# DP/DR and hypochondria



## Luka (Aug 30, 2005)

I notice that alot of people suffering from DP/DR (incl. myself) are terrified that they have some kind of illness, thinking they have a brain tumor, suffer from dementia, have had strokes etc. which they consider are responsible for their experiences. It made me wonder what the connection is between DP/DR and hypochondria. Do you think that there is a connection? Or am I way off track here?


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## Guest (Sep 18, 2005)

No, not at all. I exhibited certain behaviours before my DP set in that many would class as hypochonriasis, but they were never as bad as they are now. Hell, I know there _is_ a lot physically wrong with my body, but no 17 year old should have to worry about going bald.


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## Luka (Aug 30, 2005)

Yeah, I get weird fears too that are not appropriate for my age (26). Fear of getting a stroke for instance. I even asked my doc if that could happen, but he denied. He said it only could be a thing to think about if alot of people in my family got strokes at a very young age, but this is not the case. My worst fears are becomming blind or deaf. I now have a dear friend who is blind. That was really confronting. I guess those fears are part of DP due to the extreme awareness of one's body.


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## lemontea (Aug 8, 2005)

I'm hypochondric too...I think it is somehow connected with dp/dr

When my dp/dr is bad (like now), I fear it will get even worse and I'll get mad or I'll loose contact with the outer world. Sometimes I fear becoming stupid.

When I feel OK, I fear I'm ill, I have cancer, or I fear becoming deaf or blind.


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## lavieenrose (Nov 7, 2004)

This is my first post but this is a BIG problem with me. I think I got DP-DR from a traumatic near death experience. I also have had anxiety panic problems for a while. Because the DP-DR came about after a health related trauma, I associate the condition so much with health. I carry a themometer with me every where I go because when I have panic attacks and then dr, I feel like I have a billion degree fever.

I have had DP-DR for over a year now and have started to accept the physical symptoms as anxiety, panic, dp-dr symptoms. This site has really helped with this. At first the tunnel vision, black spots, migraines, dream worldness etc. freaked the hell out of me. I was checked for everything in the book. Now I realize that they are just part of this hell. Of course when I have major dp-dr and panic, I am not this rational at all and still think I'm dying!

On another note, I am always more of a hypochondriac when I sleep poorly or when I am hungover.

If you are a major hypochondric (like me!), I have found this website to be very helpful
http://www.anxietynetwork.com

It has things you can chant to yourself when you are freaking out and very rational exlanations to your physical symptoms.

I have dp-dr 24-7 and it is only when it is coupled by panic that I become a real crazy hypochondriac. The rest of the time I kind of accept my dp-dr state, though I am ready to get out of it now! However one does that...

Feww, first post. Not that scary.


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## Martinelv (Aug 10, 2004)

I think hypochondria is a fairly common trait in neurotic-types like us. I've always been an obsessive hypochornia ruminator, worrying that I might have xyz illnesses, but seeing as I usually *do* have the underlying physical compaint, it's no goddam wonder! I worried for two months that I might have leaukemia (a close friend of mine died of it) after having ulcers, cold sores and sore throats that wouldn't go away...and I went to the hospital and guess what !!! Yes, Acute Myaloid Leaukemia!! How about that for having your obessions reinforced!

Subsequently, I've obsessively ruminated about having loosing my beer gut, (I lost nearly two stone during chemo, but it must have been from everywhere except my gut. I look like a gut on a stick), finding ?1,000,00 in my wallet, but it's never happened. Sigh.


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## M A R S (Jun 24, 2005)

i used to have a thermometer with me at all times for years....


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## Luka (Aug 30, 2005)

> I think I got DP-DR from a traumatic near death experience


What did you experience then? Sounds awful... 

Thank you for the link :!:


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## Luka (Aug 30, 2005)

> Yes, Acute Myaloid Leaukemia!! How about that for having your obessions reinforced!


Good heavens! :shock:


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## Guest (Sep 30, 2005)

SOME YOU SUFFER OF OCD? WHAT ARE YOUR SINTHOMS OF DEREALIZATION?I HAVE SENSATION WHICH MY BODY NOT HAVE LIFE,YOU CA DEREALIZATION? THANKS FOR ANSWER AND SORRY FOR MY IMPERFECT ENGLISH,BUT WRITE FROM ITALY.


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## Guest (Oct 1, 2005)

--


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## Guest (Oct 1, 2005)

wow, this deff. Refers to me, i am such a hypo. I obsess about everything and right now, it feels like my heart isent beating, and i think im goign to die, and im at work and its not good.. somtimes i wish there was a like a full body scan at the hosptial and they check EVERYTHING for cancer, any illness, then i think i would be okay.. anyway i wish there was a medicne for hypocondriacts


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## Luka (Aug 30, 2005)

Hey Wendy!  Wat leuk om nog een Nederlander te ontmoeten!


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## lavieenrose (Nov 7, 2004)

Martinelv, I can't believe your worries came true. I'm so sorry. I hope things are going well with the chemo!

To continue from my first post. I was very sick in the gobi desert and had a major panic attack. I tried s.o.s and it didn't work so I just sort of resolved to let myself die. That is when my first feelings of dp-dr came on. I had to keep travelling after I got well though and I did not really suffer from dp-dr, just panic and anxiety. It was when I went home and thought about my experience that they really set in. Now I have had them, plus panic and anxiety (don't we all) and hypochondria!! for about a year now.



> I obsess about everything and right now, it feels like my heart isent beating, and i think im goign to die, and im at work and its not good.. somtimes i wish there was a like a full body scan at the hosptial and they check EVERYTHING for cancer, any illness, then i think i would be okay.. anyway i wish there was a medicne for hypocondriacts


God I know just what you mean. I get so used to being anxious and being able to hear my heartbeat that when it is not pouding like crazy, during those few moments of calm, I freak and think my heart has stopped!! Of course I am sitting there very much alive sooo.....



> i used to have a thermometer with me at all times for years....


Cheers. I just bought a new one yesterday because I was just convinced that mine was broken and that I actually had a life threatening fever. What got you to stop carrying one?


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## Tom Servo (Sep 19, 2005)

Wendy said:


> Soms praten we hier gewoon Nederlands als het nodig is.


Zij maar zorgvuldig, ik kan een beetje het Nederlands lezen! :twisted:


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## Guest (Oct 13, 2005)

Goed gedaan, Tom! 8)


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## fingertingle (Sep 29, 2005)

I don't think being a hypochondriac is always such a bad thing with the negligience of the doctors I've had to deal with, I'm blessed to be a hypochondriac (which I see as just paying attention to things going on in my body) --- or I'd be dead  I know it's only healthy to a point, but what point? For me it's these experiences that have conditioned me to check myself so often (what is considered to be TOO often).


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## widescreened (Jun 22, 2005)

The fact you are trying to quantify what 'too often' is when you are checking yourself means you are being unreasonable,and not playing the game of life properly.When you have a toothache,go to the dentist.When you loose weight,your appetite,you are vomitting and have dihorea,have cold sweats and loose your energy,or majorly disruptive symptoms,see a doctor.otherwise you are waisting space in the doctors waiting room and holding everyone to randsom with your antics.


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## Tom Servo (Sep 19, 2005)

I don't know about all the rest of you, but I don't think what we do is really hypochondria. Sure we think we have brain tumors, schizophrenia, a vitamin deficiency, PTSD, lead poisoning, or whatever. I mean, we have SOMETHING, we just don't know what. So we go from one doctor to another, saying we think we have [insert latest theory we got out of some book here]. What else would we do? Until we find out that we have DP/DR and that it is a condition that isn't part of something else, we keep looking for something that explains to us what we have so that we know what the treatment is. I know if I stopped having DR tomorrow, I'll try never to see another doctor as long as I live.


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