: curls and the curled barbell and I went to put
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  Speaker 2: it back and it like I didn't put it on properly,
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  Speaker 2: so like it started to fall off the little holder
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  Speaker 2: and I caught it. But the way I caught it,
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  Speaker 2: like really it was like my chest felt really off
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  Speaker 2: after I think I'd just like pulled the muscle, but
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  Speaker 2: it was still there for a while and I kind
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  Speaker 2: of forgot why it started. And then I'd feel like
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  Speaker 2: the semi chest nan, I'm like, oh fuck, like this
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  Speaker 2: is it? I'm done? Why am I mean? Just pain?
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  Speaker 2: What's happening? So that's where my mind goes. It's fucked up?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah every time. Yeah, So we'll give you a definition.
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  Speaker 1: What is hypochondria or hypochondriasis. Interestingly, hypochondria used to be
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  Speaker 1: in the DSM, like the actual term hypochondria, and most recently,
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  Speaker 1: in the DSM four it was defined as a mental
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  Speaker 1: disorder characterized by preoccupation or fears of having a serious
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  Speaker 1: disease based on misinterpretation of bodily symptoms. In the DSM
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  Speaker 1: four tr.
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  Speaker 2: Approximately seventy five percent of individuals previously diagnosed with hypochondria
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  Speaker 2: asis hypochondria are subsumed. I had to look this up
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  Speaker 2: or absorbed into the under the new diagnosis of somatic
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  Speaker 2: symptom disorder in the DSM five. So basically three fourths
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  Speaker 2: of the people that used to meet criteria for hypochondria
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  Speaker 2: more meet the criteria for sematic symptom disorder. The rest,
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  Speaker 2: the remaining twenty five percent have high health anxiety in
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  Speaker 2: the absence of somatic symptoms, and they more fall into
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  Speaker 2: the illness anxiety disorder diagnosis. So two different diagnoses. One
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  Speaker 2: is more the anxious part, the mental emotional part, and
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  Speaker 2: the other part is the other one is more of
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  Speaker 2: like the feeling of physical symptoms.
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  Speaker 1: So, yeah, we've actually moved on from the name hypochondria.
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  Speaker 1: We'll still kind of use it for this episode because
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  Speaker 1: it's easier. Yeah, those are the two that have replaced it.
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  Speaker 1: Before we continue you may be wondering why it's no
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  Speaker 1: longer in the DSM, And so from Eddie's research, he
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  Speaker 1: wrote this one. We found that change was made due
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  Speaker 1: to the term being considered stigmatized and had negative connotations
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  Speaker 1: like how often do you hear that in the movies
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  Speaker 1: or something something coming up out of Hollywood is, oh,
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  Speaker 1: you're a hypochondriac. Oh, And it does have somewhat of
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  Speaker 1: a negative connotation. So I see that.
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  Speaker 2: When saying it that way, hypochondriac, it's not strength space
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  Speaker 2: or person centered language.
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  Speaker 1: So right, exactly not what we want.
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  Speaker 2: So the new terms somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety
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  Speaker 2: disorder we're meant to be more quote neutral to describe
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  Speaker 2: people with extensive worries about health. But of course, like
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  Speaker 2: anything in life, this change did have some criticism. So
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  Speaker 2: some say that hypochondria should be reclassified more as a
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  Speaker 2: phobia because it represents a specific fear of illness. Others
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  Speaker 2: argue that the DSM five's effort to clarify the spectrum
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  Speaker 2: of health anxiety falls short of explaining the nature of hypochondria,
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  Speaker 2: which is a good point. Before I did any research,
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  Speaker 2: I told Kevy when I said, like no, it doesn't
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  Speaker 2: impact my daily functioning. And if anything, it's probably not hypochondria.
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  Speaker 2: It's probably more of a specific phobia. I was incorrect,
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  Speaker 2: and I learned that in my research and will tell
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  Speaker 2: you this is the thing that I wanted to say earlier.
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  Speaker 2: What we will be discussing is not really hypochondria. It's
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  Speaker 2: more illness anxiety disorder and sematic symptom disorder. So plot twist.
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  Speaker 2: We said we're doing one thing, we're doing another thing.
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  Speaker 2: This is what I wanted to mention earlier. When I
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  Speaker 2: was looking up both disorders, I figured illness anxiety disorder
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  Speaker 2: would be in the anxiety disorders category. It is not.
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  Speaker 2: It is in a separate category with sematic symptom disorder,
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  Speaker 2: which I wrote it down here somewhere. It was in
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  Speaker 2: the Somatic symptom and Related Disorders chapter, so it basically
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  Speaker 2: has its own chapter that related to each other. I
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  Speaker 2: thought it would be more in the anxiety section, but
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  Speaker 2: they decided not.
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  Speaker 1: Which brings up a good point that DSM five is
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  Speaker 1: largely a guideline some people, and I think we even
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  Speaker 1: in the past to refer to it as psychiatry and
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: mental health's bible, but it is not. It's something that's
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  Speaker 1: always changing and moving. There have been mistakes in the
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  Speaker 1: DSM five and there by a committee of humans just
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  Speaker 1: trying to do their best. So yeah, it's not perfect.
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  Speaker 1: It's not a perfect document.
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  Speaker 2: And depending who you ask, there's gonna be people who
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: are like, ah, fucking I the DSIM. There's gonna be
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  Speaker 2: people who are like, it's fine, Like it's just like
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  Speaker 2: they're moving more towards like a spectromy design of different disorders.
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  Speaker 2: There's a spectrum of people and what their thoughts are.
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  Speaker 2: So looking at somatic symptom disorder, here's the definition, here's
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  Speaker 2: the criteria. Here's where we differentiate somatic symptoms disorder with
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  Speaker 2: illness anxiety disorder. So for SSD, a somatic symptom is
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  Speaker 2: a physical symptom that causes a person to have excessive thoughts, emotions,
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  Speaker 2: and or behaviors related to the symptom. So some of
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  Speaker 2: the criterion one or more somatic symptoms that are distressing
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  Speaker 2: or result in significant disruption of daily life. The next
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  Speaker 2: is excessive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to the symptom
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  Speaker 2: as manifested by one of the followings, So disproportionate and
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  Speaker 2: persistent thoughts about the seriousness of one's symptoms, persistently high
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  Speaker 2: levels of anxiety about health of symptoms, and then excessive
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  Speaker 2: time and energy devoted to the symptom or health concerns.
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  Speaker 2: And although any one of the somatic symptoms may not
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  Speaker 2: be continuously present, the state of being symptomatic is persistent,
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  Speaker 2: which is typically more than six months.
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  Speaker 1: There are some specific specifiers that go with a diagnosis
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  Speaker 1: as well. They can kind of help classify what we're
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  Speaker 1: dealing with a little bit more because somatic symptom is
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  Speaker 1: a very broad term. So though some of those specifiers
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  Speaker 1: are with predominant pain persistent this is for severe impairment
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  Speaker 1: for more than six months, Mild with which means that
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  Speaker 1: you have one symptom which criteria be is fulfilled, Moderate,
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  Speaker 1: two or more symptoms, and then severe is the same
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  Speaker 1: as moderate with an addition of multiple somatic complaints or
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  Speaker 1: one very severe somatic complaints. So, like everything, they try
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  Speaker 1: to categorize a mild, moderate, and severe, and there's just
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  Speaker 1: a whole number of things you can choose from.
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  Speaker 2: To make it that way. It depends, it depends. It's
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  Speaker 2: such a yeah. In terms of causes of SSD, there
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  Speaker 2: was a few things that came up. So one of
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  Speaker 2: them was genetic and biological factors, you know, such as
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  Speaker 2: an increased sensitivity to pain. There's family influence, which may
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  Speaker 2: be genetic or environmental, or even both. There's a personality
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  Speaker 2: trait of negativity which can impact how you identify and
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  Speaker 2: perceive illness and bodily symptoms. There could be a decreased
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  Speaker 2: awareness of or problems processing emotions, causing physical symptoms to
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  Speaker 2: become the focus rather than the emotional issues. And then
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  Speaker 2: it could be learned behavior. So, for example, the attention
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  Speaker 2: or other benefits gained from having an illness or quote
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  Speaker 2: pain behaviors and response to symptoms such as accessive avoidance
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  Speaker 2: of activity, which can increase your level of disability. I
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  Speaker 2: mean basically like if someone maybe consciously or unconsciously, sees
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  Speaker 2: like I get more out of being more sick, I
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  Speaker 2: therefore am more sick because I like these benefits or
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  Speaker 2: I want these benefits.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And to give you an example, I've worked with
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  Speaker 1: some kids in the past who may not have the
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: most healthy and nurturing relationship with their mother. Sorry to
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: get a little sigmund Freud here, talk about relationship with
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  Speaker 1: your mother, But they learn that, oh, when I do
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  Speaker 1: get sick, mom is more nurturing. She pays more attention
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  Speaker 1: to me, She takes care of me, she gives me
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  Speaker 1: the things I want, She cooks me the food that
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  Speaker 1: I want. So some kids learn that they can use
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  Speaker 1: that or pretend to be sick to connect with their
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  Speaker 1: parents a little bit more. So it is positively reinforced,
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  Speaker 1: and then before you know it, they get older and
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  Speaker 1: they sometimes don't even realize that they're doing it, or
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  Speaker 1: sometimes their brains are so powerful that they can kind
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  Speaker 1: of make themselves sick and believe that they're sick because
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  Speaker 1: it's worked for them and gotten them that attention, that love,
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  Speaker 1: that nurturing relationship with their mother that they were craving
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  Speaker 1: when they were younger.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Illness anxiety disorder, also referred to as the former of
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  Speaker 1: hypochondria and health anxiety, is defined with the following preoccupation
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  Speaker 1: with having or acquiring a serious illness. So that's the
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  Speaker 1: difference between somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder. With
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  Speaker 1: somatic symptoms, you're actually feeling something in your body. Illness
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  Speaker 1: anxiety disorder is that you're just worried about getting a
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  Speaker 1: disease in the future, but you're not actually symptomatic somatic symptoms.
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  Speaker 2: The next criterion is that somatic symptoms are not present,
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  Speaker 2: or if present, they're only mild in intensity. So again
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  Speaker 2: this is really more of the anxiousness part as opposed
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  Speaker 2: to actually having physical symptoms.
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  Speaker 1: There is a high level of anxiety about health, and
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  Speaker 1: the individual is easily alarmed about personal health status.
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  Speaker 2: The individual performs excessive levels of health related behavior, so
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  Speaker 2: that could be things like repeated checks for signs of illness,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: or they exhibit maladaptive avoidance so they avoid doctor's appointments.
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  Speaker 1: Preoccupation has been present for at least six months, but
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  Speaker 1: the specific illness that is feared may have changed over time, so.
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  Speaker 2: They're always anxious about some type of illness. And then
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  Speaker 2: the last couple of things are that symptoms are not
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  Speaker 2: better explained by another diagnosis. I can't remember what examples
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: they gave, but could be maybe more of like maybe
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  Speaker 2: it falls more under like specific phobia, or maybe it
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: falls more under something else or not better explained by
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: something else. And then it does come with two specifiers,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: so there's a care seeking like we talked about, or
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: the care avoiding type in terms of what other additional
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: specifiers can be added.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Causes of illness, anxiety disorder. Some actually can be around
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: your beliefs. You may have a difficult time tolerating uncertainty
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: over uncomfortable or unusual body sensation. This could lead you
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: to misinterpret that all your body sensations are serious, so
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: you search for evidence to confirm that you have a serious,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: serious disease. I think I've seen this in the past
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: with like people who sometimes like feel like food gets
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: stuck in their throat and that's a pretty normal thing,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: but having that sensation of it's not fully going down,
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  Speaker 1: and then they jump right to I've got throat cancer,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, well we don't know that for sure,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: but they're always so worried about it.
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  Speaker 2: It makes me think of like our FID avoiding avoidant
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  Speaker 2: restricted food intake disorder. I feel like I have heard
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  Speaker 2: from patients in the past where like it kind of
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  Speaker 2: started from it's maybe it's kind of related, but having
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  Speaker 2: like a choking episode or something going with food where
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: their throat did swell up or they close up, or
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: they were choking on something, and from then it's like, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I'm never fucking eating again kind of thing. Yeah, so
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: kind of similar. Yeah. Another piece that can be a
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: cause of I a D. It's your family. So you
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  Speaker 2: may be more likely to have health anxiety if you
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: have had parents who worry too much about their own
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  Speaker 2: health or your health. So if you are getting it
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  Speaker 2: a lot and they're worrying you and they're stressing you out,
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  Speaker 2: you learn what you see.
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  Speaker 1: Uh huh. So if you have like an overprotective helicopter
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  Speaker 1: mom who's constantly asking you like, are you eating enough?
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  Speaker 1: Do you feel okay? Sometimes that sinks in and you
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: start to tune into the things that may be don't
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: need to be tuned into. And then past experiences can
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: also make a big difference. And we've touched a little
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: bit on this, but you may have had a past
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: experience with serious illness in childhood. So physical sensations may
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  Speaker 1: be frightening to you because in the past physical sensations
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  Speaker 1: led to being sick. It doesn't always mean that they're
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: going to lead to being sick, but you're afraid that
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: they may.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: It makes me think I had a classmate in like
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: elementary school who got mono and was gone for like
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: six months. That would stretch me the fuck out.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Cool, I'm not going back.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Man, never again.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a long time to miss for.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: That's like the whole year almost. Yeah.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's ridiculous. Now some quick stats and facts for
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: you guys. Illness anxiety disorder, formerly known as hypochondria is
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: extremely rare. It effects only about zero point one percent
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: of people in the United States, and it typically appears
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: during adulthood.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Some possible treatments options for illness anxiety disorder include anti
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: anxiety medications and therapy like CBT to be able to
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: talk through the concerns and find ways to cope with
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: this in mind as a therapist, that made me think, well,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: things like ACT and DBT can probably be helpful too.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: It just depends on what is what works best for
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: you in your way of finding how to cope and
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: how to deal with stressors and how to manage what's
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: going on.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: And I actually spoke with an attending ones who had
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: a whole clinic that was CBT for people with somatic
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: symptom and chronic pain, and I think we need a
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: lot more of that stuff, especially in the wake of
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the opioid epidemic because a lot of people do have
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of chronic pain and there are some really
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: evidence based and proven ways to deal with it and
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: change it that can be pretty effective.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh man, Oh, it makes me think of another person.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: When I worked at a different job, there was a
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: resident who I think they like won the lottery, not
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: like a huge amount, but like a decent amount, where
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: like damn we got cash, and they had like a
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: boat and a house and all this stuff. Well, they're
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: on the boat one day and something happened where their
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: arm got smashed, like very badly, and obviously they're in
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: a lot of pain, had to go through surgeries and
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: all that. Well, they started taking opioids and they started
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: getting addicted to them, and because of that one day,
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: they know it led to them ultimately getting found with
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: a ton of pills for distribution and buying all that stuff,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: and then up in prison did the whole thing. And
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: as I was talking to them and they're getting ready
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: to get out, I'd basically just ask like, what's your
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: plan when you get out? And he's like, Oh, I'm
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: gonna smoke a fuck ton of weed. Like I'm so
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: excited for that. That's gonna be way better than these
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: fucking pills.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, at least there's no worry about overdosing on weed
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: like there is on the pills, which is the is
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I would say, the biggest concern.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: So, in contrast with illness anxiety disorder, somatic symptom disorder
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: is a little bit more common and usually occurs in
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: about five to seven percent of the adult population. So
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: actually quite a bit of people.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: As similar to ID, top therapy like CBT has been
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: recommended along with medication. Again, I would think something like
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: ACT and DBT are probably helpful too.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: And we looked up a couple of famous people who
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: have been labeled as hypochondriacs in the past. I tried
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to fact check this a little bit, make sure that
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: these people were like actually diagnosed in the past. Howard Hughes,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: did you ever see the movie The Aviator with Leo DiCaprio.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: He was like a filmmaker I think in the forties
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: or fifties should have done a little bit more research apparently,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: but he was like a famous hypochondriac and like was
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: always afraid that he was sick. Would have had a
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: hard time coming out of his house. It had impacted
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: his life, and they show a lot of that in
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the movie The Aviator too. And then this next one.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know, Eddie, have you heard of this guy,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Adolf Hitler.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: I've heard, I've heard things.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so apparently Hitler was a bit of a hypochondriac
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: as well. And I dove into this one and looked
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: it up, and yeah, he was constantly surrounded by doctors,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and he was constantly played with all these different vague
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: symptoms and complaining. And that's one of the reasons why
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Hitler was doing a lot of drugs, Like he was
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: doing a lot of amphetamines, he was doing a lot
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: of uppers, he was doing a lot of pain medicines,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: and so that was largely because he was constantly complaining
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: of all these these somatic symptoms. So I thought that
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: was kind of an interesting one and one that really
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: impacts history too.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: This was the last one.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Florence Nightingale, surprisingly enough, someone in the medical field, so
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: she's kind of known as the godmother of nursing. She
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: was the one that really noticed that like surgeons who
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: didn't wash their hands in between cases were spreading a
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: lot of diseases amongst their patients. So like a really
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: bright woman came up with like a lot of the
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: standards and ideals for nurses these days, but even she
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: struggled with a little bit of hypochondria and was I
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: guess I think it's more common in people in the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: healthcare field because you understand all the things that can
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: go wrong.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you see all the things, you see all the shit.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Mmm, Eddie, you think all this stuff hypochondria, illness, anxiety,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: somatic symptom. You think it went up over COVID.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Probably. I was trying to find like some actual numbers,
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: but I think at least maybe not like full on
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: diagnosable or diagnosed cases of it. But I think if
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: I just think for me, for example, as a regular person,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: average person, I don't know, man, when COVID was first
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: or started, I was like I'd said it earlier, but seriously,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: every day I'd be in my office just like taking
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: deep breath, like trying to make sure I was okay,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: or like you cough one time You're like, fuck, that's it,
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: I'm done. I'm dead. I'm like I'm not making it.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I think for sure, I think definitely the
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: and I think the piece or one thing I want
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: to mention is that the anxiety the illness anxiety disorder,
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: the one that I'm really thinking of specifically because I
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: know people are still concerned about rightfully so concerned about
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: catching COVID or any other kind of contractable airborne disease,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: is that they are worried about getting sick and then
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: having a really negative experience with it and like getting
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: really like severely sick. Like that makes total sense. So
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: I think, you know, there's people who I saw something
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: on Twitter the other day where like someone took a
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: picture of somebody in an airport that still had a
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: mask on and like gloves, and they're like, Oh, I
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: feel so sorry for this person living like a scared life.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: And it's like, no, dude, Like that's people were anxious
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: and probably people were probably already anxious about things before
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: COVID and then it happened and then it's like even
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: worse or for other people's experience, maybe they weren't as
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: worried and then they got six during COVID and then
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: it brought up a whole bunch of other symptoms, whether
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: it's long COVID or whatever it is, it's like, oh shit,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: I need to be way more careful about this. So
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: all that to say, like, probably, I'm sure the rates
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: have gone up. It probably is more common, and it
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: makes total sense given what's gone on in the last
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: four years. It makes sense.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just the fact that depression's going up, anxiety's going up,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: a lot of these types of things are increasing, so
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: you'd expect to We don't have the hard numbers yet
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: because it takes a while for a lot of the
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: stuff to roll in, but yeah, you'd assume. Yeah, have
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: you ever struggled with being anxious about symptoms? What has
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: helped you?
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: I think for me, really, it's been like I can't
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: just keep it to myself. I have to say if
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: I'm worried about something and I feel like there's been
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: time because a lot of the time when these somatic
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: symptoms happen, I am probably stressed about something and that
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: is why it's happening. So by talking about it, I
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: then am mentioning and acknowledging that I am stressed about something,
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: and just by acknowledging it, oftentimes I feel better. So yeah, yes,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: that's that's been the most helpful. What about you?
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I like to use the CBT strategy of examining the evidence,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: and like, am I catastrophizing? Am I jumping to the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: worst possible conclusion? Or am I just am I catastrophizing?
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: But like, do I have any other symptoms? So I
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: have any other reason to believe that I have a
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: brain tumor that I have COVID because it seems like
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: every time, like I'm a little bit tired and maybe
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: like a little hint of a sore throat, which happens
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: all the time, like living in Colorado because the air
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: is really dry, Like gotta be COVID. Yeah, I got
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: COVID right now. But it's like I gotta tell myself,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I probably don't. I probably don't.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: I talked about it a little bit, and I'm interested
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: to hear what you But do you think illness anxiety
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: disorder IAD is categorized correctly in the DSM five.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: You know, there's always something that could be made better.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I like the improvement going from hypochondria, because it's it's
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: always such a tricky argument, Like there are so many
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: words that are stigmatized that are technically like in and
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: of themselves, totally fine, Like the fact that we've changed
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: the word for people who have developmental delays so many
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: times because of the stigma around it, Like they used
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: to be called things like morons and imbeciles, and then
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: people started to use those as insults, and then retarded
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: used to be a totally normal word, a medical word,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: and then that got stigmatized because people used it as
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: an insult. Now kids are calling each other DD for
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: developmental delays. So maybe we need to learn just to
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: not stigmatize things, because hypochondria is actually like a decent
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: word for it. But yeah, I think it was time
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: because if you labeled or brought up the possibility of
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: hypochondria with anyone who actually does that hypochondria, it's immediate.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not a hypochondriac, so it could lead to some defensiveness.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: So I can see why the change was made. And
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I do like the split of splitting it into somatic
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: symptom and illness anxiety disorder. So yeah, I like it overall.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, how about you. I was just bothered. I was
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: just bothered by the fact that I went to the
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: anxiety disorder chapter fully thinking like, oh, yeah, I know
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: what I'm doing. I've been around the block a couple
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: of times and couldn't find it. I was like, what
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: the fuck? So then I had to go back. And
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: the other part is my copy is electronic, so that
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: makes a little more annoying because there's a ton of
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: pages to scroll through the whole pdf, and then I
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: had to go back. It was just I was more
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: annoyed than anything.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: You didn't just control F and find and like type
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: in hypochondria and.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Can I do that on a PDF? Can you do that? Oh?
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a real thing.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Mass Hold on, I'm doing it right now. Hold on.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm hoping. I'm not one hundred percent sure, but.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Now we're backtracking.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, hedge in my bets a little bit.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, control F Nope, didn't work.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Didn't work? No?
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: Is it? Or is it? It's a mac? Do I
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: have to do something different?
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: It might be something different? Was control Okay? Well, let
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: me google it?
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Now? We got it? Now, you're right.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Yep, you could search the whole time.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Yep. That's a little funny.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Useful life tips from M MHC. You're welcome. You're welcome.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Well, that brings us to the end. Enjoy everyone. Well,
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: in seriousness, we hope you liked our little deep dive
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: on hypochondria or hypochondriacs. Hopefully we gave you some new knowledge,
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: because I know I learned a lot just from typing
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: up the notes. Uh, and I'm gonna go ahead and
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: wrap us up. Thank you for listening. Shout out to
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: my students that I just taught this summer. Every year,
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: I don't tell anybody that I have a podcast in
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: the last day of class, I let them know, so
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: if any of them decided to listen and made it
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: to the end, welcome, appreciate you being here. Shout out
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: to you guys, happy end of summer term. Thank you
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: to the rest of you for listening. You know where
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: to find us on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever else you
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: get your podcasts. Feel free to leave us a five
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: star review. You can follow, listen, subscribe, all those good
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: things to help get in keep continue to get the
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: channel out there. I think we're in the top one
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifteen like Peru or something currently, so that's
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: pretty cool. Keep listening, keep sharing, keep subscribing on social
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: media at Millennial MC that's Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: and at our website MILLENNIALMHC dot com. Thank you all.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: We hope you enjoyed. I had a good time. I
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: know you did too. Justin and remember take care of
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: all mentals.