Wondering if "health anxiety" is a type of cancer.?

Oh, it's a mental illness without a doubt.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/cl...

They aren't looking for treatment here...they want to find a confirmation of the imagined sickness, more so than they want to treat the actual mental illness. Being sick would provide relief from the constant nagging (I knew it!), and the later would require admitting they are mentally ill, which requires getting through denial, and that is nearly impossible.

And to boot, most people with it have learned to accommodate life style changes such that there are secondary gains that are more desirable to being mentally ill than there is in getting mentally better (I get the attention I always wanted, I can avoid going to school, etc)

Took me a while to understand why it was always cancer...

WebMD and Google don't help much; everything is a symptom of cancer.

But that's just it - - no one ever worries about say Wegener's granulomatosis or Barret's esophagus. Why? You start choking on blood you get yourself to the hospital and they WILL find out what is causing it. But that headache? Oooooh, you can stroke that worry like a beloved pet for years....

They need *serious* mental help. Problem is that like other disorders that have a foundation of denial (addiction being the one of the most common) getting patients into treatment, and then staying in it is difficult at best.

I'll admit, I have no patience in dealing with them, and I have no social reason to avoid addressing their denial or letting them manipulate me;

that's like telling someone with a rampant infection "well, when it suits you, get that treated" - - putting it off makes the condition far worse.

I better stop while I'm ahead. I have known two in my life, and they are simply far too exasperating.

I think the internet promotes health anxiety because you can look up symptoms and almost everything says possible cancer. It doesn't say less than 1% with that symptom gets cancer.

Health anxiety is literally a living hell, as much as ud like to you just cant get the symptoms to go these people cant "get a hobby" they cant get a job or leave the house in some cases, its just to powerful, it completely takes over your mind.

I think there are a few reasons for this.

1. Childish attention seeking device

2. Hypochondriac

3. WebMD...According to them everything is cancer.

Anxiety is a mental disorder, not cancer.

It's a mental illness.

They need to just walk away from the computer and see their own doctor instead of diagnosing themselves.