She has consulted many specialists, cardiologist, gastroenterologist, orthopedist… It all started with some pain in the arms, then the shoulders and later her back.
Other than the aching in her body, she also feels something stuck in her throat, chest discomfort, her stomach twitching, sometimes having light-headed, sometimes having red rashes on her skins… She even imagines that she’s got cancer and is suffering from it badly. She is worried so much about all these somatic symptoms and about getting more and more ill, she can’t eat properly, she doesn’t have any appetite.
In addition to those complaints, she’s also paranoid and may be hallucinating. She feels that the DJs on the radios are all talking about her (“Why do they know so much about me?” “Why do they talk about me non-stop?!”), she feels everyone on the train knows that she’s sick and is taking medicine for her sickness…
The problems were aggravated by a big row with her boyfriend, whom she found out to be getting back in touch with his ex-girlfriend. She’s becoming really sensitive and paranoid. She thinks the boyfriend is not being faithful, for contacting the ex. At the same time she was also having some massive pressure preparing for her professional paper.
She slowly moved away from her relationship and study problems (she passed the paper). But then she developed all those psychosomatic pains and problems. What’s worse is not the problems themselves, but the fact that she’s so overly worried about them – even the slightest rashes on her skin makes her think that she’s got skin cancer and is dying… When she started to take the medication, she did a table diary, noted down every small changes and symptoms in her body, whether she felt sleepy, had rashes, felt dizzy, could breath properly… She tried so hard to notice every little things in her body (perhaps it’s also an obsession?).
Illness phobia is not uncommon nowadays (see here for another case study on illness phobia), it’s under the anxiety categories, yet this appears to be some modern mental illnesses, as people nowadays know more and learn more as the technology gets advanced, at the same time people are also creating more problems for themselves as the world develops further (unhealthy processed food, overly urbanised cities, pollution…). But why, why get so worried when you’re not ill? Why are people losing the abilities to enjoy lives? Why worry before even knowing if the problem exists? It’s like people being worried about getting worried, now these people with illness phobia are getting ill mentally because of being worried about getting ill physically…